Daily press and Dakotaian. [volume] (Yankton, Dakota Territory [S.D.]) 1875-1880, 1879-04-16
THE ARMY AND THE ARMY BILL.

WITHOUT CnSuge, % I8r " We KNOW.
THE ARMY AND THE ARMY BILL
Senator Blaine Weaves Some Facts and
Arguments Into Speech ON
the Subject.
Washington, April 14.-The army appro-
p~riation bill being before the senate Senator
Blaine spoke:
But the point is to strike out the few
words authorizing the use Of troops to keep
peace At the polls and the country is alarm
cd, or he would rather say amused at the
effort made to create the impression that
the republican party relied for its popular
strength upon the use of, bayonets. He
held in his hand an abstract of all the
troops of the United States east of Omaha,
including the states bordering on the Missi I.
sippi river, on the west, embracing a terri
tory populated by forty-one million at least
Of the forty-6ve millions supposed to be in
this country to-day. By this statement he
showed that in all that great territory only
1871 soldiers are stationed; within this do
main, forty.five Notifications are named and
eleven arsenals protected. To every million
people there are about sixty soldiers. The
honorable senator for Delaware was alarmed
about the overriding of the popular ballot
BY the troops Of the United States, but there
is not a eingle federal soldier in Delaware.
The honorable senator from West Virginia
(Hereford) had spoken of his state being
trodden by the iron heel of military despot-
ism. but there is not q solitary man in
United States uniform in West Virginia. In
Maryland the artillery men at Fort Nc
Henry guard the entrarce to Baltimore.
In Virginia there is a school Of practice at
Fortress Monroe. Outside of that school
there is not q federal soldier in the state.
There are but 80 soldiers in North Carolina,
guarding q fort al 1.-THE mouth of Cape Fear
river.
In South Carolina there are 120 artillery
men to guard the entrance to Charleston
harbor. There are 90 soldiers in Georgia,
and 1872 in Florida. There is not one in
Tennessee, Kentucky or Missouri. There
are 81 in Arkansas, 81 in Alabama, and 239
in Louisiana. The great state of Mississip-
pi has not one on its soil, nor has Texas,
except those guarding the frontier on the
Rio Grande. In the entire south there are
1.155 soldiers to intimidate, overrun and
destroy the liberties of $4,000, 900 of people
in 1923 counties, or not quite one soldier to
each county-one soldier to about 700 square
miles. There was an old saying that there
were soothsayers in Rome who could not
look each other in the face without smiling,
and no democratic senator on the floor can
60 into the cloak room and look each other
in the face without smiling, or rather blush
ing over this talk. The whole thing was
such miserable pretense. such miserably
manufactured false issue. In New England
they had $50 soldiers, or about l2O to every
100000 people, whereas the ratio in the
south vas not quite 70, yet the people of
New England never complained of military
power. The tendency Of this talk, as he
had said, was to misrepresent us abroad and
the democratic party stond indicted and he
hereby charged them with the public SLAM
der of their country and creating the i'm.
preston in the civilized world that We are
under military despotism.
But the real motive of the democrats
must be looked for elsewhere. 1t is simply
to get rid of federal supervision at elections;
to get rid of the civil power of the United
States in the election Of representatives to
congress and therefore this bill connects it.
self directly with the bill which was before
congress last session, known az the legisla-
tive appropriation bill. He was aware that
parliamentary rules forbade him to discuss
the bill pending before the house of repre-
sentatives, but he also knew nothing forbade
him to speak of what was done in the house
and in the democratic caucus where this leg.
islation was performed. The design of the
bill is to get rid of the civil affairs of the
United States under the pretence of keeping
troops away from the polls and the amend
ments which will be offered will test the
sincerity of the democratic side on that
point and show whether the federal govern.
ment would be allowed representation at the
polls at all, except BY two men of straw,
without any power, who can merely look on.
If the bill w%ent1through in its present form.
the remainder Of the Law in regard to mar
shals and supervisors would be worth moth.
ing, since there would be no power invested
In the federal government to enforce its pro-
vision. We are told, said Nj. Blaine, and
it is rather . novel thing, that II We do not
agree to the bill - offered We are not to have
an appropriation. That has been announced
in both branches Of congress, he supposed
on the authority Of the democratic caucus.
Not merely the army appropriation.
They did not stop there, but in the legis-
latiye bill ~ it came from the caucus there
wxas IN appropriation for defrsying the OF.
penses Of the supreme cont, circuit courts
and district courts, provided that certain
sections Of the revised statutes b repealed
He had always understood that the govern
nsat VA divided into three distinct depart
menu-the legislative, executive and judic
i'll. But now the legislative branch step