Daily Republican., 1880-05-08

the votes Of fifty or hundred othel
men, a fictitious majority may be man.
ufactured, which does not express the
will of the people. There Was an illus
trstion of this in the State ConVeutto;;
at Dover, on Thursday. New Castle
County through the privileges present
ed to the people sent mixed d>,,lses.
.ten TO Dover, and Sussex County did
the same thing. The unit rule could
have been insisted upon by the major
,.ty delegates from either Of these eoun'
{ ties., but there was 10 desire to tie the
hands or stifle the voice ofany delegate.
Had this rule go rigidly insisted upsn
and forced in Kent County been carried
out il the other counties, there would
have been two counties against one il
the Convention all the Tins and upon
every vote. Making County delegates
solid to gain mere local political ad-
vantage is as Objectionable to the NOR
81 sense of the people, as 1t is objection
able to make solid South in national
political matters. 1t may be possible that
the forty delegates of Kent County to
the State Convention were all Of one
mind, in which case the vote
made no difference, whether one man
or forty men cast the forty votes Of the
county, bzt it looks little improbable
that upon questions Of such varied in
forests as come before State CoRven-
tiop, intelligent reflective men should
all think alike. We DO not believe
they did all think alike, but the Con-
vention was informed that Keat Coun-
W in preliminary caucus had agreed 70
vote as "a unit upon all questions cona-
ing before the Convention one
man casting the vote for forty
men. The caucus could not possibly
foresse what questions Of importance
were to be thought before the Conven-
tion, but yet the forty delegates were
willing End did surrender their minds,
their thoughts, their actions and their
conscience5 into the keeping Of one
man to be used arbitrarily but always
effectively in one direction. For the
sake of illustrating how this unit rule
worked we will take the vote Of the
Convention on the question of adopting
the report of the Committee on creden-
tials. This report was in favor of al
lowing two sets Of delegates from the
Tenth Ward in this city to cast their
votes in the Convention, and Baltimore
Hundred four delegates who were elec.
ted by nlsinority Of the = votes east,
were turned under and . single dele
gate elected by majority vote was ad-
mitted and authoriz ID to cast the Our
votes of the Hundred. Upon the adop-
ton Of this report, New Castle and Sus-
sex Counties, the counties most inter-
ested, cast SO votes TO 81 against the
report. Kent County had in caucus pre-.
viou5ly determined that her whole 40
votes should be cast as unit
upon all qNestiong no matter what
kind it was that should come up, upon
which there could scarcely iail to be an
honest difference Of opinion, and in
accordance with this decision her whole
10 votes were cast in favcr Of the report
which carried its adoption by vote Of
II to 60. New Castle County voted
more than two 10 one that the Tenth
Ward should not be disfrancLised, bT
admitting three other delegates 10 neu-
tralize tae votes CT three othsrs elected
by large majority and holding regular
credentials. Sussex County voted by a
large majority that the four elect
cd delegates from Baltimore Hundred
should be retained, and not that one
man should be admitted who was de-
feated at the delegate election, and be
allowed TO vote for himself and for his
three absent associatea, who knew
they were defeated, and did rot even
come to the Convention to claim a seat,
Does anybody suppose that upon 8
question like this that forty men from
the most intelligent classes Of soeIetT il
Kent County would all have voted one
way, il thei1 voices had Dot been stited
by Tho unit rule? We have better
opinion Of tho honesty, the intelligence
ana tie love Of farmers Of the people Of
KeAE County than 20 suppose that III
left nntrammeled to themselves the
whole forty votes Of the County would
have been Cast solid on tits question
however strong the bord of unity may
nave 6sFn upn other questions. We
ar btLs surprised that an intelli. |
&C. -.FbooJ Ct men as we know the Re.
prblicars If Kent County to be should
surrender beforehand their con.
sciences into the keeping of any
one man tos be used arbitrarily
as ne saw proper upon any question
which mightsccme before?a deliberative
hndu fnr disn1aa; Nra da IA. |