1879. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE. 1743 this great power to the Post-Office Department, which is the point at the post-routes now established are of any sort of good. We establish issue. a.a a post-route anything that anymember of Congress or Senator de­ I will not undertake to state that the Senator from Kentucky is sires, and the Postmaster-General puts on such service as be pleases,. presenting a measure which is not constitutional; yet I do say that and does a.s much as be pleases and no more. All the railroads of the to my mind his proposition is not clear. It is a proposition which United States were made by one sweeping act post-routes. The mo­ should be carefully lookecl into, it should be carefully investigated, ment a railroad is extended twenty miles, the postal service is extended it should come in as a substantive independent measure, and it should with it. The navigable rivers I understand are in the same·condition come in at a time when we would all have the opportunity of hear­ and are treated in the same way. Therefore I sought to save the ing the great lawyers of this body discuss so grave a question. Committee on Post-Offices and Post-Roads, and certainly it would save Again, Mr. President, I have been in the habit of looking at a long me and every Senator and Representative immense trouble in going unbroken construction, passing through years, and in this case through over the details of a post-route bill if this could be done. But hav­ eighty-seven years, all construing the law exactly one way, as justly ing called attention to that fact, and as the committee seem to think entitled to great weight. Congress after Congress, beginning with that perhaps it would interfere with their bill, I will withdraw the the first under the Constitution, the federal party when it was in amendment I have offered, submitting to their discretion. power, the democratic party when it came into power, the whig party l\:lr. MAXEY. I will say with all deference to the· Senator from when it was in power, and the republican party-all parties-have Kentucky that if he will give UB an. opportunity to investigate the construed the law precisely as we are to-day trying to carry it out. question at the next session, I will give my word that the committee Certainly we should halt and study about it before we set all this will investigate it to the bottom. aside. Mr. BECK. I withdraw the amendment and will send it to the I 1>hould like to show in addition to what I have stated that there committee at the next session. are some good historical rea-sons for retaining the law as it is. One The PRESIDING OFFICER. The amendment prnposed by the· of the best tables of statistics showing the progress of this country Senator from Kentucky has been withdrawn. . from the foundation of the Government under the Constitution is The bill was reported to the Senate as amended, and the· amend­ that which is made up on the very subject which we are now discuss­ ments were concurred in. ing. I will state here that the first regular post-office established The amendments were ordered to be engrossed and the bill to be- in the colonies by Parliament was in 1710. In 1683 Penn granted an read a third time. ' order for a post-road from Philadelphia to New Castle, and that the The bill was read the third time, and passed. first post-route bill that was passed under the Constitution wa-s in TEXAS JUDICIAL DISTRICTS. the year 1792, and thatwent onjastexactlyaswegoon to-day, estab­ lishing post-roads by name. There was n.nother bill passed in 1794, l\Ir. GARLAND. I move that the Sena.ta proceed to the considera­ which followed the same rule; another one in 179.7, and another one tion of the bill (S. No. 572) to amend an act approved February 24,. in 1799, which simply declared that where there were two or more 1879, entitled "An act to create the northern judicial district of the· roads leading from the same point to a given point the Postmaster- State of Texas, and to change the eastern and western judicial dis­ General might select either, which is the law now. · tricts of said State, and to fix the time and pfa.ces of holding courts. In 1790 there were seventy-five post-offices in the United States; in said districts." eighteen hundred and seventy-five miles of post-roads. 'l'he revenue This bill is the unanimous report of the Judiciary Committee. derived from that Department was $37 ,935. The expenq.itures of the Mr. ALLISON rose. Department were $32,140. The salaries of postmasters were $ ,198. Mr. GARLAND. If the Senator from Iowa desires any other spe­ There were paid for the transportation of mails $22,081. That was in cial business to be proceeded with, I will simply ask that the bill be­ 1790, just after the adoption of the Constitution of the United States. taken up now and laid aside informally so as tc> be first in order to­ I pmit the intermediate years, which show step by step the advance morrow. of the country, and pa,ss to the year 1878, the last reported, Mr. ALLISON. I have no objection to the matter being taken upt Nearly ninety years after, in 1878, there were 39,258 postmasters in to be proceeded with in the morning. Unless some other Senator the United States; 301,966 miles of post-road; 29,277,517 revenue desires to present something to the Senate, I wish to move an execu­ from that Department; 34,165,0 4 expenditures for that Department; tive session. ~7,977,852 salaries of postmasters; and paid for the transportation of Mr. GARLAND. It is the understanding, then, that this bill be the mails $19,262,421. Let any one contrast these sta.tistics of 1790 taken up, so that it shall be the unfinished business for to-morrow f and 1878 and he will see the wonderful progress of our country. The PRESIDING OFFICER. The bill will be reported to the So far as expenses are concerned, the expenses of this bill are al­ Senate for information and for its action. ready in a memmre concluded. The pending bill passed the Honse of The Chief Clerk read the bill. Representatives, it went to the Committee on Post-Offices and Post­ The PRESIDING 0 FFICER. Is there objection to the present con­ Roads, it has pa-ssecl through that committee, it hµs been printed, it sideration of the bill 'f The Chair hears none, and it is before the is now in the Senate, and there is nothing to do but simply to p:iss Senate as in Committee of the Whole. the bill; there is no additional expense. My judgment is, if you trans­ Mr. GARLAND. I will now agree that it be laid aside so as to be. fe:r this great power which belongs to Congress to the Postmaster­ the unfinished business for to-morrow. General, you will require, not one clerk, not five clerks, but you will . Mr. BAYARD. Pending the consideration of the bill, which I un­ require twenty clerks more in order to keep up correspondence with derstand is now before the Senate, I move that the Senate proceed tc every part of the country to ascertain what are State roads. Agvin the consideration of executive business. I say to the Senator from Kentucky, that, broad and sweeping n-s his The motion was agreed to; and the Senate- proceeded to the con­ measure is designed to be, it is not so broad as the law as it now sideration of executive business. After twenty-three minutes spent. stands. in executive session the doors were reQpened, a.nd (at two o'clock ancl The amendment of the Senator from Kentucky proposes to authorize forty-five minutes p. m.) the Sen:i.te a~ourned. the Postmaster-General to place "mail service upon any public high­ way, river, or railroad within the United States as the public service may require; and such public highways, rivers, and railroads are hereby declared post-roads." As a matter of course public rivers, high­ ways, and railroa-ds being named, other ways are excluded. Expres­ HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. sio unius est exclusio alterius. The mail service over canals and over lakes would be excluded. The law as it now stands provides for" the TUESDAY, June 3, 1879. mail to be carried in any steamboat or other vessel used as a packet on any of the waters of the United States," so that the lawn-sit stands The House met at twelve o'clock m. Prayer by Rev. SA..'1UEL DO­ is n. better law than that which the Senator proposes. MER, D. D., of St. Paul's Lutheran Church, Washington, District of But I beg that the Senator will not now insist upon his amendment, Columbia. for he would injure, I think, every State that wv.nts to get routes estab­ The Journal of yesterda.y was ren.d a.nd approved. lished by this bill. I am entirely sure that whether there be any ORDER OF BUSDmSS. merit in the amendment of the Senn.tor from Kentucky or not-a.nd I Mr. DUNNELL. I rise to ask that by unanimous consent