Bayonets At The Polls

It is a curioua and instructive coinidence which on one and the same day brings us f rom St. Petersburg a vivid picture of the sort of order which alone can be maintained in a great modern nation by the bayonet, and rom Washington the message of an American President insisting that the American people can no longer be rusted to elect their own Represen; p ■ ives fairly, excepting in the presence md under the pressure of a hired miliary forcé commanded by a public servant more or less directly interested in he choice of those Representatives. Tliere is more matter in this for medtation than for miith.' And yet.when we recall the feverish agitation of the iepublicans in Congress and of the lepublican presa duiing the discussion of the repeal which the President has now refused to accept, and their eager questof solid grounds on which to es;ablish a veto of that repeal, it is difficultnot to greet the "objections" actually sent in by Mr. Hayes to Congress witli Homeric laughter. The real issue is as eloar ns the Jaylight. Xot the traditions only oL Englisli rul American Uberty but the pliiin common-sense uf n men mav be safely invoked to decide between C.óngress and the President. Congress afiirms that in a representative government voting must be cariied on by the leoile under the protection of their own local laws and without violence of anv kind or the exhibition of lence. The bayonet of the soldier is as ïnuch out of "place at the polls of a free people as the bludgeon of the rioter. An election which can only be earried on at the point of the bayonet, ceas es to be an election. No votes cast at such an election can be properly calletl votes or counted as votes in the sense in which that word is used by tree inen. The bayoaet raeans coerción, physical or moral, anl there can be nothiag in common be .veen coerción and "The weapon that comes down aa still Ab pnowflakes fall upon the sod, But executea a freemau1 will As lightning does the will of God." Things ave going ill with a republic when it must employ the bayonet to enforce upon any section of Mie people laws made by the repvesentaüves of the people. But how rauch worae when the bayonet must be called in to keep order at the polls while the people are choosing their representatives! In the England of the fetldal ages, when civil authority was administered hv the, Dower of the sword and lenta more cruel and brutal than the rdinary crimes of our ovvn epoch veve tuought necessary to maintai he rights of propevty aiul tlie public afety, tlie Church, representing the lumaner spirit of civilization, mainained the benefit oí etergy and the ight of asylum as ontward and visible issertions of the sanctity of the eecleiastical systeui. If we have reacLed i stage in tíie decadence of our free inititutions at which the writ of the loal magistrate has beconie meaningless .mless there is an armed Federal torce perceptible somewhere, behind it, has the rirtnegone so completely out of us that the polling-place, the fountain liead and source of all power theoretically among us, can no longer be held a sañctuary within the shadow of which upon an election day the citizens of eaoh State may be and feel themselves to be really their own masters, lit to govern theinselves and to choose their own servantsV There are phrases in the document f transmitted yesterday to the House by t the President which seein to ■ cate that, if let't to himself. Mr. t Hayea would shrink from e ing this. He intimates that Ue would c not use Federal bayoneta merely "to c keep the peace at the polls" unless a State asked for such aid. But in other j plir'ases we find unmistakable evidence t that the stalwart tlmmb-screw has s been successfully applied to wring i both from him and from liis Secretary ( of State a virtual abjuration of all that i they learned in the Cambridge Lav 1 School from the illustrious Story about , a representativo govermnent and stitutional liberty. That elections must be absolutely free, that timid , voters must not be induced by the ] ray of Government troops to vote a "Government ticket" against their will - these things were taught both Mr. Hayes and Mr. Evarts in early life. and ghosts of the past evidently haunt them both. Not longer ago than last June Congress enactecl and the President approved a law forbidding the army to be used in any way to execute any law whatever excepting in a case and under circumstances where such ' use "niay be expressly authorized by the Constitution or by act of Congress. ' The poiicy and the principie which underlie that law are intelligible enough, and the President cannot be assumed to be at a loss respecting them. Under the Davenport law deputy marshals are not "expressly" authorized to cali on the army, nor is the President ; and yet Mr. Hayea endeavors in his veto to créate the impression that the repeal ordained in the Army bill which he has just returned to the House, if it becomes a law, will deprive the Execuüve of some power which he now has to enforce the Davenport law. In the Civil Rights bill there are. on the other hand, certain sections, such as 1,9S9, which do empower the President to use the army to enforce a certain judicial process against off enders therein described, and tb6 pending Wil if not vetoed would forbid him to employ troops to execute such a process, or any other judicial process at a voting place but the supervisor and deputy marshal laws do not, we repeat, '"expressly" impart to the President any such power over the army, as any man can see by consulting Ihem, and yet his veto is based on the assertion that the President can now use the army as a posse or otherwise to aid deputy marshals on voting davs. in 1865 the law declared than Fed eral bayoneta should not be used at a voting place for any other than one of two clearly defined pui-poses. In 1870 and in 1871 the law said that certain deputy marshals should attend eacli election for members of Congress and arrest auy person violating in the presence of a deputy marshal any Federal law, with power if necessary to cali on every bystander to aid in the arrest. But in 1878 tlie law also declared that Federal troops should not be deemed or used as such bystanders oras such & ponst, unless the Constitution or some law "expressly" so ordained. All these laws are to be taken and construed together, and we dn not see how it is possible for a conscientious lawyer, such