Omaha daily bee., 1897-02-22
4 DANGEROUS pRECEDENT.

John .~Jcffcoat now holds down the seat
in the state scnatc TO which the people
OF Douglas county elected j. ii. Evans
by Il decisive majority. The testimony
taken ON behalf of Mr.. Jefrcoat does
not disclose any votes cast for Jeffcoat
that were credited to Evans, nor does it
disclose any voters who had been
cocrccd or bribed to vote for Evans or
prevented from voting for JefTcoat. The
unscating of Senator Evans not only de-
priveS the majority of its rightful
choice, but foists upon the people Il man
who was not elected. Had Evans for
any reason been ineligible or had he
died before the legislature convened or
refused to serve after it convened jeff
coat would still have been without legal
claim or title to the seat.
The action of the dominant majority
of the senate therefore is clearly revolu-
tionary and destructive of the funda-
mental principle of government by ma
%iorities. The only pretense unde which
Evans has been unseated is that per-
hitting him to serve his term would
cast reflection upon the house, which
had arbitrarily thrown out the four re-
publican members from Douglas county
in order to insure Il two-thirds majority
for the fusioniStS. In other words. the
senate proceeds upon the theory that
two wrongS>make one right. Carried to
its logical conclusion all the republican
members of both houses should have
been unSeated. If the mere fact that
money was expended in the late presi-
Dental campaign is just cause for
vacating the seats of the republican
members from Douglas county it is also
cause for vacating all the other repub-
lican seats in the legislature. And when
this rule, applied to the republicans, is
applied also to the members elected on
the other tickets every seat in the legis-
lature would be vacant and so would
every Office in the state house from
governor down.
In setting this precedent the dominant
majority has struck a blow at popular
self-government which cannot fail to re-
act disaStrOusly, not only upon it, but
upon the entire state. 1t will afford an
incentive for future contests in every
legislative district. no matter what the
majorities may be, and justification for
wholesale e~iectments upon most flimsy
~preteXts. 1t is Il standing bid to brief
less lawyers to trump up contest pro-
ceedings for the sake of the fees which
they could earn in no other way. Worst
of all, it destroys popular confidence in
the integrity of our legislative bodies
and opens the way for fraudulent claim
ants for United States senatorships.
The most deplorablc feature of this
procedure is the usurpation by the
caucus of the duty devolving on indi-
vidual members acting in n judicial
capacity. When n caucus is allowed to
reverse a judicial finding by the use of
the party whip the most sacred preroga-
tive of q representative is destroyed.
To talk about prohibiting coercion Of
voters while men elected to represent
the voters as lawmakers allow them
selves to be d~ragooned by that greatest
of tyrantS, King Caucus, into rcpudiat-
ing their honest convictions, is an in
suit TO popular intelligence. 1t is the
most dangerous kind of coercion sub
versive of our entire system of free
institutions and personal responsibility
of PUBLIC servants.