The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1879-04-03
The Battle In the House,
Congressman Frye's scafhiny Resuke Of
the Democrats.

Inc great speech Of the present Congress. so
Iar' was made In the House Tuesday by Mr..
RYE OF this State. The House had passed from
'ne cond'tion OF strict attention under Chal-
merss speech through the halt attention To
McMahon over to the indifference with which
1t heard the noise of Belford talking, when
Mr.. Frye brought it back by stroke after
stroke Of his strong sentences, which caused
the early guns Of the rebellion to sound in manv
ears again. 1t was the fre-eatirg, tauntng,
insulting speech Of Chalmers of Fort Pillow
that reused him 10 hurl back the imputation of
TINS reinstated rebel that the administration
OF the national government for eighteen years
had been only drunken depotism. Running
rapidly over the points of denunciation made
oy Cnaimers and Muldrow, he announced a
thlrd witness from Mississippi, and sent m tbs
desk an editorial of an Okalona paper which
has been widely copied, opening with "Tbank
600, we have captured the Capitol" With
this as as a text Mr.. Frye recalled the times
when the South supposed it had capturea tbs
Capitol, hrst in 1882, when South Carolina de-
ned the government and thought she had de-
stroyed II. only to encounteri jackson aud bo
ground to powder. This he followed with a
graphic sketch OF the capture of Burns in Bos-
ton, parade OF the soldery, the shotted guns
turned on the citizens of Massachusetts and
her halls of justice under the bayonet, and the
old Common wealth humiliated aud dsgraced
by the enforcement Of an infamous law that
made Northern citizens dogs to do the negro
hunting OF the South. From this he passed To
to bontires IL Virginia and general acclaim
throughout the South, and then again, said
Mr. Frye, the South supposed il was on the
point Of capturing, the Capitol. The reaction
al the North would prevent this. They were
nearer to the Capitol many tin es during the
war than they were now even with both
Houses in their control. The South had stood
in arms in sight of the Capitol, and again
sh ana C;na again they supposed they had captured
OF men, and their rebellion failed.
Then Burns was free, and, not only
free, but citizen, voter. Thep, with the
Ku-klqx and White Liners, these negroes had
been slaughtered by thousands and tens Of
thousands, till the record Of these deeds of
0looo, written with pen of iron, were stacked
up In the Capitol by tons, and now they were
stretching out their hands 10 capture the Capi-
tol again, with all the laws for honest elections
aside, and New York carried BY fraud. With
solid South, they would surely win the Capi-
tol; but, said Mr.. Frye to the Democrats,
You have not yet repealed these laws; you
never will repeat them till you find some
means OF removing the present Executive
Inns was SAID with solemn manner and an
earnestness that caused general and very deep
impression. 1t was only giving voice to what
many Republicans know, and In the words the
Democrats saw the battle that is before them.
He declared that the hand stretched out now
through these infamous measures to capture
the Capitol would fall powerless, stricken By
an angel of God. But no brief account can
give an idea of the strength and impressive
ness of this impassioned effort of Mr.. Frye.
The Democratic side sat under portions of il as
If the lightning were playing over them, and
on the Republican side there came back the
thrilling sensation Of the days when the gov
ernment which Chalmers denounced as .
drunken despotism was waging war for free
dom and nationality.