Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1879-04-19
speech of senator Blaine.
Continued from First Page

Mr.. Hereford. And were placed there
within seventy yards of the place of voting.
Mr.. Blaine. What did they arrest anybody
for?
Mr.. Hereford. For the purpose of intimi-
dation.
| Mr.. Blaine. Oh, yes,
Mr.. Hereford. For the purpose of intimi-
dation.
Mr.. Blaine should be glad to hear any
other testimony on that side.
Mr.. Williams. | can tell the honorable
Senator that saw soldiers marched into the
public square and stack their arms, since the
va
Mr. Blaine. What time since the war ?
Mr.. Williams. Eighteen hundred and six
ty.five.
Mr. Blaine. That is good while ago, and
Kentucky in a condition of upheaval
about that time, 1865.
Mr.. Williams And | know from informa-
ton that they were stationed at a number of
polls in other portions of the State.
Mr. Blaine. Has the Senator seen any
since that time?
Mr. Williams This | saw with my own
eyes. saw men go up in the presence of
soldiers TO vote.
Mr.. Blaine Has the Senator seen any
since 1865?
Mr. Williams. No, sir.
| Mr. Blaine The Senator then has had
fourteen years to brood over that, an he can
not stand it a minute longer.
Mr.. Williams. The power to put them
there is still in the law and it is to deprive
the President of the authority to take them
to the polls for which we now contend.
Mr.. Blaine. The Senator tells us that he
is particularly sensitive about what he saw
when the country was still in disturbed con
dition fourteen wears ago, while to-day there
is not and has not been for years a solitary
Federal soldier in Kentucky, not one. That
is his testimony. Has any other Senator
a statement to make!
Mr.. Wthers The Senator will recollect
that he denied that any Senator on this side
of the Chamber had ever seen a soldier at the
polls.
Mr. Blaine. No; | queried it; did not
deny it.
Mr. Withers. understood the Senator to
make the Statement broadly.
Mr. Blaine. was not so broadly ubiqui-
tous as the honorable Senator from West
Virginia supposed | wanted to know wheth-
or any Senator there would rise up and say
he had seen il.
Mr. Withers I am willing to abide by the
reporters record of the remarks of the Sena-
tor
Mr. Blaine If made slip Of the tongue
will gladly correct it, | could not be at
every polling place in the South. There
are thirteen thousand polling places in the
South, and there are eleven hun
bred and fifty five soldiers down
there, and this great intimidation is to be
carried on by one soldier distributing himself
around to twelve polling places. That is the
intimidation that threatens the South just
now and am just reminded by the honora
Bile Senator from Wisconsin Mr.. Carpenter
that the Supreme Court dccideda fact did
not recall at the moment--that the war did
not close till April 1866; a state of peace
had not come. and therefore the honorable
Senator from Kentucky does not bring him
self within the line of evidence He only
saw troops there in 1865, during the war.
Has he seen them since April, 1866, in time
of peaccl
Mr.. Williams. No.
Mr.. Blaine. He has not. Laughter.
Then I should like some other Senator, if
there is any one that has any testi-
mony to give; / should like some
other Senator that has seen troops around
the polls bulldozing and brow beating
and ntimdating and controlling the popular
wish, to rise if he has any testimony to give
on the subject
Mr.. Logan. If the Senator will allow me,
perhaps ! can make statement about sol
diers in Kentucky in 1865 myself. | happened
to be in Louisville in 1865 at the time of an
election for Congress when General Rous-
seau was candidate for Representative in
Congress. was stationed ut Louisville and
had sixty-fye thousand soldiers under my
command. | was there on the day of the
election and made speech there the night
before the election. Those $1,000 soldiers
were stationed all around Louisville
n n
able election in my life. and under orders
the soldiers were kept from the polls and out
Of the city during the day Of the election, UNI
der NV own orders. g.,
Mr.. Blaine. All we get then in the tcsti-
mony is that the Senator from Kentucky says
he saw troops in his State during the war; and
the Senator from West Virginia says he saw
them in this State once since the war, ten
wears ago That is the amount of actual tcs
timony we get on the subject. Now. Mr.
President | say this bill connects itself di-
rectly with the provisions which are inserted
by the democratic caucus in the legislative
executive, and judicial bill. The two stand
together; they cannot be separated; because
if to-day we enact that no civil officer what
ever shall appear under any circumstances
with armed men at the polls-I am not speak
ing of Federal troops or military or naval
officers; | should like to know how, if you
strike that out to-day in the military bill that
is pending. you are going to enforce any pro-
visions of the election laws even if we leave
them standing Take this section of the
election law, section 202i of the Revised
Statutes:
The marshal or his general deputies, or such spe
cial deputies thereto specially empowe by
him. in writing, and under his hand and seal, when
he either any of them is forcibly resisted
in executing their duties under this title, shall by
violence, threats menaces, be prevented from
cutting such duties, from arrestng person who
has committed any offence for which the marshal
his general or his special deputies authorized to
make such arrest, are, and each of them is, empow.
cred to summon and call to his aid the bystanders
posse cOHitdtas of his district.
| should like any one to tell me wheth-
er marshal can call together armed
men under that if you repeal this see
ton in the military bill. Under heavy
penalties you say that no civil officer
whatever no matter what the disturbances,
at an election of Representatives to Congress
no civil officer of the United States shall
keep order. You do not say that in
that same election the State officer NAV
not be there with all the force he chooses Ie-
gal or illegal You say that the United States
in an election which specially concerns the
Federal government shall not have anything
whatever to do with it. That is what you saw