Arizona republican., 1891-01-23
A GRAVE SITUATION.

l the Congress of the United States IS grave in the extreme and can be com | pared in history oniy to the stormy days { in the National Legislature immediately preceding the War of the Rebellion. No | bill, however trivial, can be discussed without sectional prejudice being in- | truded into such discussion. Affairs are indeed at a sad pass when the House will sit, as it did the other day in Com mittee of the Whole on the harmless District of Columbia Appropriation bill, and consume several hours in strong sectional vituperation, and finally arise with nothing accomplished upon the matter that the committee session was held to consider. It is indeed sad that the representatives of the people of this great Union can not sit in harmony, legislating not for one section of the country, but upon the broad plane of patriotism, for the good of the whole Nation.
 "United we stand. divided we fall, '" is an adage that has lost none of it's force by age. The patriotic mind can but re- gard this Congressional bitterness as a danger to the Unlon.
 As it was in '60, so it is now. The negro is the prime cause of contention. The Democratic party, acknowledging that about one-third of the population of the Southern States is by force and terror prevented from voting, struggles in all bitterness to defeat a measure that has for it's object the securing ito every citizen of the United States" the free and untramelled use of the ballot in Congressional and Presidential elections. Surely law of this nature, general in its scope, applicable to every part of the Union, should receive the support of every honest citizen. Opposition would be illogical and a confession of existing | fraud.
 The Democracy base their opposition upon two arguments. The first is spe- cious in the extreme, being simply the hourishing of the remains of that dead duck, States Rights" Not but that the State has rights; not but that, as far as her internal administration goes, her laws are supreme, bject only to judicial equity and the constitution. But the Southern representatives should learn that since '65 the United States is spoken of in the singular, not in the plural number. This GOvernmen mt is not confederation of weak and war ring States. It is Nation, compact and powerful, as bundle of rods in union only are strong. It is idle to say that the United States should have nothing to do with the Presidential and Congress sional elections. The fact is, such cleo tions should be held at a different time from State elections, and entirely out of the hands of the State authorities. Presidents and Congressmen are not representative of the sections whence they come, though it may be presumed that the interests of their homes are especially dear to them. They are rep resentatives of the people and of the Nation, without regard to State or county lines. They have to do with legislation for every part of our vast domain, and their every act should be guided by lofty patriotism, and not by jealous sectional. ism. Being representatives of the Ma, ton, the Nation should take charge of the elections at which they are chosen. To say that the party in power would corruptly control such elections is to cast an insult upon American intel, ligence. In honestly conducted State elections, does 1t matter which party has majority among the officers of cleo, tion?
 Their second argument has in it some force of logic. It is that the majority oi the black race are by natural endow, ment and education uniitted for the franchise. They say that it is wrong that the vote of an ignorant black should offset the vote of an intelligent white Possibly they are right in this and, il they give that proposition a broader scope and apply it's argument to every portion Ot the Union, attention and deeE consideration will be given their views Under the Constitution, as it is, every male, over 2l years of age, under certain restrictions of residence and naturaliza. tion, which should be uniform, is en. titled to vote. If the Southern Demo. Crats desire to so amend the Constitu. tion that none save those educated to a certain degree shall be electors, let them present measure to this end to the people for enactment through legal channels. But it would seem as though this is not what they wish. They do not seek 10 disfranchlse the negro, be- cause by such action they would lose half their representation in Congress and half their power in the general elections. They are content as it is, using the negro's representation to their own ends, while denying the negro the ballot, and naturally are vehement in their wrath when their position is as- sailed. They offer no solution of the problem. But the country at large is con fronted with the fact that the Four teenth Amendment must be either en- forced or repealed.