Smyrna times., 1882-11-29

fectly satisfactory 10 our respected
contemporary"
After the intense interest manifested
in securing Mr.. Lynch as sheriff, the
arguments for which, we need not
again repeat, such an explanation is
very proper. The Governors better
advisers saved some hOt-heads from
what would have proved a political
blunder, which Talleyrand said was
worse than crime. But our esteemed
contemporary declares itself in favor of
"gOing to the root" of the election
frauds, and an enactment by the Legis-
lature of law defining the duties Of
the Board of Canvass, and also prevent
ing the Inspectors from throwing out
ballots upon their personal responsible
! ty. These are thin salves to spread
over our political ulcer that has grown
into "a gangrenous condition and beyond
the little simple effects of palliatives.
If the Gazette wishes to go to the " root
of the matter" it will go deeper than
such superficial eXpedients as these
down to the Constitution itself There
is where the disease had its incipiency,
revealed in the light ofmodern politics,
but the gangrenoEs condition did not
make itself manifest until the passage
of the Assessment law of '73, and every
subsequent enactment has increased its
virulence.
The simple provision of our State
constitution granting the right of fran
chise to any man who has paid a poll
tax within t,cO gears of the election, is
the seed of the malady. Thirty of the
thirty EIGHT states do not make poll
tax prerequisite to voting, but Della
ware does it with q vengence BY
hedging this provisions about with
Legislative enactments such as have
been adopted in the past nine years
the party in power is as secure with
them as an impregnable fort is in the
heavy ordinance that mans it ramparts
The late election has firmly established
this in the minds of the minority. Il
is no palliatiOn to say that those out
side the fort used the same weapon!
what they could get hold of as thOs,
in the fort. This was natural, unde
the circumstances, but wholly in viola
ton of the best codes of Democratic
) government.
: Said a thoughtful and leading Re
publican few days since, at is n,
: use to keep up such an unequal con
test, and do not intend to vote agai
while cur laws and parties remain a
= they are had we five thousand majOri
ty in the state, with the machinery i
the hands Of our opponents, by non
" assessments, by dropping from the lev
y list, and by that terrible enginery {
power, the issuance of false tax receipt
= by the collectors without limit on elet
. ton day to any man who could /
= COOLED or bought to vote the ticke
nothing but a revolution or the Day (
Judgment can displace party once
power and bound to retain it."
al The remark that was made /
r. another of our best legal minds in di
Il cussing the assessment laws, "That
1T is easier to hang u man in Delawal
Oh than to get him assessed after his nan
Is has been stricken from the assessmel
u list" tritely expresses the same sent
al ment. What is the use of continuil
~ fight whatever may be the superiori
IN of numbers when you can never viii
OF is asked; and if we understand Il
us present feeling, there will be while Il
present state of affairs exist, but o
political party in Delapare.
On According to the opinions of t
is best political economists, the country
of the safest when there are two polite
ne parties nearly equally balanced, ca
mt with chance to come into power as
ng prepOnderating vote is express
m through the ballot box. Politicians a
he politicians, and there are those in O
~ party who will sieze legal advanta
for and hold it as soon as those in anoth
is The fault is that such power is at
int attainable. Has it been sactioned
,ed the people? Yes, at the late electi'
his but by its own irreversible metho
an patent to all politicians.
The Plebiscite" which the l
Napoleon so skillfully used throu
av. his army was no more potent in p
pnt petuating himself as Emperor undel
Ton Republican constitution than are {
ess election methods with the party
rho power in the use of the pres
its machinery.
ON. We opposed Cesarism," third tel
nee ism, not only because it was in vic
last ton of our traditional history,
ties because it had in it the possible po'
of its own perpetuity in the hands {
Dng man who assumed he was born to RI
the There can be no claim to fairr
xes, where the law is made to abridge
ttSe I've rights of the minority, or in any '
the interfere with their privileges of
de- franchise. We hope our cotempor
tax will see that this is no party quest
IN ~ 1t rises to a higher plane-the right
On citizenship, that in the long run,
are party is interested in as much as
, by other.
the -..
ipu- =
) re- The Ford brothers have advertis'
The dramatised representation of the ia