CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



165 



forward and tenders to the House a compro- 

 mise on this question, and that compromise, as 

 we have amended it, provides that we shall 

 have a fair and impartial election next Novem- 

 ber I say we owe it to ourselves and to the 

 country, its peace and future harmony, to ac- 

 cept the modification and enact it into a law, 

 and let us have under it a peaceful and impar- 

 tial election. In doing so, we abandon no prin- 

 ciple, but govern ourselves by the practical dif- 

 ficulties which we find in our way. 



"Mr. Chairman, I have been taught by the 

 logic of events if nothing else ; I have been 

 taught in this country that for remedying vi- 

 cious legislation there are but two appeals un- 

 er the laws and the Constitution. The first is 

 an appeal to the courts of the country, and the 

 second is an appeal to the ballot-box. Grant, 

 if you please, the courts have declared the law 

 to be constitutional. We have our reserved 

 rights of withholding appropriations, as the 

 representatives of the people, as the remedy. 

 We have, second, the ballot-box to which we 

 can appeal. Take good care I appeal to the 

 lovers of the country take good care that we 

 have a fair, impartial election, and I stand here 

 in view of my responsibility and my position 

 as a representative of the people, and say that 

 whoever is elected, fairly and impartially elect- 

 ed, shall be inaugurated by my vote, come from 

 whatever quarter he may. That is all I ask. 

 That is all that should be granted." 



Mr. Springer : u The question pending is on 

 the amendment of the gentleman from Tennes- 

 see." 



The committee divided; and there were 

 yeas 93, nays 15. 



So the amendment to the amendment was 

 agreed to. 



Mr. Randall, of Pennsylvania (the Speaker) : 

 "We are ready to meet that issue. We say 

 that if special deputy-marshals are to be used 

 at elections, whatever may be the opinion as to 

 the constitutionality of such a law, those officers 

 should be divided between the two or three po- 

 litical parties contending at such election. We 

 say that when we come to vote the money to 

 carry out such law we will not vote it to be 

 used for any partisan purposes. 



"And in e ideavcring to modify that law 

 here to-day we do no more than to ask that it 

 shall be made to exercise its powers upon all 

 alike, and that those who administer the law 

 shall be drawn from the great body of the peo- 

 ple, without reference to party associations or 

 affiliations." 



Mr. Garfield, of Ohio : " We are equals here, 

 each having rights equal to every other, and 

 nobody having any authority to bind any but 

 himself. With that preface, I will speak for 

 myself. 



"The first object which I try to keep before 

 my mind in legislation is, to be right. And on 

 this question of the election laws, during the 

 long and heated session of debate last summer, 

 in which all sorts of accusations were made 



against them by gentlemen on tho other side, 

 there was made but one lodgment in my mind 

 of a just criticism upon them. There was one 

 charge made by the other side, and in so far as 

 it was true I consider it a just objection to the 

 law. It was that the law had been used, or 

 was capable of being used, to fill election pre- 

 cincts with men of one party whose time might 

 be employed at the public expense for party 

 electioneering purposes. 



" I say in so far as that law can be so used, to 

 that extent it is unjust; and at all times and on 

 all proper occasions I have declared, and I now 

 declare myself, willing to modify the law so 

 that the alleged abuse can not take place. That 

 I say for myself, and will continue to say it. 

 No other valid objection to this law was, in my 

 judgment, made by anybody during the last 

 session of this Congress or since. 



"Now, what has happened? In the first 

 place, on this side we objected and do still ob- 

 ject, with entire unanimity, to riders on appro- 

 priation bills. 



" We did all in our power to prevent any 

 rider ; but the rider was ruled in order. What 

 then ? I hold it always to be my duty to help 

 make a pending measure as decent and harm- 

 less as possible, and then we can and doubtless 

 will vote against its final adoption because it is 

 a rider. Yesterday, distinctly disclaiming the 

 right to speak for anybody but myself, I offered 

 a substitute for the proposed amendment, by 

 providing that the special deputy-marshals hav- 

 ing their fair pay at five dollars a day should be 

 appointed by the courts, and equally from the 

 political parties, so as to prevent the only evil 

 that could be justly complained of. I will vote 

 to substitute that for the pending proposition, 

 if I vote alone on either or both sides of the 

 House. 



"But what has been done? Gentlemen on 

 the other side not only did not accept my sub- 

 stitute but voted it down, and substituted for 

 it a proposition containing these provisions : 

 First, that the compensation of these deputy- 

 marshals shall be cut down to two dollars a day ; 

 second, that there shall never be more than 

 three of them in any one election precinct; and, 

 third, that they shall not be employed more than 

 three days, even though the registration under 

 the law of the State lasts ten days. Now, what 

 does this mean ? It means that under the pre- 

 tense of enforcing the election law for scruti- 

 nizing and guarding the polls, though there may 

 be a thousand rioters around the polls seeking 

 to break up the election, yet there shall be but 

 three men empowered to keep the peace of the 

 United States against the mob. In other words, 

 the pending amendment proposes to make this 

 law a notice in advance to the mob to come and 

 overwhelm the keepers of the peace and make 

 hell, rather than order, reign and rule at our 

 national elections. If this were a part of the 

 best bill in the world, I would not vote for it, 

 because it cuts the vitals out of the law and 

 makes its enforcement an impossibility. 



