The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1878-12-12
BLAINE's SPEECH,
Delivered Yesterday in the us
Senate.
The Recent Elections in the South
0yerhauIsd. .
The Grounds Of Permanent PacficatiCn
Between the North and South Stated.

Blaine's resolution OF inquiry in regard tc
alleged intimidations and frauds in the re
cent elections being under consideration
he addressed the Senate as follows,
Nh. PRrs1DKSr: The pending resolution
was offered by me with . two-told pur
pose in view: - :.
First, To place on record, in a definite
and authentic form, the frauds and outra
ges by which some recent elections were
carried by the Democratic party In the
Southern States:
Second, To find il there be any method
by which repetition OF these crimes
against O free ballot may be prevented. :.
The newspaper is the channel through
which the people OF the United States are
Informed OF current events, and the &C
counts given in the press represent the
elections in some OF the Southern states
to have been accompanied by violence; IN
not few cases reaching the destruction Of
life to have been controlled by threats that
ayed and intimidated large class OF yot,
ers: to have been manipulated BY fraud oil
the most shameless and shameful descrlp
ton. Indeed in South Carolina there
seems to have been no election at al IN
any proper sense ofthe term. There was IN
stead series OF skirmishes over the state
in which the polling-places were regarded
as forts To- be captured by one party and
held against the other, and where this
could not be done with convenience
frauds in the count and tissue ballot de-
vices were resorted to in order TO effect
naIly destroy the voice OF the majority
These In brief are the accounts gwen il
the non.partisian press, OF the disgracetul
ontrapes that attended the recent cleo
tons and so far as have seen, these state
ments are without serious contradiction
II Il but lust and fair to all parties, how
ever. that an impartial investigation Of nc
facts shall be made by a committee OF the
Senate, proceeding under the authority oil
law and representing the power oil the ma
ton. Hence my resolution,
But we do not need investigation 70 es,
tablish certain facts already OF oalc1a!
record. We know that one hundred and
six Representatives in Congress were re-
Gently chosen In the States formerly slave,
holding and that the Democrats elected
one hundred and one or possible one hun
dred and two and the Republicans tour OF
possibly Ave. We know that thirty:tve Of
these Representative were assigned 70 the
Southern States by reason OF the colored
nonnistiOn. and that the entire political
power thus founded on the numbers OF the
coloretl people has been seized and appro'
priated 10 the ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF It's own
strength by the Democratic party oil the
South.
THE issue thus raised before the country
Mr.. President, is not one OF mere senti'
ment for the rights of the negro-thongt
far distant be the day when the rights O
any American citizen, however BLACK o.
however poor, shall form the mere dust o.
the balance in any controversy; nor Is the
issue one that involves the waving OF the
"bIoody shirt" to quote the. elegant YER
nacular OF Democratic vituperanon; mol
still further is the issue as now presented
only a question OF the equality OF the black
voter OF the South with the white voter
OF the South; the issue, Mr.. President, has
taken far wider range, one OF porten'
tous magnitude; and that is, whether the
white voter OF the North shall be equa
To The white voter OF the South in shaping
Inc policy and fixing the destiny OF Thu
country; or whether, 10 put it still more
BADLY the white man who fought in the
ranks Of the Union army shall have q
weighty and influential vote In the gov
eminent Of the Republic as the white mar
who fought in the ranks Of the rebel army
The one fought to uphold, the other 10 de
stroy. the union OF the States, and to-day
he who fought to destroy is far more I'M
portant factor in the government OF tht
Nation than he who fought to uphold 1t.
Let me illustrate my meaning by com
pairing groups OF States OF the same re
preventative strength North and south
Take the States OF South Carolina, Miss
issippi and Louisiana. They send seven
teen Representatives to Congress. Theil
aggregate population is composed OF ter
hnndFed and thirty-five thousand whites
and twelve hundred and twenty-ioul
thousand colored; the colored being near
| iy two hundred thousand in axcess OF thu
whites. OF the seventeen Representa-
lives. then, IL is evident that nine were up
Dortioned to these States by reason o
their coiored population, and only eigh
by reason OF the white population; ant
vet in the choice OF the entire seventeen
Representatives the colored voters had NJ
more voice or power than their remote
kindred on the shores OF Senegamhia o.
nm the Gold Coast. The ten hundred AMI
thirty.fiye thousand white people had thu
sole and absolute choice OF the entir'
seventeen Representatives. In contrast
take two States in the North, Iowa ant
Wisconsin, with seventeen Representa-
lives. They have population Of tT'
million two hundred aud torty,seTeI
lthousand-considerably more than double
the entire white population OF the thro'
Southern States have named. In Iowa ant
Wisconsin, therefore, ittakes one hundret
and thirty.two thousand white population
10 send a Representative to Congress, Blu
In South Carolina, Mississippi and Louis
lana every sixty thousand white peopl
send a Representative, In other words
sixty thousand white people IN hos
Southern States have precisely the sam
nolitical power in the government OF tn
rorntrv that enc hundred and thiEty-tw
thousand white people have in Iowa an
Wisconsin.
Take another group Of seventeen Ref
resentatiyes from the South and from tn
North. Georgia and Alabama have
white population Of eleven hundred an
ttttvsHtBuL tIlUu18A44A thlA - SStNASt ESt-Sfs
t;on 81 len hundred and twenty THOUSAND
They send seventeen Representatives
Congress, OF whom nine were apportione
an account OF thu Vhits population an
eivht on account Of the Colored population
BIt the eolored voters arc not able
choose 0 single Representative, the whit
Democrats choosing the whole seventeen
The four Northern States, AlloAig4n, llI
nesota, Nebraska, and California, hav
!, seventeen Representatives, hasea on
white population Of two and q quartz
millions, or almost double the whitePop!
iation Of Georgia and Alabama, so that
these relative groups Of States We find d
; white man South exercises by, his 70
double the political power Of the WIN
Let ~ carry the comparison 70 mo-
q comprehensly generalization, The eleyt
States that formed the Confederate Go