206 



CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



fully in the existing law of 1870. By looking, 

 therefore, at the proposed amendment of the 

 gentleman from Illinois the members of the 

 House will have before them what is to be 

 supplied in place of the second section of the 

 bill of the committee, the two sections pro- 

 posed by Mr. Cook being embodied in what is 

 here the second section, and the two are put 

 into one. 



u Now, I shall not attempt, in the ten min- 

 utes allowed me, to analyze that section. I 

 will first state that the first part of the section, 

 down to the end of line fourteen, is now the 

 law of the United States, having been enacted 

 in 1861. Therefore the provisions of this sec- 

 tion that are new are included in the portion 

 following the fourteenth line. 



"The change which the amendment pro- 

 poses to make in section two of the original 

 bill as reported by the committee, so far as it 

 relates to disputed grounds, so far as it is not 

 confined to infractions of right which are clear- 

 ly independent of the fourteenth amendment, 

 referable to and sustainable by the old provi- 

 sions of the Constitution, is to be found in 

 those portions of the section which are con- 

 tained in the part beginning at line twenty- 

 five, I think ; I cannot state exactly the place 

 now: 



To influence the verdict of any juror in any court 

 of the United States, or to injure such person or 

 property on account of any verdict lawfully assented 

 to by him, or shall conspire together for the purpose, 

 directly or indirectly, of depriving any person or 

 any class of persons of the equal protection of the 

 law. 



" There, sir, is brought into notice that 

 which is supposed to be the distinction be- 

 tween the original second section as proposed 

 by the bill and the section as proposed in this 

 amendment. The object of the amendment is, 

 as interpreted by its friends who brought it 

 before the House, so far as I understand it, to 

 confine the authority of this law to the pre- 

 vention of deprivations, which shall attack the 

 equality of rights of American citizens; that 

 any violation of the right, the animus and 

 effect of which is to strike down the citizen, 

 to the end that he may not enjoy equality of 

 rights as contrasted with his and other citizens' 

 rights, shall be within the scope of the remedies 

 of this section. 



" Now, there is much other detail here that 

 I need not allude to. But, so far as I now com- 

 prehend the effect of it, I have stated it. There 

 is force in the point of distinction that is made ; 

 and, without undertaking to enter into it, I 

 will now state some other changes proposed 

 by the amendment. 



"In the third section of the bill as reported 

 by the committee, at the end of the third line, 

 are added the words 'and of the United 

 States ; ' so that the obstructions or combina- 

 tions which effect the obstruction of the * laws 

 thereof (meaning the State laws) shall be so 

 extended as to include obstructions of the laws 



of the United States. That is rather a verbal 

 amendment. 



" In the fourth section of the bill as original- 

 ly reported by the committee is this, which is 

 deemed an important change : As reported 

 by the committee the section provides that the 

 violence must be such as to set at defiance the 

 constituted authorities of the State. To that 

 is added by this amendment a provision that 

 the violence must also be a defiance of the 

 authorities of the United States that shall be 

 present in the district, thus widening the state 

 of violence and of danger required before the 

 interposition provided for in the fourth section 

 can be resorted to. It must be so very im- 

 posing as to defy both the authority of the 

 State and the authority of the United States ; 

 that is, of the marshals of the United States 

 present in the district. 



"The amendment further strikes out that 

 part of the section reported by the committee 

 which authorized the declaration of martial 

 law, and leaves no other express power granted 

 except that express power which is found in 

 the right of the President to suspend the 

 privileges of the right of habeas corpus. 



" These, then, are the changes made by the 

 proposed amendment. 



" I will repeat. The first section stands as 

 reported by the committee. The second sec- 

 tion is as reported in the proposed amendment 

 of the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Cook). 

 The third section is so changed as to require 

 that the authority of the United States must 

 also be invaded and defied. The fourth section 

 is so changed that the privileges of the right 

 of habeas corpus cannot be suspended unless 

 the authorities of the United States, as well as 

 of the State, are unable to cope with the vio- 

 lence ; and it excludes also the provision in 

 regard to the declaration of martial law. 



" I wish to make this general statement in 

 explanation of the action of the members of 

 the committee who are friendly to this bill. 

 The amendment is not one proposed from the 

 committee, but is one prepared simply upon 

 consultation of those who desire to make the 

 bill conform to the wishes of such members as 

 believe that some such measure should be 



Several amendments were offered to the 

 amendment of Mr. Shellabarger; some were 

 adopted, and other rejected or withdrawn, and 

 the original amendment as amended was agreed 

 to, and the bill passed by the following vote : 



YEAS Messrs. Ambler, Averill, Banks, Barber, 

 Barry, Beatty, Bigby, Bingham, Austin Blair, George 

 M. Brooks, Buckley, Buffinton, Burchard, Burdett, 

 Benjamin F. Butler, Clarke, Cobb, Coburn, Conger, 

 Cook, Cotton, Creely, Dawes, DeLarge, Dickey, 

 Donnan, Eames, Edwards, Elliott, Farnsworth, Far- 

 well, Finkelnburg, Charles Foster, Frye, Garfield, 

 Goodrich, Hale, Halsey, Harmer, George E. Harris, 

 Havens, Hawley, Hay, Gerry W. Hazleton, John W. 

 Hazleton, Hill, Hoar, Hooper, Kelley, Ketcham. Kil- 

 linger, Lamport, Lansing, Lowe, Maynard, McCrary, 

 McGrew, McJunkin, McKee, Mercur, Merriam, Mon- 

 roe, Moore, Morey, Leonard Myers, Negley, Orr. 



