Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1879-08-01
THE CINCINNATI INYEsTIG ArlON

The investigation of the last Congressional
election in Cincinnati now going forward
will not result, in all probability, in in
validating the choice of Messrs. Butterworth
and Young, but it will nevertheless accom-
plish much good by the exposure of the
means employed by the Republicans to carry
the election. It has been shown already that
there were many indignities committed upon
voters by the supervisors of election and
deputy marshals. The Democrats refused
to participate in the appointment of the
supervisors, and as a consequence there were
none but Republicans on guard at the polls.
They used their liberty to the full, and the
result may be briefly epitomized. Men we're
appointed to stand guard and make
arrests of citizens who we're
selected because of their capacity for COM
hitting crime. They were, without excep-
ton, of the knock down and -drag-out de-
scription that abounds in large cities. Sew
eral of them had done service in the peni-
Tertiary for murder, and nearly all the others
had been convicted of offenses against the
laws of greater or less magnitude. It ap-
pears of record that some residents of the
city of twenty years standing, who had al
ways borne an unsullied reputation, were ar
rested when attempting to cast their ballots,
and incarcerated in prison by these roughs
until such time as they could procure bail.
It has also been demonstrated that these
marshals kept large number Of legal voters
away from the polls by threats of arrest,
and, singular to relate. these voters were all
of one political complexion, and weuld have
voted for the Democratic candidates.
Many minor abuses have been developed
during the investigation, all going to show
that the system has been most shamelessly
abused. While we do not believe that too
strong guards can be placed upon the sane
tity of the ballot-box, we insist that laws
susceptible of such abuses should not exist.
They give the party in power, whether
it be the Republican or the Democratic par
ty, too much authority over the liberty of
the citizen. They enable men who are cor
rupt by nature to exercise dangerous pow
e7 for only partisan purposes. They are not
designed to facilitate the exercise of the
proper functions of government, but are
thoroughly and radically despotic.
It was intended when this government was
formed to give each citizen the largest lib
erty and the widest freedom of personal ac-
ton. It has been the aim of the Republican
party to gradually take away from the citi-
zen the rights he had acquired and to con-
centrate them in the general government.
By systematic series of laws, each fitting
into the other with the utmost exactness, the
individuals who compose the nation, and the
States which form its distinctive parts, have
been deprived of privilege after privilege,
and to-day We are greeted with the bold dec
laration that this is nation and not con-
federation, and that individuals and States
have no rights which the general govern
ment may choose to exercise. All the ten
denotes of the times are towards the estab-
lshment of monarchy here, and the super
visor5 of elections law is one of the most
important steps to that end. If tbs pending
investigation shall result in opening the eyes
of the people to the abuses that can be per-
petrated under cover of it, and to the danger
that Turks in a seemingly harmless law, it
will not have been undertaken in vain