The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1880-02-24
Stealing States.
Confederate Democratic Conspiracy to
Defeat the Will of the People.
Chicago Times.


The preparations for capturing the White
House without regard to the result of the Pres,
idential election go bravely on. One thing
which may become necessary in order to effect
the capture is Bourbon majority by States in
the House of Representatives, and Mr.. Spring
er's committee on elections has in hand the
important work of securing this majority. 1t
is part of the programme to unseat Washburn
Republican, of Minnesota, and seat Donnelly,
Democrat. That done, the Minnesota delega-
ton will be changed from two Republicans and
one Democrat to two Democrats and one Re-
publican. Then, should the election of Presi-
dent be thrown into the House, the State of
Minnesota, which is Republican by more than
10000 majority on the popula, vote, will cast
its vote in the House for the Democratic candi-
date for President. The subcommittee which
has the Washburn-D Donnelly case in hand has
decided to report in favor of carrying out this
part OF the programme, and it is altogether
likely that the full committee will do the same
and that the House will complete the work of
counting out.
On the face of the returns Washburns ma
jority was 3,012. This is pretty large majori-
ty to overcome by the contingent process
but the subcommittee has proved itself equal
to the emergency 1t has succeeded iu figur-
ing Donnelly in by majority of 165 or more.
To begin with, LOO votes cast in Minneapolis
are thrown out for the reason that they were
numbered A law of the State requires cleo
ton officers to number ballots in cities having
population of more than 1900. This law
has been pronounced unconstitutional by judi
cial decision, upon the ground that it provides
for violation of the secrecy of the ballot. 1t
seems that this decision was disregarded, and
the ballots were numbered in six precincts Of
Minneapolis, and it is for this reason alone
that the 1,700 votes are thrown out. That
number of voters are to be disfranchised, not
because of any fault of their own, but because
their agents, the election officers numbered
their ballots, in disregard of court decision.
Fair minded citizens will have no difficulty in
arriving at conclusion as to the justice OF this
performance. They will agree with the Su-
preme Court of Maine that citizens cannot be
justly disfranchised through the neglect or er-
rors of their agents whose duty it is to see that
their votes are received and given full effect.
There is no doubt whatever that the ZOO votes
were cast by qualified electors, and there is no
reason to suppose that they did not express the
will Of the persons who cast them. To reject
these votes is simply an outrage.
But it was not enough to throw out the 100
votes in Minneapolis. Washburne could spare
that number and still have handsome major
ity. Hence it became necessary for the COM
| mittee to find pretext for throwing out votes
cast in other localities. This they had no great
difficulty in doing. They found 1870 more
| votes which for some cause or another they
| could reject. Some of these, it is stated, they
| have thrown out because the returns were
| signed by two justices of the peace and probate
A. Nf4 4bn
| 1t is not pretended that the returns were false
in any respect or that the votes were not actual
| ly and freely cast The committee have thrown
them out upon the merest technicality, in ut
ter disregard of the principle enunciated in the
| Supreme Court of Maine that the people can
not be Justly deprived of their electoral or rep
| resentative rights by any mere informality-a
| principle which commends itself to every fair
| minded man as not only sound, but OF vital
| Importance.
1t is believed that for Presidential reasons
| the House will postpone action upon this ca sc
| until after the Presidential election. For pru-
| dental reasons the House had better not post
pone action. The best thing The majority can
| do for their partys good is to give some evil
| dence that they intend to act with fairness,
| and respect the results of popular elections
| Even as partiSanS they cannot afford to- do q
thing which every honest man in the land
would regard as an outrage. To postpone ac-
| ton would not relieve them from odium
Postponement win naturally and rightly be un-
derstood as signifying that the majority intend
to consummate the outrage after the Presiden-
tial election, if they can see an opportunity to
| gain partisan advantage thereby. If they
want to give evidence that their party is de-
serving of the confidence of the country they
| can best do so, not by threatening to commit a
wrong, but by promptly refusing to do so, and
| giving notice that they intend to act honestly
and fairly. 1t is not to be expected, however,
that they will act wisely. 1t is characteristic
| of their party not merely to blunder, but to
| give proof ON every occasion of an entire want
of fairness and the sense of public responsible
| ty.
Another part of the programme for the cap
| ture of the White House is to unseat Orth of
| Indiana and seat McCabe, Democrat. The ma
| jority have an easier task in this case than in
that of Washburn. Orth was elected by only
| 9S plurality, and the united vote of the Demo-
Gratis and Nationals was A. ,437 greater than that
| cast for Orth. twill be san easier matter to
find pretext for throwing out 100 or 200 votes
in Orth's district than for throwing out nearly
800 votes in Washburn's district. Further
more, Indiana is regarded as Democratic
State, and it would not seem so unreasonable
and wrong to give its vote in the House for a
Democratic candidate for President as it will
to give the vote of Minnesota, with its 10000
Republican majority, to the Democrats.