The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-02-05
THE SHAME OF OHIO,

her name that will be hard to erase. For
months partisan crime has been coddled, and
men who have boldly stuffed ballot boxes and
forged tally-sheets, as we'll as those who have
profted by these frauds, have been allowed to
blo-iate, and threaten, and bully as though
they had the right to posture as honest men
deeply wronged. The fellows whose deserts
would consgn them to the penitentiary have
been the loudest in claiming injury and shout
ing fraud Election frauds were never more
clearly proved thar in Cincinnati and Column
bus. They were SO clearly established that no
defense was or could be attempted. The old
ruse of crying "stop thief was the only alter
native, in the hope that attention might be
diverted from palpable rascalities. Worse
than this, the men whose election" depended
upon confessed fraud, without the accept
ance of which they could make no claim, have
desperately endeavored to fight their way into
the seats to which they are not elected, and
to-day the Ohio Senate is crippled because Of
the fact that four such candidates insist on
being admitted to vote on the merits of their
own cases. And now another exhibition is
given of contempt for the law and defiance of
legally constituted authorities. The Police
Commissioners Of Cincinnati, who have made
up the force of that city largely from ex-law-
breakers and bummers, have very properly
been removed by authority Of the Governor,
man with such knowledge of the
law as to fortify him In his
action throwing these men out, bag and bag
gage. AS is customary in such cases. the
officials removed have Consulted" attorneys,
and, as was to be expected, these attorneys,
being their partisan friends, have informed
them that the Governors action is an outrage,
not countenanced by law etc., and the COM
missioners have accordingly set up in rebel
lion. This attitude of hostility will, of course,
soon be abandoned, and the conspiracy will
collapse. If there were no more harm done
than to afford these fellows an easy way to
fall, the matter would not be so serious. But
the spirit Of lawlessness is steadily growing,
and the opinion seems to obtain that the only
thing necessary to make fraud respectable and
legitimate is to get enough DULLES and shout
der hitters to stand up for it against all COM
ers and without the least regard for law and
justice.
The courts and the people have been too
lenient with this, one of the gravest offenses
and most dangerous to the peace and safety
of organized society. With the evidence at
hand, no honest man could claim that the
Democratic candidates for the Legislature in
Cincinnati were elected, nor would any hon
est man so completely forget his manhood as
to allow his party to force him to lay claim to
seat to which he was not elected, unless one
may be elected the day after the polls close,
by clerk fraudulently changing the figures
| 726 to 926. As for the Police Board, of Gin
| cinnati, it is shown that its members most
richly deserve impeachment, and, if justice
were done, they would go to prison. Of the
| force that has found favor with them as
guardians of the peace, it has been shown
from the police records that noless than forty
| two of them have figured as defendants charged
| with offenses ranging from lettering
to attempt to kill Seventeen of
them have served sentence in prison, and a
| dozen have been bound over to the grand
jury. It has been shown beyond all doubt
that these commissioners have purposely pros
tituted the force to partisan ends, and have
made it terror to the best citizens Of Cincin-
natl instead of to aw-breakers. Actuated by
the spirit of defiance and rebellion fostered by
Ohio Democrats in high position, these fell
lows declare that they will not obey the Gov
errors order, but will continue to exercise
the functions of the Office which they have
scandalized and from which they have been
deposed. The Governor should make short
work of them, and teach them and their back
ers that partisan prejudice is not public senti-
ment, and that even public opinion must not
be allowed to make farce of law and order
If local public sentiment countenances fraud,
violence and anarchy, then must public senti-
ment be arrested as vicious and intolerable
| The duty of the hour is to enforce the law
against these fellows without fear or favor.
| RAILWAY ACCOMMODATIONS.
/ In the railroad department of the Journal
on Wednesday there was the following item: