St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-12-19
bEAk bAlllNG vUIEkS
Annoyance to the People the
Forces Bills Only Vir-
tue.
m
1t Simply Proposes to Thrust
Il Aside All State Au-
!, thorities.
bi
Sharp Rally in the House on
H the Merchant Marine
Measure.
-
Pension Raum Nestles Safely
2 Under the Wings Of Par
tiSans.

w WASHINGTON, Dec. 1S.-In tie senate
to-day the elections bill was taken up,
and Mr.. Coke addressed the senate in
opposition to it.
MIR. Coke said it proposed to thrust
rudely aside the state authorities, which
had for century controlled elections.
and to substitute for them an army of
partisan supervisors and deputy mar
shals who are to direct and control the
registration and counting of votes, and
partisan returning boards to do the
counting and certification of the result.
OF course the bill involved the conclu-
sion that the people of the several states
were, for some reason, unfit to be trusted
to hold. in their own way, elections
for their representatives in congress,
as they had always heretofore been
doing against the bill as whole and in
all its details. and especially against its
libelouS reflection on the capacity of
the people of the states for self-govern-
ment and its audacious assumption that
all the honesty, virtue and intelligence
found in the country were possessed
by federal officials, he entered
His Most Earnest Protest
Democratic senators. Mr.. Coke said,
proposed to have full and free discus
sion of the bill, to the end that the
American people shall be Informed of
the startling and radical departure
proposed to be in augurated in the char
acter of the government. If the die
tates OF political faction that hap
pened to hold possession of all the de-
partments of the government ffOrmu-
lated in secret caucus) were to
be registered in the statute book
without debate, without examination;
if the rules, usageS and methods of pro-
ceedure that for 100 years had obtained
in the senate were to be OverthrOwn,
and if neither house of congress was to
be any longer deliberative body, it
was. at least, proper that the fact be
proclaimed so that the people might be
made aware of the purpose and might
pass Judgment On the political party re-
SpOnsible for it.
Mr.. Cullom addressed the senate. He
accepted the bill as the best that could
be framed to meet the evils complained
of; with the understanding that he
should favor such amendments as might
be offered and might meet his ap-
probat on. The bill, he said, had
been opposed on the other side
of the chamber, notably by Mr..
| Gray and Mr.. George, OH the ground
that the general government had no
right, under the constitution, to control
| and manage the election of representa-
lives to congress in the states. But in
| that objection there was, Mr.. Cullom
| asserted, no virtue. The duty was i'm
| posed upon it by the constitution, and
| by the d
Results OF the War.
| to protect the negro of the South in his
right TO cast free ballot, and to nave
| fair cOu mt; in his right to exercise,
without fear of violence, and undeterred
by threats of any kind. all the political
! rights of American citizens.
| Mr.. Bate, as lover of individual lib
erty, opposed the bill. He opposed it
because he believed it to strike at the
freedom of the ballot, and tended to
breed disturbance and to destroy the
peace and quiet of society. 1t was a
usurper of the rights of states and of
men. 1t was promoter of central
| power i'll the federal government, at the
expense of the rights of the states, if
not of their autonomy. 1t was sec
tional, and struck at the South. He
believed it to be the most prominent
| of the many tingerboardS on the poIiti-
cal highway that pointed to empire.
Such legislation in republican
government was, at all times, dam
gerous and vicious. and was espe-
cially so at the present time.If he might
employ the language of the Declaration
of Independence against the British
king, he would say of the bill that it
proposed to ''erect multitude of new
Offices and to send swarms of officers to
harass the people" Its enactment
would establish a system of espionage
against which the sancitity of the home
would afford no protection.
At 4:20, at the suggestion of Mr.. Cor
man that MIR. Bate would prefer not to
finish his speech this evening. the cleo
ton bill was laid aside informally.