Democratic Sentinel, Volume 10, Number 36, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 October 1886 — HONEST OLD “SADDLEBAGS” ON THE ‘GERRYMANDER.’ [ARTICLE]

HONEST OLD “SADDLEBAGS” ON THE ‘GERRYMANDER.’

We extract the following with reference to the so-called “gerrymander” from the speech of Senator McDonald recently delivered at Logansport. It appeals to the reason of men, not their partisan prejudices, and is calculated to open tho eyes of all fair men to the “stop thief' cry methods of Bennie Harrison and his followers. Read it:

The Republicans are making a very peculiar kind of canvass in this State this year. It is made up chiefly of denunciations against the Democratic party, based upon no truths, but simply resting upon denunciation, and one of their denunciations against the Democrats is for passing the apportionment bill at tbe last session of the Legislature for districting the State for Senatorial and Representarive purposes. Now that was a con stitutionai obligation resting upon the Legislature. Our Constitution provides that every six years the Legislature shall ascertain the number of qualified voters in the State, and to reapportion the State for Senatorial and Representative purposes, far their Legislature. And the last Legislature had that duty to perform, and they performed it, and the Re - publicans are making a howl over that. They say they gerrymandered the State, and they have got out maps for the purpose of trying to demonstrate that. Now, mv friends, a a I shah show you before I get through, a Republican who cab make that charge must have a very short memory, ani a seared conssience, or he could not do it. If he could recollect back over the history of tbe last twenty years and see the districting bills that they have passed in ‘hat time, he would blush to make a charge of this sort, unless his conscience was so seared that it would not make aoy difference to him what he said. But I want to show you that this so much denounced law, and this beautiful map they have got up—that is their getting up—is Dot subject to the crit. icism they are attempting to make. [At this point tbe speaker exhibited a map.] I don’t expect to show you that it is entirely equal, or that there are no inequalities In it; but I intend to show you that under the Constitution it is fair; muoh fairer than any they ever made, ai d a great deal fairer than any they would attempt to make now if they get back into pow® er. The Constitution provides that the Legislative Districts, Senatorial, and for the House, shall be framed upon the voting population of the State—not upon all tbe inhabitants, but the voting population. It requires, too, that no oounty shall be divided in terming a Senatorial or a Representative District. It farther provides that tlrse districts shall be formed as nearly as possible out of contiguous territory. How, these are the provisions of the Constitution.— At the time this act was passed we had nearly five hundred thousand voters in Indiana, not quite that; we have undoubtedly more than that now but we had nearly five hundred thousand voteis then. We have one hundred Representatives end fifty Senators. You see, therefore, that to apportion the State into one hundred Representative Districts each district ought to have if it could be, not quite five thousand voters, a little below five thousand—they have got the exact figures here, and I am giving them to you near enough to be correct—and not quite ten thousand voters ior a Senatorial District. Now, they have arrayed here oertainlflgures aud put down certain counties which they say this law has disfranchised I take the one that they claim to be the mest glaring, and I will refer to one or two others, and then I am ready to make the general statement that this law will not only compare favoraqly with any they ever passed, but that it is much more free from any possible objection. The cases that they dwell on most ar6 tte Senatorial and Representative Districts composed of the counties of Vermillion and Parke, Vigo and Sullivan.— Vermillion County lies west of the Wabash River. It had a voting pep-

illation at tbe time this law was parsed of a little over 3,000, so that it fel nearly 2,000 votes below the ratio for a Representative.f Mark that. Parke County which lay ri ht acioss-the river from it, had 4,777 vjtes. That was not quite enough for a Representative; not so great a disparity, but still 'not enough. Now, this bil gives to Parke County a Repre® sentative to itself; it gives Parke md Vermillion a Senator by their joint vote—rully 2,000 below the Senatorial ratio, yet this law so much denounced, gave them a Senator, and Parke County a Representa'ive. The only county that bordered on it across the river was Fountain Couuty, and that had no surplus. Below it was Vigo County, and the oitv of Terre Haute was its surplus center, where the people of Vermillion County went to transaot their business, and it had a right to two Repiesentatives, and it had a surpl s over: Sullivan County joining onto Vi o, having Terre Haute also for its business center, had a population that entl led It to a Representative and a fraction over. Now I ask any fair- minded man, a Republican particularly, if there is

