The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1879-04-30
WEDNESDAY MORNING, APRIL 80.

Tn the autumn of that year an election was
held for the choice of Representatives in Con-
Qress. 1 see more than one friend near me who
for himself aud for others has reason even unto
this day to remember that election and the ap-
prehenson which preceded it. 1t was the first
time the law of 1870 had been put in force. he
sistance was openly counseled. Democratic
newspapers in New York advised that the ON
GERS of the law be pitched into the river. DIS
order was afoot. Men, not wanting IN bravery,
and not Republicans, dreaded the day: blood-
she'd arson riot were feared. Ghastly specta-
cles were then fresh in memory. Inc draft RI
OTIS had spread terror which had never died, and
strong men shuddered when they remembered
the bloody sssizes of the Democratic party
They had seen men and women, blind with
marty heat dizzy and drunk with party mad
ness, stab and burn, and revel in murder and in
mutilating the dead. They had seen an asy-
lum for colored orphans made a funeral Pile,
and its smoke sent up from their Christian and
imperial city to tell 10 heaven of the inhuman
bigotry, the horrible barbarity of man. Re-
Numbering such sickening scenes and dread
ing their repetition, they asked the PRESIDENT
to protect them-to protect them with the beak
and claw of national power. Instantly the IN.
Benneled packs of party barked In vengeful
chorus. Jmprecations, maledictlons, and threats
were hurled at Grant; but with that splendid
courage which never blanched in battle, which
never quaked before camor, with that match
less self.pose which did not desert him even
when q continent beyond the sea rose and IN
covered before him Applause in the galleries.
he responded in the orders which it has pleased
the honorable Senator from Delaware to read.
The election thus protected was the fairest, the
freest, the most secure generation had seen.
When two years afterward New York came to
crown Grant with her vote, his action in pro-
tecting Der Chief city in the ideS of Novem Der,
1870, was not forgotten When next New York
has occ aston to record her judgment of the SER
vices of Grant, his action in 1870 touching
peace in the city of New York will not be hid
den away by those who espouse him wisely.
IApp'ause in the galleries
Now, the election law is 10 b5 emasculated;
no national soldier must confront rioters or
MODS; no armed man by national authority,
though not soldier, must stay the tide of bru-
tally or force; no deputy marshal must be
within call; no supervisor must have power to
arrest any man whom his view commits the
most fragrant breach of the peace. But the
Democrats tell us 1--WE have not abolished the
supervisors; we have left them" Yes, the leg
islative bill leaves the supervisors, two stool,
pigeons with their wings clipped, llaughter,I
two licensed witnesses to stand around idle and
look-yes, "a cat may look at king but
they must not touch DULLES or law-breakeIs,
not If they do murders right before their eyes.
If civil officer under the pending amend
ment attempts to quell riot by calling on the
bystanders If they have arms LIE is punishable
for that. If marshal, the marshal of the dis
trict in which the election occurs, the marshal
nominated to the Senate and confirmed by the
Ssnate-I do not mean deputy marshal
should see an affray or riot at the polls on
election day and call upon the bystanderS to
quell it, if this bill becomes law, and oue of
those bystanders has a revolver in his pocket or
another one takes stick or q cudgel in his
hand. the marshal may be fined $4,000 and
punished By five years Imprisonment.
Such are the devices to belitte national au-
thority and national law, to turn the idea of the
sovereignty of the nation into laughing-stock
and a byword.
Under what pretexts is this uprootipg and
overturning to be? Any officer who trans
crosses the law, be he civil or military, may be
punished in the courts of the State or in the
courts of the nation under existing law. LIZ the
election act unconstitutional? The courts fol
ten years have been open to that question. The
law has been pounded with all the hammers OF
the lawyers, but it has stood the test; no co1rt
has pronounced it unconstitutional, althou ID
many men have been prosecuted aud convicted
under it. Judge Woodruff and Judge Blatch-
ford have INDICATED its consttutionality. But
as l said before the constitutional argument has
been abandoned. The supreme political court
practically now above Congress or even consti-
turions, the Democratic caucus, has decided
that the law is constitutional. The record of
the Judgment is in the legislative bill
We are told it costs money to enforce the
. law. Yes, it costs money to enforce all laws;
it costs money to prosecute smugg'ers, counte-
feiters. murderers, mail robbers and others. We
have been informed that it has cost $200,000 to
600, 900 900 in money alone to preserve our insti.
tutions and our laws in one war, and the ma
tion which bled and the nation which paid is
not likely to give up its institutions and the
birthright of its citizens for 100000 Zap
plause In the galleries.
