Embedded Files
Compelling Policy Question:
Compelling Policy Question:
What should be the goal of policies regulating voting rights during elections?
Policy Case Study:
Policy Case Study:
H. R. 11045 to amend and supplement the election laws of the United States (modified/link to original)
H. R. 11045 to amend and supplement the election laws of the United States (modified/link to original)
The chief elections supervisor shall supervise elections for Congress. The chief supervisor of elections will supervise any Congressional election in a district where he receives an application from one hundred voters, petitioning for supervision.
Sec. 5 The chief supervisor will select three people of different political faiths to supervise elections in any petitioning district.
Sec. 8 The supervisors shall attend all registrations of voters, personally inspect any registration system, judge the qualifications of voters whose votes have been challenged, inspect on election day ballots and ballot boxes, to make on election day a list of all voters, and a list of rejected voters, and the reasons for their rejection. To make a house-to-house canvass of the election district to find the qualifications as a voter of every male person.
Sec. 35 Any election official who fails to perform any of his duties, or who shall practice any fraud, or place in any ballot-box any illegal ballot, or remove from any ballot-box a legal ballot, shall be punished by fine, or by imprisonment, or by both.
Sec. 36. Any person who shall bribe, or offer to bribe any voter at any election for member of Congress, and any voter who accepts any bribe, and any person who shall bribe, or offer to bribe, any election officer to do any unlawful act to affect such election, shall be punished by fine, or by imprisonment, or by both.
Sec. 40. If at any registration of voters for an election for Congress, any person shall fraudulently register; or by force, threat, bribery, or other unlawful means prevent any person who has a lawful right to register to vote; or who shall knowingly, willfully, or fraudulently compel or attempt or offer to compel, by any unlawful means, any supervisor, or election officer to register any person not lawfully entitled to registration; or shall interfere with any election officer in his duties, or shall aid, or advise any voter, person, or election official to do any illegal act shall be guilty of a felony, and shall be punished by imprisonment.
Sec. 41. That if at any election for a Representative of Congress, any person falsely votes, or attempts to vote under the name of any other person, whether living or dead, or votes more than once, or by force, threat, intimidation, bribery, or reward, or unlawfully influence, or attempt to influence, any voter, or prevent any qualified voter from freely exercising the right of suffrage, shall be guilty of a felony, and be punished by imprisonment.
Sec. 43. If, at any election for Congress, any election officer excludes any legal vote, or shall receive a vote from a person not a qualified voter, such inspector or officer shall be guilty of a felony.
Sec. 53. If, at any registration of voters for an election for Congress, or on any election day for a member of Congress, any person shall cause any breach of the peace, disorderly violence, or threats of violence, causing the registration, election, or canvass, to be impeded or hindered, the person shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and shall be imprisoned, or fined, or both.
Context of H.R. 11045
Context of H.R. 11045
1787 United States Constitution adopted. States are given the power to regulate their own voting laws. Voting remains in the hands of white male landowners.
1848 Women’s rights convention held in Seneca Falls, New York. Frederick Douglass, a newspaper editor and former slave, gives a speech supporting universal voting rights.
1866 The Civil Rights Act of 1866 gives “full and equal benefit of all laws and proceedings for the security of person and property.”
1865-1877- “Reconstruction” Following the end of the Civil War, the Federal Gov. brings the former Confederate States back into the Union. The Federal Government passed laws to protect the rights of the freed slaves. Many former slaves were elected to Congress. Violence against the freeman gave rise to groups such as the KKK.
1870 15th Amendment passed. The right to vote cannot be denied by the federal or state governments based on race.
1870 The Enforcement Act of 1870 - Congress passed this law to “Enforce” the 15th Amendment, thereby protecting the freedmen’s right to vote. Gave the President the power to use the military to execute the law.
1871 The Enforcement Act of 1870 - Congress created Federal supervision over elections and electoral registration when two people from the district request it.
1875: Supreme court ruling United States v. Reese, decides one section of the “Enforcement” Act of 1870 is not justified by the 15th Amendment. This made it possible for States to disenfranchise people through poll taxes, literacy tests, etc.
