Rensselaer Union, Volume 11, Number 14, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 December 1878 — SENATOR BLAINE. [ARTICLE]

SENATOR BLAINE.

■te lysteh M (he TtoUtUm it Oex■iUmlmml Hfhtt. In tbe Senate, the resolution of I*. quiry as to whether, at the recent elections, the Constitutional rights of American eMzens were violnti-d, was taken up, on the Uth, and Mr. Blaine spoke as follows: . Mb. Pmbidbxt: The pending reflation was offered by me with a two-foM purpose In view: 1. To place on record, In a definite and authentic lonn, the frauds abd outrage* by which Some recent elections were carried by tbe Democratic party In the Southern States. 2. To find If there be any method by which a repetition of these crimes against a free ballot may bo proven ted. The newspaper la tbe channel through which the people of the United States are informed of current events, and tbe accounts' given in the press represent the elections In some of the Southern States to have been accompanied by violence; in not a dew cases reaching the destruction of life; to have been controlled by threats that awed and intimidated a large clast of voters; to have been manipulated by fraud of tbe most shameless and tbameful description. Indeed, In South Carolina there seems to have been no election at all in any proper aenae of the term. There was Instead a series of skirmishes over tbe State In wbich the polling-places were regarded aa forts to be captured by one party and held against the other, and where this could not be done with convenience, frauds In tbe count and tissue-ballot devices were resorted to In order to effectually destroy tbe voice of the majority. The*:, in brief, are the accounts given in the non-partisan press of the disgraceful outrages that attended the recent elections, and, so far a*- I have seen, these statements are without serious contradiction. It la but lust and fair to all parties, however, that an impartial Investigation of the facta shall be made by a committee of tbe Senate, proceeding under the authority of law and representing the power of the Nation. Hence my resolution. But we do not need Investigation to establish certain facts already of official record. We know that one hundred and six Representatives in Congress were recently chosen in tbe States formerly slaveholdlng, and that the Democrats elected one hundred and one, or -possibly one hundred and two, and the Republicans four, or possibly five. We know that thirty-five of these Representatives were assigned to the Southern States by reason of the colored popnlatlon, and that the entire political power thus founded on the numbers of the colored people has been seized and appropriated to the aggrandizement of its own strength by the Democratic party of the South. Tbe issue thus raised before the country, Mr. President, is not one of mere sentiment for tbe rights of the negro—though far distant be the day. when the rights of any American citizen, however black or however pqor, shall lorm the mere dust of the balance io any controversy; nor is the issue one that involves tbe waving of the “bloody shirt,” to quote the elegant- vernacular of Democratic vituperation; nor still further is the Issue as now presented only a question of the equality of the black voter of the South with tbe white voter of the South; the issue, Mr. President, has taken a far wider range, one of portentous magnitude; and that is, whether the white voter of the North shall be equal to the white voter of the South in shaping the policy and fixing the destiny of this country; or whether, to nut it still more baldly, the white man who fought in the ranks of tnc Union Army shall have as weighty and influential a vote in the government of tbe Republic as the white man who fought in tbe fanks of the Rebel Army. The one fought to uphold, and the other to destroy, the Union of the States, and to-day he who fought to destroy is a far more important factor in the government of tbe Nation than he who fought to unhold it.

Let me illustrate my meaning by comparing groups of States of the same representative strength North and South. Take the States of South Carolina, Mississippi and Louisiana. They send- seventeen Representatives to Congress. Their aggregate population is composed of ten hundred and thirty-five thousand whites and twelve hundred and twenty-four thousand colored; the colored being nearly two hundred thousand in excess of the whites. il>f the seventeen Representatives, then, it is evident that - niue were apportioned to these States by reason of their colored population, and only eight by reason of their white population ; and yet in the choice of the entire mventjwn R°pr..|y>ntat.lves the rnlored voters had no more voice or power than their remote kindred on the shores of Senegambia or on the gold coast. The ten hundred and thirtyfive thousand white people had tbe sole and absolute choice of the entire seventeen Representatives. In contrast, take two States in the North, lowa and Wisconsin, with seventeen Representatives. They have a white population of two million two hundred and forty-seven thousand—considerably more than double the entire white population of the three Southern States I have named. In lowa and Wisconsin, therefore, it takes one hundred and thirty-two thousand white population to send a Representative to Congress, but in South Carolina, Mississippi and Louisiana, every sixty thousand white people send a Representative. In other words, sixty thousand white people in those Southern States have precisely the same political power in the government of the country that one hundred , and thirty-two thousand white jieople have in lowa and Wisconsin. Take another group of seveuteen Representatives from the South and from the North. Georgia and Alabama have a white popnlatlon of eleven hundred and fifty-eight thousand, and a colored population of tan hundred and twenty thousand. They send seventeen Representatives to Congress, of whom nine were apportioned on account of the white population. But the colored voters are not-able to choose a single Representative, the white Democrats choosing the whole seventeen. The four Northern States, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska and California, have seventeen Representatives, based on a white population of two and a quarter millions, or almost double the white population of Georgia and Alabama, so that in these relative groups of States we find the white man South exercises, by his vote, doubla the political power of the Whiteman North.

