QO
THE GREEN BAG
he would have been elected except for the fraud; he need only show that the fraud, intimidation, bribery or violence existed to such an extent that it can not be determined ivho was elected." (4) " Disfranchiscment is not the only element that prevents an election from being 'free and equal,' for illegal votes, intimidation and violence may contribute to render an election void under the Con stitution. . . . The language of the Consti tution is designedly broad, made so for the purpose of covering and meeting every condition that may arise and every condi tion that may be invented to prevent the substantially fair and free expression of the will of the people;" By the establishment of these principles Kentucky has now vitalized its " recent legislation, the object of which, as declared by its highest court, is "to so safeguard elections as to remove any- obstacle that stands in the way of, or tends to prevent a full, fair and free expression of the will of the people at. the polls." The Court in its epoch-making decision cleared the road for a new standard of public service in Kentucky. In concluding their opinion they said : "Peace officers, whose duty it was to prevent and expose crime, when called on to do so, sheltered under the rule against selfincrimination; and yet these men still wear the official uniform, still draw salaries from the public purse, and this is made possible only by the consent of those who are the apparent beneficiaries of their silence. . . . "It is sufficient to say that every note on the gamut of election crimes was sounded on election day by those whose sworn duty it was to prevent it. ... "The conspiracy to steal the election in question is as plain as was the conspiracy charged in the Declaration of Independence against king and council to rob the colonies of their liberty. After setting forth the reasons against a people changing their form of government for light and transient causes, it is said in that noble instrument : ' But when a long train of abuses and usur pations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government and to provide new guards for their future security. '
"As there, so here. "A long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to deprive the people of Louisville of their right to elect their own officers, and it is now our duty to overthrow this design and to declare the safeguards neces sary for the future security of the rights of the people. "We cannot feel that our duty in this case is fully performed without insisting that it is absolutely necessary for the preservation of a democratic form of government, that the right of suffrage should be free and untrammeled. "Xo people can be said to govern them selves whose elections are controlled by force, fraud or fear. . '. . "Xo people are wholly civilized where a distinction is drawn between stealing an office and stealing a purse; no truly honest man will be satisfied with an office to which his title is not as valid as that to the home stead which shelters his family; and to him who knowingly holds an office obtained by fraud, force or chicane, will ever be applied the language of the dramatist to an usurper of old, 'Now does he feel his title hand loose about him, like a giant's robe upon a dwarfish thief. ' "' This contest was made at an enormous expense of money, time and labor, but it was the consummation of a determination on the part of the people of Louisville to have honest elections in that city. They felt that the question of whether they should be allowed a voice in their own government and the selection of their own officers, or whether this entire subject should be turned over to a self-perpetuating political machine, and results manufactured by its parasites and hirelings to suit its desires, regardless of the will of the people, was directly involved in these cases. They felt that on the result of these cases depended the cause of civil liberty and republican government in the State of Kentucky. While some who contributed to the waging of this contest were abundantly able to do so, the contri butions of others have been as genuine sacrifices for the love of home and country, as were ever laid upon the altar. LOUISVILLE, KY., January, 1908.