1876- The Republican Party’s platform said that the government has a “obligation” to use “all their constitutional powers for securing to every American citizen complete liberty and exact equality in the exercise of all civil, political, and public rights.”
1877 Reconstruction Ends after the Compromise of 1877. After the 1876 Election between Democrat Tilden and Republican Hayes is disputed. Democrats give Hayes the Presidency in exchange for removal of Federal Troops from Louisiana, South Carolina, and Florida, which had the only remaining Reconstruction Governments.
1889 John Sherman’s bill for federal control over national elections does not pass.
1890 Representative Henry Cabot Lodge and Senator George Hoar create the Federal Elections Bill, H.R. 11045. It does not pass.
1891-1892 A few Republicans in Congress push for another vote on H.R. 10045
Mr. Speaker, this bill works to secure fair elections for Congress. To the honest voter this bill offers no interference, but only protection in his rights. To the honest political party it has no terrors. But to the man or the party who seeks to do wrong and to profit by fraud, corruption, or violence, it brings punishment.
Southern elections are either fair, or they are not. If all is right in elections in the South this law hurts no one. If in the South elections are unfair then the United States should stop that evil.
In the North the frauds and wrongs in elections are simply an effort of one party to get ahead of another. In Southern elections the question which controls the issue is the question of race.
The Government which made the black man a citizen must protect his rights, and it is a cowardly Government if it does not!
The United States must extend to every citizen equal rights. Let us do our duty to every American citizen no matter what his creed or color, no matter whether he is weak or strong, rich or poor. Let us secure to all men the freedom which is the cornerstone of our Government. I wish men to be free as much from mobs and kings; as free from you and me.
If fraud and violence exist they must really be stopped. Congress has the power, and the duty, to legislate to solve the problem.
In 1891, a Republican from Virginia named John Mercer Langston gave a speech to Congress on Elections Bill, in which he said...
In 1891, a Republican from Virginia named John Mercer Langston gave a speech to Congress on Elections Bill, in which he said...
Born free in Virginia, Langston was moved, but eventually returned to Virginia. After a disputed election he was awarded his seat in Congress after the session had started. This was his first full speech in Congress. His Biography
[H]ow can we make our land and our Government great …[unless] we plant ourselves as a nation on those fundamental ... principles underlying all democracies ...?
….
[H]ere is the … Constitution, which we have amended… [so there] might be no mistake as to the question of whether a black man might be free or slave …. [H]e is an American, and the law must protect him in that character.
...
[T]he question presented to-day under our amended Constitution …. is, shall every freeman, shall every American citizen …. everywhere in the country, be permitted to wield a free ballot in the interests of our common country and our free institutions?
….
[T]he negro race of this country …. [is] living on the continent as a part of a great nation. God is with us; the people are with us, and we are with you …. to wield the ballot, the free ballot, given to us by the Government that we defended in its possession, and we will wield it to make our country great …. to realize the glory and distinction which the fathers knew this country would attain in the future; and to no end may God help us.
Julius C. Chappelle, Speech at Faneuil Hall, The New Age, 1890 (modified)
Julius C. Chappelle, Speech at Faneuil Hall, The New Age, 1890 (modified)
Chappelle was born into slavery in Florida, then after the Civil war moved to Massachusetts. He was a member of Massachusetts state Senate. Faneuil Hall, is a marketplace in Boston where many speeches were made, including a speech by Samuel Adams encouraging independence from Britain.
We have meet here tonight to endorse the Federal Elections bill, now pending in the Senate of the United States. I regret the need for this meeting, since the principles of this bill were placed upon the Republican platform when we nominated our present President , and who, in this message to Congress, recommended the principles of such a measure.
We hear through the Independent and Democratic press that there is a sufficient number of weak kneed Republicans to defeat the passage of this bill. I am pleased to find so many of our leading businessmen willing to support it.
These same independent papers seem to be in direct opposition to anything that will tend to give the Negro a fair chance. In the days of slavery, they were opposed to freedom and are now opposed to our obtaining our rights.
