Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1890-09-28
Congressional Control of Elections.
To ne Editor ofhe DispnLch:

4
liar institution here to excite the AMI
! mostly of fanatics, but the South is Crap
I ling with the race problem as best IL can.
| No sort OF legislation csn make Ignorance
superior to intelligence and among eau
casian peoples intelligence has always
ruled. The various Republican schemes
/ 10 hold the majority in Congress need 10
/ he carefully watched. With the whole
| United States inhabited by one race speak
/ ING the same language the effort to pass
| the Lodge bill or any of the kindred mea-
/ sures would never have boen even con-
| sidered. Parties, like individuals, love
/ power and hate to give it up, and are fire.
| auently ready TO resort to the most vicious
measures to retain it. There is no sort
4 of doubt about the fact that this is
nothing but the race issue in another
/ shape. The question is si generis, for it
/ has no exact parallel outside of America.
| Heretofore the southern people have met
/ every such attempt successfully. They
/ have preserved their civilization and of
/ course will do it in future. IL is a pity
that the whole world cannot understand
| the true situation. No one, however, can
unless he has opportunities of personal
| observation. The only danger we are IN -
| from apathy, which can never exist with
| us where the danger is realized in time.
| Any one of the measures before Congress
on the subject of elections would place
the machinery of the law IN every commu-
nity south of the Potomac in the
hands of the worst element of both
races. There is very grave danger
of the passage Of such bill. a
similar question once disturbed great
country. 1t was not exactly alike this
one. but there were some points OF re-
semblance. The Moors were in Spain with
out becoming identified with the people
for more than eight hundred wears, and
the race question was then settled by the
last man OF them being sent back to Africa
the land whence they came. 1t does seem
as il eight centuries should have been
time in which to absorb them. In this par
ticuar instance besides the existence OF
color prejudice there was tremendous re-
ligous difference which would even now
rotard an amalgamation of such races as
tho Spaniards and Aloors. But the Moors
were people IN every way far SUI
perior to the negroes. In many re-
spects their civilization was superior to
the Spanards. No human being at the
time of the formation of the United States
Constitution dreamed of using this feature
to cocrce the people of Virginia or any
other State. Eight hundred years of force
failed in Spain to settle the race question
Ii has quite recently been tried and aban.
I
States Government to guarantee to every
State republican form of government
We already have that form, 20 we owe 1t tc
the States as well as TO the United States
to preserve it. The right OF Congress, to
regulate the election of its members has
been right which no one has thought
proper to question, nor has Congress exer-
cised it for more than q century. II Is
something like presidential third
D
President for more than two terms,
Now, unless the real object of the measure
| is 10 force the Republican party into
power and keep it in control OF the affairs
OF the nation, and with such an unprlncl-
Piled fellow as Lodge to father 1t every one
must see that this Is the true situation.
! There should 10 advanced at least some
! plausible reasons for SO much hostile le-
gislation aimed at one portion of our COM
mon country. IL it is matter Of principle
! then il should be carried out 70 its legltl-
mate results and the law should be 30 fixed
as to put southern scalawags not into Con-
gress only but in the State offices and the
presidential electoral colleges. This the
| measure does not even attempt 10 do. IL
is simply On effort to perpetuate the
power Of the Republican party. Its
/ disguise is transparent. The majority
of the southern people are whites;
! They have certain rights which the United
| States Constitution guarantees to them.
James Madison, one of Nirglnlas great
! sons. il called THE Father of the Constl-
tuition" and that It was framed for the
purpose of oppression never occurred 70
him doubtless. An indissoluble Union OF
indestructible States" does not mean one
in which the tyranny Of the majority IN
Congress is to force the yoke upon great
| section of the common country. IL is I'M
possible TO frame law which will make
| ignorance superior to intelligence. No one
can gainsav this proposition. Ihat ~ what
Lodges scheme attempts TO do. But we
must watch them and the interests OF the
Democratic party, for no one can
tell what the Republicans, led by Reed
will do If let alone They are all plot
tiers against the liberties of the people.
majority made working one by means
unknown to practice or justice, where
| even one counted in who not only have the
face of the returns against them, but
could never have been elected at any far
election under any circumstances, Is very
dangerous majority. If the proposed plan
of election is not a patriotic plan intended
To affect the whole country then 1t Is
an effort made by the Republican party to
hold the South in subsection for the bene-
fit of its office-holders. IL is a New
England device characteristic of ito
authors. 1t does not in an outward way
touch them. The New Englanders are
peculiar people. They have always liked
tor their theory of government to be put
into practice on their neighbors. SO long
as the law touches them lightly and their
neighbors bear the heaviest weight, they
are happiest. Charles +. Browne {" Arte-
mus Ward. " while lecturing in England:
humorously wrote to Punch and described
himself as a descendant of the grim Pill
grims who came over in the Maytlower
from a land of despotism TO land OF free
dom, where they could not only enjoy
their own religion but prevent everybody
else from enjoying his"
The power of regulating congressional
elections was given 10y the Constitution Tor
the purpose of having the States represent
ed should they fail or refuse to make the
proper laws. This Is the explanation OF
MIR. Madison in his minutes of the proceed
ings of the Constitutional Convention. All
of tho States are now in legal relations with
the General Government and are repre-
sented in Congress in the mode prescribed
by State law. with the exception OF small
number of districts which have been de-
prived of their legally -chOsen representa-
tiyes by the partisan votes of the present
party IN control at Washington.
The freedom and purity of elections
should be preserved at all hazards from
the corrupting influences of the force bill.
Local self-government is the source from
which all of our greatness springs. A
proper sort of State pride is "a necessary
to national greatness as any other feature
of our complicated machinery OF govern
ment.
Here in our own city the hand of the
sculptor has placed in constant view and
kept in the public mind the memory of
the deeds of the G. eat George Washington
and other worthless whom Virginia will
never forget. Extrinsic influences, there
fore, are not at all necessary with Viz
ginians to make them do their duty. If
there are other States in need Of these let
them but follow our example instead of
irving TO force instruction and civilization
so-called down our Threats. The States
must be great and strong enough for their
citizens to be proud of them as well as
their citizenship of the United States.
But with the dominant party assailed
from within by Its own members and from
without by the public contempt and its
side Of the House of Representatives most
noted for the free and frequent use of bill
lingsgate and epithets too coarse for publ
cation there is great hope of an over
whelming victory for the Democratic
party.