CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



203 



Mr. Saulsbury : " Then I would suggest to 

 the honorable Senator not to make his indict- 

 ment a wholesale indictment against the prop- 

 erty-holders of the South. Limit it to the 

 men whom the evidence shows are implicated 

 in the crime." 



Mr. Pratt: "As I said, sir, before the inter- 

 ruption, in stating the argument of the slave- 

 holders, I have shown who are responsible 

 for these scourgings for opinion's sake. It is 

 the old ruling class, the men who own the 

 plantations and property, the men who must 

 pay the taxes. They are the men most inter- 

 ested in moulding the opinions of voters. 



" Then in regard to national elections their 

 interest is, if possible, still stronger. They re- 

 gard the whole policy of the Republican par- 

 ty as having been hostile to their class from 

 its organization. They point to the constitu- 

 tional amendments, the civil rights bill, the 

 the Freedmen's Bureau, the test-oath, the 

 penalties against disloyalty, the enforcement 

 bill, the suspension of the habeas corpus, and 

 the presence of soldiery in the disturbed dis- 

 tricts ; and their panacea for all these ills is to 

 put down the Republican party. That is the 

 dearest wish of the entire Democratic heart in 

 the South. They see no end to what they 

 call their grievances, except in the overthrow 

 of the party in power. They are the same 

 men who were so impatient of the restraints 

 of Government that in 1861 they plunged the 

 country in war and bloodshed, stopping at no 

 measures of unscrupulous violence in order to 

 overthrow the Government many of them had 

 so often sworn to maintain. 



" Now, who shall tell me that this sentiment 

 of hate toward the party in power, and this 

 lust for the political control they once wielded, 

 are not sufficient motives to account for these 

 outrages and fix the responsibility where I 

 believe, before God, it belongs, upon these in- 

 fluential classes of the South? " 



Mr. Blair, of Missouri, said: "Practically 

 this bill proposes to give the President of the 

 United States the power of electing himself 

 by force. It puts at his disposal the military 

 power of the Government to be used during 

 the period of the presidential election at his 

 own discretion, and in my judgment for no 

 other purpose than to secure his reelection as 

 President. It is one of a series of acts by 

 which the elections in this country have been 

 placed under the supervision and control of 

 the Government of the United States. The 

 act which it is now proposed to continue in 

 force was passed about a year ago, limited to 

 cease at the close of this session of Congress. 

 This was intended to feel the temper of the 

 people of this country to ascertain if they 

 would consent to the overthrow of the great 

 writ of right, the habeas corpus, under circum- 

 stances defined in the bill, circumstances 

 which were then shown to be such as did not 

 authorize the Congress or the President to 

 suspend the privileges of the writ of habeas 



corpus, because there was not such a case as 

 that which had been defined in the Consti- 

 tution. 



" I do not intend at this time to go over the 

 argument which was then made, and which 

 was to my mind conclusive; but I desire to 

 call the attention of the country now to this 

 attempt to continue this act in force during 

 the period of the presidential elections, which 

 was anticipated at the time by those who 

 opposed it, in .which their anticipations have 

 not been at fault, because the attempt is now 

 being made to force it through before the ad- 

 journment for the purpose of giving the con- 

 trol of the military authority of the Govern- 

 ment to the President of the United States to 

 reelect himself. 



" I have said that it was one of a series of 

 acts looking to this object. An act passed 

 some time ago, in 1870, giving the Federal 

 Government supervision of the elections with- 

 in the States, which in the original act was 

 limited to cities of over twenty thousand in 

 population. That has also been extended with- 

 in the last few days, by a bill which has passed 

 the Senate, to every precinct in the country, 

 authorizing the judges appointed by the Presi- 

 dent, upon the application of a certain number 

 of citizens, to appoint supervisors in any pre- 

 cinct and in all the precincts where elections 

 are held in this country. 



" So solicitous were the dominant party in 

 this country to make these laws supervising 

 and controlling the elections applicable to 

 every portion of our country, that within the 

 last few days they have changed the time of 

 election in the State of Louisiana to bring that 

 State in the presidential election under the 

 direct supervision of the Government. 



" The other portions of the act, the fourth 

 section of which you now propose to continue, 

 give jurisdiction to the courts of the United 

 States of all crimes which can, by any possi- 

 bility, occur within the States. That does 

 not require an act to continue it in force. It 

 remains in force by its own terms, clearly 

 demonstrated upon this floor, by the Senators 

 opposing its passage, to be unconstitutional, 

 subversive of the jurisdiction of the State 

 courts, drawing to the Federal officials com- 

 plete, absolute, and universal control over 

 questions which never before, under any cir- 

 cumstances, were deemed cognizable in the 

 courts of the United States. Hence I assert 

 that the plain object of this bill (and it can 

 have no other object) is to give the President 

 power to reelect himself by the bayonet. Mar- 

 tial law is not an unusual device under radical 

 rule for carrying elections in this country. It 

 is not now for the first time attempted and 

 put in force for that purpose. It has been 

 made use of elsewhere, and with the approval 

 of the Administration, and we have come^ to 

 this : that the party in power are endeavoring 

 to prop themselves and to maintain their power 

 by the use of the Army of the United States 



