The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1893-10-09
An Issue of Honest Elections.

| An Issue of Honest Elections.
The Democratic onslaught on the
Federal Election law is carried on by
means that fit the ends which the en-
emies of fair elections have in view.
The opponents of federal supervision
of federal elections have not advanced a
single argument that is worthy of the
name. Their utterances chiefly consist
| of vehement assertions and vindictive
boasts, in equal defiance of the facts of
history and the principles of constitu-
| tional law. The keynote of their speech
| es is the declaration that the Federal
Election law is unconstitutional. :"
A more absurd statement could not
| be put into words. The constitutional
| ty of the law has been affirmed time
after time by the highest judicial tribu
nal that Americans know: the Supreme
Court of the United States. The Press
will quote brief part of single decis-
ion. In ex parte Marlborough Clio US.
r., 651) Mr.. Justice Miller delivered the
opinion of the court and no dissent was
noted. He said:
That a government whose essential
character is republican, whose execu-
tive head and legislative body are both
elected, whose most numerous and pow
erful branch of the legislature is cleo
ted by the people directly, has no power
by appropriate laws to secure this cleo
| ton from the influence of violence, of
corruption and of fraud, is a proper
sition so startling as to arrest attention
and demand the greatest consideration.
If this government is anything more
| than mere aggregation of delegated
agents of other States and governments,
each of which is superior to the gene
raj government, it must have the pow
er to protect the elections on which its
existence depends from violence and
corruption. IL it has not this power it
is left helpless before the two great
| natural and historical enemies of all
republics, open violence and insidious
corruption. pages 657, 65s).
Yet in the face of this and of other
decisions equally weighty the Democrats
in the Houes Of Repres entatives keep
up their senseless reiteration that it is
unconstitutional for representative
government to defend it's own life.
No intelligent person believes that the
Federal Election laws interfere with the
rights of any citizen. A Democratic
statesman no less prominent than the
late SIS. Cox is on record as declaring
in report to Congress that the opera
lions of these laws had proved a decided
success" and that in the hotly contes-
| ted election of 1876 they stand "as a
| monument of what good faith, honest en-
| deavor. legal forms and just authority
| may do for the protection of the electo-
raj franchise" This is testimony that
should carry conviction to every honest
Democrat
| But the men who are trying to get the
| Federal Election laws off the statute
| books are not acting honestly. They are
| doing all they can to bring about reign
| of fraud and terrorism at the polls in
New York city. They are conspiring,
not alone against the Republican party,
| but against the common rights of the all
| citizens, white or black, rich or poor,
who venture to oppose the will of Demo
cratic bosses, whether in Alabama or
New York. They are striving to upset
Republican government, not indeed in
the South-for it no longer exists there
but in the great free communities of
the North. The Tammany bosses see in
the repeal OF the election laws an oppor-
tunity to make their despotism over this
city absolute. They see before them, if
this one bulwark of the ballot box can be
torn down, a long carnival of unchecked
fraud and corruption; wider license to
plumber the people to enrich themselves.
The repeal of the Federal Election laws
means more stealing, more diamonds,
more fast horses swift yachts and
splendid mansions for the magnates of
the Fourteenth street conspiracy against
decent government. 1t means increased
arrogance from the successors and ilnita-
tors of Tweed; the sitting of the. voice of
the people at the polls; Che degradation
of every function of government; the
enslavement of the grand Empire State
ocratic party. Against these evils the
Republican party, as it is represented in
Congress, is the sole barrier. Let every
Republican do his duty by fighting this
infamy with all his might! The rights
of American voters and the integrity of
the ballot box must be maintained if
the Republic is to live!-New York Press.