The Portland daily press., 1886-09-07
MR.. BLAINE AT ETNA.
An Audience of 6ooo People Present
to Hear His Great Speech.
He Speaks of the Suppression of the
coIored Vote at the South.

He SPEAKS Of TIC suppression OF tHS
coIored Vote at the South.
Held Control of Congress.
BANGOR, Sept. 5.-The weather was de-
lightful to-day and between 5000 and 5000
James G. Blaine and Gen. Gibson of Ohio
speak on the political issues. Mr.. Blaine,
after discussion of the industrial question
and some reference to the prohibition issue,
closed his speech with following reference :
spoke a few days since of the determin-
alton of the Democrats in Congress to keep
Dakota knocking at the doors of the Union
for admission, even after she has ten times
the population that certain Southern States
had when they were admitted. The wrong
fulness of this step is made more marked
and more intolerable when it is remembered
that the material proportion of the vote by
which the Democrats accomplished the ex-
clusion of Dakota is obtained by the dis
franchisement of 100000 eff the Southern
population, thus enabling them to cast from
S5 to 40 votes in Congress to which they have
no moral title, nor legal title, nor constitu-
tional title and no title at all except that
which is founded upon force and fraud.
(Applause.) 1 know it is regarded by a
large number as useless, if not unwise, to
continue the discussion of the Southern vote,
but no feature connected with that vote can,
in the end, be so deplorable and destructive
- 10 so+I.
in the outrage. have only the voice and
influence of private citizen, but as long as
have that, 1 will protest against the wrong
which not merely blots out all rights of the
col0red man, but absolutely seiZes the votes
to which they are entitled with that wrong
fully acquisced electoral strength that con-
trolls the legislative power of the United
States. Cheers and cries of ''good.') If
the matter involved only the exclusion
Of the colored man from the ballot and
thus from the highest right of citizenship
it would surely be bad enough, but he is
marked with the possession of the ballot,
and his electoral strength is turned to the
support of the party whose success is his
lasting injury. IA Southern gentleman with
whom / have long held personal relations of
kindness, said to me with candor, which was
as surprising as his lack of perfection of the
enormity which he was apparently endors--
ing, that in recent election in Mississippi
and also in South Carolina, the colored men,
who are in a large majority. in both States,
were actually well organized fer election and
would have carried it but for the great activ-
ity and vigilance of the white men at the
last moment. l said to him, ''Did these col
o nnd aeE m any bn tS Wodd have
out-voted as they had numbers, and it
took great exertion on our part to over-vote
them" He was apparently quite uncon-
scious of the magnitude of the crime which
raj rights of this entire race, and yet this in
cident shows the extent to which this disre-
gard of natural and legal rights have pro-
ceeded in the South. The refusal to allow
colored men to vote, and the cool appropria-
tion of their electoral strength by the white
men has become the common custom and the
common law of the South, and will remain
so until some great moral shock shall awaken
those people to the enormity Of the offence.
1t will read very strangely in the future his
tory of the United States that a minority of
the white citizens Of the, country could neu.
traliZe and destroy the franchise of 6,000,00
colored people, seize their representative
and electoral strength, and control
the administration of the national gov
government against large majority of un-
doubted legal voters, and yet that is what is
going on in the South, and what has gone on
in the South ever since 1877. Acquiescence
in the practice does not change its character,
but only involves the others in the moral re-
is an extraordinary fact that the wealthlest
and most educated States OF the Union
quietly acquiescc in the wrong OF giving t1e
white men of Mississippi and Carolina double
political power i'll the. country than any equal
number of Northern white men possess.
The government by the free suffrage OF the
people proceeds upon the assumption that
the voting shall be legal and fail. When 1t
becomes corrupted, either under the demlnae a.
bribery, the whole Republican system is
impregnated with deadly poison, which II
long continued will sap its life.. (Applause)
And yet we find many gentlemen In the
Northern States Justly and keenly alive y TO 70
smallest and most indirect manner, setting
to check it by the most stringent legislation,
and yet constantly turning a deaf ear when
it is suggested to them that corruption OF
universal, and working out results that
utterly destroy the principle of majority
government. Let me state the case in an
arithmetical way. If you deprive the colored
people of the right of suffrage and exclude
them from the basis of representation, the
Republican party would have had a majority
in Congress at any time within the last ten
years, and majority Of the electoral
strength of the country, or if you secure to
the colored men perfect freedom OF
suffrage and include them in the basis
of representation, the. Republican party
would readily have controlled Congress for
the same period. But Democratic success
had been attained by including them In the
basis of representation and excluding them
from the enjoyment of suffrage, thus appro-
priating the electoral strength of the colored
men for the sole benefit of the Democratic
party. When the old Scotch covenanter was
stripped of all power to change the curren1lt
of events against which he decreed he still
enter his protest. For myself. !. said two
years ago, and say now, regardless OF It's
popularity or its unpopularity, looking only
to injustice which oppresses, and the wrong
which outrages, that will steadily give my
testimony and enter my protest against this
gigantic wrong protest against it as rank
and odious injustice to colored and white CIT
izens alike. IproteSt against 1t as utterly
destructive to Republican government. l
know am thus protesting against the con
ADVANTAGE, and profit and gain of this unjust
aggregation of political power in the hands
Of Southern white men When 16 Southern
States can say, I'VE are solid, we nave the
entire white vote of our States and we have
seized the colored vote, we offer to you part
nership, we offer to any minority of North
ern States that will give us complete govern
ment of the country" The temptation,
say, is very strong: 1t imposes on tne
party that entertains the proposition for
such an alliance the duty of carrying but
three or four States in the North and when
three or four States in the North find that
they can cement an alliance the temptation
becomes so strong that poor human nature
is not equal to the resistance. Thus in adz a
dition to the power of the wiIrCe man OF the
South they get portion of the North com
mitted by all instances of self interest to
perpetuate the odious destruction OF free
Suffrage. / do not assume that my voice
will be potential in the correction of a wrong
so monStrous, of an evil so gigantic. of an in
Justice so fragrant, but l can at least be one
of that great cloud of witnesses, certain to
arise in time and of that great host which in
the future will find a remedy for the wrong
and redress for the grievance. To doubt that
right will in the end prevail is to despair Of
human justice and to distrust the enternal
law of God" Enthusiastic cheering)
General Gibson Of Ohio and Hon. G. A.
Boutelle, also addressed the meeting jEE
BUSINESS TROUBLES.