Year: 1879

exercise his own Judgment If it should be sent
to him in the present or modified form. To
assume that he will


APPROVE OR WILL VETO 1T


or to introduce him in any way in this debate
is departure from wise usage. The Presi-
dents sphere of action is defined by the con-
stitution, and any attempt to influence legisla-
tion by the suggestion of what he may or may
not do is an observation deserving rebuke. 1t
will be time enough to criticise the act of the
President when he shall have exercised his con-
stitutional right, and any discussion of his sup
posed course before then is wholly out of place
in this body. Let us hope, Mr.. President,
when this bill has passed from hands that
the angry debate which has attended it will
operate as electricity in purifying the atmos-
phere, and we will all come together better dis
posed to give the country what has been given.
to party in a united effort to provide relief for
the prevailing distress in every pursuit of life.


SENATOR LOGAN


said he understood his colleague to remark
that the laws were obeyed alike in the North
and South.


Senator Davis-I meant the federal laws.


Senator Logan differed with his colleague,
and then referred to the annual report of the
commissioner of internal revenue for the year
tions Of internal revenue laws in the South as
compared with the North and that five MUIR
ders in that connection were committed in the
South and none in the North.


Senator Davis said he had no doubt viola
tions of internal revenue laws were taking
place all over the country.


Senator Logan asked his colleague whether he
could show a solitary murder committed in the
North or men wounded in the execution of
law.


Senator Davis said his colleague wa, deter
mined to have the last word. He, Davis, did
Irs~
obeyed as we'll in the South but he adhered to
what he had already said that the federal laws,
as a system, are obeyed with as much alle-
glance in the South as in the North.


SENATOR ALLISON,


in the commencement of his remarks, asked if
it was possible they had been sitting day after
day and hour after hour debating whether in a
republic there should be free and honeat bal
lot. Was there any party arrayed against a
principle SO we'll grounded? If there was such
party it was not the Republican party. The
pending bill was professedly an appropriation
bill providing for the support of the army from
the first day of July next for one year, and un-
less this bill should pass before that day, then
all the uses of an army must stop or G" on with
out an appropriation. An army was necessary
for protection of the frontier and
forts and arsenals, and for the protec-
ton as we'll of our treasure and archives



| army was as old as the government itself. The
Democratic Senators insisted that the sixth
| section of the bill was put there for the pur-
| pose of redressing grievances, although there
was ne pending grievance which required 1t to
he redressed. Now and here he believed it was the
Senator from Ohio, Thurman, who first init
| mated redress Of grievance. The Democratic
| party had been in power in the House since
| 1875, and he challenged contradiction when he
said that no petition from any source had been
| presented asking repeal modification of the
| existing law, nor had any"such petition been
presented in the Senate. This


PROPOSED REDRESS OF GRIEVANCES
was suddenly discovered and had no founda-
| ton for action; there was no necessity for en-.
numbering the bill with new legislation. At
| this time the Republicans have a majority OF
all the votes in the country, and this would be
everywhere apparent if there we're free ballot
and therefore it was unfair to them to insist
| on such legislation. Besides it ought not to
| be done as the mersure affected, or might af
| feet the enfranchised race. Considering that
| of forty Democratic Senators thirty-two are
from sections more nearly affected by the four
teenth and fifteenth amendments of the consti
tuition, to force this legislation upon our ap
preparation bills was an unfair procedure, es
pecially in view Of the fact thai
this question has not been discussed OF
the hustings, and no protest has come herr
|
| more unfair because of the avowal that thes'
sections are placed in the bill as conditions OF
appropriation. Allison believed 1t was revolu
tionary to force an amendment of the consti
tuition without ordinary processes. The consti
tuition says bills shall be passed by both house
and receive the signature of the President il
order to become law. Yet it was not pro
posed to make the Presidents signature con
dition to an appropriation Of money to defra.
the government expenses. Gen. jackson
would have been amazed at such presump
ton. He read from Jackson's message to the
Senate in 1884. protesting against resolutlo,
passed by that body to the effect that tn
President had acted outside his constitutions
prerogatives, and saying that if such interfer
ence with the independence of the Executiv
was allowed to pass unnoticed, and grew into
custom, it would be as effective in destroying
the liberty of action of independent depart
ments of the government as if a constitutions
| amendment were adopted throwing into tn
hands of the President the power delegated t.
the Senate


The real issue, Senator Allison continued, i
whether the civil officers of the United State
shall be permitted to enforce the laws by cal
ing on the military in case of necessity. l
troops had ever interfered in elections, the
had done SO in violation of law, and were liabl
to fine and imprisonment for it. There va
ample legal protection against undue influence
Continuing, he showed that under Washingto
the army had been authorized by Congress t
be used to restore peace in Pennsylvania, an
under Jefferson to be used as militia in certai
States, and such had been the practice since.


In conclusion, Senator Allison said ther
must be laws securing the people fair repre-
sentation, and they could not consent to an
infringement of their rights by the overridin
of one department of the government by an
other department.


After an executive session adjourned.
| -


House of Representatives..


SUBSIDIARY SILVER COIN BILL.
WASHINGTON, April 22.-The reading of tt
journal was dispensed with and considerable