The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1890-04-28
THE UNITED STATES AND THE SOUTH.
Mr.. Reed Speaks of the Evil in South
ern Politics.
He Suggests Federal Control of Fed
eraI Elections.
Local Issues to Drive Race Hatred
from State Affairs.

CluD IN cOmmenOratlOD Oh the OoIH DlIluudy
of Gen. Grant, was given at the Seventh Ave
nue. Hotel tonight. Among he'guests from
abroad were 7. b. Reed, the Speaker of the
House of Representatives, James Clarkson,
Hon. John Dalzelle, Hon. Thomas M. Balm,
Gen. A. l.. Thomas of Utah and others.
Toasts were responded to as follows: "Our
guests absent" Col. j. M. Shoemaker; !;
Grant" Gov. Beaver; "The Republican
Party" Speaker Reed. Mr.. Reed was re-
ceived with applause which was frequently
repeated during his remarks. he said:
Your toast strikes the only possible note
of continued victory for the Republican par
BY. Continued victory we must have. Not
as partisans, but as patriots. Not on the
past must be our reliance, but on the future.
If we are not today in the forefront of hu-
man progress; to have been followers of Alb
raham Lincoln in the years gone by is not
an honor but burning disgrace. Progress
is of the essence of Republicanism. To have
met great emergencies as they arose has
been our history. To meet great emergen-
cies as they shall arise must be our daily
walk and duty or we cease to be. Hanging
on to old traditions is the business of the
Democratic party. And it does that business
well; we can never rival it.
have not fol-. years been one of those
NnO ddtC tuAhCu dbOub buC OUubus TOE bu6
last eight years no man has heard me in the
House or in the campaign, discourse upon
either outrages or wrongs, murders or shoot
lngs or hangings. My silence did not arise
from any approval of murder, of terrorism,
or fraud at elections. 1t did not arise from
any ignorance of facts or any doubts of the
great wrongs which are perpetrated against
the government by the people 1t arose from
a conviction deep seated in my mind that the
remedy for political wrongs could not
from no1itipianc bnt from fha
Until they were aroused any efforts of ours
would be utterly in vain. In fact politicians
are only eleventh hour men. They are
worthy of their penny, but they never bear
the burden and heat OF the day, Ii they cry
aloud before their hour they only turn back
the shadow of the dial.
1t is known to everybody that the South
denies that cheating Is part and parcel of
their electionsI 1t lis equally known to
everybody that that denial is not true. The
Ku-Klux first deployed its midnight terrors
to intimidate voters. Then came the mid
night shootings and harryings; then the
bull-dozing and the driving of the negro pol
the night. At present the murders have
mostly passed away and the terrorizing and
the midnight marauders.ss Ballot-box stuff
ing and cheating in the count have taken
their places. Throughout all this variety,of
wickedness call upon you to note one sin
gular fact, that while it existed everyone of
these crimes against thel government was
most solemnly denied by Southern press and
Southern people. No man denies them
today.
Let us come at some principles which are
fundamental in this matter. A negro is
citizen of the United States. He has just as
much rightto vote and have his vote counted
as anybody on earth. That he is poor and
ignorant does not under the constitution put
upon his neck the foot of riches or of intelli-
gence Manhood and not riches, manhood
and not learning is the basis of our govern
ment We would like all our citizens to be
learned, we wish they were all rich but un-
til they become both we will take the aver
age of all of them as they are. Nothing less
than that would be government "by the peo-
ple."
While the South denies the frauds in cleo
tions, the cheatings and the ballot box stuff
y9gs yg sibngulaTly enough they Justify them
you cannot understand on the principles of
logic, but you can on the principles of lying.
The defense is that otherwise the white race
That defense may do for the state of Mis-
sissippi but it will not due for the United
States. In Mississippi the blacks are more
numerous. In the United States they. are
districts where they are in the majority they
should combine and send one of their own
color they could only muster 80 out of $50.
When, therefore. any Southern gentleman,
however eloquent, seizes on your race feel
ing, proelaims the danger of ignorant rule,
his misgovernment, do not for
an instant forget that all that has
nothing to do with federal elections. If Mis-
sissippi be IN danger OF Ignorant domination
polls be only pious fraud in South Carolina
excusable because the white is superior in
intellect though inferior in numbers, there
can be no such excuse in the United States
IL h ~ IN !, ,fC
perior intellect is superior in numbers also.
In other words, the excuse, whether 1t be
bad or good, for cheating at state elections,
cannot be spread beyond state elections.
When federal election is held, it has moth
ing to do with state government, but be-
comes part and parcel of the government of
the United States at large where there is no
possibility offnegro domination, ignorant or
otherwise.
The Republican vote of the South the Re-
publican party is entitled to under the con-
stitution, whether that vote be Ignorant or
sensible. If ignorant we need it to offset
the Democratic ignorance which votes in
New York and other large cities. Why
should they poll their ignorance and we not
poll ours?
What is the remedy? When last Thurs
day, in the Senate, the committee in charge
reported an enlargement of the powers and
uses of the United States supervisors oven
state elections, the Senator from Alabama
and there that such supervision of the state
elections was unconstitutional and would
lead to bleodshed and murder, and would be
resisted by Gall spossible parliamentary tao
tics.
What then is the remedy? 1 speak only for
myself. What l say binds nobody but me,
and not even me if the Republican party
prefers another policy; but speaking for my
self it seems to me that the only wise course
is to take into federal hands the federal
elections Let US cut loose from the state
elections, do our own registration, our own
counting and our own certifcation. Then
the nation will be satisfied. Against this
course no constitutional objection can be
urged. The Marlborough case, a decision of
the Supreme Court, covers it all over. No
objection can be urged against it on account
of sectionalism 1t applies north and south,
chickering's. The Southern States will then
by themselves grapple with the problem of
whether any state of a republic can per-
manently enthrone injustice. Freed from
all right of interference, except moral and
advisory, from the North, within their own
borders and within the limits of their own
state rights, they will have what they have
l0nged for, the power to work out their own
peculiar problem themselves; and l venture
the prophecy, as ! sincerely entertain the
hope, that the relief from outside pressure
will break down the race issue, and as the
Southern people divide, not on the color
issue, but on the questions which make up
sound politics and good government, then as
the Constitution of the United States and the
principles of our American system always
will contribute his share to the government
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