The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1890-07-30
THE FORCE BILL.
A BOLD CONSPIRACY AGAINST AMEEl-
CAN LIBERTY.


perately Plotting for the Permanent
Control of the Government.
To the Editor of The News and Cou-
rier: The public mind, especially in the
South, is very much agitated about the
Federal election bill now pending in
Congress, and have received 4 number
of Enquiries in regard to it. 1t is scarcely
possible to make individual replies to
all, and therefore, with your permission,
viii ask the use of your paper for that
purpose.
The provisions of the bill have been so
generally discussed by the press that
they ought to be quite well understood
by those who read the newspapers, and
it viii not therefore be necessary to
enter into details to explain them.
may say, however, in passing that a
more revolutionary and dangerous
measure has never before received the
sanction of a majority in either branch
of the United States Congress. It is
without parallel even in the exciting
period of reconstruction, when the
party in power did not scruple ''to camp
outside the Constitution and carry
measures of legislation with a high
hand. I doubt if the most extreme
Radical in those days ever dreamed CT
proposing a scheme half so revoltl-
tionary as this, or so subversive of the
principles of our republican form of
government.
But the point of special inquiry now
is, what will be the fate of the bill in the
Senate, the House having passed it at
the domineerirg dictation of an un-
scrupulouS partisan Speaker. into whose
hands the rules Of a majority lave
placed absolute power, a power eNer-
c:Sed to stiie the minority, shut Off
legitimate and necessary discussion, and
defeat the ends of representative gov
eminent. There has never been any
thing approaching the tyranny and
absoiutelSm of this one-man power in
the House since constitutional and rep
resentative government was founded
never such trayeSty upon popular
government.
Of course / can only speak conjectur-
ally of the fate of the bill in the Senate.
The Republicans have majority in that
body, but at present there is no rule by
which the gag c: De applied to the MI
nority, no limit to debate and trust no
attempt will be made to frame one. l
violate no confideJ' ce when say that a
large number of Republican Senators do
roc approve of the proposed change IN
lle elec ion laws, and shall be very
grievously and greatly disappointed If
they yield their independent, private
Judgments to the beheStS of the con-
Spirators in their party in their efforts
against the liberties OF the American
people, for, in my judgment, it is de-
Nberately planned conspiracy on the
part Of desperate partisans to retain
power at any expense. LIDO not venture
TOO far, or indulge in extravaganza,
when say if they succeed it Will be the
beginning of the end of constitutional
government in this country. So
thoroughly am convinced Of this that
I should despair of the continuance of
popular institutions if the American
people do not rebuke this desperate in
vasion OF their liberties by desperate
men when they have an opportunity to
doso at the polls. cannot bring myself
to believe they will permit such a
fragrant violation of the principles of
home rule and local elf-government;
nor am I willing to insult their intelli-
gence and patriotism by assuming they
do not see through the preteXts and
motives of those engaged in it.
Frauds and intimidation III elections
in the South have been seized upon and
eXaggregated as justification for this
assault on the rights and liberties Of
the people. If all they say in this re-
gard is true-and it is not true-if cleo
tons at the South are as bad as they
represent then-and they are Motif
the negro vote at the South is suppress
ed to the extent they clalm-and 1t is
not-this bill will only intensity the evil
and postpone Indefinitely the correction
of whatever wrongs exist.
Whatever of truth there may be in
these wholesale,c Charges againt the South
and I think ! could demonstrate, if
the proper limits of this communica
ton would permit, that in most in
stances they are not true and in others
greatly exaggerated-but whatever of
truth there may be in any of them, it
cannot and will not be denied that the
suffrage is ShameleSSly suppressed and
corrupted in many parts of the North
by the undisguised use of money and
intimidation. So that these at least are
not the people to taunt us at the Sou Il
with "suppressing' votes. Federal cleo
tior. laws will not correct the evil
in either section or in either party.
Tle public opinion in each section,
IN each of the States, in all the States,
alone can correct them. The laws
are ample now to protect the
ballot. Congress might pass an Act
every week of its existence amending
and adding to present statutes, and they
would be as Intellectual as existing laws,
until sound, healthy public sentiment
condemns evil practices in elections,
until the public conscience revolts
against them. So that neither section
or party can with propriety charge the
other with election frauds. They exist
everywhere in our political system, to
less or greater extent, and can only be
eradicated by all sections and all parties
rising up and putting upon them the
seal Of popular condemnation. Acts of
Congress will not doit. They have been
tried and failed.
My observation and experience with
representative men leads me to the con-
clusion that this is the prevailing opiN-
ion among them in both parties and it
is due to a large number of the members
cf the Republican party, with whom I
am thrown, to say they do not sympa-
thize with the present scheme of what
IS known as the Lodge bill to control
Federal elections. They are as patriotic
and devoted to the principles of home
rule and local Self-gOvernment as any
body. But unfortunately for them and
the country their party organization is
under the control of a political junta, as
unscr'pulous and revolutionary as any
that ever dominated the Commune of
France.
This desperate junta, desperate in its
anxiety and efforts to preserve party
power, desperate in its purpose to re-
tain control Of the enormous revenues