CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



147 



ject to the command of the most insignifi- 

 cant deputy-marshal of the United States. Was 

 there ever so supremely ridiculous and absurd 

 a proposition ? This bill not only places the 

 States, State officers, and all local State authori- 

 ties, but the United States, all United States 

 officers, civil and military, and all the powers 

 of the Federal Government, under the control 

 and at the disposal of these election officers." 



Mr. Mayharn, of New York, said : " But there 

 is one feature of this bill to which I feel con- 

 strained briefly to refer. I have said that the 

 Federal courts have exclusive jurisdiction of 

 all cases of outrage perpetrated under the pre- 

 tence of this act. But that is not all. Any 

 person who may be appointed under this law 

 to a position as supervisor, marshal, or any 

 person whose duty it is to execute this law or 

 aid in its execution, has full and complete im- 

 munity from all liability to State or municipal 

 authority. 



"If, as I before remarked, the vilest mur- 

 derer that ever went unhanged should be ap- 

 pointed a special deputy-marshal under this 

 act, no matter how many indictments or 

 bench-warrants from courts of Oyer and Ter- 

 ininer in States were in the hands of sheriffs 

 for his arrest, the sheriff is by this act pro- 

 hibited from making the arrest while this per- 

 son is acting under this bill, upon pain of two 

 years 1 imprisonment and five thousand dollars' 

 fine. Or, if, while so acting as marshal or 

 supervisor, he should commit murder, arson, 

 burglary, or any other crime known to the 

 law, he would still be subject to this immunity 

 and protection under this law. 



" Sir, the whole law is, it appears to me, 

 dangerous and pernicious in all of its features 

 and subversive of our free institutions. It 

 centralizes the power in the Federal Govern- 

 ment which properly belongs in the States. 

 It is calculated to bring the State and Federal 

 Governments into collision. It allows military 

 interference with the freedom of elections. It 

 takes away the safeguard of the citizen from 

 unlawful and illegal arrest and imprisonment. 

 It creates a horde of Federal officers in the 

 States not chosen by the people, and, in most 

 instances, against their wishes. It unnecessa- 

 rily increases the expenses of the Government, 

 and, for these and many other reasons, should 

 not pass." 



Mr. Churchill, of New York, said: "Mr. 

 Speaker, the Government of the United States 

 was founded upon a principle which, although 

 not new in theory to the speculators upon polit- 

 ical rights, was certainly new in practice the 

 principle that government depends upon the 

 will of the governed; in other words, that the 

 will of the majority of the people of any State, 

 when that will can be ascertained, is the proper 

 law of the country. The whole value, the 

 whole moral force of this principle depends, 

 however, upon the question whether or not, 

 after the election shall be held, the people be- 

 lieve that the result of the election, as declared 



by the authorities who preside over it, ex- 

 presses truly the wishes of the majority of the 

 people. We have for eighty years submitted 

 quietly to the result of elections on the assump- 

 tion that this principle has been faithfully ob- 

 served. Elections have been held for the high- 

 est and the lowest officers in the State, and 

 whoever has been declared elected has been 

 obeyed as the rightful officer. 



"But, Mr. Speaker, for some years past 

 grave doubts have prevailed in different por- 

 tions of this country as to whether the declared 

 results of elections have truly expressed the will 

 of the people. With regard to officers of States 

 and officers of minor communities, this doubt, 

 so far as it exists, is left to be determined, as 

 it can only be determined, by the laws existing 

 in those States or communities. But so far as 

 regards members of the Congress of the United 

 States, although the first legislation in regard 

 to the matter is intrusted by the Constitution 

 of the United States to the States themselves, 

 the power is properly reserved to Congress it- 

 self to determine by what rules these elections 

 shall be conducted ; and if, in regard to elec- 

 tions held under State laws for national officers, 

 this doubt exists, if in this way the principle 

 of representative government is threatened, 

 then the power is by the Constitution reserved 

 to Congress to determine the manner in which 

 elections shall be held, and thereby to insure 

 that the result, when declared, shall be the real 

 will of the majority of the people. 



Mr. Speaker, the bill before the House is 

 intended to do nothing more than to remove 

 the doubts which have arisen as to whether 

 the declared results of elections held in differ- 

 ent parts of the country represent truly the 

 will of the majority of the people." 



Mr. Lawrence, of Ohio, said: "Now, sir, 

 there are two questions to be considered, I 

 take it, and they are simply, first, as to the 

 necessity of this bill ; and. secondly, as to the 

 constitutional power to enact it. 



" A few words as to its necessity. I sup- 

 pose no member upon this floor will pretend to 

 deny for one moment that in every age and in 

 every country, where there have been popular 

 elections, there have also been frauds and vio- 

 lence, and it has been found necessary to guard 

 against both by law. From the earliest period 

 in English history Parliament has enacted laws 

 for the protection of the exercise of the elec- 

 tive franchise. One of the provisions of the 

 bill which was enacted by this Congress, and 

 which this bill proposes to amend, was taken 

 from section eighty -three of the statutes of 

 sixth Victoria, chapter eighteen. The English 

 statute-books are full of laws designed to pre- 

 vent bribery, fraud, and violence, and to pre- 

 serve the purity of the franchise. Sir, in every 

 State of this Union it has been found necessary 

 to enact laws to protect the ballot, to preserve 

 the purity of elections, and this fact shows there 

 is a necessity for legislation upon the subject. 



"Sir, we all know that Ku-klux outrages 



