The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1879-04-10
TWO SIDES TO A QUESTION.
A Democratic Defence of the Proposed
Compromisc-Thc Positions of the Two
Parties OH the Questions mt Issue.
Correspondence Ncws and Courier.

w aSHlNNlON, N1dECIl ZJ, 1919.
For two days the House of Reprcsen-
tatives have been discussing the army
bill, and though the entire bill has been
read through, and innumerable amend
meDts were offered during the reading,
none of them of material Importance
were adopted, and now the heated dis
cussion turns upon the 9th Section, which
at the first reading was passed over in
formally, so that by unanimous consent
the general debate might be made upon
it, as it is the gist of the whole thing re-
lating to the stationing of the troops or
portions of the army at the polls during
election days.
Almost every Republican that speaks
follows in the wake of Mr.. Frye, of
Maine, who said that by the Constitution
the President of the United States is
commandcr-in-chief of the army, and
therefore has the power to transport the
troops by his own order from barracks to
barracks, from State to State, and ergo
inferentially can scatter them in and
around about and throughout the States
on days of election. But when asked by
Mr.. Carlisle, of Kentucky, if he believed
because the President had the power to
move the troops, that therefore he had
the right to locate them on days of elec-
ton in the vicinity of the polls, Mr..
Frye had to admit that it was not a
sylogistic conclusion.
How much longer this debate will con-
tinuc no one can tell. That it will
change single vote ultimately no one
believes. The members present who
were in the Forty-fifth Congress heard
all these arguments month ago. The
new members enjoy the discussion, and
some of them are coming to the front
daily with arguments to send home to
their beloved constituency. 1t may ap-
pear irregular to you that some one does
not cut off debate in some way. Per-
haps so, but let him try it. The whole
Republican side will vote against his
effort, because their aim is if possible to
worry and wear out the Democrats, and
in so close a majority as we now have,
only few ambitious Democrats, who
wish to ventilate themselves, voting with
the Republicans, will prevent vote.
So until the pcnt up gas is all exploded,
we will not see the end of it.
When the Legislative bill will be in
troduced no one knows. In fact, the
future of Congressional Legislation is
more uncertain thing than the weather
of next week. If Mr.. Atkins presents
the same bill he did in the winter, it will
be simply good sized voumne of ex-
actly one hundred pages. When it went
to the Senate last winter it was little
altered from the text presented by the
committee on appropriations. When it
came back from the Senate ithad simply
1923 amendments inserted in it. That,
however, was a Republican Senate. Its
fate will probably he different in DEM
ocratic Senate. Doubtless the House
will alter and amend the bill in many
respects, but the chief features over
which the great battle is to be fought,
are, of course, the jurors test oath and
the obnoxious clauses of the election
law.
The test oath was formally repealed in
former Congress, the Forty-third, l
think, and after the adjournment the
laws were codifed by a commissioner
selected for the purpose by Congress, Mr..
Boutwell,, of Massachusetts,, and the next
Congress by formal enactment adopted
them as the Revised Statutes; but it was
not until after this that it was discovered
that by inadvertence or malice Mr.. Bout
we'll had left in the volume this internal
relic of the war.
Frequently during the Forty-fifth Con-
gress the leading Republicans admitted
that they thought and believed that this
oath, the iron clad oath, had been re.
pcaled, but none of them ever proposed
to vote for an Independent proposition to
strike it from the Statute book. 1t is
frequently asked why does not Demo
cratic Congress repeal that law? Well,
have asked that very question frequent
ly myself, and have never had it satisfac-
torily answered; nor can see why it
has not heretofore been done, but / ap-
preciate the difficulty of an effort to
attach it at this present time as an inde-
pendent measure.
fla bill were introduced to-day to re-
peal it, a reference to committee would
Mt once be made, and that committee
would be required to report it back to
the House during the morning hour;
daily after it was reported the Republi-
can minority, by all sorts Of dilatory mo-
tions, could consume the morning hour
for months, and thereby prevent the
passage of the bill.
Besides this, the test oath being q
measure that the people believe should
be repealed, majority of the two Demo
cratic Houses are of the opinion that it
being attached to the legislative bill with
another measure, the repeal of which is
determined upon by the Democrats and
opposed by the Republicans, give weight
to the position Of the Democrats in their
attack upon the other obnoxious measure.
To this latter argument | confess do
not attach much Importance, but as by a
formal vote in the caucus this was de-
cided upon, no one has venturcd to risk
introducing separate bill to repeal the
test oath.
To urge as reason for the early repeal
of this oath the fact that Judge Bond is
soon to hold his Court in Charleston for
the trial of "intimidators" before negro
juries. would be like recommending q
man for appointment under Hayes ad-
ministration because he made 4 good
Confederate soldier. land here let me
say, by way of parcnthe.is, that have
seen petitions here sent from South Car
olina urging the appointment of partie,
to office, and the chief argument used
WAS that the applicant was a gallant SOL
der in the late war, and lost leg or an
arm at such battle while fighting under
General so and so, naming some Con-
federate General.
Judge Bond, whatever his faults, de-
serves no censurc in this case. District
Attorney Northrop has received instruc.
tions from Attorney General Devens, and
no doubt he had orders from Hayes.
cannot advise in the premises, but trust
that the counsel of these modern Altho'
phels may come to naught.
The election law amendment that is to
be attached to the legislative bill, as you
are aware, has been in degree modified,