290 



CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



The times, places, and manner of holding elections for Sen- 

 ators and Kepresentatives shall be prescribed in each State 

 by the Legislature thereof: bnt the Congress may at any time 

 by law make or alter such regulations, except as to the places 

 of choosing Senators. 



A further provision has been since added, which is 

 embraced in the fifteenth amendment. It is as fol- 

 lows : 



SECTION 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote 

 shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by 

 any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of 

 servitude. 



SEC. 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this arti- 

 cle by appropriate legislation. 



Under the general provision of the Constitution (sec- 

 tion 4, article 1), Congress in 1866 passed a comprehen- 

 sive law which prescribed full and detailed regulations 

 for the election of Senators by the Legislatures of the 

 several States. This law had been in force almost 

 thirteen years. In pursuance of it all the members 

 of the present Senate of the United States hold their 

 scats. Its constitutionality is not called in question. 

 It is confidently believed that no sound argument can 

 be made in support of the constitutionality of national 

 regulation of senatorial elections which w'ill not show 

 that the elections of members of the House of Repre- 

 sentatives may also be constitutionally regulated by 

 the national authority. 



The bill before me itself recognizes the principle that 

 the Congressional elections are not State elections, but 

 national elections. It leaves in full force the existing 

 statute under which supervisors are still to be ap- 

 pointed by national authority, to " observe and wit- 

 ness " the Congressional elections whenever due appli- 

 cation is made by citizens who desire said elections to 

 be "guarded and scrutinized." If the power to su- 

 pervise, in any respect whatever, the Congressional 

 elections exists under section 4, article 1, of the Con- 

 stitution, it is a power which, like every other power 

 belonging to the government of the United States, is 

 paramount and supreme, and includes the right to em- 

 ploy the necessary means to carry it into eftect. 



The statutes of the United States which regulate the 

 election of members of the House of Kepresentatives, 

 an essential part of which it is proposed to repeal by 

 this bill, have been in force about eight years. Four 

 Congressional elections have been held under them, 

 two of which wcrflat the Presidential elections of 187:2 

 and 1876. 



Numerous prosecutions, trials, and convictions have 

 been had in the courts of the United States in all parts 

 of the Union for violations of these laws. In no re- 

 ported case has their constitutionaflity been called in 

 question by any judge of the courts of the United 

 States. The validity of these laws is sustained by the 

 uniform course of judicial action and opinion. 



If it is urged that the United States election laws are 

 not necessary, an ample reply is furnished by the his- 

 tory of their origin and of their results. They were 

 especially prompted by the investigation and exposure 

 of the frauds committed in the city and State of New 

 York at the elections of 1868. Committees represent- 

 ing both of the leading political parties of the country 

 have submitted reports to the House of Kepresentatives 

 on the extent of those frauds. A committee of the For- 

 tieth Congress, after a full investigation, reached the 

 conclusion that the number of fraudulent votes cast in 

 the city of New York alone in 1868 was not less than 

 25,000. A committee of the Forty -fourth CongrcsSj in 

 their report submitted in 1877, adopted the opinion 

 that for every 100 actual voters of the city of New York 

 in 1868, 108 votes were cast : when, in fact, the num- 

 ber of lawful votes cast could not have exceeded 88 per 

 cent, of the actual voters of the city. By this state- 

 ment the number of fraudulent votes at that election, 

 in the city of New York alone, was between thirty and 

 forty thousand. These frauds completely reversed the 

 result of the election in the State of New York, both 

 as to the choice of Governor and State officers, and as 

 to the choice of electors of President and Vice-Presi- 



dent of the United States. They attracted the atten- 

 tion of the whole country. It was plain that if they 

 could be continued and repeated with impunity live 

 government was impossible. A distinguished Senator 

 m opposing the passage of the election laws declared 

 that he had " for a long time believed that our form of 

 government was a comparative failure in the larger cit- 

 ies." To meet these evils and to prevent these crimes 

 the United States laws regulating Congressional elec- 

 tions were enacted. 



The framers of these laws have not been disappoint- 

 ed in their results. In the large cities, under their pro- 

 visions, the elections have been comparatively peace- 

 able, orderly and honest. Even the opponents of these 

 laws have borne testimony to their value and efficien- 

 cy, and to the necessity for their enactment. The 

 committee of the Forty-fourth Congress, composed of 

 members a majority of whom were opposed to these 

 laws, in their report on the New York election of 1876, 

 said: 



The committee would commend to other portions of the 

 country and to other cities this remarkable system, developed 

 through the agency of both local and Federal authorities act- 

 ing in harmony for an honest purpose. In no portion of the 

 world, and in no era of time, where there has been an expres- 

 sion of the popular will through the forms of law, has there 

 been a more complete and thorough illustration of republican 

 institutions. Whatever may have been the previous habit or 

 conduct of elections in those cities, or howsoever they may 

 conduct themselves in the future, this election of 1876 will 

 stand as a monument of what good faith, honest endeavor, 

 legal forms, and just authority may do for the protection of 

 the electoral franchise. 



This bill recognizes the authority and duty of the 

 United States to appoint supervisors to guard and 

 scrutinize the Congressional elections, but it denies to 

 the Government of the United States all power to 

 make its supervision effectual. The great body of the 

 people of all parties want free and lair elections. 

 They do not think that a free election means freedom 

 from the wholesome restraints of law, or that the 

 place of an election should be a sanctuary for lawless- 

 ness and crime. On the day of an election peace and 

 good order are more necessary than on any other day 

 of the year. On that day the humblest and feeblest 

 citizens, the aged and the infirm, should be, and 

 should have reason to feel that they are, safe in the 

 exercise of their most responsible duty and their most 

 sacred right as members of society, their duty and 

 their right to vote. The constitutional authority to 

 regulate the Congressional elections which belongs to 

 the Government of the United States, and which it is 

 necessary to exert to secure the right to vote to every 

 citizen possessing the requisite qualifications, ought to 

 be enforced by appropriate legislation. So far from 

 public opinion in any part of the country favoring any 

 relaxation of the authority of the Government in the 

 protection of elections from violence and corruption, I 

 believe it demands greater vigor, both in the enact- 

 ment and in the execution of laws framed for that 

 purpose. Any oppression, any partisan partiality, 

 which experience may have shown in the working of 

 existing laws, may well engage the careful attention 

 both of Congress and of the Executive in their respec- 

 tive spheres of duty for the correction of these mis- 

 chiefs. As no Congressional elections occur until 

 after the regular session of Congress will have been 

 held, there seems to be no public exigency that 

 would preclude a seasonable consideration at that 

 session of any administrative details that might im- 

 prove the present methods designed for the protection 

 of all citizens in the complete and equal exercise of the 

 right and p_ower of the suffrage at such elections. But 

 with my views, both of the constitutionality and of 

 the value of the existing laws, I can not approve any 

 measure for their repeal except in connection with the 

 enactment of other legislation which may reasonably 

 be expected to afford wiser and more efficient safe- 

 guards for free and honest congressional elections. 

 RUTHERFORD B. HAYES. 



EXECUTIVE MANSION, May 29, 1879. 



