Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1879-04-19

guarding fort at the mouth of Cape Fear
River-just thirty.
South Carolina. do not see Senator on
the floor from that State. There are one
hundred and twenty artillerymen guarding
the approaches to Charleston Harbor, and not
another soldier on her soil.
Georgia. Does my gallant friend from
Georgia (Mr Gordon) who knows better than
the force and strength of military organiza-
ton, the senior Senator, and the junior also
arc both or either of those Senators alarmed
at the presence of twcnty-nine soldiers in
Georgia. Uaughtcr.) There are just twenty
nine there.
Florida has one hundred and eightv-two at
three separate posts. principally guarding the
navy-yard near which my friend on the oppo-
site side (Mr. jones' lives.
Tennessee. Is the honorable Senator from
Tennessee (Mr. Bailey alarmed at the pro-
gress of military despotism in his State? !?
There is xot a single Federal soldier on the
soil OF Tennessee, not one.
Kentucky. | see both the honorable Scna-
tors from Kentucky here. They have equal
cause with Tennessee to be alarmed, for there
is not Federal soldier in Kentucky-not
one,
Missouri. Not one
Arkansas. Fiftv-seven in Arkansas.
Alabama. ! think my friend from Alaba-
ma (Mr. Morgan) is greatly excited over this
question, and in his State there are thirtv-two
Federal soldiers located at an arsenal of the
United States.
Mississippi. The great State of Mississippi,
that is in danger of being trodden under the
iron hoof of military power, has not Fcder-
al soldier on its soil
Louisiana has two hundred and thirtv-nine
Texas apart from the regiments that guard
the frontier on the Rio Grandc and the Indian
frontier. has not one
And the entire South has eleven hundred
and ftty-five soldiers to intimidate overrun.
oppress, and destroy the liberties of fifteen
million people. In the Southern States there
are twelve hundred and three counties. If
you distribute the soldiers there is not quite
one for each county; and when ! give the
counties give them from the census of 1870
II you distribute them terrtoriallv there is
on for every seven hundred square miles of
territory, so that if YOU make territorial dis
tribution. would remind the honorable SEN
ator from Delaware, if | saw him in his seat
that the quota for his State would be three,
lone ragged sergeant and two abreast" as
the old song has it, daughter That is the
force ready to destroy the liberties of Della
ware
Mr.. President it was said, as the old max
i'm has it. that the soothsayers of Rome could
not look each other in the face without smil-
ing. There are not two democratic Senators
on that side who can go into the cloak room
and look each other in the face without smil-
ing at this talk. or more appropriately |
should say without blushing, the whole thing
is such prodigiOus and absolute farce, such
a miserably manufactured false issue. such
pretence without the slightest foundation in
the world. and talked about most and de-
nounced the loudest in States that have not
and have not had single Federal soldier In
New England we have three hundred and eighty
soldiers. Throughout the South it does not run
quite seventy to the million people. In New
England we have absolutely one hundred and
twenty soldiers to the million. New England
is far more overrnn to-day by the Federal SOL
dier, immensely more than the whole South
is. / never heard anybody complain about it
in New England or express any very great
fear of their liberties being endangered by the
presence of handful of troops
As have said, the tendency of this talk is
to give us bad name in Europe. Repubi-
can institutions are looked upon there with
jealousy. Every misrepresentation. every
slander is taken up and exaggerated and
talked about to our idscredit, and the demo-
cratic party of the country to-day stand in
dicted. and | here indct them, for public
slander of their country, creating the impress
sion in the civilized world that we are gov
erned by a ruthless military despotsm. won
der how amazing il would be to anv man in
Europe, familiar as Europeans are with great
armies, if he were told that over a territory
larger than France and Spain and Portugal
and Great Britain and Holland and Belgium
and the German Empire all combined
there were hut eleven hundred and fifty-fve
soldiers. That is all this democratic howl
ti.Is mo f11n A.;
talk, j. based on-the presence of eleven
hundred and fiftyfive soldiers on eight hun
dred and fifty-thousand square miles of ter
ritory. not double the number of democratic
police in the city of Baltimore, not a third
of the police in the city of New
York, not double the democratic police in the
CITY of New Orleans. repeat the number
indicts them, it stamps the whole cry as with
out any foundation, 1t derides the issue as
a false and soandalous and partisan make
shift.
What then is the real motive underlying
tins movement! Senators on that side, DEM
ocratic orators on the stump cannot make
any sensible set of men at the crossroads be-
lieve that they are afraid of eleven hundred
and tifty-fve soldiers distributed one to each
county in the South. The minute that YOU
state that everybody sees the utter, palpable
and laughable ahsurdity of 1t, and therefore
we must 70 further and find mo-
tive for all this cry. We want to find
out, to use familiar and vulgar
phrase, what is ''the cat under the meal"
1t is not the troops. That is evident.
There are more troops by 50 per cent scat
tered through the Northern States east of
the Mississippi to-day than through the
Southern States east of the Mississippi and
yet nobody there speaks of it; everybody
would be laughed at for speaking of it; and
therefore the issue, | take no risk in stating
| make bold 20 declare, that this issue on the
troops being false one, being one without
foundation. conceals thestrue issue, which is
simply to get rid of tho Federal presence at
Federal elections, to get rid of civil power of
the United States in the election of Repre-
sentatives to the Congress of the United
States. That is the whole of it; and dis
guise 1t as you may there is nothing else in it
or of it.
You simply want to get rid of the super
vision by the Federal government of the
election of Representatives to Congress
through civil means and therefore this bill
connects itself directly with another bill. and
you cannot discuss this military hill without
discussing II bill which we had before us
last winter, known as the legislative, execu-