Mexico weekly ledger., 1879-03-06
DEBATE.


oenator ALllSOn sent TO the clerk
desk and had read a letter from the
Attorney-General to the effect, that
the deficiency in his department
would have been but $4,000, but
for two clauses in the election law,
under which S75, 900 we're required
for deputy-marshals to attend to
elections, and S125, 900 for the prose-
cution of persons charged with crime.
Senator Thurman asked what new
circumstances had arisen that the de-
partment of justice had expended a
quarter of a million of dollars of the
peoples money without authority of
law? The department which should
see that all law was obeyed, disobey-
ed it. This money was to pay a set
of men employed ostensibly to pre-
serve the purity of elections, but real
ly in corrupting them. Supervisors
and deputy-marshals were as plenty
as blackberries last year, and more
corrupt than any bull-dozer that ever
put {. foot in the land. Where had
the money been expended? 1t had
been heralded that money was needed
to protect the poor negroes of the
South, but this money had been spent
in New York and elsewhere. Of the
$4,000, 900 heretofore appropriated
for the Attorney-G Generals office,
$110,0 900 had been spent in New
York, $40, 900 in Pennsylvania, $780,
900 in New Jersey, and s. or Sc, 900
in a single county in Ohio, on account
of which fourteen or fifteen members
of the House of Representatives had
been elected. In view of the reign Of
terror instituted in New York by
Davenport, there was no difficulty in
showing how elections were carried
by this machinery. Over l, 200 deputy
marshals were appointed in the city
of St. Louis alone, and the Democrat
ic majority in three districts was
overcome by this means. The money
of the people of the United States was
being expended by hundreds of thou
sands of dollars to corrupt voters.
Come what may, l hope that the Sec
tons under which these deputy
marshals were appointed will be
stricken out. For one, / am willing
to stay here a year to accomplish the
repeal of those sections.
Senator Beck said the Attorney
General admitted that he needed only
$50, 900, but for the election law,
5000, 900 of the money demanded
was for political uses-S75,0 900 to pay
deputy-marshals and SIPS, 900 to pay
for the prosecutions inaugurated by
men employed to elect Republicans
to office. Was the great State of
New York unable to protect her voters
at her polls? Was the great State of
Pennsylvania under Republican rule
unable to protect Republican voters!
lie would not vote q dollar for such
purposes, it would be used as a cor
ruptlon fund to overthrow the rights
ofthe people.
Senator Voorhees, denounced the
election laws and said he had been
told, that forty or fifty respectable
citizens of Baltimore now languished
in prison, where they had been placed
by Judge Bond for doing something,
which their supervisors construed as
a menace He would not vote the
smallest fraction of a dollar for the
enforcement of such q law. 1t was
the worst law ever placed on the
statute book, it was a f%orerunner of
despotism. Whether an extra ses-
sion came or not, he would do what
he believed to he right. The test
oath clause alone ostracised intelli-
gcnce and kept integrity from the
jury box in the South.
Senator Bayard said it was pre-
tended when this election law was
passed that 1T would purify the ballot
box and produce peace in all sections.
Rather it had been the agent of the
grossest corruption and intimidation
1t had been administered in the in
terest of one political party. There
could be nothing more dangerous
than the overthrowing of law under the
pretense Of sustaining it. He de-
nounced the test-oath law, and said
congress would not adjourn until that
law was repealed.
Senator Wallace, Of Pennsylvania.
said the appropriation, called for by
the amendment, was not in the book
"a Of estimates. 1t was the Attor'
ney-General that demanded it. The
house knew nothing of it. Who were
these deputy-marshals? Were they
men of character and position, or were
they the refuse Of the cities Of Phila
delphia and New York? The appro'
priation of this money would not al
feet the people of the South alone, i
would apply equally 10 the North
Prior to 1871 the department of jus
tee got 81, 500, 900, and after tn
passage of the enforcement act it
force was doubled and no reduction
oft was made until the Democrat
came into power at the other end {
the capitol.
Senator Beck moved to strike out {
the proposed amendment, ''and ft
~defraying the expenses which ha,
been and may be incurred in the ei