The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1880-09-02
Revival Of State Sovereignty in Con
gross.

SPEECH OF HON. JAMES A. GARFIELD, OF OHIO
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, JUN
| 81, 1879
| The House being in Committee of the Whole OF
the Marshas' appropriation bill, June 27, 1879
Mr. Garfield said Mr.. Chairman, to "this
favor" ii has come at last The great fleet tina
set out on the 18th of March, with all it,
freightage and armament, is so shattered tina
now all the valuables it carried are embarked
in this little craft to meet whatever fate the
sea and the storm may offer. This little bill
contains the residuum of almost everything
that has been the subject of controversy at the
present session. | will not discuss it in detail
but will speak only of its central feature, anG
especially of the opinions which the discussion
of that feature has brought to the surface dur
ing the present session The majority in this
Congress have adopted what | consider very
extreme and dangerous opinions on certain
important 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
tHoiCipiC oiidli lCiu oSfSiui CAttuttS HUH NC
bates at the present sessions of Congress, and
group them in the order of the topics dis
cuSSed
Senator Wallace Congressional Record, June
3, pages and 81 says
The Federal Government has no voters 1t can
make none 1t can constitutonally control none.
When 1t asserts the power to create and
hold "adtonnt eiectioaS or to regulate the conduct
Of the voter on election dan or to maintain equal
s,ttrogr tramples under foot the very basis of the
Federal system. and seeks bujd 81 consolidated
government from q democratic republic. This is
the plain purpose Of the men now in control of the
Federal Government, and to this end the teachings
of leading Republicans now are shaped.
There are no national voters. Voters who vote for
national REPRESENTATIVES are qualified by State con.
stiutlons and state laws, and national citizenship
is not required of voter of the State by any pro-
vision OF the Federal Constitution now In practice
If there be such thing, then, as a Irrational
election, 1t wants the first element of election
national voter The Federal Governments or or it
suits our friends on the other side better the
ton, has no voters 1t cannot create them, 1t cannot
qualify them.
Representative Clark, of Missouri, Record,
April 26 page CO., says:
The United States has no voters
Senator Maxey, Texas, (Record April 81,
page ~ says:
It follows as surely as "grass grows and water
runs that under our Constitution, the entire con-
troll of elections must be under the State whose
tiers assemble whose right to vote Is not drawn
from the constitution OF the United States. but
listed and was freely exercised long before its adop
ton.
Senator Williams, Kentucky, Record, April
%, page 81 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 Presi
dent. They are State officers and not Federal Off
GERS.
Senator Whyte, (Record May 81, page IA,
says:
There elections of United States officers and
voters of the United States. The voters are yo-
tiers of the States they the people of the States
and their members of the House Of Representatives
chosen by the electors Of the States
the people of the States, whose agents they are.
Mr.. McLane. Do understand him to saw that the
Government of the United States has the right to
keep the peace anywhere within the States Do I
understand him to say that there Is any speace of
the United States at all recognized by the Supreme
Court of the United States.
Mr.. Robson. Certainly do.-(Record, April 4,
page IA.
Mr. McLane Qaecord, April 4, page 15,)
saws:
1beliove that the provisions of the law which we
about to repeal is unconstitutional that ia to
say, that is unconstitutional for the United States
to "keep the peace" anywhere In the States, either
atthe polls or elsewhere and If it We're constltu-
tional, believe in common with gentlemen on this
side of the House that 1t would be highly inexpe-
dent to exercise that power
When that law used the phrase Ito keen the
peace It could only mean the peace Of the States.
1t is not possible thing to have breach of the
United State peace at the polls.
Senator Whyte (Record May 81, page 49,
says:
"sovereignty is lodged with the States, where If
had its home long before the Constitution was Gre
ated. The Constitution is the creature of that SOW
ereignty The Federal Government has no tnbe.
rent sovereignty. All Its sovereign powers drawn
from the States.
The States were In existence long before the Union
hot
The state governments supreme by inherent
power originally conceded to them by the people as
to the control of local legislation and administra
ton. The Federal Government has no part or LOT in
Interference Herewith is utterly unwarrantabIe
Senator Wallace Record June 3, DID. 3 and
~ says:
Thus we have every branch of the Federal Gov
ernment House, Senate, the executive and Judicial
departments, standing upon the State governments,
and all resting finally upon the people OF the
States qualified as voters by State Constitutions and
State laws.
Senator Whyte Record, May 81, page 1877
SAYS;
No. Mr.. President, it never was declared that we
were Il nation.
In the formation and adoption of the Constitution
the States were the factors.
These are the declarations of seven distin-
guished members of the present Congress.
The doctrines set forth in the above quota
tons may be fairly regarded as the doctrines
of the Democracy as represented in this Cap
itO
Let me summarize them: First there are no
national elections; second, the United States
has no voters; third, the States have the ex-
elusive right to control elections of members
of Congress; fourth, the Senators and Rep
resentativcs III Congress are State officers, or,
as they have been called during the present
session, "embassadors" or agents of the
"a
ity to keep the peace anywhere within a
State, and, i'll fact, has no peace to keep;
SIXTH the United States is not a nation en-
dowed with sovereign power, but is confed-
eracy of States; seventh, the States are SOW
ereignties possessing inherent supreme pow
ers; they are older than the Union, and as
independent sovereignties the State govern
ments created the Union and determined and
limited the powers of the General Govern
ment.
These declarations emhody the sum total of
the constitutional doctrines which the Democ-
racy has avowed during the extra session of
Congress They form body of doctrines
which L do not hesitate to say are more ex-
IRENE than was ever before held on this sub
ject, except perhaps at the very crisis of seces-
sion and rebellion.
And they have not been put forth as alb
stract theories of government. True to the
logic of their convictions, the majority have
sought to put them in practice by affirmative
acts of legislation.
Let me enumerate these attempts. First,
they have denounced as unconstitutional all
attempts of the United States to supervise,
regulate, or protect national elections, and
have tried to repeal all laws on the national
statute-book enacted for that purpose
Second, following the advice given by Cal
houn in his political testament to his party,
they have tried to repeal all those portions
of the venerated judiciary act of 1888, the
act of 1888 against qualification, the act 1861,
and the acts amendatory thereof which pro-
vide for carrying to the Supreme Court of the
United States all controversies that relate to
the duties and authority of any officer acting
under the Constitution and laws of the United
States.
Third. They have attempted to prevent the
President from enforcing the laws of the Uni
on, by refusing necessary supplies and by for
bidding the use of the army to suppress violent
resistance to the laws, oy which, if they had
succeeded, they would have left the citizens
and the authorities of the States free to obey
or disobcy the laws of of the ITninn nc tbev