The spirit of democracy. [volume] (Woodsfield, Ohio) 1844-1994, 1870-06-07
less than one month nor more than one

sole commission to act from the State
In other words, it is directly in the fact
of the decision of the Supreme Court,ir
Prigg Va. the Commonwealth of Penn
sylvania, in which itwas declared by th'
Supreme Court of the United States,- !
believe almost unanimously, that it wa:
not in the power of Congress to tmpost
any duty or impose any authority upon
an officer ola State.d You undertake tt
regulate the duty1of officers created b,
State authority holding their office.
solely under State authority, amenahls
solely to the State by which they are
chosen or by which they are appointed
sou undertake to say that the powers
duties, and functions Of an officer of a
State, holding his office simply under the
State, can be regulated, prescribed, gov
erned and enforced by an act of Con
gress. eeta'E tsas.fg aa4 t4efb ,s'aa aa
| 2 If this doctrine be true you can pass :
| law to take the Governor Of Ohio from
his executive seat and try him before
one of your district courts of the Uni
ted States you may take the Governor
of New York or of any other State, OIL
the supreme judges of any State,and try
them under this bill of pains and penal
ties because they, officers of State, dc
not execute an act of Congress / de
| ny the authority to do any such thing
1 deny any such authority whatsoever
But if the authority existed, how strange
| it would seem, how low and debased the
States would have become, when the
Congress Of the United States, without
awaiting to see whether any State will be
direlict in its duty, without waiting to
see whether any State officer will refuse
to obey the Constitution of the United
States, introduces bill Of pains and
penalties like this, that bristles in every
section with. fine and Imprisonment and
rewards to be given to the informers.
Allow me to call the attention of the
lawyers of the Senate to another thing
What is the corpus delicti in this sec
tion2 What is the ofense in this sec
ton 2 What, are the substantive words
that create it, and that must be used in
an indictment under this section, for here
is an indictable ofense {. That if "any
officer shall refuse or knowingly omit to
give full effect to this section;" these
are the words which define the crime
Now I pray the learned gentleman of the
judiciary Committee who has charge. OF
this bill Mr.. Stewart to tell us what is
failing or omitting or rrefusing to give full
effect to this section. | hope he will
enlighten us, so that when we get up an
Indictment we may refer to his speech
IN the Senate that the court may. under
stand what is the offense Of falling to
give full effect to the provisions of this
section l confess / do not know. ]
am an older lawyer than he is. have
tried great many cases I have studied
statutes very carefully; but confess my
entire ignorance of what is meant by
this phrase: 'sif any snch person or Off
Ger shall refuses or knowingly omit to
give full effect to this section" =
pass from that and come to section
three: q .
"That whenever, by or under the au
thority of the constitution or laws of any
State, or the laws of any Territory, any
act is or shall be required to be done by
any citizen as a prerequisite to qualify OF
entitle him to vote, the offer of any sucl
citizen to perform the act required to bt
done, as aforesaid, shall, if it failed to be
carried into execution by reason of the
wrongful act or omission aforesaid ol
| the person or officer charged with tn,
duty of receiving or permitting such per
formance, or offer to perform or acting
thereon, be deemed and held as per
| Torrance in law of such act."2ga aiaF
That is to say, if the offer of a citizen
to perform the act to be done shall fai
| to be carried into execution by reason o.
the wrongful act or omission, it shall bt
deemed to be performance. And then
what Then the judges of election are
required to allow that man to vote upor
his presenting his affidavit of the fac
stated in the previous part of this sec
ton, without any contradiction whatso
ever. There is no door open to contra
diction. He may be swearing to the ba
sest falsehood that ever fell from the lip:
| of a man he may not have offered to dc
the thing; or if he did offer, he may no
have been prevented by any wrongful
act or omission of the registering officer:
or other functionaries and yet, although
they might be able to prove by hundred
witnesses that the man was committing
lperjury, his affidavit is to be taken a
conclusive evidence of the fact, and h,
lis to be allowed to vote.
But let us go little further. No
ionly is he to be allowed to vote; but tn,
Judge of the election or the person wht
is to count the vote, if he do not receiv,
and count that persons vote upon hi
mere affidavit, which he is not permitted
to contradict, forfeits the sum Of 500
"to the person aggrieved thereby" tha
is, to the man who makes the affidavit
In other words, you hold out plain
clear mducement to man to commi
perjury. You give him $500 if he vii
swear falsely. There may or may no
lie one word of truth in what he says
1t may be said you can convict him o
perjury if he swears falsely. How Cal
lyou do it? Let me put case. Here j
& registrar, a man whose business it is t
Register votes. A B says he came ant
offered to register and to show that h
was qualified before that man In truti
it may be that he never did any sucI
thing but he says so, and he goes to th
election and makes an affidavit of tha
fact. The registrar may swear that h
never did any such thing. That woui,
he oath against oath; and yet he mus
be allowed to vote, and if the officer re
fuses to receive his vote here Is fine o
$500 to the man himself who has takel
this false oath. How are you to convic
him of perjury? You cannot do it.
There may be the oath of the registra
against his oath ;but every lawyer know
you must have more than the oath o
one man to convict another man of per
jury. You must have two witnesses, o.
one witness and strong corroboratins
circumstances. .s
BY this 5ill-and this is only one 0
the instances, as T shall show before
oct through-you put it absolutely in tn