This bill should have passed 25 years ago. We would not have been subjected to the treatment received now. The North and South have always had trouble and will continue to do so until every man has his rights. The vote of the Negro must be counted with as much honesty in South Carolina as any white man's in Massachusetts.
Frederick Douglass, "I Denounce the So-Called Emancipation as a Stupendous Fraud" 1888 (modified/link to original)
Frederick Douglass, "I Denounce the So-Called Emancipation as a Stupendous Fraud" 1888 (modified/link to original)
Douglass was an escaped slave, and an Abolitionist leader. He advised many politicians, including President Lincoln.
The chief cause of anxiety is the deplorable condition of the Negro in the Southern states. At no time since the abolition of slavery has there been more cause for alarm than right now.
In ways the Negro is worse off than when he was a slave, but the fault is not his. He is the victim of a cunningly devised swindle. I denounce his so-called emancipation as a stupendous fraud.
I know it is said that the general government is a government of limited powers. If the general government had the power to make black men citizens, it has the power to protect them in that citizenship. If it had the right to make them voters it has the right to protect them in the exercise of the elective franchise. If it has this right, and refuses to exercise it, it is a traitor to the citizen.
The Republican Party must make the path of the black citizen to the ballot box as safe and smooth as that of the white citizen. The party must stamp out the fraud, injustice and violence which make elections in the South a disgrace and scandal to the Republic.
My mission now is to hasten the day when the principles of liberty and humanity expressed in the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States shall be the law and the practice of every section, and of all the people of this great country without regard to race, sex, color or religion.
This bill ought to be passed. This bill may not be perfect, but it is working for honest representation in Congress, and honest voting and the fair counting of votes in every part of America.
No honest man can object to this bill, and no lover of fairness can afford to oppose it. It is said that this measure is harsh. It will rest heavily only the places which violate the Constitution. Let every citizen of this Republic vote, and then see to it that his vote is counted as it is cast.
Honest elections will make the law unnecessary; dishonest ones should be stopped by the strong arm of the law.
The American people will not sleep peacefully until this great constitutional right—the equality of suffrage—is a living birthright which the poorest and the humblest citizen, white or black, native-born or naturalized, may confidently enjoy, and which the richest and most powerful dare not deny.
Remember that God will not help that nation which will not protect and defend its weakest citizens. It is our supreme duty to enforce the Constitution and laws of the United States and dare to be strong for the weak.
Mr. Speaker, there is no more vital question confronting the American people than that which concerns honest elections.
It is the conviction that all the people have a voice in selecting legislative and executive officers; the conviction that every man, however high or however low, counts at the ballot-box, that this is “a Government of the people, by the people, and for the people”.
If crimes against the purity of the ballot-box do exist and the people of the State or the cities are either unable or unwilling to stop them, then it is the duty of the Federal Government to use the powers found in the Federal Constitution to correct the wrong.
In the North it is believed that the black vote of the Southern States is suppressed. It is everywhere believed that the fifteenth amendment to the Constitution of the United States is nullified. Now, if that belief is not true, this bill to show that fact. It is one of the purposes of this bill to secure everywhere to every man who desires it and is qualified the right to cast his ballot and have it counted; and in using the term “every man” I mean every man, no matter where he lives or what his color may be.
The black men of this country must be provided with the weapon of self protection—the same weapon put back into the hands of their former masters—the ballot of the freeman.
In 1888 the Republican Presidential nominee was Benjamin Harrison, and the Vice President nominee was Levi P. Morton. The below image is a campaign poster showing the nominees and the text of the platform between them.
The Republicans of the United States assembled by their delegates in National Convention, pause on the threshold of their proceedings to honor the memory of their first great leader—the immortal champion of liberty and the rights of the people—Abraham Lincoln.
We are devoted to the National Constitution and the indissoluble Union of the States; to the autonomy reserved to the States under the Constitution; to the personal rights and liberties of citizens in all the States and Territories of the Union, and especially to the supreme and sovereign right of every lawful citizen, rich or poor, native or foreign born, white or black, to cast one free ballot in public elections, and to have that ballot duly counted.
