Middletown transcript., 1870-03-05


Baltimore Sun, advert
ing to the bills Of Sumner, Bingham,
and Nye, thinkst there is no danger that
Congress will not provide adequate legis-
lation for the enforcement of this quinde-
cins of the organic law of the land. These
measures SEEM to assume, says the Sun,
that there is a disposition to evade, or
even to resist the law. The lills of Bing-
ham and Sumner both provide for the first
of these contingencies, and propose to pun
ish by fine or Imprisonment any person
who shall attempt to deter from register
ing or voting, or being voted for or hold
ing Office. any citizen of the United States.
Preposterous as the idea Of resistance ap-
pears, Mr.. Nye seems to be troubled with
the idea that it is sufficiently probable to
warrant the appointment of large body
of federal Office holders, backed by mill
tary force, to uphold the supreme require
ment- Of the constitution, an instrument
whose provisions would seem to be held in
greater reverence in proportion to their
novelty, and to the eoercive means en-
ployed for their adoption.
The bill of Mr. Nye calls for three com
missioners, to be appointed by the Secre-
tary ofthe Interiors for each election dis
trict of the several congressional districts
of the United States. The number of the
congressional districts in the United States
is two hundred and forty-two. The num-
ber of election districts into which the con-
gressional districts are subdivided we have
no means of knowing, but it must be very
large. In some districts the number is
fifty to each congressional district, for the
accommodation Of voters. Here is quite
an army of ofice-holders provided for, and,
as if this were not enough, the bill pro-
vides for deputy United States Marshals,
specially appointed for the occasion, in
| what number we are not so much as told
As if this were not sufficient, the bill fur
ther provides for the camping of United
States troops within convenient distance of
the principal polling places of the several
congressional districts, with special
clause that in cities the soldiery shall be
stationed in the parks. These forces would
be subject to the general direction of the
United States Marshal. 1t is scarcely pos
sible to conceive that a bill of such char
acter can pass the Senate. So far as the
provision for soldiers is concerned, it is so
opposed to the spirit of our free institu-
tions, and what is more, SO impracticable,
that we might suspect Mr.. Nye was en-
deavoring to perpetrate practical joke.
There are not soldiers enough in the Uni
ted States army to station such force at
each of the election districts of the country
as to effect the object proposed, if any con-
siderable portion Of the people, as he seems
to assume, either North or South, desire
to drive the colored population from the
polls and violate the constitution. Mr..
Nye would better consult the Lieutenant
General of the Army, and ask him what
disposable force he can spare for that pur-
pose, afteradeduetipg the Southern garri-
sons and the troops in the Indian country,
and also whetherathe process of dividing
and subdividing the army of the United
States, and marching it in small detach-
ments, some of them not bakers dozen,
by railroad, stage coach, steamboat, and
in most cases on foot, SO that every cleo
tion district in this, vast country should
have squad of soldiers at hand, would
not be at once somewhat costly and cum
bersome
If Mr. Nye cannot invent more inge-
NOUS method than this of stretching fede-
raj powers and bullying the people into
free voting, he ought to give place to some
more discreet as well as inventive mem
Der of his party. As to his hordes of COM
missioners and deputy marshals, our finan-
cial condition is not so plethoric as to
stand the drain of such fresh multitude
OF hungry mouths upon the treasury.