164 



CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



The Clerk read as follows: 



For special deputy-marshals of elections, the sum of 

 $7 GOO : Provided, That hereafter special deputy -mar- 

 shals of elections, for performing any duties in refer- 

 ence to any election, shall receive the sum of five dol- 

 lars per day in full for their compensation ; and that all 

 appointments of such special deputy-marshals having 

 any duty to perform in respect to any election shall be 

 made by the judge of the circuit court of the United 

 States for the' district in which such marshals are to 

 perform their duties, or by the district judge of the 

 district in the absence of the circuit judge. 



And not less than two nor more than three appoint- 

 ments shall be made for any voting precinct where 

 such appointments are required to be made ; and the 

 persons so appointed shall be of different political par- 

 ties ; and, if there are more than two political parties 

 having tickets to be voted for, no two of said deputy- 

 marshals shall be appointed from the same p^arty. 

 And the persons so appointed shall be persons ot good 

 character, able to read and write the English language, 

 and shall be well-known residents of the voting pre- 

 cinct in which their duties are to be performed ; said 

 special deputies to be appointed in equal numbers 

 from the different political parties. 



Mr. Springer : " Is the question pending on 

 my amendment to the amendment of the gen- 

 tleman from Ohio as amended? " 



The Chairman : " It is ; and the gentleman 

 from Tennessee has been recognized to discuss 

 the amendment." 



Mr. Simonton : " Mr. Chairman, I trust the 

 substitute as amended by my amendment will 

 be incorporated in the bill and become the law 

 of the land. 



" Sir, I regard the Federal election laws as 

 hurtful and dangerous, though they have been 

 declared constitutional by the proper tribunal. 

 It is not every constitutional measure that is 

 wise or beneficial or worthy to remain on the 

 statute-book. The election laws are, in my 

 judgment, dangerous innovations on the system 

 of government our fathers gave us; they are 

 calculated in their nature to and do disarrange 

 and destroy the nicely adjusted balance of pow- 

 er between the States and the Federal Govern- 

 ment. These election laws are violative of all 

 the honored precedents of this country in the 

 matter of elections for nearly a century. And, 

 as they stand now, they confer on the Admin- 

 istration and its partisans a power to control 

 elections, and consequently to perpetuate its 

 reign indefinitely, that is simply monstrous, and 

 it seems to me a wonder that a free people, alive 

 to the dangers that threaten their liberties, per- 

 mit them to remain on the statute-book a single 

 day unrepealed. 



" Indeed, the Representatives of this House, 

 who are the exponents of the popular will of 

 the republic, since the 18th of last March have 

 repeatedly passed an act repealing these elec- 

 tion laws, placing the elections back just where 

 our fathers put them, under the guardianship 

 and protection of the people and local authori- 

 ties, where a long experience has shown to be 

 the safest and most sacred place, freest from 

 frauds and corruptions ; but these acts, thus 

 repealing the election laws, have uniformly 

 met the Executive veto, and the will of the 



people thus voiced in legislative acts has again 

 and again been annulled. The Republican party, 

 that has contended for keeping on the statute- 

 book these unholy laws, has not dared to do 

 so without expressing a willingness to correct 

 some of their worst deformities. From the 

 President down they have professed a willing- 

 ness to amend and alter, so as to deprive them 

 of what even they must admit to be unfair and 

 dangerous operations. I desire, for one, to put 

 these professions to the test of sincerity. And, 

 besides, it is always wise and prudent to modi- 

 fy and make less objectionable and less danger- 

 ous that which we can not remove altogether. 

 If an apple were in my keeping that I could 

 not rid myself of, and yet I might remove the 

 worst of its reeking and offensive corruption 

 and deodorize the remainder, it would be folly 

 not to do so. And, although I would most 

 gladly remove entirely the dangerous power 

 conferred in these Federal election laws by re- 

 pealing them outright, since we can not do this, 

 as past experience has shown, I shall vote to 

 cut off as much of this dangerous power as I 

 can and shield as far as I may be able the bal- 

 lot-box and the purity of elections from the 

 power of corrupt and debauched partisans, and 

 from the absolute control of a party and an 

 Administration whose past history shows them 

 to be reckless and defiant, and unscrupulous 

 of the methods and means by which they re- 

 tain possession of power." 



Mr. Whitthorne, of Tennessee : " Mr. Chair- 

 man, I would like to have the attention of the 

 House, and particularly of my Democratic col- 

 leagues, upon this proposition. I shall vote for 

 the pending proposition, and in doing so do not 

 concede or mean to concede anything from the 

 position I have heretofore held of the right of 

 Congress, the representatives of the people, to 

 withhold appropriations to the execution of 

 laws they believe to be either unconstitutional, 

 unwise, or unjust. 



" But, Mr. Chairman, the attention of my 

 Democratic friends for one moment. We find 

 these laws upon the statute-books. If they are 

 not modified, the administrators of the Republi- 

 can party in the coming Presidential and Con- 

 gressional elections can appoint ad infinitum 

 deputy-marshals throughout the country. And 

 in doing so, if we believe that they will use them 

 for partisan advantage or for partisan purposes, 

 they can so conduct the election as to secure a 

 majority of the next House, and by securing 

 that majority provide payment for all the mar- 

 shals and deputy-mnrshals they may choose to 

 appoint. That brings me to a practical question, 

 and I say here in looking forward now at this 

 moment to the responsibility which may rest 

 upon me and every member of this House dur- 

 ing the months of January and February next, 

 when we shall determine who has been fairly, 

 legally, and constitutionally elected President of 

 the United States, and when the distinguished, 

 if I may call him the conservative, member 

 of the Republican party [Mr. GarfieldJ comes 





