| Show A PROPER REPEAL The passage of the Federal elections repeal bill by the Senate sounds the knell of those Republican measures which placed the control of elections in the respective states virtually under the authority of the Federal government govern-ment The repeal of the provisions which thus encroached upon states rights is a vindication of the Democratic Demo-cratic doe trine which preserves to the people the electoral rights to which they are entitled under the Constitution Constitu-tion The clause of that instrument under which power was claimed to enact the provisions of law which are to be repealed re-pealed Is in Section IV as follows 1 The times places and manner of holding elections for Senators and Representatives Rep-resentatives shall be prescribed in each state by the legislature thereof but the Congress may at any time by law make or alter such regulations except as to the place of choosing Senators This it will be seen opens the way for a Republican Congress to carry into effect the ideas of that party as to the enlargement of the powers of the general government and practice its theory of centralization The evident purpose of the founders of the nation was to reserve to the states the right to regulate all elections within their respective borders But also to give to the Congress power to make necessary neces-sary changes as to details Viewing the whole tenor and spirit of that instrument in-strument it seems clear that it was not intended that the general government govern-ment should step in and by a horde of its minions so supervise and regulate regu-late elections in states as to overawe and dominate the state election officers of-ficers and take charge of the proceedings pro-ceedings This was made lOssible by the laws passed after the war with a view to controlling elections in the south in the interest of the Republican party According to their own showing however how-ever of late those provisions have utterly failed to effect the end designed design-ed Be that as it may the laws are in violation of the rights reserved to the states under the Constitution and therefore ought of right to be repealed There will no longer be an opportunity opportu-nity for United States marshals with as many deputies as they please to appoint and a horde of supervisors all drawing support from the national treasury interfering in elections and usurping the authority which should be exercised only by officers of state appointment The platform of the Democratic Dem-ocratic party demanded this change and the repeal law is the outcome of the popular outburst against the defeated de-feated Republican force bill |
