The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1881-04-21
XLVIIth CONGRESS.
Senate-Executive Session.
WASHINGTON. April e

WASHINGTON, April 20.
The Vice President laid before the Senat,
the resolution for the election of Senat,
| officers.
Mr.. Dawes, abiding to the statement by hin
some days ago as to the persecution of Massa
chusetts man in Mississippi. said the story O.
that gentleman was to-day printed in Massa
chusetts papers. That story corroborated hi
sta tement in every particular except as to 10
cality The incidents had happened in the
parish of Caldwell, Louisiana, and not in Mis-
sisslppi as he had stated. The gentleman.
name was Heath. He Dawes) asked that the
gentleman's statement as published in the pa
pers should be printed in the Record.
Mr.. Jones demanded the reading of the ar
ticle, and it was read by the Clerk. 1t relate.
to the prosecutions to which Heath states hi
was subjected in Louisiana because he was 8
Yankee, and gives accounts of various murder.
committed there, to show the condition of so
ciety in that State
Mr.. Jonas said the Senator from Massacbu
sets had transferred the scene of his cock and
bull story from Mississippi to Louisiana. Wher
1t was contradicted in that locality it would
probably be translated to Texas or Georgia
He heard of these alleged prosecutions now
for the first time. There was nothing in the
article which showed that Heath had been
prosecuted on account of his political opinions
He called attention to the fact that the Outrages
alluded to had been committed nine years ago
He desired to make some remarks upon the
subject when he could get some information
from the locality. He sent to the clerks desk
and had read for the purpose of showing that
murders and robberies were not confined tc
Southern States an account of the killing of one
of the Foster brothers in Massachusetts while
committing burglary.
Mr.: Frye said that being the youngest mem.
Der of the Senate perhaps reasonable degree
of modesty should have kept him silent and
he had fully intended to keep silence AMI act
as LOCKER on in Venice" but he found un-
expectedly he was obliged to leave Saturday
for protracted absence and there were some
things which yet remained. He said the Sen.
tor from Pennsylvania (Cameron) had yester.
day exhorted the Senators on the other
side to be "brave men" He (Frye) had been
here looking on since he had been member oil
the Senate, and it seemed to him that those
words were mere idle words" He had never
seen in all his life, had never read in all his
life, of Drawer men than were to-day on the
other side of the chamber. Here was the Sen.
ate in extra session with the constitution over
it, with its duties before it, the Democratic
party clearly, in the wrong, knowing itself to
be wrong, knowing tho constitution to be
against it. The Republican party was under
taking to do the duty which the constitu.
ton prescribed, and instead of the Senators on
the other side putting themselves on the de-
fensive they stood up and Carried the war
into Africa" day after day. and Republican
defensive. Oh, there was bravery enough ON
thrt side of the chamber. There was bravery
enough in the Senator from Georgia (Brown)
when he rose in his place and with great dig.
nifty, and with the constitution in his hand,
read day after day lectures to Republicans
upon their duties under the constitution. Con-
fession was sweet for the soul, and yet comics.
sion sometimes required higher degree of
bravery than any thing else, and it was brave
act on the part of the Senator when he, in
open Senate, admitted that he had been Re.
publican in the State of Georgia, that his life
had been in peril, that he had then become a
Democrat, and that from that day he had en-
joyed perfect safety.
Mr.. Brown said no such thing.
Mr.. Frye-I understood the Senator to say
that there was danger when he was Repub-
lican.
Mr.. Brown replied that he had said that
though at the close of the war his life might at
one time have been in peril, that period had
ceased two years before he had reunited with
the Democracy His return to Democracy had
nothing to do with his safety.
Mr.. Frye rejoined that it was brave for the
Senator to say that much. 1t was brave in the
Senator to make an attack upon Massachusetts,
when he had said that there were in that State
!39,0O0 paupers, spendthrifts and drunkards
deprived by law of the right TO vote, and if they
ocratic ticket That required courage to say.
