The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-08-19


The issues of the campaign are protec-
ton to American industries and an honest
ballot box. The Republican party goes to
the people demanding no stuffed ballot
box; no free trade British tariff for reve-
nue. only. So far as the so-called "force
bill" of 1890 is concerned, which passed the
House and was defeated by Republican
votes in the Senate, the Republican plat
form does not specifically promise to at
tempt again this particular measure. This
so-called force bill" was no force bill at
all; if it had been a real "force bill" it
might have been better worth enacting.
Ben Butler recently said: IF half of
what il charged is true concerning tho
systematic suppression Of free suffrage at
the South. real force bill, not the worth
less act of 1890. is wanted"
The so-called 'force bill" of 1890 was q
perfectly just and proper measure; no
honest man desiring to vote but once and
have his vote counted but once could pos
sibiy object to the Federal elections bill of
mere red rag to the Southern mad bull.
But because we grant this is no reason
why the Republican party should not de-
clare its determination to continue to
abate the gross political crime of suppress
sion Of free suffrage at the South at every
practical opportunity. There is radical
remedy for the evil of suppressed suffrage
at the South which has not yet been i'm
voked, which it rests entirely within the
power Of the federal government to grant
and which it is q breach Of its duty to
withhold. The national congress is
charged with the enforcement Of the fed
eral constitution, and the constitution de-
clares that whenever suffrage is denied to
any class or number of persons in state
these persons shall not be held as part of
the population in determining the basis of
representation in the House of Represen-
tIves and in the electoral college.
The failure to enforce this injunction is
denial Of justice to the whole country.
because it gives the representatives and
electors from the South nearly double
weight in the House and in the electoral
college, because it gives the men who mis-.
represent the confiscatsd vote Of the
minority party of the South an ARTIFICIAL
influence in national affairs. It gives the
people who have disfranchised the blacks
the right to vote for them. For this wrong
to the whole country and to the stifled
suffragans of the South congress is re-
sponsible, because it has the power to
remedy it. The ultimate offender is the
state, whose neglect to secure fair and
equal suffrage to all its citizens is a crime
against the whole republic. The constitu-
ton affords means to punish q state for
denial of suffrage to any portion of its
citizens when such denial il formal or
statutory.
The fourteenth amendment declares
that whenever any state shall refuse the
RICH. of suffrage to any part of its popula-
ton its representation in congress may be
proportionately reduced. No less man
than John Sherman has expressed the
opinion that a state might be punished
when the denial Of suffrage is made by
individuals in a state unprevented and
unpublished by its authorities. A law
should be enacted to enforce the four
declaring that persons whose votes are
excluded or cast under duress shall not be
counted in population when making up
the basis of representation under the fed
eral census. The South, with the brutal
frankness Of political pirates who have
never yet felt draw the halter of
the law. confess and justify their denial
of the suffrage to the blacks. We
seem to be powerless topunish individuals
for the wholesale suppression or perver-
sion of the suffrage, but because we cam
not prevent the South DISTINGUISHING the
negro is no reason why we should let the
South vote on the ballot stolen from the
negro.
The measure suggested would execute
itself without any of the machinery OF the
so-called "force bill' Of 1890; without
supervisors, deputy marshals, election
officers or courts. Congress would simply
have to satisfy itself that suffrage is
denied to an appreciable fraction Of the
voting population in any state and then to
reduce the representation of that state in
congress by an act of legislation and re-
fuse admission to any members in excess
OF the reduced quota. This would seem to
be an effective remedy for the situation at
the South, where it is notorious that in
more than half of the Southern states the
colored vote is not permitted to be cast,
or if cast is not counted, or if counted is
counted wrong. This would be a practica-
BILE remedy, while the federal elections
bill, the so-calIed "force bill" of 1890, would
not be practicable measure Of legislation.
for it would have behind it no public opin-
ion that would enforce its effective execu-
ton. 1t would force an endless series of
conflicts between the state and federal iu-
dietary and executive. and if it could be
enforced at all it would only be at the cost
OF popular discomfort and civil strife.
Technically elections for congress and
| presidential electors are in the jurisdic-
| ton OF the federal power, but by custom
| and practice they have passed under the
control of the same authority, agency and
machinery that conducts the state cleo
| tons. For this reason the Republican
| party platform does not specifically prom
| Use TO attempt again to enact the so-called
| force bill'' of 1880, but it does promise to
lose no opportunity to put an end to the
| despotic sovereignty of the stuffed ballot
box usurped by the South.
| |