Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1888-11-16

n m"m.e'o1ng more than slight imprison.
t;e e'. ~ ls an attempt at the assassina.
taon OF the Republic, when a man a..
e o1a 20 put in spurious vote. In
S aa times when men laid unholv
Ianas on the ark of the covenant they
cropped down dead. Witness IJzzah
INV nnu wnen men attempt to put unholy
a nInas on the American ballot-box. the
Saw coz " .ae american covenant, they de-
serve determination.
another powerful foe of this sacred
chest is intimidation. S-e"
corporations sometimes demand that
their employees vote in this and that wav .
It Is skillfully done. II is not nos;t;vaiv
IN SO many words demanded. but the
emPfoye understands he will be frozen
out OF the establishment unless he votes
sine firm do. So you can 20 into vii
lages where there are establishments
WIN hundreds of thousands Of employees,
ana having found out the politics of the
mead men in the factory, you con tell
which way the election is going. Now
that is damnable. II in any precinct in
the United States man cannot vote M
ne pleases. there is something awfully
wrong.
How do you treat that employee who
votes differently from what YOU do?
oh, You say you do not interfere with
MS right of suffrage. But you call him
INTO your private Office, and YOU find
fault with his work, and after a while
you tell him there is an uncle or an aunt,
or niece, or o nephew that must have
That position. You do not say it because
he voted this or that way, but he knows
and God knows it is. If that man has
given to you in hard work an equivalent
Tor the wages You pay him, you have no
right to ask anything else Of him. He
sold you his work; he did not sell you
his political or religious principles. But
you know as we'll as do there is some-
times on that sacred chest, the ark of the
or monopolistic.
do not wonder at the vehemence of
Lord Chief Justice Holt, of Holland,
when he said: "Let the people vote
fairly. Interference with mans vote
is in behalf of this or that party. I give
you notice that it an offender against the
law comes before.me will charge the
jury to make him pay we'll for it" No
shadow plutocratic or mobocratic or cap
italistic. Every man voting in his own
way-God and his own conscience the
only dictator.
Another powerful foe of that sacred
chest, the ark of the American covenant,
the ballotbox, is bribery.
0ou know something of the hundreds
of thousands of dollars that were en-
pended to carry Indiana in 1880. You
know something of the vast sums of
money expended in Brooklyn and New
York in other years to carry elections.
Bribery is one of the disgraces of this
country. And there will be more money
used in bribery this autumn's election
than i'll any previous election. 1t is
often the case that man is nominated
for office with reference to his capacity
to provide money for the elections or
with reference to his capacity to COM
mand money from othe rs. You know
the names of men who have at different
or congressional Office buying their way
all through. / tell you no news. Your
patriotic heart has been panied again and
again with it.
Very often it is not money that brides,
but it is office. You make me President
and I'll make you Cabinet officer; you
make me Governor and I'll make you
Surveyor General; you make me Mayor
and I'll put you on the water board; you
give me position and I'll give you posi-
ton" That is the form of bride often
and often in these great cities. do not
say it is in our city, but you know again
and again throughout the land these
have been tue forms Of bride offered. So
\ it is often the case that by the time a
man comes to an office to which he has
been elected, he is from the crown of
head to the sole of foot mortgaged with
pledges, and the man who goes to AL
bany or to Washington to get an Office is
applying for some position which was
given away three months before the cleo
ton. Two long lines of worm fence.
one worm fence reaching to Albany and
the other to Washington, and there a
great many citizens astride the fence,
and they are equally poised, and they
are waiting to see OH which side there is
most emolument, and on this side they
get down. But bribery kicks both ways.
It kicks the man that offers it and the
man that takes it. Bribery to-day you
will admit to be one of the mightiest
foes of the American ballot-box.
Another great enemy of that sacred
chest is defamation OF character. Can
YOU find out from the newspapers when
two men are running for Office which is
the best? How often in the autumnal
elections the good man is denounced and
the bed man applauded, SO that you can
come sometimes to no just opinion as to
who is the best man, and there are hun
dreds and thousands of electors who 60
up to vote so utterly befoggedthey know
not what they do. Is not that fearful
influence to be brought upon the ballot
box of this country? 1t has been Sc
every since the foundation OF this Gov
eminent.
Thomas Paine writes Washington
letter, and publishes it, saying: "Treach-
erous in all private friendship and
hypocrite in public morals, the world
will be puzzled to know whether we had
better call you an apostate or an lmpos,,
tor, and whether you abandoned gooo
morals, or never had any," That Is
Thomas Paine's opinion OF George
Washington.
John Quincy Adams declared that ne
was solaced in regard to the scandals Us
and anathemas inflicted upon him by
! the fact that his father. John Adams,
had to 60 through the same process, ana n
John Quincy Adams declared he really
thought i'll that present election there
We're men who gave their entire time to
monuf curing falsehoods in regard 70
him. Martin Van Buren, was always
nictorialized as a rat. Thomas A. Ben
ton and Amos Kendall were always PIC
toriol;Zed as robbers with battering rams
Lreakine in the doors OF the unlteo