The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1894-02-13
THE FEDERAL ELECTION LAWS.
Repeal of the only Remnant Left of
Reconstruction Measures.

| Repeal of the only Remnant Left of
Reconstruction Measures.
WASHINGTON, Feb Tn the Senate
this morning, the House bill to repeal
the Federal election laws, was taken
up, and Senator Hoar addressed the
Senate in opposition to it. In reply to
the charge, made on the Democratic
side, that the law of 1870 was sectional,
he said that that law applied only to
cities OF over twenty thousand popula-
tion; that when it was passed there
were fifty-seven such cities in the
North aud but five in the South, and
that of those fifty-seven Northern COM
munities, eleven were in the common
wealth of Massachusetts. How idle,
therefore, said he, to keep up the claim
that the question was a sectional one,
as If the brave and gallant men who
| presented the cause of the Southern
Confederacy had fought and bled and
died for the privilege Of cheating at
elections. Another objection made to
| the Federal election law was that it
| took away control from the people of
| the locality, but that the same thing
had been done in several Democratic
! States within the last ten or fifteen
years-in Virginia, Maryland, Della
ware, Louisiana and other States. The
right of managing and ordering elect
| ions had been taken from the people
| who gathered at the polls, and had
been put in the hands of the central
| power of the State, managed and WELD
cd by the Democratic party leaders.
After some colloquy on this point with
Senator Hunton lDem.(, of Virginia,
Senator Hoar exclaimed
1.-THE records in the archives of this
| Capitol, make Of the history of cleo
| tions in this country since 1865, the
blackest and worst history of crimes
since the world was created. We can
only deal with that subject in silence.
| When these reports are read, blacken-
ing the fair name of this land, we must
| walk backward with averted gaze, and
| hide our heads in shame. This is a
| question of fraud or no fraud, and
there is nothing else to it. 1t is q
question whether the supreme pearl
and gem in the crown of American
| manhood shall have tho strongest force
on the face of the earth for it's protec-
| tion and defence"
Senator Gray (Dcm.), of Delaware,
replied to Senator Hoar, who. he said
| had misstated or misrepresented the
gravemen of the Democratic opposi-
| tion to the election laws. They wanted
to wipe them out not because they pro-
| tected the weak from the strong: it
| oo DSS@uoS cSIlioSldUo DCllCNcu, lIOlll
| bitter experience, that those laws
| were not only at war with every tradi-
tion Of local-self government, not only
| did they degrade the State of which
| they were citizens, but they buttressed
| up the very fraud which they were
| professedly intended to destroy. From
| the inherent vice in their structure
they had been necessarily an auxiliary
to the party machine of the party in
| power in the Federal government. In
every city of twenty thousand inhabi
tants they had been the ready means
by which, during the last twenty years,
the Republican party had put its hand
into the treasury of the United States
in order to defray election charges and
operations of the party. There could
not be q successful denial of that state
mcnt.
Senator Allison (Rep.), of Iowa, ar
gued against the bill, stating that so
far as he knew, there was no public
| opinion defending the repeal of the
Federal election laws.
Senator Daniel (Dcm.) of Virginia,
was the next speaker. He admitted
that he was mistaken yesterday in his
! impression that the Democratic party
platform called for the repeal of the
Federal election laws. 1t did not do
so co nomine, but it did so infcrential-
ly, in u paragraph which he read. The
was an aftermath Of the civil war, but
which had proved itself an irritant and
fomentor of strife, was one of the great
measures for which the Democratic
| party came into power, and he should
rejoice when this bill was passed. that
at least one of the party missions had
been performed.
Senator Bate (Dem), of Tennessee.
closed the debate. He made an argu-
ment in support of the bill. 1t was
susceptible of demonstration, he said
that the chief object of tho rcconstruc-
tion laws (of which the Federal cleo
tion laws formed a part) had been to
capture the electoral votes Of the South
ern States, and to secure Republican
Senators and Representatives But the
scheme had gone awry and all the
plots had failed. The new allies had
deserted the Republican standard, and
the Republican party had ceased to
have q local habitation in these States,
from which, for years after the war,
it had all their Senators, and all but
one Of their Representatives. Whether
these Federal election laws were or
were not constitutional, they were GER
tainly, in the year Of grace, 1904, un-
| "ioC diiu uhiiCCCSSdIy. Hcy
the same ideas that dictated recon-
structiOn, and they should now be re-
pealed. They had inspired more fraud
at elections than they had suppressed.
They should be all repealed, and tho
States should be left to regulate cleo
tiOns within their bordcrs-thus giving
emphasis to the doctrine of home rule
the only safety of republican govern
ment.
At the close of Senator Bates speech,
Senator Chandler withdrew the amend
ment heretofore offered by him, and
offered another, the purport of which
was to mako the repeal effective only
to tho extent Of prohibiting the en-
plOyment Of deputy marshals at cleo
tions. This amendment was rejected,
yeas, 27; nays, 40. The Populists,
Allen, Kyle and Peffer, and one Re-
publican, Stewart, of Nevada, voted
with the Democrats in the negative.
Another amendment was offered by
Senator Chandler for the purpose OF
excluding from the effect of the repeal
the crimes sections Of the revised sta
tutes, in regard to elections. 1t was
also rejected, yeas 81; nays, 38. Two
other amendments were offered by
Senator Chandler, to restrict the scope
of the repeal, and they were rejected
by similar votes.
A taunting inquiry by Senator Chand.
} Ter, as to whether Senator Stewart
would contribute his vote to the repeal
| OF the law which had been one of the