The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1880-05-13
AN HONEST ELECTION.


AN HONEST ELECTION. F.,
The One Great Issue Between the Parties In
the Next Campaign-Democratle Opposi-
tion to Free and Fair Elections Forcibly
Delineated in Speech by General John
Coburn. -
| tden John Coburn before the Young Mems Republi-
can Club of lndianspolis.l
While we stand firmly by the results of the
war, and reconstruction, and by whatever
else has been done, there is another thing that
we as Republicans propose to obtain for this
|; country--we mean to have fair elections. That
has been one of the questions that has been be-
fore Congress and before the people ever since
the days of reconstruction. It was ono of tho
first aims of the Republicans after the war to
devise such measures AZ that the people Of the
South, white men and black men, and all to-.
gether, might have tho right to VOTE and tho
effort was to give such protection that the legal
voters might have the fullest enjoyment Of their
rights, and that fair, full, and free election
might be everywhere held. It was expected
| that the people of the rebellious States would
cordially accept the offers held out to them,
! and it Is true that at the start large number
OF them did cooperate in the measures planned
by Congress-. But the struggle has been going
ON for many years upon this question, until now
we are startled with the fact that the only polit
lcal issue before the people is how an election
shall be conducted. Never until now was this
the one question agitating the public mind In
other years there has been a division of senti-
ment upon some great measures, some lines of
public policy, some important principles, some
method OF action or some question of expendi-
| W i3,S1 hiatt ico
thing in the action of the Republican party
that merits severe condemnation from the
Democrats; but the great struggle is how
the election is to be conducted. When you
think OF this surprising issue between the two
parties, it is enough to set rational person
thinking. Why is it that we are brought to
such an issue? When men are going to run
race, both sides consent to have the track
cleared. In contest of musicians, the first
necessity is to have silence If you are trying
question i'll the courts affecting the rights Of
property or personal liberty, the first thing in
sisted upon would be that there should be
silence, and the Sheriff must be there to ELL
force order and keep the peace, SO that the trial
may proceed orderly. But now, when we are
going to have race which in importance sur
passes all the races ever r1ln when we are 60
ing to have trial before which all trials tho
world has ever seen sink into insgnifcance-a
trial as to who shall grasp the scepter Of empire,
who shall guide the policy and dispense the
patronage, and stand at the helm to steer the
ship of state, instead of there being an agree
ment between both parties to have men at the
polls to keep order, we find that one party is in
had been put up to prevent disorder and con-
fusion and violence. That party has been labor
ing at this for years. The laws that have been
passed by Congress year after year since 1870
have been adopted in view of tho fact that ono
political party was attempting, by every means,
hyrf .n11lo o,,l, ;,,k;r :Iol:.
and on the days of election, to grasp at power
and offices, and this not in the South alone, for
i'll New York more than anywhere were the
elections carried by fraud and violence. We find
that party at all times endeavorng to the ut
most Of its ability, to defeat any measure in
tended to prevent fraud at elections and
when at last, by fraud and violence and
every means that was disreputable,
they obtained majority in the lower house,
and subsequently in both branches of Con-
gress, we see them voting to drive away every
officer whose sworn duty it was to keep order at
the polls. In the extra session last year the
struggle was continued, and this year it has
been resumed, and they are evidently deter
mined to wipe out all of the election laws by the
riders which they have added to the Deficiency
and Appropriation bills, intended to tie the
hands of the President of the United States as
commander-in,chiof of the army, The army,
they say. must not be used on election day;
and yet that day, of all other days in the year,
is the one when there should be peace, and Or
der, and quiet. and when, therefore, the Presi-
dent should have full power and authority to
arrest criminals and protect law-abiding citi-
zens. In the bills now before the President,
they propose to take all this power away from
him: but do not believe they will receive his
signature. l have no personal knowledge of
his intentions, but do not sec how the Presi-
dent can ever sign such bills as these. do not
think can do better than bring before you
from the Congressional Record some facts
bearing upon this question. 1t is so intimately
connected with the present canvass that people
cannot be too fully acquainted with the actual
condition Of things. Under the 2,OO2d section
Of the Revised Statutes the President is os-
peciaIly empowered to use the army
to preserve the peace, at the polls
Congress or Presidential electors are to
he chosen But hear it asked, Why is it that
tic Republicans are so wonderfully anxious
aLont The retention and enforcement Of this
provi*o? Why do you make this fuss about it?
Do you have any trouble in Indiana?
Why are yoM worrying about other peoples
in Louisiana is just as much our election as it is
theirs. These men make laws for U.s. and the
electors choose President for lis. Tho cleo
tons in 1876 might have been fairly conducted
in Indiana, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, New
York, and in the entire North and a large
of tumbling over the precipice into civil war
simply because i'll Florida and Louisiana and
South Carolina there was grave ques-
ton as to who had carried the State,
because there had been violence and
fraud and intimidation in those States.
Therefore, it is our business: and we must see
to It, Even though these things may not hap
pen in indianapolis. it is just as bad for lis If
they happen anywhere else. Such violence is
transSrcssion of the laws of the United States,
and the President should have the power to call
in the military arm, if necessary to suppress it.
Why is it that every Democrat objects to having
troops at the polls, when they cannot call a
single instance of troops under orders having
interfercd with the progress Of all election? l
went to Alabama TO look into this very matter
and after the most thorough investigation it was
proved that not one man had been interfered
with by the troops, although hundreds Of people
were killed or injured by the violence of the
mob. Unfortunately the troops were not quite
near enough to be Of service-not SO near as
they should have been. Let me give some
facts as to the way these elections were con-
Quoted i'll some of the Southern States. In
Louisiana nineteen parishes gave, in the spring
of 1868, Republican vote Of "a, ,724, against
2,S2O Democratic. In the fall of the same
year, between Grant and Seymour, there were
only 1858 Republican votes, while Seymour was
credited with So, 315. In 1870, when there was
nothing important at stake, the vote went back
" !ts proper pIOpOfuOIlS, anu CneSc nineteen
parishes gave 80, 465 Republican and 26,9O6
Democratic, just . decent Republican majority:
The reason they did not vote in the fall Of 1868
was because Of the wholesale murders which
had taken place in New Orleans, which had
made it unsafe for the colored people to vote
the Republican ticket In Georgia twenty-six
counties had total registered colored vote in
the spring Of 1868 of q, ,524 and yet in the fall
election only Is, 400 votes were cast, and Grant
secured but 1 1923. What could have been the
cause of this? 1t was terror and it is clear to
me that the army was not used as it should
have been. In Georgia, in 1872, three Con-
gressional districts gave 26960 Democratic and
q, ,042 Republican votes; while in 1878 the vote
was 9, 439 Democratic, and the Republican vote
had been cut down to 70. The same thing oc-
Cured in Mississippi and North Carolina. The
question is, what became of these votes?
Such a condition Of affairs in relation to
your elections is of the utmost i,npor-
tance. If there is anything of more
importance to the people of this country. l
want to know it. And yet this Democratic
party, having profited by this kind of business,
having solid South, and having obtained
majority in Congress, are now seeking to wipe
out from the statuteA the last vesti0e of an