are still entertained.
I believe the right of each lawful voter to vote in national
elections should be enforced by the power of the national government
in every state and territory of the Union. I said at this time:

"Now I want to serve notice on the Democratic party, that the
Republican party has resolved upon two things, and it never makes
up its mind upon anything until it is determined to put it through.
_We are going to see that every lawful voter in this country has
a right to vote one honest ballot at every national election, and
no more_. If the Democratic party stands in the way, so much the
worse for the Democratic party. If the south, rebellious as it
is, stands in the way again, we will protect every voter in his
right to vote wherever the constitution gives the right to vote.
Local elections must be regulated by state laws. Southern voters
may cheat each other as they please in local elections. The
Republican party never trenched on the rights of states, and does
not intend to.

"Whenever national officers or Congressmen are elected, those are
national elections, and, under the plain provisions of the
constitution, the nation has the right to protect them. The
Republican party intends, if the present law is not strong enough,
_to make it stronger_. In the south 1,000,000 Republicans are
disfranchised. With the help of Almighty God, we intend to right
that wrong. Congress has a right to regulate congressional elections.
The Tweed frauds, reversing the vote of New York state in 1868,
led to the passage of the first federal election law, breaking up
false counts. Then the Mississippi plan was introduced in the
south.

"If Congress was purged to-day of men elected by fraud and bloodshed
in the south, the Democrats would be in a pitiful minority in the
capital. At the last session the Democrats tried to repeal the
election laws, and were met by veto after veto from the stanch
Republican President. Then they tried to nullify existing laws.
We must as firmly resist nullification now as when Jackson threatened
'by the eternal God' to hang the original nullifier, Calhoun. _We
must have free elections_. We are determined to assert the _supremacy
of the United States in all matters pertaining to the United States_,
and to _enforce the laws of the United States, come what will_."

This declaration of mine at the time created a good deal of criticism,
especially in the New York papers, but, in spit