The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1879-03-15
SATURDAY, MARCH is, 1873.



Political Abuses.
We have heretofore said that the sew
ernl provisions Of the Revised Statutes Of
the United States, which the Democrats
propose to repeal at the approaching extra
session Of Congress, have been used by the
Republican party as instruments Of politi-
cal persecution, and that scores and hun
drcds Of Democrats have been dragged
from tho bosoms Of their families, tried on
slight pretexts for political offences, fined
heavily and cast into dungeons to crafty
party malignity. These laws have also
been made the means Of abstracting money
from the public treasury for uses foreign
to the osteusible purpose of their enact
ment. To employer army Of deputy mar
shals and election supervisors to arrest
citizens for real or pretended political of
fences, and to prosecute them in the U. s.
Courts Requires money, aud the records Of
the U. s. Treasury viii show that large
SUM has been used for such purposes.
These laws were pushed through Congress
under preteDse that they were necessary
to protect the negroes from the alleged
shotgun policy in the South; but the
facts show that by far tho larger proper
ton Of this fnud has been expended
to carry out Republican electiOneering
schemes in the North. In the debate
which sprung up in the U. S. Senate,
short time previous to the adjournment,
some very severe criticisms were made by
the Democratic Senators ia relation to
the transportation of the public moneys
for political purposes. Attorney General
Deyens, in a letter explaining the $780,
600 deficiency for expenses under the en-
forcement act, stated that the money was
needed to pay for the services Of extra
deputy marshals and for carrying on pros
ecntions necessarily caused by alleged vi
olations Of the election laws Judge Thur
man, ia emphasizing his hostility to any
such appropriation, said that this money
was expended and these supervisors ap-
pointed under the pretext Of protecting the
poor negro down South in the exercise Of
the elective franchise. He said:
ave have had bloody shirts waved over
US. We have been told Of negroes being |
slaughtered in order to prevent the exercise
Of the elective franchise. We have been told |
that these election laws are necessary to pro.
tect the poor freedmen down South in the |
exercise OF the elective franchise. Now, sir,
where is the money spent? Two hundred |
thousand dollars was spent last year, and all |
the accounts are not in yet Where vas the |
money spent? One hundred and ten thon- |
sand dollars Of it in the State of New York; |
$4,000 of il in the State of Pennsylvania; !
S6,000 in the State of New Jersey; S5, 900 or |
$1,000 Ia one single county in the State Of |
Ohio; and pray, sir, what was the result? A I
gain to the Republican party Of fourteen or |
fifteen members Of tho House Of Representa- +
fiycs."
The Senator commended that al the
evidence went TO show that @this money,
instead Of being used TO preserve the purity
Of elections, is simply bribery fund.
The Republicans eonld hardly expect the
Democrats to vote money out Of the treas
ary to enable them to carry congressional
elections with. The figures for 1876
showed that Of s2a0,5i5.l4 paid for the
pay Of supervisors and deputy marshals,
only s54,777.96 was expended in the
South for the purpose of protecting the
poor freedman, for whose benefit the law
was osteasibiy framed. The remaining
four-diihs was spent at the North. Last
year, 1878, only s24 ,636.74 was spent to
protect the poor freedman, while sl77,-
654,35 was spent at the North, Sbcing
more than seyen-eighihs Of the whole sum,
and all Of johnny Davenport's bills Of New
York, not in yet. Mr.. Thurman said
that, under the construction given to the
law by the Attorney General preceding
Mr.. Deyens-a construction which Mr.
Derens also sustains-11 ,615 deputy mar
shals were appointed in 1876. Last year,
1873, in st. Lonis alone there we're ,028
depaties, force nearly double the whole
police force Of the city. II was clearly
shown by Senator Beck that the provision
Of the law restricting the deputy marshals
% cities Of over 10000 Inhabitants bad
been Systematically violated Thus there
were 7s5 deputies appointed for Arkansas,
which has only single city approaching
a population of 10000. Senator Bayard
eoatended that the money asked for under
this deficiency bin for these purposes had
been already expended. or was INTENDED to
be 80 expended, u riolution Of tke Aav.
at is intended, \ he said, ito be applied
in violation Of law in paying men for doing
that which no law warranted their doing, Tor
acts IN which they were tresspassers, aud for
which they should have been, and / hone at
some day will be, punished by the laws Of the
States for their invasion Of the rights of their
5ellov.citizeus. There cannot be more fla
grant and more dangerous docirine than
@hat an adplpistrative officer of the govern
seent can bind the people to pay money to do
that which theirs wFs no law to authorize him
to order. That is wbat bus been done in the
case now before the Senate, and that is a
large part Of the money which js ID recon.
meaded The Senate nov 70 vote On appsopri-
aiien for.
70 y'ewof these abuses Of thclsw, 1.-The