The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1875-01-28


proceedings, that ywer eyerlook k0Ye for ,
| get to appreciate Their true vaNieAthoses
events happening every day such which
would have excited our livlest interest
ifthey had happened in other countries
or other times. A military squad de-
terminihg that election! Auxiliary Qii.
err determining whether. or not the
Judgment ofthe House upon the qualiii-
cations of its own members has been
right Why, gentlemen, suppose your
own worthy Mayor, on some dayywhen
thecity council is to organize, should osk
for a squad of soldiers fromthe Newport
Barracks and take them to the city build
irg and eject seven men whom he tho't
ought not be permitted to lake their
seats the Governor of this State calling
upo Federal troops to prevent the ln-
augural of the Lieutenant Governor, be-
cause forsooth, he thought he had not
been Justly counted in. ! sat myself in
the House of Representative on an oc-
casion when question of grave import
ance arose and upon it depended in a
great manner the whole organization,
and it entered not into the mind ofthe
widest man who was there that military
power should be invoked for the purpose
of determining that question.
The Constitution of the United States
| says that the Congress of the United
States shall protect the States from :nya-
| sion, and upon the requisition Of the
| Legislature, or, if the Legislature cannot
be convened, of the Governor, against
domestic violence. In all other cases
Federal authority in State affairs is for
bidden. Was there domestic violence |
in louisiana? Who can pretend it when
it was only aquestion of the organization
in the House? Was there demand by |
the Legislature? Everybody knows that |
no such demand was made, although |
both Honses were sitting in the capital
of the State. Was there demand from
the Governor even of the State to sup
press domestic violence? Not at all; for
all that the troops did was to take this
list in their hands and TO weed out the
names from the members as they sat in
their seats, Applause.
Gentlemen, would leave this ques-
ton Just here but that the President of
the United States, in obedience to call
of the Senate, has sent to that body a
message, in which, while he does not in
any degree Justify, defend or assert to
be legal, this action Of his and his sub
ordinate officers, he does, nevertheless,
by his i.sinuation and excuse and apOl-
ogy so paliate the offense as that it
would seem he intended to take away
from il in the public mind all that was
worthy of public condemnation. What
does he say? That the mode of electing
the speaker was not according to the
law of Louisiana. Gentlemen, who is
to be Judge of that, the House of Rep
resentatives or the President of the
United States? Applause He says
that the men who were elected by mill
tary force had not the proper certificates |
of the Returning Board. Gentlemen,
who is the proper judge of that, the
House itself or. the military? each
house shall be the Judge Of the election
returns and qualifications of its mem
bers." That is the law Of the Constitu-
ton of the United States. That is the
law of the Constitution of the State of
Ohio. That is the law OF the State of
Indiana, and Illinois, and Kentucky, and
Louisiana, too, and every other State in
America. Loud applause '
That is the law Of the Parliament of
England. That is the law Of the AS
sembly in France That is the law Of
the Reichstagin Germany. That is the
law of the Italian Parliament That is
the necessary, the inherent, the inevita-
bic law of every deliberative legislative.
body in the world.-[A voice, "What is
the Indian law?"-laughter.l l.5'I
But following this line Of argument I
the President indicates to us a sentence
which | desire to read to you:
ut is a certainty that there would have
been no trouble If those who now COM
plain Of illegal interference had allowed
and regular manner" Laughter '
Who, pray, complains of these pro-
ceedings? Doubtless the people of Lou
isiana doubtless the eople of New Or
leans; doubtless those who feel the
heavy hand directly upon themselves.
Bpt who else complained? The people
of Cincinnati aud New York, and Bos-
ton and Baltimore, and Louisville and
Philadelphia, complain in their public
meetings, [applausel the people of the
country complain through their Senators
and Representatives and Legislatures
and Governors and when they complain
that their constitution has been violated
that public liberty is imperilled, that the
government has taken the first step in
that downward path which ends in the
way Of Republics; that the people of
those States are to be 'teld that we must
stop, with bateG breath, until the House
of Louisiana shall make an humble
apology to President Grant, Is a matter
of serious moment.
AS Judge Hoadiy said, this is but a
single act in series of transactions. 1t
stands conspicuous in its outrage but is
olated in its sequences; it is but one of
the IA It's which are calculated. intended,
performed in order to maintain a gov
ernment which was decreed by the order
Of a drunken judge; which has been
sustained every hour Of its existence by
Federal troops, which, when Federal
troops were removed fell instantly with
out blow against ii, without a blow
struck in its behalf in the midst of peace
and order, execrated by all good men
and lamented BY those who had fattened
on its spoils; Applause Then, gem
tlemen, there was not cry that went up
throughout the whole country of sorrow
at its detection, except from those who
held the purse-strings and their allies
throughout the country; and who, like
foul birds, filed the air with hoarse
cries when they see the putrid corpse
upon which they have fattened carried
away.
l would rather not have spoken one
word to night in any partisan sense, but
this is the first paper emanating from
the Executive Office of the President of
the United States in which he has chos-
en- to characterize by the name of great
party III the country all the elements, as
he chooses to put them, of disorder and