Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1878-12-12

Mr.. PRESIDENT The pending resolution was
offered by me " ith two-fold purpose In view ::
First, To plsce on record in q definite and su-
thentic form, the frauds and out ages by which
some recent elections were carried by the demo
cratic party in the Southern States.
Second, To find II there be any method by
which q repetition Of these crimes against free
ballot NAV be prevented.
The newspaper is the channel through which
the people of the United States are informed OF
current events, and the accounts given in the
press represent the elections in some of the South
ern States to have been accompan led bv violence !;
IN net few cases reaching the destruction OF
life to have been controlled by threats that awed
and intimidsted a large class Of voters: to have
been manipulated by fraud of the most shsmele less
and shameful description. Indeed in South Car
olins there seems to have been no election at all
In any proper sense of the term. There was in
stead series of skrmishes over the State in
which the polling places were regarded forts TO
be captured by one party and held against the
other, and where this could not be done with con
venence, suds in the count and tissue-ballot
devices resoited to in order TO effectually de-
stroy the voice Of the majority. These in brief
the accounts given IN the non-psrtisan pres,
of the dsgraceful outrages that attended the re-
cent elections, and so far as | have seen, these
statements are without serious contradiction. II
is but Just and fair to all parties however that an
impartial investigation of the facts shall be made
by . comm ttee Of the Senate, proceeding under
u
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 aud six Representatives in Con-
gress were recently CHI sen in the States formerly
slave holding and that the democrats elected one
hundred and possibly one hundred and
two aud the republicans four possibly five We
know that thirty five of these Representatives
were assigned to the Southt IN States by reason of
the coloed population, and that the entire polit-
cal power thus founded on the numbers of the
coored people has been seized and appropriated
to the ACKNOWLEDGMENT of its own strength by the
democratic parry Of the South.
The issue thus raise d before the country, Mr..
President, is not one of mere sentiment for the
rights of the negro-though far dis ant be the
day when The rights of any AGeficsn citizen,
however black or however poor, shall Iorm the
mere dust of the balance in any controversy
nor is tue issue one that involves the waving of
the "bloody shnt," to quote the elegant verDacu-
lar of democratic vtuperatiop; nor still further
is the issue ~ now presented only q question OF
the equality Of the black voter VI the South with
the white voter Of the South; the issue, Mr..
President, has taken lar wider range, one of
portentous magnitude; and that is, whether the
white voter of the North snail be equal to the
white voter of the South in shaping the policy
aud fixing the destiny of this country or whether,
to put it still more badly. the white who
fought in the ranks OF the L Ion Army shall have
AS weighty and influential vote in the Govern
ment Of the Republic as the white man who
fought in the ranks of the rebel army. The one
fought to uphold, the other to destroy, the
Union Of the States. and to-day he who fought TO
destroy is q far more important factor in the Gov
ernment Of the nation than be who fought to up
hold it.
Let me illustrate nv meaning by comparing
groups of States Of the same representative
strength North and South. Take the States of
South Carolina, Mississippi, and Louisiana. They
send seventeen Representatives to Congress.
Their aggregate population 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
10 excess of the whites. Of the seventeen Repre-
sentstves, then, 1t is evident that nine were ap-
portoned TO these States by reason OF their col
ored population and only eight by reason OF their
white population; and yet III the choice of the en-
tire seventeen Re tatives the coloed voters
had no more voice or power than their remote
kindred the shores of SeDegambs or on the
Gold Coast The ten hundred and thirty five
thousand white people had the sole and absolute
choice oil the entire seventeen Representatives
10 contrast, take two States in the North, Iowa
and Wisconsin, with seventeen Representatives.
They have q white population Of two million two
hundred and forty seven thoussnd-considera ably
more than double the entire white population of
the three Southern States have named. 10 Iowa
and Wisconsin, therefore, it takes one hundred and
thirty two thousand white population to send a
Representative to Congress, but ia South Caro-
lima, Mississippi, aud Louisiana every sixty thou.
sand white people send a Rep esentatve. In
other words, sixty thousand white people 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 10 Iowa and Wisconsin.
Take another group of seventeen Representa-
tives from the South and from the Nor h.
Georgia and Alabama have q white population Of
eleven hundred and fifty eight thousand and
colored population of ten hundred and twesty
thousand. They send seventeen Representatives
to Congress, Of whom nine were apportioned on
account Of the white population and eight on ac-
count of the coored population. But the coiored
voters are not able to choose single Represt MIA
tive, the white Democrats choosing the whole sew
enteen. The four Northern Safes Michigan,
Minnesota. Nebraska, and California have seven
teen Representatives. based on white population
of two aud quarter millions, or almost double
the white population Of Georgia and Alabama, so
that In these relative groups of States We find the
white man South exercises by his vote double the
political power of the white man North.
Let us carry the comparison to = more compre-
heDsive generalization. The eleven States that
formed the Confederate Government had BY the
last census population of nine and a half mil
lions, OF which in round numbers five and q half
millions were white and four millions colored On
this aggregate population seventy. three Reple-
sentatives in Congress were spportioned 20 those
States-torty two or three of which were by res-
son of the white population, and thirty or thirty
one by reason of the colored population. AT the
recent election the white Democracy of the South
seized seventy of the seventy three districts, and
thus secured Democratic majority in the mex,
House Of Representatives. thus it appears that
throughout the States that formed the late Con-
federate Government, sisty-fve thousand whites
the very people that rebeed against the Union
ARE enabled to elect Representative in Con
gress, while in the loyal States it requires one
hundred and thirty two thousand of the white
people that fought for the Union, to elect Rep
resentative. In leyyiDg every tax, therefore, 10
making every appropriation of money, 10 fixing
every line of public policy, in decreeIng what
shall De the fate and fortune of the Republic, the
Confederate soldier South is enabled TO cast a
vote that is twice powerful and twice as in
tiuentisl as the vote of the Union soldier North.
But the white men Of the South did not acquire
and do not hold this superior power by reason OF
law or justice, but in disregard and defiance OF
both. The fourteenth anne adnent to the Consti
tuition was expected to be and was designed to be
preventive aud a corrective of all such possible
abuses. The reading of the clause applicable to
the case is instructive and suggestive. Hear it
Representatives shall be sppoitioned among the
several States according to their respective mum
bers counting the whole number of persons in
each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But
aheH the tight TO vote at any election for the
choice Of electors for President and Vice President
of the United States, Representatives IN Congress,