CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



183 



imbruing itself in the blood of citizens, and 

 then he was to wake up and find that something 

 had happened, and take a fortnight or three 

 weeks to find ont which was the apparently 

 true government for the time being, and then 

 act. That does not comport with my ideas of 

 executive duty. I think it is the duty of the 

 President of the United States to foresee that 

 there is a possibility of collisions between rival 

 claimants to the administration of power, and 

 to be ready to meet that. What the dispatches 

 that the Senator speaks of mean, if he wonld 

 inform himself thoroughly, I think would be 

 only that a part of the army being there, as it 

 must be somewhere, without offense to Louisi- 

 ana or to Ohio either, the President of the 

 United States has directed his subordinate offi- 

 cer, in the event of a disturbance, to interpose 

 on the call of the proper authorities ; and it be- 

 ing necessary to decide in advance on the mo- 

 ment who they are, just so far as the act of Con- 

 gress authorizes him to interfere ; that is to eay, 

 if there is a commotion arising suddenly in the 

 city of New Orleans between conflicting claim- 

 ants to executive or legislative power, the 

 general in charge is instructed in advance : 

 'Yon will for the time being take this side to 

 be the side representing the State, and you 

 will exercise the power that the law confers 

 upon you to keep people in a state of quiet.' 

 But when gentlemen go beyond that, what the 

 marshal has done and what his pone of 

 assistants did was in obeying the mandates of 

 the court*, in which my friend from Ohio and 

 his associates, I think, have expressed the 

 greatest possible confidence as the true tribu- 

 nals to determine the rights of citizens to 

 whatever they may claim to have." 



Mr. Thurman: "If the President of the 

 United States has done nothing but what is 

 authorized by the act of Congress, I am the 

 last man to censure him, and I have not cen- 

 sured him, because we have not the facts before 

 us; at least, I have not the facts before me. I 

 say again, however, that so far as I know 

 there has been no call upon the President of 

 the United States, either by the Executive 

 of Louisiana, or by the Legislature of Louisi- 

 ana, to interfere with the military power of 

 the General Government. If there has been 

 I shall be glad to be corrected, and very glad 

 to make the acknowledgment that is due. But 

 if there has not been any such call, then I 

 quite deny that the President of the United 

 States can anticipate that there will be trouble 

 in a State without any call by anybody pur- 

 port ing to be the Governor or Legislature of 

 that State, oan interfere with the military arm 

 of the Government. Not at all, sir, can he 

 do any such thing." 



" And as to executing the decisions of the 

 courts of the United States, I do not know any 

 authority that a general of the Army of the 

 United States or that the United States mar- 

 shal lias to call upon the troops of the United 

 States to execute them except in cases in which 



it is expressly given to him by act of Congress. 

 And if this is such a case then I again confess 

 that I have overlooked any such act. 



'And furthermore, when it comes to the 

 question of respect for judicial authority, my 

 friend says that we Democrats have had very 

 great respect for judicial authority " 



Mr. Edmunds : " No ; I did not say that. I 

 paid professed to have." 



Mr. Thurman : "Professed to have! Very 

 well, sir ; when he will show any case in 

 which we have ever professed that a district 

 judge of the United States had power to over- 

 turn a State government and set up a State 

 government according to his own will, that 

 upon an injunction bill he had power to take 

 possession of the State, and in direct violatkn 

 of an act of Congress inaugurate legislators 

 and set up a Legislature when he shows we 

 have professed any such thing as that, then I 

 will be willing to take his rebuke, but not till 

 then. 



" No, sir, that will not do at all. There was 

 a time when the Supreme Court of the United 

 States made a decision, a solemn decision, upon 

 a most interesting question of the interpreta- 

 tion of the Constitution of the United States, 

 and I remember full well that there was a 

 mighty party in this country, which has since 

 become the dominant party, that condemned 

 that decision, end paid no manner of respect 

 to it, and undertook to consign the judge who 

 delivered that opinion to eternal infamy. It 

 will not do, therefore, to talk about this de- 

 cision of this judge at New Orleans, this dis- 

 trict judge, who assumes to overturn a State 

 and to set up a State government upon an in- 

 junction bill ! " 



Mr. Edmunds : " The Senator from Ohio 

 says that he does not object to the President ex- 

 ecuting acts of Congress in the use of the Army. 

 We are very much obliged to him for that ; but 

 he says he does not know where the President 

 gets authority before there is any call upon 

 him by a Legislature or a Governor, which- 

 ever one may be the true one, to interfere. 

 So say I. When the President does interfere 

 in such a case as that, it will be time enough 

 to inquire. The Army of the United States, 

 under the command of the President, has not 

 interfered in the way that the Senator seems 

 to imply that it has, unless it is interference 

 to be quartered in the city of New Orleans 

 rather than in the city of Columbus, Ohio. 



" I should like to know where this Army of 

 ours is going to stay, if every State sets up its 

 dignity and says, ' You must not be with us.' 

 Suppose New England says, 'We do not want 

 any army; get out of our way;' the Middle 

 States say, ' You cannot stay here ; you nre 

 infringing on State rights here;' and the 

 Southern States say the same thing. What, 

 then, is to become of the poor people serving 

 in the Army?" 



Mr. Thurman : " Allow me to ask a ques- 

 tion. Did not the Army of the United States 



