Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1879-07-12
onIo.s OPENING cAmpAIan.
senator PendIeton Outlines the
Essnes Esetwecn Hayes and
the People,

tine EeOpte-
Senator George H. PendIeton. Of
Ohio, evidently lost no time in hur.
Tying away from the Washington
stalWarts on the adjournment of the
Senate, for on Tuesday evening he
was found in the quiet and cool
quarters of the New York Hotel.
When greeted by World reporter
with the remark, "You are not
looking fatigued with your impris-
onment," Senator Pendleton replied
with a good natured smile at the
alusion TO the Congressional tread
: mill. 81 assure you that I am
heartily tired, whether / look so or
not, and am very much undecided
whether the Republicans have been
more unmerciful jailers in 1879 as a
filibustering minority than they
We're said to be in 1869 as a rampant
majority. However, the agony is
over, and both sides in the struggle
of the extra session have gone to
the jury of the country on the records
made in voting and debating, and |
as a Democrat have no reason to be
ashamed Of the part that my col
leagues and | took, nor any reason
to doubt in the least a favorable
verdict from the people on our
course"
"What in your opinion will be
the effect of the veto action of Mr..
Hayes on the various bills ?"
1.-The action of President Hayes
has been to illustrate and intensity
the very broad issue between the
parties"
''DOes the issue between him and
the Democrats stand any differently
than it did six months ago?"
"The Republican party has put
itself more squarely, by the speeches
and votes of its most prominent
/ Congressional leaders, in favor of
theaquesti0H Of the power and duty
OF the Federal Government to use
the army of the United States upon
the day of election at the polls or
anywhere else, and if the result of
such use is the intimidation of
voters and the prevention of a free
election, nevertheless that is all |
right. President Hayes mildly dis
claims for himself personally the |
right to use the army to influence
elections, but as an organ of a great /
DftAS t1C StooCA - AIOl OIiAA OuCIl IISl III /
but duty to use the troops to keep |
what he calls the peace of the United |
States at the polls. Wherefore any /
one can see that the troops so used /
can under the influence Of any
strong marshal or general intimi-
date voters who are opposed to the /
administratiOn-and the degree of
intimidation varies simply with
idyosyncracies. Then all the
speeches made in the Senate, but
far more those in the House of Rep
resentatives, have put the RepubIi-
can party undeviatingly on the
ground of using the army as one of
the instrumentalities of its partisan
strength. They have gone further
i'll that direction not only than ever
was thought of before in American
politics but almost as far as was
ever thought of by Napoleon III.
So that you readily perceive how
President Hayes by his vetoes,
which are realIyplanks in platforms,
has been the means of drawing
sharp lines. In the volumes Of the
Congressional Record will be found
speeches which when dispassiOn-
ately read would astonish the Amer
lean people, and perplex even Re
publicans who could read them
without the passion engendered by
the strife of this extra session."
"What has been in short the
results of the extra session ?'i
"First-While the Democrats
have not been able to defend all the
popular rights which were involved
by their measures they have yet
limited the use of the army at the
polls to such an extent that, as Sen
ator Carpenter said in yesterdays
session when concurring with Mr..
Eaton, hereafter soldiers could not
be used in an effectqal way at the |
polls. Sec0ndl ly-Fhe juror teSt-Oath
born of England's tyrannical days
has been abolished. AS World
readers long ago came to well I'M
derstand, this juror oath forbade
everyone who had in any way,
even by thought or intent, aided a
Confederate soldier or Confederate
politician, to sit upon any jury. 1t
applied chiefly to the Southern
States, where we know every intel
ligent man was either himself or by
some OF his relatives either engaged
in or sympathized with the C0nfed-
crate military service. Different
judges gave to the Jurors test oath
different constructions. Some were
almost as extreme in their views as
the old Judge Of the time Of Henry
VIII. who convicted a forester Of
treason for wishing stag's horns
affixed in the Kings chest. A noted
Confederate General and-aS many
Republican papers termed him-a
very enterprisihg man, John Nor
gan, passed through the Southern /
tier or portion Of Indiana and Ohio
over several hundred miles in the
spring of 1868 or 1864, and his force
was finally dispersed near Marietta.
This juror test-oath statute would
have made every man who had
given one of those dispersed and
flying Confederate soldiers a mOrsel
of food or a glass of water incompe-
tent to sit on a jury in the State Of !
Ohio. This extraordinary law
passed by fanatics and in aid of the
colored vote has been repealed, and
a system of selecting juries In the
Federal Courts has been adopted
which secures absolute fairness and
returns our scheme of national JUS
tice to that of the early fathers Of
the republic"
Chow do the Democratic MEM /
bers view the work of the session ?''
"The Democratic Congressman
have accomplished very much
which they desired, but not every
thing. They would have been glad
to do away with the novel system
of Federal supervision and the infiu-
ence Of Federal marshals at elections
for members of Congress. And this
the veto power Of the President, !
acting In a semi-legislatlve way, as
added to the minority OF Congress.
has prevented, because the Demo-
Gratis had not two-thirds majority
in both Houses. We have, however,
accomplished enough to make sharp
the issues between the two parties.
On the part of the Democrats the
issue forced is that Americans shall |
continue to have free elections and
It ballot-bOx not interfeTed with by
electiOneerer5 who are bribed, as it
were, out of the Federal Treasury,
and shall have restored an impartial
and intelligent jury"
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