The free and honest popular ballot and the just and equal representation of all the people are the foundation of our Republican government. We demand effective legislation to secure the integrity and purity of elections, which are the fountains of all public authority. We charge that the present Administration and the Democratic majority in Congress owe their existence to the suppression of the ballot by a criminal nullification of the Constitution and laws of the United States.
When, in the plans of Heaven, this land was to be purged of human slavery, the Republican party came into power. With high aims for our country and mankind, we, the representatives of the party, make the following declaration of principles:—
1. The United States of America is a nation, not a league. By the combined workings of the national and state governments, under their respective constitutions, the rights of every citizen are secured at home and abroad, and the common welfare promoted.
2. The Republican party believes that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Until these truths are cheerfully obeyed, and if need be, enforced, the work of the Republican party is unfinished.
3. The permanent pacification of the Southern section of the Union and the complete protection of all its citizens in the free enjoyment of all their rights, are duties to which the Republican party is sacredly pledged. We declare it to be the obligation of the legislative and executive departments of the government to use all their constitutional powers for removing any just causes of discontent on the part of any class, and securing to every American citizen complete liberty and exact equality in the exercise of all civil, political, and public rights.
It is twenty years since the Republican Convention nominated Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln has gone to his rest.
The Democratic party is ruled by the South. Today the Democratic party wages war against the protections which the Nation has thrown around the purity of its elections. It sees nothing else as evil except a freeman casting a free vote under the protection of the National authority.
In Louisiana and Mississippi it is the accomplice of the White League and the Ku-KIux-Klan. In South Carolina it stuffs ballot boxes. In New York it issues fraudulent naturalization papers. Can you find in the history of the Democratic party for sixteen years anything that it has either done or tried to do, except to break down the legal protections which make free elections possible?
My friends, the Republican party has no such miserable history. It tells you of rebellion subdued; of slaves freed; of a flag honored and respected. The key of every Republican principle is respect for the dignity of the individual man. The Republic lives, the Republican party lives, to make sure every man within our borders lives safely in a happy home, may cast and have counted his equal vote. Until this is true, the mission of our party is not accomplished, nor is its conflict with its ancient opponent ended.
The 1888 Republican Platform resolved to protect the Constitution and the “rights and liberties of citizens, especially the supreme right of every lawful citizen, rich or poor, native or foreign born, white or black, to cast one free ballot in public elections and to have that ballot duly counted.” Another resolution demand “ legislation to secure integrity and purity of elections.”
It is impossible to think that any man who understood the Elections bill could oppose it unless he desired the continuance of fraud or of violence in elections.
The Republican Party had promised to do its best to secure honest elections. Its mission will not be accomplished until that promise has been kept. Currently the Fifteenth Amendment, and the parts of the Fourteenth about suffrage, are absolutely nullified.
While the suffrage is violated no interest of the country is safe. If injustice lies at the foundation of our political power, justice will not long be found anywhere. The peaceful remedy which has just been defeated would have saved many a disaster. The blame for the defeat of this bill will fall most heavily on the men who, out of blindness, or indifference, or cowardice, voted against the bill.
It is hoped in 1892, a new appeal shall be made to the American people, and they will throw off the nightmare which oppresses them.
The magazine "Judge" published Victor Gillam's cartoon "Acknowledging the Truth" in 1891.
The magazine "Judge" published Victor Gillam's cartoon "Acknowledging the Truth" in 1891.
Columbia rests her hand on the “Federal Election Bill”, which says “Providing for A Free and Fair Vote in Federal Elections”
Text below cartoon:
Columbia - “Gentlemen, why do you object to this measure? It merely insures honest Federal Elections”
Democratic leaders- “That is just what we don’t want and will not permit!”
Grant Hamilton, The Political Pinkertons, Judge Magazine, 1892
Grant Hamilton, The Political Pinkertons, Judge Magazine, 1892
Text under the cartoon: The Northern press is unanimous in condemnation of the employment of Pinkertons against labor in the North, but who hears a word of protest from the Southern press against this band of organized bulldozers and murderers that sacrifices thousands of lives every year?
