Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1879-04-10
Shall Votes Count?

Not only has the Democratic party, in
every closely contested national election
during the past forty years, attempted to
win by an organized course of fraud, but
for at least twenty years it has been con-
cerned in habitual conspiracies to set
aside the popular will after a due de-
claration of the judgement. Decent
men generally regard it as the depth of
baseness to submit case to arbitration
and then refuse to abide by the decision
because it happens to be unfavorable;
but Democratic politicians, however re-
spectacle they may be in private life,
throw respectability to the winds when
they deal with public affairs. In 1850
the Democracy submitted great nation
al issue to the arbitration of the popular
vote. The verdict being against them,
they promptly repudiated the arbitration
and during four terrible years of war
they fought to obtain by force what had
been lawfully and regularly denied them
by the decision of the ballot.
AT the election of 1876 they brought
out their last voter, and when it became
apparent that the country had again de-
cided against them there was hardly an
imaginable scheme of fraud or violence
to which they did not resort in order to
overturn the judgement to which they
had submitted themselves. They bribed
an elector in Oregan to falsify the final
record of the vote of that State. They
bargained with the canvassers of Florida
and South Carolina to change the figures
after the returns had been made up and
counted. When other plans failed they
concerted a villanOus plot to put all the
electors of South Carolina in Jail on fic-
titious charges, so that the State might
lose her vote entirely. All these rascali-
ties were defeated; and then, when the
last formal act that should make, effec-
tive the verdict of the popular vote was
about to be performed, this revolutionary
party once more repudiated its compacts
and threatened the country with civil
war. For the sake of the public peace,th
Republicans yielded so far as to submit
to new arbitration, putting again in
dispute the prize they had fairly won.
The Electoral Commission was organiz-
ed, both parties. solemnly agreeing to
abide by its judgment. Mon will not soon
forget what followed. The Commission
pronounced in favor of the Republican
party, and instantly the revolutionary
Democracy was in arms, threatening
chaos and the breaking up of the Gov
ernment, and paying no more regard to
laws than if they were so much waste pa
per, or to solemn promises and covenants
than if they were last years winds.
Now the Democracy have brought on
another crisis. They are bent upon a
certain act of legislation from which
they hope to reap a political advantage.
The people have refused to give them a
sufficient majority to pass that act. They
take refuge at once in their old plan
repudiate the submission to the people,
and attempt to seize by violence what
the arbitrators of their own choice have
decided not to give them. In every
emergency the Republican party has
double contest to wage with these dan
gerous and conscienceless> >ISan. 1t has
first to defeat them at the p0ifs. and then.
when the election is over, it has to com
pei them to abide by the result Thesec-
ond struggle is far the most important
of the two. The first only governs chang
es of policy; upon the second depends
the very principle of free government.
We have always won in this after-con-
test; and while the American people re-
tain their common sense, their love of
justice, and their pride in republican in
stitutions, we always shall win.-N. Y.
Tribune.