The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1890-12-21
It WAS REPUBLICAN DAY.
Spooner, Ingalls, and Edmunds
Speak in Favor Of the
Force Bill.
The Usual Argument About the
Suppression Of the Ne
gro Vote.
Using the New Constitution OF m aississinni
~ = Moral to Adorn q Tale
Oft Told.

| WARRINGTON, Dec. N.-DiecusSinQ thu
election bill in the senate to-day Spooner
spoke in advocacy of that measure.
stranger in the gallery, he said, listening I,
the debate without any knowledge of tht
country, would be impressed with the idea
that all the love of liberty and devotion
to constitution and freedom from partisan
ship were to be found on the democratic
side of the chamber He hoped the gentle
men on the other side would not assume
that the republican senators were not,
equally with them, lovers of liberty. IL
had been said on the other side that the bill
was aimed at the south. It was in
part. It was aimed at every spot in the
United States where by fraud or force men
who had the right to vote for members of
congress were cheated out Of that right.
The south, he thought, was where the bill
was specially needed. In support Of his
assertion he read extracts from the spe ech
by Delegate Chrisman in the late constitu-
tional convention of Mississippi, declaring z
that since 1875 there had not been fair
election in that state; that In
plain words they (the whites) had
been stufing the ballot boxes, CON-
mitting perjury, and carrying elections
by fraud and violence. He also read the
qualifications for voters in the constitution
OF Mississippi, among others being the
ability of the voter, after January, 1892. to
read or to give reasonable explanation of
the meaning of the constitution OF the
state. II the constitution Of Mississippi
had stopped at the educational test and
excluded. from the right of suffrage every
white or black who could not read that in
strument. nobody would complain of it.
But now the ignorant white voter might
have the simplest clause read to him and be
asked if he understood 1t, and answering
yes might be permitted to vote,
while an abstruse clause as to the right of
eminent domain or some technical Ques-
ton might be read to a colored voter who
would be asked to give reasonable expla.
nation of it. The scheme was plainly de-
vised to let the ignorant white man vote. il
he voted the democratic ticket, and ~ keep
the ignorant black man from voting unless
he voted that ticket. And vet heAsmocrati
senators rallied against the pending measure
as giving tho supervisor lOrdly powers
This constitution had been adopted, too,
not by the vote Of the people, but by the
convention itself. Southern men ought not
their increased representation while sup
pressing the negro vote.
It had been said on the other side that
the negro should never have had the right
to vote. but it was too late now to argue that
question: The right had been given him,
not be taken from him. Referring to
Stewart's speech yesterday and his remark
that the election law could not be enforced
IN the south because public opinion would
not support it, Spooner said:
Have we fallen into the condition in our
country that calls for the preservation bv
law Of the purity of the ballot at the north,
but that We must stop at Mason and Dixop's
line because public opinion in the south is
IN favor OF dishonest and fraudulent and
violent suppression OF the suffrags. can
not believe it" Spooner spoke over Ave !
hours ana his speech was listened to with
marked attention on both sides Of the
ingalls, said it was the conviction of the
great mass of the people of the south that |
the constitutional convention of Mississip- |
pi assembled for the avowed purpose Of !
ahlsiranchlsing u 2 majority Of its citizens
who were also citizens Of the United States.
1t had been assembled for the express pur-
ooss OF multiplying, defeating and over
throwing an amendment to the constitution
of the United States, by agreeing to which !
Inc state OF Mississippi secured readmission
20 the Union. The southern people had re-
aimed representation in the house Of ron
resentatives and III the electoral college
While they suppressed the oolored vote.
They had retained representation
which has given them for four
'een years supremacy in the house
Ind once placed in the presidential chair a
nan who had never been elected to that
'ffice i'll any just sense. Contrary to the
Usual course pursued in free communities.
he results of the Mississippi convention
would not be submitted to the people to be
,oted upon It had been arranged to have
declared the organic law Of the state
without any action on the part of the
'otere.
Edlnunds added that tho convention
anne into existence by methods entirely
utside of the constitution of tho state.
which provided particularly for its own