as we hope Mr. Hayes if out of the White House vvould wisli to be eonsidered, t.i aay lluit ünder all of these laws, vvhen taken together, he has now one scintilla of power to use the arm y on a voting day and at a voting place unless there are armetl enemies there or there is a flagrant breach of the peace. - World. - - ■ - ' - The President' veto opens the waywide and eleav, to a popular Democratie victory in 1880. Oongress called uponhim to accept the principie of free andhonest elections uncloudedand uncoerced by the exl.ibition of Federal bayonets at the polls. ïhis piiueiple he refuses to accept under the cover of formal objections for the most part captious, unsound and irrelevant, Let Congress now strip away the cover by its own conservative action and leave the refusal nakeil in all its political defortnity to be jiulged by the people. The principie contended for by Congress shoiild be presented to the President again at once ia a form which shall leave him no choice between a complete acceptance of it and ílat rejection of it. The repeals conlined in the Leglslative Appropriaon bilí also should now be preseutod t once to him seperately. Under no temptation, under no promotion lot Consrpss now adjourn ,'ilhout making all the appropriations ecessary to carry on the Government, tepreseuting the majority of the Lmerican people, Congress must see o it that the wheela of the public adainistration are kept smoothly and teadily in motion ; and if the Presilent of a factious and mischievous ninority, under the guidance of evil lounsellors, insists upon obstructing ivith his veto legislative repeals in larmony with all the great precedents )f the history of freedom, let the issues hat he makes be taken by the Democratie party calmly and fearlessly betore the tribunal of the people in all the States of the Union.- N. Y. World. "The Maiben Assurance Society" is a somewhat singular business institution in Denmark which perhaps might be made to flourish in this i,ry. The nobleman - lor tue assouiation is peculiarly for this el- ■ W soon as a témale child is born to him, enrolla her name In n certain association of noble families, and pays u certain suin, and hereafter a lixed animal amount, to the society. AVhenshe has reached the age of- we believe- twenty-one, she becomes entitled to ;i iixed bicorne and to au elegant suite of apartmente in a large building of the association, with gardens and park about it, inhabited by other young or o'der noble ladies who have thus bekome members. If her father dies in ; er youth, and shedesires it, she has shelter in this building, and at the tixed time her income. When she dies or marries, all this right to income lapses, and the money paid in swells the endowment of the association. lier father may pay for twenty years, and then her marriage cut off all advantage of the insurance. Kut this very chance must enable the company to charge lower annual premiums, and make the buiden less on the father insuring. lie has at any rate the pleasant feeling that lr.s small annual payments are insuring hia daughter's future and giving her i coinfortable home and income after he has gom-. 1 1 is obvious that the cliances tor marriage among k givcn number of women can be ealculated as closely as those of death. The plan has vvorked well for generations m "apartment-house" by the associaion, in some pretty suburb of New fork, would certainly addto the atractiveness of the plan, and would i.ily be a portion of the assets of the ouipany, A single lady, at the death if her rather, or when she was of age vould thus lind herself in possession ofa ileasani, suite of rooms with respectable oinpanions, and in the enjoynient of a mail fixed ineonie. The class who ïow suffer most frotn the convultions f business- single ahd% unprotected ,vomen of well-to-do-faniilies- would hus be sheltered and cared for. Fath;rs who could not apare capital for ;heir daughters could thus devote lome portion of anirual inceme which ,vould secure their future. "We coiunend the Danish plan to our insurmce companies. - iV. Y. Times. Some time back there was intense jxcitement in the streets of Paris, where a constant dropping discharge of tirearms brought hundreds of the inhabitants to discover what had happer.ed. At daybreak a worthy citizen looking out of Lis window, espied au enonnous crocodile in thu middle of the street. Supposing that some proprietor of a menagerie had pei mitted the terrible animal to escape, the prudent burgess took down nis fowling piece, and discharged it at the noxious intruder. He saw the crocodile make a slight movement, but it did not quit the place. At the noise the neighbors also raised their wiudows, and those who had guns also opened fire on the crocodile. The creature appeared to r ceive every shot with a certain shock, but not to be sufiiciently penetrated or pained either to fall or run away. The gendarmes, aroused by the liring, soon appeared on the scène of action. Seeing the creature from a distance, they loaded their carbines and advanced cautiously, in skirinishing order. One of the heroic gendarmes finally walked up almost to the jaws of the crocodile, and exclaimed, "We have killed him already; he does not move!" In f act, the crocodile was dead - had been for some time past. He was stuffed! Many years ago, when Thaddeua Stevens was practising law in Lancaster, Pa., he was employee! to defend two bank office who liad been indicted for eonipiracy, they having used the tunds of the bank in speculation. All the legal talent of Philadelphia and ïUrreuiKÜng counties had been engaged to assist in the prosecution. When the trial was opened Mr. Stevens rose and, addressing the Court, said, "If it pleases your honours, presuming there are différent degress of guilt attached to the prisoners; niy clients, I move they be tried separately." The Judge consulted for a few moments with his associates, who consenting, the motion was gnuited, and so recorded. Waiting some time for Mr. Stevens to go on, the Judge, at last becoming impatient, said, impetuously," l'roceed. Mr. Stevens, proeeed. We are waiting for yon sir." Stevens rose deliberately, and, looking around thecourt-rooin for a moment, said, "Did your honours ever hear of one man being tried for conspiracy V" Then, waving his hand to his clients, he said, "You can go hoine- yon can go home." And they did go home. The jury were discharged, and the Court adjournod.