The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-11-29
DEFEND THE BALLOT.

famous outrage upon the ballot, whereby
seat in the United States Senate is. to be
stolen, the people of Indianapolis and of Ma
rion county must not and should not forget
the crime against suffrage committed here
which is only less important in its direct con-
sequences because of the apparently smaller
Importance of the results hanging upon its
commission. 1t reality the two are of exactly
the same import, inasmuch as both are das-
tard assaults upon the life of the government
The ballot is being held too lightly; its sacred
ness is left unguarded. There is too much
can't and twaddle about the amelorating in
fuences of time and the change of circum-
stance to work remedies for confessed crimes
and not enough of the stern enforcement Of
law and penalty. Men of average sense
and experience, and observation should
know that crime grows by what it
feeds on; and whether it be theft or
murder or arson or the assassination of the
ballot, it is nonsense illimitable to talk of
''ameiorating influences" The short, sharp
stern, unyielding, certain penalty of the law
is the only thing whether in divine or human
economy, that can be relied upon as safe
guard against wrong and as a bulwark to right
and justice. There is too much of what is
CURLY known as 'sap-gag' current in the
country, and just so surely as reliance is
placed In it for corrective, just so certain is
it that there must be fearful looking forward
to of judgment to come.
American institutions are founded upon
the ballot. The ballot-box, pure, untram
meled, speaking free and honest voice.
whether that voice be in harmony with indi
vidual wishes or not, is the arbiter of the des
tiny of this Nation. There could be no higher or
ranker treason than crime against the ballot
box, whereby it is made to speak falsely and
to give a false verdict. And this is what
makes the fact that in the States of the South,
especially, where free election is not only
farce, but openly professed and confessed to
be such, fact of the direst import, and one
warranting not only the words of James G.
Blaine, in one of the greatest speeches ever
made in this country by any man, but a fact
also demanding the most serious attention of
the entire American people. 1t is question
beyond tariffs, or currency, or methods of ad-
ministration. 1t is vital and fundamental.
To expect this government to stand upon
rotten foundation is to entertain the hope of
fool. To rest supinely in dream of millen-
mum, that correction of wrong comes without
an enforcement of penalty, and through the
hazy dreams of moral hasheesh, is to invite
disaster.
But crimes against the ballot are not con-
fined to Southern States. They are being
committed with high hand and an out
stretched arm in the very citadels of the boast
ed freedom, and intelligence, and virtue of the
North. 1t was in New York that the frauds
of 1868 were committed 1t was in New York
that that most gigantic crime for thepurchase
of the presidency was conceived, its sponsor
being no less man than the Democratic can
didate for President of the United States. 1t
was in Ohio that Standard Oil purchased
United States senatorship as openly and no
torously as if it had been auctoned off to
the highest bidder from the Speakers stand.
1t is in Chicago the metropolis of the North
west, that burglars and thieves of the most
desperate type, forgers and falsifers, combine
to alter the returns corrupt the ballot-box,
and steal a United States senator 1t is in
indianapolis, the capital city of Indiana, the
home of the Vice president-elect where, in
secrecy and with the stealth of thief and an
assassin. some one broke into the very temple
of justice as if in mockery, and stole the ballots
for the purpose of interfering with the or
derby processes of the law These crimes can
not be let go unpublished without great dan
ger. The business at hand for us is to look
after the detection and punishment of the
scoundrels in our own midst. 1t is easy tOde
termine who and what party were to be bene-
flied by the crime committed here. Such
crimes are not conceived and executed with
out adequate motive. The Republican con-
testants were the only ones to be injured by
the destruction of the ballots and the interfer
ence with the recount Every consideration
prompted to the care and preservation of the
ballots so far as the interests of the contest
ants and of the Republican party are oon-
cerned This much is, of course, clear on its
face, and simplifes, by 30 far, the work Of de-
lection. The Democratic party would be the
beneficiary of the crime. Whether at party in
stigation or not, those who com
mitted the theft did so in the inter-