Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1880-04-14
The House.
TROOPS AT THE POLLS.

TROOPS Al The POLLos
WASHINGTON, April 19.-The House resumed
consideration of the army appropriation bill,
and was addressed by Mr.. Ewing. He said the
Democratic side had been severely criticised for
not having taken part in this discussion. He
was surprised at that. The pending
amendment was practically a Republican
proposition, as at the extra session only twelve
Republicans had voted against it and the Re-
publican leaders had crOwed over the fact that
more Republicans than Democrats had
voted for it. 1t was practically
their thunder and the Democratic side had not
supposed that it was expected to answer their
prepared TRADES against the amendment which
they had so unanimously and emphatically
supported. Now their objections come in
babel of cries. All were distressed at this
amendment From the vacant chair on the Re-
publican side (Garfeld's) which was an elO-
quent protest against the sudden somersault
of his party, down to the gentleman from New
Jersey (RobesOn), who, having been absent at
the time of the previous adoption
the amendment was uncommitted and free to
dip his pencil in darkest colors to paint the
enormity of this amendment. In twelve years
the Republican party had placed on apprOpria-
tion bills 387 political riders. The gentleman
from Connecticut arraigned the Democratic
party for placing riders an appropriation
Dill. IhaG gentleman QaQ Deen Heu1DtI VI
the Forty-Third Congress, which had
Tackled FoRTY-FoUR POLITICAL RIDERS
on appropriation bills-forty- four deviltries in
one Congress. (Laughter.) He, Ewing, was
not much of an advocate of riders appro-
priation bills, but he did not tremble at the
idea that the Republican party would arralgn
the Democracy before the people this fall for
putting riders on appropriation bills. What
were the riders? In whose interest? In the
interest of monOpOlies or tyranny? The De-
mocracy had put on three riders.
The first had been a prohibition regarding
the use to which the army should be put,
against dispensing it into little squads all over
the country and putting each squad at the
beck and call of deputy marshal.
The next rider had been q proviso that as
long as marshals were to be used to invest the
polls they should at least be chosen by United
States judges whose high character would give
the country assurance that the marshals would
not be used as the mere instrument of party
triumph. Many Republicans had voted for
that rider. Their most distinguished leader
has framed it with his own hand, and had de-
cided he would vote for it, if he was the only
man who did so, but under the pressure of party
exigency when he found that his party must
gulp little clap trap and sectional agitation,
that gentleman when the roll had been called
had been found voting against the amendment
which he bad framed and sworn to stand by.
The third rider was contained in the pending
amendment. He quoted from the speech made
by Mr.. Robson to the effect that this amend
ment bound over the nations defenders hand
and foot, and sawed off the flagstaff of the
country. There was a law on the statute books
in the very words of this amendment. The
party of the gentleman from New Jersey had
cast their votes for that law. Where had the
gentleman been when his party had been
BINDING OUR DEFENDERS HAND AND FOOT
He could not have been off junketing, certain
ly, at such an hour of peril. Naughter.),
MIR. Robeson-I was paired with leader Of
the opposition, Mr.. F. Wood, of New York.
MIR. Ewing-That pair did not save the flag
staff of the country. What spectacle, he
continued, the Republican party binding our
defenders hand and foot. 1t was case very
much like that of Whitaker at West Point. The
suspicion was that the party complaining had
bound itself. (Laughter.) Some gentlemen
on the other side had said that the Democratic
party ought not to assume that Hayes would
use the army unlawfully. If George Washing.
ton were President, he, Ewing, would not be
willing that he should have power to use troops
at the polls. Possibly Hayes might not make
a bad use of that power. Another President
might come in after him who would not bt
quite so good as Hayes. he might be man Of
ambition and of willfulness. 1t might bC
Gen. Grant, Slight applause on the Republi
can side and cries of 1T will,') who had saiC
in 1876 in message to the House that il wa
we'll understood that the presence of United
States troops at polling places never interfereC
with the franchises of any citizen. Over on
hundred years after independence haC
been fought for and won, the gen