OCR Text |
Show A VITAL SUBJECT. To the average American citizen, the right to vote and the manner in which that right shall be exercised, or the general right of franchise, is the most vital subject that can be broached, aside from matters that do not actually involve his spiritual or physical salvation. Of no right are intelligent American citizens so jealous as they are of this, and any tampering with the laws relating to it, on any pretense whatever, is regarded with suspicion and alarm. The state of Louisiana recently adopted a new election law, the worst feature of which seems to be that it provides that elections tickets shall be printed on a certain kind of paper only, which can only be obtained from the secretary of state by compliance with certain formalities. It is difficult to see how such a provision as this necessarily jeopardizes the right of franchise of any class of citizens. And yet the New York Times speaks thus of the new law: It is said that ex-Congressman Acklen, of unsavory reputation, is the author of the election law, in Louisiana. The inventor, whoever he may be, is entitled to the credit of having distanced all competitors in the great Southern struggle for the best machinery to prevent a free ballot. Acklen's plan is far simpler than the brutal and troublesome bulldozing and intimidation or fussy-stuffing of the ballot-boxes. The new Louisiana election law provides that no ballot shall be received or counted unless printed on paper of a peculiar quality, tint and thickness, to be furnished by the Secretary of State, after due form of application. This is simplicity indeed. The Secretary of State is a Democrat. He controls the precious material of which the alleged freeman's ballot is composed. He decides from this time forth who shall cast a vote in Louisiana. Should this plan be adopted throughout the Southern States the rifle clubs may be disbanded. Night riders will be permitted to stop at home, and the use of tissue paper ballots will be abandoned. The effect will be that a partisan officer will cast the vote of each entire State and the solid South will be once more made secure. If the Times talks in this way about the comparatively mild, innocent and fair election law of Louisiana, what would it say if, in New York, an election law were enacted which made the polling place a bar of arraignment, at which every voter was held guilty of a felony until he proved himself innocent to the satisfaction of the election judges! A law was passed by the last session of Congress, in relation to elections in Utah, which may be interpreted, so its friends claim, in such a manner as to make it operate precisely as above. Put such a law as that on the statute book of the Empire state, and its press, pulpit and people would raise one mighty, unanimous howl that would reverberate from the Catskill to the mighty Rockies, and bounding on would wake again the echoes of the vast Sierras, until all the people of the Atlantic Slope, the Mississippi Valley, the great Mountain Region and the Pacific Coast would rouse themselves as though the thunder of a thousand Sumpter guns was sounding in their ears. And yet charges of rebellion, sedition, defiance to the government, etc., etc., etc. are iterated and reiter- against the "Mormons" because, in their mild, calm, dignified way, they have entered a protest against the rightfulness of the Edmunds law. Tampering with the franchise of ordinary American citizens, and abridging the same right of the "Mormons" are two very different matters to the press, pulpit and people of the country. |