the call am not prepared to say now that there is not; I prefer to travel the of States for bill.8 and resolutions may be continued from the point roa.d which our ancestors have traYeled from the founcla.tion of the where it ended yesterday. I ask that the call be proceeded with as. Government down to the present time-I would rather look into this part of the morning hour or previous to the morning hour. proposition and not tack it on here, and not pass on this bill-a sub­ Mr. CONGER. If the call will only include bills and joint resolu­ stantive, independent measure-which in its very nature repeals the tions I will not object; but if the Speaker would allow resolutions. law as it stands on the statute-book ancl sta.rts out from now upon an other than joint resolutions to be introduced, I object. entirely new sy1>tem. ' The SPEAKER. There cannot be a qualified objection. Mr. BECK. Mr. President, the object I had in introducing the Mr. DUNNELL. My request includes simply bills a.nd joint reso- amendment was to endeavor to see if wecoaldnotinone bill in agen­ lutions. - eral wv.y do what we are doing with so much elaboration and detail. Mr. ACKLEN. If the call is to form part of the morning hour or Of course Congress can estn.blish a post.route wherever it pleases, to dispense with the morning hour, I object. witlfout asking the consent of any Stn.te, and the Postmaster-General The SPEAKER. The morning hour cannot be dispensed with ex­ is not obliged to put service ou the established post-routes unless he cept l>y a two-thirds vote of the House; but unanimous consent id. thinks the good of the public requires it. I suppose not one-half of equivalent to such a dispensing with the morning hour. 1744 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE. JUNE 3,

Mr. DUNNELL. I trust the gentleman from Louisiana will not Revision of the Laws, (H. R. No. li15)·to repeal certain sections of insist on his objection. the Revised Statutes and to amend certain sections of the Revised Mr. ACKLEN. I withdraw my objection if it is understood that Statutes and of the Statutes at Large relating to the removal of ·the call will not form part of the morning hour. causes from State courts, with amendments. Mr. CONGER. I object, unless the Chair asks that the call be for Mr. TOWNSHEND, of Illinois. I demand the previous question the introduction of bills and joint resolutions only. - upon the pending motion to refer the bill to the Committee of the Mr. DUNNELL. That is all the request I have made. Whole on the state of the Union. Mr. TOWNSHEND, of Illinois. I object to any qualified request Mr. COX. I ask the gentleman to yield to me, and I will renew the for unanimous consent. demand for the previous question at the close of the hour. I desire to speak on the test-oath question. CORRECTION OF RIVER A1'"'D HARBOR ACT. Mr. TOWNSHEND, of Illinois. With the undP,rstanding that the Mr. REAGAN. I ask unanimous consent to report from the Com­ demand for the previous question is renewed at the end of his re­ mittee on Commerce for present consideration the bill (H. R. No. 435) marks, I have no objection. to correct the reading of an act making appropriations for the con­ The SPEAKER. The motion pending is the motion of the gentle­ struction, repair, preservation, and completion of certain works on man from Illinois [Mr. TOWNSHEND] to refer the bill to the Commit­ rivers and harbors and for other purposes, approved March 4, 1879. tee of the Whole on the Rtate of the Union. This is a· bill simply to correct a clerical error in the river and harbor Mr. CONGER. I think that when this subject was last up, there act passed bv last Congress. was no quorum votin~ on that question. The SPEAKER. The bill will be read for information, after which The SPEAKER. The adjournment of the House vacated that pro­ objections, if any, will be in order. ceeding. 'fhe bill was read, as follows: Mr. COX. Has not the gentleman from Illinois [Mr. TOWNSHEND] Be it enacted, &c., That so mu.ch of the a-0~ entitled " An aery views of the minority of this House and of the President f I desire soul of public liberty. to adk the gentleman if that is correct. PRIMARY TRUTHS. l\Ir. CONGER. Without being authorized to speak for gentlemen However we may differ as to the modes of carrying out these pri­ on this side of the House at all, I think I may say that every man on mordial truths of our social system, however much our society may this side of the House is prepared to listen to the universal demand fluctuate, and be shaken or controlled for the moment by force or of men throughout the country of all political parties, that no legis­ fraud, I have faith to believe that the party which holds the lofty lation except in regard to appropriation bills, for which we were thought and hurtless weapon of free ballot and a fair jury, will rise called together in this session, shall be proceeded with, but that we above all the prejudices of faction and the hates of civil war. shall adjourn after the appropriation bills are passed. [Applause on The citizens of this country have always been taught, until an the republican side.] abnormal condition grew out of our sectional contention, to rely upon Mr. TOWNSHEND, of Illinois. Then I understand that dilatory thei: own wil~ing judgment, unshackled by force and uncurbed by motions will be resorted to against any other bill or resolution as well official meddling. The mass of our people, whatever may be said, as against this one. will never long be dazzled with any glittering federal .,government, Mr. CONGER. When the other bill comes in we will inform the especially when their hbme interest.a ar:) at stake. There are no con­ gentleman what our course will be. siderations of party supremacy or personal interests which.will pay Mr. TOWNSHEND: of Illinois. Then let me say this much, in them for the loss of a free ballot and a fair trial. answer to the gentleman. I want to repeat the language used in the REVOLUTION! Forty-third Congress by the gentleman from Ohio [Mr. GARFIELD] In view of these propositions, how childish is the clamor that the when his party was in thp majority, and when the minority were de­ attempt of Congress to sponge from the statutes odious restrictions laying action on a bill by dilatory motions. He said then that the upon the popular will, like force at the polls and test oaths in the action of the minority in seeking to delay action upon a bill by fili­ courts, is Revolution! How idle the veto which promises not to use bustering or dilatory motions was revolutionary, was an overthrow such force and which declares that no law exists to authorize it, and of parliamentary government. I repeat his language here to-day for yet would preserve it for some ulterior and sinister purpose ! To the benefit of gentlemen on the other side who are seeking to delay veto such a measure so plainly expressed is no more revolution than action on this or other bills by the same method. the legislation vetoed. Mr. REED. If you would repeat more of the language of the gen- Sir, the genius of our Fepublic, unlike that of other nations, ancient tleman from Ohio it would be a great improvement on your speeches. .and modern, is not revolution; it is rather mutability. Revolution Mr. CALKINS. I rise to a question of order. threatens the existence and accomplishes the ruin of a government. The SPEAKER. The gentleman will state it. Change, if it be a foe at all to good government and republican insti­ Mr. CALKINS. Is this discussion in order V tutions, is only a temporary obstacle to a better and more stable The SPEAKER. It is not. _ policy. But a permanent change of the national spirit and elemental Mr. CALKINS. Then I demand the regular order. liberties of a people is revolution. Our Proteus is not dangerous, how­ The SPEAKER. The regular order is the proposition, which the ever variable. The American- idea is the peaceful revocation of dis­ Chair understands to be agreed to by unanimous consent, that the cerned wrongs, to conform to our constant growth and new conditions. gentleman from New York [l\Ir. Cox] shall occupy the floor for this It would prevent bad laws or repeal them; and it may and does often morning hour, and the next morning hour shall be occupied by gen­ pre.-ent good laws. There is no excessiv~ legislation that is not ob­ tlemen on the other side of the House. noxious, but it does not follow that it is revolutionary. IX-110 1746 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE. JUNE 3,