Posters on the wall read; "vote inside. No Negro votes taken. The Constitution Gives the Negro the Right to Vote - but What Care We for the Constitution - Voting Done inside by whites only K.K.K."
A. B. Frost, “Of Course He Wants to Vote the Democratic Ticket”, Harper's Weekly, 1876.
A. B. Frost, “Of Course He Wants to Vote the Democratic Ticket”, Harper's Weekly, 1876.
Text under the cartoon:
Democratic "Reformer." "You're as free as air, ain't you? Say you are, or I'll blow yer black head off!"
Text in the box in the lower left corner; "the negroes of the South are free-free as air," says the parliamentary Waterson. This is what the State, a well-known democratic organ of Tennessee, says, in huge capitals, on the subject: Let it be known before the election that the farmers have agreed to spot every leading Radical negro in the county, and treat him as an enemy for all time to come. The rotten ring must and shall be broken at any and all costs. The Democrats have determined to withdraw all employment from their enemies. Let this fact be known."
James Albert Wales, "Everything points to a Democratic victory this fall - Southern Papers" Harper’s Weekly, 1874.
James Albert Wales, "Everything points to a Democratic victory this fall - Southern Papers" Harper’s Weekly, 1874.
"A Leaf from the record of Quays Public Service", Philadelphia Press, April 23, 1892
"A Leaf from the record of Quays Public Service", Philadelphia Press, April 23, 1892
Section Two - Guiding Question, Why do people oppose changing laws to make it easier for people to vote?
Section Two - Guiding Question, Why do people oppose changing laws to make it easier for people to vote?
This bill will place the election of members of Congress under the control of the United States Government. It will control the election not only of members of Congress, but of State and county officers, and eventually it will control the election of the President.
This bill is a scheme to rob the people of the States of the dearest right of American citizenship.
Now, gentlemen, I believe, the colored man has his rights in full. He has as many rights as I have, and I concede them all to him, but he can not have his rights and mine, too, and this law is intended to put him again in control of the government of the Southern States. This bill will arouse the hatred of both races toward each other, to set the negro and white man at each other's throats.
To fraud or violence we will not resort, but every lawful means that can be suggested consistent with honor we will use to preserve our civilization and our prosperity and our freedom. We can only appeal to the good people of this country to give us that fair treatment which they, under like circumstances, would demand at the hands of the Government to which we all pay taxes, which we all support, and whose common flag we all love.
A. W. Shaffer, A Southern Republican on the Lodge Bill, The North American Review, 1890 (modified/link to original)
A. W. Shaffer, A Southern Republican on the Lodge Bill, The North American Review, 1890 (modified/link to original)
Shaffer was the Chief Supervisor of Elections in North Carolina.
Southern Republicanism is opposed to the Lodge Bill, because it is full of quackery and malpractice. Congress must fix this or fraud and violence will go on forever.
The primary cause of the lack of adaptation of the Lodge Bill to the South, lies in the difficulty of obtaining good supervisors. There are not enough white Republicans to supervise the polls, and it would be cruel to appoint colored supervisors there.
The bill contains three weaknesses which will be fatal to it.
First—The people who might have the courage to ask for national supervision will be fortunate if they do not lose their lives
Second—The bill does not pay the officials enough.
Third— Many of the grand juries are full of Democrats, who will sympathize with the criminals. No testimony can convince such a jury that election fraud was committed.
The people in the South have realized that their opinions are not asked for, nor accepted, by those making laws. When they asked for a national system of Congressional elections they received this law, valuable only for the spoilsman, and reeking with fraud, violence, and blood, because both threatening and impotent.
Who shall judge these badly-treated Southerners if, in the bitterness of deferred hope and violated promises, they cry aloud for deliverance from these their friends?
