New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1882-12-30

are unable to see how 1t lets the Republicans III,
either on moral IT legal grounds. Their
ballots. while not 80 fragrant IL violation OF the
! law, were none the less violation. They
! were surrounded with black border, which was
clearly distinguishing mark. The moment
that border was put on the ballot ceased to be
upon plain white paper" Their offence differs
from the Democrats only in degree. The
erroneous inference is drawn that Judge Park
has declared the Republican ballots to be legal
while condemnmg the Democratic. There IL
nothing in his decision, as printed in the New
Haven papers, to indicate this. He did not
pass Judgment on the Republican ballots, simply
because their legality was not questioned Till
after his decision was rendered. After he had
given his opinion the Democratic counsel
shifted their ground and raised the point that If
their tallots were illegal the Republican ballots
must be also. This was M exhibition of
characteristic Democratic bindsight. III the
case is appealed to the Supreme Court, as we
hope it will be, both ballots can be considered.
The Republicans had doubts about the Legality
of their ballots before election, and IN GullfOrd,
on advice of ex-Speaker Harrison, of the Leg
isature, the black border was cnt of before
the ballots were distributed. The Republican
candidate for Governor cOnfesses that the
question was raised when he says: We took
counsel before the ballots were printed and we
are satisfied they will hold" The Dem
ocrats also had warning that they we're making
dangerous experiment, but they refused to
profit by it,. From these facts it is sufficiently
evident that both parties were trying TO evade
the law In order to keep track of the vote. 1t
would serve both right If they were made to
suffer for it.
But what will be the outcome The LeGis-
lature meets next Wednesday and one Of
and formally declare Governor elected
Unless the character of the ballots ia
brought to their attention by petition they
will pay no heed to 1t but will declare Mr.
Waller to be Governor, as he was undoubtedly
elected TO be by the people II petition is
presented, citing the facts Of Judge Park de-
cis.on, the Legislature can go into the subject
and can throw out the Democratic votes, with
ont considering the legality Of the Republican
ballots. The Republican managers declare
determination to have such a petition pre-
sentcd, and intimate their belief that the end
will be the Inauguration OF ReI ubllcaE state
Government. We hesitate to believe that they
will adopt a course 80 Unwse "a this. There can
be no doubt about the intent of the people.
BY plurality of over 1000 they decided IN
favor of giving control of the State to the
Democrats. The party which undertakes to
reverse that decision will commit great polit-
ica blunder, if not a political crime. If the
Democrat ballots are rejected the Republican
ballots should also be thrown out. The control
OF the State would then fall into che hands OF
the PrOhibltlOnists, who pOlled only about
l 200 votes. The Republicans would gain
nothing but would lose their only Congress
man, Mr. Wait, and ,he only State officer they
elected, Controller SlOat. They would lose
also their own sef-respect and would bring
confusion and possible anarchy upon the State.
Much the wiser course will be to have the Leg
isature overlook the violations this year and
guard against offences in the future by amend
ing the statute 40 that 1t will read that all
ballots cast in violation of its provisions shall
be declared void As for Judge Park decision,
that applies only to the candidates in New
Haven, and can be settled there without in
yO!ying the peace Of the state