The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1892-07-09
THE WEATHER.
AN ISSUE TO BE WELCOMED

Local forecast for Helena: Fair; warmer.
Helena, July 8, 1882.
AN ISSUE TO BE WELCOMED
The Rochester POST Express prints an
interview with President Harrison in
which the president accepts the force
bill issue and says he is prepared to go
before the country upon it. IF the
democratic party" he says, scan afford
to 60 before the people crying aloud for
the suppression OF the suffrage Of black
citizens in the south; il they can afford
to stand as champions of the v~iolators
Of the constitutions and laws; il they
can endorse wholesale slaughter, intimi-
dalton and murder, in order to uphold
the democratic party, I a afford to
accept the issue. I stand, before the
people as the opposite Of everything
democratic" ......
Now let US see what ground there is
for this ,spiteful outburst of temper
from Mr.. Harrison. There is not a
democrat In the United States who has
publicly, privately, directly or indirectly
&01OVA0CA WLOAS601o 0AhuSuVOIy AACAAlIuO-
tion and murder in order to uphold the
democratic party" Mr.. Harrison knows
this perfectly we'll and, had he not lost
his temper, he would not have given
utterance to a deliberate untruth. He
is sore and angry because he has been
bafHed at every turn in his effort to
place men appointed by himself in
charge Of the ballot boxes throughout
the country and have the entire ma
chinery Of the election under their con-
troll. He would like it especially this
year when he himself is q candidate.
The democratic position with regard
to Mr., Harrison's attempt to usurp
powers which would enable him to per-
petuate himself, or his party, in control
of the government for ever. is set forth
in the Chicago platform in clear and I'M
M istakable language. Here it is: "We
warn the people of our common country
jealous for the preservation Of their free
institutions that the policy of federal
control of elections to which the repub-
lican party has committed itself is
fraught with the greatest dangers
scarcely less momentous than would
result from a revolution practically
establishing monarchy on the ruins of
the republic. 1t strikes at the north as
well az the south, and Injuries the colored
citizen eve more than the white; it
. a horde of deputy marshals at
every polling place armed with federal
power, returning boards appointed and
controlled by federal authority, the out
rage of the electoral rights of the people
in the several states, the subjugation of
the colored people to the control of the
party in power, and the revlving of race
antagonism, o happily abated, of the
utmost peril to the safety and happiness
of all, a measure deliberately and justly
described by a leading republican sena-
tor as the most Infamous bill that ever
crossed the threshold of the senate"
'Such q policy if sanctioned by law
would mean the dominance of a self
perpetuating oligarchy of office holders
and the party first intrusted with it's
machinery would be dislodged from
power only by an appeal to the reserved
rights Of the people to resist oppression,
which is inherent in all self-governing
communities. Two years ago this ~revolu-
tionary policy was emphatically CON
demned by the people at the polls; but
in contempt of that verdict the republi-
can party has ~detiantly declared, in it's
latest authoritative utterance, that it's
success in the coming elections will
mean the enactment of the force bill
and the usurpatIon of despotic control
over elections in all the states. Believ-
ing that the preservation of republican
government in the United States is
dependent upon the defeat of this policy
OF legallzed force and fraud, we invite
see the constitution maintained in it's
integrity, with the laws pursuant there
to, which have given our country a
hundred years Of unexampled pros
perity."
The fair minded reader can determine
for himself the difference between this
statement Of democratic doctrine and
Mr.. Harrison's perversion of it. But the
democratic party is glad to meet Mr..
Harrison on this issue before the Ameri-
can people. And especially do the
democrats of Montana welcome it. They
have not forgotten how, with President
Harrison's connivance, three of his
federal Office holders in this state as
sisted IN wrongfully counting into the
United States senate two republicans
who had no titles to their seats. They
know what federal interference in cleo
tions means by bitter experience.
They will not let the electoral votes
Of Montana be cast for the man who
wronged them.
zI=se#
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