The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1879-06-26

amendments to the constitution.
Upon these issues the bills we're vetoed by
| the President, and failed to receive the ma
| jority required to pass them upon reconsidera-
| ton Thereupon bill was passed extending
the legislative and executive appropriations of
the former fiscal years, with no political feat
| ures whatever; confused, homogeneous meas
ure,9 apologized for by its advocates; a weak
device intended to conceal the defeat OF. the at
| tempt to coerce the President
A second bill was passed making appropria-
lions for certain judicial expenses, as a sepa
rate measure, an unprecedented course, con-
| tanning mischievous provisions which have
been .aptly characterized as indecent and de-
grading to the administration OF justice.
The third bill is now under consideration,
making appropriations for the support OF the
army for the ensuing fiscal year, and contain
ing among other Objectionable features, the
following section
Section g. That no money appropriated in
this act is appropriated or shall be paid for the
subsistence. equipment, transportation or COM
pensation of any portion of the army of the
United States to be used as police force to
keep the peace at the polls at any election held
within any State.
Mr. President. the scenes that we have wit
messed during the debate which has arisen on
these issues has dark and ominous signif-
cance It has been intense and violent beyond
precedent. It's scope has embraced the whole
theory and practice of our Government from its
inception through all its vicissitudes of war
and peace. To the country it has been reve-
lation. The sonorous clamor and roaring dec
lamation about the iron heel of Federal despot-
ism, intelligence excluded from the jury box
bayonets at the ballot box, and the use of the
army to control elections has not deceived nor
alarmed the people. They are aware that this
combat between Congress and the Executive is
not waged upon point of legislative etiquette,
and cannot be ended by an exchange of court
estes or compliments or apologies on either
side. They regard the struggle as the initia
ton of contest for political supremacy in the
Presidential campaign of 1880, which will be
characterized by convulsive violence hitherto
unknown in our history, and the last, Ibelieve,
to be waged between the two parties which now
divide the country.
But because we opposed the repeal of the Sec
tons sought to be abrogated in the apprOpria-
ton bills it is not true that we favor the exclu-
sion of intelligence from the jury box, nor that
pervisors to control elections The employ
ment of the army to control elections in Kansas
did more to dethrone Democracy and render
it odlous to the people than any other
feature of it's policy, and we should not be
wise were we to fail to profit by the instruction
of history.
1t is not true that the sections sought to be
repealed permitted the exclusion of intelligence
from the iury-box, nor that they allowed the
use Of the army at the polls. nor that they in
terfered with the right of any citizen to vote;
nor is there evidence anywhere that any man
entitled to vote has ever been prevented from
voting by any soldier, Marshal, or Super
visor.
Thousands of aliens, repeaters, and felons
have been arrested and punished for frauds
attempted and perpetrated at elections; great
cities and States have been rescued from de-
graded misrule rapacious and ruffianly des-
potism, and threatened anarchy, by the opera
ton of these beneficent statutes; but if any
citizen has been denied under these statutes
the opportunity to cast an honest ballot, by the
army or by the civil authorities of the United
States, his name though often demanded has
not yet appeared in this debate.
We have had surfeit of froth and rant about
contradiction, resistance to tyrants, and re-
dress of grievances, but it has all been under
the general count Specifications are wanting.
There is not man in the United Sta es, outside
of Congress and the lunatic asylums, who be-
ieves that the liberties of 10000 people are
or can be endangered by the national army.
The brazen effrontery and hardihood of the
pretense is only equaled by it's grotesque and
preposterous absurdity.
The American people have given too many
convincing proofs of their vigilant love of lib
erty, of their capacity for self government,
require admonition from any quarter. If they
are convinced that the effect of these statutes
has not been wholesome and salutary; if it can
be shown that they have been detrimental to
society, or that they menace the rights of the
humblest citizen, they will be eager to destroy
them.
We have lately read elaborate accounts of the
dedication of monument to the Confederate
dead at Winchester. It is stated that the Con-
federate flag was conspicuously borne in the
procession and that the graves were profusely
decorated with this emblem. The utterances of
the orator, Senator of the United States from
the State of Alabama, which justified the OBJ
jects and designs, and eulogized the leaders
of the South, were loudly applauded and ex-
heart could refuse it's tribute of sympathy to
those who sought to commemorate valor and
perpetuate the memory of heroes who fell in
defense of any cause, whether right or wrong.
But these sOlemnities had wider scope. One
of the monuments is said to be inscribed with
the declaration that it is erected to the memory
of those "who fell in defense of constitutional
liberty and sovereignty of the States between
1861 and 1865"
If the exercises at Winchester reflect the true
sentiments of the Southern people, and if the
ideas there advanced are to be enforced by the
triumph of the Democracy, then the reaction
will be complete The dreams of Calhoun will
be realized posterity will revise the contempo-
raneous estimate of Wilkes Booth, and the war
waged in defense of the Union and of the "au-
thority of the nation will be justly stigmatized
as the greatest crime in the history of the hu-
man race.
The people of the North. believe that the
United States are nation, not mere associ-
alton of incoherent political societies. The
nation exists not at the pleasure of State nor of
a ajority of the States, nor of all the States,
but by the will of majority of all the people,
Behind every citizen, black or white. at home
or abroad, on land or sea- stands the nation, a
potential benefcent energy, pledged to protect
him in the unrestricted exercise Of all the rights
of manhood and citizenship. None can be so
humble, SO obscure. so remote as to be alien
from its blessings. If his rights are denied or
inflinged and PREPARATION is refused he can
| confidently appeal to the nation for restitution
and redress.
The Republican party does not deny or assail
the rights of the States. Had we desired to de-
stroy the States, the war gave us the oppcrtun-
| ity There was a strong sentiment at the North
| that desired the obliteration of the revolted
! States, and demanded that they should be re-
| duced to Territorial condition, to be readmit-
| ted to the Union under new names and with
other boundaries. But the Republican leaders
| conducted the war 11n0n the constitutional tho