156 



CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



freedom of one subject to the highway rob- 

 ber, subject to the black-mailer, subject to the 

 torture of inquisition. The call of the roll in 

 a sense brings with it an insult, because it asks 

 me to vote upon brass and clay, and silver and 

 gold, all mingled in one image. No legislative 

 body has a right to bring a member to that 

 emergency. 



"Now, as to the provision concerning the 

 marshals, of which I hope I shall speak still 

 more briefly. The Committee on Appropria- 

 tions decided to make it an independent bill, 

 which was rightly done. It is now proposed 

 to put it on this appropriation bill, which is 

 wrongly done. There is due marshals and 

 special deputies in California some $7,500 for 

 labor under the election laws. The supervisors 

 of elections are paid out of the Treasury un- 

 der a permanent statute. This is not a matter 

 of discretion with us, whether or not we will 

 incur indebtedness of this sort. While the 

 statute stands, any two reputable citizens ap- 

 plying to the marshal have the right to demand 

 that special deputies be appointed, and the 

 marshal is imperatively directed by law to ap- 

 point those special deputies, whose very wise 

 and proper duties are very carefully pointed 

 out in the statute, and whose compensation is 

 fixed. The indebtedness, therefore, may be 

 incurred at any time by the marshal and two 

 reputable citizens, without waiting for a spe- 

 cific appropriation. To refuse to pay it is to re- 

 fuse to pay a lawful debt of the United States, 

 and that is what is proposed in this instance. 



" The gentleman from Ohio [Mr. McMahon], 

 of the Committee on Appropriations, says that 

 the majority of this House will appropriate 

 nothing for special deputies, supervisors, or 

 anything of that sort, and will not do so while 

 the election law exists. I call upon this House 

 and upon the country to properly stigmatize 

 the character of that declaration. If the ma- 

 jority had in the first place brought before us 

 a bill repealing or modifying the election laws, 

 I could listen with more charity. I hold it to 

 be their first duty, before adopting this policy, 

 even if they are ever justifiable in doing so, to 

 show us how far they desire to modify the 

 election laws, or whether they desire to en- 

 tirely repeal them. They have not done that. 

 In fact, by leaving in some of the appropria- 

 tion bills provisions relating to supervisors, 

 last summer, they admitted the propriety of 

 the law, or at least they declined to put them- 

 selves in square opposition to it by supporting 

 a bill repealing it. 



" It appears, then, that they declare positively 

 that they will not afford the necessary means 

 for executing laws which they do not like. 

 Now General Grant's doctrine is very much 

 better ; that the best way to bring about the 

 repeal of an obnoxious law is to enforce it. I 

 do not say that in some great revolutionary 

 crisis Congress might not declare that it would 

 not appropriate money to carry out existing 

 law. But if it be the deliberate judgment of 



the Democracy that the laws protecting elec- 

 tions are of the description that justify revo- 

 lutionary measures, I shall be glad to have the 

 declaration frankly made, so that the country 

 may understand it. 



f ' k The Constitution of the United States pro- 

 vides very clearly that 



" The times, places, and manner of holding elections 

 for Senators and Kepresentatives shall be prescribed 

 in each State by the Legislature thereof ; but the Con- 

 gress may at any time by law make or alter such reg- 

 ulations, except as to the places of choosing Senators. 

 Article I, section 4. 



"Now, the construction of that section of 

 the Constitution was very well understood in 

 the Constitutional Convention. It was very 

 thoroughly debated and defended by Mr. Mad- 

 ison, and other eminent gentlemen, on the 

 exact ground that it is indispensable to the 

 Government of the United States that it should 

 have the power to protect the people in elect- 

 ing members of that Government. 



" It has been claimed that this power is to 

 be exercised by Congress only in cases where 

 the States have failed or neglected to provide 

 for proper Congressional elections. That point 

 was made also in the Constitutional Conven- 

 tion, and it was there overruled. When the 

 State Conventions came to consider the new 

 Constitution they were to some extent dissat- 

 isfied with this provision ; and in six of those 

 conventions the point was again raised, and an 

 amendment to the Constitution was proposed, 

 providing that Congress should not legislate on 

 this subject of elections except in cases where 

 the States had failed to legislate. 



" These proposed amendments came before 

 the first Congress of the United States under 

 the Constitution. They were deliberately de- 

 bated in that Congress ; Mr. Madison renewed 

 his own arguments made in the Constitutional 

 Convention. A proposition to submit to the 

 State Legislatures an amendment giving to 

 Article I, section 4, the construction described 

 was voted down by 23 yeas to 28 nays ; and the 

 attempt has never been renewed. 



" The Constitutional Convention, the State 

 Conventions, and the first Congress under the 

 Constitution understood that subject precisely 

 as the Republican party to-day understands it. 

 Since that time the legislation of Congress has 

 been in accordance therewith. Some of the 

 States were in the habit of electing their Con- 

 gressional delegates in gross by general ticket. 

 Congress provided that Representatives should 

 be elected by single districts. The States were 

 in the habit of electing Representatives at dif- 

 ferent times; Congress provided that Repre- 

 sentatives should all be elected on the Tuesday 

 after the first Monday of November. The States 

 were in the habit of electing their Senators at 

 different times and in various ways, and with 

 such irregularities that the people sometimes 

 remained unrepresented in the Senate for long 

 periods, and serious dissensions arose. 



" The Congress of the United States provid- 





