Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1894-02-07
FIFTY THIRD CONGRESS-.
SENATE.


cupied the floor for fully fifteen min
utes in presenting them, one after an
other, and stating what they were.
He also offered an amendment to the
Wilson tariff bill postponing the time
when it is to 60 into effect from June,
1894, to January, 1896. 1t was referred
to the committee on finance.
Mr.. Dolph offered resolution, which
went over till tomorrow, for printing,
as Senate document, with appropri-
ate headings, and so forth, all the
memorials, petitions and communica
tons presented or to be presented to
the Senate prior to the lst of March in
reference to the Wilson tariff bill.
The bill to repeal the federal election
laws was then taken up and Mr.. Hoar
(rep. Mass addressed the Senate in op-
position to it. He said that he was one
Of the five persons now in the Senate
who had voted for the election law of
1870, and he had been often since call
ed upon to explain and defend it.
Wherever, he said, there is crevice in
our protection of the freedom of the
ballot, there you will find the demo-
cratic party trying to break through.
Wherever we have left open an oppor-
tunity to get possession of an Office con-
lrary to the true and constitutional will
! of the majority, there you will find
shat party exercising a devilish In
genuity before which even the
great inventive genius of the
American people, in other directions,
is insignificant in performance.
He went on to reply to the charge made
on the democratic side that the law of
1870 was sectional, and said that law
applied only to cities of over twenty
thousand population; that, when it was
passed, there were ffty-seven such
cities in the North and but five in the
South, and that Of those fifty-seven
northern communities, eleven were in
the Commonwealth 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 represented the cause
of the Southern Confederacy had fought
and bled and died for the privilege of
cheating at elections. He denied that
it was a question of State rights, as ar
gued by the Senator from Illinois (Mr.
Palmer) with the zeal of new convert.
That Senator's argument had reminded
him of the observation Of an old deacon
who had been accused of want of zeal
by new convert. 81 have noticed"
said the old deacon, that young con-
verts are good deal like young bum
BILE bees, much the largest when they
are first hatched." He thought that
observation was entirely applicable to
the Senator from Illinois. Another OBJ
lection made to the federal election law
was that it took away control from the
people of the locality; but the same
thing had been done in several demo
cratic States within the last ten or fiji
teen years-in Virginia, Maryland,
Delaware, Louisiana and other States
The right Of managing and ordering
elections had been taken from the
people who gathered at the polls, and
had been put in the hands ofthe central
power of the State, managed and WELD
ed by the democratic party leaders.
Mr.. Gray replied to Mr.. Hoar.
Mr.. Cameron said he had knowledge
of the election of 1876. He had been
then Secretary of War. The elections
in Pennsylvania were as honest
as anywhere in the world. But
he added sarcastically, there had been
some elections in that year which had
not been quite so honest; and, as Secre-
tary of War, he had to interfere-the
result being that Mr.. Tilden was not
president of the United States. Uaugh-
ter),
After some colloquy on this point
with Mr.. Hunton, Mr.. Hoar exclaim
ed: The records in the archives of this
Capitol, make of the history of cleo
tons in this country since 1865, the
blacklist and worst history of crime
since the world was created. We can
only deal with that subject in silence.
When these reports were read black
ening the fair fame of this land, we
must walk backward with averted gaze
and hide our heads in shame.
Mr.. Daniel said he was mistaken yes
tcrday in his impression that the demo
cratic platform called for the repeal o
the federal election Tvs. 1t did not
do so 60 nomine, but it did so inferen.
TALLY, in paragraph, which he read.
The wiping out of that legislation
which was an aftermath of the civil
war, but which had proved itself an IT.
ritant and fomenter 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's
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