Let us carry the comparison to a more comprehensive generalization. The eleven States that formed the Confederate Government had, by the last census, a population of nine and a half millions, of which, in round numbers, five and a half millions were white and four millions colored. On this aggregate population, seventy-three Representatives In Congress were apportioned to those States—fortytwo or three of which were by reason of tne white popnlatlon, and thirty or thirty-one by reason of the colored population. At the recent election the white- Democracy ol the South seized seventy of the seventy-three districts, and thus secured a Democratic majority in the next Honse of Representatives. Thus it appears that throughout tbe States that formed the late Confederate Government, sixty-five thousand whites—the very people that rebelled against the Union—are enabled to elect a Representative in Congress, while in the loyal States it requires one hundred and thirty-two thousand of the white people that fought for the Union to elect a Representative. In levying every tax, therefore, in making every appropriation of money, in fixing every line of public policy, in decreeing what shall be the fate and fortune of the Republic, the Confederate soldier Bouth is enabled to oast a vote that is twice as powerful and twice as influential as the vote of the Union poidier North. But the white men of the South did not acquire and do not hold this superior power by reason of law or justice, bnt in disregard and defiance of both. The Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution was expected to be and was designed to be a preventive and corrective of ail such possible abuses. The reading of the clause applicable to the case is instructive and suggestive. Hear It: Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective dam ben, counting the whole number of persona in each State, excluding 'lndians not taxed. Bat when the right to vote at any election lor the choice of lueolors fox President and Vice-Presi-dent of the United States, Representative* in Congress, the Executive and Judicial officer* of a State, or the member* of the Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitant* of such State, being twenty-one year* of age, and citizens of the United Staten, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion or other crime, the basts of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which tbe number of anch male citizen* shall bear to the whole number of mala oitbeiu| twenty-one yean of age in such State. The patent, undeniable intent of this provision WMuthat U any class of voters were defied or iff any way abridged in their right of auffrage, then the class so denied or abridged should not be counted in the basis of retiresentation; or, in other words, that no State or States should gain a large increase of representation in Congress by reason of counting any clsss ot population not permitted to take part in electing such Representatives. But the construction given to this provision is, that before any forfeiture of representation can be enforced, the denial or abridgement of suffrage must be the result of a law specially enacted hy the State. Under“OMif construction, every negro voter mar hate his suffrage absolutely denied Or fatally abridged hy th*

