Centre Democrat. [volume] (Bellefonte, Pa.) 1848-1989, 1880-04-01
The Federal Election Laws.

!
war in 1865, the people of the States
were permitted to regulate their cleo
tions in their own way, under their
own local laws, without thought of
interference from the Federal govern
ment. Such officials as Federal SUI
pervisors of elections and Federal
deputy marshals at every recurring
election for President and members of
Congress were unheard Of. No Fed
eral bayonets, under pretence of pre-
serving the peace, ever cleaned at the
polls, and no reputable statesman of
any of the political parties in exist
ence before the war dreamed of med
ding in affairs over which, by the
common consent of all the State gov
ernments alone were believed to have
control. The clause of the Constitu-
tion under which it is now gravely as.
sumed that Federal officials can exer-
else authority over the elections, watch
the polls and scrutinize the returns,
was the same then as now, but no pub
lie man of past days was bold enough
to avow that it meant that which stall
warts of the present time do not hesi-
tate to assert. Voters are made voters
by State laws, and it is broad rule of
construction that makes them amena-
bic to Federal power wheh they 60 TO
the polls.
But an entirely different meaning is
now put upon the Constitution. A
new class Of statesmen have arisen
who think they know more than the
fathers who framed our fundamental
law. They have been at the head of
great and powerful political party
for many years, and seeing themselves
growing weaker, and likely TO be
overthrown. they must do something
desperate to maintain their hold in the
administration of the government, and
without the slightest regard to right
or justice, the system of election su.
pervisors and deputy marshals, ap-
pointed from their own party alone, to
act as party agents and workers in the
elections of the people, was cue among
the many devices hit upon to keep
their party from defeat and disruption.
1t was single step In the direction of
that great and overshadowing central
ization towards which the country has
been gradually moving under Repub.
lican ascendency and influence, but
was one fraught with no ordinary dan
ger to the liberties of the people and
the cherished maxims OF home rule
that have come down to us from the
times of Jefferson and Madison. o.
tensibly these laws were passed by the
party in power under plea that they
were necessary to preserve the purity
of elections. But the manner in
which they have been enforced is of
itself a sufficient proof that the plea
was merely false and hypocritical
pretense. No such necessity existed.
The machinery of the Federal laws,
with power in the officials appointed
in pursuance of their provisions to
arrest and imprison without warrant
or process, was not needed to secure
honest elections. They have been
used solely to insure political success
and not to promote any good end. AS
an exchange tersely expresses it, "the
Republican party, the men who have
controlled its administrations and it,
campaigns, stand before the world,
and will thus stand in our political
history for all time, of having used
the Federal election laws, not to pro-
mote the public welfare, not to help
bring in the candidates having ma
jority Of voters supporting them, not
to purify the ballot, not to conserve
the principles of local self.government,
but to accomplish the ends of corrupt
men by corrupt methods" This is
the truth of the whole matter--the
truth and nothing but the truth--and
the man who doubts 1t, doubts in the
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