CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



191 



alterations and provisions in such manner as is pro- 

 vided in the said article. 



" The wise statesmanship of Virginia, whose 

 vigilance and prudence had a controlling influ- 

 ence from the Declaration of Independence in 

 1776 to the adoption of the Constitution in 

 1787, has left upon its record a declaration on 

 this amendment strong, emphatic, and to the 

 point, in the following words, namely : 



" XVI. The Congress shall not alter, modify, or 

 interfere in the times, places, or manner of holding 

 elections for Senators and Representatives, or either of 

 them, except when the Legislature of any State shall 

 neglect, refuse, or be disabled by invasion or rebellion 

 to prescribe the same. 



" They placed upon the same record a per- 

 petual instruction to their future Representa- 

 tives in Congress of the United States, namely : 



" And the convention do, in the name and behalf 

 of the people of this Commonwealth, enjoin it upon 

 their Representatives in Congress to exert all their in- 

 fluence, and use all reasonable and legal methods, to 

 obtain a ratification of the foregoing alterations and 

 provisions, in the manner provided by the fifth arti- 

 cle of the said Constitution ; and in all congressional 

 laws to be passed in the mean time to conform to the 

 spirit of these amendments, as far as the said Consti- 

 tution will admit. 



" The next in order is now one of the most 

 powerful and influential States in the Union ; 

 and I ask to be pardoned for quoting from a 

 distinguished Senator from the State pf Louis- 

 iana, Mr. White, who I believe was a native of 

 New York, when he said he 'referred with 

 pride and pleasure to the proceedings of her 

 convention upon this important point ' : 



" New York was not then a large State in the com- 

 parison ; and vet the cautious jealousy of her states- 

 men against this wanton exercise of Federal power 

 over her local elections was not the less, because she 

 had at that day the less to fear and to lose from the as- 

 sumption. Her record is more full as to this grant of 

 power than that of any other State, as her convention 

 seem to design to set up every guard against an abuse 

 of its exercise. They therefore, in express terms, first 

 put their construction upon the clause of the Consti- 

 tution as they found it, in the following language, to 

 wit : ' That nothing contained in the said Constitu- 

 tion is to be construed to prevent the Legislature of 

 any State from passing laws at its discretion, from 

 time to time, to divide such State into convenient dis- 

 tricts, and to apportion its Representatives to and 

 among such districts.' 



"After this emphatic declaration of the 

 rights of the States, the Convention of New 

 York proceeded to make their ratification of 

 the Constitution in this language : 



" Under these impressions, and declaring that the 

 rights aforesaid are consistent with the said Constitu- 

 tion, and in confidence that the amendments which 

 shall have been proposed to said Constitution will re- 

 ceive an early and mature consideration, we, the said 

 delegates, in the name and in the behalr of the people 

 of the State of New York, do, by these presents, as- 

 sent to and ratify the said Constitution. In full con- 

 fidence, nevertheless, that, until a convention shall bo 

 called and convened for proposing amendments to the 

 said Constitution . . . that the Congress will not 

 make or alter any regulation in this State respecting 

 the times, places, and manner of holding elections for 

 Senators or Representatives, unless the Legislature of 

 this State shall neglect or refuse to make laws or reg- 



ulations for the purpose, or from any circumstance be 

 incapable of making the same j and that in those cases 

 such power will only be exercised until the Legislat- 

 ure of this State shall make provision in the prem- 

 ises. 



" The Convention of New York went even 

 further than this. They looked forward with 

 prophetic vision at the encroachments of the 

 Federal power, and to warn them of the dan- 

 ger of centralization they proceeded to instruct 

 their future Representatives against that en- 

 croachment, to wit : 



" And the convention do, in the name and behalf 

 of the people of the State of New York, enjoin it upon 

 their Representatives in the Congress to exert all their 

 influence and use all reasonable means to obtain a rati- 

 fication of the following amendments to the said Con- 

 stitution in the manner prescribed therein, and in all 

 laws to be passed by CongresSj in the mean time, to 

 conform to the spirit of the said amendments, as far 

 as the Constitution will admit. 



" The amendment proposed by the conven- 

 tion follows, and is in this language, namely : 



" That the Congress shall not make or alter any 

 regulation in any State, respecting the times, places, 

 and manner of holding elections tor Senators or Rep- 

 resentatives, unless the Legislature of such State shall 

 neglect or refuse to make laws or regulations for the 

 purpose, or from any circumstance be incapable of 

 making the same : and then only until the Legislature 

 of such State shall make provisions in the premises : 

 Provided, That Congress may prescribe the time for 

 the election of Representatives. 



"On that account, Mr. Speaker, because 

 there is no necessity that this law shall be re- 

 enacted by this Congress, because it endangers 

 this apportionment bill and may prolong in- 

 definitely this debate, because, to say the least 

 of it, it is of doubtful constitutionality, because 

 it is almost in the nature of things, where any 

 State dares to violate it, which she may do, we 

 can do no more than exclude her Representa- 

 tives from the halls of the House, I hope it 

 will not be insisted upon. I ask these gentle- 

 men who now contend so stubbornly for it, 

 suppose a State, according to the rule as you 

 understand it, does not make her territory 

 contiguous ; or suppose every district of that 

 State is based on contiguous territory save one, 

 are you going to exclude all the members of 

 such a State because she has not complied in 

 one instance with what you understand to be 

 the requirement of this law ? This power was 

 given to you to bring members into Congress, 

 not to drive them out. Will you turn around 

 and use it for that purpose ? Will you say to 

 New York, with thirty-three members here 

 upon this floor, If your Legislature does not 

 square itself according to the rule which we 

 prescribe, we will exclude your thirty-three 

 members, although you have five million peo- 

 ple, and they will go unrepresented upon this 

 floor? How do you propose to do it? Is it 

 not a brutum fulmen which you issue against 

 the State, directing them to do this thing, with- 

 out the power on your part except by the ex- 

 clusion of its representation to compel it to 

 doit? 



" Now, Mr. Speaker, I have little more, if 



