Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1888-11-17

law must have the keenest twist for the
neck Of repeaters. Something more than a
slight fine and short Imprisonment. II is
an attempt at the assassination of the re-
public, when a man attempts to put in a
spurious vote. III olden times when men
laid unholy hands on ne ark of the cove
nant they dropped down dead. Witness
UZzah. And when men attempt to put
unhoiy hands on the American ballet
box, the ark of the American covenant,
they deserve determination.
Another powerful foe of this sacred
chest is intimidation.
Corporations sometimes demand that
their employees vote in this and that way.
1t is sk~illfully done. 1t is not positively
in 50 many words demanded, but the en-
ploye understands he will be frozen out
Of the establishment unless he votes as
the firm 90. So YOU can go into villages
where there are establishments with hun
dreds and thousands Of employees, and
having found out the politics OF the head
men IN the factory, you can tell which
way the election 10 going. Now, that is
damnable. If in any precinct in the
United States a man cannot vote as he
pleases, there is something awfully
wrong.
now DO o TREAT
that employe who votes differently from
what you do? Oh, you say you do not
interfere with his right of suffrage. But
you call HIM into your private office, and
you find fault with his work, and after
awhile you tell him there is an uncle, or
an aunt, or "A niece or a nephew that must
have that position. You do not say it is
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 for 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 prin-
ciples. But you know as well as | do
the ark Of the American covenant, a
shadow corporate or monopolistic.
| do not wonder at the vehemence of
Lord Chief Justice Holt, Of England,
when he said; Let the people vote
fairly. Interference with a mans vote is
in behalf OF this or that party. | give
you notice that if an offender against the
law comes before me, ! will charge the
jury to make him pay well for it" No
shadow plu.Ocratic, or mobOcratlc, or
capitalistic. 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 ballot box, is bribery.
You know something Of the hundreds
of dollars that were expended to carry
Indiana in 1880. lou know something
of the vast sums Of money expended in
Brooklyn in 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 au-
,umn's election than in any previous
election. 1t is often the case that a man
is nominated for office with reference TO
his capacity TO provide money for the
elections or with referenceto his capacity
to command money from Others. You
know the names of men who have at
different times gone into the gubcrna-
torial chair 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 III make you a cabinet officer; you
make NE governor and FL make you sur
veyor general; You make me mayor and
I'll putyou on the water board; you give
me position and I'll give you position
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 the
OF BR BE OFFERED.
So il is often the case that by the time a
man comes TO an office TO which he has
been elected, he is from the crow of
head TO the sole Of foot mOrtgaged with
pledges and The man who goes TO Albany
or Washington to get an office is applying
for some position which was given away
three months before election. Two long
lines of worm fence, one worm fence
reaching to Albany and the other to
Washington and there a great many clti-
Zens astride the fence and they are
equally pointed, and they are waiting 10
see on which side there is most cmO!u-
ment and on this side they get down.
But bribery kicks both ways. 1t kicks
the man that offers it and the man that
takes it. Bribery today you will admit to
be one of the mighticst foes of the Amer
lean 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 autumn
elections the good man is denounced and
the bad man %applauded, 50 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 go
up to vote SO utterly hefogged they know
not what they do. Is not that a fearful
influence to be brought upon the ballot
box Of this country? 1t has been 50 ever
since the foundation of this government.
DEFAMATION OF CHARACTER.
Thomas Paine writes Washington a
letter, and publishes it saying: "Treach-
erous in all private friendship and a
hypccrite in public morals, the world will
be puzzled To know whether we had
better call you an apostate or an i'm
posior. and whether you abandoned good
morals, or never had any" That is
Thomas Paine's opinion of George Wash
ington.
John Quincy Adams declared that he
was solaced in regard to the scandals and
the anathemas inflicted upon HIM by the
fact that his father, John Adams, had to
90 through the same process, and John
Quincy Adams declared he really thought
in that present election there were men
who gave their entire time to manufac-
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