, 1879-01-23
EXERCISE OF ELECTIVE FRAN cHISE.
speech orIIon. Jas. q. Blaine.
Of MAINE, IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED
STATES, DECEMBER II, 1875


iutions to the Senate:
RESOLVED, That the Committee on
the Judiciary be instructed to M
quire and report to the Senate wheth-
er at the recent elections the consti-
tutional rights of American citizens
were violated in any of the States OF
the Union; whether the right of sui.
frage of citizens, was denied or
abridged by the action of the election
officers of any State in refusing to
receive their votes, in falling toI
count them, or in recei ing andI
counting fraudulent ballots IN pur-
suance Of conspiracy to make the
lawful votes of such citizens Of none
effect; and whether such citizens
were prevented from exercising the
elective franchise, or forced to nse
it against their wishes, by violence
or threats, or hostile demonstrations
of armed men or other organizations,
or by any other unlawful means or
pratices.
RESOLVED, That the Committee on
the Judiciary be further instructed
to inquire and report whether 1t is
within the competency Of Congress
TO provide additional legislation for
the more perfect security ofthe right
OF suffrage to citizens of the United
States of the Union.
RESOLVED, That in prosecuting
these inquiries the Judiciary Com
mite shall have the right to send for
persons and papers.
On Wednesday, Dec. IL, he ad-
dressed the Senate as follows:
Mr.. PRESIDENT, the pending, reso'
lutions were offered by me with a
two fold purpose in view:
First, To place on record, in def
mite and anthenic form, the frauds
and outrages by which some recent
elections were carried by the Demo
cratic party in the Southern States:
Second, To find if there be any
method by which a repetition of these
crimes against free ballot may be
prevented.
The newspaper is the channel
through which the people of the
United States are informed of cur-
rent events, and the accounts given
in the press represent the elections
in some of the Southern States to
have been accompanied by violence;
in not a few cases reaching the des
truction Of human life; to have been
controlled by threats that awed and
intimidated large class of voters;
to have been manipulated by fraud
OF the most shameless and shameful
description. Indeed in South Caro-
lima there seems to have been no
election at all in any proper sense of
the term. There was instead Sc
ries of skirmishes over the State in
which the polling places were re
garded 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 devices were resortcd
to in order to effectually destroy the
voice of the majority. These in
brief are the accounts given in the
on-partizan press, of the disgrace
full outrages that attended the recent
elections, and so far as | have seen,
these statements are without serions
contradiction. 1t is but just and
fair to all parties, however, that All
impartial investigation of the facts
shall be made by committee of t he
Senate, proceeding under the author
ity Of law and representing the pow
er Of the nation. Hence my resolu.
ton.
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 recently chosen in
aLn SAn1nn c,rnn.l. .l.. ILL.