Fayetteville observer. [volume] (Fayetteville, Tenn.) 1850-1966, 1855-10-04
A Task for the Next Congress.

Humphrey Marshall will 60 to
Congress from the Louisville district
with the certificate Of an election,
signed, sealed, and duly delivered.
But before this representative of
arson and murder is permitted 10
take his seat, the House Of Repre-.
sentatives, which is the judge of
the qualifications of its own members,
will be called upon to decide whether
fraud and violence can override law,
and crime demand the recognition
of government and the honors Of Of
fee.
Mr.. Marshall can take his seat
only by the connivance of his COM
peers in the House in the brutality
aad fraud to which he owes bis place.
Apart from the violence and intim-
idatiou by which the regular vote in
the district was suppressed, there are
other fragrant frauds in the case suf-
ficient to vitiate the election. The
Louisville correspondent Of the New
York Evening Post recounts one:
"There are eighteen polls in the
city of Louisville, and sixteen in the
county, making thirty-four in all.
The inspectors or judges Of election,
two for each, were appointed by
Judge Garland, know nothing, who,
with extraordinary liberality, named
four democrats and sixty-four Of his
own order. But their possession
of the records indoors and of the
the approach to them from the out.
side, by which they could cover any
fraud was not enough. The judges
decided that they would dispense
with the balIot-bor itself.
"They required every voter to
open his ticket and read aloud the
names of his candidates. A scratch
of the pen on the book opposite the
name was the only record and evidence
of the vote cast. The voter either
threw his ticket on the ground OF
carried it away with him. The In
ability of the foreigners to read
English, or read at all, as far as il
went was made the pretext toi
rejecting their votes. When this
statement was made to me / could
not credit it, though my informants
who were two of the most respecta'
bic citizens of Louisville, assured
me that they had read off their OWE
tickets and then threw them away.
s.Mr. ", do you tell me that Sc
riously, and are you very sure there
lis no mistake about it?"
"Yes, sir. ! read off my own
ticket and threw it away. / stood
by and saw dozen others do the
same. There was no baliot-box used.
"Another gentleman, whom | have
known intimately for some years, anC
an old resident of Louisville, con
firmed the statement. Il went tt
vote in the usual way" said he, ''witf
my ticket in hand folded up, but
heard those who were before me
reading off their votes. ] asked j
| must do that and was told yes; ano
| | did it"
s'Gentlemen, if werea stranger
to you, would not write this with
out getting it verified by witnesses
and oaths. l would expect you tc
discredit it as the tale of crazy
politician. That such an outrage
should be perpetrated in this coun'
try! That the ballot-box should
be discarded from a popular cleo
tion."
The first duty of Congress, it
seems to US, will be to refuse this man
| a seat-to turn him from Congress
back to the scene Of crime and
misery from which he came, there
to await the restoration of the laws
and the yindication Of popular SOW
ereignty by his party and by him.
co1f