The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1890-12-21
SOUTHERN ELECTIONS
Spooner Speaks Five Hours on
the Force Bill.
HE ADVOCATES 1T STRONGLY.
The New Constitution of Mississippi De-
ACCOMPLISHMENTS lConservative Stand
on Elections in the South Criticised.

arms and ammunition to Indians on reser-
vations. Referred.
A dozen private pension bills were
passed.
Moody, from the committee on Indian
depreciation claims, reported the House
bill for the adjudication of claims arising
from Indian depredations. Placed on the
calendar.
Sawyer asked. unanimous consent for
liking an early day i'll January for consid-
Wolcott objected.
ingalls,, at his own request, was grantad
two weeks leave of absence.
Flatt introduced Joint resolution appro-
prlatlng 100000 TO enable the President to
take action to obt lin from the German gov
ernmept supply OF the remedy discov
cred by DIR. Koch and the formula for the
manufacture OF the same. Laid over
The morning hour having expired, the
presiding officer laid before the Senate the
election bill
Paddock gave notice that after consid-
Grafton of the pending bill he would ask
the Senate to take up the pure food bill,
which was demanded by the farmers from
one end OF the country to the other.
Edmunds demanded the regular order,
and the floor was taken by Spooner in ad-
vocacy OF the bill. Spooner defended John
L. Davenport from the attacks made upon
him, and contended that federal election
law, instead OF being offensive to the Dem
ocrats OF the north, had been put into oper-
alton at their request in many instances
A stranger IN The gallery, he said, listen
Ing to the debate without any knowledge of
the country, would be impressed with the
idea that all love OF liberty and devotion to
the constitution and freedom from par
IC n11c h l,of r.
cratic side Of the chamber. He hoped the
gentlemen on the other side would not as
sumo the Republican Senators were not
equally with them lovers of liberty 1t had
been said on the other side that the bib was
aimed at the south. 1t was in part. 1t
was aimed at every spot in the United
States where by fraud or force men who
had the right to vote for members of Con
gress were cheated out of that right. The
south, ne thought, was where the bill was
specially needed. In proof, he read ex-
tracts from speech by Delegate Chisman,
IN the late constitutional convention of
MlSslSslppl, declaring that since 1875 there
had not been fair election in that state:
that IN plain words they the whites) had
been stutfing the ballot boxes, committing
perjury, and carrying elections by fraud
and violence. He also read the qualifca-
tons for voters in the constitution of Miss
the voter, after January, 1892, to read, or
TO give reasonable explanation of the
meaning of any clause in the con-
stltutlon of the state If the con-
stltution of Mississippi had stopped
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 TO him and he asked
II he understood ii and answering YES.
might be permitted to vote, while an ab-
struse clause as to the right of eminent do
main or some technical question might he
read TO colored voter who would be
asked to give a reasonable explanation of
1t. The scheme was plainly devised to let
the ignorant white man vote if he yote6
the Democratic ticket, and to keep the
lgnoraLt black man from voting unless be
voted that ticket. And yet the Demo
cratic Senators rallied against the pending
measure as giving the supervisor lordly
powers. This constitution OF Mssissippi
had been adopted, too, not by vote of the
people but by the convention itself.
Southern men ought not feel their arms
and say that they would keep
their increased representation while
suppressing the negro vote. 1t had
been said on the other side that the
negro should never have had the right to
vote, but 1t was too late now to argue that
question. The right had been given him
whether in wisdom or unWisdom and could
not be taken from him.
Referring to Stewards 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 by
law OF the purity of the ballot at the north.
but that we must stop at Mason and Dix
on's line because public opinion in the
south is in favor of dishone S t and violent
suppression of the suffrage | cannot
believe it.'
Spooner spoke over five hours and his
speech was listened to with marked atten-
ton on both sides of the chamber.
ingalls, SAID 1t was the opinion of the
great mass of the people in the north that
the constitutional convention of MissIs-
sippi assembled for the avowed purpose of
DISTINGUISHING majority OF its citizens,
who were also citizens of the United
States. 1t had assembled for the express
purpose OF multiplying, defeating and over
Whelmlng an amendment to the constitu-
ton of the United States, by agreeing to
which the state of Mississippi secured re-
admission into the union. The southern
people had retained representation in the
House of Representative and in the cleo
toral college while they suppressed the
colored vote: they had retained Represen-
tatives which have given them for fourteen
years supremacy in the House, and once
placed in the presidential cnair man who
never had been elected to that office in anv
just sense. Contrary to the usual course
pursued in free countries, the results of
the Mississippi convention would not be
submitted to the people to be voted upon.
1t had been arranged to have it declared
the organic law of the state without anv
action Cd the part of the voters.
Edmunds added that the convention came
into existence by methods entirely outside
of the constitution of the state, which pro
vided particularly fer its own amendment.
The conference report on the bill for a
public building at Arkansas City was
agreed to. The Senate adjourned.