Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1888-01-30
The Senate is Right.

reference in the local concerns of
state. 1t is far from that, however;
it is an inquiry into charges that have
been made against certain federal
officers, notably j. b. Harris, the
federal District Attorney; Samuel
Livingston, Deputy United States
Marshal, and d. Z. Wilson, a Depu-
ty Collector of Internal Revenue.
The story of the jackson election
is brief. The Democrats undertook
to drive the negroes out of power in
the city and for that purpose appoint
ed committee of one hundred. The
District Attorney was member of
that committee and the Deputy Col
lector of Internal Revenue was a
member of another committee which
reported certain White Line resolu-
tions. The Mayoralty contest was
made on the color line under these
resolutions. The movement in which
these federal officers were engaged
was against the rights granted by the
fourteenth and fifteenth amendments
of the constitution. The question
raised by the Senate, however, is not
complicated by the point that the
amendments are directed to the states
and not to Individuals and that,
therefore, the United States have no
jurisdiction for the punishment of
offenses. The Democrats of Jack
son insisted that negroes should have
no part in municipal affairs that they
should be driven out of the city's en-
ployment and in aid of this design,
incendiary circulars and newspaper
articles were published. One circu-
lar, especially, is worthy of descrip-
ton. 1t was printed in red ink. At
it's top were crossed shot guns. 1t
declared that negro government
''should, must and shall be wiped out,
cost whatever it may 1t was sup
ported by the Daily Mississippidn,
and was distributed at the polls for
the purpose of intimidating the color
ed voters. This was crime against
citizens within the spirit at least of
the constitutional amendments, al
though it may be contended that the
state alone, even though its officers
be the criminals, has jurisdiction to
punish its citizens for such offences.
But engaged in this crime were three
federal officers, men who may be re-
moved by the President at any time.
If Mr.. Cleveland believed that the in
tegrity of the Constitution and the
laws were to be considered before his
party, he would have removed them
weeks ago. If he were honest in his
declaration that manifestations of
offensive partisanship by federal Off
GERS are cause for removal, there
WOltlOi NC hO HOSCSSloJ AOl O1O ~ 'Nooh
CATION which the Senate is about to
make. As it is, the Senate, sharer
in the appointing power, would be
guilty of a cowardly abandonment of
people whose rights are guaranteed
by the Constitution and the laws, and
who are oppressed and degraded by
officers of the federal government, if
it did not make the investigation.
Certain criminals are in the employ
ment of the United States at jackson,
Miss. The President maintains them,
because they are his own partisans.
The Senate proposes to do what it
may to prevent federal officers from
being accomplices in Southern crimes
against the ballot box. The Senate
is right. Any other course would
make it participant in the barbarism
which has too long prevailed in Mis-
sisslppi.-N. Y. Mail.
D D