Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1888-04-12
THE LESSON OF MONDAY.

L lie l1ENNoN OE MIN DA l
Columbus Journal, 18th.
The election of Monday demonstrated
one thing, namely, that there is a point
beyond which no man or set of men dare
to go in the paths of unscrupulOusneSs
and dishonesty, even in the name of q
great political party.
Months ago it was shown that in the
cities the order loving elements of soci-
ETY. were ready to east aside the trammels
of party and unite for the suppression of
anarchy and socialism. 1t is evident af-
ter the result of Mondays election in this
city that they are equally ready to unite
against a gang, however formidable in
dimensions, which makes a systematic
assault upon the purity of the balIot-box
1t is perfectly right and reasonable that
it should be so, for the cGrrupter of the
elective franchise is in reality the worst
of anarchists and the most dangerous foe
of the public safety, liberty and peace.
The SacredneSs of elections is the one
sheet anchor of American hope. That
gone and we are tossed without chart or
compass upon dark and raging sea
whose billOws would relentlesSly engulf
all that we hold most dear The integ-
rity of the ballot once thoroughly vitiated
and all party organizations become use
less either to work out the plans of hon
orable politicians and statesmen or to
stay the rushing tide of destruction
Hence, when the enemy of this precious
heritage is once fully unmasked, the men
who value party only as they believe that
their party conduces to the public good,
rally their forces against him, and crush
him as years ago they crushed the armed
treason that threatened the life of the
republic.
What makes crime against the ballot
box more difficult to fight than any other
is that it is always committed in the name
of party, and the members of that party
are always expected to sympathize with
and support it. Here is where the Grim
inals make their fatal mistake. They
reckon all the members of their party as
bad as themselves, or at least think they
can deceive and hoOdwink such as may
be honest and fair. They forget that no
party can long survive a course of dis
honor, knayery and wrong, and that the
honest members of the party who value
it for the good it may do, are swift to
perceive this and to see that its very life
depends upon its cutting loose from the
scoundrels who have diShonOred it. This
has been exactly the course of events in
Columbus and Franklin county.
The men who first befOuled the prima-
ries of their own party were buried under
their own party's Indignation. The same
men attempting the bOlder but not more
dangerous crime of falsifying the solemn
verdict of the whole people by forgery
and fraud, have been again rebuked with
an exphasis to which nothing is wanting.
The political atmosphere of the capital
city has been cleared as thunderstorm
clears the natural air. The gang that
abandoned principle for rascality has
been overwhelmed as with the very be-
som of destruction. Both public and
private virtue have achieved a triumph
whose effects will be far reaching as they
are beneficent. From ocean to ocean
every lover of free institutions will re-
joice in our victory, and every ring of
bribers, forgers, FOUNDERS and thieves will
feel that they have been dealt deadly
blow.
1t is not the victory of any one party;
it is the victory of the nobler and better
elements of all. The citizen can go to
his bed at night with the feeling that
crime is at discount, and law and de-
cency fully in the ascendant. With clean
and garnished skirts, the capital looks
forward now with brightest prospects to
the future, and like queen just come to
her dominion enters upon the triumphs
of the centennial year.