Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1889-10-24
JUDGE F0LLETPS NAME

General G; osvenor Reviews the Law and
Legal Proceedings, in Which Judge
FolIett Participated to Seat the squaw
Senators.
The following extracts from the
speech of Gen. Grosv enor before the
Lincoln club, at Athens, on the even
ing of Sept. 26. will be read with in
terest The general made an able re-
view of the tally sheet forgery case
from lawyers standpoi Mt, and the re-
gret is that want of space prevents Civ
ing it in full. He said:
MR PRESIDENT AND GENTLEMEN OF THE
LINCOLN CLUB-Sosle weeks ago l had the
honor TO speak upon the general issues of the
campaign, at Xeuia- At that time 1 made
some reference TO the importance of Repubh-
can victory in view of the threatened assault
of the Democratic party upon the revised and
reformed system Of election laws applicable
to certain cities of Ohio
Since that time, the campaign of the Dem
ocratic candidate for governor has so far de-
veloped as to justify fuller review of the
attitude of the political parties in Ohio upon
this mementous, and, in my judgement,
vital political question. Preliminary to a
proper and consistent attitude taken by the
Republicans of Ohio in the great struggle
which will shortly ensue to purify the cleo
tions of the south, we must see to it that the
mote of outrage and corruption shall be re-
moved from the eye of our own state. With
the men who forged the election returns in
Cincinnati and Columbus on tSide of the pen
itentiary, and assuming their positions as
active, vigorous, potential leaders in politics
in Ohio, we cannot consistently complain of
Copiah county methods. 1t is true that
Ohio Democrats have not resorted to muir
der and intimidation, but it is equally true
that they have as effectually on more than
one occasion stifed the expression of the
majority, as their brethren in the south, by
the more chiFalrous and braver weapons
the club and the shotgun.
need not rehearse this sad tale l need
not attempt to repaint the picture The
issue is thrust upon us in the current cleo
ton by the attitude of the Democratic can
didate who has declared himself, without
ratification, as opposed to the reform
measures which the Republican legislature
has enacted.
want to point out the position OF the De-
mocracy, and 1 want to account for the
presence on their ticket of one of their can
cannot be shown by the records, either OF
the legislature or the courts, or of the action
of any body Of Democratic politicians, of
any Democratic convention, or by the ut
terance Of any public man who is recog-
nized leader of the party, or by any consid-
cradle volume of utterances by the Demo-
cratic press of Ohio, that the Democratic
party of Ohio ever, any where at any time
undertook or pretended to undertake any
reform in the election machinery of Ohio.
Again: 1t cannot be shown by any of the
foregoing methods of communication that
the Democratic party, through any of these
channels, mas ever given utterance to one
solitary word of condemnation of fraud
outrage or crime against the purity and in
tegrity of the ballot. Again: 1t cannot be
shown that anywhere, in any city, town or
voting precinct of Ohio, there ever was an
organized conspiracy to aid by fraud, intinl-
idation, violence or corruption, the success
of the Republican party or its candidates.
Again; Every effort that has ever been
made in Ohio to suppress fraud, to purify
the ballot, to punish its violators, has ema-
mated from the Republican party, Repub-
ican conventions, Republican prosecutors,
and the Republican press.
l might spend half an hour in specifying
incidents OF fraud and corruption in Ohio,
and which would justify the geneI al state
ment which l have made. The coffee-col-
ored naturalization papers which involved
criminality upon the part of high Demo-
cratic officials, or murderous assault by the
Mullen gang in Cincinnati upon the
hundred and odd colored men, have only