The Senator might have gone further and de-
clared that in the prisons and penitentiaries of
the great Commonwealth there were thousands
OF men who, if they could get out, would vote
the Democratic ticket. The Senator from
Florida (CalD needed courage to make an at
tack upon the industries of Massachusetts.
The complaint was that in Massachusetts, the
educational qualifications were placed upon
the ballot, but he Frye) asserted that where
the South raised one dollar for education OF
voters the North raised from eight to ten dol
lars. The Senator from Florida had been bold
in calling the laboring men of MASSACHUSETTS
'serfs" Serfs meant to be bulldozed and
intimidated: If the workingmen of Massa.
chusettS had been in Louisiana and the con-
seryauves mad undertaken to intimidate and
bulldoze them there would not have been to-
day enough conservatives left to form the de-
cent nuclus of party. 1t was easy to shoot at
labor which had been ground down by slavery
1t was not so easy to point pistol at look in
the face OF white man, starving and hungry
workman OF Massachusetts,. The savings OF
the laborers in that State. would be enough to
buy the whole State of Florida five times over
and have $50,000,000 left. Uaughter.) Oh, it
required courage to call them serfs.
Oh, the courage OF the Senator from North
Carolina (Vance) A drawer man than the
Senator could never be found when he declar-
ed that North Carolina had never repudiated a
single dollar of her debt. The Senators on the
Republican side had stated they were making
this tight for principle that the majority
should govern the minority. That was not the
ground upon which he made this fight for
himself and his state. There was force in it,
but there was another ground appealing to him
with Infinitely greater strength that that. He
had seen something of minorities in the other
House, but had supposed when he came to his
distinguished body he had bid adieu to fill
clustering altogether and he beheld all the fill
clustering in the other body fade into insignif-
canoe before that practiced in this chamber.
(Laughter) The ground upon which he made
the fight is this, that there was Solid South
and that the South was a constant menace to
the prosperity and to the safety of the Ameri-
can people. The North today placed the fight
on that ground and said that the Solid South
should De broken if its solidity came from any
deprivation OF any right of any citizen of the
United States. He then proceeded at length
to quote from court records and other docu-
ments to show that in no Southern state was
there free vote and a fair count. He went
into the details of bulldoZing and intimidation
in the various Southern States, that in some
places the mississippi plan" was resorted to;
IN others that tissue ballots were used, and in
still others that "dead lines'' were drawn
around polls, and Garfield niggers" forbid
den to cross it. He was frequently interrupt
ed by Senators from the Statef to which he re-
ferred, and sometimes rather warm discus
SiOnS enSued.
string" district of Mississippi, Chalmers dis
trict, and stated that great frauds had been
committed there. A white Democrat mem.
Der of the other house, had openly said to him,
''The election in the s'shoe-string" district wa s
an infamous farce and when come to vote 1
shall vote so," and that had been said by
Democrat and a Confederate. The people of
the North could not be blindfolded The cleo
tions in the South were not free, not fair, not
without fraud and even to-day are not without
violence. The Republicans had said when
this contest had begun they intended to fight
on this line until the Solid South, made solid
in devious ways, lost its solidity. They recog-
nized in the fight in Virginia the entering
wedge and for that reason alone they had de-
termined to stand by it, to give it their
"amen and amen" hoping that sooner or lat
er the South might rise up to the dignity of
free and Independent states and give to every
man, white or black, his rights. Senators
from the South, he continued, we shall make
that fight forever unless victory comes before
forever ends. 1t is certain "the mills of the
gods grind slowly but they grind exceeding
small" He described the contest which had
taken place in this country between the civil
lization which had been based on slavery
and barbarism and that based on
school books and the bible which
latter had prevailed and in conclusion
said: The pen of history with iron point has
written down with blood the history of those
few years following the war in your bright
Southern land and your children and their
ob;ldran reading these terrible papes ono Of