The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1875-02-20
A BIG STRIDE.

|
the abrogation of our republican form {
government and the establishment of an En-
prc after the most approved Napoleonj
model, the publication was regarded as
pleasant bit of irony, and the editor as a fir
class satirst Whatever may have been h
aRtmUS, however, whether jest or earnestncg
| his project has made such Roadway sine
then that it has ceased to be anything like
! Joke. 1t must be admitted that to cOnve
this government into an empire, it is no G
scntial part of the business that the office {
President shall cease to be elective. Gran
clothed with imperial powers, would be n
less an Emperor, though reelected quardr
lennially. Napolcan III. was elected in tn
first instance by the French people and t"'c
reelected, and each new election only IN
more strongly confirmed his imperial prero
gativcs. The stt61g point of his game wa
the same as that which is to make Gran
Emperor-the vesting him with, or the as
sumption by himself OF, such powers as en-
abled him, at each successive election, Il
compel popular majoritics IN his own favor
And this is exactly what congress, now ina
the free, untrammclcd voice Of IA vast MAORI
ty of the people has pronounced against tn
administration, is proposing to do for Presi
dent Grant.
The bill agreed upon in the Rep publican
caucus at Washington on Friday night 0
! last week, though put forward as a measure
80 protect electors and prevent fraud a
elections is a plain and direct attemp
to clolhe the president with power 81
to manipulate the elections Of not only
the southern, but of all the states
that he can compel the return of pop
uar majoritics in his favor. Under the plei
OF providing by law against conspiIacies tC
overthrow state governments, any voter, OF
number Of voters in any state, may be seizcC
mere ST spcIon, and the writ OF habeas corpus
being suspended, can be kept IN prison at the
presidents imperial pleasure. On the oat
of any radical, that he has reason to fear thai
an effort at any election may be made to cas'
Illegal votes, the polls may be surrounded by
a military force, and none but the unsuspect
ed allowed to vote, and any kind of a row al
or near the polls en- election day is to be re
garded as an intimidation OF voters, and the
vote at such polls can be thrown out by the
officers whom his imperial hIghness shall
ii uut ntn tn mo plntn rain
This is no eXaggcration or Oyerdrawn de-
scrlption Of the nature of the caucus propo-
sition in question. The bill has some twenty
sections, and each section is redOlent and
sinking of imperialism. 1t is true, the bill
IS ostcns bly, intended TO apply only to the
southern states and doubtless 1t will be some
line before the attempt will be made to en-
orce it in the northern states; but operative
N the south only, are its provisions still not
startlings Under its provisions
IN such an attempt as that made in New Or
leans in September last to overthrow the Kel.
logg government Grant could arm Sheridan
with all the powers he ever dreamed of TO
arrest the Louisiana conservatives as bandtti,
md try and shoot and hang them by thous-
lnds. Under the same bill The present peace.
lble government in Arkansas would be brok
N up at once, the sCoundrcl Brooks placed
n power, and thousands of honest, pcaceabe
itizenS shot as traitors. Happily, 1t is not
egarded rs possible that this monstrous eau
us scheme can pass congress, but the fact of
IS being SO seriously proposed shows de
rec of desperation and reckessness on the
art of the radical leaders at Washington that
S enough to cause one to shudder at the con
nmplatlon of what they would do had they
he courage and power to carry it through.