Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1879-05-03

State or Territory, It shall be EaacJasi for tie
President to cGtL forth the militia Of any
or all the States, and to employ Such parts
of the land and naval forces OF the mated
States as he mag deem necessary 20 ENFORCE
the fqithtul execution of the TAGS Of the
limited States, or to suppress such rebel
lion. in whatever State or Territory thereof,
the laws of the United States may be for
chilly opposed, or the execution thereof for
cibly o5structeG.
That section. enacted in substance during
the administration of Washington, drawn
and voted for by the men who framed the
Constitution, only supplemented the pro
visions have read. 1t has stood for eighty
four years, unchallenged. These ConsLltu-
tional provisions enforced by the act to
which the Senate has listened, were, and
to-day are the only authority under which
he soldiers CT the Nation can go on cleo
ton day or any other day TO the polls or
elsewhere within the jurisdiction OF State
to quell violence and enforce law. ii un-
der those provisions armed men can not pc
employed TO subdue violence at the polls
on the day of y National election, they can
not be employed at all; for there Is, as
shall argue, and as | think L shall demon
strate, no other authority for 1t; certainly
none in the act which we are invited to
strike down. If there was during eighty
years of acquiescence too much latitude
given to the President or the army by the
latitude was curtailed on the 18TH OF June,
1878. On that recent date. this provision
became law:
SIC. Is From and after the passage of
this act it shall not be lawful to employ
any part of the army of the United States,
as a posse conaltatuS, or otherwise, Tor the
purpose of executing the laws, except tn
such cases and at319eT such circumstances Us
such employment Of said force mag be &C.
p7'eSSEy authorized By the Consultation or By
act Of Congress- and no money apprOpria~
ted by this act shall be used to pay any of
the expenses incurred in the employment
of any troops in violation of this section,
and any person wifully violating the pro-
visions of this section shall be deemed
| guilty of misdemeanOr, and on cOnvic-
ton thereof shall be punished by fine not
| exceeding SIO,O0O, or imprisonment not
! exceeding two years. or by both, such fine
and imprisonment.
| Mark the language, 2 penal statute visit
| ing with penalty the President and every
| body else who attempts to employ troops in
| any case unless the Constitution or an act
! Of Congress expressly" not alone by
| implication, not alone by the spirit which
makes alive, but by the very letter which
| sometimes kills. authorizes such employ
ment So thoroughly is the Constitution
hedged about already. / have said and l
! repeat that the act of 1866, against which
| this repeal is leVeled, contains no authority,
| none whatever, under which any one sol
der or any one armed man may go for the
| purpose of keeping the peace, or for any
! other purpose unless TO VGt9, to The polls
on q National election day. Let me read
| the section aimed at by the amendment,
and the section which Immediately fellows
it, and which was enacted as part Of the
statute of 1865:
SECTION 2o02. No military or naval
! officer, or other person engaged in the
| civil military or naval service of the Uni
| ted States shall order, bring, keep, or have
! under his authority or control, any troops
| or armed men st the place where any gem
| eral or special election is held in any STATE,
unless it be necessary to Iepol the armed
| enemies Of the United States, or to Keep the
peace at the polls,
! Mark the following section:
| SEC. 3, 003 No officer Of the army or na-
/ Wy of the United States shall prescribe or
| fix, or attempt to prescribe or fix, by proc
| lamation. order, or otherwise, the qualih-
! cations Of voters in any State or in any
! election in any State, or with the exercise
| of the free right of suffrage in any State.
| (See Sections 5, 530-5, 532)
| Does any lawyer listen TO those two sec
! ito ana know that they stood together in
| the act OF 1865 and yet doubt that the act
| was a mere penal and restraining act? 1t
| conferred no power. 1t was designed for
| no such thing. 1t diminish d, curtaiied,
restrained the Olden power which from time
! immemOrial had resided in the persons the
| sections describe.
Mr.. President, let n 60 back a moment,
| for l think, after reading some remarks
| which fell from the distin gushed Senator
| from Illinois, now before me Mr. Davis
! it is somewhat important that the Senate
! should know that l am right or know that
l am wrong in this particular. [ have said
! that the act Of 1860 gives no authority to
| troops or armed men to visit the polls at
which an election is being held. I have
said that the power of the President resides
| in the act of 1895 and in the Constitution,
and l add that until 1864 these cons. itu-
! tional provisions had always been deemed
not only a suitable grant of power, but
! sufficiently guarded grant. National jC-
risdiction-by that l mean the right of n a.
! tional authority to interpose-depends
| sometimes upon the locus, as lawyers say,
thereby meaning the place, and some
! times on the occasion without reference to
! place.
In fort, an arsenal, a doGk-yard. and
in every other place under the sole iuris-
! dictiOn of the United States the National
| authority may always go tO-preserve the
! peace and to reign and dwell there. In the
| States, and everywhere in every State, on
| every rood Of our SOIL the National au-
! thorlty may always go, and lawfully go,
! when any act is to be done or law enforced
| in virtue Of the Constitution of the United
! States
The law protecting and regulating ma
! tional elections is law II virtue Of the
| Constitution Of the United States The
| execution Of that law is an act under and
! in virtue of that Constitution. It follows
| that it is one Of the laws which the Presi-
| dent is empowered and commanded to
! take care to have faithfully executed 1t
! is one of the laws of the Union" which
| he may command the militia as well as the
! National forces to execute It is one of
! the laws ia respect of which, when need
| be- he may exert all the power, civil and
military, which he may exert, to execute
any law whatever.
Are we to be told that the act protecting
elections is unconstitutional, and, there
fore, not valid and not " a law of the
Union ?" It is too late to say that. The
Democratic House, and what is more final
and supreme, the Democratic caucus. have
abandoned the constitutional argument.
They have decided that the election law is
valid constitutional law, and the iudg-
ment stands recorded in the Legislative.
Executive and Judicial bill lying on our
tables as pending ia the House. They
recognize the election act they deal with
it; they assume that IL existg. They Grip
pie it, it is true; they cunningly emaseu-
late it, they provide for It's safe and easy
violation and evasion. They so change it
as to make a smooth and tempting walk to
every ballot box suffer and rufian who
"A YoSrar4d ha bo1 hOy b,,+