Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1879-05-03

eWUIUg q
ana governed by M jorities, VIII Gu should
PICK out election day and hand that over a
prey to unchallen ged Tuffianism, brutality
and dis order?
Come cted with the amendment we arc
now considering and part of it is the act
lot protecting and regulating National
elections. That act applies to cities OF
twenty thousand or more inhabitants. II
provides that two pc sons may be appoint
ed by the Count, not to act is uVersceTs.
but as supervisors of registration, v0tin =
and counting at National elections One is
to be a Democrat; one is to be q Republic
can. That is to prevent either side having
advantage over the other. In rural regions
with sparse populations, no provision is
made. There, as rule, all voters are
known to each other; there the danger of
mObs and tumults is paratively slight.
In the large cities the case is different.
There these two supervisors are to see fair
play that is the whole of it. They have
no powers, nor have the Deputy Marshals
any power not from time immemorial and
from necessity reposed in all the States as
far as know, in the inspectors of cleo
tons. L read the provision as it stands in
my own State, and l ask the Senate to
mark what sort of power it cOnfers on
every Inspector of Election:
any person shall q0illfully diSobey
any IGlCTHl commands Of the Board Of In
SpectoTs Of any election, or shall willfully
ana without lawful authority, obstruct,
hlnder or delay any electOr on his way TO
any poll where an election shall be held,
or WhlIe he Is exercising or attempting TO
exercise the right of voting, or shall aid or
assist IN such obstruction or delay, he shall,
on conviction, be adjudged guilty of mis-
demeanor, and be fined in a sum not ex>
ceeding SOU, and may be imprisoned, in
the discretion of the Court, for not more
than six months"
All these inspectors under this act a
such "potentates and powers" that any
man who dares to disObey their commands
is to be punished and yet the sensibilities
of the gifted and ardent Senator from In
diana Mr.. Voorhees, pa pitated with in,
dignaEt emotion when he thought of
youth and age meeting at the polls and
voting, with two persons, one Democrat
and one Republican, looking right at them
when they did it; looking on to see that
the receiver of ballots did not destroy or
change them, but put them in the box, and
afterward to see that the baIlets were hon
estly counted after youth and age had gone
home to supper. | listened to a recital of
that ordeal, and made up my mind that
on such an occasion youth and age, after
the days ftful struggle might sleep we'll.
The election law came in to correct
abuses which reached their climax in 1868
in the city of New York. In that year in
the State of New York the Republican
candidate for Governor was elected the
Democratic candidate was counted in.
Members Of the Legislature were fraudu-
lently seated. The election was a bar
barOus burlesque. Many thousand forged
naturalization papers were lssuedi some OF
them were were white and some were cot
fee-colored. The same witnesses purported
to attest hundreds and thousands of natu-
ralizatiOn affidavits, and the stupendOus
fraud of the whole thing was and Is an
open secret. Some of these naturalization
papers were sent to other States. So plenty
were they that some of them were sent to
Germany and Germans who had never
left their country claimed exemption from
the German draft for soldiers in the Franco
Prussian war because they were natural
lied American citizens. Laughter
The holders of these papers voted by
thousands, and l have heard it said in this
de bate that Judge Blatchford had decided
that these papers are legal. Never. | see
the Senator from West Virginia Mr..
Hereford nod. He does not nod very
forcibly, but he mods enough to induce me
to stop and read from the judgment of
Judge Batchford. Judge Bstchford
passed upon case made-lawyers will
understand what that is presenting pure
question of law. What was the question I?
Whether certain papers on deposit or on
file in Court in and of themselves, assum-
ing the verify, assuming that they were
genuine, constituted record IN the eye OF
the law. There was no question tried or
decided whether they were forged or not
no question whether they were fraudulent
or not; no question whether they had been
signed, as some of them had been, with
the name of officers appearing on their
face who never were elected until long af-
ter the paper was issued; but on the naked
question presented to him, Judge Batch
ford spoke. He refers to another case in
oh ba no
scented, and says
The sole ground of such application was
that tie validity of the admission of the
party to citizenship was disputed, on the
allegation that there was no legal record Of
the judgment admitting him to citizen
ship
Why? ask the Senate to mark
for the reason that the Clerk or the Court
did not write out an entry in the Minute
book Of the Court reciting the proceedings
and showing the adjudication made. This
is the same point now urged here.
There is the point of the decision and the
whole Of it as / understand.
| say thousands of men voted upon
fraudulent naturalization papers. But all
this was tame and paltry compared with
other enOrmities. The city of New York
was redistricted from time to time some
times so districted as to disect blocks and
denizens of the same building could vote
IN OlUefenL election precincts. In some
cases the Democratic majority was larger
than the whole number of men, women,
children, horses. cats and dogs in the dis
trict- laughter and | speak not In rhe-
torical figures, but in Arabic figures. Re-
peating, baIlot-box stutfing, rutfianism,
and false counting decid d everything
Tweed made the election officers, and the
election officers were corrupt. In 1868, !
thirty thousand votes were falsely added
to the Democratic majority in the cities of
New York and Brooklyn alone. Texas
and elections were the mere spoil and
booty of a corrupt junta in Tammany
Hall AssessmenIs, exactions and ex-
emptions were made the brides and the
penalties of political submission. Usur-
patton and fraud inaugurated a carnival of
corrupt disorder; and obscene birds with
out number swooped down to the harvest
and gOrged themselves on every side in
plumber and spoilation. Wrongs and usur-
palions springing from the pollution and
Dissertation of the ballot-box stl Eed high /
handed in the public way. The Courts /
and the machinery Of justice were impo- |
tent in the presence of culprits too great TO
be punished.
The act of 1870 came i to throttle such /
abuses. It was not born without thrOes /
and papgs. It passed the Senate after
day and night which rang with Demo /
cratic maedlctiOns and foul aspirations.
In the autumn of that year an election .
was held FIR the choice of Representatives
in Congress l see more than one friend .
near me who for himself and for Others has