Mr. Speaker, the great difficulty with our opponents is, that there ive franchise and civil rights of citizens." It contains twenty-seven has been a change which is not revolution. They have lost control; sections, and but one is now proposed to be repealed and one modi­ but the government is not overturned or lost. Parties come and go but fied. Then there is a law to use armies at the polls and the test-oath principles and organisms survive and are strengthened by the ~ove­ law as to jurors. ment. Rufus Choate gave a definition to revolution, worthy of him­ ~et ~he i:epeal, if not complete now, reach as far as it can. Cer­ self: tamly ~twill be a relief to be rid of these laws against the freedom I take itt sir, that so stupendous a. transaction as revolution for good or evil, and fairness of the ballot and jury-box· and for one I would not announces itself pretty unequivocally. If that grea.t sea lifts itself up and tha.t sky st?P 1!ill the whole of this blasting and' plag~e-creathig upas tree, darkens, and 1ftat not very imitable thunder rolls, mankind hear and see it. It is with its many envenomed rootia, tr~nks, and ~ranches, is girdled and a. tempes~, which overturns and. successfully resists the existing authority, arrests the exercISe of supreme power, rntroduces by force and by a. resort to the primary dead. They all have the same obJect, to poison the representative I right of nature, a. new, paramount authority into the rule of st.ate. . system. THE DEVIL-FISH-AN ANALOGY. Do gentlemen say that the enacting of an Army bill, with a rider Th~se manifold ~nd cunning contrivances against the popular ex­ abolishing certain abuses which grew out of the war; or, as we noV: press10n ma:y be likened to n?t~g so analogous in nature as the have it, of a separate bill for that purpose, is that inimitable and famous devil-fish. Its beak is like the mandibles of a hawk, and tempestuous revolution which overturns public authority Y fitly represen~s t~e sword a~ the .Polls. The long radiating feelers, Will any one tell me that the effort to brling into the jury-box: hon­ whose underside 18 armed with hidden rows of sharp-pointed hooks est and intelligent men and repeal the test by which they are ex­ represent ~he insidio?-s, cruel machinery used to deter and captur~ cluded, is such a stupendous and thunderous exercise of supreme power yote~s, while the yentable talons at their end are the test oath and through force and a resort to the primary riuht of nature, that a new' 0 Jury J~ggle, by which ~he prey when enmeshed, is dragged in by the su­ paramount authority is introduced into the rule of state? How ca~ perv1srng and.marshaling tentacles of this slimy octopus. Even after any one aJlege this condition to be revolution Y It is not overturning. the. creature 18 dead, these suckers have an ugly and hideous vigor, It is uprighting! which :fitly represents a veto of the popular and representative will. In one sense we have a revolution every year in our affairs. It is As one by one we try to. reµeve the body-politic of this monstrous net­ the happy consequence of the exquisite automatic machinery of our ~ork. of wrong, the writhing becomes as harmless as it is sublime in system. It has its principle of compensation. The motion is not its blind fury. To detach from the States these long and stifling claws [ broken; it is not stopped or retarded. Its irregularities only are cor­ and arms is not revolution I rected. But it is not the inimitable revolution such as astounded and changed a dynasty and restored old liberties to England in 1688. It is THE IRON-CLAD OATH. not the denial of dependence upon a crown by a nation at once spring­ Is it not monstrous, that even in our Revision of theLa.ws (section ing into life, armed cap-a-pie, by its "declaration," as in America in 821) so hateful a test should still remain to blacken our statute-books'/ 1776. It is not the red flood which in France in 1798 whelmed licen­ What doesthat section reqnfre of the officers of the Federal courts Y To tious monarchs and vampire nobles, and swept away tithes, seignorial every grand and petit juror an oath should be· tendered known as does, gabel, game laws, feadalities, colonial slavery, and old land­ the ''iron-clad." What is that oath f That the juror has' not taken marks, to institute a new order. These were indeed inimitable and up arms .o~ joi!le~ any insurrection or rebellion against the United tempestuous. ~ta~es, g1vrng it a~d and ~omfort; that he has not given, directly or We look in vain for any evidences of this,.kind of revolution around mdirectly, any a-ss1stance rn money, or any other thing, to Any per­ us this extra session and since these debates began. Will not seed­ son whom he k;i~w, o~ h~d good ground to believe, to have joined, or tiqle and harvest pass and come again ; men and women be married to be about to Jorn, said msurrectlon or rebellion. The oath further and given in marriage; children be born as usual; the summer sols­ goes to the extent of refusing jury duty to those who gave money to tice follow the vernal equinox, and autumn clad in her familiar those who have resisted or to be about to resist with force of arms russet lead the way for gray and frosty winter, and the hours press the execution of the laws of the United States. He is required to do~n as ever, to the lips of thankless men, the prodigality of nature for swear that he has not counseled or advised any one to join in insur­ their sustenance and felicity ¥ There are revolutions in all these rection or rebellion. Whoever refused to take that oath could not phenomena. Yonder clock, as it marks the hours, revolves, but it serve on the grand or petitjury. This law was passed in June 1862 does not startle us by its regular movement. The sun moves in the afLer one s~ction had become inyol ved in the civil struggle, and'a lin~ heavens and gives us the dawn and the evening, with all the splen­ of force. exist_ed between one-third of our people and the remainder. dors of the one and the repose of the other; but this kind of revolu­ It remams still, after that straggle has been ended and the line erased. tion is not of the tempestuous and inimitable kind. It is only the It nullifies a fair, in~elligent .jurr trial. What a glaring absurdity t debate which is so stormful. But if after such a debate comes such How apparent this absurdity is now, when there are three judges if a calm, let the sea, sky, and thunder do their worst. No one will be not liilOre, J adge Settle of North Carolin~, J ndge Hughes of Virgina, harmed. ~nd Judge ~a~mond of Te?Uessee-in fact there are some twenty BO~"D-SELLIXG ~"D REVOLGTIOX. Jndges and distnct attorneys mall-who administer this law, and who Revolution! "Oh," said Disraeli, "there is nothing like a fall in themselves cannot take the oath they require of others. A· person consols to bring the blood of our ~ood people of England into cool may be President of the TJnited States, nay, we have now a member order. It is.YOO! grand state medicme-yourveritable Dr. Sangra-0.o." of the Cabinet, and have had others in the Cabinet, who cannot and I should be mclined to reverse the statement, and say that the rise in could not take the oath without perjury. How many in this House our bonds ought to cool the ardent rhetoric of those who cry out that could take it but for a special modification of the law 'i the Republic is endangered. Does it indicate peril and dismay when ~he mischiefs which we intended to remedy by this repealing legis­ co~ere a~oand our Secretary of the Treasury boasts of placing, since th~ lstof Janu­ lation the ballot._ Of the pending questions of our ary, $750,000,000 of our four percents at a half per cent. premium Y Let extra session this has been least discussed. I beg to refer to it elab­ It is us w~lcome such a revolu?on if it establish still higher the national orately-I mean jury trial and the test oath. well known that credit. If the democratic ascendency and its natural outcome in arrests have been made of hundreds of our people in certain States the repeal of tyrannical laws against the free choice of our public for the alleged brea"ch of the Federal election laws. There were ser~ants in our. Federal courts and Legislature, thus lift up the some four hundred in Louisiana, one hundred in South Carolina and nation· upon a .higher plane, in the eyes of· its most suspicions citi­ perhaps as many in Florida and Maryland, in 1878. These pe~sons zens who deal m bonds and moneys, and in the eyes of foreign nations ~e 1:1e.l~ for trial; and the jurors summoned have been put to the who look at tmr general conduct, mellowed by distance-then let mqms1tion, by the test oath-of loyalty to which I have referred. such revolutions be frequent and perpetual! Charges have been made aaainst democratic citizens Son th and North The rev?l°:tion which gentlemen have apprehended is not felt by but especially in the South. Almost a reign of terror spread through Florida, South Carolina, Louisiana, and Maryland. Men have been all:y b~t timid nerves, nor. seen