The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1879-04-23

forces
eminent; to these miserable, cringing camp
followers Of any party in power, occupying, as
places in the rear rank OF political warfare,
the proudest plumed chfeftains, the most
s WarIdors on iand and sea- must 1oW
some senator tell me how the brave and bril-
liant S9erman, bearing higher rank than
fence to deputy United States commissioner?
VIII some one point out TO me how, under the
law as 1t now stands, Sheridan, Hancock, or
the secretary of war himself, is to refuse mill
tary subsection and corporation TO any Off
United states commissioner and bearing a
warrant or other process for the arrest of a
citizen charged with an ofiense against the
election laws? / assert. fearless of contradic-
ton, that under the section l have read the
veriest reptile of ward politics, the most
with a commissioners appointment and any
sort of process against the liberty of an Amer
lean citizen, can call the whole army and
navy to his support, and the tallest heads must
bow to his command. The Scared and veteran
legions who bore the eagles of the Republic in
triumph in Mexico and who are yet in the
army; the dauntless, chivalric and generous
bred in the mortal grasp of civil war; ali these,
and others besides, are placed at the beck and
nod of commander selected by a United
States commissioner.
will not stop to say that this is monstrous.
That will be the universal verdict. win not
pause TO denounce such laws wholly infa-
nous, for that Will be the judgment not only of
the American people but of all the civilized
nations of the world. Simply TO call up and
exhibit such horrible deaths head as this in
the laws OF a commonwealth pretending to be
free is enough to excite the jeers the Kisses,
aud the excavations of every lover of liberty
on the inhabitable globe. The army and the
navy OF the United Statesl How often the
banquet hall and the festive board have rung
with eloquence in their praisei How often
their achievements have been the theme of
swelIed with emotion at the mention of revo-
latfonary fields of fame? Whose eye has not
Thames, Tippecanoe, and New Orleans?
Whose spirit does not feel exalted when Buena
Chapultepec pass in stately review? And
whose eyes have not grown moist and dim
with enthusiasm in reading the battles of the
ocan, those deadly conflicts of the sea which
have made American genius and courage as
imperishable in history as the fixed stars are
in the heavens over our heads?
Sir, these sentiments universal in the
American heart, but who now Will speak the
eulogy sing in heroic verse the deeds OF the
army and the navy OF the United States used
to overthrow free elections under the COM
mand OF deputy United States commissioners
Others may answer the question; can not.
History, however. gives no uncertain answer
as to the final result of such legislation. All the
away and persisted by the Introduction of mill
itary force into the management of their civil
variable rule Even in England, the home of
monarchy, governed by kings and queens and
hereditary mobility, the people nearly l5o
years ago, demanded and enforced the entire
absence OF troops from the polls on election
? day, in order that they might preserve their
rights, whatever they were, under the British
constitution. A committee of this body on
| former occasion described the objects OF the
well known statute OF George III. in the follow
ing terms:
':It can not escape notice that the leading
| object of this ancient statute, as sufficiently
evidenced by the preamble, was the preserva-
| ton OF the rights and liberties of the Kingdom
not their destruction. And the history OF the
| tary forces near places where there was
election OF members of Parliament, arose from
outrageS practlced upon the electors by the
| ministers in posting troops so as to overawe
them, and coerce them into the returning of
candidates friendly 10 the ministerial party,
and the supporters OF prerogative against
popular rights
This description of the use of the military on
| election day sounds painfully familiar at this
time to American ears. Our ancestors, even
in the dark reign of the second George, GEN.
RACES upon the electors. Are we, with all the
| increase of light and liberty now in the world,
they did? The senator from Massachusetts,
Mr.. HOarl in his recent speech found nothing
10 censure, or disapprove in the use of the
army or the navy to control elections. An
other senator from the same State held differ
emit views. Daniel Webster declared:
"If men would enjoy the blessings of repub-
lican government they must govern them
selves by reason, by mutual counsel and con-
terest, and by the acquiescence Of the minor.
| ity in the will of the majority properly ex-
pressed; and above all the military must be
| kept according to the language Of our bill of
rights, in strict subordination to the civil au-
thority. Wherever this lesson is not learned
and practiced there can be no political tree
dom. Absurd, preposterous is it, scott
and satire upon free forms of constitutional
scribed by military leaders, and the right of
suffrage to be exercised at the point OF the
sword"
| to another part of this general system for the
| suppression of free elections, approach next
| the I'm proper use of the Federal judiciary. A
greater calamity than political courts hardly
ever befell any people. There Is no form of
An armed invasion OF constitutional rights
can be speedily met by armed resistance
] Force provokes force in return, and the mum.
blest intellect can comprehend sucn an issue
| as quickly as the greatest. The proceedings OF
! courts, on the other hand, are not always
plain to the common mind. Little by little
/ they can, by false constructions, destroy the
| principles of free government unobserved
except by the few who are learned In the law
Judges, therefore, of partisan bias, carrying
/ with them on the bench party convictions
and party zeal, are Of all the officers OF the
that EMERSON spoke in 1870 when he said:
"The judiciary of the United States is the
/ subtle corps of sappers and miners constantly
/ working under ground to undermine the
are constituting our constitution from a CO
| ordination of general and special govern
ment to general and supreme one alone"
said:
"Our judges are as honest as other men and
not more so. They have, with others, the
| same passions for party, for power, and the
| privilege oftheir corps. Their maxim is 'boni
| judicis est ampliare jurisdictionem,' and their
power the more dangerous as they are in Of
ice for life, and not responsible, as the other
functisnaries are, to the elective control"
1t is, indeed, a most obvious fact, verified by
the experience of all ages, as well as by the
| wisdom of the foremost minds in history, that
courts Of justice can not be invested with polit-
ical purposes without demoralizing the whole
judicial system, and infictlng danger on every
right belonging to the citizen. Yet the judi
| ciary OF the United States has been boldly
seized upon, and nearly all Its parts applied to
the support and permanence of a politi-
/ cal party. The authors of the laws
for that purpose made the circuit and the dis
trict courts OF the United States the fountain
and the beginning of the entire plot against
! the freedom of the ballot-box. Any two per-
sons filled with party zeal In q city or town OF
over $1,000 inhabitants, any 10 persons
under the same inspiration In a county or
parish without respect to population can com.
| mand the Federal courts at their pleasure. AT
their orders the circuit judge shall open court
and in his absence the district judge shall obey
the call. This shall occur in vacation as well
as term time, and the court shall remain open,