CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



175 



lull, or permitting the performance of some 

 which is enjoined on them as officers un- 

 iio law. lu that particular it is in no way 

 Hal ; it punishes the crime after It ia com- 

 aml done, hut it gives no remedy to the 

 ii \\ ho has heen injured by the wrongful 



X"w, the fifth section of the Senate 1>ill is 

 in my judgment worth the whole House bill 



;!KT. it provides that 



Any person who shall be deprived of any office, 

 that <>f member of Congress or member of a 

 Legislature 



"Of course that exception is because the 

 Congress and the Legislature are the exclusive 

 judges of the qualifications and elections of 

 their members 



by reason of the violation of the provisions of this 

 act, shall bo entitled to recover possession of such 

 office by writ of mandamus or other appropriate pro- 

 ceeding, and the circuit and district courts of the 

 United States shall have concurrent jurisdiction of 

 all cases arising under this section. 



" Hero is the great distinction in doctrine and 

 philosophy between the two bills, and the ques- 

 tion now is which course of action the Senate 

 choose to take. If we are simply to follow on 

 after the violation of law and punish the man 

 who has violated it, in each particular case, by 

 fine and imprisonment, then the House bill is 

 the best conceived bill. If we design to do 

 something more than that, if we design to go 

 beyond merely punishing specific violations of 

 the law, and to carry out and enforce the prin- 

 ciple of this amendment to the Constitution, 

 and give effect to the votes of colored persons 

 offered at the polls, then we should have some 

 such provision as is contained in the Senate bill. 



" There are several things about this Senate 

 bill, some things in its phraseology, perhaps 

 some in its substantial and important provisions, 

 that may be improved by amendment ; but it 

 seems to me to be a far better bill if we desire 

 to do any thing. If we merely wish to pretend 

 to do something and not accomplish any thing 

 substantial and important, the House bill is an 

 excellent recipe for doing that ; but if we mean 

 to carry out, execute, and secure the perform- 

 ance and observance of this amendment to the 

 Constitution, it is certain to my mind that the 

 Senate bill is far preferable to the bill that 

 comes from the House; and for that reason I 

 hope the Senate will not adopt it as a substi- 

 tute. Let us take this Senate bill and go through 

 with it, perfect it by additions or subtractions, 

 but act upon it as the basis of the legislation 

 called for at the present time." 



Mr. Thurman, of Ohio, said : " Mr. Presi- 

 dent, I confess I was not prepared to hoar my 

 friend from Wisconsin (Mr. Carpenter) place 

 his chief advocacy of the Senate bill upon the 

 fifth section of the bill. Let us see what the 

 fifth section is: 



That any person who shall bo deprived of any 

 office, except that of member of Congress or member 

 of a State Legislature, by reason of the violation of 

 the provisions of this act, shall be entitled to recover 



possession of such office by writ otmawlamv* or other 

 appropriate proceeding, and the circuit and dihtrict 

 courtx !' the United States shall have concurrent 

 jurisdiction of all cote* arwing under this section. 



" And by the next section it is provided 

 Thut the district courts of the United States, with- 

 in their respective districts, shall have, exclusively 

 of the courts of the several States, cognizance of ail 

 crimes and offences committed agaitut the provisions 

 of this act. 



"The idea, then, of the bill is that the en- 

 forcement of this act, and of the rights of per- 

 sons under this act, is to bo exclusively in the 

 courts of the United States, and that all per- 

 sons who shall be deprived of office by any 

 violation of this act may recover their offices 

 by some appropriate remedy in the courts of 

 the United States. Now, the first point to 

 which I wish to call the attention of my friend 

 is quite a practical consideration. How many 

 officers will this cover who may thus be de- 

 prived of their offices by a violation of this 

 act ; that is, by somebody not being registered 

 who would have voted for them, or somebody 

 being prevented from voting at the elections 

 who would have voted for them, or any other 

 of the grounds that may Ije stated under this 

 bill? How many such officers are there? I 

 will speak for my own State. This bill em- 

 braces every officer except members of the 

 Legislature in the State of Ohio. It takes, 

 therefore, all the State officers to begin with. 

 It then takes all the judiciary of the State; 

 then all the county officers ; then all the city 

 officers and town officers; and then all the 

 township officers. Now, let me say to my 

 friend from Wisconsin that that will make 

 about two hundred persons in the county in 

 which I live who are to be entitled to go into 

 the circuit or district court of the United States 

 to test the election of the persons who are 

 declared elected." 



Mr. Carpenter: "Let me ask my friend 

 from Ohio whether he expects that whole num- 

 ber will be defrauded out of their election very 

 often in his county ? " 



Mr. Thurman: "I do not expect any such 

 thing, but I know there have been a great many 

 contested election cases in Ohio, and I know 

 if they had all been tried in the district court 

 of the United States for the District of Ohio 

 that court would have had very little time to 

 attend to any thing else. But now, when you 

 have increased the jurisdiction of that court, 

 and increased the causes for which you may 

 proceed, and allow two hundred persons in a 

 single county, or more than twenty thousand 

 persons in the single State of Ohio, or, taking 

 the whole United States through, about half a 

 million persons, to go into the district courts 

 to contest elections and try the title to office 

 there, I want to know what is to become of 

 your district courts ? 



" I wish to say a word upon the twelfth sec- 

 tion, to which I briefly alluded the day before 

 yesterday in the remarks that I then submitted. 

 That section is in these words : 



