American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1881-01-29


Forty-seventh Congress we are unable
to see. The labor is not a long one.
The necessary facts will be laid before
Congress, and it is the spirit of the Con-
stitution and of the statutes that this
work shall be done as soon as practi-
cable after the requisite enumeration of
the people of the States has BEN made.
There is not only an utter absence of
reasons why this Congress should not
make this apportionment, but there are
emphatic reasons why the present Con-
gress should do this work. Already
there are evidences that the policy of the
Republican party for the ensuing four
years will be iron-handed, brutal, though
that policy is mildly named among men
as simply "Stalwart." 1t is already
proposed to. uDseat Democrats elect
ed from the Southern States to the.
House of Representatives, and to seat
Republicans in their stead. 1t is al
ready proposed by Republicans that the
United States Senate shall declare
Southern Legislatures that choose
Democratic Senators to be "unlawful
assemblies no Legislatures. and upon
this theory Senators elected from the
South in the g future of the Republican
party" are to be denied seats in the
United States Senate. These are por-
lions of the scheme recently sketched
by distinguished Republican essayist,
who has for nearly twenty years been
close to the Republican throne. If ac-
cident. or death, or treachery should
give the Senate of the United States to
the Republicans in the next Congress
by even one vote, or if the Senate
should be made tie, with Arthur in
the chair, what may we not expect in
the direction of what Mr.. Boutwell,
calls "bold, aggressive legislation"
when Republican President sits at
the other end of the avenuep If the
Republican managers, having the Ex-
ecutive and the House, should arrange
to obtain possession of the Senate, and
then should make the apportionment,
what would they be likely to do? They
would instantly proceed to reduce the
basis of representation in the Southern
States, and appeal to the Fourteenth
The omniprcsent Republican press
by asserting that the right to vote in all
or denied to untold millions of black
men in the South, and that, therefore,
under the Fourteenth Amendment to
the Constitution, the basis of represen-
tation in those States should be reduced
in proportion to this alleged denial or
abridgment. The Republicans in
Washington would be the sole judges
of the extent of this alleged abridg-
ment or denial. and, therefore, would
be the sole judges of the extent to
which the basis of representation in the
Southern States should be reduced.
We have seen the temper of the Repub-
ican managers, and we all know their
audacity. They stop at nothing. The
party that discovered after Tilden's
election that sufficient territory had
been bull-dozed' to elect Hayes,
while the same territory had not been
" bull-dozed'' enough to defeat
Nichols. will hesitate at nothing
in politics. The party that said
that Hayes in 1876 carried
Louisiana and Florida, but admitted
that the same votes which chose Hayes
Electors in those two States elected
Democratic Governors in both of these
States, will not hesitate to disfranchise
a portion of the South; will not hesitate
to rob a portion of the people of the
country of their right to representation
in Congress.
In view of what is coming, it is the
imperative duty of this Congress to
promptly readjust the superintendent of
the House upon tho basis of tho census
of 1880. That superintendent once
fixed remains for ten years. To neg
lect to do this would be inexcusable on
the part of the Forty-sixth Congress.
The reasons why should be plain The
question is not partisan one. The
duty is to promptly act upon a Repub-
lican enumeration. The duty is to keep
the apportionment out of the clutches
of the most tagrant partisanship.-
Cincinnati Enquirer.