Resolutions Adopted at a Meeting of Colored Citizens of Birmingham, Alabama, August 15, 1890, Remonstrating Against the Passage of the Lodge Federal Election Bill (modified/link to original)
Resolutions Adopted at a Meeting of Colored Citizens of Birmingham, Alabama, August 15, 1890, Remonstrating Against the Passage of the Lodge Federal Election Bill (modified/link to original)
To the Honorable Senate of the United States,
The colored people of Birmingham, Ala., in, mass meeting on the 15th of August, 1890, adopted the following resolutions protesting against the passage of the "Lodge Federal Election bill,":
Whereas this proposed system is full of loopholes in favor of the political party in power, and against all others in opposition, allowing the political party in charge of the Federal Government to always count itself "in", and keep "out"the other;
Whereas this bill, if passed, would defeat the will of the people at the polls and destroy the fundamental principle of our republican form of government; and
Whereas its passage would do more than anything else to destroy the friendly relations between the two races of the South, by inciting race riots and bloodshed, of which the weaker race (colored) would be the sufferers: Therefore, be it
Resolved, That we, the colored people of Birmingham, Ala., do hereby enter our solemn protest against the passage of the bill.
Resolved, That we call upon all race-loving negroes, both north and south, to do all they can against its passage.
Dear Sir, in education you are the superior to your fellow-congressmen. There is no excuse for you to act ignorant. Yet you are the sponsor of a bill which even the most ignorant of your colleagues would hesitate to support — a bill so outrageous that a Congress controlled by the most desperate majority that your party has ever known gags at it.
Why have you introduced a bill that is an insult not only to every state in the Union, but to our constitutional system?
None of the men who framed our Constitution ever thought of federal interference in state elections. Interference of the national government with the citizen produces unpleasant friction. Is there any way on earth you could more anger the citizens of any state, than by sending Federal supervisors and Federal troops to oversee state elections? How long would you stand that in Boston?
You didn't mean it for Boston? No, indeed, you did not. You meant it only for the Southern states that return Democratic majorities. You believe that every negro in the South desires to vote for the Republican party, and that most of them are prevented from voting by gangs of armed Democrats. This isn’t anything more than just a story.
Mr. Speaker, I do not favor the proposed legislation.
I admit that the events in certain parts of this country would seem to justify the passage of this bill, and I would vote for it if I was convinced that it would bring about fair elections.
I have no doubt that frauds are committed in both the North and the South. It would, however, be wiser in my opinion to let the people in those States regulate their own elections.
Time, and education of the masses will bring about the same result, and when finished the change will be permanent.
This bill will force upon the people of a district the supervision of election which may be obnoxious to them.
While party supporters might like this bill, independent voters might think it was done only to help the party in power.
I have great faith in the people of the United States. I believe that self-government is not a failure. I believe that where frauds have been committed in election matters public opinion will lead to the punishment of the law-breakers.
I consider it unwise to enact this law. I believe its results will not be beneficial to the people of the country, and, speaking as a Republican, not beneficial to the Republican party. I shall, therefore, vote against it.
Henry St. George Tucker III (D)Virginia, Speech to Congress on H.R. 11045, 1890 (modified/link to original)
Henry St. George Tucker III (D)Virginia, Speech to Congress on H.R. 11045, 1890 (modified/link to original)
Henry’s father John R. Tucker was a plantation owner. He was Attorney General of Virginia during the Civil War, but after being given a pardon after the war he went on to represent Virginia in Congress (1875-1887) Henry St. George Tucker III's biography
If I were a lawyer asked to defend this bill I could not do it, for I think it is neither legal nor equitable. I would say it is against the Constitution of the land. This is a Government of limited powers. Unless a bill is clearly Constitutional, it is the sworn duty of every member of this House to vote against it.
Wherever a bill infringes upon the rights of a State, we must stop. The intent of the framers was that Federal and State powers should be separate. The Federal Government is supreme, but limited by Article X of the Constitution which reserved certain powers to the States.
What we ask for, what the States ask for, is that they may be left to determine for themselves what is best under the Constitution for themselves. Confusion, and chaos will result, and the States will become victims of Federal control.
This bill is to be a sectional one, whose operation is to be chiefly against the interests of the Southern people.
I only ask that this House will do no act that will disturb the harmony of the State and the Federal Governments, that beautiful system which when kept in its perfect symmetry is the admiration of the world, but when jostled or gotten out of gear will work destruction to the people : whose welfare it was intended.
