Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1879-06-06
MIR. HAYES LAST VETO,

MIR. AYES LAST VETO.
AS was expected, President Hayes has
returned the Legislative, Judicial and Ex-
ecutive Appropriation bill to congress
without his approval. His objection to it
is not that the appropriation is not liberal
and fully equal to carrying on the govern
ment, but that the bill contained provis-
ion rendering of no effect what are called
the Federal election laws. This veto in view
of Mr.. Hayes present relations with the
Republican party contest, excites no sur
prise though by the next generation it will
be read with establishment not only that any
effort to repeal such laws should be checked
but that the laws themselves should ever
have been passed. The grounds of the
Presidents veto are first, and what he
seems to consider a guarantee of there pro-
priety that the statutes are already on the
book and in operation, and next that they
are necessary to hold in check a general de-
sire by the people, extending also to the
State governments, to cheat at elections.
Comment upon such position taken by a
President in opposition to the will of q
great majority of the American people ex-
pressed through their representatives in
congress would seem to be useless. The
laws arc certainly on the statute books and
they are as certainly necessary to carry
out their purpose to-day as they were when
passed perhaps more necessary, seeing
that the political party which in it's flush
days passed them has now fallen into a
hopeless minority. Nothing that can be
said in condemnations of the Presidents
position as President OF the whole people.
can be halflas effective az statement of
the effect of these laws, their author
ship and the mode in which they have
been executed. rse sad. <e.
They are most comprehensive ar
rangement Of political machinery and are
but poorly understood by the people at
large, applying not as is generallY supposed
to Federal elections only but to every poll
at which citizen can vote. In section
1904 they are applied to every election in
any estate, territory, district. county, city.
parish. school district, municipality or
other territorial sub division" In section
zoos punishment is provided for the judges
of election, tho clerks of election,
even the registrars and tax collectors
through whose omission of the duties of
their Office a voter shall be deprived of the
opportunity to vote, and that punishment
is to be inflicted by the United States.
Their effect is to put the elections wholly
under the power of the Federal govern
ment. Such a law we repeat will be read
with wonder by those who come after this
generation.
Their origin will be also a matter Of
surprise to our people who have for the
most part thought that they were intend
ed for the protection of the freedmen in the
'sdisturbed districts as the Southern
States are so often called. They origina-
ted in the Union League Club, partizan
political organization of New, York. 1--WE
arc copying the testimony given on oath
before the Committee on Expenditures in
the Department of Justice) and were pre-
pared by the notorious John I. Davenport |
and according to the statement of his law
partner, Samuel J: Classy, Chief Counsel
of the Union League Club, Johnny Da-
venport sat the instance Of the Union
League Club went to Washington and at
tended to their passage" The argument
used by the supporters OF these laws, was
that they were necessary to protect the
freedmen at the South in the use Of the
ballet. Such it was generally believed by
both Republicans and Democrats through
out the country was their ostensible pur-
pose. On the contrary the money spent
under them was used almost wholly in
controlling elections at the North.
The official figures regarding the locall-
ties in which the money was spent are par
ticularIy interesting as showing that under
cover of suppressing alleged intimidation
and Acknowledgement of freedmen at the
South the Republicans secured large
fund of money, paid into the q, S. Treasu-
ry by people of all politics, which they used
for political purposes at tho North. In 1876
in all the Southern States together (where
the intimidation was alleged) there was
expended under these election laws only
$48,719 while 2S7,2O2 was expended in
Northern States. Of the 1868 O. S. SUI
pervlsors of election appointed in the same
year l, 779-mearly o,,s-ta!f were appointed
for the Democratic State of New York
alone, and Of the total amount OF $285,921
spent under these laws in that year, more
than one-half- $15e, 900 was spent in the
Democratic State of New York. Again
in 1873 the whole sum spent by the gov
eminent under these laws was $4,000 of
which the pittance of S1s,2A was spent
in Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Louis
lana, South Carolina and Virginia, where
the sspoor freedman Lives and for his free
dom at the ballot box, y the rest going to
the Republican Supervisors, Deputy Mar
shals, &c., in the Northern States. A pro-
position to start a Republican campaign
fund out of the public treasury would have
startled that party itself, but under cover
of cry for the poor colored man it was
not found difficult to adopt laws which
accomplished the object. 1t was under
these laws that the infamous Johnny
Davenport, the us. Supervisor in New
York. of whom it was testified before the
committee in 1871 that he had to borrow
money to meet daily expenses, as able |
in 1876, according to the same testimony,
to live in a brown-stone house at $2,250 |
rent and keep two carriages. It is under
these laws that the Republican party in
the North is able to keep employed its
bummsrs described in the testimony before
49,, oorornittee "a follows IL e. ~ ---e
O. Right there won't you illustrate the practical
operation OF it in local politics OF employing these
marSlals? .-.---.-- -.