The Presiding Officer, Mr.. Cockrel in the
chair.) The Senator will suspend moment.
The Chair will announce to the galleries that
there shall be no more applause; If so the gal.
leries shall be cleared Immediately.
Mr. Copkl Mr. President, that interrup-
tion reminds me, the present occupant of the
chair having been deeply interested in the bill.
that the appropriations made and squandered
for local and unlawful Improvements 10 the
last river and barbor bill, alone would pay for
executing the election law as long as grass
grows or water runs. The interest on this mon
ey wrongfully squsndered in that bill would ex-
acute it twice over perpetually The cost of
this needless extra session, brought about as a
partisan continuance would execute the election
law for great while. A bstter way to save
the cost than to repeal the law, is to obey it.
Let White Leagues and rifle clubs disband; let
your night-ri ers dismount; let your tissue bal
lot-box suffers desist; let repeaters, false
counters, and rufians no longer be employed to
carry elections and then the cost of executing
tAe law will disappear from the public ledger.
Again, we are told that forty five million peo-
pie are in danger from an army nominally of
twenty-five thousand men, most OF them scat
tered beyond the frontiers of civilized abode.
Military power has become an affrighting spec
ter. Soldiers at the polls are displeasing to a
political party. What party? That party whose
Administration ordered soldiers, who obeyed,
TO shoot down and kill unoffending citizens
here in the streets of Washington on election
day; that party which has arrested and dis.
persed Legislatures at the point of the bayOnet
that party which has employed troops to carry
elections to decide that State should bs slave
and should not be free; that patty which has
corraled courts of justice with national bsyo-
nets, and hunted painting fugitive slaves in
ofn1 init ayvit rtill dra-
goons; that party which would have to-day no
majority in either House of Congress except
for elections dominated and decided by violence
and fraud; that party under whose sway in sew
eral States not only the right to vote but the
right to be is now tramped under foot.
Such is the source of an insulting summons
to the Executive to become particepS crin,inis in
prostratng wholesome laws and this is the
condition on which the money of the people,
paid by the people. shall be permitted to be
used for the purposes for which the people
paid it.
Has the present national administration been
oficiously robust in checking the encroach-
ments and turbulence of Democrats either by
the use of troops or otherwise? l ask this
question because the next election is to occur
during the term of the present administration.
What is the need of revolutionary measures
now? What is all this uproar and commot ioD,
this daring venture OF partisan experiment for :?
Why not make your issue against these laws
and carry your issue to the people? If you
can elect President and Congress of your
thinking you will have it all your own way.
Why now should there be an attempt to
block the wheels of government on the eve of
All election at which this whole question is tri-
able before the principals and masters of us all?
The answer is inevitable. But one truthful
explanation can be made of this daring enter
prise. 1t is q political, partisan maneuver
1t il strike for party advantage. With a fair
election and an honest count, the Democrats
cannot carry the country. These laws, if exc
cuted, insure some approach TO fair election.
Therefore they stand in the way and therefore
they are to be broken down.
l reflect upon no mans motives, but L be-
leve that the sentiment which finds expression
in the transaction now proceeding in the two
Houses of Congress has its origin in the idea 1
have stated. believe that the mar ayers and
characters of the Democratic party think that
with fair election and fair count they can
net carry the State of New York. They know
that with unrestrained course, such as existed
in 1868, to the ballot-box and count, no matter
what majority may be given in that State
where the green grass grows, the great cities
will overbalance and swamp it. They know
that with the ability to give eighty, ninety,
one hundred thousand majority in the county
of New York and the county of Kings, half of
i l. q