Speech #510117328

I deem this a proper place to call the attention of the House to the fact that this law has at times been maladministered. and I will now givean extract from the speechof Senator CARLISLE. formerly amember of this House. made in the Fortysixth Congress. in which he calls attention to the outrageous processes by which this law was administered in the State of New* York. It is not possible for me to devote any considerable time to a recital of the many abuses that have been committed under this law. but I desire to say. what is known to the whole country. that at the Congressional election in 1878 in the city of New York those who controlled and directed this ingenious and oppressive political machinery brought the whole force to bear with crushing effect against a single class of citizens of foreign birth. In May. 1878. the chief supervisor of elections in that city caused one of his clerks or assistants to swear to a single complaint against ninetythree hundred persons of foreign birth. who held certificates of naturalization issued from the supreme courts and superior courts in 1868. and on which they had regularly registered and voted at every election since that time. On this complaint the same supervisor of elections. as the clerk of the United States court. issued five thousand and four warrants. returnable before himself as corn missioner of the United States court. Afterward it seems to have been discovered by the officer that these warrants were illegal by reason of the fact that the complaint contained more than one name. and therenpon they were withdrawn. but Immediately afterward he caused twentyeight hundred more complaints to be made and issued warrants upon them in the same way. Many persons were arrested under this process. and about thirtyfour hundred naturalized citizens. in order to escape from this partisan persecution. actually surrendered their papers. Just a few days before the electibn in November he caused the same clerk or assistant to swear to thirtytwo hundred more com. plaints. They were sworn to in packages"Original packages.I I supposemany of them on the Sunday preceding the election. and during the nightpreceding the election warrants were made out against the persons named in the complaints and placed in the hands of the supervisors of election at the various voting places. to be delivered to the deputy marshals the next morning. in order that they might be executed when the persons named in them appeared.