The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1879-09-17

in 1868; but he does not pretend that ex-
perience has proved the law to have been
wise one, for he knows that wherever its
power has been invoked the deputies en-
| ployed and paid out of the public treasury
have been largely poor Democrats, bribed to
desert their party for s. day, and still
more largely the most despicable seoun-
| drels that could be raked from the bells of
the big cities. The law has demonstrated
| itself everywhere to be the basest and cor
ruptest instrument of partisanship ever
seized upon to stay the downfall of party
in power.
| Dodging the question of the constitution
ality and expediency of the law, Mr.. Sher
man arraigns Gen. Rice and myself for
| having refused appropriations of money to
! hire these spies and marshals to informed
| die with State elections He says the
| withholding of public money for this pur
pose Is a more dangerous opposition than
the attempted notification of the tariff
| laws by South Carolina, put down by Gen.
| Jackson, or even the attempted secession
put down by civil war. By this doctrine
notification and secession are made easy by
the refusal OF a majority of either House
to obey the law"
He seems particularly sorry to find Gen.
Rice and myself, after our honorable re-
cord during the war" in this terrible att-
they were right during the war, they
wrong nov. | have no disposition to crit
Icise them or arraign them, but | prefer TO
follow the old Republican flag that was
hoisted III 1851" Stop there, Mr.. Sherman
| want, in the midst of your patriotic
peroration, to call your attention to the fact
that i'll following the Republican flag in
$50 you, yourself, offered an amendment
to the army appropriation bill to the effect
that 'Fun of tho military farce nf the
United States herein provided for shall
be employed in aid of the enforcement of
the enactmentS of the alleged legislative
assembly of the territory of Kansas - and
further, that your amendment was adopted,
and further, because the Senate refused to
concur in your amendment you fllibustered
and forced the adjournment of the first
session of the Thirty-fourth Congress,
leaving the army without a dollar of APP
preparations and further, that when the
President called Congress together again
you voted to adhere to your amendment and
undertook to force an adjournment of the
second session without permitting the
passage of the army appropriation bill, but
were overruled by a few of your conserva-
tive Republican colleagues Joining the
Democrats and saving the army from dis
bandment for want of an appropriation.
As you seem to- have forgotten this |
striking page in your political history, |
refer you to the Congressional Globe, |
Thirty Fourth Congress, part second, 1855 |
St, pages 1,754, 100, 1874 and 2,24O, and |
page Is of the appendix. You will find the |
references handy, as they are all in one
volume.
The difference between your position then |
and now is this; Then you were struggling |
against a bad use of federal troops in a ter |
ritory, over which the federal government |
had supreme control; and now you are |
struggling for a bad use of federal troops |
and marshaIs to control State elections, |
with which the federal government has |
nothing whatever to do. You were willing /
to disband the whole army then rather than |
suffer the federal government to exercise its
undoubted powers; and now you denounce |
as rebels and nullifers men who served |
through the war for the Union, while you
prospered in peace and comfort at home, |
for disbanding your hordes of partisans, |
paid from the common treasury of the peo- |
Pile to wrest from them the control of their |
ballot box.
am not disposed, my fellow-citizens, to
claim that in the ordinary exercise of its |
powers Congress is at liberty to withhold APP |
priations for purposes prescribed by law.
We did not withhold any appropriations |
the failure of which is at all likely to inter |
fere with any of the departments of the gov
eminent in the exercise of their ordinaryand |
acknowledged powers We merely forbade |
the of any money appropriated for the |
army to transport or maintain troops at the |
polls; and we withheld no appropriations, |
except for the fees of marshals and their |
deputies We knew that all the marshals |
would be patriotic enough to hold on to |
their offices and draw their regular salaries, |
and perform all their ordinary and useful |
duties trusting to Congress to pay their |
fees for legitimate service. We merely re
solved that the public treasure should not
be wasted, nor the control of our State cleo
tions interfered with by hiring bummers
and shoulder-hitters, or bribing needy men
out of the common treasure of the people.
And we now appeal from the advocates of
federal interference to the lovers of home
rule to sustain our action. We will let the
balot-box itself declare whether it is safer
in the hands and under the control of the
officers of election precincts, or of emissaries
hired by the administration and backed by
bayonets This is not revolution nor multi
fication nor secession; but only an orderly,
honest and patriotic appeal from Caesar to
the people.