Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1894-12-06

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| ters who should be permitted to vote
at the elections and to reject those
who were not allowed to exercise the
! franchise.
In many of the Congressional dis.
tricts not single registrar was appoin.
ted who was not Republicans; and for
the most part they were the supple
tools of unscrupulous leaders and per-
formed their duties in q dictatorial,
tyrannical and partisan spirit.
They literally appointed the voters,
accepted and registering whom thev
pleased and rejecting and refusing to
register whom they pleased. Never
theless in two of the nine districts,
Sixth and Ninth, Democrats we're elec-
ted to Congress, and the election re-
turns, as certified by the County Clerks
to the Secretary of State, Francis Rod
man, attested the fact. In the Sixth
District the returns showed that James
Shields was elected and In the Ninth
William F. Switzler, the present editor
of the Democrat.
In fact, these returns attested the
elect ion to Congress of Colonel Switz-
ler in 1866 and also in 1868.
But in each of these cases the Re-
publican Secretary of State and the
Republican leaders behind him. many
of whom by the grace of god are still
living in the State, refused to stand by
the verdict of juries of their own selec-
tion, and by the fragrant usurpation of
judicial functions, assumed to decide
without evidence and against evidence
who were and who were not legal vo-
tiers, and by throwing out the vote and
disfranchising whole counties, declared
that the candidates whom the people
had elected were defeated, and certifi-
Gates of election were issued to those
whom the election returns showed
were defeated.
No greater outrage against the right
of the people to be represented by the
men of their choice was ever commit
ted in the history of constitutional Ii
berty.
And yet the Republican party of Mis-
souri,. and some of the very parties to
the fraud, who are now conspicuOusly
noisy in this State for "a free election
and a fair count" indorsed the outrage.
New suppose case.
According to the returns of the re-
cent election made to the Secretary of
State by the County Clerks under the
identical same law which regulated
such matters in 1866 and 1868, Clark
Rep.), it the First District, has plu-
rality of 429 oyer Hatch Dem. }; in the
Seventh District, Tracey (Rep.), 3o3
over Heard (Dem.); in the Eighth Dis
trict. Hubbard (Rep.), 70 over Bland
Dem.). and in the Ninth District. Ire
loar Rep.). 1872 over Clark (Dem.).
These are small pluralities, and very
much smaller than the majorities GER
titled to the Secretary of State in 1866
and 1868 in favor of Shields and Switz-
Ter. In fact, the majority given each
of them was larger than the pluralities
of all four of the Republican candidates
named,
Now suppose that Mr.. Lesueur, our
Democratic Secretary of State. and Mr..
Stone, our Democratic Gevenor, we're
so dishonest as to follow the example
of Rodman and Fletcher, and on some
trumped-up pretext or other were to
throw out the vote of Adair County in
Hatche's district, and the votes of some
counties in Heard's, Bland's
and Clark's districts Tin Bland's, for ex-
ample, Camden or Dallas. or of even
Boonville Township, and declare they
were elected and grant certificates to
them instead of their Republican oppo-
nents, and thus administer to the grand
old party small dose of its own med
icine, what would the Republicans of
Cooper County and of the State say to
such a preceding?
If our Secretary of State and Govern
or were to commit such an outrage and
to stain their official hands by so dia-
bolical a usurpation. they would not
do more than Rodman and Fletcher
did in 1866 and 1868.
More than this: The Republicans
of Missouri, including many who yet
live and vote in Cooper County, cannot
say they did not indorse the usurpa-
tion of Rodman; because, after he CON-
mited these violations of law and the
outrages on the rights of the people,
they voted for and reelected him to
the Office he had disgraced.
Now suppose another case.
Suppose Lesueu- sud Stone were to
..Rodmanize" few Republican Con-
gressmen in 1894, as Rodman and
Fletcher did Democrats in 1866 and
1868. and thus force down Republican