Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1868-05-21
own election case, and 1 will postpone
any argument upon it until that time.
Mr.. PAINE-Will the gentleman
yield to me for a remark unon tb;s nointa

yield to me for remark upon this point2
Mr.. GARFIELD will.
MIR. .PA1NE-Having myself been a
citizen of the State of Ohio, and having
been student in that State, know Of
my own knowledge that the laws of the
State of Ohio have been construed so as
to allow students to vote. That is, where
a student enters college for four years,
he acquires, under the laws of the State
OF Ohio, that sort of residence that en-
titles him to a vote.
Mr.. MILLER-Will the gentleman
from Ohio (Mr. Garfeld) allow me to say
word upon this pointl
Mr.. GARFIELD-Very we'll.
Mr.. MILLER-I will also say that it
has been decided in several States of
this Union that students going to college
for the purpose of getting an education
there, have the right the vote.
Mr.. MORGAN-May interrupt the
gentleman for a moment2
Mr.. Mr.GARFIELD-Certainly.
~ Mr.. MORGAN-I understand my
honorable friend to say that student
does not acquire the right to vote when
he is attending college merely for the
purpose of obtaining an education.
Mr.. GARFIELD will ask my col
league
Mr.. MORGAN-I beg my colleagues
pardon. have propounded him ques-
tion. Will he answer it2
Mr.. GARFIELD say this: that
if the chief business of the student is to
get an education, and he has been at the
college long enough to acquire a resi-
dence as prescribed by the law, he is a
voter there. That has been the prac-
tice in the State of Ohio for twenty
years.
Mr.. MORGAN-Another question.
Mr.. GARFIELD-Very well.
Mr.. MORGAN-Does not the law re-
quire an actual bona .1fde residence at
the election precinct to become voter :
Mr.. GARFIELD-Certainly.
Mr.. MORGAN-Very good. If the
simple object of the residence is to ac-
quire an education, with the intention to
leave the place when the education has
been acquired, is the student then le-
gal voter2
lIr. GARFIELD-That is according
to the intention of the student. 1 now
wish to ask the gentleman, if his view of
the law be correct, then what was the
object of passing the law of this year?
Mr.. MORGAN-Because certain per-
sons have heretofore set the law at def
ance; and to prevent that willful and de-
liberate violation of law we have passed
an act which they cannot evade.
Mr.. GARFIELD-Mr. Speaker, I
am very glad to hear my colleagues ex-
PLANTATION of this matter. This newborn
zeal of the Democratic party for the pur-
ity of elections is one of the most beau
tiful chapters in the history OF that par
ty. Viewing the whole question of the
"yisible admixture" law, the soldiers
asylum law, the students voting law,
and the accompanying acts ancillary
thereto, it is certainly one of the most
striking and characteristic chapters in
modern Democratic history.
Now, in order to secure all the benefits
ofthese laws for the next election, so that
the Supreme Court may not remove them
from the statute book on account of their
uneonstitutionality, law is now pend
ing in that same Democratic Legislature
forbidding the Supreme Court to take
up any case out of its regular order; in
other words, forbidding the Supreme
Court to advance case on the docket !;
for if the court should exercise this right
which it has exercised ever since the
State was founded, of advancing an i'm
portant case on the docket, the gentle
mans party know right we'll that the
students voting law, or at least the WIS.,
ible admixture law, would be swept at
once from the statute book as unconsti-
tutional. By this means that Democrat
ic Legislature proposes to tide over the
coming Presidential election, we'll know
ing that both the law and the makers of
it will be swept away when our next
election takes place.
Mr.. MORGAN-I desire to ask my
colleague one question. If the Repub-
lican party, of which the gentleman is so
distinguished light, desires that the
elective franchise shall be conferred up
on the negroes-that the negroes of the
South shall exercise political domina-
ton over the white men there-how
comes it that the people of Ohio, the Re-
publican party being in the majority
there, have, by a majority of fifty-fve
thousand, decided that the negro is unfit
to exercise the elective franchise, and re-
fused to extend it to him
Mr.. GARFIELD-Mr. Speaker,
am very glad that my colleague has
called my attention to that point. A few
timid members of the last Legislature of
Ohio, who had not quite nerve enough
to meet great question on its merits,
framed that constitutional amendment in
such shape that the suffrage question
was not squarely before the people
They tackled on clause proposing to
disfranchise deserters and those who ran
away from the draft. 1t so happened
that great many soldiers who were
borne on the rolls as deserters were only
technically deserters, notreally so. Such
men felt the injustice of the disfranchis.
ing clause; and this single fact, have
no doubt, turned the scale on that ques-
tion.
But I call the gentleman's attention to
the fact that, notwithstanding all the
clogs attached to that amendment, near
ly thirty-eight thousand of the citizens
of Ohio voted for it; and 1 have no more
doubt that provision guarantying equal
suffrage in that State will be ultimately
adopted by Ohio than 1 have that we
shall carry through the great measures
now before this body.
Mr.. MORGAN-My distinguished
colleague has said that the reason ma
jority of fifty-fve thousand votes was
polled in the State of Ohio against ne
gro suffrage was that there were so many
deserters. By that remark understand
Al, Al 49,, xvo,.o -, a., D.,