The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1879-05-02

of the United States while engaged in
the discharge of their duties. Their
rights and duties under the law will re-
main, but the national government viii
be powerless to enforce its own statutes.
States may employ both military and
civil power to keep the peace and enforce
laws at state elections 1t is now pro-
posed to deny the United States the nee
essary civil authority to protect national
elections. No sufficient reason has been
given for this discrimination in favor of
state and against national authority. If
there are wellfounded objections against
the present national election laws, all
good citizens should unite in their
amendment Laws providing safeguards
of elections should be impartial, just and
| efficient; they should, if possible, be
SO non-partisan and fair in their oper-
ations that the minority, out of pow
er, will have no just grounds to
complain. The present laws have in
1 practice unquestionably conduced to the
| prevention of fraud and violence at cleo
lions, and in several of the states men,
bers of different parties have applied the
safeguards which they furnish. 1t is the
right and duty of the national govern
ment to enact and enforce laws which
will secure free and fair congress
sional elections. The laws now in force
should not be repealed except in connec-
ton with the enactment of measures
which will better accomplish that i'm
portant end. Believing that section six
of the bill before me will weaken if not
take away the power of the national gov
eminent to protect elections by civil au-
thOrity, am forced to the conclusion
that it ought not to receive my approval.
That section is, however, not presented
to me as separate and independent
measure lint 10 hQa haon cfafa6 of
tached to the bill making the usual an
nual appropriations. 1t prohibits under
heavy penalties any person engaged IN
the civil service of the United States
from employing any force at the place of
any election, prepared to preserve order
and to make arrests to keep the peace, or
in any manner enforce the laws. This
is altogether foreign to the purpose of
any army appropriation bill. The prac-
tlce OF lacking to army appropriation
bills, measures not pertinent to such bills,
did not prevail until more than forty
years after the adoption of the constitu-
/. ton. 1t has now become a common
practice. All parties when in power have
adopted it. Many abuses and great wastes
OF public money have thus crept into APP
preparation bills. The public opinion
of the country is against it. The states
, which have recently adopted constitu-
tions Nave generally provided remedy
. for the evil by enactihg that no law shall
contain more than one subject, which
shall be plainly expressed in its title.
The constitutions of more than half of
, the states contain substantially this pro-
vision. The public welfare will be pro-
, NOTED In many ways by q return to the
early practice of the government and the
principle of legislation which requires
that every measure shall stand or fall
upon its own merits. If it were under
stood that to attach to an appropriation
a measure irrelevant to the object of the
bill would impede and probably prevent
its final passage and approve, q valuable
reform IN parliamentary practice In con.
gress would be accomplished. The best
justification that has been offered for at
taching irrelevant riders to the appro-
priatiOn bills is that it is done for the
sake of convenience, and to facilitate the
, passage of measures which are deemed
expedient by all branches of the govern
ment which participate in legislation. 1t
cannot be claimed there is any reason
for attaching this amendment of election
laws to the army appropriation bill.
Parts of the measure contradict this as
sumption. The majority of the house of
representatives IN the last congress was
in favor of section to this hill. It
was established by the constitution
and by laws passed In pursuance there
OF. Their duties are clearly defined,
and their support is clearly provided
for by law. Money required for this
purpose has been collected from the peo-
pie and Ia now In the Treasury, ready to
; be paid out as soon as the appropriation
bills are passed. Whether the appropri.
ations are made or not, the collection OF
taxes will go on, public moneys will ac-
cumulate in the treasury. 1t was not the
intention of the trainers of the constitu.
ton, that any single branch of the Coy
eminent should have the power to dictate
conditions upon which this treasure
should be applied to tile purposes for
which 1t was collected. Any such inten-
tion, If 1t had been entertained, would
have been plainly expressed in the con-
stitution. That a majority of the senate
now concurs in the claims of the house
adds to the gravity of the situation, but
does not, however, alter the question at
issue. This new doctrine, if maintained,
will result in the consolidation of an un-
checked and despotio power. In the
house OF representatives bare majority
of the house will become the government.
The executive will no longer be what
the trainers of the constitution intend
ed-an Independent branch of the gov
eminent. 1t is clearly the constitutional
duty of the President to exercise discre
ton and judgment upon all bills present
ed to him, without Cpnstraint Or duress
from any other branch ofthe government
To say that the majority of either or both
houses OF congress may insist on the ap-
proval of the bill, under penalty of stop
ping all operations of the government,
! for the want of necessary supplies, is to
: deny the exclusive share OF legislative
power, which is plainly conferred by the
second section of the seventh article of
the constitution.
1t is peculiar function of the house
of representatives to represent the will
OF the people; but no single branch of
the department of government has ex-
elusive authority to speak for the Ameri-
can people. The most authentic and
solemn expressions of their will is con-
tanned in the constitution of the United
States. By that constitution they have
ordered and established a government
whose powers are distributed among the
coordinate branches which, as far as
possible, and consistently with harmoni-
Gus cooperation tndeReldelt of each
other. The people of this country are
unwilling to see the supremacy of the
!. constitution replaced by the omnipot-
ence of any department of the govern
ment. The enactment of this bill into
q low UlAA EoIoOlIoA WHICH
will tend to destroy equal independence
of the several branches of the govern
t ment. It's principel places not merely
the senate and executive, but the judici.
, airy, also, under the coersive directions
of the house. The house alone will be
judge of what constitutes and also the
means and measurer of redress. An act
of congress to protect elections is now
the grievance complained of, but the
house may, on the same principle, deter
} mine that any other act of congress al
ready made by the president, with the
advice and consent of the senate, and the
, nomination of appointments to office, or
= that decision or opinion of the supreme
court is grievance, and that the meas
ure of redress is to withhold the appro-
!, priatiOn required for the support of the
T offending branch of the government.
Believing that this is dangerous viola
| ton of the spirit and meaning of the con.
stitution, l am compelled to return 1t
} to the house in which it originated, with.
i out my approval. The qualified mega
tive, with which the constitution invests
/ the president, is a trust that involves a
duty which can not decline to perform
with firm and conscientious purpose to
do what can to preserve the unimpair-
: ed constitutional powers and independ-
ence, not merely of the executive, but of
, every branch of the urOvarDuoar,f x,,b;oh