Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-06-28
THE DEBATE IN DETAIL.
MAIDEN EFFORT OF THE AGED vAUx IN
THE HOUSE.

Kennedy, of Ohio, the Chief Speaker
for the Republicans.
WASHINGTON, June H.-Hanger, oi
Wisconsin, was the first speaker upon the
Federal election bill to-day. He strongly
advocated the bill. He said that the OBJ
jections made to the bill by Southern mem
bers constituted deliberate insult to the
South itself.
Mr.. Covert, of New York, said that the
bill was an evidence of the distrust felt by
Republicans of Government OF and for
the people. Recently the Speaker had at
tended the banquet of the Americus Club
al Pittsburg. He had spoken, after long
years of silence, upon Justification OF elec-
tion returns, bulldozing and all the harrow
ing details of Southern outrages. Why he
had spoken after that long silence he (Mr.
Govern was unable to say unless ne was
conscious that he was at the time addressing
deliberative body. He had spoken OF the
emergency that confronted us.
USED TO EMERGENCIES.
The Republican party was used to meet
ing emergencies. They had met them in
! Indiana when they sent in Dorsey with his
money and Dudley with his foaters and
blocks of five, and Quay, the archangel of
the party. This bill was intended to undo
the work of the fathers of the Constitution.
The clause of the Constitution upon which
it was founded was allowed to remain in the
Constitution only upon solemn assurance
that it was intended solely to meet the emeI-
gency of the refusal of State to send rep
resentatives to Congress. The small army
of Federal officials at the polls with powers
superior to those possessed by the inspectors
OF the State-of the people-signaled and
heralded the end OF the government by the
people and for the 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 Carolina-the
days of the Electoral Commisson-the days
that every patriotic man would forget if he
could.
A VOICE FROM NEW YORK.
Mr.. Flower, of New York, denounced the
bill as unrepublican, undemocratic and un-
American, as a measure constructed upon
the idea that the small Republican majority
now in Congress had better legislate for the
people than the people themselves ANY
court that would lend itself to the execution
of the corrupt purposes and become the I'M
scrupulous servants of the political oil
garchy would richly deserve the censure it
was sure to receive.
The history of the political prosecutions in
one of the Federal courts was already rank
with unscrupulous abuses of the law, and
this bill, il passed, would add more chapters.
Among all the other acts of this Congress it
stood pre-eminent as a most reckless and des-
perate measure to maintain minority in
power in this country whose purpose was to
offer an opportunity for fraud The bill
sought to provoke conflict between State and
Federal officers, and never before in the,
history of the country had there been such
junble of local and Federal functions in any
law. The attempt to control State officers in
the discharge of their duties is a dangerous
and threatening incursion into the domain of
local self-government that no thirst for
power can justify and no hypocritical pre-
tense of desire for free ballot and fair
count can excuse.
NOT THE PROPER TIME.
The Republican party had chosen a most
inappropriate time to enact law interfer-
ing with local control of elections The
last Presidential election, with its fat fry
1ngs, its blocks of five, its pay envelopes, Its
special committees to raise funds to be dis
bursed under the supervision of prospective
Cabinet officers and its multifarious methods
sense OF the dangers that beset the elective
franchise, and throughout the country the
agitation for reformed ballot had 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
the public conscience in the several States.
The system already enacted in some of the
States is expensive 10 the people, it being
N,14 Al al.
tration OF the law newly enacted in New York
for a single election cost 81, ,OOO. 600 for bal
lots alone. 1t was safe to estimate that the
bill would be Sc, 500, 900 for single election.
The Republican party had become quite an
expensive luxury, and the people were rap
idly educating themselves without it.
CONSERVATIVE MEASURE.
Mr.. Smyser, of Ohio, said the measure
was conservative and not radical. The great
cost had been spoken of; but it were we'll
worth the cost TO secure honest elections.
Moreover, the cost had been greatly exap-
gerated. Inspectors would not be needed
in the great majority OF districts. In 10
Ohio districts there was no need of United
States election officers; but there was need
of them in the First and Second districts.
The cry of the South was that it wanted |
to be let alone to work out its own DESTINY. |
That had been tried for Is years. He did |
not know whether the South was any nearer |
the kingdom, but he protested against it |
seeking to work out the salvation of the |
North on the same line. What the South |
wanted was to be let alone to appropriate |
the negroes rights and do with the black |
man as it pleased, and he protested against |
that.
Mr.sVaux, of Pennsylvania, said the bill |
virtually overturned the Constitution and |
destroyed the form of government. The /
he said, might carry their au-
thority to the election of Senator'S They |
might go into the legislative assembly of |
his State and say to one they met there.
JUST AS AN ILLUSTRATION.
care you member OF the Legislature of
the State OF Pennsylvania"
''Yes, sir.''
walk out, then," and amid roars of
laughter, Mr.. Vaux himself suited his
actions to his words, walking out OF the
aisle as far as the Speakers desk. ''There
was not fair and free vote in your county."
The Supervisor would then strike the
name from the list, always pick
ing out Democrat because it seemed to he
the fashionable idea that villains were
Democrats. Laughter Mr.. Vaux then
proceeded to criticse the language of the
majority report with reference to the words
Make or alter" Shaking his finger at the
members clustered around him, he said he
wanted to tell them that by this bill the
power to choose their representatives was no
longer vested in the people, but in Federal
election officer bought to do the bidding of
him who appoints him. And in order to
give further respectability to his appoint
ment, the act provided that the Circuit
T. i ]