Senator Hoar relates that he made careful preparation of a bill for holding, under national authority, separate registrations and elections for members of Congress.But when he consulted his party associates in the Senate he found most of them averse to an arrangement which would double the cost of elections and would require citizens to register at different times for federal elections and for state and municipal elections.Senator Hoar thereupon abandoned that bill and prepared another which provided that, upon application to court showing reasonable grounds, the court should appoint officers from both parties to supervise the election.The bill adopted a feature of electoral procedure which in England has had a salutary effect.It was provided that in case of a dispute concerning an election certificate, the circuit court of the United States in which the district was situated should hear the case and should award a certificate entitling the one or other of the contestants to be placed on the clerk's roll and to serve until the House should act on the case.Mr.Hoar stated that the bill "deeply excited the whole country," and went on to say that "some worthy Republican senators became alarmed.
They thought, with a good deal of reason, that it was better to allow existing evils and conditions to be cured by time, and the returning conscience and good sense of the people, rather than have the strife, the result of which must be quite doubtful, which the enactment and enforcement of this law, however moderate and just, would inevitably create." The existence of this attitude of mind made party advocacy of the bill a hopeless undertaking and, though it was favorably reported on August 7, 1890, no further action was taken during that session.At the December session it was taken up for consideration, but after a few days of debate a motion to lay it aside was carried by the Democrats with the assistance of enough Republicans to give them a majority.This was the end of force bills, and during President Cleveland's second term the few remaining statutes giving authority for federal interference in such matters was repealed under the lead of Senator Hill of New York.With the passage of this act, the Republican party leaders for the first time abandoned all purpose of attempting to secure by national legislation the political privileges of the negroes.This determination was announced is the Senate by Mr.Hoar and was assented to by Senator Chandler of New Hampshire, who had been a zealous champion of federal action.According to Mr.Hoar, "no Republican has dissented from it."The facts upon which the force bill was based were so notorious and the bill itself was so moderate in its character that the general indifference of the public seemed to betray moral insensibility and emotional torpor.Much could be said in favor of the bill.This latest assertion of national authority in federal elections involved no new principle.In legalistic complexion the proposed measure was of the same character as previous legislation dealing with this subject, instances of which are the Act of 1842, requiring the election of members of the House by districts, and the Act of 1866, regulating the election of United States Senators.Fraudulent returns in congressional elections have always been a notorious evil, and the partisan way in which they are passed upon is still a gross blemish upon the constitutional system of the United States, and one which is likely never to be removed until the principle of judicial determination of electoral contests has been adopted in this country as it has been in England.The truth of the matter appears to be that the public paid no attention to the merits of the bill.It was viewed simply as a continuation of the radical reconstruction policy, the practical results of which had become intolerable.However great the actual evils of the situation might be, public opinion held that it would be wiser to leave them to be dealt with by state authority than by such incompetent statesmanship as had been common in Washington.Moreover, the man in the street resented the indifference of politicians to all issues save those derived from the Civil War.
Viscount Bryce in his "American Commonwealth," the most complete and penetrating examination of American political conditions written during this period, gives this account of the party situation:
"The great parties are the Republicans and the Democrats.What are their principles, their distinctive tenets, their tendencies?
Which of them is for tariff reform, for the further extension of civil service reform, a spirited foreign policy, for the regulation of railroads and telegraphs by legislation, for changes in the currency, for any other of the twenty issues which one hears discussed in this country as seriously involving its welfare? This is what a European is always asking of intelligent Republicans and intelligent Democrats.He is always asking because he never gets an answer.The replies leave him deeper in perplexity.After some months the truth begins to dawn upon him.