by a~y but those bent on partisan m~chie~ and pe~petual misrule: It 18 the ~isbegotten offspring of dragged into court under various pretexts, and sought to be put on legislative babbling, the affectation by a partisan opposition of a fear trial by jurors who, with facile alacrity, could take the test oath. never felt. No such result from these measures of repeal is possible. It forbade equality in the trial; for only the Government could ten­ What is the ostensible cause of this terrible cry of revolution f It is der the test oath. The defendant has no such right. He is at a dis­ the attempt to repeal a class of statutes, which where they are not advantage which is vital. A few authentic facts will answer the­ tyrannical are absurd. statement often made, that those disabled by service in the rebellion Even the colored brothe~-, in sight of the Freedman's Bank, besieges !iave grown old and a new generation have appeared for jury serv­ the doors of the Treasury m mobs for the ten-dollar certificates dailv. ice, and that the test is a practical nullity and never executed. They wait from cock-crow to the dewy eve-hired it may be at seventY­ Ta:ke Louisi~a. A<:itizen of twenty-seven y~ars of age is called as :five cents per $100-to obtain from the Treasury its printed credits a Juror. He is challenged, and finally set aside, because when nine to fill the broker and bank demand. What to him are the alluvium years of age he gave a contribution of $1.50 for a needy confederate of the Kansas bottoms Y His hopes are bottomed on our bonds. · What soldier. Again, a case was sent for trial from Natchitoches to New tle, as the oath excluded from the jury-box th& OUR INF.AMOUS ELECTIOX LAWS. ~est citizens, the tax-J?aye~ and property-holders, and that it forced We have a code of Federal election laws. It counts up thirty sec­ ignorance and barbarISm mto the box. In Caddo Louisiana a re­ tions. A few of them only are touched by the proposed repeal, some ve!lgeful p~litician prosecll:ted some seventy-five p~rsons for~ con­ fourteen only. We have another code of "cri~es against the elect- spiracy agamst one J. Madison Wells, of peculiar fame. Wells ran 1879. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSEo 1747 for Congress. There was a pretext as to the number of ballot-boxes try the friends of liberty with packed juries. The House will observe used to arrest these -seventy-five men; but a jury of eight colored the similarity with our own condition. Violence was used in favor of men and four superserviceable whites was arrayed under the test ; the minority or court candidates. The obsequious lord mayor went and this jury refused to discharge some of the accused, although in­ to the polls to turn the tide in favor of the court candidates; he un­ structed by a republican judge that there was no case. So long as dertook illegally to adjourn the election to avoid the inevitable result. that test oath remains malevolence will gratify its bitterness and The polling of the vote was continued, however, by the popula.r offi­ justice will be a farce. cers, and the liberal candidates were elected. The court commanded This system forbade fair trial. It placed the liberty and property their own minority candidates to be sworn in as sheriffs, and those and even the lives of the people in the hands of political opponents. who continued the election were prosecuted for a riot. Then came the When it is added that these partisans were summoned, paid, biased, atrocity. The jury was summoned by the new sheriffs. The trial and inspired by those who were above the ballot and selected for came on at Guildhall before the venal Lord Chief-Justice Saunders. their offices by the Federal central power here, and that many of them The defense challenged the array, because the sheriffs who returned were men of cra.ss ignorance and no character, it will be at once ob­ the jury were not lawful sheriffs and had an interest. The report of served how closely a fair jury trial connects itself with a free elec­ the trial reveals the struggle between the courageous counsel and the tion. obsequious judges. The counsel required a new jury according to the QUALIFICATIONS OF JURORS. law. "No," said the court," the sheriffs are sheriffs de facto." Excep­ Of course there are certain qualifications of jurors which are not tions were refused, the jury were sworn, and, amid the hum and inter­ affected by test-oaths in our States and in other countries beside our ruptions of the people, the court directed a verdict of guilty. The own. In Indiana every reputable male householder is competent carefully packed jury acquiesced. But the revolution of 1688 which to serve on a jury. In Ohio every cf!~: and judicious person having followed reversed this judgment by a special act of the Legislature. the qualifications of an elector is a · sible. In Illinois every white English history is full of the attempts through the judiciary to wrench male, if a taxable inhabitant, is qualified. In Pennsylvania the juror from the people their right to be fairly tried by their peers fixed in must be a taxable citizen of his county, sober, intelligent, and judi­ the great Charter. cious. The case of Lord Russell and Algernon Sydney, who were beheaded; MODES OF IMPANELING. of Elizabeth Gaunt, who wa-s burned alive; of the old and loyal lady There are different modes of drawing the jury in different States. of seventy, Alice Lisle, who was hung; of Prynne, the parliamenta.ry In Ohio and Iowa they are selected by inspectors of elections, returned hero, who had his ears cat off; of Bunyan, who was imprisoned four­ by county officers, and drawn from a box. So, too, certain classes teen years, and of Richard Baxter, who was whipped, are to the point. are exempt from serving. The usages of the several States differ· in Some of these ca-ses will be specially referred to; but all, and hun­ this respect. Clergymen, priests, physicians, attorneys, public offi.!. dreds of others, illustrate the atrocious and ferocious abuse of jury cers, fire commissioners, keepers of bridges and toll-gates, cashiers of trial by such judges as Jeffreys, Wright, and Scroggs. banks, and others, are exempt, though qualified. They must claim Perhaps the meanest acts ever committed among mankind have their exemption before they are discharged from cmty. been by the perversion of this system, under the ermine. In so far as What we desirefor the Federal courts is a fair drawing from a. list the jury was packecl, brow-beaten, or punished, so were the franchises made up without discrimination as to party or personal ends. There of Englishmen degraded and despoiled. In all history, nothing equals is a law pending to effect this, by giving a. non-partisan commission the conduct of the infamous Jeffreys in the reign of J a.mes II after the power to select the number and names to be drawn from. No clerk the Duke of Monmouth's insurrection. Jeffreys went upon the cir­ of the Federal court, marshal, or district attorney should know in cuit to hold his "bloody assizes." Three hundred and fifty-one advance what the panelis to be. Bla-ckstone urges that the returning "so-called" rebels were convicted and executed. It was done by officers should be indifferent, beyond suspicion. It is not alone in the packing, suborning, cajoling and bullying the jury. The verdict in South that juries have been packed for a corrupt purpose in the Fed­ old Lady Lisle's case is the horror of history. It makes the sanguin­ eral courts. The new order of things since the war and the many new ary climax to the woes inflicted on the innocent by the inhuman questions growing out of frauds on the revenue and under the elec­ wretch and his timid and corrupt jury. This was a case of giving tion laws-questions of a Federal nature-make the Federal courts aid and comfort to n. dissenter and a rebel, and being political has most important to the people of the whole State and district. And become historic. the jury of the vicinage should not be limited to an area less than The case of Sydney left its impress on America. He was in one sense the body of the district. Like the Gothic jury or nembda, it should the genius of our Revolution. His conviction was based on the doc­ be collected from every quarter. In the South, "confederates" who trine, that to write was to act. His abstract speculations on govern­ were democrats were rejected under the test oath, while" confederates" ment, never before published, were thrust before a corrupt jury to con­ who became republicans were not challenged. 