The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1890-06-27
A SCANDAL ON THE TIMES.

There is before congress a bill designed
to control, or at least to prevent frauds
at, federal elections. The measure is
national of course, and is as applicable
to one section and state as another, but
everybody knows it is meant to cure as
far as possible the political corruption in
the south in the election of congressman
and presidential electors. When the
measure becomes a law, as it no doubt
will, suppose there shall be manifest
disposition on the part of state officials
to disregard the law, and they and the
ministers and other prominent citizens
shall publically denounce it and advise
the people TO pay no attention to it, for
the reason that it is contrary to their
views and sentiments and the sentiments
of the people, these public shonsers as
Stunning to know what the will and wish
! eS of the people are without taking the
pains to canvass the subject among the
/ peOpIe-we say, suppose all this shall
occur in the south land it is not improb
able that there will be some such instan-
ces) what will be said extant of that sort
Of conduct? Why, everybody will de-
nounce it as disloyal, if not reasonable,
and if persisted in would call for gov
ernmental interference.
Congress can not pass any law that
| can be made more potential or binding
than the fundamental law, the constitu-
! ton of the country, and the interpreta-
ton Of that instrument by the highest
| judicial tribunal is as binding and as
much entitled to respect and obedience
as any law that can be enacted, and even
more so, for the constitution is, or shonld
be, the basis of all enactments by the
| Legislative department. And yet, in the
| face of all these facts, not one of which
can be denied, there are persons in some
! sections and states occupying the posi-
! tons mentioned in the foregoing who
are doing the very things in relation to
| the decision of the United States courts
on the liquor traffic as between the states
/ that we have referred as likely to occur
/ in connection with the election law.
| 1t is one of the anomalies of the times
that those who are in the positions of
conservators of the law are, many of
them, the most open and violent nullifies
of the law, written and moral. Some will
pirate and descant about a higher law,
when they are by precept and example
| disregarding the highest written law.
| because forsooth it conflicts with an in
ferior law that is in accord with their
personal views.
A few years ago q number of mis-
guided persons in Chicago taught a
system of doctrine that they claimed
was in the interest of the personal liberty
of the citizen, and their teaching cul-
minated in a bloody massacre at Hay
market. The result everybody knows,
and most citizens of the country feel
that the hanging of the cOnspirators
whose teachings and actions led up to
the worse than murderOus incident re-
ferred to was a just punishment for
their heinous crimes. We do not say
that those who are now advising the peO-
pie to disregard the supreme law of the
land as interpreted by the supreme court
of the nation would carry their actions
to the extent the Chicago anarchists did
theirs, but we do say their teachings are
in the same line and lead in the same di- /
reCtiOn.
These are unpleasant truths and they
are uttered in sorrow, but we feel as did
the great apostle to the Gentiles evident |
" felt when he uttered the exclamation !
"Woe is me if ] preach not the gospel"
We are not of those who believe in the |
positive deterioration of the moral /
stamina of man in this country and in |
the present age, but we regret to see so |
many moral eHemplars act upon impulse |
rather than deliberate Judgment. 1t
ought not to be SO, and it is to the dis
credit of the age of boosted education and /
enlightenment that it is so.
Think on these things.