violence, actual or threatened, or lrrcepontible mobs, or bjr tree da and deception* of State officer*, from the Governor down to the last election clerk, and then, nnleae torn* State law can be ahown that authorise* the denial or abridKcment, the State escapee all penaltj or parti of reduced reprceentatiou This etm•trnrtkw may be upheld by the courts, ruling on the letter of the law, “which killeth,” bat the spirit of Justice cries aloud against the evasive and atrocious conclusion that deals out oppression to the innocent and shields the guilty from the legitimate consequences of willful transgression. ■ ‘ The colored oltlien Is thus most unhappily situated; his right of suffrage Is but a hollow mockery: it bolds to hla ear the word of promise but bresks It always to bis hope, and he ends only in being made the unwilling Instrument of Increasing the political strength of that party from which he received evertightening fetter* when he was a alare and contemptuous refusal of civil rights since he was made free. He resembles indeed those unhappy captives In the east who, deprived of their birthright, are compelled to yield their strength to the upbuilding of the monarch from whose tyrannies they have most to fear, and to tight against the power from which Slone deliverance might be expected. The franchise Intended for the shield and defense of the negro has been turned sgalnst him and against bis friend* and has vastly increased the power of those from whom be has nothing to hope and everything to dread. The political power thus appropriated by Southern Democrats by reason of the negro population amounts to thirty-five Representatives In Congress. It is massed almost solidly and offsets the great State of New York; or . Pennsylvania and New Jersey together; or the whole of New England; or Ohio and Indiana united; or the combined strength of Illinois, Minnesota, Kansas, California, Nevada, Nebraska, Colorado and Oregon. The seizure of this power IS wanton usurpation; It is flagrant outrage; It is violent perversion of the whole theory of republican government. It inures solely to the present advantage, and yet, I believe, to tne permanent dishonor, of the Democratic party. It is by reason of this trampling down of human rights, this ruthless seizure of unlawful power that the Democratic party holds the popular branch of Congress to-day, and will, In less than ninety days, have control of this body also, thus grasping the entire Legislative Department of the Government through the unlawful capture of the Southern States. If the proscribed vote of the South were cast as its lawful owners desire, the Democratic party could not gain power. Nay, if It were not counted on the other side against the instinct* and the interests, against the principles and the prejudices of its lawful owners. Democratic success would be hopeless. It Is not enough, then, for modern Democratic tactics that the negro vote shall be silenced; the demand goes farther and insists that it shall be counted on their side, that all the Representatives In Congress and all the Presidential Electors apportioned by reason of the negro vote shall be so cast and so governed as to insure Democratic success—regardless of justice, In defiance of law, And this injustice is wholly unprovoked. I doubt If it be In the Dowor of the most searching investigation to show that in any Southern State during the period of Republican control, any legal voter was ever debarred from the freest exercises of his suffrage. Even the revenges which would have leaped into life with many who despised the negro, were burled out of sight with a magnanimity which the “superior race" fall to follow, and seem reluctant to recognize. I know it la said in retort of such charges against the Southern elections as I am now reviewing, that unfairness of equal gravity prevails In Northern elections. I hear It in many quarters and read it in the papers, that in the late exciting elections In Massachusetts Intimidation and bull-dozing, If not so rough and rancorous as in the South, were vet as widespread and effective. I have read, and yet I refuse to believe, that the distinguished gentleman who made an energetic but unsuccessful canvass for the Governorship of thst State, has indorsed and an- . proved these charges, and I have accordingly made m; resolution broad enough to include their thorough investigation. I am not demanding fair elections In the South without demanding fair elections in the North also. But, venturinglo speak for the New England States, of who& laws and customs I know something, I dare assert that in the late election in Massachusetts, or any of her neighboring Commonwealths, it will be impossible to find even one case where a voter was driven from the polls, where a voter did not have the fullest, freest opportunity to cast the ballot of bis choice, and have it honestly and faithfullx counted In the returns. Suffrage on this Continent was first made universal in New England, and In the administration of their affairs the people have found no other appeal necessary than that which is addressed to their honesty of conviction and to..their intelligent self-interest If there be anything different to disclose, I pray you show It to us, that we may amend our ways. But whenever a feeble protest la made against such Injustice as I have described in the South, thb response we get comes to us in the form of a taunt, “ What are you goiDg to do about it?” and “How do you propose to help yourselves?” This is the stereotyped answer of defiance which intrenched wrong qkwavs gives to inquiring justice; and those who imagine it to be conclusive do not know * the temper of the American people. For let me assure you that sgalnst the complicated outrage upon the right of representation late,.ly triumphant In the South, there will be arrayed many phases of public opinion In the North not often hitherto In harmony. Men who have cared little, and affected to care less, for the rights or the wrongs of the negro suddenly find that the vast monetary and commercial interests, great questions of revenue, adjustments of tariff, vast Investments in manufactures, in railways, and in mines, are tinder the control of a Democratic Congress whose majority was obtained by depriving the negro of hla rights under a common Constitution and common laws. Men who have expressed disgust with the waving of bloody shirts and have been offended with talk about negro equality are beginning to perceive that the pending question of to-day relates more pressingly to the equality of white men under thjs Government, and that however careless they may be about the rights or the wrongs of the negro, they are very jealous and tenacious about the rights of their own race and the dignity of their own firesides and their own kindred.

I know something of public opinion In the North. I know a great deal about the views, wishes and purposes of the Republican party of the Nation. Within that entire great organization there Is not one man, whose opinion is entitled to be quoted, that does not desire peace and harmony, and friendship, and a Satriotfc and fraternal Union between the forth and the South. This wish is spontaneous, instinctive, universal, throughout the Northern States; and yet, among men of character and sense, there is surely no need of attempting to deceive ourselves as to the precise truth. First pure, then peaceable. Gush will not remove a grievance, and no disguise .of State Rights will elose the eyes of our people to the necessity of correcting a great National wrong. Nor shonld the South make the fatal mistake of concluding that injustice to the negro is not also injustice to the white man; nor should it ever be forgotten that for the wrongs of both a remedy will assuredly be found. The war, with all Us costly sacrifices, was fought in vain unless equal rights for all classes be established in all the States of the Union; and now, in words which are those of friendship, however differently they may be accented, I tell the men of the Sooth here on this floor and beyond this chamber, that even if they could strip the negro of his Constitutional rights, they can nevo((j permanently maintain the inrquility of white men in this Nation; thev can never make a white man’s vote in the South doubly as powerful in the administration of the Government as a white man’s vote In the North. In a memorable debate inthe House of Com--1 mons, Mr. Macaulay reminded Daniel O’Connell, when he was moving for repeal, that the •English Whigs had endured calumny, abuse, popular fury, loss of position, exclusion from Parlmient rather than the great agitator himself should b? less than a British subject; and Mr. Macaulay warned him that they would never suffer him to be raonj. Let me now remind you that, the Government under whose protecting flag we sit to-dav sacrificed myriads of lives and expended thousands of millions of treasure that our countrymen of the South should remain citizens of the United mares,“Mm* TSJUH —personal- rights and equal political prtveleges with all .other citizens- And I venture, HOW and here, to warn the men of the South, In the exact words of Macaulay, that we will never suffer thorn to . be more! *• f —A globe, purchased four years ago by the Trustee of a school ilistrict of dochecton, Sullivan County, N. Y. r has ever since been a bone of content tion among the people of the some of whom objected (dost decidedly to the introduction of gled arrangements.” The matter oalinitiated at the annual school meeting this year, when they took the globe outdoors wd stoned Hto pieces, .. I . J -u. ; * " - ' l-\ I *