Litchfield enquirer., 1879-10-16
What Next {?

Districts of Litclifield County, and representa- lives in all of it's twenty six towns. There is
 no important appointment to be made by the
 legislature of 1SSO-no Judge or Senator to be
 elected-so that personal ambitions will have
 less than usual to do with the choice of Sena- tors and Representatives three weeks hence.
 The tendency of the times seems hostile to Democracy, and we are inclined to believe that they will suffer loss in the Litchfield county delegation to the House. In the Sen- ate, on the other hand, they can lose nothing, and may make important gains The Seven teenth District has long been a Democratic stronghold, and the singular success of Mir.
 Miles in 1877 is, we believe, the only defeat they have sustained, there, since the war.
 The Fifteenth District has been for some years doubtful, only the special hold of Sena- tor Coe upon the village of Wolcottville saving the Republicans the District for some years past The name we hear most frequent ly mentioned in connection with the Republi- I can nomination in the Seventeenth IS that of MT. Spur, of Falls Village, the Republican candidate for Sheriff Tn 1877. He is very popular man in that section of the county, but whether popular enough to overcome the heavy Democratic majorities usually cast in Salisbury, Sharon, and the Canaans, strikes us as very doubtful.
 The most probable nomination of the Re- publicans of the Fifteenth District IS that of MT. Coe to be his own successor. This gen. tleman's great political strength in his own locality is not altogether or even chiefly de- pendent, we are led to believe, upon the inf1u- ence which as manufacturer he has over his employees, but upon genuine personal popu- larity Tn the community in which he lives He is an enemy to minority representation and to woman suffrage and friend to the railroads, and we should be very glad to see more lib- eral man in his place; but, to beat him, the Democrats must offer much better man than | his last opponent, Dr. Steele of Winsted. In the State at large the chances favor | Republican victory. They earned a large plurality of the towns in the October elections; even such places as Waterbury, New London and New Britian, giving Republican majorities One element unfavorable to Democratic su- premacy-the Greenback party-made little figure at the October elections; they may re- l appear again, however, in the elections of 1880.
 We hope the coming elections will show less than usual of that corruption of voters which has come to characterize all our more impor- tant political contests. Politicians and people are coming to look upon the use of money for the purchase of votes as one of the legitimate features of an election. As necessary con- sequence, there is no real selection of candi- dates by the people. Men speculate upon whether such one, or such another, of their men of wealth, will spend their thousands to get positions in state or national legislature. They look on idly while this question is decid- ed without the slightest reference to their wishes. Then. when the election day comes, they see the paid fuglers of one or both par ties, changing ten, twenty, thirty, or more votes ln country towns where such changes inn ply the entire subversion of their normal polti- cal position. No doubt the better men of both parties dislike the purchase of votes, and the nomination of a candidate who resorts to such measures to secure his election. Do they bolt such nominations when made? Certainly not {; and it is ip thls fact that the strength of the professional politician lies. So long as the better men of both parties will vote for his candidates he cares little whether they like them. He simply goes on using the candi- dates funds to buy up purchasable voters; and unless opposed by other politicians as corrupt and as skilful as himself, his efforts decide the result
 There is one way. and but one way, in which politics can ever recover it's moral tone: and that is by the refusal of honest and moral men to vote for candidates who buy votes. Such determination would strike at the root of corruption, and nothing short of that will accomplish anything. The ordinary excuse of the voter is this: my party candidate buys votes; probably the other does the same and Of the two evils, 1 choose the least and there upon he casts his ballot for aman he knows to be corrupt merely because he suspects the other party of corruption. Supposing, however, that both candidates are corrupt, is it not the plain duty of the honest man to vote for neith- CT?
 Unfortunately many who are strictly honest in other respects vote for corrupt candidates out of pure partisanship. Knowing that their party is in minority in given town or District, and knowing that certain rich man of their party will not scruple to buy votes, they press his nomination and exult in his election It IS this special type of political immortality which is,today, the greatest danger l to free government among us What the country needs is breed of Republicans who would prefer the election of Democrats to the choice of Republicans by bought ballots; breed of Democrats who would rather be de. feated, than to succeed on the Salisbury plan. Politicians tell us that nothing short of the Millennium will bring about any political condi- tion like this. We venture to predict, on the other hand. that the opposite practice, which is fast bringing popular government into Con tempt, will soon, unless it is reformed, lead to it's practical abolition.
 Another terrible railroad accident occurred in Michigan on Friday. The Pacific express train, bound west, which left Detroit forty minutes late, collided with switch engine on the main track near Jackson avenue that morn- ing, telescoping the baggage and express cars and piling the remaining cars, eleven in uum- Der, on top of each other. The first car was l filled withemigrants, most of whom were killed or seriously injured. The number of killed l and fatally injured is thought to be overtwen- l ty, with thirty or more seriously injured. The accident was occasioned by the careless ness of the switchman who had charge of mak- ing up freight trains at Jackson junction, and who occupied the main track with switch en- zine and caboose, understanding that the Pa- ci6c express was considerably behind time l. ,I --.-.
 The Tribune is wrestling vigorously with