The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1869-11-05
Political Blackbal1ing.

dispatch that the Congressional sub-commit-
tee is coming ato take testimony" in regard
TO the contested elections of Messrs Simp-
son and Reed, we recommend to him the
careful perusal of the paper read by Hon.
HI. Dawes, at the recent session of the
American Social Science Association. He
shows that these committees consist OF a
majority Of the political party ruling in the
House, and that they are appointed for the
sole purpose of declaring that the contest
ant belonging to that party has been duly
elected.
The trainers of the constitution assigned
to each house the power of deciding upon
the elections and qualifications of its own
members. There are no restrictions upon
the exercise Of this prerogative. In the SEN
ate the Judiciary Committee manipulates
the case; in the House of Representatives,
the Committee of Elections, whose proper
business is to receive the testimony present
ed by the contestants and to decide judici-
ally upon its value, but who have recently
received permission to go into the contested
districts and act at once as an inquisitorial
jury prosecution, and bench Of judges.
The plaintiff always belongs to their party,
a-a-A-%--s----s- rcFTcrc
him. They meet to hear his case, and to
legalize his ssumptions-"only this and
nothing more" They have already made
their decision before a witness has been
summoned. A Republican committee az
pointed to decide with supreme authority
upon the election OF two Democrats sigDi-
fies the intention of the party in power to
exclude those gentlemen from the House Of
Representatives, whatever may have been
the majorities by which they were elected.
AS Mr. Dawes testifes, and as everybody
knows, each caseof this sort is coming to
be mere partisan struggle. "The COM
''mittee dare not resist the exactions Of
'party, and their action is, in consequence,
'worthy only Of contempt" And the de-
grading ends Of their appointment as well
as the corrupt resorts .of the party now in
power, appear from the fact that "while
''there were only sixty cases during the first
'sixty-fve years of the government, there
'have been more than that number within
'the past ten years-over twenty of which
''are now pending" All these contestants
belong to the majority. An injured Demo-
crat or Conservative well knows that an ap-
peal for Justice to u Radical Congressional
committee would be perfectly absurd. Its
members have been selected on account OF
their political complexion; they have had a
certain political work assigned to them; they
have been canvassed before-hand; they go
out upon their mission like eXcursionists
upon frolic-with all their expenses paid,
and succeed in catching something as GER
tain shrewd amateurs do, by fastening the
desired fish upon the hook before it is cast
into the water at ALL The result is Ger
tain from the beginning. A partisan
speaker appoints partisan committee,
which returns partisan report, and upon
this report the members vote according to
their p0lltlcal alnilatlOns Inere Is not q
straw left for minority politician to catch
at. Hence while the people of the upper
districts may have determined that Messrs.
Simpson and Reed shall represent them an
other set of people, temporarily resident in
Washington, have determined that they
shall not And we rather apprehend that
the other set will have their own way.
Yet ell such contests will do good. The
time will come when the people of this State
and of every State will SECURE to Themselves
by statute or amendment the right Of repre-
sentation in Congress by persons whom they
themselves have elected, and not by persons
elected for them by Congressional COM
mittee And every outrage on the ballot
will accelerate the advent of that day.