Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1879-04-24
THE ARMY BILL.

= THE ARMY BILL.
Senator Blaine Make Mastery spsech--Facts
and Figures as Shown by Him. J
WASHINGTON, April 14.-The senate
resumed consideration of the army ap-
preparation bill, the pending question
being on Mr.. Blaine's amendment pro.
hibiting the appearance within mile of
polling place of any person armed with
a deadly weapon OF any kind, and Mr..
Blaine addressed the senate.
He said the method adopted in the
pending section to get rid of the eight
closing words of the section of the
revised statutes proposed to be repealed,
namely: "Or to keep the peace at the
polls" was an unusual and extraordi-
nary method. The ordinary way to
repeal single sentence is to strike out
the particular words objected to; but the
mode chosen in this bill is to repeal and
re-enact the whole section except the last
eight words. He was persuaded this
unusual course was not taken accident
ally, but designedly. If he so might
speak, it came Of cunning, the intent
being to create the impression that the
Republicans in the administration of
the general government had used the
troops right and left in every direction
and that as soon as the Democrats got
into power they proceeded to enact this
prohibitory- sixth section; and Demo-
cratic stump speakers would doubtless
make great political capital out of this
idea, whereas, every word of it trom first
to last was the enactment of the Rspub-
lican party. Whether Intentionally or
not the issue thus presented was dishon
est one. The law was passed by
Republican congress. There were forty
six senators sitting in the senate
chamber at the time, of whom only 10,
or at most II, were Democrats, and the
house of representatives was over
| whelmingly Republican. We were in
the midst Of war. The Republican
administration had a million, or pos.
sibly 1,200, 900 bayopets at its command,
and, under the circumstances, with the
amplest power to interfere with cleo
tions, had they so chosen, with soldiers
in every hamlet and county of the
United States, the Republican party
themselves placed that on the statute
books, and Abraham Lincoln signed it.
He aaked attention to the fact thst this
was the first instance in the legislation
of the United States in which any re-
strictive clause whatever was put upon
the statute books in regard to the use of
troops at the polls, and that was passed
by the Republican party, and signed by
Abraham Lincoln when he had more
troops under his control than Napoleon
Bonaparte ever had. But the point is, said
Blaine, to strike out the few words author
izing the use of troops to keep peace at
the polls; and the country is alarmed
or, he would rather say, amused at the
effort made to create the impression that
the Republican party relied for it's pop
ular strength upon the use Of bayonets.
The Democratic congress has attempted
by raising an issue f::!;e in every detail
to create the impression, not only in
America, but in Europe and throughout
the civilized world, that elections in this
country are attempted to be controlled
by the bayonet. He denounced the issue
as false, and though not at liberty to say
that an gentleman making it knew its
falsity, and though he hoped they did
not, he proposed to prove its utter lack
of foundation. He held ia his hand an
abstract of all the troops Of the United
States east Of Omaha, including: the
states bordering on the Mississippi river
on the west, embracing territory popu-
lated with forty-one millions, at least, Of
the 'orty.fve millions supposed to be in
this country to-day. By this statement
he showed that in all that great territory
only 1877 soldiers gre stationed. With
in this domain IS Notifications are
manned and eleven arsenals protected
To every million people there are about
60 soldiers. The honorable senator
from Delaware was alarmed about the
overriding Of the popular ballot by the
troops of the United States, but there is
not single Federal soldier in Delaware.
The honorable ssnator from West Vir-
ginia (Hereford) had spoken of his state
being trodden by the iron heel of mill
tary despotism, but there is not solitary
man in United States uniform OH the
soil Of West Virginia. In Maryland,
1872 artillerymen at Fort McHenry,
guard the entrance to Baltimore's beau
tifnl harbor. In Virginia there is a
scnool of practice at Fortress Monroe.
Outside of that school there is not a
Federal soldier in the state. There are
but 80 soldiers in North Carolina, guard
ing fort at the mouth of Cape Fear
river. In South Carolina there are 1920
artillerymen to guard the entrance to
Charleston harbor. There are 20 SOL
diers in Georgia and 1872 in Florida.
There is not ore in Tennessee, Kentucky
or Missouri. There are 81 in Arkansas,
81 in Alabama, and 329 in Louisiana.
The great state of Mississippi has not
one on its soil, nor has Texas,
except those guarding the frontier on
the Rio Grande. In the entire
South, said Mr.. Blaine, there are
1855 soldiers to intimidate, oyerrup, op-
press and destroy the liberties of fifteen
millions of people in l, 203 counties, or
not quite one soldier to each county
One soldier to about 700 square miles of
territory. There was an old saying, he
continued, that there were soothsayers
in Rome who could not look each
other in the face without smiling, and
no two Democratic senators Oh the floor
can 90 into the cloak room and look
each other in the face without smiling
or rather blushing, over this talk, the
whole thing was such a miserable pre-
tense, such 3 niserably manufactured
false issue. In New England they had
$50 soldiers, or about 100 to every
million people, whereas the ratio in the
south was not quite 70. Yet, the people |
Of New England never complained Of
the military power The tendency of
this talk was, he said, to misrepresent US
abroad; and the Democratic party stood
indicted and he hereby charged them
with the public SANDER of their country, |
in creating an impression to the civil
lied world that we are under a military
despotism.
But, continued Mr.. Blaine, the real
motive of the Democrats must be looked
for elsewhere. 1t is simply to get rid OF
Federal supervision at eiections-to get
Ill of tho civil rOyCor Of tho TInifod