Daily Republican. [volume] ([Wilmington, Del.]) 1874-1890, 1880-01-02


county and other counties in the State
has raised mootsd question as to thu
authority of the court to appoint super
visors Of registration. The divergence
OF opinion upon the question commences
at the assessment Of taxable citizens in
this State, and the question is raised al
70 whether that is a registration o.
voters as required by the United States
Statutes. We hope the papers cavilling
and finding objections to the appoint
ment Of Supervisors on the plea OF lille
gality are honest in what they do, and
that their opposition is not based upon
mere political bias. The principal
sections Of the law which appear to
govern the registration Of voters in Del
aware are published in another column
of the REPUBLICAN, and to it we would
call the special attention of orr readers.
We do not pretend to claim that the
assessment Of citizens made annually
In Delaware Is merely for the purpose
of qualifying those who are assessed
for voting. and we are willing to admit
that since women and unnaturalized
aliens owning property are proper
subjects for assess nent, that leading
purpose is to regulate and facilitate the
collection of taxes to carry on the
county and State government. But
while making this admission, and while
IL is fact that no person can vote in
this State unless assessed, we also
claim that the asses sment of voters is
fully comprehended in the sections of the
law referred to and published elsewhere
in our columns. Now is not the assess
msnt of taxables in Delaware regis
tration of votersi If it is not when and
where is there a registration which
places q citiz,n in proper position to
qualify himself to vote?
There can be none, and yet unless a
person is assessed he cannot vote. If the
assessment is a registration Of voters,
then there can be ne doubt whatever of
the right to have such assessment
guarded and scrutinized by supervisors
appointed by the United States District
Court, the duty of such supervisors
being to see that no person not proper.
ly qualified shall be registered, and
that no person propely qualified shall
bs refused registration.
Judge Bradford, who has been COM
missioned to act as Judge of the United
States Circuit Court in the absence of
Judge McKennon, has been called upon
by so-called independent paper of this
city, but which in reality is but the
poor sordid abject tool of one man, to
pause before taking action upon the
matter favorable to the petitions asking
for the appointment of supervisors.
This advice, We presume, is altogether
gratuitous, as Judge Bradford no doubt
understands the matter, and recogniz-
ing the technicalities with which it is
interviewer, will take no haSty action.
He, as is well known, is not the man to
assume a position which he cannot
maintain.
Another paper, while not making
any strong objections to the appoint
rnent OF supervisors, tries to cause I'm
necessary apprehension in regard to
the great cost it would bring upon the
government, IS day being named as
the pay of supervisor. This is but
another objection to make the move
ment unpopular with the people. In
the first place the supervisors, whoever
they may be, will have to give their
services gratuitiously SO far as the
United States government is concerned,
for the present Congress has refused to
pass any appropriations for the pay
of any person whatever who may have
anything to do with the enforcement of
the United States election laws, there
fore while Congress refuses to pass the
appropriations there can be no expense
to the government. These fears there
fore are groundless, not only on account
Of the appropriations which Congress
refused to pass, but because we under.
stand that there is stipulation that
such supervisors are to serve gratui-
tously except the citizens themselves
voluntarily pay them. This we should
suppose vas sufficient to settle the ex-
pense score.
In the next place, we may with great
force ask, is not supervision Of the
Of voters needed? In view
of the difficulties in making fair as
sessmert or registration there can be no
negative answer to the question, and we
should suppose that no honest assessor
would object to any help which might
be offered and shifting Of the respon-
abilities upon other shoulders. As it
is now, the assessors are liable to prose-
eution before the Unitse States Courts
they exercise any discrimination in
the asses sment, but if there were su-