The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-11-15
THE LATEST sooUNDRELIsM.

lature were still further developed by the dis
honest and baseless contests entered by
wholesale against six of the Republican SEN
ators-elect and three or four Representatives,
defeated candidates on their own motions.
They were arranged by the gang at gang
headquarters in this city, and the men in
whose names they were made are only the
pitiable tools of the ring managers who are
determined to steal the General Assembly by
| fraud and perjuries. since they failed to steal
it by the Infamous gerrymander. Their
acts are the acts of desperate gamblers. and
could not be undertaken by mem in their right
| the public conscience was deadened to almost
any outrage upon the ballot and against the
will of the people that might be conceived and
perpetrated. The gerrymander in itself was
the offspring of the same spirit that expressed
itself in the shotgun and the tissue ballot
| in the South. But when that failed, when
it was found that the peoples indignation had
| overleaped the barriers that measure erected
against them. word went out from this city to
ously disappeared, turning up at several close
| points, and Republicans-elect were counted
out until, on the face of the returns, the
| Democrats had an apparent majority of two on
joint ballot. Then it became public that one
Of the Democrats-elect was clearly ineligible,
thus making the Legislature tie Then it
was known that the Republicans were prepar
ing to ask for recount in at least one in
stance, where the majority reported was but
occurred. It was also known that in one or
two districts, in which there was good ground,
the Republican candidates would contest
There was no proposition or suggestion that
the Republicans would take step not clearly
within the Constitution and the laws, and war
ranted by the circumstances and conditions
But the Democrats, having control of the Sen
ate, at once set to work and arranged series
of contests by wholesale, without the slight
est reason therefor, with the sole
and only intention of threatening to
Dust Republican Senator if the Republicans
in the House should dare refuse seat to an
ineligible man, or seek to inquire into the cleo
ton and qualification of a Representative about
| the legality of which there might be honest
and legal doubt. A sample of the sort of con-
tests inaugurated by the Democracy is that of
the seat of Col. Dresser, Senator elect from
Tippecanoe county, who was elected by a ma
jority of nearly 900. Public sentiment in
Lafayette was so emphatic when this contest
was made known, that on Saturday Mr.. Muir
dock, the defeated Democrat, was compelled
to go to the county clerks office and indorse a
withdrawal on the back of the notice filed in
obedience to the order of the gang
from gang headquarters in Indianapolis.
The whole proceeding is the work of suffrage
thieves, as infamous and scoundrelly as any
who have bathed the soil of the South in the
blood Of murdered voters, or who have stifed
the voice of the people by frauds that would
shame common iobber First, the gerry
mander then, midnight visits of ringsters and
counting OUT then the frauds and forgeries in
Marion county, then, the proposition to defeat
the election of Lieutenant governor; then,
the proposition to force the admission of an
| ineligible man to a seat in the House of Rep
resentatives; and now, wholesale system of
contests, to be used as club over the heads
of the Republicans to compel them to
submit to any fraud and rascality
the gang may determine upon. This is the
rake's progress thus far in the work of stealing
the General Assembly. But it will not profit
them. They are not dealing with children
who can be frightened at spooks and by shad-
ows on wall. The Republicans will 90
straight forward in their duty. They will keep
within the law in the work of overthrowing
the gerrymander, as they have been commits
stoned to DO by the voice Of a majority of 15 900
OF the people of the State of Indiana They
will rely upon that majority FOR support in all
rightful means to make the will of the people
supreme, and to put their verdict into effect,
and woe be to the gang or the party that gets
in the way. They will be caught between the
upper aud neither millstones and be- ground to
powder.
A MATTER TO BE INVESTIGATED.
The people of Indiana will discover before