Huntsville gazette., 1893-07-15
FRAUD NULLlFiED.
Democratic Double Dealing In the Last
Presidential Election.

Presidential Election.
The daring frauds which were perpe-
trated by the democrats in Michigan in
1891, and which eliminated in the
enactment of the Miner law. have now
been corrected and the Miner law itself
repealed.
In the fall of 1890 the democratic
party carried the state for the first timo
in thirty years. 1t elected its state
officers and secured control of the lower
branch of the legislature by good
majority. In the senate, however, the
republicans retained fourteen members,
while the democrats had only twelve,
the remaining six being independents,
elected by various coalitions, who
could not be won over by the demo-
Gratis Contests were instituted against
two republicans, but the republicans
and Independents held the balance of
power in the committee on contested
elections, and no report was made on
the cases.
The republican state convention was
held in jackson on February %, 1891,
and all but three of the republican sem
ators, after securing promises from the
democratic leaders that the contests
would not be brought up in their alb
sence, went to the convention. The
democrats had been waiting for this
opportunity. The minority of the COM
mittee on contested seats reported in
favor of unseating the two republicans,
the three republican senators who were
present protesting vigorously. With
their own twelve votes and four indie
pendents who had gone over to them,
the democrats lacked one vote of a
quorum. The three republicans tried
to break the quorum by leaving the
hall, but the lieutenant governor pre-
siding counted them as present and
voting "aye." Thus the committee re-
port was adopted Two republicans
were unseated; the contestants, who
had been secretly brought to the capitol
the night before, were sworn in; the
committees reorganized; the record
falsifed to show quorum, and the
steal completed within less than an
hour When the republican senators
returned from tbs convention they
found every branch of the state gov
ernment in the possession of the demo
Gratis.
The thieves lost no time in gerryman-
dering the Legislative and congressional
districts of Michigan, much as the dem
ocratic party in this state has done
The legislative gerrymander was de-
clared void by the supreme court, but
the congress districts were allowed to
stand, and bill was passed and signed,
whicN provided that presidential cleo
tors s. uld be chosen by these districts
instead of by the state as whole.
The passage of this scu-called the
Miner law, from the name of its intro
ducer-caused much comment all over
the country Many held that it en-
bodied the fairest method of choosing
electors, and the supreme court Of the
United States declared it constitutional.
Nobody denied, however, that the en-
actment of the measure was brought
about by partisanship of the grossest
kind, and the people of Michigan took
occasion at the next election to regis
ter an emphatic expression of their dis
approval.
In the presidential election Of 1892,
which proved SO disastrous to the re-
publicans in the neighboring states,
the democrats secured only five Of Mich.
igan's fourteen electoral votes, while
the republican candidates for state
offices were elected by round major
tiles, and the legislature became once
more republican. The Miner law was
repealed and the governor signed the
repeating act.
The democratic thefts and frauds
were no more outrageous than those at
tempted by the same party in Rhode
Island or those actually perpetrated in
New York. The consummation of the
Rhode Island frauds was prevented,
and sooner or later the people of the
Empire state will correct the outrage,
for which the leaders of the democratic
machine are responsible However ap
parently successful double dealing ir
politics may be for time, it is certain
to leave the party worse off in the enc
than it was at the time the frauds were
committed. Albany Journal.