Wilmington Daily Commercial

CAUTIONARY SUGGESTIONS TO CERTAIN OFFICIALS.

The cumbrous and elaborate method by which citizens become qualified voters, under our present law, is subject to abuses at every step, and, as those familiar with the subject well know, it has been a common thing to so manipulate it, (we accuse party managers on both sides,) that hundreds of men have been disfranchised, and other hundreds illegally allowed to vote. From information that reaches us, we fear something of this kind is on foot in New Castle County, now, and we respectfully call the attention of all concerned to the subject.

The statements, reaching us, are that many names, mostly, if not all, the names of colored men, have been left off the duplicates of the Collectors of taxes, in the various Hundreds of this county. These colored men are persons whose taxes were not collected in 1870, or 1871, and who were therefore returned as "delinquents," on the so-called "Error List."

Now, if this be true, the proceeding is utterly illegal, and subject to severe punishment, such as the proper officers of the law can, and no doubt will, have duly inflicted by the Courts upon the guilty officials, whoever they may be. The State law explicitly says-

"—the name of the delinquent, if he be dead, or have removed from the State, shall be struck from the assessment list, and also from the collector's duplicate: otherwise it shall remain on the assessment, and be entered on the collector's duplicate for the ensuing year."

This is the State law, very plain, and very clear indeed. Now refer to Section 4, of the Act of Congress enforcing the 15th Amendment, and find that-

"If any person.....by unlawful means, shall hinder, delay, prevent, or obstruct, or shall combine or confederate with others to hinder, delay, &c., any citizen from doing any act required to be done, to qualify him to vote," &c.

The shall pay $500 damages to the injured person, be fined $500, and be imprisoned not less than one month nor more than one year.

These are provisions of the law applying to the case, and there are others, almost as directly referring to it. We caution the members of the Levy Court to carefully examine their records, and suggest to the Clerk of the Peace that he should compare the duplicates for this year's collection of taxes, with the lists returned by the assessors, and see whether the names of delinquents have been omitted, or have not. If they have been, the error should be rectified, now, without recourse to unpleasant judicial proceedings.