'l'here was worse than vict him of bjgh treason. Itwasdonewith the aid of atrucklingjury,. this in Chicago, where parties about•to be indicted in th~ Federa.l selected by the judicial partisans of the King. Well might Sydney courts were permitted to name some of the grand jury. exclaim after the mockery of his trial and after the infamous chief­ lTh""BIASED JURORS. justice had sentenced him to the block: "0 God! 0 God! I beseech One of the prime rules as to the jury in all enlightened countries Thee to sanctify these sufferings unto me, and impute not my blood is, tha.t a person interested in a case is disqualified. Persons who have to the country. Let no inquisition be made for it; but, if any, and the expressed an opinion on the issue are in many States disqualified. shedding of blood of the innocent must be avenged, I pray let it fall The general rule for a juror is impartiality, integrity, character,j udg­ only upon those who persecute me for righteousness' sake." While ment, and information. It is a ground of challenge, if the juror who the judges and jurors were making merry over their festivities, tho is summoned is either prejudiced or partial, or that he lacks compe­ purest patriot that ever stood upon our footstool passed from earth tent knowledge. This is to be determined by the judge or triors, to heaven; but the inquisition for blood never ceased until the hated before the jury is impaneled. instrument of his death died in the Tower, a drunken monster, and What, then, shall be said of a rule or law which disallows men of the enemies of fair trial were expelled from the English realm. intelligence, cli racter, and judgment, by an insidious mode of selec­ Most of the reforms which the jury system have received came out tion, and by a test oath; while the men who are partial and preju­ of its abuses. Most of these abuses were connected with political diced by reason of party affiliations or by the selection of partisan and religious controversy. In this, history but repeats itself. Polit­ clerks, marshals, andjudges, a.re sworn to try those who opposed them, ical oaths, and especially test oaths aa to past conduct, thus became for political offenaes connected with exciting elections Y Candidates the odium of history and the scandal of civilization. English annals who seek places, officers who seek to hold them, become fierce arid are fnll of instruction to us as to their baleful effects . . vindictive, even under color of law, and exhibit a rancorous ferocity THE HISTORY OF JURY TRIAL. toward the political foe not shown toward the blackest criminal. I need not dwell upon the importance of trial bv jury. It is a. They use spies and informers, to instigate political prosecutions, who trial "by the country." It was said by Lord Brougham, that he was sell their souls by oaths and make barter in innocent blood. From guilty of no error, he was chargeable with no exaggeration, he was such,_ in choosing or acting as jurors, let our repealing statute deliver betrayed by no metaphor, when he said that all we see about us, the us ! it is the old story over again recorded in the history of the atro­ whole machinery of state, all the apparatus of the instrument and cious judges and their underlings. its varied workings, ended in simply bringing twelve good men into PACKED JURIES AND SUPPLE JUDGES. a. box. If this be true, the jury is an extraordinary element of social In this discussion it is proper to go to the experience recorded for order. It is of that transcendent importance by which Lord Holt our instruction. I am no laudator teniporis acti; b'!;lt it is aa profitable characterized the ballot. A:ny rider upon any bill which would re­ to draw lessons from past misconduct as it is to reconcile tha,t which store or vindicate it would be justified. is old· and good with that which is new and wise. By observing the Is there anything more lamentable and detestable than that which history of jury trials we will be certain not to oppose the progres­ would hinder or destroy it Y It is for this reason that our Constitu­ sive principles of political development; certainly we will not retro­ tion, in the third, fifth, sixth, and seventh articles, gives it organie grade into the illiberalities (now removed) which obtained in our sanction, both for civil and criminal cases. It has been a staunch mother country more than one hundred and seventy years ago. bulwark of liberty and has added new splendors to our system of Let me illustrate. There was a trial in London of certain rioters jurisprudence. . in 1682. At the previous election the attempt was made to elect by CONSTITUTIONAL INTERPRRT.ATION-MILLIGAN CASE. undue means and illegal force two candidates for sheriff, who b.ad a · The Supreme Court of the United States (exparte Milligan, Wallace,. small minority of electors in their behalf. The motive was to get volume 4, page 2) not only vindicated habeas corpus and nullified mil­ control of the jurors, who were picked out by the sheriffs, so as to itary commissions, but gave emphasis and vigor to these jury gnaran- 1748 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE. JUNE 3,

tees of the Constitution. No matter whether in peace or war, no survived all the changes of English dynasties. It preserved the lib­ matter whether applied to rulers or ruled, Chief-Justice Chase and erties of England ; it taught the nation the relations of right and Mr. Justice Davis, standing upon the history of tho jury through its wrong, of meiim et tuum; it inspired its citizens with a love of inde­ English and American ordeals, set the "so-called " sympathizing, dis­ pendence. Ont of the education, moral and mental, thus attained, loyal Indiana" son of liberty" free. [Laughter.] Oo what ground T grew the honest principle that a man who judged bis neighbor should Beoause the inestimable right of jury trial was Yiolated by the rune, judge him, as be himself would be judged. It gave men manly confi­ barbaric home-guard pf Indiana. Especially did Judge Davis, lifting dence; it made every juror a magistrate and every citizen a sovereign aloft the scales of justice, denounce the anti-social rule of a soldiery within the province of his duty. While it destroyed egotism, it made who had not even military education and habits to excuse them, for every man proud to fill the part which he was bound to discharge in attempting to regulate by their summary tyranny the doings of a. free society. Like the ballot, it gave control over human life and all its people. At one da-sh of bis ,iudicial pen he annihilated the martial temporal affairs. It not only taught the citizen to compare evidence worship which thepoliticaltlunkies of that day were glorifying. He and do equity, but it exercised his highest reasoning powers; it was would allow no dragooning under any pretenses, where the civil law a school for citizenship, a special system of instruction. He who existed and the courts were open. Here are a few of his ringing sen­ would desecrate its sanctity or destroy its vigor knows little of his­ tences: tory and cares less for the romantic and heroic genius of liberty. This privilege is a vital principle, underlying the whole administration of crim­ inal justice; it is not held by sufferance, and cannot be frittered away on any plea ORIGCT A?\'D FAJID.~SS OF JURY TRIAL. of State or political necessity. When peace prevails and tbe authority of the Gov­ It matters not whence it came,- whether from the homagers of the ernment is undisputed, there is no ditficnlty of preserving the safeguarus of lib­ French feudal system,-wbether from Woden and his savage Scythian erty: for the ordinary modes of trial are never neglected, and no one wishes it otherwise. But if society is disturbed by civil commotion, if the passions of men companions,-whether out of "the hundreds" of early English days, are aroused and the restraints of law weakened, if not dis re~rded , these safe­ whether out of the forests of Scandinavia or Germany, or whether it gnards need and should receive tho watchful care of those mtrusted with the was brought by the Romans to England in the form of selebti jlldices,­ guardianshiJ? of the Constitution 'Hld laws. In no other way can we transmit to or by the Normans to England. Nor does it matter so much that its posteriw ummpaired the blessin.e;s of liberty, consecrated by the sacrifices of the Revolution. form and constitution were changed from mere witnesses of the fact, from the vicinage, to judges. After many haps and mishaps, it re­ This decision is as truthful as it is instructive. It shows us the · ceived something more than traditional welcome as unwritten law. lofty niche which justice holds in our temple. Military commissions In the reign of George IV, it was enacted that the county should organized to convict, as in Milligan's case, fell before the forensic be the vicinage, and that the juror need only be a good and lawful power exhibited in that case by David Dudley Field, Montgomery man of the county. In our