Year: 1879

place where justice Is metsd out impair


TALLY and righteously to rich ane


poor, black and white, bond and frss


learned and illiterate alike. But II


Delaware the case seems to be reversed


and right here in the highly enlighten


cd city Of Wilmington the subordinate


Officers which surround the inferio


courts seem to think that their mission
f! il to crush out every attempt to snforc'


a violated law If that law is likely to
interfere with the Democratic party


To such an extent is this feeling car
ried that to be known as q Democratic
worker carries with 1t at once an immu'
nifty from prosecution for violations o.
the election laws. To be plain We wish
to say that at the present time there are
a hundred or more roundsmen and re-
peaters in this city who have cast about
five hundred illegal ballots at the city
election, thereby electing different Off
oars than those whom the legally quail
flied voters would have chosen. For
any other crime not half 30 heinous as


vitiating tn. ballot box and changing
the result Of an election, these men
would have been promptly arrested and
punished, but when charged with a
grave violation Of the election laws,
the constables to whom the warrants
have been given to serve, refuse to make
the arrests because they are Democrats.
Founders. and Repeaters have gone
from poll to poll voting at all of them,
thus changing a minority into . major
ity and because they repeated in favor
Of the Democratic party it seems to be
impossible to get them arrested. To
this has it come in Wilmington that 3
bootblack or gin-house hummer can
under the espionage Of the police, repeat
ten or dozen times, thereby offsetting
and neutralizing the votes of ten or
dozen good citizens, property holders OF
the city, taxed to support 1t in all its
departments. Now what are the facts
of the caseY Warrants were sworn out be-
fore Esquire Cole on Saturday after
noon for the arrest of fourteen Of these
repesters and FOUNDERS TO whom We
have referred. There was not word
said by the gentlemen who called upon
Squire Cole to have the warrants Is
sued as to what the politics of these
FOUNDERS were, nor in whose interests
they voted. They were simply desig.
mated as illegal voters who violated the
election laws. Mr.. Cole did his duty
and issuing the warrants placed them


in the hands Of Constables Brooks and


Hickman to serve. Those arrested were


to be tried in the evening session Of
Squire Coles court. The hour for the


holding of the court came around and


SO came the constables without one sol
'itary prisoner out of the fourteen war


rants which they held. Most Of those
for whom the officers had warrants were
we'll known criminals. They knew ex-
actly where to find them. One Of them
who We frankly say We never knew Of
being accused Of any crime before was
the engineer Of the water pumps at the
Cool Spring reservoir, hardly ever alb
sent from his post ofduty, yet these Off
GERS could not find him. All at once they
became perfect knox nothings. They
knew none Of the accused and could
not find them. n 10 reported that Brooks
did find two and told one Of them that
II made no difference whether he came
or nst as II would all blow over very
soon anyhow. He says himself that lie
found Mr.. Long but he was nursing q
baby and he hated to bring him. 1t is
not certain that tho officer who held
the warrant for Findley's arrest did not
send him word to keep out Of the way.
" Brockey Tom" "Gus O'Donnell' and
" Bill" Miller, the compositor, who did
such noble work for the Democracy on
that election day we're no doubt notified
that it would be safer for them to keep
at a distance, tn ough no great danger
was to be apprehended from the con-
sta bles who held the warrants. Not
withstanding all these efforts to arrest
nobody two at least Of the accused par
ties did come to the Squire's Office at
the honr appointed, one Of them ven
turing inside, but at this time the Con-
stables were conveniently absent and
the crowd and the repeaters had things
pretty generally their own way. Even
" Brockey Tom' was heard of airing
himself amongst the police officers in
front of the City Hall, but he was allowed
to walk away unmolested. Even
yesterday morning one of the accused
stood upon the post Office steps for an
hour in the most populous and most
frequented place in the city, as if coax
ing to he arrested but he was perfectly
safe. The action ofthe constables makes
them liable to indictment for perjury
in the wilful violation Of their oaths of
J,.-,,,a I'D nralfn