The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1879-07-12

Itellcct we have 20 deal with and the possible
, infelici,y and want of classic perspecui'y o
Iour language, this is cheerful. After an ap
parent laborious study Of our sentences IN las
weeks TRADER, our est. contemp, on lhur-
day suddenly appears to wool" their meaning
and exclaims, why "thc gist of all this is, thai
1.-The TRADER denies that there is such thing
as national electionm That is it, precisely
THE FREE TRADER knows of no election al
which the qualified voters OF the s,ates-thoso
who vote for the members of the most numer
Gus branch of the state legislatures, for the
constitution knows no othcrs-cast their bal
lots. Doubtless the voting by the presidential
electors for President and Vice President, and
the voting of members of congress for speaker
of the house; or, IN case the election OF Prcsi'
dent should be thrown into the house, the vot
ing by the house for President, would be a
Irrational election" but such election would
not be by the popular vote, And when voting
for sneaker doubtless members Of congress are
national voters" and so possibly presidential
electors may be called, when voting for Presi-
dent, but beyond these the FREE TRADER is
utterly UNCONSCIOUS Of the existence OF such "A
beng as national voter Even assuming
tional officers" the constitution knows OF no
voters who can participate in Their election eX-
cept snch as have been made voters by the
states. In one state, (as in Rhode Island and
| -; ;,a until 1ttitn rpnpntlI- /
none can vote for members of congress unless
they own real estate; in another state, none
can vote unless they can read and write, as in
Massachusetts, in other states all male resi-
dents of one year, over the age of 81, can vote,
and in other states females are allowed to vote.
The constitution positively puts no limitation
on the power of the states to define who shall
be voters except that no one shall be disfran-
chised on account of race color or previous
condition Of servltudc" There being no ma
Itional voters. then, there can be no such thing
as a popular national election. Members Of
congress and |. 5. Senators and presidential
ed by state laws, presided over and conducted
by state officers and the voters are made such
by state laws. If they are national and not
state officers they become such at least by state
election. All other national" officers, and
there are enough of them dear knows, become
such by national appointment and not by
election.
But" says our contemporary, don't the con
fill N fly tho
time, place and manner Of holding congress
lonal elections?" Yes, congress can require
the states to hold their congressional elections
on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in
November and thus fix the time" as it has
done; and it can require the election of con
gressmeA to take place at the polls and not by
the legislature as certain states once elected
their congressman and presidential electors,
and thus fix the place. and 1t can require
the election to be by single districts and not
by general ticket, as was once the practice OF
certain states, and thus fix the manner But
until the passage of the famous Davenport
laws congress never dreamed of assuming
power to place It's own officers the officers
of the states to watch and control them in the
conduct of the elections, and to restrain and
arrest voters III the exercise of rights given
them by the states exclusively and over which
congress never before pretended to have any
control.
Our esteemed contemporary has got his brain
muddled on this subject probably by perusing
Congressman Garfield's late ridiculous fam
on the subject of national supremacy and his
denial of any such thing as state rights; or he
has possibly been reading the 4th of July
splurge of some such garrulous old granny as
Bishop Haven, who indeed don't go quite so
far as our est cOtemp. does as to insist that we
now have any national voters, but wants "every
man, and | hope every woman too, will be
made by law of congress a national voter
The idea is but revival in It's most odious
form of old Hartford Convention Federalism
of eXccrated memory. The authors of that
ism were originally monarchists, and wanted
Washington to allow himself to be crowned
king Failing in that they took the next best
ground and wanted a consolidated government,
giving the federal government unlimited con-
troll over the functions of the states, Instead
of state voters and state elections to designate
the legislative and executive officers OF the ma
ton, they wanted national voters and national
elections They wanted-just as our federal.
lists Of to-day want-the reigning power to be
at Washington and send its marshals and bayo-
nets into the states nd"compel republican vic
tories" whether the people desire to vote that
way or not, What they want Is the system OF
the third Napoleon in France-to submit all
national questionable election of President
and congressman included-to Il national pie
Jescite. France thus, by the judicious use
of the bayonet cast some six million votes
In favor of making Napoleon III. perpetual,
President or Emperor, when not half mil
lion of votes would probably have been cas-
for him had the election been free; and wha