Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1878-12-19

deed, in South Carolina there seems to have
been no election at all in any proper sense
of the term. There was instead series of
skirmishes over the state in which the poll
ing-places were regarded as forts to be
by one party and held
could not be done with convenience. frauds
in the count and tissue-ballot devices were
resorted to in order to effectually destroy
the voice of the majority. These in brief
are the accounts given in the non.partisan
press, of the disgraceful outrages that at.
tended the recent elections, and SO far as l
have seen, these statements are without
serious contradiction. 1t is but just and
fair to all parties, however, that an impair
tial investigation of the facts shall be made
by committee Of the senate, proceeding
ing the power of the nation. Hence my
resolution.
But we do not need investigation to
establish certain facts already of official
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 four or
possibly five. We know that thirty.Gve of
these representatives were assigned to the
southern states by reason OF the colored
population, and that the entire political
power thus founded on the numbers of the
colored people has been seized and appro-
priated to the aggrandizement of its own
strength by the Democratic party of the
south.
The issue thus raised before the country,
Mr.. President, is not one of mere senti-
ment for the rights of the negro-though
far distant be the day when the rights Of
any American citizen, however black or
however poor, shall form the mere dust of
the balance in any controversy; nor is the
issue one that involves the waving of the
"bloody Shirt" to quote the elegant YER.
nacular of Democratic vituperation; nor
emily a question of the equality of the
black voter of the south with the white
voter Of the south; the issue, Mr.. Pres
ident, has taken far wider range,
one of portentous magnitude; and
that is, whether the white voter of the
north shall be equal 20 the white voter OF
the south in shaping the policy and fixing
the destiny Of this country; or whether, to
put it still more badly, the white man who
fought in the ranks of the Union army shall
have as weighty and influential vote in
the government of the Republic as the
white man who fought in the ranks of the
other to destroy, the Union of the states,
and to-day he who fought to destroy is far
more important factor in the government OF
| the nation than he who fought to uphold it.
Let me illustrate my meaning by compar.
ing groups of states of the same representa-
tive strength north and south. Take the
states of South Carolina, Mississippi and
Louisiana. They send seventeen represen.
tatives to congress. Their aggregate popula'
ton is composed of ten hundred and thirty.
FIVE thousand whites and twelve hundred and
twenty-four thousand colored; the colored
being nearly two hundred thousand in
excess of the whites. OF the seventeen
representatives., then, it is evident that
nine were apportiened to these states by
reason of their colored population, and
only eight by reason of their white popula
ton; and yet in the choice of the entire
seventeen representatives. the colored
voters had no more voice or power than
their remote kindred on the shores of Sene.
gambia, or on the Gold Coast. The
ten hundred and thirty.6ve thousand
choice of the entire seventeen rep
resentatives. In contrast, take two states
in the north, Iowa and Wisconsin, with
seventeen representatives. They have g
white population of two million two hun.
bred and forty.seven thousand-consider.
ably more than double the entire white
population of the three southern states
have named. In Iowa and Wiscol sin, there
fore, it takes one hundred and thirty.two
thousand white population to send repre-
sentative to congress, but in South Carolina,
Mississippi, and Louisiana every sixty thou.
sand white people send q representative.
In other words, sixty thousand white peo-
pie in those southern states have precisely
the same political power in the government
of the country that one hundred and thirty.
two thousand white people have in Iowa
and Wisconsin.
Take another group OF seventeen repre-
sentatives from the south and from the
north. Georgia and Alabama have white
population of eleven hundred and fifty.
eight thousand and colored population
of ten hundred and twenty thousand
They send seventeen representatives to con.
gress, of whom nine were apportioned on
account of the white population and eight
the colored voters are not able to choose a
single representative, the white Democrats
choosing the whole seventeen. The four
northern states, Michigan, Minnesota, Ne.
braska and California, have seventeen rep.
resentatives, based on white population of
two and quarter millions, or almost double
the white population of Georgia and Ala:
ba1na, go that in these relative groups OF
states we find the white man south exer-
cises by his vote double the political power
of the white man north.
Let us carry the comparison to more
comprehensive generalization. The eleven
ment had by the last census population of
nine and half millions, of which in round
numbers five and half millions were white
and four millions colored. On this aggre.
gate population seventy.three representa-
tives in congress were apportioned to those
states-forty-two or three of which we're by
reason of the white population, and thirty
or thirty.one by reason of the colored pop
ulation. At the recent election the white
Democracy of the south seized seventy of
the seventy.three districts, and thus secured
representatives,. Thus it appears that
throughout the states that formed the late
Confederate government seventy.ive thous-
and whites-the very people that rebelled
against the; Union-are enabled to elect
q representative in congress, while in the
loyal states it requires one hundred and
thirty two thousand of the white people
that fought for the Union to elect a:.repre,
sentative In levying every tax, tneretore-
in making every appropriation of money,
in fixing every line of public policy, in
of the Republic, the Confederate soldier
~ powerful and twice a. influential rs the
vote of the Union soldier north. g 4"
But the white men Of the south did not
acquire and do not hold this superior power
BY reason Of law 0r Justice, but in disregarv
and defiance of both. The fourteen
amendment to the constitution was expec'rf
to be and was designed 70 be z ..preventsv,