The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1876-12-22
TIE sEGXS.
BEL AIR. FRIDAY. DEC. Is, 1876.
Intimidation in Louisiana.

In the United States Senate, few day
the report Of tha Republican visiting com
mittee to Louisiana, in which Senators Bay
ard and Thurman etfeCtuaily silcnCed Senate
John Sherman and Others who undertook t
defend that thoroughly partisan document
The speech of Senator Thurman, especially
like everything else that falls from his lips
is marked by sound good sense and by du
regard for constitutional law. In The corr,
of his remarks he said
Why sir, they talk of intimidation =
Here are thousands of negro men IN Louis
lana who come up and say we voted rh,
Democratic ticket, have seen it stated II.
high as thousands; call it hundreds if vur
choose; call it any number you please; they
come up and say we voted the Democratic
ticket What does the Returning Board
.sayp Count their votes? Not AT all; they
say you were intimidaled to vote the Demo.
cratic ticket What then? They come up
and make affidavit that they voted the Demo.
cratic ticket, end that they voted it without
intimidation. What does the Returning
Board say You were inundated IL
make the affidavit And SC it goes
why, sir, where is the end OF this? Can
not any man who has the least honesty ami
the least shgacity in the world see that il
such practices rs these be tolerated ANYTHING
like republican institutions and fee govern
ment and IL free ballot are at an end? You
put the destines of The whole States IN the
hands of four irresponsible men allied n re-
turning board, and then talk about a repub
lican form of government You want to
invoke the whtle force of the Government,
its army its navy, to secure to State re-
publican form OF government; and You puU
in the hands of four irresponsible men, and
not of the highest character either, the right
to determine upon the phase of The govern.
ment of that State. Ard yet you call thal
republican form of government!
Mr.. President, it will not do no, sir, it
viii not do. Ny colleague said, with great
force and cIoquence, that if electio s were
to be carried in this country by intimidation
there was an end of republican institutions.
agree with him; and | tell him, and | say
to each one OF you, that if elections are to
he carried by the use OF the army of the
United States and its Intimidation, there is
an end of republican institutions, Sir all
the intimidation that ever actually existed
on the part CT the Democratic or the white
people OF the South is but as q drop in the
bucket TO the danger of that intimidation
which CONES from the standing army of the
United States. Anarchy in any country at
last corrects itself, for it cannot be borne; but
the use OF standing army to control the
people has been fatal to liberty ever since a
republic existed. | agree with my col.
league that intimidation of the voters is
fatal to republican government; bu | ask
him, while his mind, heated and excited by
what he has seen and heard, is brooding over
cases of homicide, of violence, and the like,
to think Of the ar greater danger of nlimi-
dation by hat organized body which carries
the sword and the bayonet and wclds the
artillery of the army. | ask him to think of
that muc': graver danger OF intimidation
from him who shall hold in his hand the
purse and the sword. | ask him to remem
Der that there have been CWsars and Crom
wells and Bonapartrs IN the world who have
oyerthrown republican institutions; but re-
publican institutions never yet have been
oveIthrown by the kind Of intimidation of
which lie speaks"