Morning journal and courier., 1880-04-02
DEMOCRACY IN DELAWARE,

! l The latest revelation of the workings of
 pure Democracy comes from Delaware, the pocket borough of the high-mindsd Bayard. | The Suffrage law of that State requires that g
 man must be assessed to vote, and that he
 must bring his tax receipt to the polls. Suf- | frage and taxation go hand in hand. The as- sessors make up a list of those liable to pay
 taxes, and post it up in February. They may l purposely or inadvertently leave of many l names. Only three days are allowed to cor
 rect the list, and if the mistake is not then
 corrected, an application must be made to the levy court, in March. If the man is not on
 the list by April 1, he is disfranchised for the year. It is an easy thing for Democratic as- sessors and Democratic levy courts to help on the work of disfranc chisement, and the eoIored voters suffer accordingly. This spring 2,O0O names were omitted on the lists in Newcastle county, and the applications for correction were so slowly heard that it was impossible to restore more than 6 fraction of the names. The levy courts have puzzled over every case as long as they could, and left as many unas- sessed as could be plausibly shut out from a hearing.
 Some of the details of the struggle of Re publicans to be assessed and the struggle of the Democrats to leave them of the list are decidedly interesting as contributions to po- litical history and the history of taxation. A Wilmington newspaper says: 'tNum bsrs of Re- publicans have gone in person to an asssasor and have given him their names. They have stood and watched him while he wrote them down in book or on paper containing 8 number of other names, and after all, when the assess ment lists were made out and hung up for in- spection, the persons who were so determined to be assessed had the modification of finding that their names had been omitted. A gentle man informed us that he had handed list of persons, white and black, to the assessor, to be put upon the lists. He had the positive assurance from that officer that they would be put on, but when the lists were hung up it was found that, while he had entered the names of the white men, he had omitted the names of all the black men," This it is de- clared, is only one instance of many, while, in the case of Democrats, lists of names gathered in cigar stores and drinking saloons were &C., cepted unhesitatingly, though they included many who, being returned as ''errors," in consequence of the non payment of their tax less than year previously, were forbidden under the State laws to be now assessed. Complaint was made, likewise, that the asaes- sors, though nominalIy 'at home in the even ing" could not be found there, except by vigilant watching. The offer was made to one of them (who has since been sued by persons whose names he left off the lists) to provide him with an office, lighted and heated, rent free, in order that persons might moro convs- niently find him, but he refused to take 1t. He did not want to be easily found. And in Kent county it is related of 8 collector who did not want to receive the poll taxes of twenty or thirty oolorsd men that he dodgsd them, loft his home, spread report that his family had smallpox, and finally was literally surrounded and captured, late at night, near Dover, by 8 party of men, led by two or three resolute white Republicans.
 This attempt to disfranchise Delaware Re- publicans has not had the success it's authors hoped for, owing to the determined opposi- tion of Republicans and the well directed ef- forts of Republican Supervisors of Registra- tion, who, much to the disgust of the Demo crats, were appointed in January. But enough has been done to show that the Demo- crats of Delaware, like those of Maine and and degrading the right of suffrage when it suits their purpose. That this is done in the State where Senator Bayard and his friends have control will not add to his reputation with fair-minded men of either party.