The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1879-04-03
the Republican Position.

The people of the United States
should understand precisely what were
the issues between the Democratic and
Republican parties that provoked an
extra session of.Congress. This is not
because an extra session of Congress
is q great national calamity, but the
spirit and purpose of the two parties
were manifest during the last few days
and hours of the last Congress. In the
closing hours OF the last session OF
Congress Mr.. Southland, of Ohio, terse-
ly and accurately named the attitude
of the Republican party on the ques-
tions upon which the issue was JON.
ed. His statement of the question
was so irresistibly true that no attempt
was really made to deny it in all the
Republican skirmishing for effect. Mr..
Soathard SAID: "The position taken
by the Republicans is necessitating an
extra session of Congress upon the
country. For what purpose2 Let 1t
bedistinctly understood here and in
the country : first, because they insist
upon the use of the army at the
polls; second, because they In
sist upon the test-oath for the purpose
Of packing juries; third, because they
insist on q body of electioneerers at
the polls in the shape of Supervisors
and Marshals, to be paid out of the
Treasury and to be used in the inter-
est of the Republican party. These
are the three questions upon which
the parties are divided. l say these
three propositions are embraced in :
first, doing away with the presence of
soldiers at the polls; second, the abO-
lition of the test oath, and, third, do
ing away with Marshals and Supervis-
ors on and before the day of election.
1t is the question of the freedom of
election and the presence of hired
and bribed agents to work for a par
ticular political party"
The Representatives of the Demo-
cratic party in the House, as Mr..
Southard proudly boasted. stood as
one man, "determined to maintain
these rights at all hazards" 1t was
then urged on the Republican side
that in the succeeding Congress the
the Democrats would have control OF
both branches, and could then repeal
tho laws obnoxious to them. The in
sincerity of this was apparent then,
and is apparent now. The sun had
scarcely set upon the expiring Con.
gress when it was proclaimed, almost
by the aui ihority of the Chief Execu-
tive himself, that if the Forty sixth
Congress should pass the bills EN-
bodying these principles of liberty the
President, doing not his own will, but
the will OF his p,rty, would veto them.
1t is generally understood, and the
organs of the Republican party and OF
the Executive announce that this will
be the fate OF these bills in the White
House. The hOllOwness of the Re-
publican pretense at ''compromise"
upon these questions in the Forty fifth
Congress is now evident. Even if
they yielded every thing save the au
thority to move the Federal Govern
ment into the towns to take charge of
elections, they would have retained
the essential thing-the machinery for
carrying elections by Federal bribery
and Federal force. Even then the Re
to haul in the army as part of the
schemes, and those provisions are al
most unlimited authority to carry
elections.
The Democrats in Congress who
brought these questions to blunt is
the country. They exposed the posi-
ton and the purposes of the Republi
can party. The Senate is Republican
no longer, but it is devolved upon the
White House to bear the burden alone
1t was the Republican Senate, which
was shocked at the idea of attaching G
legislation TO appropriation bills, that
itself attached one of these hideous
provisions to an appropriation bill
And the Republican party appears, in
its dying hours, as the desperate de.
fender of packed juries, of Govern.
ment muskets at the polls, and Of
making the Federal Government 6
stupendous electioneering and bribei
in elections.