States, similar enactments have been Blair, and Jeremiah Black. They were aided by another gentleman, made and lawful precautions taken, so that none but good and lawful who had h imself been a soldier and who was then and is now a mem­ men should be selected for so high a trust. That policy sQ.onld pre­ ber of this House. Drawing from the arsenal of English jurispru­ vail, as it used to, in the Federal courts. When Sir Nicholas Throck­ dence; remembering the attempts of General Gage in Boston and morton was tried in 1554, for high treason, he described what a good Lord Dunmore in Virginia to overthrow the civil with martial rule; juror should be. "I desire," said he, "to be tried by just and honest recalling the fact that the descendants of cavalier and roundhead men, that fear God more than man." We want no test oaths to keep joined with a common indignation to defeat the attempt, this elo­ off intelligence or honesty from the jury; we want no statute whereby quent commoner and distinguished soldier plead against arraignment ignorance shall try the lives and liberties of our people; we want hon­ without jury. He held that no man should be sentenced by the rec­ est purpose along with common sense, so that the jury shall be a safe­ ord of the king without bis legal trial per 1Jares. Warming with his guard against a foolish, technical, corrupt, or prejudiced court or theme, drawing bis examples from the atrocities in Ireland, in our party. own and other lands ; fortifying bis argument by authority from English history is full of illustrations of the mockery of partial Mackintosh, Sir Mathew Rn.le, and others, be reached his splendid and prejudiced juries. 'fhe very abuses of the system led to the en­ climax-in what! Why, in the magnificent judicial courage of the actment in the time of George IV. When Throckmorton waa tried, judges in the seceded States during the rebellion I Let me quote: the chief-justice of England, a creature of royalty and anxious to So completely have they been impressed on the minds of American lawyers, so convict, threatened the jury : '' I admonish you," said the frowning thorou~hly ingrained into the fiber of .American character, that notwithstanding the citizens of eleven States went off into rebellion, brokethetr oaths of allegiance judge, "to take good heed what you

"full, round bellies, with good fat capon lined," sit the pompous, puffy and the inhabitants thereof, from its brazen throat, the wedding of aldermen I These are the judges of the heroic Quaker. liberty and independence; but it also had another voice-the voice of This book describes the city then as so brave, fair, and stately as a.great State, whose foundations were laid injustice to all, and whose to" outvie the most magnificent city of the universe." I Ah I it had - solemn, sweet vibrations, been a proud city; and in other days displayed its pride against the Like the voice of Christ, said: '' peace." craft of kings and courtiers who sought to rob it of its charter. Now, it is low indeed, under servile vassalage to n. frivolous monarch, as Such servility of judges and juries, which Penn denounced and the scene of Penn's trial shows! contemned, became the reproach of history; but this very reproach Parliament had just passed the conventicle a.ct ii,gainst profane and ·lifted the jury above the ordinary ma-chinery of justice al}d gave it loosepersonswhopreachednon-conformity. Oneofthesewasthewell­ a lofty place in our jurisprudence. born Quaker of twenty-five years, who had already suffered for his ANOTHER ILLUSTR.A.TIO:lf OF A BRAVE JURY. faith by expulsion from Oxford. He is seized by constables, while speaking to a crowd near his chapel, whose doors had been purposely There are many instances where the grand jury has interposed be­ closed. He is borne off to Newgate and there imprisoned. tween the Crown and the subject. In 1681 the grand jury of London, The gray and gloomy prison had received many a miscreant and against the efforts of the jndges, refused to indict the Earl of Shaftes­ many a patriot. Here had been immured Lord Russell and Jack bury and thus saved his life. The crime was venial-factious oppo­ Sheppard, the regicide Harrison and the assassin Bellingham. It was sition to the court. When they wrote "ignoramus" on the back of no respecter of rank or person. Never before had its gloomy walls the bill-luC'US a non lucendo-;..it was a sign that they knew all about confined a finer or firmer spirit than that of Penn. His undaunted the device; and when this dead word was read in court, it became soul knew no prison walls. vital with liberty; for it is said that there was a most wonderful shout, The trial begins on the 1st of September, 1670, at the Oid Bailey, so that one would ha.ve thought the hall had cracked. A goorl jury, "which runneth doune by the Mall, upon Hound's Ditch to Ludgate," grand and petit, was needed then as a .bulwark against the. attacks and was equally celebrated then. as now for its criminal-sessions. The of the government and the servility of the judges. Is it le~ needed hero of that trial, next to Penn, is one Edward Bushel, a. juror; its now in this country, where political schemes through court and jury shame is the furious mayor, Sir Samue4 Starling, and ono John Howel, foment discontent Y the insolent recorder. The aldermen and sheriffs are rather lay fig­ IRISH EXAMPLES. ures in the scene. The court is crowded. Silence is called. The wit­ The history of Ireland, not less than the history of England, is the nesses are heard as to the assembling in the streets. Penn rises to history of menaces and violence upon juries to convict, which cannot acknowledge the facts and vindicate his right to meet incessantly to long be endured in this country without adding disgrace to reproach. reverence and adore bis God. "You are not here," said a bluff sheriff, The case of Viscount Stormont in early days and the cases of Emmet, "for worshiping God, but for breaking the law!" Penn asks," What O'Brien, and Young Ireland in later days furnish themes too rich and law Y" "The common law," said the recorder. After much colloquy, resplendent for ordinary rhetoric. The case of Stormont, executed with insolence on one side and meekness on the other, Penn is or­ by Strafford, lord-lieutenant, without trial, returned to plague, ay, · dered away to the dungeon. Before he is dragged out, ho appeals to to behead the murderer. the jury and pleads for t,he fundamental law of England. Of no In the case of Emmet the monstrosity of the abuse of impartial avail. He is hurried to the bale dock, protesting against the jury jury trial was consummate. "For endeavoring to procure for his coun­ being charged in bis absence. Of no avail. The jury at first return try the guarantees which Washington had procured for America"­ an evasive verdict, that he bad preached,-no more. "We will have this was his crime; let this be his epitaph! a verdict by the grace of God, or you will starve for it," sn,ys the Would you know how Ireland has been kept unpacified and how her recorder. Again the jury is sent out. eight millions of aliens remained discordant in an unhappy union f" When the mockery of the trial is over and the jury seem firm for It will be found in the infamous abuse of trial by jury. Read Han­ acquittal, abuse and threats are rained upon them and their leader. sard's Debates in 1843, and from one case-that of Daniol O'Connell­ "I will set a mark upon you" is the threat of the mayor to Bush~l, one learn all. When the jury list in liis case was struck, twenty-seven of the jurors. He even threatens him with personal mutilation. Penn Catholics were excluded. There was a bare chance for two Catholics interposes with quiet dignity: "\Vhat hope," cries out Penn,'' in hav­ out of forty-eight, but it was not realized. Lord Macaulay, in a speech ing justice done when jurors are threatened and their verdicts re­ at that time, charged this to a scandalous intrigue-to a violation of jected Y" He denounces, in the name of Magna Charta, the arbitrary law and a wrong to Mr. O'Connell. Even one of the judges said that conduct of the judges. " Stop his mouth," cries the mayor; "jailer, this wrong was a designed subversion of justice and that no govern­ bring fetters!" "I matter not your fett.ers," replies the self-comp1::i.­ ment should avail itself of a conviction thus obtained. Here was a cent Quaker. Again the jury are sent out, mid again they return a. trial which, though against one person, was really between two re­ verdict of " not guilty." ligions and races, and only Protestants to give the verdict. On the Then a dramatic scene ensues, which is fa.ithfully tr:mscribed: principle of the jury de 11iedietate linguae where a foreigner is tried by RECORDER. Gentlemen of the jury, I am sorry you have followed your own judg­ ments rather than the good advice which was e.iven you. God keep my life out of a jury, one-half of his nation is called to the panel; but the orator, law­ your hands I But for this the court fines you forty marks a man, an imprisonment yer, patriot, and statesman of Ireland had not even the poor privilege till paid. of the alien, which England when it suits her makes of every Irish­ W. Pru.