New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1892-02-15
THERE MUST BE IN ATONEMENT

THERE MUST BE An ATONEMENT
In another part of The Tribune to-day will be
found complete and accurate exposure OF the
crimes by which the Democratic organization,
with Hill at its head, succeeded in stealing the
XVIII Senate District The people of New DIRK
ought to be acquainted with the facts set forth
in this ARTICLE. Acts done in excess OF party
zeal are often described by words spoken IN
similar spirit, and the temperate citizen who has
observed that the earth rolls on in despite OF
humantys sins is apt to become too indiifer-
ent to charges that seem to have partisan
motive Mindful of this tendency, we wish to
say that the facts detailed in this article are not
an ordinary partisan cry of fraud, set up to ac-
count for political failure. They are proof OF a
gigantic and desperate criminal conspiracy
undertaken after the State election OF 1891 by
the Democratic organization under " Ed Murphy
and the Democratic State officers under DAVID
b. Hill 70 reverse the lawfully declared will OF
the people in four Senate Districts, and they re-
veal acts committed by the conspiratOr and
their agents in naked and impudent defiance OF
the law The fact that such a conspiracy has
succeeded is most alarming The fact that
these men had the power to knock down the
plot. to disregard honest judges who endeayOled
to balk them. and finally, to disobey openly,
shamelesSly and heSouely the unanimous judg-
ment of the highest court in the state, cannot
fail to stir the profound Indignation of the people
David b. Hill is the principal figure in this
daStardy plot. He arranged it, ordained II and
stood behind it at every stage of its develop
ment. But he was supported by the entire
machinery Of his party and by every member Of
the Democratic State Government. Every JUS
tee of the supreme Count before whom the mat
fer came on IT,, meritS-siX Democrats and one
Republican-pron0unccd il illegal and atrociouS.
The Court of ApIcals-hve Democrats and two
RepublicanS-un,ed in declaring that the Demo
cratic boards of canyaS>ers, by whose acts the
crime was accomplished, had done and were
doing an ntolcrabe wrong. These decisions,
deliberately ignored by the c0nSpiratOlS have
since been misrepreScntc1 by their newspaper
organs II is trIe that the Court of Appeals
did not give to the Republicans every relief
| they sought. 1t is true that they seemed to
| avoid certain questions, and that their logic
! was deplorably weak in dealing with certain
others. But the main question in every case
was this: Is il lawful for a board of canvaSscIS
to challenge, ppudlate, or change the returns as
made I'D by the election inspectors On the night
of election day. or TO do anything whatever ex-
cept to declare the results ascertained by cor
rect process of arithmetic from the returns as
furnished by the inspectors? TO that question
every Judge said, No. positively and without
the smallest condition. If that decision had
| been Obeyed, the steals could not have been
corsummated. 1t was by the impudent defiance
of that decision that Nichols, Osborne and
| Walker were put into the Senate
| 1t is the duty of every honest citizen no mat
ter what his politics may be, to speak out freely
and st nly in Remuneration Of the rascals who
perpctrated these crimes. If they are not de-
n0unccd, and if their power for further harm is
not stricken from them by the overwhelming
| defeat Of the Democratic party in the town
elections now going on, and III the State election
| next fall. Republicans will be given clearly to
understand that the election of their candidates
| depends not on the votes cast, but on the will
and pleasure Of boards of canvaSserS. They
| will be served with the notice that we have
ct to a point in this Empire state Of ours
where a junta Of political S;0un9rclS can with
| IMMUNITY tear the laws into shreds, snap their
| finger, at the courts and create results the OPP
| postc of those ordained by the voters. We dc
not believe tina, the Democratic masses wish TO
produce this impression in the minds Of their
Republican fellow-citizenS. But they must bear
well in mind that the acts by which David b.
! HILL Isaac II. Maynard, Frank Rice, Edward
Wemple Elliott Danforth, Charles +. Tabor
and John Bogart succeeded in keeping three
! Rcpul leans who were elected ont of the Senate
and putting in three Democrats who were not
elected. are acts that 60 directly to the very roots
Of things in free country, and that cannot
happen without consequences. In one way or
another, at one time or another they nave GOT
to be at0ned 1t rests Just now with honest
Democrats to say how the atonement shall be
made. The villains who did this thing may
think they are out of it, but they are not.