Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1881-06-23
The Deadlock III Political Warfare.
Sn Ifimnra Sun

The Deadlock III Political Warfare.
| Baltimore Sun.
Doubtless many of the present genera
tiOn fancy that political "deadlOcks !" arc a
new invention OF this progressive age, and
that this device was unknown in those
good old times" when politics arc sup
posed to have been freer from base alloy
and politicians less sophisticated than they
are at present. On the contrary. the brief.
est retrospect will show that the deadlock
was we'll known and appreciated by the
politicians of the past, and that they did
| not hesitate to make use of it whenever
they saw or supposed they saw chance to
use it to advantage. Not to go beyond
| the limits of our own state history, for an
illustration, a good instance of a deter
mined deadlock is found in the struggle
which occurred in 1886 between the Wing
and Van Buren electors chosen on the 5th
of September in that year for the purpose
of selecting state Senate. At that
period the Senate of Maryland,
which consisted OF only fifteen mem
bers, was chosen by college of forty
electors, each county being represented by
two members i'll this electoral college and
baltimore city and Annapolis by one each.
The electors were required to meet at An
napOlis Oh the third Monday in September
after their election for the purpose Of
choosing the Senate, but it was specially
provided by the constitution of the state
that no election could be held unless
twenty-four of the electors were present.
In 1886 it so happened that out of the forty
electors chosen twenty ono were Wings
and nineteen were Democrats, or Van
RnrOsp Whom TIM f;noo
the electoral college to assemble in
Annapolis and choose tho Senate
the Van Buren, electors, taking ad
vantage of the constitutional provision
mentioned, declined to meet the Whie
electors unless tito latter, who repre-
sented only about Onc-fourth of the FREQ
white population of the state, would
pledge themselves to assist in the election
of i Senate favorable to such reform in
the constitution rs would remove these
existing inequalities in representation.
According to the unfair system of repre-
sentation then prevailing, the nineteen
Van Buren, electors represented two cities
and eight counties, having white popu-
lation of 205, ,922, while the twcnty-one
Wing electors represented q white pop-
ulation Of only about $1,000. Thus
tho minority Of the electors really
represented nearly thrce-fourths of
the free white population and two
thirds of the federal numbers of the state,
besides the largest portion of it's territory
in wealth, and they not unnaturally sup
posed that they had the right, in the name
OF the large popular majority which thew
represented, to demand the pledges asked
at the hands Of their opponents. The rul
ing electors, however, refused to listen to
their propositions. and tho Van Buren,
electors, on the 21st Of September, left
Annapolis in a body and returned to their
homes. Their course created the
the most intense excitement through
out the state, and the revolutionary mode
i'll which they were attempting to accom-.
plish desirable and much-needed reform
produced an almost immediate reaction
even among their own constituents, and
was so emphatically condemned in the en-
suing election for members of the house
OF delegates that several of the recusant
electors, unable to withstand the pressure
OF public opinion, proceeded to Annapolis
and assisted in the choice of the Senate,
This. however, was not accomplished until
the 18th of November, the deadlock hav-
ing continued for a period of nearly two
months, and having finally been broken only
by the most decided expression of popular
disapproval. 1t is thus apparent that the
dead lock is no new instrument of politi-
cal warfare and not the contrivance Of the
smart politicians Of to-day. 1t is note
worthy, however, that in the case
cited it was promptly aud strongly
condemned by popular sentiment,
and this although it was undertaken
for the assertion of really important
principle and for the removal of a CRYING
gross injustice. The very constituencies,
too, for whose sake the deadlock was rc-
sorted to were the most earnest in their
condemnation of this method Of reform.
preferring to endure legalized wrongs
rather than to sanction recourse to doubt.
full or unconstitutional agencies.