Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1878-09-12

with ballots. The Secretary of States
Report for that year will show that
there were between three and four
times as many votes returned from
Perry township as there were men,
women and children in the township.
1t is true that the original cause of the
outrage was the excitement which was
raging on the question of removing the
county seat of that county; but it was
evident from the dispatches of Dodd
and Thompson that the former could
have furnished from that ballot box at
least hundred more votes, if that
number would, in the opinion of
Thompson, have been sufficient to help
Allen out of the woods. The authentic
ty and genuineness of these dispatches
have never been denied. And yet
this attempted fraud seems to have in
creased rather than le5sened the e6-
TEEN with which Thompson is regard
ed by his brethren. He was at once,
with the aid of Senator Thurman, hon.
ored with an important position in the
National House of Representatives,
and is still the leader of the Democrats
ic hosts of Ohio. The last time while
q candidate for chairman Of the State
Committee, the Enquirer opposed his
selection on the ground that Republi-
cans would use his fraud record against
the party; but Thurman again came to
his rescue, and the opposition faded
away. Thurman, too, is a fraud-hater,
but he loves Thompson. 1t was under
the auspices of the latter that he exc
cuted mis- recent flop from his former
convictions of lifetime" into pile
Of irredeemable greenbacks, thus COM
mitting vile fraud upon himself in the
vain hope of its making him President
in 1850.
The boldness and facility with which
the great frauds were committed In
Hamilton and Wood counties, startled
air-minded people all over the State.
and clearly showed the necessity OF
additional safeguards for the integrity
of the ballot. The Republican Legls-
lature recognizing that necessity, pass
ed May7, 1877, the Registry law. That
law was simply to prevent fraud, and
secure honest elections. Whether or
not it would have done this is not
known. 1t was not given fair trial.
It may have been susceptible OF i'm
provement. But the Democrats want
ed nothing of the sort. They opposed
the law violently, and at their earliest
opportunity repealed it, with ven
gesnce. 1t was clear confession that
the Democratic party cannot afford to
dispense with fraudulent elections.
The protracted yell against fraud puts
the leaders of the Democratic party in
a false position. 1t might be inferred
by thOughtlesS persons that there IS
something in the nature of fraud itself
which is at variance with Democratic
practices and principles. Nothing
could be further from the truth. What
could be more fraudulent, for instance,
than the proposition to violate the
solemn faith of the Nation, pledged IN
a crisis of peril TO save its life from de-
Istruction? What shall we call that
policy of unlimited imitation, which
would rob the currency OF its stability
and value, and bring in anew the era
OF gambling and consequent disaster?
And how shall we designate the pro-
posed gigantic raid upon the National
Treasury in the interest of that now
dominant section of the Democratic
party which was the more un fortunate
in the war? 1t needs no careful inves-
tigation to see that the Democratic
party is the party of fraud, not in its
methods alone, but even in its loude5t