Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1879-05-03

ne tAiAS VI HIS appointment, q quar- 7
fed voter of the "city, town,
county, parish" election district or
voting precinct in which his duties
Ire to De performed. AS before, the
words in inverted commas are pro-
posed to be rescinded. Section 203I
specifies the pay for Chief Super
visor, Supervisor and Special Depu-
~ Marshal as appointed under this
bill. 1t is proposed to amend it by
pay for all but ordinary
Supervisors and prohibiting the APP
pointment of officers of the other
At the risk of wearying our read
ers we have thus detailed the inn
portant measure now before Con-
gress. A few comments of our own
which we shall now present must
suffice for our readers to realize the
of the controversy now
going on about it.
Specifically the sections which it
is proposed to repeal and amend do
not go beyond substituting the exec
utive power of the United States for
the State authorities in whose hands
the Constitution lodges the arrange
ments for elections. That alone
which is the purpose of these cleo
ton laws, and which purpose they
have in a great measure effected,
that transfer of supervisory power
from local State officials to the
agents of the Federal executive
would in itself constitute a virtual
revolution under the forms of law.
That alone would in a very short
time reduce our elective system to
a status similar to that in the days
of Elizabeth of England when she
sent her mandates to the Sheriffs of
counties and the Mayors of cities
and borOughs to select as their repre-
sentatives in Parliament tour trusty
and well beloved so and so;" or SIM
liar to the system so long current i'll
France where, throughout all sue
cessive dynasties down to the latter
days of Mac MahOn, the Government
appointed The projects of depart
lnents and communes and Mayors
of cities, and constituted them the
holders and arbiters of election,
with discretiOnarypOwers as regards
registration and then on the eve of
an election indicated" the Gov
ernment candidate, with the dis
tinct understanding that the Mayor
or project retained his appointment,
on condition of returning the ''indi-
Gated" candidate and no other.
Such, we say, was the obvious ten
dency of these laws indicating the
direction in which our elective sys-
tenn was moving; but when we look
into the administration of these
laws we find it infinitely worse than
the laws themselves. There we
find the powers which were invoked
and established in the interest of
pure and impartial elections exer-
cised exclusively in partisan in
terest III such a way as to legalize
intimidation, fraud and corruption,
con. pared with which the abuses
which they proposed to cure were
as a molehill to a mountain. We
find election agents of the worst and
lowest class entrusted with these
powers too arbitrary to be safely
confided to the best of men. We
see the gambling saloons, the drink
ing saloons, the brothels raked out
to find agents sufficiently unscrupu-
lous for the nefariOus work on which
they are emplOyed-men convicted
of repeating at former elections, of
theft and swindling, who, as if the
powers confided upon them by law
were not sufficiently arbitrary, made
them ten times more so by cOnstruc-
ton. On pretense of examining the
voting powers of voters they forci-
bly, took them away from the own
ers and never returned them; on
pretense of preventing fraudulent
voting they arrested voters by thous-
ands on the eve of election, and
thereby prevented them from claim
ing the most valued right of the
citizen, though as since determined
by the highest judicial authority,
their right to vote was unimpeach-
able; on pretense of scrutinizing the
ballot-boXes they have seized and
destroyed genuine ballots and in
serted fraudulent ones; and in every
instance these high-handed out
RACES have been committed in favor
of one party and against the other
in favor of the party by which they
were appointed to offices of power
and emolument. Such laws so adj
ministered constitute a revolution,
the most dangerous of the class, a
reactionary revolution. They throw
the elective functions of the States
into the hands of the Federal Exec
utive, and that too at time when
the executive powers are avOwedly
and shamelessly administered in the
interest of a party for the purpose OF
retaining that party in supremacy
which has already been refused
them by the people, though retained
by an audacious fraud against the
peoples will.
What will be the result of the
present contest we are unable to
predict, but the ultimate result we
cannot doubt for a moment; the
American people are too well rooted
in their devotion to popular princi-
Piles of government to allow laws so
despotic, laws whose powers for re-
versing the will of the people
have already been plainly proved, to
remain permanently on the statute
book. Whatever the result of the
present struggle, the agitation now
excited by them will never be