The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-01-31
DELAWARE,s REMEDY.

If the redoubtable Addicks shall have
served no other good end, he has been
the means Of precipitating upon the
state of Delaware so acute and notori-
Gus a corruption of the electorate, in
his ambition to be a senator of the
United States, that public attention
there and elsewhere has been forced to
it, and the state is in a, spasm Of vir-
tuous revolt against it, 1t is not that
he inaugurated it. for it existed while
he was gathering wealth in the manipu-
latiOn Of gas stocks and for years be-
fore. Nor is the disease peculiar to
Delaware, for it is notorious that the
thrifty farmers of New Hampshire and
Vermont count as confidently on a crop
of greenbackS to be harvested on cleo
ton day as they do on the earlier yield
of beans for the Boston market It is
simply that Addicks, by his audacity
and openness, putting votes on the
same list with commodities as stocks
and buying them as openly, has made
1AOIOA1Ooo q SOlAIIIlOu OU0lOu1 II Is dISO
possible that the attack he made upon
the Higgins faction Of the Republican
party Weakened that element to the
Nervousness of vote-buying
Anyway, the scandal is on. and a
constitutional convention, now in SEES
sion, feels compelled to deal with it in
the organic law. Statutory law and
punishment have been unavailing. for
jurieS have failed to convict. because
a conviction would be a qualification
Of themselves. Public opinion has be-
come so demoralized that, whatever be
the law, it does not regard it as Grim
inal if a voter sell his vote or a candi-
date buy it. The awesomeness of the
constitution is to be invoked. Accord
ingly, the convention adopted, by vote
Of 10 to 5,a provision taking away from
one accused of bribery the right to
trial by jury, and vesting the judges
with full Jurisdiction to hear, try and
varying from six months to five years,
and fines of from $100 to $4,000 may be
imposed by the court on conviction.
One Of the safeguards, Jefferson pro-
vided for the liberty of the accused
citizen in the sixth Of The ten amend
ments he secured upon his return from
France was the provision that Sin all
criminal prosecutions the accused shall
O low t1nn rio fn
trial by an impartial jury" a right that
this Delaware remedy denies. If
ratified at the polls, the question will
arise whether it conflicts with the pro-
vision Of the federal constitution. and
while, as in the stamp act cases, state
courts have held that the act of con-
gress invalidating unstamped instru-
ments as evidence applied only to suits
able that it will be held that section
6 applies only to prosecutions under
federal laws. But if public opinion is
in the demoralized state in Delaware
convention indicates, it is not likely
that a constitution thus interfering
with what is evidently esteemed a per
sonal right will be ratified.
Bribery of voters Is but another of
the many indications of that CONNER
cial materialism" that Holmes laments
in one Of his letters, and that Lowell
constantly flames into Indignation over.
chnTxC itcaIf in Io+
councils, where, VIGOROUSLY, men are
bought and sold whenever state or CITY
has valuable privileges to bestow. IT.
appears in the policy Of, great nation
al party that asserts Hste be a legiti
mate use Of the government to permit
some to get from others what they have
~. - -r