The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-02-08
BULLDOzINC At AN END.
The Senate Passes the Bill Repeating
the Election Laws.


Favor of the Measure-Hoar Utters
a Final Howl Against the Passage OF
the Measure.
Washington, Feb. I'm the Senate to-
day. Mr.. Cameron, rep, of Pennsylvania,
presented a very large number of re-
monstrances against the the Wilson tariff
bill from merchants, boards of trade,
manufacturers and operatives, represent
ing almost all the industries in that state.
He occupied the floor fully fifteen min
utes in presenting them, one after an
other, and stating what they were. There
were at least fifty of them in all.
He also offered an amendment to the
Wilson tariff bill, postponing the time
when it is to go into effect from June, 1894,
to January, 1896. 1t was referred to the
committee on finance.
Mr.. Dolph offered a resolution, which
went over until tomorrow, providing for
printing, as Senate document, with APP
propriate headings, and so forth, of all
the memorials, petitions and communica-
tlons presented, or to be presented, to the
Senate prior to March l, in reference to
the Wilson tariff bill.
HoAR ON THE ELECTION LAWS.
At 1890 o'clock the House bill to re-
peal the federal election laws was taken
up, and Mr.. HOar addressed the Senate in
opposition TO it. In reply to the charges
made on the democratic side, that the
law of 1870 was sectional, he said that
that law applied only to cities of over
10000 population, that, when it was
passed, there were fifty-seven such cities
in the north and but five in the south
M haY
communities. eleven were in the common
wealth of Massachusetts, How idle,
therefore, was it, he said, to keep up the
claim that the question was 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 privi-
lege of cheating at elections. Another
objection made to the federal cleo
tion law, was, that it took away con-
troll from the people of the locality; but
the same thing had been done in several
democratic states within the last ten or
fifteen years-in Virginia, Maryland, Del
aware, Louisiana and other states, the
right of managing and ordering elections
had been taken from the people who
gather at the polls, and had been put in
the hands of the central power of the
states, managed and welded by the Dem
cratic party leaders.
A HISTORY OF CRIMES.
After some colloquy on this point with
Mr., Hunton, dem, of Virginia, MIR. Hoar
exclaimed: "1he records in the archives
of this capitol, make the history of the
elections in this country since 1865, the
blackesU and worst history of crimes since
the world was created. We can only deal
with that subject in silence. When these
reports are read, blackening the fair fame
of this land, we must walk backward
with ayerted gaze and hide our heads in
shame. This is question of fraud or no
fraud, and there is nothing else to it. 1t
is question whether the supreme pearl
and gem in the crown of American man
hood shall not have the strongest force on
the face of the earth for its protection
and defense"
WHY THE DEMOCRATS OPPOSE THEM.
Mr. Gray, dem, of Delaware, replied to
Mr.. Hoar, who, he said, had mistaken or
misreprepresentedt the cause of the demo-
cratic opposition to the election laws.
They wanted to wipe them out, not be-
cause they protected the weak from the
strong it was because the democrats be-
lieved, from a bitter experience, that
those laws were not only at war with
every tradition of local self-government,
not only did they degrade the states of
which they were citizens, but they but
tressed up the very fraud which
they were professedly intended to
destroy. From the inherent wee in
their structure they had been
necessarily, an auxiliary to the party ma
chine of the party in power in the federal
government. In every city of 10000 in
habitants 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 the election charges and
expenses of the party. There could not
be a successful denial of that statement.
Mr.. Allison. rep, of Iowa, argued
against the bill, stating that, so far as he
knew, there was no public opinion de-
manding the repeal of the federal election
laws.
DANIEL ADMITS MIsTAxE.
Mr.. Daniel, of Virginia, was tbs next
speaker He admitted that he was mis-
taken yesterday in his impression that
the democratic platform called for the re-
peal of the federal election laws It did
not do so go nomine, but it did so infer
rentiallY, in paragraph, which he read
The wiping out OF that legislation which
was an aftermath of the civil war, but
which had proven itself an irritant and a
fornenter Of strife, was one of the greatest
measures for which the democratic
party came into power, and he should re-
joice when this bill was passed. that, at
least one of the party missions had been
performed
BATE CLOSES THE DEBATE.
Mr. Bate, dem, of Tennessee, closed
the debate. He made an argument in
support of the bill. It was susceptible of
demonstration, he said, that the chief
objection to the reconstruction laws, of
which the federal elections laws formed a
part, had been to capture the electoral
votes of the southern states, and to Sc
cure republican senators and repre-
sentatives. But the scheme had gone
awry and ali the plots had failed. The
new allies" had deserted the republican
standards, and the republican party had
ceased TO have local habitation in those
states from which four years after the
war IL had had all their senator's
and all but one of their representatives.
Whether those federal election laws
were or were not constitutional, they
were certainly in the year Of grace 1894,
unwise and unnecessary. They embodied
the same ideas that had 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 the states
should be left 70 regulate all elections
within their borders. thus giving en-
phasis 10 the doctrine Of home rule, the
Only safety Of a republic.
cHANDLER's AMENDMEsT.