The spirit of democracy. [volume] (Woodsfield, Ohio) 1844-1994, 1871-03-07
The Military Election Rl,l.

The Military Election Bill.
heniltary election or supplemental
enforcement bill passed the Senate at
half past one o'clock the morning oftthc
25th ult., just as it came from the House,
and after a most vigorous expose and
protest on the part of the Democratic
Senators. Shortly after midnight Sen.
ator Blair closed the debate IN a speech
of half al hours duration, remarkable
no less for the forcible manner of its
delivery than for the forcble points it,
presented. He made fierce attack,on
the carpet-haggers in Congress, and
brought to his feet Senator Ames of
Mississippi,whom he charged with elect
ing himself hy the bayonets he COM
manded, and even signing his own Ger,
tificate of election, as military comman-
der. General Blair said that this bill,
instead of being bill to protect the.
right of suffrage, was bill to deprive
tie people OF, that right, He inquired
what was the urgent haste for the pass
age of this bill? 1t is two years in ad.
vance of the time when it can possibly
be needed Two sessions of Congress
will intervene before it can be put into
operation, and why is it urged now, If,
not because the majority are afraid to
meet the representatives fresh from the
people? This bill, like the other, is in
tended, he said, to enforce the frudulent
Fifteenth Amendment. which, as he
showed the other day, was carried by
the most outrageous fraud and deceit
Senator's and Representatives Of the
people whose States had overwhelming
| iy voted down negro suffrage voted for
this amendment, and now sit here and
vote for the bills to enforce it. While
| he recognized the Fifteenth Amendment
as valid, notwithstanding the manner of
fits adoption, he could not regard these
dbills to enforce it as constitutional OF
valid While the Senator from Delaware
| Mr. Bayard) had spoken of the use Of
the troops at the elections in New York
and Philadelphia, nothing had been said
about the use of troops at the South
during elections, We had become SC
used to the bayonet on the South a,
elections that it seemed to be regarded
as matter Of course. The elections
were carried by the bayonet; and, said
General Blair, the President elected him
self by the bayonet, and his military
commanders in the South had, by tht
use of their troops, elected themselves
to high offices. One of them is in tht
the Senate now, and it is said another il
on his way here. Sensation. 7 -
i Mr. Ames, for the first time since b,
has taken seat in the Senate, jumped
to his feet. II desire to know, sir
said he, elf the Senator means to init
mate that the troops were not used &C
cording to law?" General Blair replict
promptly: "Oh, / suppose you use,
them according to the law, but the la,
had no right or authority under til
Constitution" He added that the OF
der issued by the United States Attol
ney and United States Marshal in Nel
York was withdrawn, but it would nc
have been withdrawn if there had bee
a Presidential election. He believe
that the design now was to pass thi
:, bill to give the President power to II
elect himself by the bayonet, as he cleo
!. ed himself by the bayonet before, an
!, to carry the State Of New York by Dir
: wing the Democratic voters from til
polls at the point of the bayonet II
! looked upon Senator CoDkling as til
Gproper person to have charge of the bi
N the Senate, for that Senator, he d,
clared, while misrepresenting the voit
!. of his people, voted to fasten negro SUI
! frage upon them, and other Senator
q who did as he did stained their hand
) They talk about purifying the ballot-bo.
g They purified it in the South with a vel
e geance. The men whom Congress he
: set up as rulers there have robbed Il
g people They arc responsible to no oil
but to Congress. Every one of the.
Southern States is now on tie verge {
: bankruptcy. One Governor, who, whe
s he went down there had not none
8 enough to buy his breakfast, now liy,
: 10 a magnificent house and dimes a hui
y dred men at time They proposed
confer the ballot upon the people of Il
}, South, and yet they had disfranchise
q most of the men of that section.
his own State OF Missouri they had fe
s this thing as keenly as they had in Il
!. South, if not more so. These Radio
6 plunderers had control of the State, al
v had made away with its most yaluab
franchise. They had excluded from Il
: ballot large majority Of the citizens
IS the State.
al General Blair said he would mut
le sooner that a military commander hs
q represented Missouri in the Senate tn:
the man who had represented it, al
who elected himself through the aid
!: a few liberal Republicans. Last fall Il
l. State of Missouri was rescued from 4
y clutches of the parties who had so loI
held it, and at the next election it won
< give one hundred thousand Democrat
Ell majority. That the State had not BET
d ruined by the way in which it had be,
plundered was because it was thriviI
N and growing Western community.
The French and German L0sse
A German writer estimates the Fren
- loceos ~ tho xr,r OF 500 (l00 bogs 11,f m,