The Breckenridge news. (Cloverport, Ky.) 1876-1955, 1903-10-28

share of the odium which it excited IN
all just and generous minds. AS tne
of the chief Denefciaries of the frauds
perpetrated by the Music Hall conven-
ton, the fitting offsp ing of the Goebel
law, you must be held to your share of
responsibility for DISTINGUISHING one
third of the Democrats of the State in
order to force upon them candidates
{ hey dId not desire.
Democratic Statecraft.
But your masterpiece of Democratic
state craft was reserved for the con-
tested election. When, in spite of
the frauds perpetrated under the iniq-
utes of the election law, an iudig-
nant people had rejected your ticket,
aud your own partisan board had GER
titled to the election of your opponents ;
instead of abiding by the result you
demanded, as a means of overthrowing
the will of the people, that the votes
of the people of forty counties which
had cast majorities against you should
not be counted, on the flimsy pretext
that the ballots were on paper which
was not quite az thick as you thought
it ought to be; yet the votes of a
dozen other counties which had given
you majorites, and which we're on
the identical sort of paper used by the
Others and were furnished by the
same contractors, were deemed good
enough to be received. In other
words, you claim that the State gov
,rnment can forbidthe people, as it
mas done, TO cast their votes in any
other way than on the ballots furnish
ed by the State, and that the citizen,
after having exercised this right in the
only way that is permitted him.
may be robbed of his vote by the ca
price of a partisan Legislature or
partisan board. provided that he
votes against the interests of the
machine; but if he votes to support
1t his vote may be counted, however
cast In effect, your claim is that the
government established to protect the
people in the enjoyment of their liber-
ties. is nothing but fraudulent en-
CINE to rob them of their dearest
rights
Is this your Jeffersonian Democra-
cyg Is this your jealous care of the
rights of election by the peopley Is
this your acquiescence in the decisions
of the Inajority2 Is this your idea of
right and justiceH Is it a pretense
even to common honestly
The Record of the State Administrati on.
do not care to dwell upon the
slckening details of the faults cha rgsd
against your administration upon
the scandals attached to yonr benevo-
lent institutions, the unusual fees
paid from the public fund and from
the pay of soldiers to favored counsel,
and the encouragement of crime by
the granting of pardons for the gray
est off enses against society. 1t could
not be expected that an admlnistra-
ton installed by the fraudulent methods
employed could have any regard for
the public interests or attain to NOR
al excellence In any of its depart
ments. But the latest proposit ion
that you have made is the most mar
velous of all your acts As the chief
executive of the State the people have
assigned to you, in a judicial capaci'
ty, the duty of finally passing upon
the guilt or innocence of those who
may appeal to you for clemency. II
happe0s that three men are under sen
tence of death Their cases are still
pending, on appeal. in the courts.
They have never come before you
for adjudication. You cannot posi-
bly, know anything of their guilt or
} innocence. But as you have made the
life or death of one of these men
political issue. You promise to with
Lold your pardon from two Of thes'
men and call upon your competitors t
declare, in advance even of an cleo
ton, whether he viii pardon the other
In effect, you propose to gamble
} for the votes of the people, the stalk
being the blood Of men whose cases
still pending in the courts, nave neve
been brought before you, and who,
for au0ht that You know, may De in
nocent of the crimes charged agsins
them. A proposition more repellan