|
|
"A comprehensive, collaborative elections resource."
|
The Anti-Masonic Defeat
|
|---|
| Parent(s) |
Race
|
| Contributor | Chronicler |
| Last Edited | Chronicler Feb 04, 2008 08:54pm |
| Logged |
0
|
| Category | Satire |
| News Date | Friday, November 5, 1880 02:00:00 AM UTC0:0 |
| Description | Up to the present hour there is good reason for believing that the Anti-Masonic candidates for the Presidency and Vice-Presidency have been defeated. It is true that there are remote districts from which no returns have yet been received, but it is hoping against hope to imagine that the returns from these districts, when they do come in, will make any material alteration in what now appears to be the result of the election... Phelps and Pomeroy have been beaten, and the banner of Anti-Masonry has once more gone down. Freemasonry has again triumphed, and the country will have to reconcile itself to this painful fact.
Now that the battle is over and lost, we can calmly examine the reasons for the defeat of the Anti-Masonic ticket; and it might be remarked that an examination of this kind is always a more satisfactory proceeding after a defeat than before it. It is conceded by all that in many district there have been large Anti-Masonic gains. In Smithtown, Ohio, where the Anti-Masonic vote in 1876 was 1, it is this year 2, a gain of precisely 100 per cent. In Brownsville, Md., 3 men voted [at the last election] for Phelps and Pomeroy, whereas last year only 2 men voted the Anti-Masonic local ticket at the annual election for the Superintendent of Prowling Pigs. Here is another gain of 50 per cent. In Robinsonville, Ill., Phelps and Pomeroy received 1 vote, which is a clear gain of more per cent than can well be estimated, inasmuch as the Anti-Masonic ticket in 1876 in that town received only the vote of a young man, aged 18, and this vote was afterward thrown out by the reckless and perjured men who superintended the counting. In Thompson City, Wis., an old lady publicly announced that she would have voted for Phelps and Pomeroy had she been a man; and this declaration may fairly be counted as an Anti-Masonic gain of several per cent in a town where hitherto no Anti-Mason, of any well-defined sex, has ever been seen. These figures, taken almost at random from the returns from four different States, show an enormous Anti-Masonic gain, and cannot but awaken the utmost uneasiness for the future in the minds of Freemasons.
How has it happened that in spite of such tremendous gains the Anti-Masonic candidates have been defeated? As in the case of all defeated candidates, the explanation is, of course, fraud and corruption, though in this especial instance the malign influence of Freemasonry must also be considered. It can be proven that vast sums of money were expended both by the Republicans and Democrats to procure the defeat of Phelps and Pomeroy. In one town in Ohio, the name of which is for obvious reasons withheld, a prominent Democratic politician is known to have had upward of 27 cents in his possession during the week before election, and to have boasted that with this money he could buy the support of three small boys sons of a worthy widow lady, who were outspoken advocates of the gallant Phelps and Pomeroy... Thus, with the aid of money and violence, the Republicans and Democrats in unholy alliance succeeded in nullifying the will of the people and placing a Masonic Administration in power.
The opposition to Phelps and Pomeroy did not hesitate to descend to the use of the basest means to influence the minds of the people against the Anti-Masonic candidates. Not one word or syllable of abuse was hurled at either of them. This studied refusal to extend to them the courtesies to which every candidate is entitled admits of no excuse. It cannot be presumed that either ... Phelps or ... Pomeroy deserved this brutal neglect... It remains to be seen whether the matter cannot be brought before an Electoral Commission, and the votes of those States which have been unfairly secured by Garfield or Hancock thrown out.
This crushing defeat should not, however, discourage the Anti-Masons. Their cause is a noble one. Garfield, Arthur, Hancock, and English are all Freemasons, and as such will unquestionably aid one another in the future, as in the past, in every variety of crime... |
| Share |
|
|
2¢
|
|
|
| Date |
Category |
Headline |
Article |
Contributor |
|
|
