Litchfield enquirer., 1877-01-11
ExgFacts from Governor Hubbard's s
 Message.

ExtFacts from GoVernor Hubbard'a
 Message.
 SUFFRAGE.
 The corrupt practices which have re- gently crept into use in our elections, in' duce me to call your attention to the ne cessity of providing further safeguards for the protection and purity of the fran chise. of suffrage. allude to the pur. chase and sale of votes, and the frauds and undue influence practiced upon the freedom of the voter. This evil-which is to common at the bestA~has been in. creasing of late from year to year. It is by no manner of means confined to the cities and large towns; my belief is. that in some form or other, and to greater or less extent. it infects and infests nearly all the municipalities of the state. At all events, the prevalence of these practices, and the silence of good men in regard to them, are sad commentary on the morals of politics. They are practices with which no right thinking man can have any pa t1ence. They debase political morals; they degrade the public conscience, with out which public life in the end becomes puDAc rOtG0nnesS.
 A man who, having taken the elector's oath, sells his vote or exercises it corrupt lY-how is he better than perjurer ? And what shall be said of the buyer Nothing less than this: He is a suborner of perjury, and baser criminal than the seller. The poverty of the one consents, not his will; the will of the other, not his poverty. Yet there are men in both par ties-I regret to say-who affect to be honest and honorable in all business and social relations, but cut loose in politics from all the obligations of honor, con- science, and law. There are, am told, some rules of decency even amongst pro- fessional gamblers and burglars. They rarely allow themselves to rob the poor. Why should there be no honor at all amongst professional traders in politics The traffcker in the virtue of men ought to be not far removed, in public judgment. from the traficker in the virtue of women. The difference is only in species, not in genus.
 [After referring to existing legislation on this subject, the governor proceeds as follows:l
 l recommend the passage of statute in aid of section 6, article 6, of the con- stitution of this state, or, if necessary, a constitutional amendment, providing that every elector, on presenting himself to vote, shall, whenever thereto required by any other elector, make oath before com petent authority, under the pains and penalties of perjury, that he has not, since the passage of such law, directly or indl- rectly, or by any form whatever of eva sion, committed any of the several acts forbidden by the sections above recited; ]; and that, in default of so doing, his vote shall be denied him.
 make this recommendation with en- phasis and urgency, from firm convic- tion of it's necessity, and in the belief that it will tend to remedy in no small degree an evil which threatens to render putrid the politics of the state. I make the rec- ommendation also in the interests of po- htical reform. or, what Is the same tElng, of honest government. We have got to cleanse the ballot from veniaity and cor ruption If we desire to reform law and ad- min;stration, which are the product and expression of the ballot. To make the work thorough and lasting we must be gln at the foundation and work to the summit.
 Parties are perhaps necessity of free government When founded on honest differences of opinion in respect to ques- tions of civil polity, they are useful in- strumentalities by which issues important to the life, liberties. and prosperity of the government are put under discussion be- fore they are decided, and by which the errors and vices of administration are kept under scrutiny, criticism, and casti- gation. But when suffrage becomes cor- rupt and venal, public life becomes foul, and offices, instead of heinz regarded as opportunities to honest ambition to rem der honest service to the state, are con- verted into opportunities of pelf and fraud, and are distributed as rewards of partisanship, beggary. and intrigue; and even the supreme magistracy of the peo- ple,. once filled by Washington and Jeffer- son, is made to depend not merely on dis honest suffrage, but on tricks and counter tricks of cunning and fraud in manipulat- ing and declaring the intermediate and final results of suffrage. Whether the perversion of suffrage, and the extreme craftsmanship and gangrene of our political life are not the chef public peril of to- day, Is we'll worthy tue study of all honest and thinking men who love their country and respect its honor. We can endure mistakes in regard to the tariff. or the currency, but the evil I have described is of mortal tendency.