CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



1,494 supervisors and 8,565 deputy marshals 

 in 1876, at a cost to the United States of $155,- 

 021.88. This enormous sum of money was 

 taken from the people to hire men to corrupt 

 tlio voters and pollute the ballot-box in order 

 to carry the State of New York for the Re- 

 publican party. In Pennsylvania there were 

 1,592 supervisors and 896 deputy marshals in 

 1876, at a cost to the United States of $83,590. 

 All the supervisors and deputy marshals were 

 in Philadelphia, except 273, and the amount 

 expended in Philadelphia to coerce the voter 

 and keep that city Republican was $30,860. 

 In 1878 in Pennsylvania there were 1,682 su- 

 pervisors and 773 deputy marshals, at the enor- 

 mous cost to the United States of $43,943. All 

 of the deputy marshals and all of the supervi- 

 sors except 812 were at Philadelphia. The 

 sum spent at Philadelphia at this election was 

 $40,820. The sworn testimony of the marshal 

 of the eastern district of Pennsylvania before 

 the Wallace-Teller investigating committee of 

 the United States Senate shows the most as- 

 tounding fact that every one of the deputy 

 marshals in Philadelphia was a Republican. 

 Even if they had been reputable persons, which 

 they were not, this would be so unjust that it 

 should meet the condemnation of every fair- 

 minded citizen. 



u Now, sir, I will give a summary of part of 

 the sworn testimony before that committee to 

 prove the desperate and depraved character of 

 these deputy marshals. Detective Charles Mil- 

 ler, connected with the district attorney's office 

 of that city, testified that 



" Ho knew Philip Madden, a deputy of the Fourth 

 Ward. He was one of the worst men in Philadelphia, 

 violent and dangerous. He has been out of prison 

 about eight months for highway robbery. Andrew 

 Lamvello, of the First Ward, is a fugitive from justice. 

 Dan Redding is a bad, dangerous character, and has 

 been tried for murder. George Cornelius is of bad 

 reputation. Michael Slater is a notorious repeater and 

 thief. Pitts, of the Seventh Ward, keeps a gambling 

 place ; he is colored, and has been arrested. Henry 

 Scott, colored, of Lombard Street, has a bad reputa- 

 tion. Kadney F. Springfield, of the Fifteenth Ward, 

 was tried for murder and acquitted. All those men 

 were deputy marshals to the knowledge of the detec- 

 tive. 



" Other witnesses testified to the bad and 

 debased character of the deputy marshals ; 

 that many of them were drunk ; that they in- 

 sulted and maltreated the voters. From this 

 sworn testimony, and which I am told can not 

 be contradicted, among the deputy marshals 

 in the great city of Philadelphia appointed to 

 protect the purity of the ballot-box and sus- 

 tain a free and untrammeled election, we find 

 the most debased characters, highway robbers, 

 fugitives from justice, repeaters, thieves, keep- 

 ers of gambling-houses, murderers, keepers of 

 bawdy-houses, and drunkards. 



" Mr. Chairman, this is an astonishing reve- 

 lation. Think of it, sir! This is the city where 

 1 old Independence bell' first rang out the joy- 

 ous peals of liberty. Liberty of the citizen 

 was then the thrilling cry of the patriots of the 



Revolution ; but now, more than one hundred 

 years thereafter, comes np a bitter and shame- 

 ful complaint that the inestimable right of the 

 citizen to a free ballot, uncontrolled by milita- 

 ry or civil Federal power, is trampled under 

 foot by a horde of debased and drunken deputy 

 marshals. 



"Mr. Chairman, as a native of the great 

 State of Pennsylvania and one of its Represent- 

 atives on this floor, I enter my solemn protest 

 against this debasing interference with the elec- 

 tions in my State. Pennsylvania has laws upon 

 its statute-books which secure to every elector 

 his right to vote." 



Mr. Robeson of New Jersey: "The real 

 question between the gentlemen on the other 

 side and myself is a difficulty which arises on 

 the main propositions of this case ; not a diffi- 

 culty in logic or in argument, not even in ver- 

 bal propositions; but we differ about our 

 premises, about the principles from which we 

 start. And, if that were otherwise, I should 

 hesitate myself before I arrived at a different 

 conclusion from the distinguished gentlemen 

 who have so clearly and ably presented the 

 other side of this case. But the difference 

 between us is found in our ideas of the organ- 

 ic principles of our Government, about the 

 design of the men who established it, and the 

 purposes for which it was constituted. These 

 gentlemen seem to argue, and I believe for 

 such is the influence of early education and 

 habit of thought they honestly and habitu- 

 ally think that we are living, not under the 

 Constitution of the United States, but under a 

 confederacy of separate sovereignties ; where- 

 as I think that we are members of a govern- 

 ment established for the government of the 

 people and not of the States, a government 

 which has all the attributes of a government, 

 including sovereignty a government which 

 acts directly upon the people, upon their 

 rights, and upon their property. It seems to 

 me, if I have read aright the principles and 

 history of our Government, that it was for this 

 very purpose that our fathers abandoned the 

 original idea of the Confederation, and ap- 

 pealing again to the people, not to the States, 

 drew from that rich and natural source the 

 powers with which they endowed the Govern- 

 ment under the Constitution. And when they 

 turned to that source and took from that nat- 

 ural well their powers of government, they 

 took them pure and unalloyed by any interven- 

 ing element which could impair or weaken ; 

 they drew them direct and pure, not through 

 the doubtful vehicle of intervening govern- 

 ment or State sovereignty. If I have read 

 history aright, sir, our fathers fonnd that a 

 confederation of States, where the central 

 power was dependent upon the several States 

 for the execution of its laws, the enforcement 

 of its decrees, and the protection of its people, 

 was insufficient for the purposes of govern- 

 ment ; and therefore these men, learned in all 

 the principles of government and law, elevated 



