Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1870-12-19

| The remains of man were found last week,
across the boundary line between Maine and
Canada, in piece of woods where formerly
] lumber operation was carried on. There was
only the skeleton, some brass buttons, and a
pair of army shoes on the bones of the feet,
remaining. 1t is supposed that some bounty
jumper, as long ago as during the war,
in the act of deserving, lost his way in
the woods, and there, through fatigue, hun
ger and exposure, persisted.
SENATOR SCHURZ ON MSS URI POL
ITICS AND DISFRANCHfSEAENT
/ On Thursday the Senate took up the res
/ olution offered by Mr. Schurz declaring in
favor of the removal of all political disquali-
fications as soon as the imperative public ne
cessity which dictated their imposition ceased.
| Mr.. Schurz then delivered an address of un-
usual length, to which the Senate listened
with attention.
1 He reviewed the history of party divisions
in Missouri, for which he said he and those
who acted with him had been denounced as
traitors to the republican party. The inter-
! ference at the solicitation of his colleague
| TDrakel of the national executive by which
| the State contest had acquired more than
local interest, and the subsequent defeat of
the President with all his patronage, by a
triumph of the very principles upon which he
had been elected. The probabilities of the
formation of the new party nucleus, and the
prospect of the reforms in the civil service
and revenue, were also referred to, commence
ing with an allusion to the resolution as an
expression of the sentiment which received an
emphatic endorsement at the recent election
in Missouri, and to the existing agreement be-
tween his colleague and himself, that his own
speech should be made before the withdrawal
of the latter from the Senate. Mr.. Schurz
proceeded to show that the Acknowledgement
of persons engaged in the rebellion was a
temporary, experimental measure of safety,
rendered necessary by the new social condi-
ton of the South, consequent on the close OF
the war. He held that the removal by the
party which imposed them, and, while still in
its ascendency in the government, of all dis
qualifications, especially the exclusion oflarge
numbers of people from the ballot box, was
essential to the restoration of a fraternal feel
ing, and as proving that such measures had
not resulted from vindictiveness, but necessity,
and as bringing the late rebels to the full
realization of their share with ourselves in the
institutions and greatness of a common coun-
try. Such were among the reasons governing
his course in the late movement. Quoting
from a resolution offered by himself in the
national republican convention in 1868, de-
claring the republican party to be in favor of
the removal OF political disabilities as soon
as compatible with the public safety, and
welcoming back to the Union the loyal peo-
pie among the late rebels who would accept
the new order of things, he said this was part
of the platform on which Grant was made
President How had that promise been car
ried out in Missouri? Only by victory over
the republican party, instead Of upon its good
faith and by its assistance. When therefore,
the party had resisted enfranchise ment after
party honor had commanded them to grant it,
what hope could the Republicans have of
winning over to their ranks the re-enfran-
chised! The principal opponents of the
movemen within the republican ranks were
those whose political stock in trade consisted
| of the battle cries of the civil war, who would
forever roll the '.rebel'' as a sweet morsel
under their tongue, and that class of politicians
whose whole end in political life was to mo-
nopoiize local affairs. Mr.. Schurz denied, as
not in accordance with the fact, the assertion
of bis colleague, in a printed speech circulated
in the Senate. The opposition was not so
much to enfranchsement itself as against the
constitutional amendment as a method of ef-
/ fecting it. He referred to some fifty or sixty
newspapers, which, led by the central organ
at St. Louis, directly protested against the
thing itself. In order to prevent the endorse
ment of the enfranchising amendment to the
Constitution, the republican State convention
manipulated in advance by giving to the col
ored voters in the State representation double
that allowed to the white people, and so dis
cipliping them that that race, against whom
so many prejudices were still alive, should, in
Missouri, cast their virgin franchise to con-
tinue the Acknowledgement of others. The
speakers successful efforts in the convention
in behalf of the enfranchising amendment,
until he and his friends went out from the
convention, carrying with them, as he claimed,
the honor, principles and banner of the republic
can party, were successfully referred to, as
also the sweeping character of the political
disqualifcations in Missouri, where by the
provisions of the State and Constitution, per-
sons could be disfranchised not only for dis
| loyal acts, but for sympathy expressed or
implied even of the remotest kind; consistent
Union men of lifelong devotion to the
government for merely expressing a hope
that their relatives in the rebel army would
return home safely DISTINGUISHES for SYM
patty with those engaged in the rebellion.
lie knew scores OF men who served three and
four years in the Union army, and had been
disabled in the service, DISTINGUISHED for
harmless language uttered, The atrocity OF
the abuses developed under the system OF
disfranchsement was shown by the speaker
at some length in the absolutely irresponsi-
Bile powers of the registration officers, the
right of any citizen to vote being completely
at the mercy of any villain who happened to
| be registration officer, while there was no
remedy for the grossest outrages. fact too
public, that in many counties the officers acted
wholly in the interest Of the radical candi-
dates, the only consideration being as to the
number OF opposition votes TO be stricken of
to secure a majority. In one case as many
as five hundred voters were DISTINGUISHED
upon secret effidavits. The Senator from