CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



IM 



armed usurping power to interfere with free 

 elections. This IB not a fight we are making 

 in behalf of a standing army ; it is a fight in 

 behalf of civil process and the power which 

 mast lie behind it, if it is to be effective. 



" I have no right to speak for the President 

 of the United States, but it has been given out 

 here in debate, it has been given out through 

 channels more or less authorized, it speaks to 

 the common sense of the country when we see 

 these clauses put upon an appropriation bill, 

 that the gentlemen on the other side of the 

 Chamber mean to say to us and to the Presi- 

 dent, ' Take the whole dose or none ' ; that 

 they mean to say, ' Pass this affirmative repeal- 

 ing clause taking away the powers of civil offi- 

 cers to keep the peace at the polls, or do not 

 take the appropriations of the bill. We do not 

 want peace at the polls ; take away the power 

 of the law to enfore peace there, or we shall 

 refuse your supplies.' 



" It was argued by my friend from Ohio the 

 other day that this position was right and 

 proper, and he said that, if this should be done, 

 there never was a case where it was more called 

 for. Mr. Chairman, we are here members of a 

 Government under a writtenConstitution which 

 defines and limits the powers of all branches of 

 the Government. One branch is hardly more 

 popular than another. We have neither King 

 nor Lords nor Commons. We have elements 

 of popular government coordinate under our 

 Constitution ; three of them are responsible 

 more or less directly to the people. The Presi- 

 dent of the United States goes to the people 

 every four years to answer for his conduct and 

 to receive their condemnation or their approval. 

 This House goes every two years. Both are 

 popular, both represent the people within those 

 coordinate spheres and those limits which the 

 Constitution has assigned. There is no anal- 

 ogy with the organization of the English Gov- 

 ernment, which has a monarch with kingly and 

 royal prerogatives, who represents himself, his 

 family, his royalty, his prerogative, and his in- 

 heritance, and a house of peers which repre- 

 sents their property, their dignity, and their 

 peerage, and the House of Commons, which 

 alone is elected by the people and alone is re- 

 sponsible to them. Here all the branches of 

 our popular Government respond to the bid- 

 ding and are dependent on the votes of the 

 people. Our Constitution provides that when 

 there is a law on the statute-book it shall not 

 be repealed unless that repeal has the assent of 

 both branches of Congress and the approval of 

 the President ; and if it fail to receive the ap- 

 proval of the President, then the law shall not 

 be repealed unless two thirds of both Houses 

 concur in that repeal. That is all that the Con- 

 stitution provides on this subject, and it is all 

 the power under the Constitution which gen- 

 tlemen on the other side of this chamber and 

 at the other end of this Capitol have. And, if 

 they ask more than that, they ask what the 

 Constitution does not give them, because the 



Constitution says that when a law is once on 

 the statute-book it shall not be swept away if 

 the President and more than one third of either 

 House object. That is the limit and extent 

 of their constitutional right and power of re- 

 peal. 



" And when they come here, not waiting for 

 the time which they think they see, when they 

 shall have all the branches of this Government 

 under their own control, and say, ' We will 

 force this repeal, although not constitutionally 

 entitled to it, by withholding supplies,' do they 

 not then do an unconstitutional thing ? If they 

 say to another branch of this Government, 

 ' Give us what we have no constitutional right 

 to ask, and if you do not give it we will refuse 

 to do our constitutional duty, refuse to do what 

 the Constitution requires us to do, 1 is not their 

 action then unconstitutional ? If they say to 

 those who deny them, and who have the con- 

 stitutional right to deny them, ' You shall 

 agree, or we will refuse to discharge our con- 

 titutional duties ; we will refuse to pay the 

 salary of the President ; we will refuse to pay 

 the salaries and expenses of the courts ; we 

 will refuse to supply the money necessary to 

 carry on the machinery of this Government,' 

 is not that unconstitutional ? And if it be un- 

 constitutional to do that ; if their refusal goes 

 to the destruction of the Government itself; 

 if it stops the wheels of Government; if it brings 

 us to a standstill and a destruction, is not that 

 revolutionary." 



Mr. Sparks : " I now move the committee 

 rise and report the bill and amendments to the 

 House." 



The motion was agreed to. 



Mr. Sparks : " I demand the previous ques- 

 tion on the bill and amendments." 



The amendments of the committee were 

 concurred in. The bill, as amended, was or- 

 dered to be engrossed and read a third time. 



The question was taken, and it was passed 

 as follows: 



YEAS Aikcn, Armfleld, Atherton, Atkins, Bach- 

 man, BelUhoover. Bicknell, Blackburn, Bliss. Blount, 

 Bouck, Bragg, Bright, Buckner, Cabell, Caldwell, 

 Carlisle, Chalmers, Clardy, John B. Clark, Jr., Cly- 

 mer, Coob, Coffrotn, Colenck ? Converse, Cook, Co- 

 vert, Cravens, Culberson, Davidson, Joseph J. Davis, 

 Lowndes H. Davis, De La Matyr, Deuster Dibrell, 



Hatch, Ilenkle, Henry, Herbert, Herndon, HillJ 

 Hooker, Hosteller, House, Hull, Hunton, Kurd, John- 

 ston, Jones, Kenna, Kiramel, Kin.'. Kitchin, Klutz, 

 Knottj Ladd, Le Fevre, Lewis, Lounsbery, Lowe, 

 Manning, Benj. F. Martin, Edward L. Martin, Mo- 

 Kenzie, Alt-Lane, McMahon, McMillin. Mills, Money, 

 Morrison, Morse. Muldrow, Muller. Murch, Myers, 

 New, Nicnolls, O'Brien, O'Connor, O'Reilly, Persona, 

 Phelps, Phister. Poehler, Reagan, John 8. Richardson, 

 Richmond, Robertson, Ross. Roth well, John W. 

 Ryon, Sarafprd, Sawyer, Scales. Shelley, Simonton, 

 James W. Singleton. 0. R. Singleton, Slemons, Heze- 

 kiah B. Smith, William . Smith, Sparks, Speer, 

 Springer, Steele, Stephens, Stevenson, Talbot. Tay- 

 lor, Thompson, Tillman, R. W. Townshend, Tucker, 

 Oscar Turner, Thomas Turner, Vance, Waddill, 



