Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1879-09-13
THURMAN ON THE ELECTION
LAWS.

man commenced his canvass of the
State of Ohio. Itplaces the election
laws over which the main contest
of the recent extra session was held
in a point of view which had not
previously been made sufficiently
conspicuous. He shows clearly that
the principal purpose for which the
Republican leaders designed them
was to effect by an indirect process
what the same party attempted
more directly some years ago;
namely, the Acknowledgement of the
naturalized citizen. This stringent
criticism of the nefarious scheme is
well worth both the unusual space
we devote to it and any amount of
time our readers may devote to it:
NATURALIZATION AND ELECTION
LAWS.
now turn to some other statutes
to which your attention should be
called. But before doing so it will
be well to refer to the hostility SO
long manifested by our political OPP
ponents toward the people Of this
country who are of foreign birth.
For it is in part owing to this hos
tility that these laws were enacted
and are found upon our statute
book.
You have all heard of the famous
Alien and SeditiOn Law enacted by
nimpfU-nnn
wears ago, which gave to the Presi-
dent of the United States the power
/ to Danish at his mere pleasure any
alien whom he saw fit to Danish.
The Democratic party of that day
| opposed the enactment of this law
with all its vigor, and subsequently,
by a mighty effort, succeeded in re-
pealing it. And the triumph of the
| Democracy in the election of Mr..
! Jefferson seemed for time at least
to have put an end to any attempt
to renew such persecution. And as
/ long as the Democratic party re-
| tanned power no such attempt was
to be seriously apprehended. But
the spirit of hostility to the foreign
! born had not died out; and hence
within the life of the present gene
ration we saw the NOthing
party spring into existence as il
were in a single night and threaten
to obtain possession of all our Gov
| ernmentS, State and Federal. The
Democracy, however, proved them.
selves equal to tine occasion, and
this new attempt to revive and put
in practice the spirit of the OLD
Alien sand Sedition Law, was sig
nalIy overthrown. When, however
the Republican party, after the frs
election of President Grant, had the
most absolute control of the Gov
eminent that any party ever pos
sessed-the President being a Re
publican, nearly all the Judges O
the Supreme Court and the Othel
Federal Courts being Republicans
more than siX-seVenthS of the Sena
tors being Republicans and over
tWo-thirds of the House of Repre-
sentatiVes being of the same party
the Radical leaders conceived il
possible to once more asSail the
rights of the naturaliZed citizen
This time the attack was made un
der the guise of preserving the
purity of elections. The object was
to bring all elections under the con
troll of Congressional law and Fede
raj officers, and to use the whole
power of the Federal Government
and the Treasury, too, to maintain
the ascendency of the Republican
party. They began by the intro
duction of bill professedly to en-
force the provisions of the fifteenth
article of amendment to the COnsti
tuition, and that bill, originally in
troduced in the House, after heins
greatly amended and enlarged, WA
passed by both Houses and ap
proved by the President on May 81
1870. 1t is entitled Gan act to Ell
force the right of citizens of tn,
United States to vote in the severa
States of this Union, and for III
other purposes ;" and it contains no
less than tYenty-three sections.
have no time tonight to speak 0
this law in detail. | can only So,
in a general way that it assumes t
control the action of the election
officers of the States when perform
ing their duties under State laws
and to punish them by indiGtmen
in the Federal Courts and by nu
merous other penalties for any vic
lation of the act, Notwithstanding
the existence of State laws to punisl
them for the same thing; thus in
fiicting upon them double punish
ment-one under the laws of tn
State and the other under this Con
gressional act. 1t creates a host O
. Federal officers and employees to b
paid out of the public Treasury TO
interfering in the elections of tn
States, and it seeks to confer upOi
. the Circuit Or District Courts of tn
United States a right to try con
tested elections in the case of ever,
| office whatsoever, except that O
ElectOr of President or Nice-Presi
dent, Representative or Delegate il
Congress or Member of the Stat,
Legislature. If this provision b.
constitutional, the right of you
Governor to his seat, of all you
Judges from the highest to the low
est, to their offices, of every count!
and municipal officer, might b
drawn into litigation before one 0
the Federal District Judges at Gin
cinnati or Cleveland. But | neet
not dwell upon this statute further
Some of its most material provision!
have been declared by the Supreme
Court of the United States to be I'm
constitutional, and the validity 0
others has been seriously brought
into question and will no doubt bt
in like manner tested. My principa
object in referring to the statute a
all Is to show the purpose of the
the Radical leaders to interfere by
Congressional laws and Fedora
officers in the elections of the States
Having passed this act the Radica
leaders next turned their attention
to the subject of naturalization
| They passed through the House O
/ Representatives, at the same session
a bill, No. ,, POI, to amend the nat
uralization laws and to punish
crimes against the same. In the
Senate the bill was referred to the
Committee on the Judiciary, who
reported a substitute for it.
To some of the provisions of this
substitute, which was earnestly
pressed for adoption, | want TO call
your attention, for of all measures
ever introduced into the American
Congress hostile to the fOreign-born
citizen or deniZen, this substitute
was the worst. Had it become a
law its plain effect would have been
to greatly diminish if not put an end
to emigration to this country. 1t
would have made naturalization
! alnnoat an iD1DOSsibilitV. It would