The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-06-02
THE NEW ELECTION LAW OF CON
GRESS.
From the N. y. Hsruld.


United States to vote in the several States of
this Union, and for other purposes 1t full
inmates the fifteenth amendment in some of |
its sections, and in others it lays down cer-
tain rules, the general aim of which is to
secure the purity of the ballot-box in cleo
tions of Representatives, to provide that the
fabric of national government shall not be |
undermined by fraudulent practices at the
polls. Certainly this is good and honest
aim. Laws to prevent dishonesty or to
punish it are harmless and ineffective pieces
of paper if the dishonesty described in them
has no existence; but if that dishonesty is
found to be a serious and growing evil such
laws must be satisfactory to all lovers of fair
play, to the millions who are honest, and can
be oppressive only to the rogues.
But it is argued against the present law
that it is an encroachment upon the rights of
the people, because to legislate to this effect
transcends the power of Congress. This say
ing that Congress is constantly exercising
doubtful power is the poll parrot utterance
of headed opposition that wastes itself
in driyel One of the constitution doctors
of that opposition prates thus of the law
'The bill which has passed both houses of
Congress by strictly party vote purports
to have been passed under the fifteenth
amendment of the Constitution, There is,
of course, no authority that can be pretended
for it, since the Constitution, in its original
purity, and down to the time of the alleged
adoption of the fifteenth amendment, took
no notice of the qualifications of electors
even for any Federal Office, excepting to
provide that in choosing Representatives in
Congress the same persons should have the
right to vote who have it under the laws of
the respective States in choosing the men,
bers of the most numerous branch of the
State Legislature Now this is the ignorance
of a man who expounds a constitution he
never read. There is no point clearer, and
there are few points so clear in our constitu-
tional law, as that Congress has supreme and
unqualified power, whenever it may choose
to assert it, over the whole subject of the
election of Representatives in Congress. That
power it asserts in this bill, and it distinctly,
specifically, and expressly declares that it
asserts no more. 1t is even a gratuitous
assumption to treat this bill "purporting
to have been passed under the fifteenth
amendment" since it does not necessarily
rest upon that part of the Constitution.
In the first article of the Constitution, sec
ton four, are the following words: -''The
times, Places and manner of holding cleo
tions for Senators and Representatives shall
be prescribed in each State by the Legislature
thereof; but the Congress may at any time
by law make or alter such regulations except
as to the place of choosing Senator'S" If
this is not an authority how can authority be
given? Here is only one limitation upon the
power Of Congress to sweep away every line
of State law on the subject of the election of
members and to put in place of that law the
will of the nation as expressed through Con-
gress. Any arrangements as to the election
of congressman hitherto made in the States
Congress may modify, or it may completely
substitute others: only it shall not legslate
as to the place of choosing Senators. All,
therefore, that is in this so-called fifteenth
amendment bill is as clearly within the au-
tboriiy of the national legislature, under the
Constitution as it was" as is the power to
pass naturalization law.
Not only, therefore, are the objectors to the
bill-the rogues who feel the halter draw
ignorantly wrong in their constitutional
point but they are pitifully maladroit in the
squirm they make to the effect that if Con-
gress thus asserts power over the election of
members the State may put all other elections
on some other day. This poor dodge might
avail if Congress did not see fit thereupon to
declare that members should be chosen upon
the day of the general State election but it is
clear acknowledgment of what the repeaters
| fear. Congress puts the election in the hands
of United States marshals, and empowers
| these officers to call upon the mass of the
| people, or the militia, or the land and naval
| forces of the United States, to guarantee
| fair vote. If the election is overlooked by
soldiers, ofieered by resolute men, who have
and can have no stake in the civil contest,
| gang of repeaters will not walk up to poll
| in this city and deposit votes by the handful
| in defiance of the authorities, or with the
| assent of the authorities. We will fairly get
| at the real political complexion of places like
| this city-and upon the election of Congress
| men we shall at least have point of compari-
son to Judge of other elections-even if en-
forced honesty on one ticket shall not secure
a like benefit on all the rest
THE TARIFF QUESTION NOT A PARTY
ISSUE.
From the NJ Y. Times.
The debates and divisions in the House of
| Representatives upon the Tariff bill should
dissipate all fears as to the introduction of
party lines and party discipline on the gene
raj question which underlies the imposition
OF customs duties. The Democratic party,
Judged by the votes of its representatives,
cannot identify itself with free trade; and
certainly there is scant support for those
who profess to find in the ranks of Repub-
lican fiscal reformers a host of converts to
free trade as a principle. An analysis
furnished from Washington shows that of
the fifty-fve Democratic members, thirteen
have committed themselves to the legiti-
macy of protection as a revenue principle,
while several others affirmed the expediency
of protection in exceptional cases. Thus,
Pennsylvania Democrats vie with Pennsyl-
vania Republicans in supporting high duties
on iron; and the Kentucky Democrats act
almost as a unit in favor of protection to
hemp. Local interests override Democratic
free trade procliyities, and practically COM
NIT these two great States to the protective
principle. On the other hand, there are per-
haps not more than a couple of Republican