~. I demand m:y- liberty, being freed by the jury. man. Surely such mockeries neither tend to quietude nor justice. :MAYOR. No. You are m for your fines. England has found it so in her dealings with that discontented isle. W. PE..VN. Fines for what7 MAYOR. For contempt of court. · They weary earth and provoke heaven. W. ~. I ask if it be according to the fundamental laws of England that any Englishman should be fined or amerced but by the judgment of his peers or jury, TEST OATHS. since it expressly contradicts the fourteenth and twenty-ninth chnpters of the grM.t Surely to protect an institution like this against a,buse, any mode of charter of England, which says, "No freeman shall be amerced but by the oath of good and lawful men of the vicinage." legislation, by riders, withholding supplies, or otherwise, which we RECORDER. Take him away! choose to adopt in this House, is justifiable before a people who prize ·w. Prum. I can never urge thefundamenta.ll&wsof England but you cry, "Take their privileges. It matters not how small or great may be the ob­ him away," but it is no wonder. God, who isjust, will judge you for all these thing&. struction to jury trial or in what form it appears. It is only a difier­ The jurors and the acquitted prisoner are again sont to jail; from ence in degree in the persecution. The argument for these test oaths which the great writ rescues them. would lead to whipping at the cart's tail, to the screwing of thumbs, God has judged these things. He has raised ap a great Common­ to the disemboweling and quartering of the dead or burning of the live wealth, which bears the name of the Quaker tribune, by whom English body. It matters not that the test oath is one that belongs to tbe y<-1 ars law was saved from reproach. Macaulay has stigmatized William of the rebellion; it becomes no less a torture and an outrage. Why Penn, with more flippancy than truth, as rather a mythical than an his­ should it not be discarded with the rubbish of the dead past 1 The torical person. While he admits that rival nations and hostile sects fires of our civil conflict have long since died out; they would be ashes have agreed in canonizing Penn, and that England is proud of his without an ember but for the party of malevolence which won ld grasp name; while the historian likens the reverence to his name, by the power by reluming the ftq,me. The men who would impair the Mne­ great Commonwealth beyond the Atlantic, to that which the Athenians fits or dusk the splendor of this system are the enemy of the people; felt for Theseus and the Romans for Quirinus, and confesses that his they belong not to the party of enlightened advancement; they sink name isasynonym forpurityand philanthropy; while this most critical below even the semi-enlightened days of the Tudors or the Stuarts; and hostile of historians thus indulges in encomiums, there is nothing they belong .fitly to an age of barbarism, before civism became the in Penn's character, whether dealing with the red man or preaching in trusted associate of libe,rty and justice. his conventicle amidst hostility and persecution, equa.1 to his manly Our long "iron-clad" test oath was repealecl by an act of April 20, stand for the sacred right of trial by jury. We can see him stand­ 1871. It was never re-enacted, except in the Revised Statutes, and ing io his broad-brimmed bat a.nd coat of formal cut, and not unlike then by fmud and indirection. The act of June 22, 1874, was, however, Sydney, with undisturbed pulse :tnd calm demeanor, insulted and. intended to make this and all the other revised acts the law of the berated; but answering not again, save to challenge, in the name of land. So it remains, although some of the courts dislike to so regard English liberty, the infamous mayor, recorder, sheriffs, and aldermen it. Let it .be repealed, with a warning. There is·no disqualification of London, who sought by outraging the traditions of the realm to sup­ so obnoxious and ha,rmful. Let it be torn down, as one of the clumsy press him and his teaching. His words ring down the years like the and rotten buttresses of arbitrary power! old bell of Roland of Ghent, which Motley says rang the people to arms when liberty was in danger. When that other bell from Independence A SWEEPING MEASURE OF REPEAL Hall tolled out the death of English tyranny, it rang to all the fand On last Monday week I introduced a bill to eradicate the whole • •

• 1750 , CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE. JUNE 3,

system, not merely 1n its application to juries, but to all offices, includ­ of oath-breaking. They were as cheap as those of dicera or of the ing that of Congressmen. Here is the bill: custom-hou~es. There is n.o e~d to the subterfuges in swearing. A bill to repeal t.he act of .July 2, 1862, and such sections of the Revised Statutes of As the SpaIU8h proverb has 1t: ''He who made the law made also its the United States as perpetuate the oath prescribed in said a.ct. evasion." Robert, King of France, saw men 'forsworn upon the relics Be i t enacted, &c. , That the act of Congress entitled "An act to prescribe an oath of the saints in their wagers at law. Being of a religious turn, he of office, and for other purposes," and so much of the provisions of section 1756 of caused :m empty reliquary of crystal to be used to lessen the guilt of the Revised Statutes of the United States, and all other sections thereof, which provide fortbe enforcement of the provisions of said act of .July 2, 1862, be, and the perjury! Wherever there are changes of political sovereignty, wher­ same are hereby, repealed; and that no person hereafter shall be req_uired to take ever men have to swear one day to one ruler and the next day to an­ the oath ih~n prescribed as a condition-precedent to the holding of any office or other-what sort of sanctity can belong to such adjurations Y There t.o serving as a juror, or to the acquirement of any right under the laws of the ought t o be empty reliquaries for such oaths. It is a white rose United States. FORMER LEGISLATION. to-day, a red to-morrow. It is the king, the assembly, the consulate, In a speech which I made on February 1, 1871, on "Familiar and the ~onarchy, the republic, the empire, and the republic again. Frequent Oath-Taking, ' !have already discussed the general question. Talleyrand swore thirteen times to his allegiance, from Clement Its subject was suggested by its motto from Jeremy Bentham: "The XIII, on taking priests' orders, down through a century of revolutions, oath implies neither faith given nor faith received. Why, then, re­ ending with Louis Philippe, who was crowned in 18:10 I quire itf Why take it 7 Why this farce 7 Judges and legislators The advancement of intellect and the progress of opinion make amuse themselves with destroying it." sworn declarations of political faith and loyalty a shame and scandal, The bill then pending was that which prescribed an oath to be if not a joke. Bentham called those who required them corruptors of taken by persons who participated in the rebellion and were dis­ their country. Did not the Saviour roprove these convenient con­ qualified from holding office by the fourteenth amendment. That bill sciences which are solaced by such makeshifts 7 "Woe unto you, ye blind' guides who say, 'Whosoever shall swear by the temple it is was a republican measure. It was a partial measure, intended to nothing; but whosoever shall swear by the gift of the temple, he is melt down somewhat the iron-clad oath. That bill relieved the rebels a debtor.'" • only, whose disabilities had been removed by Congress, of the iron­ Too much oath-taking is demoralization; it is barbarism, and should clad oath, while for those who were innocent entirely of the rebell­ be decreased, if not abolished; pecially all political, whether promis­ ion, strange to say, that iron-clad oath remains to this day. sory or retrospective, oaths. An oath which would turn intelligent men ABSURDITIES OF THE TEST OATHS-LOYAL AND DISLOYAL. out of the jury-box because of past conduct, strikes at what some one You may look over all the absurdities of mankind from the fall of in debate called the very nerve-centers of society. "How long, 0 Lord, A.dam and you will not encounter such a comedy of errors as our sys­ how long!" shall these despicable hates remain