Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1868-05-27

Mr.. Garfield. That question viii
probably come up in the gentleman
own election case, and l will postpone
any argument upon it until that time.
Mr.. Paine. viii the gentleman yield
to me for a remark upon this point!
Mr.. Garfield. l will.
1Ir. Paine. Having myself been a
citizen of the State of Ohio, and having
been a student in that State, l 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 entities him to a vote.
Mr.. Miller. VIII the gentleman
from Ohio Mr.. Garfield allow me to
say a word upon this point?
Mr.. Garfield. Very well.
Mr.. KILLER. 1 will also say that it
has been decided in several States of
this Union that students going to col
lege for the purpose of getting an
education there have the right to vote.
Mr.. Morgan. May l interrupt the
gentleman for a moment?
Mr.. Garfield. Certainly.
Mr.. Morgan. understand my hon
orable friend to say that student does
not acquire the right to vote when he
is attending college merely for the puT-
pose of obtaining an education.
Mr.. Garfield. 1 will ask my col.
league
Mr.. Morgan. 1 beg my colleagues
pardon. 1 have propounded him q
question. VIII he answer it
Mr.. Garfield. l 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 q 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 tide residence at
the election precinct to become a
voter?
Mr.. Garfield. Certainly.
Mr.. Morgan. Very good. If the
simple object of the residence is to &C.
quire an education, with the intentio
to leave the place when the education
has been acquired, is the student ther
legal voter?
Mr.. Garfield. That is according to
the intention of the student. / now
wish to ask the gentleman, if his view
of the law be correct, then what wal
the object of passing the law of thil
year?
Mr.. Morgan. Because certain per
sons have heretofore set the law at d.
iance; and to prevent that willful anG
deliberate violation of law we have
passed an act which they cannot e7ade
Mr.. Garfield. Mr.. Speaker, 1 an
very glad to hear my colleagues expla
nation of this matter. This new born
zeal of the Democratic party for tn,
purity of elections is one of the mos
beautiful chapters in the history of tha
party. Viewing the whole question o
the visible admixture" law, the sol
diers' asylum law, the students voting
law, and the accompanying acts ancil
larry thereto, it is certainly one of tn,
most striking and characteristic chap
ters in modern Democratic history.
Now, in order to secure all the bene
fits Of these laws for the next election
so that the supreme court may not re
move them from the statute-book o,
account of their unconstitutionality, s
law is now pending in that same Dem
ocratic Legislature forbiddihg the
supreme court to take up any case on
of its regular order; in other words
forbidding the supreme court tn ad
vance a 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 import
ant case on the docket, the gentle
mans party know right well that the
students voting law, or at least the
visible admixture law, would be swept
aeonce from the statute-book as uncon
stitutional. By this means that Dem
ocratic Legislature proposes to tide
over the coming presidential election
well knowing that both the law anC
the makers of it will be swept away
when our next election takes place.
Mr.. Morgan. l desire to ask my col
league one question. If the Republi-
can party, OF which the gentleman il
so distinguished a light, desires that
the elective franchise shall be confer
red upon the negroes-that the negroes
of the South shall exercise politica
domination over the white men there
how comes it that the people o
Ohio, the Republican party being il
the msjoritS there, have by majority
of ffty-five thousand decided that tbs
negro is unfit to exercise the elective
franchise, and refused to extend it tC
him?
Mr.. Garfield. Mr.. Speaker, an
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 constitutions a
amendment in such a shape that the
suffrage question was not squarely be
fore the people. They tackled on {
clause proposing to disfranchise deseF.
ters and those who ran away from the
draft. It so happened that q great
many soldiers who were borne on the
rolls as degerters were only technically
deserters, not really so. Such mer
felt the injustice of the disfrahchising
clause; and this single fact, l have nj
doubt, turned the scale on that ques
ton.
But l call the gentleman's attention
to the fact that, notwithstanding al
the clogs attached to that amendment
nearly two hundred and twenty thous
and of the citizens of Ohio voted for it
and | have no more doubt that a pro
vision guarantying equal suffrage IN
that State will be ultimately adopted
by Ohio than have that we shall car
~ through the great measures now be
fore this body.
Mr.. Morgan. Ny distinguished col.
league has said that the reason a ma
iority of fifty-iive thousand votes wa:
polled in the State of Ohio against
negro suffrage was that there were SO
many deserters. By that remark l un
derstand him to imply that there were
in the Republican party kfty-fve
thousand deserters who would not vote
in favor of negro suffrage, because
thereby they would disfranchise themi
selves. Laughter.
Mr.. Garfield. 1 say no such thing
but I am perfectly free to say, Mr..
Speaker, that the Republican party,
like all other parties of virtue and
progress. has in its ranks here and
there weak and timid men, vino can
not quite come up to the measure of a
great, bold, righteous issue. If the
world were little halter than IL Is if