CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



157 



ed in minute detail for the election of Senators 

 of the United States, going into the State Le- 

 gislatures and prescribing the duties of clerks 

 and presiding officers and members, command- 

 ing them to assemble at a certain hour in the 

 day twelve o'clock and vote viva voce for a 

 Senator; to assemble in joint convention the 

 next day at twelve o'clock and read the distinct 

 record of the ballot in each House ; directing 

 them, in case the record showed disagreement, 

 to vote jointly and viva voce, and directing that 

 in case they made no choice they should meet 

 in joint convention day after day at twelve 

 o'clock till they had made a choice. It is im- 

 possible, therefore, that Congress could have 

 shown any more clearly its understanding of 

 that section and of the right and duty of Con- 

 gress to supremely regulate the election of Con- 

 gressmen. And what it can ' regulate ' it can 

 protect. 



" The Democracy now say that an election 

 law passed by Congress in direct, clear, incon- 

 trovertible execution of that section shall not 

 be carried out, and they propose to put w r hat 

 is equivalent to that into this little deficiency 

 bill a work of necessity and mercy, as I have 

 called it. I am obliged to say that this is a 

 part of the general hostility manifested by a 

 large body of people in this country to Federal 

 power just and constitutional Federal power 

 of every description hostility to the army, 

 hostility to the Executive, hostility to the Su- 

 preme Court, hostility to the protection of Fed- 

 eral officers by Federal courts while they are 

 executing Federal laws, hostility to any attempt 

 on the part of the General Government to pro- 

 tect the rights of the people in the sacred duty 

 of voting." 



Mr. Singleton, of Mississippi : " This bill is 

 not one of our regular appropriation bills. It 

 it what is termed a deficiency bill, a bill to add 

 something to the amount already granted for 

 carrying on the business of the several depart- 

 ments of the Government. And while, Mr. 

 Chairman, bills of this character are regarded 

 by me with great disfavor, the necessity for 

 them growing, as it frequently does, out of the 

 extravagant and unnecessary expenditure of 

 money in these several departments above and 

 beyond that set apart for their use, yet candor 

 compels me to admit that this is not always the 

 case, but that sometimes the necessity for a 

 deficiency bill cornes of the fact that Congress 

 has failed to make, at the proper time, suffi- 

 cient appropriations, and at other times out of 

 circumstances which are unforeseen, and which, 

 as a matter of course, are not provided for in 

 the general appropriation bills. 



" Such is the case to a certain extent in re- 

 gard to the two largest items mentioned in this 

 bill. The six-hundred-thousand-dollar item 

 which it is asked shall be appropriated for the 

 payment of marshals and their regular deputies 

 grows out of the fact that, at the last session 

 of Congress, there was a failure to appropriate 

 for this purpose. The circumstances under 



which that failure occurred I do not propose 

 to discuss to-day. The history of the matter is 

 familiar not only to the members of this House 

 but to the whole country. It will be remem- 

 bered that Congress put on the bill a rider 

 which provided that no part of the $600,000 

 which we were ready to appropriate should 

 be used for the purpose of paying special depu- 

 ties who were to supervise elections, as we on 

 this side believed, in the interest of the Repub- 

 lican party. 



"The President was not willing to receive 

 the $600,000 which we offered him upon the 

 conditions we saw fit to prescribe, and the con- 

 sequence was that, the President having vetoed 

 the bill, we adjourned without making that 

 appropriation. Now the Committee on Ap- 

 propriations comes forward and presents a bill 

 proposing to appropriate $600,000 for the mar- 

 shals and their regular deputies, without any 

 condition annexed ; but gentlemen on the other 

 side of the House, if I understand their pur- 

 poses, propose to amend the bill and put upon 

 it a provision for the payment of the special 

 deputy-marshals. And the argument is that 

 the law authorizing the employment of these 

 special deputies having been declared constitu- 

 tional by the Supreme Court of the United 

 States, therefore we should make haste and 

 appropriate money for their payment, and that 

 an amendment should be put on this bill to 

 that end. 



"While I admit, the law having been de- 

 clared constitutional by the Supreme Court of 

 the United States, Congress has no right to re- 

 sist it, and while in the future it may be deemed 

 right and proper to make appropriations for 

 these special deputy-marshals, I hold that there 

 is no duty imposed upon us requiring that we 

 hasten into the presence as it were of said 

 court with heads uncovered and feet unshod, 

 saying: 'May it please your honors we are 

 ready to do your bidding; to appropriate this 

 money, and to postpone other important busi- 1 

 ness.' These special deputy-marshals arefunc- 

 tits officio. They are no longer in office, and 

 there is no special necessity for haste in this 

 matter. We want some time to deliberate on 

 it. It may be that we can couple some other 

 provisions with the act making this appropria- 

 tion which will save us from the presence and 

 dictation of these pimps and spies hereafter, 

 and therefore we ask that you accept the 

 $600,000 we tender in good faith, and that you 

 do not delay the passage of this bill by any 

 offer on your part to put upon it an amendment 

 such as is contemplated. 



" It is true the Supreme Court of the United 

 States has decided the case. Its connection 

 with it has ceased; it can deal with it no fur- 

 ther. It is, then, a matter purely for the con- 

 sideration of Congress, whether it make that 

 appropriation to-day, or whether it will make 

 it at some future day, or whether it will make 

 it at all. 



" It may be the pleasure of this House to 



