St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-12-04
A BRUTAL MEASURE.
Terrible Arraignment Of th'
Force Rill nv Senator Turnie.

Terrible Arraignment Of the
Force Bill by Senator Turpie.
WASHINGTON, Dee. 3.-The vice pres
ident laid before the senate as "unfin-
ished business" the election bill. MIR.
Turpie took the floor i'll opposition to
the bill.
The substitute measure, he said, rests
for its support on what was called the
suppressed colOred Republican vote in
the South. The returns of the election
showed an abstinence from voting-an
abstinence much greater in Massachu-
SettS and other Northern states than
elsewhere. The extremists, with
meager majority in both houses, said
that this was proof enough of the sup
preston of the colored vote, and there
upon proceeded to revolutionize the
whole method of congressional elec-
tiOns. There had been suppression
a suppression patent, we'll known, un-
deniable and widely prevalent.
The Recent Census
would show that in the states of Penn
syiyania, Ohio and Illinois there were
about 250,000 colOred people; yet IN
those states no cOlOred man had ever
served as governor, or been elected TO
ment. There had been not only no pro-
pUrtional division of the offices-there
had been none at all. The colOred man
in those states had no more chance of
preferment than the Roman Catholic
had in New Hampshire or Great
Britain hundred years ago. The sup
preston of the colored vote in the South
was thing manifestly in question, af-
frmed on one side and denied on the
other, but the suppression of the col
ored voter of the North was thing
without question, actual, absolute, un-
conditional. The supremacy of the
white race was not peculiar to any pOr-
ton of the United States. South Caro-
lima was not more completely under its
sway than was Pennsylvania. Its SUI
premacy was not one whit more firmly
established in Texas and AIkanS as tn an
Ill Illinois and Ohio. Much might be
said Of the injustice of
This Supremacy.
1t was easy to write and print aphOr-
lSins, even to give them shape OF legis
lative formulas that all citizens are
equal. Political rights as between races
might be granted, defined and decreed.
but political equities could only be adj
justed by action. That action was ey-
erywhere wanting; it was everywhere
withheld. The supremacy of the white
race had not been brought about by
force or fear. 1t had not been wrested
or seized from others, but it had been
given, granted, voluntarily ceded to
those deemed for the time most worthy
OF it's possession. The man Especially
the man of the White house,, who
Sought to embrcil the white and black
races for purpose he could not COLI
ceal and dare not aYOw, was guilty of
an outrage tenf0ld greater than any of
those he invented or described. The So
luton of the race problem was pro-
cess, not of abstract speculation, but of
real experience. Wherever the people
OF the different races were living peace
fully together under the same laws,
members of the same body polite, with
out any other thought that some must
command and others must obey,
This Problem
was being solved. The purpose of the
national election bill $50 called) was, so
far as related to the South. to wreck
and destroy this pending condition of
inter-racial adjustment. 1t proposed
not to maintain the will of the majority,
but to overthroMajt OH the single issue
of race-to make majority of black
men because they are black; to estab-
lish government of complexion, not of
opinion. The kernel and purpose of
the pending bill was that the law of the
land must be suborned to set enmity
between the white man and the black
man. The bill was not artfully framed.
Its only art was its absolute malIgnity.
Pass this bill and The right of the peo-
pie to choose their representatives, that
right so precious and priceless to every
lover of liberty, was los:-lost beyond
recovery, and beyond recall.
At the conclusion of his speech, Mr..
Turpie received the congratulations of
his Democratic colleagues and the SEN
ate adjourned.