The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1892-07-08
THE FORCE BILL.

In spite of the willy efforts of the
Republican party it is becoming more
apparent day by day that the Force
Bill'' so called will be one of the prin-
cipal issues in the coming campaign.
The platform adopted at Minnea-
polls declares in unmeasured terms
that the party is committed to- the
passage of a national law to control
federal elections, the language used
is that such laws shall be enacted
and enforced as will secure to every
citizen, be he rich or poor, native or
foreign born, this sovereign right 1.-THE
right to vote] guaranteed by the Con-
stitution the free and honest popular
ballot, the just and equal representa-
ton of all the people, as well as the
just and equal protection under the
laws as the foundation of our Republi-
can institutions, and the party will new
errelax it's efforts until the integrity of
the ballot and the purity of elections
shall be fully guaranteed and protect
ed in every State" And then the
platform goes ON to 'denounce the
continued outrages perpetrated on
American citizens for political reasons
in certain States of the Union"
Stripped of misleading verbiage and
buncombe it will be seen that the
party stands formally committed to
the passage of a Force bill. BY its
action, which speaks louder than
words, it is further committed in the
denomination of the foster father of
force bills, President Harrison, who is
the foremost advocate and champion
of this, his pet measure.
A Force bill means the fastening
upon the South, a Will system of
arbitrary interference, arbitrary ar
rests, federal bayonets at the polls,
Republican Office holders managing
the count, and death to that dearest
principle of American liberty, the
right of self-government, and all the
other odious details of u daring scheme
of Benjamin Harrison for the per-
petuation of the Republican rule and
the consequent demolition of the
South's prosperity and solidity.
The reconstruction period is still
fresh upon the minds of many of our
older readers and this bill goes further
in theory and actual enforcement
than any of the acts passed during
the administration of General Grant
in that unsettled period.
1t is the broad road which will lead
us back to the days of the bloody
shirt, the carpet Dagger, fraud, force
and legislation for plumber. 1t is a
skeleton in the closet whose dry bones
are now being dragged forth from it's
musty resting place and ratified and
paraded before the vast army of
intelligent voters in the forlorn
hope that old sectional and anti-bel-
lum feeling will be revivified, that old
wounds will bleed afresh and the
bloody chasm will be reopcned so
the North can again be arraigned
against the South because the cleo
toral vote of the solid North would be
sufficient to seat their candidate in
the White House.
This question is based upon section
alism and the days of sectional issues
being the permanent dividing line in
American politics has passed.
The North and the South stand to-
day shoulder to shoulder in the great
march of progress like all the mem-
bers of the human system each and
every portion being necessary for the
existence of the whole.
A new era has dawned upon the
country lying south of the Mason and
Dixon line. Wealth and prosperity
has increased an hundred fold and
the wilderness has been made to bios
som like the rose and yet the party of
spoils and plumber would deal a death
blow which would bring disaster or
ruin to the new prosperity of the
South.
In the language of the New York
Sun:
"Fhe blacklist ink is not black
enough to describe the consequences
of the Force bill policy, once success
fully put into operation by the poll
ticians who have devised it. 1t will
the South's midnight