282 



CONGKESS, UNITED STATES. 



assumption that if military protection is with- 

 drawn there is no protection worth having re- 

 maining ; and the practical result of the Sena- 

 tor's argument is to show that by passing this 

 bill, which simply declares that the army and 

 the navy shall not be used at the polls, we re- 

 peal all the acts which authorize the enforce- 

 ment of the laws, previously passed, and leave 

 the President powerless to enforce the laws 

 and the citizens without protection. 



" I heard a similar argument from that dis- 

 tinguished Senator on another memorable oc- 

 casion. I noticed it then, and I call the atten- 

 tion of the country to it now. I heard it on 

 one of those bills during the last Congress be- 

 fore us making appropriations for the army, in 

 which there was a clause prohibiting the army 

 from being used as a posse comitatus to execute 

 the law. If Senators will turn to the short 

 speech made by the distinguished Senator on 

 that occasion, they will find that he said broad- 

 ly that if that clause of the appropriation bill 

 became a law, and a mob should be organized 

 in the city of Washington to rob the Treasury, 

 there would be no power to protect the Treas- 

 ury from that mob ; impressing the country 

 with the idea that its defense, that its safety, 

 that its protection rests in the arm of the mili- 

 tary power. Can it be true ? If a mob should 

 organize in the city of Washington for the pur- 

 pose of capturing the Treasury and robbing it, 

 is it true that because there is no army here, 

 because the army can not be used as a posse 

 comitatus, therefore the mob has only to go 

 and take possession of the Treasury ? In a 

 city of one hundred and fifty thousand inhabi- 

 tants is there no power to protect the Treasury 

 from a mob save through an army ? Sir, that 

 idea is at war with every feature of our Gov- 

 ernment, and certainly at war with all its fun- 

 damental principles. Our Government rests 

 upon the idea that we are capable of self-gov- 

 ernment, that the people are patriotic, and the 

 defense and protection of the property and lib- 

 erties of the country rest in that belief the 

 people and the authority of the courts, which 

 are the same thing, because they come from the 

 body of the people. It rests upon the idea 

 that we do not need a standing army to pro- 

 tect the American people from outrage by the 

 American people as a body. Of course there 

 ar.e exceptions, as in all countries. The peo- 

 ple must be protected from mobs, but the peo- 

 ple can be protected from mobs without the 

 use of the army. 



" What would be the result of this style of 

 argument ? Gentlemen strangely have come 

 out here now, and, in opposition to the bill 

 passed yesterday, they have taken the distinct 

 position that it is necessary to keep upon your 

 statute-book the right to use the army and 

 navy for the purpose of keeping the peace at 

 the polls. Well, sir, it is idle, it is worse than 

 idle, to give the President of the United States 

 authority to use your army for any purpose, 

 and not furnish him an army for use. You 



say the President must have the right to use 

 the army to control the elections. That is 

 what you say by your opposition to this bill, 

 for that is the only idea that the bill negatives. 

 If it is necessary to have the right to use the 

 army, the right is worthless unless you furnish 

 an army to use. Make the calculation. Let 

 the citizens of this country make the calcu- 

 lation, and see what destiny is in wait for them 

 when the proposition is once established that 

 an army must be supplied for the purpose 

 of keeping the peace at the polls. How many 

 troops will it take? What sized army must 

 you have ? You must have an army in every 

 State, in every county, in every town ; for, if 

 one portion of the country is entitled to pro- 

 tection, and that protection can only be ex- 

 tended by the army, every other portion of 

 the country is entitled to protection ; every 

 other portion of the country must have an 

 army ; and America, free America, will pre- 

 sent to the world the singular spectacle of 

 standing more in need of an army than any 

 country on the globe, and we must have a 

 larger standing army than Germany or Kussia. 



" Sir, does not every man see, in the very idea 

 that the people of this country, on that day 

 when they as sovereigns come to exercise the 

 power of a sovereign, that they must have an 

 army to control them, an army to protect them, 

 an army to regulate them, an army to keep 

 the peace among themselves in the exercise of 

 this great power, that even by that very idea 

 they must admit that free self-government is 

 a failure ? It is the last idea that an American 

 ought to admit. Of all ideas possible in this day 

 and age of degeneracy, I should have supposed 

 the very last idea an American statesman would 

 have admitted as at all applicable to the con- 

 dition of things in this country would be that 

 we needed military interference on the days of 

 elections for the purpose of protecting the peo- 

 ple at the polls. Whenever the American Con- 

 gress shall in solemn form tell the world that 

 an army is needed to protect American freemen 

 when American freemen go to the polls, they 

 have admitted that the American popular sys- 

 tem of government is at an end. 



" I must say that I am loth to believe, and I 

 do not believe, that the distinguished gentle- 

 man who made the argument of this kind on 

 yesterday, and which necessarily leads to this 

 result, any more believes the statement he was 

 making than did the Senator from the State of 

 New York believe the statement of figures he 

 made was correct. Neither of them had any 

 purpose to make an incorrect statement, but 

 both of them were after the great purpose of 

 this whole movement to excite one section 

 of this country against the other, and to avail 

 themselves of any occasion for that purpose. 

 I have been watching during the progress of 

 this discussion not only the character of the 

 speeches that have been made, which have 

 convinced my mind thoroughly of the whole 

 purpose of it, but simultaneously the extraor- 



