Los Angeles herald., 1892-03-29
LETTER BAG.
The President Ought to be Elected by the
Popular Vote.

Vn0 1ree100nt OugnJ Co Dc ElecCeO Dy Nho
Popular Vote.
EDITORS HERALD: Will you permit
me to ask you, through the columns OF
the HERALD, has the question of the
election of presidentof of the United States
by direct vote of the people, ever entered
into the phases of politics, or policy OF
the Democracy of this state? As a con-
stant reader OF the HERALD, and admirer
of its able advocacy of the rights com
mon to all citizens Of the republic, go
pre.eminently represented by, and en-
bodied in the teachings and logic of the
Democratic party and its faith, take
the liberty of asking this question, and
respectfully beg leave to offer, in connec-
tion Herewith, few suggestions upon
the subject. The autonomy, the sta
bility OF this government being founded
upon the principle that all political
power is vested in the citizen, i. e.
democracy pure and simple (demos, the
people, kratos, power, will, y as expressed
by the voter at the polls, it would
seem that this important subject does
not receive that need of attention it de-
serves at the hands OF the great mould
ers of public opinion the newspapers.
The ante.election campaigns of the Re-
publican party have hitherto been
mainly conducted upon a hoo-boo of
bloody shirt, and that the colored vote
of the south is intimidated by shot
gun policy from exercising the right OF
suffrage by the Democrats.
The very air in the vicinity of Re-
publican convention, or in the presence
OF their speakers or orators, is thrown
into an epilepsy of convulsions at the
recital Of imaginary Ananiasian tales of
outrages committed by Democrats at
elections. Suppose, for argument sake,
all the Munchausenisms were true,
which they are not, that colored men by
thousands and thousands are disfran-
chised at the south, which is not true,
and that every Republican vote
cast at election was an honest
can be said of the disfranchisement of
millions of white men, from Maine to
Texas, from the Atlantic to the Pacific,
who are entitled to the privileges OF cti-
zenship, the righte of majority. 1t is
eSh SNpi aOiolhoiy bPCCucOiO3 q PiObAuOhu
being forced upon people (pretending
to be the freest on earth) by a minority,
descending into the hundreds of thou
sands. In fact, every individual elector
in the United States, voting Demo-
cratic ticket that may have received
million majority of legal votes. may be
defrauded of his choice in chief magis
trate by the present system, and is
thereby disfranchised fully as much as
it he were driven from the polls by vio-
lence. The supreme court of the United
States has not yet, but how soon may
it, elaborate the rulings of Czar Reed to
their fullest extent, and declare as law
the non-voter rconstructively present and
voting the Republican ticket, that lacks
majority by hundred or two
thousands or so of ballots. Principle,
expediency, sagacity and party states
nanship alike demand that the Demo
cratic party take the initiative and be-
come the aggressor in prompt and i'm
mediate action by congress in the sub
mission of constitutional amendment
to the end that thereby the will of the
majority be the suprema lex. the law OF
the land, in the election of president.
The question of popular rights, the rule
of the majority, is surely as worthy of
the consideration of the American voter
on the one hand as that of dollars and
cents, yet antagonistic to neither, as
represented by theorieslo of tariff and
free silver, on the other. If the wishes
and demands of the people for such leg
islation should be incorporated in every
platform of the Democracy, then imme-
diate and permanent success would be
attained and assured, the burdens OF in
iquitous tariff extortion, the workings
of a billion dollar congress, will be elm
mated from our political system, and
the epitaph of the strumpet of corrup-
tion, the Republican party, written, "It
was not of the people nor for the peo-
ple." If the future of this nation is de-
pendent upon the vox populi as ex-
pressed at the polls, then the sacred
trust, the salus populi, of right belongs
to, and its enforcement and maintenance
is vested in, the Democracy, who are OF
the people and for the people, semper
idem.
have the honor to be, very respect
fully, your obedient servant,
E. ST. JULIEN Cox.
Los Angeles, March 25, 1892.