Soldier vote sponsor cites Civil War plan
Southerners today ignore Confederacy’s example, Congressman claims
By Daniel M. Kidney, Scripps-Howard staff writer
Washington – (Jan. 8)
Although Southern Senators, with three exceptions, noted for the Eastland-McKellar-McClellan substitute which would leave soldier voting to the states, the Worley Bill to let the Army handle the voting and the states count the ballots more nearly matches the manner in which the South handled the problem during the Civil War.
This is the conclusion reached by Rep. Charles M. La Follett (R-IN), who has spent the Congressional recess in research on voting by the Union and Confederate Armies.
Mr. La Follette said:
The fact is that the Union Army was far more insistent on state control of voting than was the Confederate Army.
Soldiers’ rights preserved
Although the South was theoretically fighting for states’ rights, it placed the voting privilege of its soldiers before all else and insisted that no man be disenfranchised because he was in the field.
The Confederate Congress passed laws lying down the method of voting and spelled out the right of the states to do likewise. Whatever voting in the field was done by soldiers from Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas and Arkansas was under the Confederate Congress’ law, these states having passed none. Other states did pass statutes, but in each case Army officers handled the balloting and sent the ballots back to the state for counting.
Southerner leads opposition
Mr. La Follette said:
States without special laws could only vote soldiers for President, Vice President and members of Congress, of course.
He pointed out that the leader of the opposition against the Worley Bill in the House is Rep. John Rankin, who comes from Mississippi.
Mr. La Follette said:
Certainly Southern oppositionists are overstressing the states’-rights issue in this matter. They cannot be more fond of states’ rights than their ancestors, who fought a four-year war to preserve them.