any within the sound of my voice, and 1 hope there is, if you didn’t know the politics of these counties, what would you do? If you simply had these figures, and didn’t know whether Vermillion and Parke, or Vi go and Sullivan, or Fountain, or Montgomery, which didn’t touch on to Vermillion at all—if you knew nothing about their politics, what would you do? To give the county of Vermillion a right to participate in electing a member to the House of Hep* resentatives, would you not attach it to its business center—Vigo County? What would you do with the surplus of Sullivan? Would you not attach that to its business center also—Vigo County? And, therefore, when you were making up this Representative district, would you not- I ask any fuir-miuded man, now: Suppose you didn’t know the politics of these ooun ties at all, would you not put Vermillion and Vigo and Sullivan together? That is just exactly what this bill did, precisely.||Wbat did the Republicans want to do? They wanted it to extend through Parke, that was already over represented, and go into Montgomery, and form a kind of fish-hook District that way, because of the politics of the county, that is what they wanted. They didn’t want a fair bill. They didn’t desire that. They wanted one that would give them political advantages. |But, they say, we got political advantages out of that.— Well, are we to throw them away, my friends? I ask any fair minded Re* publican if he expects a Democrat to throw away a polltioal advantage that comes fairly to him? Does be expect him to do that, and to be disregardful of tue interests of his part ' ? I never have been and never expect to be. What is the o her one that they claim? Itjis Jav County. Jay has on the n&rth of it. Adams; it has on the west of it Blackford. Jay is a large couuty and torritory, and quite populous; it Las more than enough for one representative. But Adams has not near enough for one, and Bla kford has less. How what did this bill do. In short? It made those three counties a Senatorial District; that Is ju t what ft did; and it gave them a Senator, and it gave them jointly two Representatives, that Is precisely what was done.— What did the Republicans insist sh o’d be done? Why, that Jay County should have' a Representative of itself, and alone, because, they say, on account of Its polities. And yet these returns here show that Jay County only gave twenty-five of a epubliosn majority at t .e last election, and it goes Democratic as often as Republican. How, my friends, I have something of their handiwork here in the apportionment act made six years before, I will tell you how they fixed things; they were workmen at this business, they didn’t pretend to give counties fair representation; I just take two specimens to show you; here is the couniyof Clarke and and the eountv of Floyd on the Ohio Rivei, both populous counties; thbir aggregate vote amounts to over 10, ~ 000. At the time this apportionment bill was passed the ratio for Repre® sentative, was a little over 4,000, and the ratio for a Senator was a little over 8,000, double that of a Representative, so you get at it in that way. Now what did they do? They gave Clarke and Floyd one Senator, with a population of over 10,000; 2,000 above the ratio, and they gave them each a Representative. Now when they get up here into Lake and Porter there was a different state of things; Lake County lacked 1,200 of having enough. Porter County lacked 800. They gave Porter and Lake each a Representative, and jointly they gave them a Si nator, although they were 2,000 votes below the Senatorial atio. Now It so turned out, jproba*

b!y it was simj.lv a matter of accident, that Lake aud Porttr gave large Republican majorities, wMlo Clarke aud Floyd gave ;Demoer»iio majorities. Well there is Bartholomew County which had just 48 votes less than Randolph; it didn’t have 5,000, neither did Randolph have 5.» W 0 voters; neither of them had enough for Senatorial representation, yet this bill that the Republicans framed in 1878 gave Randolph a Senato / and denied one to Bartholome ,y While that same curious thing occurred there, Randolph gaye about 12 Republican majority and Barthoiov mew gave about 600 of a Democratic maj rity. But, say the Republican nress an 1 their speakers, why, McDonald is simply trying to show that the Republicans in the past have clone as bad as the Democrats. This bill was so had that Governor Baker would not sign ih It became law without his signature. They are saying that I am simply saying, “You are another.” They are mistaken about that. lam saying that they are one, but that we are not ano sher.