Daily globe., 1879-04-04

States adopts to It's suffrage py description tne |
class that has already the right of suffrage |
given to it by the States. 1t makes them its |
voters for the election of its officers and it is
bound to guarantee to them free and fair cleo
ton. (Applause on the Republican side.)
1t is Technically and verbally true that the |
United States does not confer the right OF suf- |
frage on these men who vote for the most
numerous branch of the State legislature.
That right of suffrage and the qualifications
necessary to it are prescribed by the States, but
the United States does say thai every man who
belongs to that class, every man who has that
qualification, shall be an elector for members
of the House of Representatives.
Mr.. Robeson argued that the proposed iegis-
lation was unconstitutional, and continued:
My friend from Ohio (Hurd) has said it be-
comes US to look sharply and keenly as to the
use of the military power, for by it republics
have always died. take issue with him there.
The last final blow at the liberty of the repub-
lie has come from the sword, but it has not
been until some branch of the government has
ursurped to itself the rights which it did not
enjoy under the constitution and laws of the
country. 1t has not been until some branch of
the government, usually a branch claiming
more specially to represent the popular will,
long to it. 1t was only after the long 1arlia-
ment of England had disgusted the
country with it's disregard of civilized
personal rights aud its assumption of every
thing that belongs to the government, that the
stern soldier, Oliver Cromwell, dared to go to
that house and dissolve it with military power.
1t was only after the French assembly had
made France, its.fair fields and vine clad hills.
run red with the blood of its best citizens, not
until Europe was appalled, at the scenes of
murder perpetraued there not until the world
stood aghast at the crimes that were committed
in the name of liberty, that young Napoleon
with his armed force were able to seize upon
the government.
NV friends, addressing the Democratic side
of the house, it is from disrupted systems of
government that military power arises. It is
in the confusion, the disorder, the lack of writs
to be executed by civil officers Of the law. 1t
is within the smoke of such contest that the
man on horseback rides in, and liberty is sacri-
feed to order. So long as the civil process of
law may be properly executed by civil officers
in this country there is no danger of the mill
tary power. The strong wills, the clear heads,
the brave hearts of our people, North and
South, would never yield to standing army
were it million strong unless it became abb
solutely necessary under pressure of usurped
and arbitrary power of some irresponsible
member of the system to sacrifice liberty to
order. That time will never come in this
country, unless you, my friends, disregard the
plain teaching of history.
My friend from Ohio, Hurd, also took oc-
oasion to say in allusion to the executive of
this country, that his title was in doubt and
that his tenure was not yet certain. I do not
think that my friend meant that, because if
he did he meant to appeal to the giant of revo-
luton. Let me say to him that responses all
| over the country to-day are but the mutterlngs
of the storm which will increase in vigor and
fury and in resistless power until the men and
party who endeavor to unsettle the title of the
President, will be swept forever from the po-
ltical horizon. Loud applause on the Repub-
ican side and in the galleries.)
BLAcKBURN's REJo1NDER.
MIR. Blackburn said he was buta poor student
of ris country's history who was not able to
satisfy himself that from the foundation OF
the constitution down to the present time, it
had ever been held, and that by the highest au.
thorities in the land, that it was in the power
of the House to control the employment of the
army by withholding supplies. In the very
nature Of things, the proposed repeal could moi
be revolutionary. Negative legislation was
never revolutionary. The constitution did
| not give the right to the President
to send armed men into any State
even to suppress domestic violence. By nc
means. It required the President to protect
any State from invasion, but only conferred
upon him the right to send soldiers to that
State to suppress domestic violence when the
legislature of that State, Or the Governor
should make a requsition upon him. He was
not permitted to anticipate domestic violence
neither he, nor the legislature, nor the Gov
ernor. Domestic violence must have been II
existence, and that fact must have been certi
fed to him by the legislature.
More than one-third of all permanent legis
lation affecting that arm of the government
had been put upon the statute book as rider
upon the army appropriation bill. If lectures
were to be read to the Democrats, let then
convicted on the record. Did the gentleman
from Ohio, Garfield, remember the record b.
had made in 1868 on an amendment offered b,
Wilson, of Iowa, to an appropriation bill, pro
posing to revolutionize the judicial system o
the country, proposing to rob a co-ordinat
branch Of the government, proposing to striI
| the supreme court of the prerogatives an(
powers that the federal constitution hat
clothed it with. Revolution! What was Their
that the party the gentleman ably led haC
not done in that catalogue of crime?
In his speech Saturday the gentleman from
Ohio had challenged all oomers to show singl
instance in the history of the country wher
consent of the executive had ever been coerced
He, Blackburn, accepted the gage of battl
which the gentleman had thrown down. II
would read from the records and show him d
instance. On the 22d Of March, 1857, Andre,
Johnson had signed an army appropriation bi
under protest. Was there no coercion there
Why the record was full of instances. b
found that in the Thirty-ninth Congress tha
had occurred which would never fade from th
minds OF the American people. He referred
the effort which was made, which came so mig
resulting in the successful impeachment of th
chief executive of the country. There wer
two principal counts in these indictments, o
which it was proposed to impeach the exec,
: tive. One was the exercise of the veto powe
and the other his interference, not in election
but to prevent interference of the army powe
in elections. The counts had been voted o
more than once, and the gentleman from Obi
| / r..
, favor. He had been supported in his actio
and had standing by him, votin
l,as psaeh the f're President 'n for n the e1ero'
of the veto power, one then comparatively oil
scure, and who, but for a combination of acc
, dents, would have remained to this day an
until his dying day, in that. t.obscurity for who
nature and his creator seemed to have designe
. him. Side by side with the gentleman frol
Ohio had stood and voted Mr.. Hayes, of tt
} same State. applause on the Democratic sid
: and in the galleries.) And now, by what So
, of authority had the gentleman from Obi
} come to threaten the House with probab
' provision Of the federal constitutio
undertook to clothe nybody, either the Pres
2 dent himself FFor one of his privy council eve1
including his premier, the secretary of stat
to sit as he had done on the floor of the Hous
last Saturday. and by his presence and appro,
als seeu W luLlInluaCe, OVeraWo ana OfOWDes
the American Congress. (Derisive laughter o
the Republican side.)
Referring to Mr.. Garfeld's statement regart
ing Powell, Mr.. Blackburn said did not Il
; gentleman from Ohio known that the amen(
Q ment to the Powell bill had been incorporate
g upon motion of Senator Pomeroy, and th,
t every Democrat had voted against it. Powe
J, among them. It was not candid, it was NJ
# fair for the gentleman from Ohio to place ii
e dead stateman in such false position,
y one t4ke the darkened pages of his country
le history for the last seventeen long years AT
n read it carefully and tell me then whether
# lies in the mouth of this leader of the on
t, great but now waning party to read le
ID lures to anybody, either on the score
ID revolutionary legislation or the eztraneous
y PRODUCTION of legislation on appropriation bill
es Better far in face of the record which tn
as have made, better to listen patiently to a &C
n. frmed inebriate, as he dwells On the virtues
ut temperance, OF better let the queen of t
es demi-monde elaborate the beauties of fem
es virtue, or let the devil pirate of the scheme
it universal redemption, than for homilies
st good morals and lectures on revolutions
at legislation from such source. (Applause
the Democrat side.