The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1878-12-25
THE REPUBLICAN KEY NOTE
MR.. BLAIEE's RESOLUTIONS AND SPEECH
AssAILIEG THE SOUTH.
OFFICIAL REPORT.
Congressional Record, December III

MT. IIdiHIlH- move IUdL All previous
orders be postpone and that the Senate
now pr'ceed 10 the consideration of the
resolutions introduced by my colleague
NJ. Blaine.l
The motion was agreed To.
Mr.. Hamlin. Let the resolutions be read
The Vice President. The resolutions will
be reported at length
The Secretary read the resolution, as
follows:
Resolved, That the Committee on the
Judiciary be instructed to inquire aud re-
port 70 the Senate whether at the recent
elections the constitutional rights of Amer
lean citizens were violated in any o. the
States OF the Mon; whether the right OF
-uffragc of citiZeus of the United States or
OF any class OF such citizens, was denied or
abridged by the action of the election off
GERS of any State in refusing 10 receive
their votes in falling to count them. or in
receiving and counting fraudulent hallOf.
IN pursuance of "A conspiracy to III Ike The
lawful votes of such citizens OF nom. effect:
aud whether such citizens were prevented
from exercising the elective franchise. or
forced TO use 1t against their wishes, by
violence or threats, hostile demOnStra-
lions OF armed mep or other ORGANIZATIONS
or by any other unlawful means or practi-
ceS.
Resolved, That the Committee on the
Jud ciary be lurther instructed to inquire
aud report whetheFit is wiehin the compe-
trncy OF Congress 10 provide by additional
l. gislation for the more perfect security OF
the right OF suffrage to citizens of the Unit
| ed States in all the States OF the Union.
Resolved, That in prosecuting these in
| quirlrs the judiciary Committee shall haye
| the righr TO send tor persons and papers.
The Vice-President. The question is,
will the Senate agree TO these resolutions
| and upon this question the Senator from
| Maine Mr.. b iainel il tied to the fl or
Mr. Thurman. Before the Senator from
| Maine proceeds, 1 ask leave TO move an
am ndment. L can withhold it, however.
Ii, I Ill told lbs
a very lew minutes.
Mr.. Thurman. Very well
Mr. Blaine. Mr.. President the pending
resolution was offered By me with two
fold purpose in view:
First To placeon record, in a definite
and authentic form, the frauds and outrage~
BY whi.h some recent elections were carri-
! ID by the Democratic party III the Southern
: afes:
Second, To find II there he any method by
which a repetition of thee crimes against
a tree ballot may be prevented.
The newspaper Is the channel through
which he people of the UniteI States are in
| formed OF current events, and the accounts
| gwen in the press repre- sent 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 awed and
| inundated "A large class OF voters 10 have
| be, n manipulated BY fraud of the most
! shameless ana sham full description. In
| deed in South Carolina there seems to hav
| been no el elton at all in any proper sense
| of the term. There was Instead a series OF
skirmishes over the State in which the poll
! ing-places were regarded as forts 10 be
| captured by one party and held against the
| other, and where this could not be done
! with convenience, frauds III the count and
| Lis- ue-b ballot devices were rcsorted to III
order to effecUually destroy the voice OF the
| majority. These in brief are the accounts
given in the non-partizan press, OF the dis
| graceful outrages that attended the rec nj
| elections. and SO far rs i have seen, these
statements are without serious contradjc
ton, 1t is but just and Iair to all parties.
! however, thar an Impartial lnvestl CATION
OF the facts shall be made by a committee
| of he Senate, proceeding under the author
! i'y OF law and representing the power of
| the nation. Hence my resolution.
! But do not need investigation to es-
| rablish certain facts already of official re-
| cord. We know that one hundred aud six
| Representatives in Congress were recently
chosen i'm the States formerly slave : slding
and that the Democrats elected one hundred
aud one o. possibly one hundred anG TWO
| aud the Republicans four or possibly five.
! We know that thirJytiVe OF these r pre-
| SrntatiVeS We're assigned to the Southern
| States by reason of the colored pOluI alton.
and that the entire political power thus
/ founded on the numbers oil tue cDlored pro-
pie has been seized and appropriated to thu
aggrau. izement 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 sentiment
for the rights OF the negro though Tar dis
tant be the day when the rights of ANY
American citizen. however black or how
ever poor, shall form the mere dust OF the
b dance la any controversy nor Is the Issue
one that Involves the waving OF the ''olcody
shirt" TO quote the elegant vernacHlar OF
Democratic NituprratiOu; nor still further
l. the issue "a now presented only ques-
on of he equality OF the black voter oil
/ - Il of h.
south: the issue, Mr.. Preside t, ha>
taken far wtder range, one OF p
tentous magnitude; and that Is, VII tn
CT he white voter OF the North shall b.
equal to the white voter OF the SOoth I'm
shaping the policy and fixing the destiny o
t4iS country; or whether, 70 put it still
more boldly, the white man that f'nght IN
the ranks OF the L nion Army shall have a
we ghty and inf lential vote in rhe Gov
eminent OF The X pubic "a the white man
who Tough in the ranks OF the rebel army
TIE one fought 10 upnold, the other 10
stroy, the Union of the States. aud TO day
he who fought to destroy is "A far more i'm
portant factor IN the Government OF the ma
t;nn thau he who fought to uphold it.
Let me Illus rate my meaning by compar-
ing groups of States OF TIL same RepreSen-
rat,ve strength North and ,uth. Take the
States of South Carolina, Ml~SlsSl PM anu
Louisiana. They send seventeen RepreSen
tatiyrS to Congress. Their aggregate pppu-
lation is composed of ten hundred and thIr-
ty-tive thousand whites aud twelve hundred
and tWeuCV-fOur thousand colDTed; the col
nred being nearly two hundred thousand IN
exec. of the whites Oh the seventeen R~p-
reseutatlves, then, it Is evident thai MN
were apportioued To these States by reason
OF heir cOlOred population. aud only elgnL
| bv reason of their white population; and
| vet in the choice of the entire seventeen hep
| resentatives the colnred vOt''rs had no more
voice or power than their remote kindred
| on the shores of S,negambia or on the
| Gnl hundred
! five thou-and white people had the sole ana
| abs llute choice of the entire seventeen KEEP
| resentatives. In contrast, take two STATES
| in the North. Iowa and Wisconsin. with
| seventeen Representatives. They nave
| white population of two million two nun
| bred and forty-seven thouSand-consldeEa
| bly, more than double the entire whit. p p
| ulatiOn of the three Southern states L nave
| named In Iowa and Wisconsin. therefore,
| it takes one hundread and thirty two thous-
! and white population TO send representa-
| tive to Congress. but in South Carolina. MIS-
| sissippi, aud Louisiana every sixty thous-
| aud white people send Repre- sentative
| In other words, sixty thousand W bite peepie
| in those southern States have precisely the
| same political power in the government OF
| the country that one hundred and thirty wv"
| thousand white people inlowa and Wlseon-
| sin
| Take another group of seventeen Repre-
| sentatives from the South and from the
| North. Georgia and Alabama have white
| population OF eleven hundred and nifty
| eight thousand and a colored population OF
| EN- hundred and twenty thousand. Ihey
send seventeen Representatives to Congress
| of whom nine were appOrtioned on account
of the white population and eight on &C
count of the cOlOred population. But the
| colored voters are not able to choose SIN
| gle Representative, the white Democrats
Choosing the whole seventeen The tour
| Northern States. Michigan, Minnesota. Ne
braska and California have seventeen Keep
resenl atives, based on a white populotion OF
two and a quarter millions, or almost dou-