Tazewell Republican. [volume] (Tazewell, Va.) 1892-1919, 1900-04-12
SUBSCRIPTIONS.
THURSDAY, APRIL II, 1900.
THEFT LOCALIZED.


The situation in Kentucky is not only
novel but dangerous. 1t is, perhaps, the
first time that the theft of a State govern
ment has been legalized in the United
States, when everybody except the thieves,
acknowledges the theft to be fully proven
There is no pretense that Goebel and the
other candidates on his ticket were elected
at the election last November. Yet, by a
systematic scheme of theft, under the pro-
visions of the Kentucky Constitution, the
Legislature of that State has counted out
the lawfully elected Governor and other
State officers, and its action has been sus-
tanned by the Supreme Court of the State.
The State Constitution gives to the Legis-
lature the power to act as court, or board
of canvsssers, in all contests for Governor
and other State officers. The Goebelite
Legislature, under the advisement Of Joe
Blackburn and other leaders of the De
mocracy, availed itself to the fullest extent
of the power given by the constitution and
committed one of the boldest crimes known
in the history of politics, There seems to
have been no way for the highest court in
the State to escape the responsibility of
sustaining by judicial decision the action
of the Legislature; and it now looks as if
the popular will is to be thwarted, fraud is
to triumph and political theft legalized.
At the outset there vas q loud protest
made by the Democratic press in other
States against the course which was be-
ing pursued by the GOebel Democracy
1t was universally conceded that Goebel
had been defeated and that he was try
ing to obtain by trickery the position
which had been denied him by the votes
of the people. While engaged in working
his nefarious scheme he was assassinated
and the enormity Of the crime he WAS
trying to commit was to some extent lost
sight of through the wave Of horror that
swept over the country when the assassl'
nation was announced. If GOebel had
been a chicken thief trying to rob some
farmer = fowl house, or a burglar seeking
TO enter some mans residence to steal,
and had been shot down by the man he
was trying to rob, the popular verdict
would have been that he deserved what
he had received. But lie was trying to
steal the Governorship Of II great State,
and while making the attempt was killed
by cowardly assassin. His attempted
crime and that Of his supporters and CO.
conspirators is much greater than that OF
the common thief, but horror of the
other crime, the work of an assassin, b. 8
tended to draw attention from it, and TO
make the public more tolerant of the out
rage upon popular government perpetra-
ted by the Kentucky Legislature.
Now that the theft Of the Governorship
and the other State offices has been boz
stored up by judicial sanction of the courts
of Kentucky, serious question confronts
not only the people of that State, but of
all the States of the Union. Is it possible
for corrupt political machine to enact
election laws and so frame a State cOnsti-
tuition as to be able to perpetuate the
machine power by fraud, vioence--a
most fragrant thtfc-and there be no means
of rightng the wrong, except through
revolution Can a machine in one State
Kentucky) entrench itself behind a
fraudulent election law, an unwise con-
stitutional provision, a vicious legislature
acting under the constitution, and cOmpul-
sorry judicial sanction, and commit crime
against republican, constitutional govern
ment, like the one now being committed
in Kentucky, without some power being
exercised, somewhere, to prevent repe-
tition of the outrage?
Something will have to be done. The
preservation of the Republic, tie protec'
ton of the rights of the masses, demands
interference. There is a remedy, and
that is to refuse to allow the electoral
vote of Kentucky to be counted in the
next Presidential election. When the
returns are opened by the United States
Senate that body can refuse to count the
electoral vote of Kentucky. 1t can also
bring up the question by declining to seat
Joe Blackburn as the Senator from that
State. These remedies may appear
harsh. but they are none too harsh for
the ofiense that has to be punished.