The Emporia weekly news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1881-1889, 1884-11-20
FROM THE DEMOCRATIC At
TORNEY.

Mr.. Conkling's honest views on DEM
ocratlc election methods ought TO be In
teresting reading just st this time. This
10 what ne said IN the senate in discuss
ing the army ball in 1879:
The election Law came into effect to
correct abuses which reached their eli
max In 1858 in the city Of New York.
In that year in the state OF New York
the Republican candidate for governor
was elected. The Democratic candi-
date was counted in Members Of the
legislature were fraudulentlY seated.
The election was q barbarous burlesqde.
Many thousand forged naturalization
papers were issued some of them were
white and come were coHee-colored.
The same witness purported to attest
hundreds of thousands of naturalization
affidavits, and the stupendOus fraud Of
the whole thing was and Is an open &C.
cret.
Repeating, ballot-box stu6lBg. ruff
anIsm, and false counting decided every
thing. Tweed made the election officers
and the election officers were corrupt
In 1876, g 10000 Vutes were falsely added
to the Democratic majority in the cities
of New York and Brooklyn alone.
Wrongs and usurpatiou springlng
lIOln ZIG BuID0tlOu 0u4 0EoOCAobAO Va
the ballot-box stalked hIgh-headed in
machinery of justice were impotent IL
the presence OF culpTits too great to be
punished.
The act of 1870 came IN to throttle
such abuses. Ii was not born without
ihroes and pangs. 1t passed the Senate
after q day and a night which rang with
Democratic maledictiUns and foul as
PERSONS.
In the autumn of that year an election
was held for the choice of representa-
tives In congress l see more than one
friend near me who. for himself and for
others, has even unto this day 10 remem-
Der that election and the apprehension
which preceded It. It was the first time
the law of 1870 had been put in force
Resistance was openly cnunselrd. Dem
ocTaiic newspapers in New York ad-
vised that the officers of ihe law be
pitched into the river. Disorder was
afoot. Men, not wanting in bravery, and
not Republicans, dreaded the dav.
Bloodshed, arson, riot we're feared
CHASTITY spectacles were still fresh in
memory. The draft riots had spread
terror which had never died, and strong
men shnddered when they remembered
the bloody assiZes of the Democratic
party. They had seen men and women,
blind with party hate, dizzy and drunk
with party madness, stab and burn and
revel in murder and IN mutilating the
dead. They had seen an asylum for col
ored orphans made a funeral pile, and
its smoke sent up from their Christian
and imDerial city to tell in heaven of
the inhuman bigotry.
Remembering such sickenIng scenes,
and dreading their repetition, they
asked the president TO protect them-to
protect them with the beak and claw of
national power. Instantly the unken-
neled packs of party barked in vengeful
chorus. Imprecations, msledictions and
threats were hurled at Grant; but with
that splendid courage which never
blanched IN battle, which never quaked
before clamor-with that matchless self
poise which did not desert him even
when a contingent beyond the sea rose
and uncovered before him, he responded
in the orders which 1t has pleased the
honorable senator from Delaware to
read.