Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-06-27

property qualification In the voter, and had
suggested that such provision would restore
supremacy to the whites. That in itself was q
confession that the whites wrongfully exer-
clsed supremacy at present Another demo-
crat-Judge Pate Of Arkansas, a contestant for
a seat on the floor of the House-had justified
the outlawry mob violence of certain
negroes who had been elected to local Offices
on the ground that they were not property
holders. These people forgot that property
Itself was valueless without labor. Now the
bill proposed to follow the local election sys-
TENS. 1t would take the most ingenious and
quiring only that it should be openly and hon.
estly conducted.
NIB. oovERr's coMMENTs.
Mr.. Covert N.Y.) said that the bill was an
evidence Of the distrust felt by republicans Of
government of and for the people. Recently
the Speaker had attended the banquet of the
Americus Club at Pittsburg. He had spoken,
after long years OF silence, upon Justification
OF election returns, bulldozing, and
all the narrowing details of southern
outrages. Why he had spoken after that long
silence he (Mr. Covert was unable to say. un-
less he was conscious that he was at the time
addressing deliberative body.
He had spoken of the emergency that con-
fronted us. The republican party was
USED TO MEETING EMERGENCIES.
They had met them in Indiana when they sent
in Dorsey with his money and Dudley with his
hoaters in blocks of five, and Quay, the arch
angel Of the party. This bill was intended to
undo the work of the fathers of the Constitu-
ton. The clause of the Constitution upon
which 1t was founded was allowed to remain In
the Constitution only upon solemn assurance
thatlt was intended solely TO meet the emergency
OF the refusal of state to send representa-
tves to Congress. The small army of federal
officials at the polls, with po ~ers superior to
Those nnlllaaQh fha ~ thac s,to
OF the people, signaled and heralded the end
OF the government by the people and for tine
people. Where then would be that
government? Gone, as the leaves
swept away by the blasts of autumn. Gone
forever, and the people of this republic would
no longer govern themselves. This proposition
was to bring back the returning boards of
Florida and South Carolna-the days of the
electoral commlssion-the DAYS that every
patriotic man would forget if he could.
THE NOTES OF WARNING
had been sounded; they were still ringing and
should be needed If it we're true, as intelli-
gent men predicted, that the passage of this bill
would have tendency to revive race prejudice
In the south and restore the southern states to
the condition of reconstruction days; if this
were true, then it would turn back the
hands upon the dial and retard the progress of
those sections and of the whole republic. Race
prejudice was practically extinct In Gods
name, as lovers OF the country, he besought the
House not to seek to revive that prejudice now.
lie begged 1t to give assurance to the whole
country that the civil war ended over quarter
OF century ago. [Applause.l
DENoUNCING THE BILL.
Mr.. Flower On. Y) denounced the bill as
un-republican, un-democratic and un-American
as measure. constructed upon the idea that
the small republican majority now in Con-
hatA
than the people themselves. ANY court
that would lend itself to the execution
OF Its corrupt purposes and become the
nnscrupulous servants of the political oil
garchy would richly deserve the censure it
was sure to receive. The history of the politi-
was already rank with unscrupulous abuses of
the law, and this bill, if passed. would add
many more such chapters Among all the other
acts OF this Congress 1t stood pre-eminent
MOST RECKLESS AND DESPERATE MEASURE
70 MAINTAIN a minority in power in this coun-
try, whose purpose was to offer an opportunity
for fraud. The bill sought to promote con-
hlH between state and federal officers, and
never before in the history Of the country had
there been such tumble of local and federal
functions In any law. The attempt to control
state officers in the discharge of their duties is
dangerous and threatening incursion into the
domain OF local self-government that no thirst
for power can justify and no hypocritical pre-
tense of a desire for free ballot and a fair
count can excuse. The trainers of this bill are
not, however, content to stop at a usurpation
OF the authority Of the community, but
extend their interference to the rights of the
people to the individuals composing the COM
munity by providing for a house-to-house can
vass, sending the supervisors and deputy mar
shais to force an entrance, if need be- into the
houses OF the people Ito verify by proper
inquiry and examination at the respective
places Of residence" of voters the correctness
of the registration books, and to make "a
thorough and effective house-to-house canvass"
OF election districts to ascertain the uualifi-
cations OF male voters residing there. The
only commendable feature of this whole pro-
vision lies In the exemption, by the
INSERTION OF THE WORD MALE"
of the female suffragists in Wyoming and else
where from the inquistional impudence of
these eminently respectable republican federal
Office holders in their endeavors to divide the
foaters into blocks of five, with trusted man
with necessary funds in charge of each five,
responsible that none get away and that all
vote the republican ticket.
The republican party had chosen most in
appropriate time to enact a law interfering
with local control of elections. The last presi-
dental election with its fat fryings, its blocks
OF nVe. Its pay envelopes, its
special committees to raise the funds to be
disbursed, indirectly, under the supervision of
protective cabinet officers. and its multifarious
methods OF doubtful propriety aroused the
people to a sense of the dangers that beset the
elective franchise, and throughout the country
the agitation for q reformed ballot has gone ON
until in many states the reformed ballot has
been adopted and there is an encouraging
prospect of its adoption in others. 1t is best to
leave this subject to be dealt with by