St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1894-02-09
END OF AN INFAMOUS Law.

END OF AN INFAMOUS LA W.
The federal election law is no more.
1t has had an infamous past. 1t will
have 10 future. nor will any other SINH
lar act have a place upon the statute
books of the United States as long as
the nation is a republic and monarch
istic methods are held in d%isrepute.
There was never IN excuse for the
federal supervision OF elections. At no
time have the rights of citizens to vote
been abridged or denied by statute ex-
| cept in the New England and some of
the Southern states. In some of the
New England states a man who pays no
taxes oil real estate is DISTINGUISHED; in
many OF the other states. both North
II South. the man who neglects or
refuses to pay a poll tax is denied the
privilege of voting; but in no state does
the law place the power in the hands of
a single person to deny the privilege to
any mi by mere arbitrary act. Under
the supervisors of election law those
officials were invested with the power,
to receive the ballots OF n persons
whom they might be disposed to suspect
of an attempt to vote Illegally. They
were responsible to no one. save the
party to whom they owed their appoint
ment. They might place any one-and
did place thousands under arrest with
out so much as the formality OF legal
complaint, and subject them to loss and
annoyance, and could not be held re-
| cnnnSIhIn for tho do N q rn ftnxr inAiofnA
Not only was the law oppressive and
~unrepublican, but its enforcement was
unjust and infamous. Men of %self-re-
| Spect could not be induced to accept
the post of deputy marshal at elections,
ever though the pay allowed them was
liberal. As a consequence, only the
most vicious in the community were
entrusted with the enforcement of the
act. They were men of no character
themselves. and respected neither the
feelings nor the characters OF others.
Jackals were respectable creatures
compared with nine-tenths of these
| petty deSpotS, who respected the rights
of NJ man in their eagerness to earn
the price they were promised for their
own dishonor.
When bitter partisanship was added
to the other qualifications for election
, supervisors and deputy marshals, the
extreme OF %indecency was reached. And
no man received an appointment except
With the distinct understanding that he
was to use all the extraordinary powers
granted by the law, and 20 strain them
to their utmost limit besides, in order to
serve the party in power. Well known
criminals and desperadoes were in re-
! quest for these places; if they could not
| be obtained, ward bummers were select
ed. Almost without exception, they
! were characterless wretcheS with neither
| social standing nor moral reetitude, and,
as may we'll be Imagined, the law was
enforced in its most literal form. and
has been made odiOus to every reputable
citizen, no matter what his political pre-.
objections might be.
Congress has done we'll IN repeating
this law. originating as it did in the ex,
perpetuated in the interest Of partisan
-banditry. Never again will such an
atrocity disgrace the statute books of
free and self-respecting people. II
| passes away unmourned, unhonored and
unsung. save by those who have been
Its beneficiaries in the past OF expected
by the exercise of its extraordinary
powers to derive some profit from it.
The only wonder is that the American
people have tolerated its existence so
long. Congress has performed no better
work than the enactment of its repeal.