, 1890-12-21
THE WASHINGTON NEWS
Senator Spooner Makes a
Speech Five Hours Long
In the Senate on the Lodge
Election Bill.
The Seal Question Again
Comes to the Front.

W~AsHINGroN, Dec. 2O.-Pettigrew in
troduced a bill to prohibit the sale Of fire.
arms and ammunition to Indians on res.
ervationr. Referred.
A dozen private pension bills were
passed.
Moody, from the committee on Indian
depreciation claims. reported the house
bull for the adjudication of claims arising
from Indian depredAtions. Calendar.
Sawyer asked unanimous consent FOR
fixing an early day in January for the
consideration of the postal telegraph bill,
but Wolcott objected.
Ingalls,, at his own request. was granted
two weeks leave of absence.
Plat introduced a joint resolution APP
p%ropriating 800, Oe0 to enable the presi-
dent 10 take action to obtain from the
German government a supply of the
remedy discovered by D.. Koch and the
formula for the manufacture of the SAINT,
Laid over.
The morning hour having expired, the
presiding officer laid before the senate the
election bill. Paddock gave notice that
after the cons Iteration OF the pending
bill, he would ask the senate to take up
tue pure food hill. which was demanded
by the farmers from one end OF the
country 90 tho other.
Edmunds demanded the regular order,
and the floor was taken by Spooner. who
spoke in advocacy OF the bill.
He defended John |. Davenport from
the attacks made upon him and contended
that the federal election law, instead OF
being offensive to the Democrats of the
Il North, had been put into operation at
their request in many instances.
A stranger 10 the gallery, he SAID, lis
tening to the debate without knowledge
OF the country, would be impressed with
the idea that all the love of liberty and
devotion to the constitution and freedom
from partisanship we're to be found on
the Democratic side of the chamber. He
hoped that the gentlemen on the other
side would not assume that Republican
senators were not. equally with them,
lovers of liberty. 1t had been said on
the other side that the bill was aimed at
the South. Ii was, in part. 1t was
aimed at every spot in the United States
where. by fraud OF force, men who had a
right to vote for members of congress
were cheated out of that. right. The
South, he thought. was where the bill
was especially needed. In proof, he
read extracts from a speech by Delegate
Christmas in the lats constitutional CON
~vention of Mississippi, declaring that
since 1875 there had not been a fair cleo
ton IN that state; that in plain words,
ballot boxes, committing perjury and
carrying the elections by fraud and VIC
lence.
He also real the qualifications for voters
IN the constitution of Mississippi. among
Others being the ability of the voter latter
January, 1892, TO read, or to give a rea
son9ble explanation of the meaning of any
clause of the constitution OF the state. If
the constitution OF Mississippi had stop
ped at the educational test and excluded
from the right of suffrage every white or
black who could not read that instrument,
nobody would complain Of it. But now,
the Ignorant white voter might have the
simplest clause read tn him and be asked
if he understood it, and answering yes,
might be permI ted 10 vote, while an alb
struse clause Gas to the right Of eminent
domain or some technical question: might
be read TO the c0lored voter, who would
be asked TO give a reasonable explanation
of it. The scheme was plainly devised to
let the ignorant white man vote, il he
voted the Democratic ticket. and TO keep
the ignorant black man from voting un.
less he voted that ticker, and yet Demo
cratic senators rallied against the pending
measure as vi ring the supervisor lordly
powers This constitution OF Mississippi
had been adopted, too, not by a vote of
the people, but by the convention itself.
Southern men ought not to fold their
arms and say they would keep their in
creased representation while suppressiug
the negro vote. IL 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, whether in
wisdom or unwis1om, and could not be
taken from him. Referring to Stewards
speech OF Yesterday, and his remark that
the election law c0nld not be enforced in
the South, because public opinion would
not support it, Spooner said: Have we
fallen to the condition IN our country that
calls for the preservation by law of the