260 



CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



Warner, Weaver, Wellborn. Whiteaker, Whitthorne, 

 Thomas Williams, Willis, Wilson, Wise, Fernando 

 Wood, Wright, Yocum, Casey Young 148. 



NAYS Nelson W. Aldrich, William Aldrich, An- 

 derson, Bailey, Baker, Ballou, Barbei\ Barlow, Bel- 

 ford, Bingham, Blake, Bowman, Boyd, Brewer, 

 Briggs, Bngham, Browne, Burrows, Calkins, Camp, 

 Cannon, Carpenter, Caswell, Chittenden, Claflin, 

 Rush Clark, Conger, Cowgill, Crapo, Crowley, Dag- 



f?tt, George E. Davis, Deering, Dunnell, Dwight, 

 instein, Errett, Fair, Ferdon, Field, Fisher, tor- 

 sythe, Fort, Frye, Garfield, Godshalk, Hall, John 

 Hammond, Benj. W. Harris, Haskell, Hawk, Haw- 

 ley, Hayes. Hazelton, Heilman, Henderson, Hiscock, 

 "orr, Houk, Humphrey, James, Jorgensen. Joyce, 

 eifer, Kelley, Ketcham, Killinger, Lapham, Lindsey, 



... _.!_ * 4,r,./-i -J i/r~n i_ ** ~/-i 



ley 

 Ho 



JV61ICr. J-X^llGJ 1 * JL\-*J LVAJ t*l-Ll J.k-iJAJ.iJ.^V>A . _I-Jt..J.'HtHi;, .A-J 1 1H.40VJ J y 



Loring. Marsh. Mason, McCoid, McCook, McGowan, 

 McKimey, Miles, Mitchell. Monroe, Morton, Neal, 

 Newberry, Norcross, O'Neill, Orth. Osmer, Overton, 

 Pierce, round, Prescott, Price, Reed, Rice, D. P. 

 Richardson, Robeson, Robinson, William A. Russell, 

 Thomas Ryan, Sapp, Shallenberger, Sherwin, A. Herr 

 Smith.Starin, Stone, Thomas, Amos Townsend. Ty- 

 ler, J. T. Updegraff, Thomas Updegraff. Urner, Valen- 

 tine, Van Aernam, Van Voorhis, Voorhis, Wait, 

 Ward, Washburn, White, Wilber, C. G. Williams, 

 Willits, Walter A. Wood 122. 



NOT VOTING Acklen. Bayne, Beale, Bland, But- 

 terworth, Alvah A. Clark, Cox, Dick, Harmer, Hub- 

 bell. Lay. Joseph J. Martin, Miller, Daniel L. Russell, 

 Wells, Thomas L. Young 16. 



In the Senate, on April 15th, the bill from 

 the House was considered. 



Mr. Elaine: "I will now offer an amend- 

 ment to come in at the close of section 6." 



The Chief Clerk : " It is proposed to add at 

 the end of section 6 the following : 



" And any military, naval, or civil officer, or any 

 other person, who shall, except for the purposes here- 

 in named, appear armed with a deadly weapon of any 

 description, either concealed or displayed, within a 

 mile of any polling place where a general or special 

 election for Representative to Congress is being neld, 

 shall, on conviction, be punished with a fine not less 

 than five hundred nor more than five thousand dollars, 

 or with imprisonment for a period not less than six 

 months nor more than five years, or with both fine 

 and imprisonment, at the discretion of the court." 



Mr. Elaine: "Mr. President, the existing 

 section of the Revised Statutes numbered 2002 

 reads thus : 



" No military or naval officer, or other person en- 

 gaged in the civil, military, or naval service of the 

 United States, shall order, bring, keep, or have under 

 his authority or control, any troops or armed men at 

 the place where any general or special election is held 

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

 enemies of the United States, or to keep the peace at 

 the polls. 



" The object of the proposed section 6 is to 

 get rid of the eight closing words, namely, ' or 

 to keep the peace at the polls,' and therefore 

 the mode of legislation proposed in the army 

 bill now before the Senate is an unusual mode ; 

 it is an extraordinary mode. If you want to 

 take off a single sentence at the end of a sec- 

 tion in the Revised Statutes, the ordinary way 

 is to strike off those words, but the mode cho- 

 sen in this bill is to repeat and reenact the 

 whole section, leaving those few words out. 

 While I do not wish to be needlessly suspicious 

 on a small point, I am quite persuaded that this 



did not happen by accident, but that it came 

 by design. If I may so speak, it came of cun- 

 ning, the intent being to create the impression 

 that, whereas the Republicans in the adminis- 

 tration of the General Government had been 

 using troops right and left, hither and thither, 

 in every direction, as soon as the Democrats 

 got power they enacted this section. I can 

 imagine Democratic candidates for Congress 

 all over the country reading this section to 

 gaping and listening audiences as one of the 

 first offsprings of Democratic reform, whereas 

 every word of it, every syllable of it, from its 

 first to its last, is the enactment of a Repub- 

 lican Congress. 



" I repeat that this unusual form presents a 

 dishonest issue, whether so intended or not. 

 It presents the issue that as soon as the Demo- 

 crats get possession of the Federal Government 

 they intended to enact the clause which is 

 thus embraced. The law was passed by a Re- 

 publican Congress in 1865. There were forty- 

 six Senators sitting in this Chamber at the 

 time, of whom only ten or at most eleven were 

 Democrats. The House of Representatives was 

 overwhelmingly Republican. We were in the 

 midst of a war. The Republican Administra- 

 tion had a million or possibly twelve hundred 

 thousand bayonets at its command. Thus cir- 

 cumstanced and thus surrounded, with the 

 amplest possible power to interfere with elec- 

 tions had they so designed, with soldiers in 

 every hamlet and county of the United States, 

 the Republican party themselves placed that 

 provision on the statute-book, and Abraham 

 Lincoln, their President, signed it. I beg you 

 to observe, Mr. President, that this is the first 

 instance in the legislation of the United States 

 in which any restrictive clause whatever was 

 put upon the statute-book in regard to the use 

 of troops at the polls. The Republican party 

 did it with the Senate and the House in their 

 control. Abraham Lincoln signed it when he 

 was Commander-in-Chief of an army larger 

 than ever Napoleon Bonaparte had at his com- 

 mand. So much by way of correcting an in- 

 genious and studied attempt at misrepresenta- 

 tion. 



" The alleged object is to strike out the few 

 words that authorize the use of troops to keep 

 peace at the polls. This country has been 

 alarmed, I rather think indeed amused, at the 

 great effort made to create a widespread im- 

 pression that the Republican party relies for its 

 popular strength upon the use of the bayonet. 

 This Democratic Congress has attempted to 

 give a bad name to this country throughout 

 the civilized world, and to give it on a false 

 issue. They have raised an issue that has no 

 foundation in fact, that is false in whole and 

 detail, false in the charge, false in all the spe- 

 cifications. That impression sought to be cre- 

 ated, as I say, not only throughout the North 

 American continent but in Europe to-day, is 

 that elections are attempted in this country to 

 be controlled by the bayonet. I denounce it 



