222 



CONGKESS, UNITED STATES. 



though you punish every man who does any 

 one of the acts mentioned in this bill, and pun- 

 ish him never so severely, yet the Congress of 

 the United States will step in and under that 

 clause of the Constitution which says that you, 

 the State, shall not make or enforce any such 

 law, we, the Federal power, will seize the man 

 whom you have punished for this very act, and 

 will punish him again ; we will treat the keeper 

 of a theatre as the State; we will treat the 

 hotel-keeper as the State ; we will treat the 

 railroad conductor as the State ; we will treat 

 the stage-driver as the State; and although 

 you may have punished each and every one of 

 these men for the very acts enumerated in this 

 bill, we, under the pretense that the States do 

 make or enforce a law which deprives a citizen 

 of his equal privileges and immunites, will seize 

 that citizen again and subject him to a double 

 punishment for the offense for which he has 

 already suffered.' That is what this bill is; 

 and no sophistry can make it any thing else. 



" Take the case of Louisiana. If I am rightly 

 informed and if I am not the Senator from 

 Louisiana can correct me there is not one sin- 

 gle act or omission in this bill which is not al- 

 ready punishable in Louisiana under her State 

 statute. And now, sir, you are to go with the 

 Federal power into the State of Louisiana and 

 under pretense that that State has made and 

 enforced laws which violate the fourteenth 

 amendment, when every law that she has 

 made and every law that she does enforce is in 

 strict consonance and accordance with that 

 amendment, you are to go there and seize her 

 citizens who have already been punished by 

 the. State authority and punish them a second 

 time by the Federal arm 1 



" "Why, sir, if it is constitutional reasoning 

 that supports this bill, then I confess that all 

 my studies of the Constitution have been wholly 

 in vain. If this is justice, then I confess that 

 forty years and more of study of the law have 

 all been thrown away upon me. If this is not 

 monstrous, if this is not inhuman, if it is not a 

 violation of the first principles of right, if it is 

 not a violation of the spirit of that provision in 

 the Constitution that no man shall be put in 

 jeopardy twice for the same offense, if it is not 

 legislation utterly disgraceful to a civilized 

 people, then I confess, Mr. President, that I am 

 not able to see correctly what is the scope or 

 purpose of this legislation, or what are the 

 principles of right and justice that should pre- 

 vail under a civilized government." 



Some verbal amendments were made to the 

 report of the committee, after which it was 

 adopted as a substitute for the original bill, and 

 passed by the folio wing vote : 



. YEAS Messrs. Alcorn, Allison, Boutwell, Buck- 

 ingham, Conkling, Edmuuds, Flanagan, Freling- 

 huysen, Hamlin, Harvey, Howe, Ingalls, Mitchell 

 Morrill of Vermont, Oglesby, Patterson, Pease, 

 Pratt, Eamsey, Robertson, Sargent, Scott, Spencer, 

 Stewart, Wadleigh, Washburn, West, Windonij 

 and Wright 29. 

 NATS Messrs. Bogy, Boreman, Carpenter, Coop- 



er, Davis, Hager, Hamilton of Maryland, Johnston, 

 Kelly, Lewis, McCreery, Merrimon, Norwood, Kan- 

 Bom, Saulsbury, and Stockton 16. 



ABSENT Messrs. Anthony, Bayard, Brpwnlow, 

 Cameron, Chandler, Clayton, Conover, Cragin, Den- 

 nis, Dorsey, Fenton, Ferry of Connecticut, Ferry of 

 Michigan, Gilbert, Goldthwaite, Gordon. Hamilton 

 of Texas, Hitchcock, Jones, Logan, Morrill of Maine, 

 Morton, Schurz, Sherman, Sprague, Stevenson, Thur- 

 man, and Tipton 28. 



In the House, the bill was considered and 

 referred to the Committee on the Judiciary, 

 where it remained, together with the House bill, 

 at the close of the Session. 



In the Senate, on March 4th, the bill to re- 

 store the rights of the State of Louisiana was 

 considered. 



Mr. Carpenter, of "Wisconsin, said : " Mr. 

 President, I shall endeavor to show that the 

 admitted facts warrant the passage of the bill 

 now under consideration. Those facts are 

 summed up in the preamble to this bill, which 

 I will ask the Clerk to read." 



The Chief Clerk read as follows : 



Whereas, There is no Governor, Lieutenant-Gov- 

 ernor, Secretary of State, Attorney-General, Auditor 

 of Public Accounts, or Superintendent of Education 

 in the State of Louisiana, holding said offices, re- 

 spectively, under an election by the legal voters of 

 the State of Louisiana, in pursuance of the constitu- 

 tion and laws of said State ; and whereas there is not 

 in said State any Legislature elected by the legal 

 voters of said State, according to the constitution and 

 laws thereof j and whereas there is no provision in 

 the constitution or laws of said State for the election 

 of a Governor, Lieutenant-Governor, Secretary of 

 State, Attorney-General, Auditor of Public Accounts, 

 or Superintendent of Education, until the next regu- 

 lar election, to be held in November, A. D. 1876 ; and 

 whereas the offices of Governor, Lieutenant-Govern- 

 or, Secretary of State, Attorney-General, Auditor of 

 Public Accounts, and Superintendent of Education 

 are now filled de facto by persons claiming the right 

 to hold said offices in virtue of a pretended canvass 

 of the votes given at the last general election in said 

 State, on the 4th day of November, A. D. 1872, by 

 John Lynch and others, but which canvass has been 

 shown to be fraudulent and void; and whereas a 

 body of men in said State now claim to be the mem- 

 bers of, and to constitute, the Legislature of said 

 State, and were organized as a Legislature in pursu- 

 ance of illegal orders issued by a judge of the Cir- 

 cuit Court of the United States for the District of 

 Louisiana: and whereas the President of the United 

 States, in May, A. D. 1873, did issue his proclamation 

 recognizing the person'now holding de facto the office 

 of Governor of said State as legal' Governor of said 

 State, and the persons now holding de facto the 

 offices of Lieutenant-Governor, Secretary of State. 

 Attorney-General, Auditor of Public Accounts, and 

 Superintendent of Education in said State as legal 

 officers of said State government, which proclama- 

 tion was issued upon representations made by said 

 persons holding said offices, or on their behalf, but 

 it now appears that said persons holding said offices 

 are not legal officers of said State ; and whereas said 

 pretended Legislature is now in session, pretending 

 to enact laws for said State, which said pretended 

 Governor is pretending to approve, under which pre- 

 tended laws it will be claimed rights have vested, so 

 that the people of said State may be oppressed and 

 involved in vexatious and expensive litigation before 

 the next general election, under the constitution and 

 laws of said State, in A. D. 1876; and whereas the 



