CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



189 



never was intended that the Array of the 

 United States was to be used in that manner. 

 If it had been, Congress would have provided 

 for it. 



" But, sir, this debate may be premature. I 

 have admitted myself, as one of the most pain- 

 ful circumstances connected with this transac- 

 tion, that we are left so much in the dark as 

 to what are the real facts of the case. I do 

 know one thing ; I do know that the rights of 

 the States of this Union, the preservation of 

 our Government, is not worth the pen with 

 which the Constitution was written, if one 

 single little judge of a district court can over- 

 turn a State government or set up what State 

 government he pleases. I know furthermore, 

 that, so far as my knowledge extends, the idea 

 of any judge upon an injunction bill under- 

 taking to set up and inaugurate a government 

 of a State is a thing that no man ever heard of 

 before this was done, and that no man ever 

 dreamed of as possible until it was actually 

 achieved in this very case. And I know that 

 I shall not, under any blind respect for courts, 

 for one moment tolerate any such proposition 

 as that. When a court has jurisdiction to do 

 a thing, I cannot help it if it has erred ; the 

 only way to rectify its error is in the mode 

 that is provided by law ; t but when a court 

 has no jurisdiction whatever to do any such 

 thing, when a little judge of an inferior court 

 of the United States, a court that may be 

 abolished to-morrow if Congress sees fit to 

 abolish it, assumes the power to destroy one 

 State government and set up another State gov- 

 ernment according to his will and his judgment, 

 I deny that his opinion is entitled to respect 

 anywhere or upon any occasion." 



Mr. Carpenter : " I entirely concur with 

 the honorable Senator from Ohio, that a Fed- 

 eral court has no right to overturn one gov- 

 ernment and set up another, and I simply 

 desire to put in a protest here that no such 

 thing has been done in this case. Whether A 

 or li has been duly elected Governor of a 

 State is one thing and a totally different thing 

 from the question whether that State govern- 

 ment shall stand or fall. We had a few years 

 ago a contested election between candidates 

 for the governorship in the State of Wisconsin. 

 Our Supreme Court decided that the man who 

 had received a certificate and entered upon 

 the discharge of his duties was not elected, 

 and rendered a judgment in favor of the con- 

 testant, and the man who had received the 

 certificate vacated the executive chamber and 

 his opponent took the place. That decision 

 did not disturb the State government. It was 

 a mere question between A and B as to who 

 was entitled to exercise the office of Governor. 

 Now, I understand the question to be precisely 

 the same in Louisiana not between rival gov- 

 ernments, but between rival candidates as to 

 who has been elected to office. 



" One word in regard to the jurisdiction of 

 that court. I am not going into the details 



of the matter at all, because such a discussion 

 is entirely premature, and I only do it by way 

 of protesting against what might seem to be 

 implied as the facts of the case from silence 

 on this side of the Chamber when the Senator 

 from Ohio has denounced such a condition of 

 things. 



" Dnder the fifteenth amendment, for in- 

 stance, which provides that no State shall 

 abridge or deny the right of citizens of the 

 United States to vote on account of race, color, 

 or previous condition of servitude, and that 

 the Congress of the United States shall have 

 power by appropriate legislation to enforce 

 the provisions of that article, it is manifest 

 that the right to vote means the right to have 

 the vote canvassed and counted, and effectual 

 for the purpose for which votes are cast. Then, 

 in execution of that provision of the Consti- 

 tution which says that Congress shall legistate 

 to carry it into effect, Congress has passed an 

 act saying that no man shall be deprived of an 

 office, with certain specified exceptions, in con- 

 sequence of the State canvassers or State offi- 

 cers having refused to receive and canvass a 

 vote offered by a person in the condition men- 

 tioned in the amendment to the Constitution, 

 and that the party claiming to be elected may 

 have an appropriate action in the Circuit 

 Court of the United States to obtain the office. 

 What that appropriate action is to be, whether 

 it shall be a suit in equity for an injunction to 

 restrain a canvass which would put the wrong 

 man in, or whether he must wait until his 

 rival, who was not elected, has been installed 

 in office, and then bring a quowarran to against 

 him, is a fair question tor judicial determina- 

 tion. It does not go to the jurisdiction of the 

 court over the subject. The question is merely 

 what is the appropriate form of action. You 

 might as well say, when a court had taken 

 possession of property, for instance, in an ac- 

 tion of replevin, because the action of replevin 

 could not be maintained and some other form 

 of action must, the court had no jurisdiction 

 over the subject-matter. That cannot be main- 

 tained." 



Mr. Thnrman : "A word or two more. 

 First, let me speak of this section of the act 

 of 1807, read by the Senator from Indiana, 

 and it is only necessary to pay attention to it 

 to see that it has nothing in the world to do 

 with this ease. It reads as follows : 



In all cases of insurrection or obstruction of the 

 laws either of the United States or of nny individual 

 State or Territory where it is lawful for the Presi- 

 dent of the United States to call forth the militia 

 for the purpose of suppressing such insurrection, or 

 of causing the laws to be'duly executed 



"What is the case in which it is lawful for 

 him to call forth the militia for the suppress- 

 ing of such insurrection, or of causing the laws 

 to be duly executed? It is when he is called 

 upon by the Executive of the State, the Legis- 

 lature not being in session, or by the Legisla- 

 ture if it is in session 



