The Ranchero [Corpus Christi, TX], October 6, 1860
We always have been and are still in favor of a registry law. The Mexican vote has always been cause of serious complaint for years past, and no American has been in this vicinity long enough to tell whether the majority of Mexicans are voters. We have been here for nine years, and have known persons who based their election upon the Mexican vote to be mistaken, and then, perhaps owing to the state of affairs, become very uproarious about the purity of the ballot box. They were chagrined at their defeat, and must have something, some great fraud to assign as the cause. There are many Mexicans who are entitled to vote, and understand the principles and workings of our government, as well as any Americans, but the ignorant do not, and from the nature of circumstances there must be many who have not the legal right to vote. As a general thing, a short time previous to an election, many of the friends and supporters of the different candidates and even the candidates themselves make every exertion for the Mexican vote. Those who secure it are satisfied, and the disappointed affect to imagine and perhaps have good cause to cry fraud, corruption, etc., etc. Those who didn’t get the Mexican vote are then of course immaculate.
Who is to blame for this? Certainly not the Mexicans! They are controlled, and who is there, where the opportunity has been before him, that has not taken part in the controlling, if no more than to simply vote his hired Mexican. It is a notorious fact, and no matter how he voted, if illegal, a wrong has been perpetrated. Under our present election law this “simply voting my hired Mexicans,” will be practiced. In the emergency what is to be done to rid ourselves of this depredation on the rights of the people, if depredation it is? Shall we assume all power into our hands—raise above the law—and by brutal force crush out the existence of every suspicious obstacle to our own idea of right, and become dictators because the law happens to be defective? Or shall we, like rational beings, advanced in the scale of civilization, appeal to our law-makers for wholesome laws to protect our rights, repair all defects and to construct a safeguard to the purity of the ballot box? No one who loves our country and her institutions can even hesitate in choosing the latter of the two alternatives.
A Registry Law, with requirements sufficiently stringent so there will be no mistake about the persons who may obtain a certificate under it having a complete right to vote, is what is wanted. It would do more toward uniting our people in feeling and opinion than any one measure now extant. We shall urge the enactment of such a law.