The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1880-01-08
The Democratic Fraud in Maine.

ton of the Garoelon fraud in Maine,
but it is of that kind which hardly con-
ceals a fear that the fraud may not
prove successful. There seems to be
in Democratic circles an apprehension
that the fraud will break down of its
own weight, and that the safest way is
to denounce what is certain to prove an
abortion. Conspicuous among these
Picksniffs of the Democratic press is
the New York Nation, which is nothing
unless it is Pecksniffian. It scents the
disastrous failure of the Maine fraud.
and hasuens to denounce the bungling
weakness of the actors. Here is its state
ment:
Tol characterize, adequately the perform
ances of the Democratic Governor and Coun-
ell ia Maine, in exercising the functions of q
Returning Board would require very strong
language. The whole defense they m AXE
that the law obliges them to exact rigid con-
formity to certain rules In examining the
election returDs-is demolished by two facts.
One is that the errors and omissions which
they have discovered and used occur only in
towns and districts in which the Republicans
have a majority, and it passes belief that none
should have been discovered or discoverable
in towns and districts in which the Demo
Gratis had majority. The other is that q law
of 1877 permits the Governor aud Council,
when convassiug the returns, to correct such
errors and omissions by comparison with
the record, and they refuse to avail them
selves of this permission, on the ground
that the law Is unconstitutional. But 1t is
q well settled and necessary principle OF
American jurisprudence that every law Is to
be deemed constitutional until a competent
tribunal decides otherwise, and on this point
the Governor and Council refuse to take the
opinion Of the Court, thus raising presump-
ton of bad faith Of the strongest kind. They
have no more right to declare q law unconsti
init nthAr m In the 2tafa.
and, IL they can refuse to avail themselves OF q
permissive act on this ground, they can re-
fuse to obey mandatory one; In short,
have been guilty Of fraud in examining and
correcting the returns, and there is absolute
certainty that they have been guilty Of gross
abuse of discretion in their manner OF cor
recting them. The indignation their per-
Torrance excites In Maine and throughout
the country is not surprising, and it is by no
means confined to Republicans. The affair is
calling forth also hearty denunciation in lead
ing Democratic papers. We do not need to
point out the effect 1t Is likely to have on
Democratic fortunes next year.
Here is frank confession that the
majority have been counted out, not
because of any suspicion or even pre-
tense of fraud or illegal voting or ille-
gal returns, but because of infornali-
ties in returns. 1t has been the prac-
tice in Maine for half century for the
State authorities, whenever there are
errors or imperfections in the returns,
to notify all concerned, and have these
informalities corrected. This has been
the invariable practice of both parties.
In 1877 the Legislature passed special
law cenferring this power upon the
corrected. The arbitrary action in count
Ing out the entire representation of
several of the large cities and towns
upon the Pretext of informalities in the
returns, and the refusal by the State
authorities to exercise the power given
them by law to have these errors cor
rected by the returning officers, make
out a case of predetermined fraud, and
deliberate attempt to seize a State
Government beyond all question. The
shortcut proceeding of declaring the
law of 1877 unconstitutional, and thus
disposing of it. is but confirmation of
the evidence that the whole proceeding
was deliberately planned and all the
preliminaries leading up to the result
carefully prepared.
It will be remembered that most of
the errors and omissions on which
the majority candidates were counted
out were that the returns were signed
by two persons when there should have
been three and that the number of votes
given were returned in figures, when
they should have been returned
written out in words, and other de-
fects of this kind. 1t now appears
that in most of these cases the errors
and omissions resulted from the return
ing officers following the defective
blank returns furnished them. These
defective blank returns were gotten up
by the State officers, and by them sent
to the various returning officers in the
counties. That this was trap de-
liberately set for the purpose Of leading
to defective and imperfect returns, and
thus laying the groundwork for the ex-
clusion of the returns, can no longer be
doubted. All the defective returns on
which persons elected have been
counted out have been made in districts
electing Republican members, and no
such defective returns were found in
Democratic districts. This raised the
additional presumption that blanks
were prepared purposely in defective
manner, and that, while Democratic
districts were furnished with complete
and correct blanks, Republican districts
were furnished with blank returns
which, when filed up, were certain to
be erroneous.
Mr.. Sproul, one of the Fusion candi-
dates returned as elected, has written
an indignant letter declaring that he
will not be party to the fraud. His
testimony as to the fact that the errors
in the returns were due to defective
blanks furnished by the State authori-
ties, in order to have the mistakes
made on which the returns have been
excluded, is very clear. Here is what
he says on this point:
Though l was elected on an opposition
ticket, and intended to support the regular
nominee of my party, yet, when the members
elect are counted out on pretenses which are
totally false, or exist only In the malicious
ignorance of the pei petrators; when such ad-
vantages were taken of defective blanks sent
out for this very purpose by the constituted
authorities, 80 that returns were cast out
from this very cause; when some laws were
strongly enforced and others on the same
subject were nullided, by which these trivial
errors could have been readily corrected; !;
when Eve of our largest cities. containing
one-seveuth of our inhabitants and one-fourth
of our wealth, were disfranchfsed, and many
smaller towns treated even worse, by being
compelled to be represented by those whom
they had once repudiated at the polls,-then
no longer can a man, with one drop of Revo-
lutionary blood in his veins, lend his favor,
and much less his influence, in aid of such
systematic villainy.
The Nation, while giving up the
Maine job because it is failure, and
therefore doubly wrong and doubly
scandalous, whines considerably to the
effect that the case of Garcelon is no
worse than that of the Louisiana Re-
turning Board. With truly Pecksniffian
JUNCTION, it thinks Garcelon, of Maine,
is a purer and better man than Madi-
SON Wells, of New Orleans. OF course
any attempt to establish a parallel be-
tween the Maine and Louisiana cases
must be fearfully strained. To estab-
lish such a parallel, there must be evil
dence that the Republicans of Maine
had by the shotgun, and the lash, and
by general force and intimidation,
seized possession of all the Democratic