CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



hideous and revolting. It has not the merit of 

 one redeeming provision or quality. It will 

 bind the several States hand and foot, and de- 

 liver them over to the Federal Government 

 subjugated and helpless, the mere tools and 

 slaves of Congress. This bill a law, and the 

 law acquiesced in by the people, the States 

 and all State institutions and laws, so far as 

 rights and powers are concerned, are abso- 

 lutely overthrown and blotted out. The ex- 

 istence of the States and all their institutions 

 can only be in the name ; they cannot act or 

 move except by the permission and will of the 

 Federal power. 



" Sir, this bill is the crowning act of central- 

 ization and consolidation. Stealthily, and by 

 somewhat measured step heretofore, has been 

 the march of Federal power upon the rights 

 and jurisdiction of States ; but this reaches the 

 point and accomplishes State destruction by a 

 single bound, by one grand act. It brushes 

 away at once and finally all State machinery 

 and local authority, and substitutes in their 

 place the Federal bayonets. It not only sub- 

 jugates and subjects all local and State offices 

 and officers to the Federal will, making them 

 the instruments of its execution, loading them 

 with pains, penalties, and forfeitures for its 

 neglect, but makes them criminals for obedi- 

 ence to the laws of the State whose officers 

 they are, and to which they are bound by their 

 solemn oaths. It creates a host of new offices 

 before unknown, and fills the land with spies 

 and informers, with large pay and emoluments 

 for their filthy work. It establishes and or- 

 dains a multitude of crimes heretofore not 

 known to our law. It seeks to overawe free 

 American citizens and control their votes by 

 the menace of the sword and the presence at 

 the voting precinct of the soldier of the army. 

 It places for ten days at and before the time 

 of elections paid agents, two or more at each 

 voting-place, in the interest of the majority of 

 Congress, to ' scrutinize,' manage, and control 

 the votes of the people, to secure by fair means 

 or foul the continuation in power of a corrupt 

 and radical Congress. 



" Mr. Speaker, no fair-minded man, no dis- 

 interested, unprejudiced man, can read the 

 provisions of this bill without being convinced 

 that it has its origin in the interest of an un- 

 scrupulous and desperate party. It bears on 

 its face and in all its provisions the clearest 

 evidence of its origin and purpose, not to 

 secure, but to prevent pure and fair elections, 

 not to aid the voter to express his own unbi- 

 assed judgment, but to awe him into submis- 

 sion, and control him against his conviction. 

 Its very title is a false pretence, if not a lie, 

 adopted for the purpose of defrauding the 

 people and cheating them into the support of 

 a most infamous measure : 



An act to enforce the rights of citizens of the 

 United States to vote in the several States of this 

 Union. 



" The falsity of this title will be perceived 

 VOL. XL 10 A 



by reference to only a few of the provisions of 

 the bill imposing conditions upon and throw- 

 ing impediments in the way of free suffrage. 



" In the first place, by the first section of 

 the bill, the Federal Government takes full and 

 absolute possession of the registry of voters 

 provided for by any of the States of the Union. 

 It takes possession and control of all the State 

 officers provided by State laws for the adminis- 

 tration of the registry laws of the States. It 

 adopts the registrations made by the States in 

 the following proviso : 



That every registration made under the laws of 

 any State or Territory, for any State or other election 

 at which such [Representative or Delegate in Con- 

 gress shall be chosen, shall he deemed to be a regis- 

 tration within the meaning of this act, notwithstand- 

 ing the same shall also be made for the purposes of 

 any State, Territorial, or municipal election. 



" Notwithstanding this, it imposes penalties, 

 and denounces, as crimes, acts of such officers 

 in conformity with and in obedience to the 

 registry laws of the States. 



" It provides for the appointment of super- 

 visors to guard and ' scrutinize ' the registra- 

 tions and elections, whose duties, among 

 others, as provided by the fourth section, are 

 thus defined : 



They and each of them are hereby authorized and 

 required to attend at all times and places fixed for 

 the registration of voters, who being registered 

 would be entitled to vote for [Representative or Dele- 

 gate in Congress, and to challenge any person offer- 

 ing to register. 



"Let it be observed: 'required to attend 

 and to challenge any person offering to regis- 

 ter.' How far this is calculated to enforce the 

 right of citizens of the United States to vote, 

 how far it goes to sustain the truthfulness of 

 the title, I leave for the present to the candid 

 mind to judge. 



"The bill further requires these tools of 

 party and of the Federal power to attend at 

 all times and places where the names of regis- 

 tered voters may be marked for challenge, 

 and upon any occasion and at any time when 

 so in attendance to personally inspect and 

 scrutinize such registry; and this without 

 regard to and to the exclusion of the officers 

 of the State in charge. By the fifth section 

 of the bill these supervisors are ' required ' to 

 attend at all times and places for holding elec- 

 tions for Representatives in Congress, and for 

 counting the votes cast, ' to challenge any vote 

 offered,' to remain with the ballot-box till the 

 last vote is counted, and to themselves count 

 and canvass each and every ballot, whatever 

 may be the indorsement on said ballot or in 

 ' whatever box it may be found.' And these 

 supervisors are authorized and required to 

 make and attach to the returns any statement 

 touching the truth or accuracy of the registry 

 or the truth or fairness of the election, any 

 law of any State notwithstanding. 



" The sixth section provides that these su- 

 pervisors shall, on the day or days of registra- 

 tion, on the clay or days when registered voters 



