226 



CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



mental principles of our Government, the 

 great principles of personal and political lib- 

 erty established by it, have no stability, no 

 fixed meaning, but all will depend upon the 

 various, fluctuating will of Congress, as fac- 

 tions and parties among our people rise and 

 fall." 



The Presiding Officer: "The question is, 

 Will the Senate agree to the report of the com- 

 mittee of conference ? " 



The question being taken, resulted as fol- 

 lows : 



YEAS Messrs. Ames, Anthony, Boreman, Cald- 

 well, Cameron, Carpenter, Chandler, Clayton, Cole, 

 Conkling, Corbett, Cragin, Edmunds, Ferry of Michi- 

 gan, Gilbert, Hamilton of Texas, Hitchcock, Howe, 

 Logan, Morrill of Vermont, Nye, Pomeroy, Pratt, 

 Ramsey, Sawyer, Scott,Sherman, Spencer, Stewart, 

 Wilaon, Windom, and Wright 32. 



NAYS Messrs. Bavard, Blair, Casserly, Cooper, 

 Davis of Kentucky, Davis of West Virginia, Fenton, 

 Johnston, Kelly, Saulsbury, Schurz, Sprague, Ste- 

 venson, Stockton, Thurman, and Vickers 16. 



ABSENT Messrs. Brownlow, Buckingham, Ferry 

 of Connecticut, Flanagan, Frelinghuysen, Hamilton 

 of Maryland, Hamlin, Harlan. Hill, Kellogg, Lewis, 

 Morrill of Maine, Morton, Osborn, Patterson, Pool, 

 Rice, Robertson, Sumner, Tipton, Trumbull, and 

 West-22. 



So the report was concurred in. 



A new committee of conference on the dis- 

 agreeing votes of the House was subsequently 

 appointed, which consisted of Mr. Shellabarger, 

 of Ohio, and Mr. Poland, of Vermont, on the 

 part of the House, and of Mr. Edmunds, of 

 Vermont, and Mr. Carpenter, of Wisconsin, 

 on the part of the Senate. 



In the House, on April 19th, Mr. Poland, of 

 Vermont, presented the report of the commit- 

 tee, and said : 



"The report of the former committee of 

 conference as to the first four amendments of 

 the Senate, which were disagreed to, was, so 

 far as I know, entirely satisfactory, the changes 

 which were made by the committee meeting 

 the approval of both Houses, and of members 

 on both sides in the two Houses. 



" The next point of disagreement was in re- 

 lation to the time when the provision in regard 

 to the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus 

 should expire. The House had fixed upon the 

 1st day of June, 1872 ; the Senate had fixed as 

 the time the expiration of the next regular 

 session of Congress. The disagreement be- 

 tween the two Houses in this respect was 

 merely as to this difference of time ; and I did 

 not understand that the objection on the part 

 of the House to the report had reference par- 

 ticularly to this difference of time, or that it 

 was a point upon which the House was dis- 

 posed to make any stand ; and inasmuch as the 

 conferees on the part of the Senate represent- 

 ed the sentiment of that body as decided upon 

 this point, and were nnwi)ling to yield it, we 

 did not deem it advisable to report a disagree- 

 ment upon this question. 



" The next, the third of the disagreements 

 of the two Houses, was in relation to the jurors' 



oath, the disability or cause of challenge of 

 jurors that was provided by the act of 1862, 1 

 believe it was. The former conference report- 

 ed an amendment to the amendment of the 

 Senate, so as to provide for repealing the first 

 section of that law, which provided that this 

 should be an absolute and legal ground of 

 challenge ; and left the second section of that 

 statute in force, which left it discretionary 

 with the judge of the United States court 

 whether the oath prescribed shall be tendered 

 to the jurors or not. 



" Upon this subject, the conferees on the 

 part of the Senate were decided and absolute 

 in adhering to that portion of the former act, 

 leaving it discretionary with the judge to re- 

 quire the oath or not, but upon that subject as 

 well as upon the one in relation to habeas cor- 

 pus, we were compelled to accept that or re- 

 port a disagreement. And, therefore, so far as 

 these three amendments are concerned, we 

 have concurred, not with the Senate amend- 

 ments, but in the same report in reference to 

 them that was made by the former committee 

 of conference. 



" This brings me to the last cause of dis- 

 agreement to what is known as the Sherman 

 amendment. I did understand, from the action 

 and vote of the House, that the House had 

 solemnly decided that in their judgment Con- 

 gress had no constitutional power to impose 

 any obligation upon county and town organi- 

 zations, the mere instrumentality for the ad- 

 ministration of State law. We informed the 

 conferees on the part of the Senate that the 

 House had taken a stand on that subject and 

 would not recede from it ; that that section 

 imposing liability upon towns and counties 

 must go out, or we should fail to agree. At 

 the same time, we said to them there was a 

 disposition on the part of the House, in our 

 judgment, to reach everybody who was con- 

 nected, either directly or indirectly, positively 

 or negatively, with the commission of any of 

 these offences and wrongs. 



" The result was this section, which we have 

 reported in lieu of the Sherman amendment. 

 The substance of it is that any person who has 

 knowledge that any of the offences named, any 

 of the wrongs already described, any of the 

 conspiracies indicated in the second section 

 about to be committed, it shall be his duty 

 to use all reasonable diligence within his pow- 

 er to prevent it ; and if he fails to do so, so 

 much damage as is occasioned to anybody in 

 consequence of his failure, for so much he 

 shall be responsible in an action." 



Mr. Kerr, of Indiana, said: "I desire now 

 only to submit one or two remarks, and, in the 

 first place, in addition to what I have hitherto 

 said to say this, that, in my judgment, there 

 has not been shown to exist in our country 

 any such condition as justifies the enactment 

 of this bill, either as originally passed by the 

 House or as now proposed to be amended, and 

 finally passed upon the report of this commit- 



