The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1890-06-28
THE ELECTIONS HILL.

the form OF the federal elections bill
the speaker has promised that, In hi
attitude as dictator, he will force II
through the house. The bill has two
objects 10 secure for the Republicans
"A majority in the next congress, and t.
breed new crop OF negro outrages al
the South. As the case now stands,
nothing is more certain than that the
people, II let alone, will turn the Re-
publican party out OF power IN the
house at the next election. The fed
cral elections bill, by placing the ma
nipulation OF the congressional cleo
tions in all the close districts in the
hands Of federal officers To be appoint
ed and controlled by the party in pow
er, will enable the Quays, Davenports'
Dudeys, etc, TO steal enough members
Of the next house, in spite OF the peo'
pie, TO place il again in the power OF
the Republicans.
Then no dodge has been found more
convenient to blind the people to the
real issues at stake in an election at
the North than to wage bloody shirt
campaign, based on Southern negro
outragcs The bill is therefore cum
ningly devised, as its second object, to
produce plentiful crop Of these.
The plea put forth to cover this med
itated rascality is, that hitherto
throughout the South the negro vote
has been suppressed, and that the
Southern Republicans, whites as well
as negroes, therefore demand this
measure that they may have free
vote and honest count" The truth,
however, is, that no Southern Repub-
Leans, white or black, except brood
of the most pestilent demagogues, de-
mand anything Of the sort. In the
Republican caucus at which the Lodge
bill was considered and perfected, all
the Republican members from the
South, white as well as cOlOred, OPP
posed its adoption, their reasons being
given in so excellent spirit and with
such force by Mr.. Ewart, Of North
Carolina, that his speech has, at the
earnest request Of his Southern Repub-
can compeers in the house, been allow
ed. though delivered in caucus, to be
published.
Mr. Ewart began by denominating
the measure as force BILL" and de-
nounced il as sectional measure, pro-
ductive Of nothing but evil TO the
South, the only section to which it was
ostensibly intended to apply. As a
measure of relief to the Republicans
of the South it was not worth the pa
per it was written upon. 1t would
only intensity race prejudices and en-
gender sectional hostility. He pre-
dlcted that the passage OF the bill, in
stead Of increasing. would decrease the
Republican majority in the F'ifty-sec-
ond congress. With all the talk OF
frauds in Eastern North Carolina, and
especially in the black district in that
state, not single indictment had yet
been found, though both the Judge
and district attorney were Republic
cans. 1t was the same way in Ala
bama and other Southern States. II
fraud was so rampant in those states,
as charged, why could not Republican
officials enforce the laws now on the
statute books? What was needed in
the South was to be let alone. The
negro question would settle itself after
awhile. Force bills and election bills,
modelled on the Lodge plan, would
prove abOrtive and make Republican
success in that section absolutely i'm
possible.
The plea, therefore, that the South
crn Republicans demand this bill, and
that its main object was to enable the
negroes to vote and have such repre-
SentatiOn in congress as their numbers
entitled them to, is a fraud. Its sole
object is to steal members of congress
against the will Of the people, North
aud South, by taking the counting OF
the votes and certitication of the cleo
tions out Of the hands Of the state au-
thorties and placing them in the
hands Of band of federal officials APP
pointed for that single dishonest pur-
pose.