Birmingham state herald. (Birmingham, Ala.) 1895-1897, 1896-10-06
BROUGHT TO TAw.

In 1892, at Vincennes, Ind, John Kim
ney went to the polls to vote, but when
Charles Thompson offered him So to re-
frain from voting he accepted and went
home. Subsequently Kinney brought suit
to recover the penalty imposed by the In
diana statutes for bribing an elector not
to vote, and the trial court decided in his
favor. Upon appeal to the appellate
court that tribunal sustained the finding
of the lower court, and the bribe-giver
will have to pay for eorrupting the voter.
This was right. The right of every man
to cast a ballot expressing a freeman's
will should be protected by every safes
guard that can be legally given. 1t is no
less corrupt and corrupting to pay an
elector to refrain from voting than it is to
pay one to vote for particular candidate
or support a certain measure. Both are
alike, and equally the suppression of the
will of the voter to the free and independ-
ent expression of which the state is enti-
tied. The one is no less an assault upon
the right of suffrage than the other, and
both should be visited with the condem-
nation and punishment of the law.
There are also many other forms and
methods of assailing and suppressing
the free will of the voter no less danger
ous-perhaps more perilous-to-th the public
welfare and a republican form of govern
ment--which can be maintained and pre-
served in it's purity only by the untram-
melled suffrage of the people-than open
or secret bribery Among these may be
mentioned the intimidation and coercion,
in many and various ways so freely re-
sorted to Of late by the great corporations
especially the railroad companies-to
force their employees to vote for the cam
didates of the republican party. This has
become so notorious that it is common
talk on all sides and but meagre denials
have been offered of the charges so uni
Yersally made. And in the power of these
great aggregations of wealth to overawe
their employees and suppress their will
lies thesgreatest peril to republican insti-
tutions and the republic itself. If per-
mitted to continue unchecked and un-
punished the corporate power and aggre-
gated wealth of the country will not long
hesitate to overawe and coerce it's own
employees, but will boldly attempt to over
ride the will of the people by force or 9TH
erwise wherever it may be found opposed
to it's schemes and purposes
AS DeIOfe stated, the great danger tndt
confronts the people and the republic
now, and will grow more imminent and
perilous unless called to account, is the
domineering corporations of the country.
1t is we'll enough for the people who
would preserve this government and its
institutions to themselves and their pos
terity to address themselves al once, and
in this campaign, to putting bride and
curb upon the very institutions that are
arrogantly, and in defiance of law and
the rights of the people, attempting to
force a result contrary to the will of the
masses by intimidating and coercing
those in their service, and many other
methods of corruption. 1t Is a matter of
vital Importance, and demands not only
serious consideration, but firm and patri-
otto action.
There are laws in the statute books of
Alabama which guarantee to the voter
his right of suffrage without interference
or arbitrary and Illegal intermeddling
from any source, and those who under
take to coerce, intinidate or in any way
unlawfully influence electors In their en-
ploy or under their control may rest
doubly assured that the law will be in
voked and enforced for the protection
of their victims and to right the wrongs
to the individual and to the state that
they would perpetuate.