The Portland daily press., 1890-06-27

wise and conducive to fair public expression
In Presidential year Of unusual excitement and
great temptation. The testimony Of Mr.. DaYen-
port, the United States commissioner for the
Southern district of New York. is a remarkable
statement, which the committee would adopt as
the basis OF their report as to the three cities"
think no one who will look at those cold
figures showing the enormous frauds COM
mitted In the city Of New York before the
United States stood guard over the elections
can refuse to say that such legislation was
OF enormous value in the interest Of honest
voting and of the good government which
honest voting can alone produce. New York,
however, is not the only large city in the
United States, nor is it the only city where
at times the elections have been tainted
with fraud and corruption. Such districts
are plague spots. which should
be promptly cured. Moreover in
some states there is what is known
as permanent registration. That is the
case with my own state. No matter how
honestly the registration is carried out any
permanent registration in large city must
accumulate names which represent nobody
and which throw open the door for an ever
increasing fraud. Nothing can be more
wholesome than to have these permanent
lists thoroughly overhauled by men from
ouGslde with no local interests to be sub
served. 1t is the only way in fact in which
they can ever be purged or purified. 1t is
not necessary that should go into the list of
6ltCIlUu lTduuS Will bu6 LIldlS anu ScauQalS
growing out of them which have occurred in
so many Of our Northern cities. 1t must be
patent to every man that evils exist there
which proper supervision will diminish
II not eradicate.
But the elections of the great northern
cities are not the only ones which have come
under suspicion or fallen into contempt. 1t
is also believed by a very large proportion
of the American people, that there are dis
tricts in the South, where fraud in some
form, controls despotically the verdict of
the ballot box. / have always observed
among the gentlemen who represent those
states, noble zeal against the varied forms
OF wrOng-doing. which have at times dis
figured Northern elections. Nothing can be
finer than the honest and manly rage with
factor as they say in Northern elections
and the foundation of Republican success.
Whoever benefits by bribery, Mr.. Speaker,
1t is hateful thing and grave peril today
in the Commonwealth. l say frankly, that
| will join hands with any of our Jealous
friends on the other side, in promoting
legislation which will put stop to it. If /
could have my way [ would put the secret
and official ballot in every district of
this country, because that is the only thing
that haye ever seen which practically stops
the use OF money at elections. 1t must not
be forgotten, however, that this legislation
against bribery or any other crime against
the suffrage, must be national in its char
acter. am more than ready for my part to
make It SO, and we have gone as far against
it In this bill as is possible without establish
ing the secret official ballot. In return, |
ask the Representatives, who are so warm
on the subject of corruption, to unite with
me in legislation, which shall be applicable
notonly to corruption but also tothe evils that
beset their own elections. Since they are so
eager to remove the mote from their brothers
eye, they must agree that it Is but fair to
take the beam from their own.
In regard to the Southern elections, Mr..
Speaker, one Of two things must be true.
The elections are either fair. free and honest
or they are not. There can be unfortunately
no question of the widespread belief among
a large body of the American people that
many Of these elections are the very reverse
Of fair, free and honest. Whichever state
of facts Is the correct one, it Is paramount
duty of the national government, to restore
to the people confidence In those, as in all
other elections. If as | have heard it stated
on this floor, Southern elections are per-
fectly fair. and the black man goes carrolling
to the voting place, by the side of his en-
ployer, seeking only to cast his vote for
those whose interests are indentical with his
Own, then 1t is the duty of the United States,
to uncover this pleasant picture and display
1t to the country, so that confidence may be
restored and no man may suspect longer,
that Southern elections are open to criticism.
If all is right and well in elections in the
South, this law can hurt none but will be
qn the cnntT9Fy of prTnrecedented valne to
wrong doing. No people will be so much ben
emitted by 1t, as the people Of the South, for
lt VIII demonstrate at once that the gen.
orally accepted Northern view is groundless
and unjust. Ii on the other hand the belief of
the large masses of the peOle, that in certain
regions OF the South, such a thing as
a fair election Is Unknown, is we'll founded
then 1t is high time that the Uuited States
put stop to that evil If it has to exercise to
IN the last n0iDt yuo hot ha
constitution has put in its hands. If as |
have said all is well with Southern elections
as we hear declared on this floor by Repre-
sentatlves from that region with all the So
lemnlty OF Roman augurS there can be no,
possible objection to this legislation. On
the contrary they OF all people should desire
It. But if when the Roman augurs retire
from the public gaze they hold a different
language In the recesses of the temple, If
they fight with the utmost fury against every
attempt to regulate or improve elections,
then we are forced to believe that these ac.
cusations are true and it is not difficult to
show why we should deal with the existing
facts as here proposed. 1t would not be fair
to cite here anything in the nature of a pri-
vate conversation but now and then some of
these lovers of honest elections grow careless
and their utterances creep out into the light
OF day to be much admired and pondered
over by all men.
The newspapers Of the South are always
and franknesS which is as charming as the
language III which 1t is couched is polished
and civilized. But sgain we can spare our
selves anything which seems to SAVIOR of per-
sonality by consideration of certain fig
ures.
[Here Mr.. Lodge introduced statistics to
show the comparative vote of certain South
ern districts as compared with certain
Northern districts, and the vote of 1886 with
the vote of 1888 after attention had been
universally called to the>suppresslon of the
colOred vote.
These statistics speak loudly enough as to
the voting in the various states
l have no intention, however, of going fur
ther or entering upon an elaborate discussion
of the testimony to be found in countless
election cases and in the unstudied utteran-
ces OF Southern newspapers and Southern
Representatives as to the actual manner in
which Southern elections are conducted.
1t is not necessary to argue with any fair
minded man that in the South elections for
Representatives In Congress are ut uniyer-
sally fair and free. The difficulty in the
problem there presented, is something far
graver than dispute as to details of voting
and counting Where wrOng-doing occurs in
Congressional election in the great majority
Of districts in the country it is simply the
effort Of one party to get ahead of the other
by Illicit means, and usually by fraud and
bribery of pretty vulgar kind. No doubt
in Southern elections the desire of unscru-
pulous partisans to beat their opponents BY
any method plays its part, but the question
which cOmplicates and controls the issue
there Is the question of race. None can az
ford to speak lightly or to indulge in recrim-
nations about the race question of the South.
That problem and the future of the negro in
America present one of the gravest quest
ions before the American people. 1t is one in
which we are all concerned and for the right
solution of which we shall all be held re-
sponsible, whether we live in the North or
in the South. The wrong of slavery was ex-
plated by the North which condoned it as
well as by the South which upheld it. One
thing is very certain, we shall never deal
with it successfully by raging over it and by
calling each other hard names. Still less
shall we be able to do it if we attempt to
evade the issue or blink at facts. The ne
groes of the United States did not come here
by any will or action of their own. They
did not seek to force their way among us as
the Chinese whom we excluded tried to do
They were brought here by force under
circumstances of hideus cruelty. They
were held in bondage and ignorance. They
were sold on the block and they quiyered
under the lash. 1t is idle to say that they
are better off than they would have been If
they had been left in their native wilderness.
Better for them an eternity of savage free
dom than civilization which came to them
with the hammer Of the auctioneer in one
hand and the slave drivers whip in the
other. No material comfort is worth having
which IL Ohtainad a tho nrioa of cunb en- Cor