CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



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posed. But the poor unfortunates were not 

 liberated till weeks of time and all the money 

 they could get was spent. I have seen those 

 dragged a long distance who were so poor they 

 either had to walk or club together and go in 

 wagons, camping out on the road at night. 

 My object in speaking of these individual cases 

 and their hardships is to show the importance 

 of having justice administered near the parties 

 interested. Why, the gentleman from Ohio 

 told us of two cases in his State where par- 

 ties had to expend in court costs $300 each in 

 defending themselves against a simple misde- 

 meanor where they were acquitted. 



" Mr. Speaker, unfortunately, the story of 

 the aggressions of the Federal court, backed 

 up by Congressional legislation, does not end 

 even here. There is a glorious privilege for 

 which our fathers fought and died a privilege 

 ' dearer .... than light and life ' to every 

 freeiuan through whose veins Anglo-Saxon 

 blood flows. It is the right of local self- 

 government through an untrammeled ballot. 

 Sacred as is this franchise blood-bought 

 though it was it, too, has been seized by the 

 Federal court and prostrated by the power 

 which Jefferson predicted would be the de- 

 struction of our institutions. Section 2012 of 

 the Revised Statutes, passed in 1871, provides 

 for the appointment of supervisors of elections. 

 By section 2017 they are required 



"To personally inspect, from time to time, and at 

 all times, on the day of election, the manner in which 

 the voting is done, and the way and methods in which 

 the poll-books, registry-lists, and tallies or check- 

 books, ^whether the same arc required by any law of 

 the United States, or any State, territorial, or muni- 

 cipal law, are kept. 



"Section 2021, also passed in 1871, provides 

 for the appointment of special deputy -mar- 

 shals. 



" Section 2022 provides that 



" The marshal and his general deputies, and such 

 special deputies, shall keep the peace, and support and 

 protect the supervisors of election in the discharge of 

 their duties, preserve order at such places of registra- 

 tion and at such polls, prevent fraudulent registration 

 and fraudulent voting thereat, or fraudulent conduct 

 on the part of any officer of election, and immediately, 

 cither at the place of registration or polling-place, or 

 elsewhere, and cither before or after registering or vot- 

 ing, to arrest and take into custody, with or ivithout 

 process, any person who commits, or attempts or offers 

 to commit, any of the acts or offenses prohibited here- 

 in, or who commits any offense against the laws of the 

 United States, etc. 



"Thus it will be seen that a deputy-marshal 

 appointed by a United States court is sent into 

 States to control elections there. He is made 

 the judge of the qualifications of voters and of 

 their good or bad intentions in voting. AVith 

 no higher process than the policeman's club, 

 he may arrest and carry away from the ballot- 

 box an American freeman about to engage in 

 the exercise of the highest political privilege 

 ever bestowed on man. 



" Can these things be and our liberties last ? 

 Can they continue and we be other than slaves? 



Unfortunately, they can not. They are the 

 handwritings upon the wall which require 

 neither a prophet nor the sou of a prophet to 

 interpret, and which tell us that our republi- 

 can institutions are in danger. 



"Under what plea have all these wrongs 

 been perpetrated ? What excuse is given for 

 this subversion of the grand system devised 

 and bequeathed to us by the founders of the 

 republic? It is the same plea under which 

 Napoleon I tore down the Republic and built 

 up the Empire of France. It is the same ex- 

 cuse given by Napoleon III for destroying the 

 liberties of his people and placing upon them 

 monarchy. It is the same under which am- 

 bitious men and tyrants have worked from the 

 downfall of the first republic to the establish- 

 ment of the last despotism. ' Necessity for a 

 strong government.' What is the necessity for 

 a stronger government than we have? It is 

 already, when considered in all its bearings, 

 the most powerful upon which the sun shines. 

 It resisted successfully, when much weaker 

 than it is to-day, the greatest shock to which 

 any free government was ever subjected far 

 greater than can menace it now. When our 

 unfortunate civil war came and scattered the 

 States of the Union, this mighty republic was 

 strong enough to gather them up, replace them 

 in their orbits, and move on the brightest con- 

 stellation in the firmament of nations. And 

 all of this without the post-bellum legislation 

 which I have mentioned. This cry of 'neces- 

 sity for strong government ' is only a subter- 

 fuge. It is the cloak under which are work- 

 ing those who are not content with our form 

 of government. Let us meet it by constitu- 

 tional methods, but firmly, as becomes men. 

 Let us not, after the lightnings of heaven have 

 yielded to our philosophy, permit the tempta- 

 tions of earth to seduce our patriotism. 



" The maelstrom on the coast of Norway is 

 the most celebrated whirlpool of the world. 

 Over an area of more than one hundred and 

 twenty-five square miles the circling flood 

 sweeps. It is known now to be very danger- 

 ous to navigation, and according to ancient 

 mariners whatever came within the compass 

 of this monster of nature whether ship or 

 shark, whether whale or whaler was drawn 

 into the vortex, hurled to the center, and 

 dashed to destruction by the whirling flood. 



" When the student of history looks out on 

 Time's broad ocean, he sees a political mael- 

 strom more dire, more destructive, than that 

 on Norway's stormy coast. It has circled 

 since the first republic rose, and has wrecked 

 and borne down all the free commonwealths 

 of ancient times by drawing them to centrali- 

 zation, despotism, and ruin. 



' Its doom is like the Dead Sea air, 

 And nothing lives that enters there.' 



"There may be seen the wrecks of Rome, 

 of Greece. Strong as they wore when they 

 started toward centralized despotism, they 

 were as powerless to resist as is the straw to 



