The Portland daily press., 1879-07-02
ARE WE A NATION?
Revolutionary Doctrines of the
Democrats.
Gen. Garfield's Speech in the House
June 9th.


OF the Whole, (Mr Blackburn in the chair
and proceeded to consider the bill CH. r. No.
23o2) making appropriations to pay fees of
United States marshals and their general dep
uties.
The bill was then read at length.
The Chairman. By order of the House all
general debate upon the pending bill is linn
tied to one hour. The gentleman from Indi-
ana Mr. Cobb is entitled to the floor.
Mr. Cobb. yield to the other side to the
gentleman from Ohio Mr. Garfield, for half
an hour.
Mr.. Garfield. ''To this favor it has come at
last. The great fleet that set out on theS 18th
of,March with all its freightage and armament is
so shattered that now all the valuables it car
ried are embarked in this little craft, to meet
whatever fate the sea and the storm may offer
This little bill contains the residuum, almost
everything that has been the subject of contro-
yersy at this present session. L will not
discuss it in detail, but will speak only of
its central feature and especially of the
opinions which the discussion of that fea-
ture has brought to the surface during the
present session. The majority in this Con-
gress have adopted what L consider very ex-
treme and dangerous opinions ON certain i'm
portant constitutional questions They have
not only drifted back to their old attitude on
the subject OF State sovereignty; but they have
pushed that doctrine much further than most
of their predecessors ever went before, except
during the period Immediately preceding the
late war.
So extreme are some of these utterances that
nothing short Of actual quotations from the
Record will do their authors justice. 1 there
fore shall read several extracts from debates at
the present session of Congress, and group
them in the order of the topics discussed
Senator Wallace (Record, June 3, pages
and 81 says:
The Federal Government has no voters it can
make none, it can eonstitutionally control none.
When it asserts the power to create
and hold national elections' to regulate the con-
DI1afIn do
equal suffrage it tramples under foot the very basis
of the Federal system and seeks to build a consoli-
ldated government from democratic republic.
Ihis the plain purpose of the men now Fin control
of the Federal Government, and to this end the
teachings of leadingtRepublicans now are shaped.
There are no national voters. Voters who vote
for national Representatives qualified by the
State constitution and State laws and national cti-
zenshp is not required of voter of the State by any
provision OF the Federal constitution in practice.
If there be such a thing then as a "national cleo
tiOn' it wants the first elements of an election
national voter. The Federal Government, or Gf
nation, has no voters it cannot create them it can
not qualify them.
Representative Clark, of Missouri, Record,
April 26, page co., says:
The United States has voters.
Senator Maxy, (Record, April 81 page 720
says:
1t follows as surely as grass grows and water
runs that under Constitution the entire con-
troll of elections must be under the State whose
voters assemble; whose right to vote is not drawn
from the Constitution of the United States but ex-
listed and was freely exercised long before its .adop
ton.
Senator Williams, Kentucky, Reeord, April
%, page S2), says:
The Legislatures of the States and the people of
the several districts are the constituency of Sena
tors and Representatives in Congress They receive
their commissions from the governor and when
they resign, (Which is very seldom they send their
designations to the governor and not to the Pres-
dent. They are State officers and not Federal Off
GERS.
Senator Whyte (Record, May u, page 14)
says
and no voters ofthe United States. The voters are
voters OF the States and their members of the House
OF Representatives are chosen by the electors of the
States TO represent the people of the States, whose
agents they are.
Mr.iMcLane. Do 1 understand him to say that
the Government of the United States has the right
to keep the.peace anywhere within State? DO
understand him to say that there is any peace of
Court of the United States?
Mr.. Robson. Certainly I do.--Congressional
Record, April 4, page IA,
Mr.. McLane Record, April 4, page 15) saws:
believe that the provision of law which are
about to repeal is unconstitutional; that is to say
that it is unconstitutional for the United States to
keep the peace" anywhere in the States, either at
the polls or elsewhere; and if it were constitu-
tional believe in common with gentlemen on this
side of the house that would be highly inexpedien
to exercise that power.
When that law used the phrase "to keep the
peace it could only mean the peace of the States.
1t is not possible thing to have a breachof the
United States peace at the polls.
Senator Whyte, Congressional Record, May
u, page 49, says:
Sovereignty is lodged with the States, where it
had its home long before the Constitution
ated The Constitution is the creature of that SOW
ereignty. The Federal Government has no inherent
sovereignty. All its sovereign powers are drawn
from the States.
The States were in existence long before the
Union and the latter took its birth from their pow
er.
The State governments are supreme by inherent
power originally conceded to them by the people as