Los Angeles herald., 1909-12-01

W history of the United states.
m The adoption of the Reed
IA Rules and their enforcement
by Speaker Reed in that con-
gress laid the house of repre-
sentatives permanently under the con-
troll of the system of precedents con-
ceived and established by Carlisle, am
plified and made effective by Reed, and
later perfected and solidified by Crisp.
During the sessions of that same
congress an unsuccessful attempt was
made to change the rules of the senate
to provide for the limitation of debate.
If this effort had been successful, the
senate would now proceed under rules
practically the same as those obtaining
in the house. and important measures
having the support of the majority
party would be rushed through both
houses of congress with only perfume
tory debate and without opportunity
for genuine deliberation.
The story of how these things came
to be, and of why the senate remains
as the only free tribune in the govern
ment, is the story of the federal elec-
tions bill which was introduced in the
house in 1890 by Representative Henry
Cabot Lodge of Massachusetts,, now a
senator, which passed that body and
which was championed in the senate
bv the late George Frisbie Hoar, also
of the old Bay state, and which met
its death at the hands of a combination
of Democrats and western Republicans
formed under cover of the most re-
markable fillbuster in the history of
congress.
When Andrew Johnson was succeeded
in the White House by General Grant
the radical wing of the Republican
party found itself in control of the
situation. 1t proceeded with its plans
for reconstruction on the theory that
the Estates lately in rebellion" were
but dead carcasses within the Union.'
and that they might be revived only
by some talisman which would insure
the return of Republican members of
congress and members of the electoral
colleges. The unfolding plans of the
radicals" caused great indignation
within the party and led to the organ
ization of the Liberal Republican
movement of 1872, the nomination of
Greeley and the second overwhelming
victory for General Grant and the
radicals. But the Greeley fiasco did
not end the anti-radical movement and
in 1874 the Republicans lost control of
the house of representatives. Two
years later the election of the president
hung upon a hair. The ultra radical
leaders of the Republican party were
deposed and in the south the states
were permitted again to control their
own affairs under the direction or the
white people.
When the Fifty-first congress met
for it's first session in December, 1889
the Republican party found itself for
the first time in fourteen years in COM
plete legislative control of the govern
ment. The Republican leaders believed
with good reason that If the negroes in
the south had been permitted to vote
without let or hindrance many congress
sional seats occupied by Democrats
would be filled by Republicans. Believ-
ing that they were cheated out of their
fair share in the government by reason
of the disobedience in the south of the
mandates of the Fifteenth amendment
the Republicans promptly decided to
take charge of the election machinery
in the southern states. 1t was the pur-
posesto make the calamity of a Demo
cratic victory impossible and illegal.
The Republican majority in the house
was only eight, dangerously small
number. Whereupon nine Democrats
were elected and the places of eight
of them were filled with Republicans
The contestant for the other seat died
and the place was left vacant. The
Republican majority being thus boil
stored up Speaker Reed proceeded tC
demolish the minority's plans for fill
clustering warfare by the famous code
of rules which bears his name. That
house at it's first session passed the
Lodge federal elections bill. 1t provides
that, upon the application of a small
number of voters In any congressional
district the federal judges should ap-
point the supervisors of elections. A
bill passed during the bitterest part OF
the reconstruction fight with a similar
purpose had been called the "force
bill" The opponents of the Lodge bill
revived the name and applied 1t to the
new measure.
The control of negro majorities in the
south in the period Immediately follow
ing the Reconstruction era had beer
exercised by the whites without much
regard for law. intimidation and bri.
berry kept the negroes from the polls
or tuned their votes to the Democratic
candidates. The south was unwilling
to submit to negro rule, but 1t was
equally unwilling to continue the law
less methods of controlling elections.
So, at the very time the Fifty-first
congress was sitting, several southern
states were holding constitutional
conventions to form new constitutions
which would enable them to limit ne
gro suffrage by legal means. While
Mr. Lorge was advocating his bill in
the house the Mississippi constitutional
convention was disfranchising the ne
gro by adopting the Massachusetts
election law. Since that time the su-
preme court of the United states has