Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-08-21
Senator Hoar Says the Federal Elec-
ton Bill Has Been Misrepre-
sented and Misunderstood.
DEFENDING THE CONSTITUTION.
Transferring the Settlement Of Great
Public Question From the Shot.
gun to the Courts.
MR. PUGR'S PREDICTIONS PERVERTED.
fhe Clock Strikes u and Abruptly POstpOnes the
Debate.


debate on the tariff. Mr.. Hoar made
iervid speech himself and called forth
more or less impassioned utterances from
Messrs. Pugh, Frye and Edmunds.
Mr.. Hoar first presented as q substitute to
Mr.. Quay's resolution proposition making
1t in order when any bill shall have been
under consideration for reasonable time"
for any Senator to demand that debate be
. closed. He then moved to amend Mr..
Quay's resolution by adding to it pro-
vision to include in the business to be taken
up the Federal election bill, and to have
the vote on 1t taken on the 4th of September
Mr.. Quay gave notice that at the proper
time he would demand division of the
question, meaning that he would ask
separate votes on his own resolution and on
Mr.. Hoar's amendment.
MISUNDERSTOOD THE MEASURE.
Senator Hoar, in referring to the election
bill, saidI "There never was q measure so
much misrepresented or SO much misunder-
stood as that which has been sent to us by
the House of Representatives. 1t has been
carefully considered by a committee of the
Senate and has been demanded by certainly
very large and respectable proportion of
our fellow citizens. 1 think that nothing
has been heard of it here except threat,
from one highly honored Senator,
Of bloodshed If its provisions
should be adopted and should be at
tempted to be put in force. 1 think it
proper, therefore, to call the attention of
the Senate for few moments to PROPOSE.
vi ic 1aee
proposition to remove force and fraud from
the election of officers of our great repre-
sentative chamber, and substitute for the
election processes with which we are all un-
happily too familiar, the peaceful command
of the courts of the United States.''
MIR. Pugh-I desire to inquire of the SEN
ator if he alluded to what said at the time
he reported the bill from the Committee on
Privileges and Elections in relation to the
effect OF an attempt to execute it?
MIR. Hoar-I did.
MERELY A PREDICTION,
Mr.. Pugh-I desire to saw that made
no threat. What 1 said was a mere pre-
dietion. 1t is an utter perversion. L am
bound to say, a wilful perversion of the Ian
guage used at the time that this bill was
reported from the Committee on Privileges
and Elections to say that made any threat
that should be or wonId be the consequence
OF the execution OF the law.
Mr.. Hoar-I will read from the Record
what the Senator did say; and on that we
will both stand
Mr.. Hoar read from the record of 18th of
April, the following report of what Mr..
Pugh said: "If this bill becomes a law.
its execution will secure the shedding of
blood, and the destruction of the peace and
good order Of this country. Its passage will
be resisted by every parliamentary method,
and every method allowed by the Constlru-
tion of the United States. The Senator
from Alabama Mr.. Hoar supposed),
would not question the accuracy of the re-
port The country would determine
whether that was threat.
DEFENDING THE CONSTITUTION.
Proceeding to a discussion Of the Federal
Election bill, Mr.. Hoar said that it under
took to defend the Constitution of the
United States against an attempt to over
throw it by depriving the majority of the
people of their right honestly and freely to
elect Representatives in the other House of
Congress and by substituting for such cleo
tion, processes of fraud, intimidation and
bribery. The House had sent to the Senate
q measure which it deemed essential to its
own preservation. The provisions OF that
bill were the result of a most satisfactory
experience in the United States
and in England. There was moth
ing in It that was new. 1t was
simply blending the provisions of a law
which had been In operation in England for
% years, with general public satisfaction,
with the provisions of a law that had been
importation in the United States for 19 years
with equal satisfaction. 1t struck at evil in
all parts of the country alike. 1t only ap-
piled to the whole country, with special pre-
cautions and safeguards, what the North
had applied to itself for nearly 20 years.
The Federal election bill struck at the
North quite as much as at the South. He
did not think that bribery was generally be-
lieved to be a Southern offense. Unless
well-informed men were much mistaken
there had been at least one election where it
rained shekels. even under the very shadows
OF the Harvard College.
SOME IDLE TALK.
How idle it was to speak of the pending
bill as q sectional measure or as threatening
bloodshed. How idle it was to tell its
friends that they were reopening the issues
of the war. Was cheating at elections 'an
issue of the war?'' Had jackson died; had
Lee gone through that struggle, more bitter
than death, in his allegiance to his country
and his love for his State in order that bal
lot boxes might be stuffed; that naturaliza-
tIon papers might be forged; that returns
might be altered, and that votes might
be falsely counted? 1t was a foul
wrong upon the authors of the bill
to say that il reopened the issues of the war
1t was a fouler calumny of the mighty
shades of the Confederate dead. A majority
cf the people of the United States believed
firmly to-day that for IA years the House of
Representatives had been a usurpation and
that for four yearsa usurper had sat in the ex-
ecntive chair of the nation; and vet when it
was sought to transfer the ascertainment of
the will of the people from such processes to
the courts, the friends of the bill were met
by the cry that they were raising a race
Issue, and that this was force bill.
A sENsELEss UTTERANcE.
There had never been a more senseless
0tterance than to call that force bill
which transferred the settlement of a great
public question from the shotgun to the
court, unless it was to call it q bill to
create negro domination or to create race
issue. The bill only touched elections for
Congress. The negro was in large minor
ity in every State in the Union but four.
What tendency had the bill to put any
State under the domination of the African?
The bill could not possibly create any fric-
tion between the States. The Republican
party was pledged to the policy OF the bill
By everything that could bind party.
Coming down to the Quay resolution, Mr..
Hoar said that nobody doubted that its pur-
pose was to defeat the Federal election bill
for this Congress. The next session would
last but Is weeks, from which the Christ
mas holidays would have 10 he deducted.