Year: 1869

For ten years or more the DemOcrac


OF Ohio have been painfully consciou
OF the unpalatable fact that the Colleges


Universities and other institutions 0
learning in this State, have been pro
moters Of Republican principles anC
nurseries of Republican ideas. All in.
vestigations concerning the politica
complexion Of the officers and student,
of these institutions have established
but one conclusion, that from four-ffth.
to nine-tenths of the College Presidents
Professors, Tutors and students, arc
friendly to the principles Of the Repub
lican party, and vote the ticket of tha
party with scholastic regularity The
Democratic mind has not failed to dis.
cover that the cause of this peryersity
is too high a degree of intelligence
The antagonism between scholarship
and Democracy is irreconciable. There
is something about the atmosphere Of
the College halls, Libraries, Literary
Societies, which stunts the growth and
retards the development of the Nasby
Democrat. Unlike plants, Democracy
droops, not under too little but under
too much light. Experienced profess
sors teach students Political Economy,
but that science scouts the idea that the
way to increase the prosperity or inn
prove the currency of the country is by
the multiplication of broken promises
to pay called greenbacks. Capable in
Structors, with the aid of Kent, Story
and other high authorities, enlighten
young men under their instruction con-
cerning the meaning OF the Constitu-
ton, but these authorities sneer at the
doctrine of State Sovereignty as oppo-
sed to National Sovereignty, and de-
clare that everywhere and at all times
the Government Of the Republic is over
all local governments substantially soy
ereign and necessarily supreme. And
we might mention many other Dem
ocratic heresies and humbugs that have
been exploded under the light of inves.
tigation and the test of truth.


1t remained for the last Democratic
Legislature of Ohio to make the first
attempt to deprive of all political priv
ileges those citizens in attendance at
these institutions of learning and to
make in effect intelligence a ground of
disqualification to exercise the right of
suffrage. We need not present in de.
tail the sections of the act known as the
Students Voting Law. Nor need we
inquire whether it has accomplished in
effect precisely what its trainers had in
view. The important question is what
was the direct object and precise pur-
pose which the Legislature had in pass
ing this acti What was the intention
of that body, and what the spirit which
actuated it? 1t is we'll known that
there were several close Senatorial and
Congressional districts in which Col
leges were located. 1t was equally
well understood that the students vote
in these doubtful districts would turn
the scale to the one side or the other.
The Democratic problem was how to
prevent the College Students from vo-
ting the Republican ticket, as they
seemed determined to vote that ticket
or none at all. The problem was solved
by law designed to prevent them from
voting in the election precinct where
they were and permitting them to vote
where they were not. As many of the
students are from other States and
from distant parts of this State, and are
possessed of but limited means, the law
subjects them to practical disfrancise-
ment, because they can only exercise
the right of citizens under conditions
with which they cannot comply. A
student attending Kenyon College, for
example, cannot vote under the law in
question unless he is able to swear that
it is his intention to make the infinite
ismal village OF Gambler his permanent
home AS sperbaps not one young man
in a thousand who is educated at Ken
yon College, settles at Gambler, the
student of course is deprived of the
right to vote. Graduates of our Col
leges 60 to Lane Seminary to pursue a
three years theological course, They
are disfranchised for that period unless
they can make oath that it is their in
tention to make Walnut Hills their per-
manent home. OF course no such in.
tention on the part of one in a hundred
exists. A student who goes to Mari
eta College to pursue perhaps a six
years course of study, is denied the
right to vote after he becomes of age,
but a man who goes there to build his
fires or black his boots exercises the
privileges of a citizen after the one
years residence required by law. Why
this discrimination against intelligence
and in favor of ignorance? 1t is be-
cause the boot-black ordinarily votes
the Democratic ticket, but the student
does not


We need not discuss the merits OF
this law. Its spirit and scope and OBJ
ieot are we'll understood, as the protests
which came up last year from almost
every College in the State clearly show.
The duty of the officers, friends and
patrons of these Institutions, under the
circumstances, is very plain. When
bad men cOnspire, good men must com
bine. The friends of liberal education
throughout the State must bring the
full weight of their combined influence
to bear from this time forward to dis
,,ln,., Goa ,nn,uor tho man rrhn runrn