Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1892-08-25

lat LOW PRICES:
purpose of organization. the party that
invented the Force bill could perpetu.
ate itself in the House o: Representa-
tives. For the wrong there would be
no remedy; for the fraud no punish
ment.
| 6. TO our correspondents last ques-
tion we reply that it makes no differ
ence whether the skilfully drawn Force
bill of Davenport, Reid, aud Harrison
contains any particular word or phrase
calculated to terrify or intimidate any
man from attempting to exercise his
right of suffrage. The question is
whether the bill is calculated to enable
partisans and rascals to reverse the
honest result of an election, and to de-
fraud Democratic districts of their law
full rights of representation. 1t does
that in various ways.
1t takes the ultimate control of the
registration and the election from tho
States, and makes it over to the Feder-
al Circuit Courts, now constituted in
every case but two by Republican
Judges. Does any Democrat ask wheth-
er there is the possibility, in close and
critical elections, of danger from part
isanship on the Federal benchp Let
him read anew the story of 1876 and
1877. Let him review the long record
of outrages perpetrated upon the peo-
pie of Louisiana, South Carolina, Flor
ida. or Mississippi. in the name of law
and justice and from the bench of the
courts of the United States.
| 1t provides for an army of hirelings,
spies, and hangers-on, to be appointed
by election officers, designated in their
turn by Republican courts. 1t permits
the appointment OF special deputy mar
shals at Sc a day. to number limited
only by the audacity of the partisan
Marshal and the partisan Chief Super
visor in the district in question. There
may be thousand or ten thousand of
these special deputies in each district
| if the audacity or the desperation of
Republican partisanship goes so far.
1t provides from the Treasury by
permanent appropriation, beyond the
reach of Congress to refuse or with
hold, a vast campaign fund for the en-
ployment of election officers, and regu-
lar and special superDumeraries, in the
interest of the party in power.
1t establishes a permanent Federal
inquisition. in the shape of q house-to-
house canvass, nominally to ascertain
the legality of the registered voter.
This odious Federal invasion was spec
flied with brutal directness in the bill
originally drawn by Davenport, which
passed the Republican Fifty-first House.
The house-tO-hOuse visitation was to be
''thorough and effective" in cities of a
hundred thousand inhabitants or up
ward; it was to be conducted by s'dis-
Greet or special supervisors, in cities
or towns of twenty thousand inhabit-
ants or upward; and it was extended.
at the discretion of the partisan Chief
Supervisor, to any town, or village, or
country district. The full text of this
offensive provision was omitted in the
Senate substitute for the Force bill that
passed the House; but the concession
was only one of phraseology. The
power remained between the lines of
the Senate bill. The house-to-house
canvass, as a part of the Republican
scheme, was implied in Section OF the
Senate substitute, and directly, al
though perhaps inadvertently, recog-
nized in Section 10.
Thus the Republican Force bill pro-
posed to equip the partisan supervisors
and their partisan deputy marshals
with the right to enter the residence of
the citizen, to invade his castle without
due process of law. Behind the deputy
on his errand of part:sanship
and outrage. was the whole power of
the Federal courts, backed in case of
resistance by the bayonets and drums
Of the Federal army. The bill once
there was no escape from Fed
eral invasion short of expatriation; no
remedy for the hateful wrong short of
BY taking IRON the States tho con-
troll of the elections and vesting it in
Federal Supervisors and in the Federal
courts, the Force bill, in its last analy-
sis. meant bayonets at the polls. The
word bayonet will not be found in the
as drafted by John /. Daven-
port. The authorization of the use of
United States troops '.to keep the peace
1t the polls" is not the less clear on ac-
count of the absence of military nomen-
,lature. Tolerate the right of central
authority to enter the States and in
,erfere in the local elections of Con-
yressmen, to establish Federal police
around the ballot box. and to turn over
% Federal returning board the duty
If canvassing the vote and certifying
he result, and the gun barrels and
lrums are there as the necessary con-
sequence. This proposition was dis
inctly stated by more than one Repub-
an advocate of the Force bill when it
vas before the House. II am for the
,ill," said Congressman Brosius OF
for example, ION the
listinct ground that It is constitution
i and necessary measure. And when
is passed, / am for its enforcement,
Jorth and South, If need be, with firm
Iess and effectiveness. Behind the
Constitution are the Army and the
Navy. Every sword, every bayonet.
very cannon. and every dollar of the
ation's wealth are pledged to the en-
orcement Of every one of its provis-
ons."
The election of Benjamin Harrison 2
nd Republican House means the en-
ctment of such measure of force and
raud, with the inevitable sequel OF
'ederal outrage in the Democratic dis