Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1894-02-11
Election Reform.
H,ynchbur1 News.)

The News has said time and again thai
| II Will welcome any sincere and intelligen
| effort for balIot-reform in Virginia. i
| thinks. and has urged that the Genera
Assembly would do a wise and hones
| thing 10 adopt the Australian ballot system
! in a modified form. such as has for som'
| years prevailed at the Democratic pr
mary Elections in Lynchburg But we have
| nothing but condemnation for the prurien
| and sensational attacks that have beer
| made I'm certain quarters upon the Demo
| cratic party of Virginia and upon tht
| election-law of the State. No sane per
| son who makes any pretence OF Keeping
| welL Informed on current events suppose'
| that an election was ever held in Virgins
| or i'm any other State OF this Union a.
which fraud Of some description was no
attempted or actually perpetrated. But Il
was not so much the fault Of the laws
under which the election was held as OF
| the persons who disregard the laws am
| evade and defy them. The remedy fol-
| the evil does not lie so much in changfns
| the laws as in enforcing them by sending
somebody TO the penitentiary OCCASION
| ally.
On this very point the Richmond Dis
patch which nobody would suspect OF
conniving at wrongdoins, had a con-
vincir.g article yesterday. 1t admits, as
everybody must, that frauds are peipe-
trated TO some extent under the present
election-law of Virginia But 1t points
out. what every fai: and reasonable per
son must cOnceie that there were also
frauds committed unde: the preceding
system. TO which we are invited 10 re-
vert and for failure TO return 10 which
the Democratic party and The white peO-
pie of Virginia generally are being as
sailed with the weapons which were
welded for twenty-five years by the
Chambers and Hol"s and other furious
bloody shirt shrisXers at the North.
For every fraud of a particularly serious
nature committed under the preser Nir-
ginia election-law the News can point
out two of greater degree and more
offensive description perpetrated under
the system to which it is proposed TO
take US back.
AS we have already stated. it was under
the preceding system that Malone won
his spurs as political intriguer and ma
nipuiatOr AS chairman of the Fourth Dis
trict Democratic Committee. he devised
the Infamous tissue ballot system, and Sc
cured the appointment OF election officers
throughout the district who did not scruple
to cheat His methods were so bold and
unblushing that General Grant improvised
a Federal force bill OF his own and sent a
troop of Federal soldiers to Petersburg
10 circumvent Malone: notwithstanding
which. about II, 900 of Jorgensen's negroes
vera either not counted at all or counted
for William Il. Hinton, the Democratic
nominee. Under the same system Nr
Goode was twice sent TO Congress from
the Norfolk district. where the negroes
had 1900 majority, and where negro
Democrat was as scarce as snowflakes In
the torrid zone.
Under this system arose the memora-
bic Knight-Johason contested election
case in Richmond, in which 1t was
charged that the grossest trickery was
practiced by white voters upon white
voters. Under the same system the Dan
vile riot occurred, and thousand other
unusual things; and yet ii Is for its fall
ure TO readopt this system that the
General Assembly is being threatened and
abused.
If the people OF Virginia are to have
ballot reform give them law that will
reform indeed and in fact. Don't take
them back 10 a system which made II
necessary for them 10 cheat in order TO
preserve their institutions from the fatal
blight of negro domination. Give them
system under which virtue and intelli-
gence will govern. Don't take them back
to scheme under which the alternative
In the black counties was ballot-box
stuffing or negro supremacy.
Until a quickened public conscience
shall force such an issue and concentrate
effort upon the enactment of such law
II is idle TO essay the task OF hectoring
and beating people into a crusade
for the re-enactment of a discredhed and
doubly corrupt system Of elections.