to engender fraternal tem of oaths. The gallant gentleman from Virginia, General JOSEPH strife 7 How long shall they remain '1 When will our people be tried E. JOHNSTON, and others who participated mth him in the rebellion by a fair jury of honest men, irrespective of their political faith and . are only required to take the oath to the Constitution, while· the gal­ devotion in former years. Why should they be compelled before taking lant band of Union soldiers, led by the gentlemen from Ohio, General their seats in the jury-box to recount the history of their lives, their GARFIELD a.nd General KEIFER, and others, must file down in platoons earlier emotions, their secret thoughts and aftections-written, it may to the area, and take the oath a yard long, swearin~ so help them be, in blood-under solemn convictiflns of dutyf God that they never, never, NEVER, did bear arms agamst the United RELIGIO-l'OLITICAL OATHS-BAXTER'S CASE. States, and have given no aid, countenance, counsel, or encourage­ There was a bitter contest in England after the revolution of 1640; ment, and all that farrago as to past conduct, which is the ridiculous it turned upon an oath. It was not merely prelacy, or the wearing of feature of all such political oaths. Let me place them side by side : the surplice, or the use of a liturgy, or the Book of Common Prayer, or Good oath ofbad rebel who did not support, Bad oath of good patriot who dithupport, the sign of the cross which tried the soul of Richard Baxter and others cEc., the Government. cEc., the Government. like him, who would not conform to the esta.blished church. It was I do solemnly swear that I will sup­ I do solemnly swear thatlhave never the et cetera oath. It had a clause from which it is named: "Nor port, protect, and defend the Constitu­ tion and Government of the United ~Js=Y ~~e rai':!eaita:::\;~~t.Vz~ will I ever give my consent to alter the government of the church States against all enemies, whether do­ thereof; that I have voluntarily given by archbishops, bishops, deans, and archdeacons, &c., as it stands mestic or foreign, and that I will bear no aid, countenance, counsel, or encour­ now established and ought to stand." This was an oath promissory; true faith and aJ.l.e_giance t.o the same ; agement to persons engaged in armed an oath binding fallible men never to change opinions. It included that I take this obligation freely, with­ hostility thereto ; that I have neither out any mental reservation or evasion; sought, nor aceepted, nor attempted to in it an et cetera-no one knew what. An a-Ojuration thus indefinite and that I will faithfully perform all the exercise the functions of any office what­ wa~ like our iron-clad, so indefinite as to be the essence of folly and duties which may be required of me by ever under any authority, or pretended despotism. [Applause.] Instead of helping the prelacy to be un­ law: So help me God. authority, in hostility to the United changeable, it roused up the Baxtera of that day to resist ; it became States; that I have not yielded a. volun­ tary support to any pretended govern· an advantage to the cause of dissent. The Long Parliament seized Constitutional oath, as i t ought to be. ment, authority, power, or constitution upon it, along with the ship-money question, to vindicate freedom I swear to support the Constitution within the United States, hostile or in· and inflame the people against royalty. Puritanism thrived upon this of the United States : So help me God.­ imical thereto. insane proscription. It gave new truth to the French verse as to Article Vl, section 3. And I do further swear that t.o the best of my knowledge and ability I will sup· the English monarch : port and defend the Constitution of the Le roi d' Angleterre United States against all enemies, for­ Est le roi d' enfer. ei~n and domeatio ; that I will bear trne Pym, Fiennes: Digby, and others of the Puritan heroes of Parliament fa1t-b and allegiance to the same; that I take thia obligation fi:eely, without any thundered against it. It was a part of the incitement which gave to mental reservation or purpose of evasion, the commonwealth its synod in spiritual and its Parliament for tem­ and that I will well and faithfully dis­ poral matters. charge the duties of the office on which After the restoration other oaths were enacted. Those in the service I am about to enter: So help me God. of the church were required to promise subjection to the canons and Yet these two classes of men, after being thus diversely sworn, are abjure the solemn league and covenant. They were required to abjure equal13, and sit side by aide in this Chamber. If Jove laughs at lovers' the taking up of arms against the King and his officers. By.this the oaths, what a thundering peal, like the neighing of all Tatteraall's, English Church lost two thousand of its best ministers. Still another must disturb Olympus, when we loyal men, "so called," march into law was passed requiring of ministers an oath which, if they refused, that area, to find the invocation to God, as to congressional duty, an they should not come within five miles of any city or corporation, or implied reproach, while those who actually did the thing, serenely any place where they had lived or which sent burgesses to Parliament. smile at their superior privileges and immunities. [Laughter.] This is the oath : · By some misadventure my name was used as an attorney for a pen­ I, A. B, do swear that it is not lawful, upon any pretense whatsoe~er, to take sion claim. By some routine in that office a circular was sent to me, arms against the King; and that I do abbor that traitorous position of taking arms ~der section 3478, Revised Statutes : by his anthority against his person, or against those that are commissioned by him, An[ person prosecuting claims, either as attorney or on his own account, before in pursuance of such commission; and that I will not, at any time, endeavor any nny o the Departments or bureaus of the United States, shall be required to take alteration of the government, either in church or state. the oath of allegiance, and to support the Constitution of the United States, as Some took this oath, for they had no subsistence for their families required of persona in the civil service. among the strange conn try places to which they were expelled. "No Along with this circular was this direction: "The first oath [iron­ severity," sa.ys Hallam,'' comparable to this cold-blooded persecution clad] is required of all persons, excepting those only who pa.rticipated had been inflicted by the late powers even in the ferment and fury in the late rebellion, who may take the second [short] oath." Besides, of a civil war." All sorts of subterfuges and reservations were re­ another oath was required, as to the ability to take the long .iron­ sorted to, to take the oath and not feel it binding in a certain sense. clad, and so I must take the short modification. Could asininity show It was the fruitful source of prevarication and perjury. longer ears or flap them and bray with more pronounced resonance Y. In the persecutions under this oath, and while Sydney and others Yet such laws a.re unrepea.led, and clerks in Departments chuckle were falling under the ax of the despot, Richard :Baxter, the leader down in their diaphragms while sending such circulars to Congress­ of non-conformity, fell under the tender mercy of Jeffreys at West­ men who simply correspond with the Departments for their constit­ minster. This judicial fiend WaB well selected to execute such laws, uents. for never in the career of infamous judges is there anything to com­ l'OLITICAL OATHS. pare with his brutal treatment of this meek and just man. "Does What a mockery are these war oaths is shown by the history of your lordship think any jnry will pass a verdict upon me upon such oaths through all time. The history oi political oaths is the 'history a trial T" asked the author of t3e Holy Commonwealth of this judge. •

• 1879. CONGRESSIONAL REOORD- HOUSEo 1751

"I'll warrant you," said Jeffreys;" don't you trouble yourself about silver, and amber; its a-dyta a.haded with gold; but its god is a cat, a that." Tho packed and corrupt jury, summoned to do the bidding of crocodile, or serpent, rolJing upon purple coverlets. What history bas the obsequious tool of a licentious court, laid their heads together not been written, what poems not sung, in praise of tbeJ:leroic Pur· :cm and found him guilty without leaving the box. element. yet how ignoble their descendants seem when their proscrip­ PURITAN HEROISM. tion and bigotry are exposed. Out of the ordeal of these odious oaths and mock trials sprang the O.A.Trul N GEXERAL-TOO Fnr.Q~"T. noble army of non-conformist confessors whose labors and sufferings Mr. