Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1884-01-30
The Senefe.

The Senate.
WAsHINGroN,J J az. Ex-senator Vest, from
the committee On public lands, reported
favorably the bill repeating the timoer
culture laws. It wes ordered to be placed
on the calendar.
Senator Cameron. Wisconsin, introduced
a bill to establish the territory of north
Dakota.
Senator Plat of offered resolution for
which he asked immediate considera-
tiOn, directing the committee on post Of
fees ant post roads, TO ING uire whether
the lel- -aphic charges have been injari-
ously d. ted by large stock dividends of
the Weste Union TELEGRAPH company.
or the consultations Or contracts with
competing or other companies, ana
whether through the Gould
stock or telegraph company, otherwise the
Western Union company had prescribed
rules or regulations for the transmission of
press news. The resolution authorizes to
send for persons and papers. Objection
was made by senator Sherman, and it
went over till tomorrow.
Senator Sherman's resolution on the
Virginia and Mississippi elections was
taken up.
Senator Sherman said at the beginning
of the present session he had felt that re-
cent events in the states of Virginia and
Mississippi we're of such Importance as to
demand full and i'm mpartial investigation
of the causes that led to them the real
facts involved and the proper constitution
al remedy to prevent their recurrence, and
if necessary to further secure all Amer
lean citizens freedom of speech in the
open assertion of political opinions
and the peaceful exercise of
the right to vote. Now that suffi-
cient time had elapsed to alIay to some
extent the excitement caused by these
events, he hoped the senate would make
this investigation so that our citizens of
every state might understand how far tha
national government will protect them in
the enjoyment of their rights, or if it was
helpless or listless; that, no longer relying
upon the barren declarations of the CON
stitution, each man for himself might
appeal to the right of self defense Or to
boasted American right of migration to
more friendly regions. Tho allegations in
this resolution as to the DanviIle riot or
massacre were, he said, founded upon
statements in the public prints supported
by oaths of witnesses, and their substantial
truth also VERIFIED by the published state
of the state OF Virginia. The allegations
as to Mississippi were founded upon
copious narratives in the public prints,
the proceedings of public meetings.
and the action, and failure to
act Of officers of the state government
including governors, judges of csurts and
juries. If these statements are true, then
in both of those states there has been er-
ganized conspiracies to subvert the free
dom of elections, accompanied by murder
and violence in trsny forms. The orimss
depicted are not ordinary crimes, bat those
of the prevailing majority to subvert by
violence the highest constitutional privi'
leges OF citizens, and could not from their
nature be inquired of or punished by Or
dinary tribunals. If they are true, then in
those communities members of our party
and our race have no rights which the pre-
yailing majority are bound to respect.
He had no desire to open up sectional
questions or renew old STREETS. Still, if thos
ALLEGATIONS are true, it would be cowSrdly,
shrinking from the gravest public duty
to allow such events to deepen into prece-
dents, which would subvert the foundation
of Republican institutions and convert our
elections into organized crimes. If the
event at Danville were the result of a
chance outbreak, or not between opposing
parties of a different race of men, they
might properly be left to be
dealt with by the local authorities, but if
the riot and massacre were part of the
machinery devised by party to deter an
other party or race from the freedom of
elections, OR the free, open expression of
political opinions, when they constituted a
crime against the national government, and
the highest duty of the government was to
maintain at every hazard the equal rights
and privileges of citizens. If the events in
Bopiah county, Mississippi, were merely
lawless invasion OF individual
rights, though they involved
murder as well as ether crimes, they
should be left to the local authority, and if
jnstice could not be administered by the
courts and the citizen was without reEae-
dy from lawless violence, then he must
fail back upon his right of self defense, or
failing in that must seek homo where his
rights Will be respected or observed. But
if these individual crimes involved the
greater one Of organized conspiracy of q
party or race to deprive another party Or
race of citizens of the enjoy
ment of unquestioned rights,
accom- panied with overt acts
with physical power sufficient to accom-
pIish the purpose, then it becomes a
national question. which must be dealt
with by the uation@l goeernment. The war
emancipated and lu41s citizens of 5,000,-
900 people who had aeen slaves. No court
ever denied the power Of the national gov
ernment to protect citizens in the essen
tial rights of freemen. No man should be
allowed to hold seat in either house of
congress whose election was secured by
crimes such a depicted here, nor was it
sufficient to say the elections re-
ferred to we're not national
election in tho serse that they
did not involve the election of q president
or member OF congress. While the power
of congress over the election of senator's,
representatives and president ex-
tended to making and altering laws and
regulations passed by the respective states,
and therefore was fuller than in respect to
state elections, yet the constitution pro-
vided that the right of the people to be So
cure in their persons, houses, papers and
effects against unreasonable searches and
seizures shall not be violated, that,aIl per-
sons born or naturalized in the United
States, and subject to thu Jurisdiction
ora oitizans 0f ba TT,;4ol