The Richmond climax. (Richmond, Ky.) 1897-1914, 1913-10-07

any Otucr CTlmc.
The theory OF our government is that
it rests upon the intelligence, patriotism
and discriminating judgment of the
voters, and this theory is thwarted when
the voter is debauched and procured or
influenced to vote by dollars and cents
or other sordid means.
"a wrong to society and to the secur-
ity of our institutions is accomplished
when the elector is corrupted; as no
deadlier blow can be struck at civil gov
ernmen: than the one that is aimed at
the right of the voter to cast free bal
lot. The bride taker and the bride CIV
er, in high and low places, is the great
est, most persistent and most insidious
foes that modern government has to con-
tend with, for the evil effects of their
corrupt bargaining lmpairs the strength
and weakens the efficiency of every de-
partment of government that it touches.
But in no place in our system is the vice
of bribery so prevalent or its evil effects
so pronounced as in the prolific field of
popular elections. 1t is here that the
widest opportunity for debauching the
elector is afforded, and the prospect OF
discovery and punishment the least. In
view of this lamentable condition every
where existing, it needs no argument to
show that the highest considerations OF
public policy demand that the statute
protecting popular elections from the
vice eff bribery should be as effective as
possible. The bribe taker and the
bribe giver are alike denounced by the
statute. The offense of each is equally
odious in the sight of the law Both are
enemies of good government" This is
is strong language, gentlemen, but it is
not mine. | am simply quoting what
your Court of Appeals said and wrote
less than two years ago.
don't know what percentage of the
voting population of your county is pur-
chasable, but l know and you know that
1t is alarmingly high and that it is in
creasing with appalling rapidity. Every
holly contested primary election breeds
a new crop and starts a new strain. Do
you know that this pernicious traffic in
votes has grown from nothing to its
present alarming proportions during the
last seventy-fve years? could tell you
the name of the first man who ever sold
his vote in Madison county, what cleo
ton 1t was in, for what candidate it was
bought and the price that was paid, and
| want TO assure you that that didn't
occur more than seventy five years ago.
The truth of this tradition that has been
handed down to the present generation
in Madison county is verified by the his
tories of this county written by impartial
observers. Alexis DE Tocqueville. dis
tinguished Frenchman, visited America
in 1881. and in 1885 published his work,
Democracy in America" in which he
shows keen insight into political con
ditions in this country. After writing
of the bribery Of voters in other coun
tries, the author made this statement:
"ln the United States never heard a
man accused of spending his wealth in
corrupting the populace." Consider this
questson: If the traffic in votes in this
county has grown in seventy five years
from nothing to eight hundred or one
Thousand men who now sell their votes,
what will the number be in another
twenty-five. fifty or seventy-five years,
unless something is done, not to check it
only, but TO stop it, TO actually kill the
beast? Do you not tremble and shudder
for what your children and grand chill
dren may come 10 uselesslyou stop il.
The responsibility for letting this evil,
this crime, grow and become fixed on
our people, rests upon the last genera
ZION and ours, and if it is to be stopped,
the task is yours and you must meet it
now. II you shove away and stave off
the meeting and settling of this question
you only shove your children and your
children's children into the mud which
you have side-stepped and refused to
clean up. Are you the kind of men to
do THAR 1t is up to you gentlemen to
take the first legal step towards cleaning
your county of this fostering sore that is
feeding on our body polite. and is eating
more ravenously every year. You are
the surgeons. Will you cut it out. The
time is ripe for the operation to be per-
formed, and the patient has selected you
to perform it. The duty is yours to stop
this traffic in votes and TO stop it now.
The people do not expect you to temper
ize with the question, you can't afford
to do that, and don't believe you want
10 do it. The law is ample if you will
only apply it, and am confident that
you will do that.
After reciting the law bearing on the
question and suggesting its strong and
weak points, Judge Benton continued:
l feel, gentlemen, that it is my duty
to suggest to you how l think you can
best accomplish this important work.
In the first place, you must find the
source from which the money came.
You can get that from the banks. Peo-
pie do not hoard their money at home
now, nor hide it in stockings and cup
boards. They keep il in the banks and
they cant get it out Of the banks with
out some record being made of the trans
action. The banks cannot conceal this
evidence from you. Every man connec-
Ted with any bank can be compelled to
come before you and tell all he knows.
You are entitled to inspect any mans
that you want TO see, and to re-