14G 



CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



may be marked for challenge, and on the day 

 or days of election, take, occupy, and remain in 

 such position or positions before or behind the 

 ballot-boxes as their judgment may dictate. 

 And when the polls shall be closed they are 

 required to place themselves in such position 

 with reference to the ballot-boxes as they may 

 choose for the purpose of canvassing the votes. 

 All these things may be done without regard 

 for and to the exclusion of the State officers 

 appointed to do the work. 



"Mr. Speaker, I might stop here. I have 

 shown by the mere statement of these provi- 

 sions of this bill that the title is an untruth. 

 In view of these provisions alone no sane man 

 can believe this is a bill to ' enforce the right 

 of citizens of the United States to vote.' It 

 must be seen that it is a bill to prevent, hinder, 

 and delay citizens in voting. It provides a 

 system to drive citizens from the polls, and to 

 disgust all honest men with our elections. 



" But the worst of it is yet to be considered. 

 And first, let me remark that this new and 

 cumbersome machinery is not confined, as 

 some have supposed, to cities having upward 

 of twenty thousand inhabitants. The bill is 

 drawn, I apprehend, to suggest this view, and 

 to divert attention from its true intent and 

 meaning. The language of the bill is : * that 

 whenever, in any city or town having upward 

 of twenty thousand inhabitants,' etc. The word 

 'town' must be taken in its popular sense, 

 and will be construed in this bill as synony- 

 mous with township. 



"It will extend to any rural town or town- 

 ship, and every town having a population of 

 twenty thousand will be covered by this pro- 

 vision. These officers then can be appointed 

 in the great majority of the election precincts 

 of the United States. They will swarm over 

 and throughout the length and breadth of the 

 land, and their name will be legion. They 

 will be an electioneering force such as was 

 never before organized in any country on, 

 earth ; such as no free country can or ever 

 ought to tolerate. But two of these partisan 

 agents in each election district in cities and 

 towns having upward of twenty thousand in- 

 habitants are only a small number of these 

 creatures of the Federal power authorized by 

 this bill, as we shall see when we have looked 

 it through, when we shall consider the other 

 appointments by the United States marshals 

 which will be made, and to which there is no 

 limitation. 



" I said the worst is yet to come. By the 

 eighth section the marshal of. the United 

 States is empowered, and it is made his duty, 

 on application of two citizens of any such city 

 or town, to appoint ' special deputies,' whose 

 duty it shall be to attend at all the times and 

 places specified for the attendance of the super- 

 visors. The pretence of their appointment is 

 to preserve order, keep the peace, and support 

 and protect the supervisors in the discharge ot 

 their duties. They are to prevent fraudulent 



registration and fraudulent voting, or fraudu- 

 lent conduct on the part of any officer of elec- 

 tion, and immediately, either at said registra- 

 tion or polling-place or elsewhere, and either 

 before or after registering or voting, to arrest 

 and take into custody, with or without pro- 

 cess, any person who shall commit, or attempt, 

 or offer to commit, any of the acts prohibited 

 by this act or the act hereby amended, or who 

 shall commit any offence against the laws of 

 the United States. 



" The power to arrest is also conferred upon 

 the supervisors. In addition to all this, the 

 tenth section provides that ' whoever, with or 

 without any authority, power, or process of 

 any State, Territorial, or municipal authority,' 

 shall in any wise ' interfere with or prevent the 

 supervisors of elections, or either of them, or 

 the marshal or his general or special deputies, 

 or either of them,' in any duty required of 

 them, ' or shall molest, interfere with, remove 

 or eject from any such place of registration or 

 poll of election,' ' any supervisor of election, 

 the marshal, or his general or special deputies,' 

 or attempt to offer so to do, or shall refuse or 

 neglect to aid and assist any supervisor of elec- 

 tion or the marshal or any of his deputies when 

 required, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and 

 liable to instant arrest, with or without pro- 

 cess, and on conviction thereof shall be pun- 

 ished by imprisonment not less than one year 

 nor more than two years, or by fine not less 

 than one thousand dollars or more than three 

 thousand dollars, or by both such fine and im- 

 prisonment, and shall pay the cost of prosecu- 

 tion. 



" But, to cap the climax of the enormity, to 

 outrage every sense of honor, propriety, and 

 decency, to insult and trample upon all law, 

 and make the liberty of the citizen a delusion 

 and suffrage a pretence and a snare, it is pro- 

 vided by the twelfth section that all these 

 great and little satraps, the supervisors, the 

 marshal and his deputies, may, when they 

 shall see fit, summon to their aid the by- 

 standers, a posse comitatm,' and require the 

 commanding officer of the nearest United 

 States military or naval forces to enable them 

 to accomplish the purposes of their appoint- 

 ment. Yes, sir, the bill requires it ; the biggest 

 fool the marshal shall be able to appoint his 

 deputy will be in command of the Army and 

 Navy of the United States. * And it shall be ' 

 (I use the words of the bill) ' the duty of such 

 commanding officer, upon such requisition be- 

 ing made, to obey it without delay.' There 

 no alternative, no discretion, no delay. T 

 highest and the lowest military or naval com- 

 mander must instantly obey the deputy-m* 

 shals created under this act. The Presidenl 

 of the United States, the Oommander-in-Chi( 

 must be subject to such order. The voice 

 Congress is the voice of omnipotence. It ht 

 made the rule, it has established the regulation. 

 President, generals, lieutenant-generals, major- 

 generals, brigadier-generals, and nil, are sub- 



