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CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



in any State, unless it be necessary to repel the armed 

 enemies of the United States.' 



"This omits the other exception contained 

 in the original law, ' or to keep the peace at 

 the polls.' This, then, refers to civil officers, 

 and is an affirmative repeal of the right of the 

 civil officers of the Government to keep the 

 peace at the polls. We are not standing here 

 on this side of the House resisting a proposi- 

 tion to take away a real or imaginary power of 

 a standing army to crush the rights of freemen 

 at the polls. We are resisting an affirmative 

 enactment, for the repeal of an exception in a 

 restricting law is itself an affirmative enact- 

 ment. We are, then, resisting an affirmative 

 enactment which designs to take away the 

 power, not of the officers of the army alone, 

 not of the officers at all, because they nnder 

 that law as it now stands only have power as 

 they may be ordered or summoned forth by 

 the civil officer to whom the peace of his baili- 

 wick is intrusted. What then is intended by 

 this provision? To restrain the civil officers 

 of the United States Government from keeping 

 the peace at any election in any State, whether 

 it be a United States election or not. By what 

 means? By civil means, not by military 

 means, for the rights of the civil officer, the 

 marshal of the district if you please, to sum- 

 mon the posse comitatus, his right to summon 

 any military organizations if they be within 

 the body of his bailiwick, the right to summon 

 armed troops to sustain his civil power, is a 

 civil and not a military right, and is in the in- 

 terest of the inviolability and the strengthen- 

 ing of the law against, if need be, armed mili- 

 tary force. Can that be denied by any lawyer ? 

 Can it be controverted by any man? " 



Mr. Kimmel : " Will the gentleman describe 

 the bailiwick of United States officers? " 



Mr. Kobeson: "The jurisdiction of the 

 United States runs into the States whenever it 

 has a United States duty to perform. That is 

 not only good logic but good law." 



Mr. Kimmel : " To preserve the peace of an 

 election at a State election ? " 



Mr. Eobeson : " Wherever the United States 

 has guaranteed a right, wherever a right is de- 

 rived from the Constitution of the United States 

 and is guaranteed or is secured by it, there the 

 United States has the right and must have the 

 power to enforce and carry out that right." 



Mr. Kimmel : " What right has it guaranteed 

 in this respect ? " 



Mr. Eobeson : " It has guaranteed the right 

 to every man in the State of Maryland, who 

 has the right to vote for the most numerous 

 branch of the Maryland Legislature, to vote at 

 a peaceable election for members of Congress. 



"I know what the decisions of the Supreme 

 Court are upon that subject, and I will meet 

 them fairly. I love the law and its principles, 

 and I shall not shrink from the full effect of 

 the decisions as they are pronounced by the 

 highest tribunals of the country. I know that 

 the Supreme Court of the United States has de- 



clared that the United States has no voter ' of 

 its own creation ' in the States. I know that 

 it has declared that the right of suffrage is not 

 given in the States by the Constitution of the 

 United States. But that does not cover the 

 case. What does the Constitution say ? ' The 

 House of Representatives shall be composed of 

 members chosen every second year by the peo- 

 ple of the several States ; and the electors in 

 each State shall have the qualifications requisite 

 for electors of the most numerous branch of 

 the Legislature.' The right to vote for that 

 most numerous branch of the Legislature is 

 given by the States. The qualifications are 

 made by the States. The United States does 

 not confer the right of suffrage upon these in- 

 dividuals, but it adopts to its right of suffrage 

 and takes as its voters a class which have al- 

 ready the right of suffrage given it by the 

 States. It makes them its voters for the elec- 

 tion of its officers, and if it does its duty it is 

 bound to guarantee to them a free and fair 

 election. 



" Let me be fully understood. It is techni- 

 cally and verbally true that the Constitution of 

 the United States does not confer the right of 

 suffrage upon the individuals who vote for the 

 most numerous branch of the State Legislature. 

 That right of suffrage and the qualifications 

 necessary to it are prescribed by the State. 

 But the Constitution of the United States does 

 say that every man who does belong to that 

 class, every man who has that qualification, 

 shall be an elector for members of this House. 

 That is the right which it guarantees. It does 

 not give to any individual the right to belong 

 to that class; but when he belongs to that 

 class it gives him the right to vote at an elec- 

 tion for a member of Congress. 



" What we are resisting here is an attempt 

 to take away the power, not of the officers of 

 the army, not of the commanding general, not 

 of anybody clothed with military authority, 

 but of the civil officers of the Government to 

 keep the peace at the polls if need be by sum- 

 moning aU the power of his bailiwick, includ- 

 ing any armed force there may be in it. That 

 is what we are resisting here. We are not 

 here in advocacy of a war measure, but we are 

 here to resist this restraint of civil right. 



" My friend, the gentleman from Ohio [Mr. 

 Hurd], the other day said the danger of repub- 

 lics came from military usurpation; that all 

 that had perished had fallen by the sword. 

 Well, sir, and if this be true, how do they fall 

 by the sword ? They fall by the sword when 

 the laws are nugatory, when civil rights are 

 denied, when the civil power of the Govern- 

 ment can not be enforced. This right which 

 we are now defending is a civil power given to 

 the officers of the law, which should in time of 

 peace be superior to the military power of a 

 country. It is a power which may be exer- 

 cised in an extreme case to summon the brave 

 hearts and strong arms of the citizen soldiery 

 of any section to put down any attempt of an 



