Daily Republican., 1880-01-21
A NOTE.
The Newly Proposed Electoral
plan


lature to pass law providing new
plan for the election of Presidential
electors In that State, has stirred the
Democracy otis very depth. Even the
Bayard organ in this city is so exercised
over such a monstrous attempt to sub
vert the liberties of the people that its
columns teemed yesterday with denun
Citations of a plan which if not fair
one we would like to know what is.
The recent attempt of Garcelon and his
infamous crew, would not have been
half so repugnant had they succeeded
in rendering nugatory the expressed
will of the people of the State OF Maine,
and had the fraudulent Legislature
sworn in by that prince of frauds, pro-
ceeded to appoint seven Democratic
Presidential electors, the act would rot
have been thought half 50 bad for that is
about the only way in which Dem
ocratic electors could be secured in
Republican State, but that bill should
be introduced into the New York Leg
islature which would divide the electo-
raj vote of the State we are informed
that such an effort is revolution under
the forms Of law, and every man who
is honest is called upon to resent and
resist what is called an impudent trick,
and to frown down its origiDators and
all who attempt to profit by it. Now,
what can be the reason of this scare on
the part of the Democracy Is it not
because the whole college Of thirty
three electoral votes of New York could |
not be counted for the Democratic can
didate if the State, through the farce
called an election in New York city, |
should 60 DemocraticH Let us look at
this question a little and see where the
causes Of complaint against the newly
proposed plan comes in at. New York
State casts in round numbers say one
million votes, Of which New York city,
Brooklyn and West Chester County,
cast in round numbers two hundred
and tifty-fve thousand votes. Outside
OF these places named only one Demo
cratic Congressman was elected, tie
whole number of Democratic Congress-
IN n elected in the State being only nine. |
In these nine Congressional districts
carried by the Democrats, two hundred
and eighty-two thousand votes were
east, which was nearly one-ftth the vote
of the State, and the Democratic ma
iority for those nine districts was about
eighty thousand.
There are, TWEEN y-four Congressional
districts in the State which elected Re-
publican congressman, the total vote Of
those districts being about seven hun
dred thousand, but unless the Demo
cratic party has been guilty of some
outrageous misconduct, the Republican
majority in the aggregate cannot ex.
ceed sixty thousand. This would leave
a clear Democratic majority in the
S ate of about fifteen thousand, and ac-
cOrding to the present mode of electing
electors the nine districts with one
fifth the vote of the State crushed out or
silenced the vote OF the other ur-ffths
OF the people, and what is still more {
humiliating and We might say aggrava
ting, is the fact that the intelligent and
moral sentiment Of the State is crushed
under by the rougher and lawless por
tion of the population Of New York and
Brooklyn, the most of whom at the best j
are fraudulent voters and repeaters. {
The proposed bill pending before the a
New York Legislature provides for the I
election of the thirty-three electors by /
Congressional districts which would c
enable the Democrats to carry their D De t
probably to increase it by gain of a g
couple or more, and it would enable +
the Republicans to elect their twenty Il
four with the chances Of losing or gain .
ing two or three more. As the case is
the State is entitled to two Senatorial ],
electors making the whole number il
the bill proposes that 5
the two Senatorial electors shall BE- a
elected by the State ct large. With O.
the preponderating and crushing Dem S,
ocratic majority in New York city and IL
Brooklyn the Democrats stand a chance 70
of eiecting the delegates at large which nj
would give them, as the State is now as
in Congress, eleven Demo Ii
cratic electors to twenty-feur for the "
1t strikes us that this ii
bill cannot he a bad kind o. law, in b
Iced it has all through it the appear G.
ance OF honesty and impartiality and II
W still farther think that all but big m
,ted politicians must see it in the sam. le
light. A bill Of the same kind has hc
been introduced in the Now jersey L
Legislature, with every prospect Of bs- ttr
coming law, the GoTerro'. Z Demo to
rat, of cbst Stat, not EayinJ the veto W
power. Tn" delegation II Congress tn
rom that S atr now stands four Repuh- de