Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1879-07-23
THE ELECTION LAWS.
Sen. Conkling's Arrangement of ths
Democratic Party for Attempting
to Repeal Them.
A Partisan Programme to Give tho Eleo.
lions into the Hands of the White
Leaguers ..

Connected with the amendment we are
now considering and part of it, is the
act for protecting and regulating national
elections. That act applies to cities Of
twenty thousand or more inhabitants. 1t
provides that two persons may be ap-
pointed by the court, not to act as over
seers, but as supervisors Of registration,
voting and counting at national cleo
tons. One is to be u democrat, one is to
be republican. This is to prevent
either side having the advantage over
the other. In rural regions with sparse
population, no provision is made. There
as rule, all voters are known to each
other; there the danger of mobs and tu-
mults is comparatively slight In the
large cities the case is different. There,
these two supervisors are to see fair play,
that is the whole Of it. They have no
covers, nor have the deputy marshals
any power, not from time immemorial
and from necessity repcsed in all the
states, as far as [ know, in the inspectors
of elections. I read the provision as it
stands In my own state, and | ask the
senate to mark what sort ofpower it con-
fers on every inspector Of election:
"If any person shall wilfully disobey
any lawful commands of the board of
inspectors of any election, Or shall will
fully and without authority, obstruct,
hinder, or delay, any elector on his way
to any poll where an election shall be
held, or while he is exercising or at
tempting to exercise the right OF voting,
or shall aid Or assist in such obstruc-
ton or delay, he shall, OH conviction, be
adjudged guilty of a misdemeanor, and
be fined in q sum not exceeding $3.50,
and may be imprisoned, in the discretion
Of the court, for not more than six
months"
All these inspectors under this act are
such "potentates and powers" that
any man who dares to disobey their com
mands is to be punished; and yet the
sensiblities of the gifted and ardent SEN
tated with indignant emotion when he
thought OF youth and age meeting at The
polls and voting, with two persons, one
democrat and one republican looking
at them when they did it; looking on to
see that the receiver Of ballots did not
destroy or change them but put them in
the box, and afterward 10 see that the
ballots were honestly counted after youth
and age had gone home TO supper. l
listened to a recital Of that ordeal, and |
made up my mind that on such an occa-
sion youth and age after the days fltfui
struggle might sleep we'll.
Tile election law came in to correct
abuses which reached their climax III
1868 in the city of New York In that
year in the state Of New York the repub-
lcan candidate for governor was elected;
the democratic candidate was counted
in. Members of the legislature were
fraudulently seated. The election was a
barbarous burlesque. Many thousand
forged naturalization papers were issued;
some Of them were white and some Of
them were coffee colored. The same
witnesses purported TO attest hundreds
and thousands of naturalization afidavits,
and the stupendous fraud Of the whole
thing was and is an open secret. Some
OF these naturalization papers were sent
to other states. SO plenty were they,
that some of them were sent TO Germany,
and Germans who had never left their
country claimed exemption from the
German draft for soldiers in the Franco
Prussan war, because they were natu-
rallied American CT liens! laugh err
The holders Of these papers voted by
thousands, and l have heard it said in the
debate that Judge Blatchford has decided
that these papers are legal. Never. |
see the senator from West Virginia hIr.
Hereford mod. He does not nod very forci-
bly,, but he mods enough to induce me to
stop and read from tie judemens CT
Judge Blatchford. Judge Blatchford
passed upon case maie-lawvers
will understand what that is
presenting a pure question Of law.
What was the question? Whether
certain papers on deposit or On file in
court IN and Of themselves, assuming
their variety, assuming that they were
genuine, constituted a record II the eye
ofthe law. There was no question tried
or decided whether they were forged or
not; no question whether they were
fraudulent or not; no question whether
they had been signed, as some of them
had been, with the name Of officers APP
pearipg on their face who never were
elected until long after the paper was is
sued; but on the naked question present.
ed to him, Judge Blatchford spoke. He
refers to another case in which the same
question had been presented, and says:
1.-THE sole ground Of such application
was that the validity of the admission Of
the party to citizenship was disputed, On
the allegation that there was no legal
record of the Judgment admitting him to
citizenship" - aa
Why? ask the senate to mark
for the reason that the clerk of the
court did not write out an entry in the
minute book Of the court reciting the
proceedings and showing the adjudica-
ton made. This is the same point now
urged here"
There is the point Of the decision and
the whole of it as [ understand
say thousands of men voted upon
fraudulent naturalization papers. But all
this was tame and paltry compared with
other enormities. The city Of New
York was redistricted from time to
time-sometimes so districted as to bisect
blocks, and denizens Of the same build
ing could vote in different election pre-
cincts. In some cases the democratic
majority was larger than the whole
number of men, women, children, horses,
cats, and dogs in the district, laughter
and speak not in rhetorical figures but
in Arabic figures
Repeating, ballot-box stuffing, ru1fian-
ism and false cOuntinO decided every