The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1894-02-14
A BAD Law REPEALED.
NO MORE FEDERAL SUPERVISION OF
ELECTIONS.
The Senate Settle the Question at Last
By Decisive MsjorIty-Allth the Demo
Gratis, One Republican ard Three Pap
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By Decisive MsjorIty-Allth the Demo
Gratis. One Republican ard Three Pap
ulists Vote forIe.
WASHINGTON. Feb. I'm the Senate
today at 1890, the House bill to repeal
the Federal election laws was taken no
and Hoar addressed the Senate in oppo-
sition to it.
In reply to the charge made on the
| Democratic side that the law of 1910
| vas sectional, he said that that law
applied only to cities Of over 10000
population, that when it was passed
| there were ffty-seven such cities in the
North and but five in the South, and
that of the ffty-seyen Northern COM
munities, eleven were IN the common
wealth OF Massachusetts,. How idle,
therefore was it, he said, to keep up
the claim that the question was Sec
tlonal 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 objec-
ton made to the Federal election law
was that it took away control from the
people of the locality, but the same
had been done in several Democratic
States within the last ten or fifteen
years-in Virginia, Maryland. Dale.
ware, Louisiana and other States. The
right of managing and ordering cleo
tions 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 Democratic party leaders.
After some colloquy on this point
with Hunton Dem) of Virginia, Hoar
exclaimed: The records in the archives
of this Capitol make of the history of
elections in this country since 1865 the
blacklist and worst history of crimes
since the world was created. We can
only deal with that subjection in 81
lence. When these reports are read,
blackening the fair fame of this land,
we must walk backward with aYerted
gaze and bide our heads in shame.
This isa question of fraud or no fraud,
and there IS nothing else to it. It is
question whether the supreme pearl
and gem in the crown of the American
manhood shall not have the strongest
force on the faca of the earth for its
protection and defense.
Gray of Delaware replied to Hoar,
who he said had mistaken or misrepre.
sented the SraVamen Of Democratic
opposition to the election laws. They
wanted to wipe them out, not because
they protected the weak from the
strong, but because Democrats belieY-
ed from bitter experience that those
laws were not only at war with every
tradition of local self f-goVernment, not
only did sthey degrade the States Of
which they were citizens, but they butt
ressed up the very fraud which they
were professedly intended to destroy.
From the inherit vice II their struct-
ure, they had been, necessarily, an aux.
iliary 10 Sio party machine of the par
ty in power IN the Federal govern
ment. In every city Of 10000 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 the election charges
and expenses of the party. There could
not be successful denial of that state
ment.
Bate (Dem.) of Tennessee closed the
debate. He made an argument in sup
port Of the bill. It was susceptible Of
demonstration, he said, that the chief
object Of the reconstruction laws (of
which the Federal election laws formed
a part) had been to capture the electo-
raj vote of the Southern States, and to
secure Republican Senators and Rep
resentatiYes. But the scheme had gone
aWry and all the plots had failed. The
';neW allies" had deserted the Republi-
can standards and the Republican par
ty had ceased to have local habita-
ton in those States from which four
years after the war it had had all their
Senators and all but one of their Repre-
Sentatives.
Whether these Federal election laws
we're or were not constitutional, they
were certainly in the-year of grace 1894
uaWise and unnecessary. They en-
bodied shssarne ideas that had dictated
reconstruction, and they should now be
repealed. They had inspired more
fraud in elections than they had sup
pressed. They should be all repealed
and the States should be left to regu-
late all elections within their borders.
thus giving emphasis to the doctrine Of
home rule, the only safety Of repub-
Iic At the close of Mr.. Bates speech,
Chandler withdrew the amendment
heretofore offered by him and moved
another, the purport of which was to
make the proposed repeal effective only
to the extent of prohibiting the employ
ment of deputy marshals at election.
This amendment was ected-yeas
81; nays 40. The three Populists, Allen
Kyle, and PETER, and one Republican,
Stewart of Nevada, voted with the
Democrats in the negative.
Another amendment was offered by
Chandler for the purpose OF excluding
from the effect Of the repeal the crimes
sections Of the revised statutes, IN re.
gard to elections It was also rejected,
yeas 27, nays 50.
Two other amendments were offered
by Chandler Ito. restrict the scope OF the
repeaD and were rejected by similar
votes.
A taunting inquiry by Chandler, as
his vote to the repeal of the law, which
had been one of the noblest acts Of mis-
public life, brought out short speech
from Stewart, to the effect that the elec-
ton Act of 1870 was passed just after
the nation had had emerged from war,
and that now the nation had entered
on another war, that of the executive
against the producing classes.
Perkins (Rep,) of California offered
amendment. of which he had given no.
tice yes ,erday, allowing tie election
laws to remain. but con6oing the Fed
eral supervision to cities OF 100000 IN"
habitants or over, instead OF, as now,
10000, The amendment was rejected,
yeas q, nays 80. Three additional
amendments were offered by Chandler
and were rejected, two of them with
out division, and the third by yeas y,
nays 80. The bill was then passed,
yeas 80, nays ga party vote, except
that Stewart (Rep.) of Nevada ano
Allen, Kyle and PETER (Popullsts)
voted with the Democrats IN the az
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