Year: 1876

CT in relation to .ill matters con

 nectcd with the preparations fol or conduct of an electionp If not

 this, what does he mean when Inc

 says "the United States secure

 voters against" whatever in gen

 eral flinders or pre-

 vents them from a full exercise oi

 tic elective franchise, extending

 that care alike to the registration

 lists, the act of voting and the

 personal freedom and security oi

 the voter, :ss we'll against violence

 on account of any vote he may in

 tend to give as against conspiracy

 "because of any he may have al

 ready givenY If this language

 does not include absolute and un.

 limited police control ever the

 elections, it would be difficult to

 find words by which to give it.

 What does Judge Taft mean when

 he speaks of the right to vote

 which the United States have given or have secured?' And to

 whom? The Supreme court of the United States distinctly af-

 firm, in the last decission of this subject, that the fifteenth amend ment confers the right of suffrage

 upon no one, and yet it was only

 under that amendment of the con stitution that any claim was made in the argument of the cases in

 which this decision was make, The supreme court had long be- fore and repeatedly decided that the fourteenth amendment in no way touched the right of suffrage. Although Judge Taft proposes to evade the effect and force of these decisions, which should have bound him as lawyer and to which it was his duty as a citizen to conform his conduct, by stating toward the end of his opinion that he ''has considered these re cent important judgements given by the supreme court of the Uni ted States upon the acts of Con gress which regulate the general topic" yet he proceeds to aver the need "in this place to add no more than that these judgements do noS concern federal elections" The decisions he refers to defines broadly and yet. explicitly the power vested in the United States in reference to the right of voting without regard either to federal or state elections, and distinctly limit the powers of the United States under the fourteenth and titteehth amendments to the en- forcement of single guaranty, which is that the right to vote shall not be abridged or denied on account of race or color or pre- vious condition of servitude," and that where the ;bridgement or denial is for some other or any other reason or cause the protec- tion of the exercise of the right must De found in the laws of the state and not in the laws of the United States. It will be observ- ed that the prohibition to abridge or deny is addressed to "the States and the United States" and yet if any state should for reasons Of its own seek to impose a new and general qualification upon the right to vote, such ns property or education, or as a pen alty for the smallest or most ve- nial ottense, and difficulties arise at the polls and riots, Judge Taft and his colleague, Cameron, and their master, Grant, would have just as much right to secure their new -fangled "peacc of the United States" as they now claim, and could call in their troops or swarms of deputy marshals in New York or Boston or Chicago or St. Louis, and thelr all-cmbracing posse comitatus, to take care alike of the registration lists, the act of voting and the personal | freedom and security of the voter, as well against violence on ac- count of any vote he may intend | to give as against conspiracy be cause of any that he may have already given"

 Reporter-This order then, Senator, being thus in defiance of the supreme court and without warrant in law or the constitution, what legal effect can it have in good citizens?

 Senator Bayard-Upon me it would have none. Between the decisions of the supreme court enlightening my sense of duty as q citizen under q government of laws, and the unwaranted and partisan order of an executive official, l could not hesitate for a moment as to which way my duty lay. l am as sure as 1 am of my existence that if Judge Tafts or Ter can be carriedout in lctterand m spirit it will totally subvert )ur form of government and leave ocal self government, which l be ieve to be the very soul of our institutions, the shadow of a name. In ny judgement it will behoove 'il citizens who desire to perpetu- 'te oar system of government to