Year: 1879

the law could be justified, what justification
Is there now, nine years after reconstruction
: was completed, and when all the States ar
t represented in the Congress Of the Union
2 My friends, there Is no justification for thi
law al all. 1t is vain to say that it is mer
r InstrumentalIty to preserve the peace. NJ
such instrumentality Is needed. The peo
r pie Of the United States have been able t
z preserve the peace at elections ever sine,
I the Government was formed as WELL uay
! better, than ii has ever been preserved il


any other country Of popular institutions
, The only effect of the law is 10 enable tn
} President to Overawe the people who are OF.
) posed to his Administration 1t makes tn,
army an instrument of party instead Of be
ing what 1t ought TO be, and what, cOnsti


tutionally, it can only be, the army of tht
! whole United States II Is a law not only
. | repugnant to liberty, but greatly injurious


TO the army itself. | have never heard al


officer OF the army speak OF it except to de
plore its existence. Why. my friends sucI


military Interference as our statutes contem
plated would not be tolerated even in mon


archical England for a single day. OF this


assertion the proof Is ample and conclusive.


The English people have never assented to


the Use of troops at the polls. As early as


the reign Of Edward l., q statute was passed


to prevent it, And it Is I4I years since the
following statute, which i still in force,


was enacted by the British Parliament:


"ANNo OCTAVE GEORGu II. 80 1885


CAP. XXX. "An act for regulating the


quartering Of soldiers during the time OF


the elections of members To serve in Par
lament.


! Whereas, by the ancient common law OF
this land all elections ought to be free and


whereas, by an act passed in the third year
| Of King Edward the First of famomus mem
l. !


| that no man by force of arms, nor bv malice,


or menacing, shall disturb any to make free
| election; and, for as much as the freedom
| OF elections for members to serve in Parlia-


ment Is of the utmost consequence to the
! preservation Of the rights and liberties of
| this Kingdom and, whereas, it hath been
| the usage and practice to cause any regi-
! ment, troop or company, or any number of
/ soldiers which hath been quartered in any
! city, borough, town or place where any
election of members to serve in Parliament
! hath been appointed To be made to remove
and continue out of the same during the
! time OF such election, except in such partic-
ular eases as are hereinafter specified to
the end, therefore, that the said usage and
practice may be settled and established for
the future, be it enacted by the Kings Most
Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice
and consent Of the Lords, spiritual and tenn
poral, and Commons i'll Parliament assem-
bled, and by the authority Of the same,
that when and as often As any election of
any Peer or Peers to represent the Peers of
Scotland in Parliament, or of any member
or members to serve in Parliament, shall be
appointed to be made, the Secretary of War
for the time being, or in case there be no
Secretary of War, then such person who
shall officiate in the place of the Secretary
of War, shall, and is hereby required, at
some convenient time before the time APP
pointed for such election, to issue and send


forth proper orders in writing for the re-
moval ofevery such regiment, troop or COM


pany, or other number of soldiers shall
be quartered or billeted in any such city,
borough, town, or place where such election
shall be appointed to be made, out of every
such city, borough, town, or place one day
at the least before the day appointed for
such election, to the distance of two or more
miles from such city, borough, town, or place.
and not to make any nearer approach to
such city, borough, town, or place, as afore
said, until one day at the least after the
poll to be taken at such election shall be
ended and the poll-books closed"


And in ninth Parliamentary History, 1926,
we are told:


The military having been called to quell
an alleged riot at Westminster election in
l711, it was resolved, December 22d That
the presence of a regular body of armed
soldiers at an election of members to serve
in Parliament is a high infringement of
the liberties of the subject a manifest vio-
lation of the freedom of elections, and an
open defiance of the laws and Constitution
of this Kingdom The persons concerned
in this having been ordered to attend the
House, received on their knees a very Sc
we're reprimand from the Speaker"


Now, my friends, the Democracy, at the
last session of Congress, did all that was in
their power to repeal the statutory provis-
ion authorizing the use of the army at the
polls. For that purpose was passed bill
after bill, but they were successively vetoed
by the President, and therefore defeated.
The General Appropriation Bill for the sup
port of the army was thus vetoed, the Pres
ident, by defeating it, declaring in effect
that he would let the army go without sup
port rather than lose the right to use it at
times and places of elections. Thus thwart-
ed by an unparalleled exercise of the one
man power, we had nothing left for us to
do but to withhold appropriations from the
army when used at the polls. But this
remedy is, in its nature, but temporary,
and may be too easily evaded by hostile
Executive to be relied upon. Nothing
short of a repeal of the obnoxious provision
will suffice and the question whether it
shall be repealed is one of the great questions
to be decided by the people. This issue is
cleary made and sharply defined. The Re
publicans in Congress, as well as the Presi-
dent, are opposed to the repeal, as their
speeches and recorded votes amply show.
The Democrats and Nationals are to man
III favor of the repeal. What say you ?
If YOU are tired of freedom and wish the
ballot box to be interfered with by the
bayonet, vote to keep the law upon the
statute book. But if you still cherish your
liberties and wish to cast free and untram-
oil hx-,, G.
to repeal it. And do not imagine, nv
friends, that because you have never seen
the polls in Columbus surrounded by troops,
therefore there is no danger to be appre-
hended. To say nothing of what has
occurred in the Southern States, it is but a
few years since large bodies of Federal
troops were massed in New York City, upon
an election day for the avowed purpose of
executing the law we seek to repeal. And
if the people once become accustomed to
such an employment of military force, and
tamely scquiesce in it, it will not be long
before the interference of the military will
become far more direct and effective and
far more extended. The first steps of despot-
ism are always stealthy, but each successive
step becomes more and more audacious,
until at length liberty finds itself in death
struggle for existence. The only safe rule
is to resist despOtic power from the very
outset. The trite old maxim that Eternal
vigilance is the price of liberty" is true
maxim-there never was truer one.
Therefore it is that | appeal to you to speak
out now before it is too late. Let the voice
that comes from your ballot-boxes, while
they are yet free, declare in unmistakable
tones, that they always shall be free


NATURALIzATIoN AND ELECTION LAWS.


l now turn to some other statutes to
which your attention should be called.
But before doing 80 it will be well to refer
to the hostility so long manifested by our
political opponents toward the people of
this country who are of foreign birth. For
it is in part owing to this hostility that these
laws were enacted and are found upon your
statute book