Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1890-12-24
Senator Kenna of W. Va, on the Force Bill.

In the Senate on Tuesday, the 10th, Sena.
tor Kenna Of W. Va, discussed the Force
Bill:-
The country was about to witness, he
said, the final act in the great political
drama in which the republican party had
been playing the role of star for q quarter
of century. The play had been long. It
had paid we'll. Its receipts had been enor-
NOUS The last preceding scene bad closed
in mutterings of universal disgust. Wheth-
er the performance should end in comedy or
tragedy remained to be seen. Awaiting
patiently the final elimination of the play,
the interval might be devoted, he said, not
without profit, to somewhat casual review
of the general plot aud the general per-
Torrance.
Mr.. Kenna proceeded to sketch the his
tory of the republican party, beginning with
the reconstruction period. Those, he said,
were the days of "the bayonet and the bal
lot" Ito use the phrase of Mr.. Frye last
week. when the fields of the South were
surrendered to the brambe under the prac-
tice of carpet. bag and negro domination. 1t
was through the democracy that the hand
of the destroyer had been stayed. There
was voice which had said to the South, as
to the patriarch of old, "Take up thy bed
ana go INTO thine mouse.
THE OLD SOUTH OF THE FATHERS.
The South was not dead. Aud there was
no thew South" The old South was there,
thank God-the old South of the fathers,
the old South of the colonies, the old South
of the days of ZIG, the old South of the con-
stitution, the old South of yesterday, today
and forever. It was the same South which
had given to the country her Madison, her
Jefferson and her Washington. 1t was not
the new South, not the young sister in her
Sunday attire, not the bride being led to
the altar, but rather the venerable mother
robed in the garments of purity, veneration
and honor. He wished it to be understood,
now and always, that there could be no
concession made that would deprive the flu
ture generations of the grandeur of that
heritage which belonged, not to the new
S,ush, but the OLD South of the United
States.
REPUBLICAN POLICY DENOUNCED.
Mr.. Kenna went on to denounce the poll
cy of the republican party in regard to the
Mormons, the public lands, the tariff, the
navy and the Indians. Under the latter
| head he spoke of the reported killing yes
terday of Sitting Bull aud other Indians,
and referred all the Indian wars for the last
quarter of century to the maltreatment o.
| the Indians. On the SUBJECT of the tariff
he quoted Mr.. Morrill, as declaring in 1867
| that the tariff bill which he then reported
was a war measure; thas the manufactures
did not need higher duties, but that the
government needed revenue; and he said
that since then taxes had been repealed on
banks and corporations and incomes, while
taxes on wearing apparel, on farming i'm.
| plements and on all things that entered in
to the cultivation of the soil were maintain
ed and increased. The accumulated legs-
lative iniquities of quarter Of a century
had been piled up under the shadow and
within the folds of the ''b!oody shirt"
A BAYoNET BEHIND EVERY BALLOT.
For a hundred years, except in New York,
Cincinnati and three or four other cities
within recent years, the full control of cleo
| tions was to be placed in the federal power.
1t has not been found necessary until now
to put bayonet behind every ballot. That
suggestion involved comparison to which
he would direct the attention of the Sena-
tor from Maine, (Mr. Frye. No democrat.
| of course, could have bayonet. He was
thing of evil. No man who joined the
democratic party could be, ccording to the
Senator from Maine, trusted in elections
| But the returns of the election day showed
| that there would be 900, 900 Or 700 600 bal
| lots in the hands of democrats behind which
there would be no bayonet.
Mr.. Frye.-The colored people will carry
them.
Mr.. Kenna.-Even with the addition of
colored people there will be still scarcity
of bayonets for the ballots.
A CUNNING CONTINUANCE
After quoting sentence from the Presi-
dents message to the effect that election
laws aud methods are sometimes cunning
ly contrived to secure to the minority con
troll, while violence completes the short
comipgs of fraud, Mr.. Kenna said that
there was no mistake about what the pend
ing bill meant There was no mistake that
it was cunning contrivapce to place in the
hands Of minority the control of the inssi
tutions of the people with bayonet for ev
cry ballot. The Senator from Massachu
sets (Mr. Hoar) had told the Sena that
no time should be wasted in the debate, as
no ones judgment would be affected by it.
He (Mr. Hoar) had desired to have the bill
passed without discussion. And there was,
perhaps, evidence that that desire Was CON
Cured in by the other side Of the chamber
All that had a tendency to impress on his
mind, at least, the idea that for some good
reason it was considered wise for party rea-
sons to smuggle the bill through Congress
wise to have it invade the statute book
| silently as the tread of the thief by night.
Mr.. Spooner, who, in the absence of Mr..
Hoar. had charge of the bill, expressed bis
| consent to the suggestion.
| On the next day Wednesday MIR.
Kenna then took the floor and resumed his
argument against the election bill He
denounced John 1. Davenport as man
| who had haunted the Capitol for weeks and
months by day and by night, and whose
presence had poisoned tho atmosphere
| which surrounded the Senate. And yet,
he said, the declared and ackno lodged
policy Of the bill was to bestow a life office
on the man who, by stroke of his pen,
could arrest 10, 900 freemep, or the man
who, BY his single will, could turn half of
the city of New York into bastiles.
Mr. Kenna argued that under the deci.
sion of the court in the case of the marshal
| who shot and killed Terry in the defense of
Justice Field, the minion Davenport and
his horde might, under the bill, commit
murder a the polls without aLy RESPONSE
| biity exc OF to their God. And yet that
| was the blll brought into the Senate to
promote purity and honesty of elections.
He put the supposable case of Mr.. Harii-
son desiring reelection, and showed how,
under the pending bill, coupled with the
bill passed by the Senate last session to ap
point nine circuit judges, Mr.. Harrison
could put at work what he called in his
message ''cunuing contrivances" to pro-
mote that result.
THE BILL DIsGUTsE AND CRIME.
10 the appointment of these judges the
President might try to find John 1. Daven-
ports; and they, in selecting chief supervi-
sors for the seventy-nine districts of the
| country, would look out to see how they
could best carry out the wishes of the pow.
or to which they owed their appointment.
| He said he weuid offer an amendment plac-
Ing the appointment of election officers uu-
| der the civil service rules. The bill, he
declared, was a shame in the face of honest
| decency. 1t was an offense to honest man
| hood in every State of the Union. 1t was
disgrace, if disgrace could be added, to it's
inventor. Il was crime against the liber-
| ties of manly and honest, and free people.
Thoro otn in in ho 81 &ho