The Wyoming County Times Newspaper published an article titled, "Meaning of the Force Bill; A Mighty Argument Against a Most Dangerous Measure" on July 24, 1890. That article said...
The Wyoming County Times Newspaper published an article titled, "Meaning of the Force Bill; A Mighty Argument Against a Most Dangerous Measure" on July 24, 1890. That article said...
The Federal Elections bill gives to Republican Federal officers the control of all elections. It takes from the States a right, reserved to them in the Constitution. It is a partisan measure, and the assertion that it is to secure full and free elections is a lie.
How intensely partisan it is, is shown by the fact that the bill will start by the coming fall election. The chief supervisors are to be appointed for life. Therefore elections will be controlled by Republicans for many years. The motive of the bill is bad.
It is intended to control in Washington the reelection of Congressmen. The business of choosing their representatives is to be taken from the people.
The election supervisors’ house-to-house canvass will allow Republican campaign workers to spy on the people. The supervisors may use the army in this evil work.
A chief supervisor may place deputies and military troops at any place where he says that he expects a breach of the peace.
The Republican party will use this bill to take supreme control of all elections, State as well as Federal.
Terence V. Powderly, The Federal Elections Bill, North American Review, 1890 (modified/link to original)
Terence V. Powderly, The Federal Elections Bill, North American Review, 1890 (modified/link to original)
Powderly was the leader of the union the Knights of Labor
The politician sees no harm to staying in office, even if the liberties of the people are placed in jeopardy through his methods.
I do not object to the bill because it favors the Republicans or militates against the Democrats. My opinion, and I may be wrong, is that this bill is dangerous to our republican form of government.
The framers of the bill do not deny that it was made because of the intimidation of the negro voters of the South. There is no doubt those citizens were deprived of their rights. But in Rhode Island only citizens who have paid a minimum tax can vote. Poverty, while not depriving a man of his brain, had taken away his right of suffrage. In other Northern states employers threaten to fire workers if they vote against the wishes of their employer.
The problems with elections do not lie with the people, and their rights should not be abridged. There is not one man in Congress today who can truthfully say that during his election he did not resort to some mean act in order to get votes or to prevent losing them. Politicians are the ones who corrupt the voters.
Illiteracy is the cause of this bill: hence the need for legislation to end illiteracy. The Democrats of the South will deprive the negro of his political rights if they can; the Republicans of the North will do the same to the white workmen if they can. The only thing that will prevent these wrongs is the education of the citizens, North and South, white and black.
C.J. Taylor's cartoon, "Base and Unpatriotic", was published by Puck Magazine in 1890.
C.J. Taylor's cartoon, "Base and Unpatriotic", was published by Puck Magazine in 1890.
Text under cartoon:
"It will fan into life the smouldering embers of the race question, which time and education are gradually extinguishing." - Protest of New York Business-Men against the Lodge Force Bill
Harper's Weekly published a cartoon by Thomas Nast titled "A Federal Bayonet and Saber Lodge Porcupine" in 1892.
Harper's Weekly published a cartoon by Thomas Nast titled "A Federal Bayonet and Saber Lodge Porcupine" in 1892.
Library of Congress summary
Victor Gilliam, A Silly Bugaboo, Judge Magazine, 1892
Victor Gilliam, A Silly Bugaboo, Judge Magazine, 1892
Harp Week's explanation of the cartoon
Joseph Keppler, Consistency, Puck magazine, 1891
Joseph Keppler, Consistency, Puck magazine, 1891
Library of Congress Summary Labels on Containers: 1: “Clocks” 2: “Cooking Utensils” 3: “Rum” 4: “$”
Mr. Harrison goes shooting and fishing, 1888
Mr. Harrison goes shooting and fishing, 1888
Library of Congress Summary: Cartoon showing Harrison in boat trying to shoot ducks "voters" with musket "force bill" and catch fish labeled "voters".
What happened to H.R.11045?
What happened to H.R.11045?
H.R.11045, known then as the “Lodge Force Bill”, was never made into law.
While many believe protecting elections was important, they feared the bill was an overuse of Federal Power.
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