CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



Ml 



objects for which they were raised by Con- 

 . Let the army protect the frontier. Let 

 the navy bo afloat on the seas protecting our 

 flag and our commerce everywhere. Let each 

 branch of these forces be kept in that sphere 

 they were created for, and m which in past 

 years they have won such honor and glory to 

 our common country. Let them be perform- 

 ing their duties, and let the civil administration 

 of the Government go on in its own channel. 

 Let members of Congress be returned as here- 

 tofore ; and if any man has been deprived of 

 his rights to his seat here, then let this high 

 constitutional court, the House of Representa- 

 tives, decide that question, and not submit it 

 to the decision of bayonets insead of bal- 

 lots." 



Mr. Chalmers of Mississippi : " I desire to 

 say that the Democratic party introduced this 

 law just as it will stand when we make this 

 modification of it. After it was introduced in 

 that form, Mr. Pomeroy, a Senator from Kan- 

 sas, moved to amend by adding the words ' or 

 to keep the peace at the polls/ 



" What did Mr. Powell then say ? He was 

 a Kentuckian, whose State had been overrun 

 by armed troops at the polls. He said : ' I 

 object to that, for it will destroy the effect of 

 the bill. The State authorities can keep the 

 peace at the polls.' Upon that question every 

 Democrat voted against putting that amend- 

 ment upon the bill, and every Republican 

 voted in favor of it. The Democratic party 

 then stood as it stands to-day. After that 

 amendment had been voted upon the bill, the 

 Senator from Kentucky, having failed to se- 

 cure the law as he introduced it, knowing that 

 his State was ground down by the bayonet at 

 the polls, agreed to accept the law even with 

 that amendment upon it, for it would restrict 

 the use of the troops even as amended. And 

 the Democratic party of the House voted for 

 it for the same reason." 



Mr. White of Pennsylvania : " The gentle- 

 man from Mississippi has given correctly a 

 part of the history of the passage of the act. 

 It is quite true that Hon. Lazarus Powell in- 

 troduced the bill originally and made an elab- 

 orate speech upon it; and the question was 

 exhaustively discussed in the Senate of the 

 United States. When the question arose upon 

 the passage of the bill, an honorable gentle- 

 man, then a Senator from Kansas, moved to 

 amend by adding the words ' to keep the peace 

 at the polls.' Those are the objectionable 

 words now the bone of contention in this 

 controversy. That motion was the subject of 

 some colloquial debate. Incidentally the mis- 

 use of the posse comitatus power of marshals 

 in the border-raid troubles in Kansas was 

 brought into the discussion by Mr. Porneroy. 

 After he had presented the necessity of keep- 

 ing peace at the polls in order to secure the 

 right of suffrage, the amendment was incor- 

 porated upon the bill of Senator Powell. Let 

 me call the attention of the House and the 



country to the fact that a most distinguished 

 lawyer, then a Senator, now a private citizen, 

 a man whom the gentleman from Illinois [Mr. 

 Sparks] will recognize as the Magnus Apollo 

 of the Illinois bar, supported that amendment. 

 I allude to Hon. Lyman Trumbull." 



Mr. Sparks: "lie was then a Republican, 

 was he not?" 



Mr. White : " Certainly he was ; but he was 

 a good lawyer, I apprehend, then, as he is now. 

 He sanctioned this amendment. Hon. Mr. 

 McDougall then moved to postpone the bill in- 

 definitely. Mr. Powell said, ' No, no ' ; and 

 upon his request the vote was taken on the 

 passage of the bill, and it was passed. Hon. 

 Mr. liar Ian, then a Senator, entered a motion 

 to reconsider, which was subsequently debat- 

 ed ; and Hon. Reverdy Johnson (as gentlemen 

 will find if they will follow the debates) made 

 the point, in recognition of the virtue of this 

 amendment, that it was competent to give the 

 President of the United States this power for 

 the purpose of enforcing peace at the polls. 

 The yeas and nays were again called upon the 

 passage of the bill in the Senate, and every 

 Democrat voted for it. 



" The bill came to this House and was re- 

 ferred to the Committee on the Judiciary. It 

 was reported to the House, and the honorable 

 gentleman, then a conspicuous member of this 

 body as now, voted for it without making any 

 complaint or criticism about this clause. So 

 did my honorable colleague [Mr. Coffroth], 

 who now represents on this floor a Republican 

 district, and who, I trust, will be consistent 

 with his record in the final vote on this ques- 

 tion. So did every other Democrat in this 

 House. 



" The point we now make is that the Demo- 

 cratic party having sanctioned the passage of 

 this bill containing this clause 'to keep the 

 peace at the polls,' it is little short of revolu- 

 tionary for them now to come in and under- 

 take to repeal this legislation upon an appro- 

 priation bill. This is the point I make, and 

 the point I for one am willing to stand upon 

 before the country." 



Mr. Chalmers : " One word to the gentle- 

 man from Pennsylvania [Mr. White]. He said 

 that I had not given a full history of this law ; 

 that Reverdy Johnson, the great lawyer of 

 Maryland, had endorsed it in the very words 

 in which it now stands upon the statute-book, 

 and that Mr. Johnson as Senator opposed the 

 reconsideration when it was asked for in the 

 Senate. 



" Mr. Chairman, I bow in humble reverence 

 before the name and the memory of Reverdy 

 Johnson. I .can never do too much honor to 

 the Spartan firmness, to the more than Roman 

 dignity with which he and Powell and Sauls- 

 bury and the little band of Democrats that 

 stood around them then, battled for the Con- 

 stitution, when an arrogant and intolerant ma- 

 jority banished men from the country for free- 

 dom of speech, when they were dragging mem- 



