218 



CONGRESS. (NATIONAL QUARANTINE.) 



tected by law, punished and expatriated, they 

 have been despoiled of their homes, forced from 

 their sanctuaries, and sent as outlaws from place 

 to place upon the face of the earth simply for 

 committing the crime of worshiping God ac- 

 cording to the traditions of their faith and the 

 dictates of their own consciences. 



" I believe, sir, that every civilized nation on 

 the face of the globe ought to combine to de- 

 mand of their persecutors that they shall be re- 

 quired to amend their code of religious intoler- 

 ance, and become proselytes at the altar of reason 

 and humanity, or that they shall be no longer 

 tolerated or maintain friendly contact and inter- 

 course with the free nations of the world. But 

 as deeply and profoundly as I feel on this sub- 

 ject, I do not believe that we ought to become 

 the receptacle for the conditions and the vice 

 and the crimes that are turned in on us from the 

 Continent of Europe. 



" Last summer, as all will remember, a foreign 

 steamship company sent one of its vessels from 

 an infected port, and with a living sepulchre 

 beneath her decks, with flying colors, entered 

 the harbor of New York, utterly regardless of 

 the sanitary laws of that Commonwealth and of 

 the hundreds and thousands of human lives be- 

 ing imperiled at the port of destination. Had 

 it not been for the heroic conduct of your sani- 

 tary officer in that city, there is no foretelling 

 what disaster might have been inflicted on our 

 population. The master of this ship was will- 

 ing to tie his vessel to the dock and actually to 

 distribute his cargo and steerage, not only in 

 defiance of the laws of New York, but in dis- 

 regard of the maritime code of nations. 



" This instance, Mr. Chairman, only illustrates 

 how utterly powerless even the great State of 

 New York, with its vast municipal powers, Would 

 be to provide itself and the balance of the State 

 from an invasion of this character." 



In criticism of one of the provisions of the bill 

 Mr. Mallory, of Florida, said : 



" I am in full accord with the gentleman in 

 the view that he takes as to most of this bill. I 

 believe that there is an urgent necessity at this 

 moment for Congress to take active and efficient 

 measures for the purpose of preventing the in- 

 vasion of an epidemic, and I think, sir, that this 

 bill indicates that it has been most carefully con- 

 sidered and weighed well by those qualified to 

 do so. 



" So far as the question of maritime quaran- 

 tine is concerned I am in favor of all of the fea- 

 tures of this bill. I believe it is within the power 

 of Congress, under that clause of the Constitution 

 that gives it the right to regulate commerce, to 

 enact all measures that are necessary for the pur- 

 pose of preventing the importation of diseases 

 to our shores and across our borders ; and if this 

 bill were confined to that alone, I would do all 

 that my Chamber of Commerce and my city 

 council have telegraphed me requesting me to 

 do, namely, to cast my vote for the measure. 



" But, sir, there is a feature in this bill which I 

 do not think we should allow to pass without at 

 least some criticism. I refer to a portion of the 

 third section. 



" Under that portion of the third section to 

 which I refer the Secretary of the Treasury is 

 given power to prescribe rules and regulations, 



and State and municipal sanitary authorities are 

 empowered to enforce them if they desire ; but 

 in the event of State arid municipal sanitary 

 authorities failing or refusing to enforce them, 

 then the President is armed with power to ap- 

 point Federal officials for the purpose of carry- 

 ing out those provisions. 



" These provisions, Mr. Chairman, relate to in- 

 hibitions upon intercourse between the States. 

 Now, I will go as far as any gentleman who pro- 

 fesses to entertain democratic principles in giv- 

 ing the Federal Government ample power in this 

 matter ; but, sir, do what I could, 1 have failed,- 

 after a careful examination of the situation and 

 into the judicial decisions bearing upon this 

 point, to find any authority in Congress to say 

 that a citizen of the State of New York, not en- 

 gaged in commerce, not in any way connected 

 with commerce, can have the heavy hand of the 

 Federal Government laid upon his shoulder and 

 be compelled to abide in the State of New York 

 against his will. 



" That is a power we all concede to the States. 

 The State of New Jersey can inhibit the passage 

 of a citizen of New York across the Hudson 

 river. The State of Kentucky can prohibit the 

 passage of a citizen of Ohio across the Ohio river. 

 But, sir, I say there is nowhere in the Constitu- 

 tion nor in any of the decisions that have been 

 rendered by the tribunals in this land upon this 

 question that you can put your finger upon a 

 single utterance or intimation that gives that 

 power to the President or to Congress. 



" That, Mr. Chairman, is my special objection 

 to this bill. I appreciate, as I have said, the ne- 

 cessity of our entering upon legislation of this 

 character at this time. I think there is no State 

 in the Union that has had a sadder experience 

 of the necessity of some general legislation of 

 this character than the State which I have the 

 honor in part to represent here. 



" Year after year our shores have been invaded 

 by pestilence. Year after year the Legislature 

 has been battling with it, and parsing law after 

 law endeavoring to reach a point whereby the 

 sanitary condition of our country could be pre- 

 served ; and I, who figured somewhat in the legis- 

 lation of those days, long since reached the con- 

 clusion that so far as American quarantine is 

 concerned it is in the power of the United States 

 Government to impose or establish rules and 

 regulations as stringent as may be, and that in 

 the end it will prove to be for the benefit of the 

 community. But, sir, I think that before we in- 

 dorse the principle that is embodied in this por- 

 tion of the third section, to which 1 have re- 

 ferred, before we open the door to the exercise 

 of Federal power any more than it has been, not- 

 withstanding the fact that the appeal is a most 

 urgent one, notwithstanding the fact that elo- 

 quence can be poured upon us and every argu- 

 ment that oratory can employ can be ably em- 

 ployed, I say that we will be recreant to our duty 

 if we pass this bill in the form in which it is pre- 

 sented. 



" Mr. Chairman, I believe that our powers are 

 limited by the Constitution, and unless authority 

 is granted either directly or by reasonably ne- 

 cessary implication, I for one. sir. shall not pass 

 beyond what I believe to be the limitations pre- 

 scribed in that instrument." 



