The Aberdeen examiner. [volume] (Aberdeen, Miss.) 1866-current, 1884-11-06
Federal Control in State Elec-
tiOnS.
Washington Post.

Washington Post.
judicial Revolution, or whether
n my neighbor shall regulate my
family aft irs,' is the caption of 9
strong argument in which Mr.. W. L
McGary, of this city, discussed in
he PHILADELPHIA Record the great
questio Of Federal interference in
,oc,,l elections.
The discussion now going on in
he various States has for its object
the receiving of votes for the candi
dates of one or the other of the
contedding parties. 1t is based on
the assumption tba the voters a e
free and that the elections in each
State are held under the laws OF that
State. But Mr.. McGary holds ard
shows hat nll this is false if any.
outside power may go into a State
and take control of it's electio IS,
arrest whom it pleases without
warrant, inlimidate voters by for
nIdable display of pistols and clubs,
and, if citizen protests against such
methods, lock him up in prison and
try him before tribunal having no
connection with his State govern =
ment.
Mr.. McGary takes up the decision
of the Republican judges of the
Supreme Court under which these
outrages were perpetrated, and
shows that those judges directly aud
plainly reversed the Constitution
when they declared that the FEEDER !
government could take charge of the
elections for Congressman or presi
dental electors. He shows tha
neither in the original Constitution
nor in any OF all of the amendments,
is any such power granted; that it it
directly violative of the d=claiations
of the States when they came into II e
Union, and that the States have not
since that time surrendered their
right to manage their own elections
In the Thirteenth amendment the
States mutually agreed that the
blacks shall be citizens. In the Fit
teenth amendment the States mu.
tually agree that the uufranchsed
blacks shall be voters. But nowhere
at any time have the States agreed
to surrender their existence, or in
other words, the regulation of their
elections.
Not until the State shall "neglec
or refuse 10 give all its voting citizens
a fair and equal chance to exercise
the right of suffrage can the Feder
authority interpose. This is the
conclusion of Mr.. McGary, and he is
fortified by all the authorities except
a paIpably partizan, made to order
die um of reorgaDized Republican
Supreme Court.
The law under which an army OF
deputy marshals is mustered in for
the purpose cf carrying an election
at the muzzle of the bulldog pistol
was disapproved of and protested
against by Gen. Garfield when he led
his party in the House Of Reps eseD-
tatives. Ii is such a law as no houest |
man will seriously attemptto defend.
1t was gotten up originally for use
in the South, and it was not then
that any party would at,
tempt to use it in the orderly y and
quiet cities of the North, where
emancipation. enfrancbisement and
rule had not disturbed
the foundations of social order.
1t is dangerous law. 1t presents
and opportunities to
uncomfortable outrages,
and it has on more than one OCCASION |
come very near producing riots hat
would speedily have developed into
civil war. So long as State neith r
nor refuses" to hold fair
elections, no earthly power should |
interfere with her people in the
exercise of their highest and most |
sacred right.