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Pure Elections

Pure Elections image
Parent Issue
Day
27
Month
April
Year
1892
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

One noticeable difference between the republican and democratie parties is that the former are continually reaching after purer and more honest elections, while the Jatter never cease topass laws for disfranchising citizens. When Michigan democrats had an opportunity they joined hands with New York's rascally governor in stealing senatorial seats thereby overthrowing the wish of the peopie as declared by their honest ballot s. All over the country, whetEir in Michigan or Alabama, in New York or Florida, the same high handed and criminal disregard of the sanctity of the ballot prevails among the democrats. The repubhcan party must take a strong stand against this dangerous and revolutionary proceeding. What could be a more pitiable commentary on the results brought about by democratie election laws than the resolutions of the Florida republicans at their conven tion last week? After passing enthusiastic votes for Harrison they decided not to make any canvass next fall because republican votes are seldom counted. They say : The Florida election laws are damnable in their conception and fiendish in their operation. They are the result of a long-studied plan to rob the majority of its liberty; aided and abetted by an apathy on the part of the governmont to maintain the dignity of its Üonstitution and protect the rights oí' its people and eníorce the provisions of its Constitution, which guarantees to each State a republican form of government. How best they wil) serve the end for which they were designed can be best understood if we quote from the official election returns. We give below the vote of León, Duval, Marión and Escambia counties in 1884, as against the vote of the same counties in 1890 : 1884. 1890 Dem. Rep. Dem. Rep. Leon 834 2,198 1,206 60 Duval 189 3,887 1,805 284 Marión 1,094 1,168 1,136 265 Escambia- 1,896 1,861 1,461 102 In Orange Oounty the republican vote in 1888 was 1,515, and in 1890 it was 420. The total vote of the State in 1884 was 31,769 democratie and 28,031 republican. In 1890 it was democratie 29,176 and republican 4,637. What has become of the republican vote ? Robbery, murder, arson, assassination are evidences of patriotism if the crimes are committed in the interest of democracy. A democrat was appointed by a democratie governor as clerk of the circuit court of Osceola County as a reward for services rendered the democratie party in destroying the election returns of Brevard County in 1876. Another was rewarded for services rendered in robbing 2,000 republicans of their votes in Leon County by making him president of the senate. Deputy United States Marshal Saunders went to Gadsden County in March, 1890, for the purpose of serving papers upon democrats under indictment for election frauds, and was brutally murdered in broad daylight while in a buggy with a prominent democratie leader, the fatal shots being fired at such close range that his body was powder burned, and no arrests were made or rewards offered. The republican vote in Gadsden County in 1884 was 881. In the election of 1890, six months after the murder, there was not a single republican vote cast in the county. Deputy United States Marshal Lestrange was assassinated in Sumter County during the same year while in the discharge of his duties, and again no arrests were made nor rewards offered. The republican vote in Sumter in 1884 was 525 ; in 1890 it was 51. We condemn lynch law,which is so prevalent in Florida, as an outgrowth of' democratie misrule and a consequent disregard of all law. In consideration of the fact tliat we are as a party at the mercy of a dominant party, supported by the most infamous election laws that ever disgraced the statute books of any state in the Union - a party educated by years of misrule to consider ït a higher mark of honor and merit to have robbed a ballot box in the interest of the democratie party than to have carried a musket in the defense of the Union - a party that preaches treason from stump and platform, that before they will submit to republican rule they will shoulder their muskets and commence a war of extermination.

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Subjects
Old News
Ann Arbor Courier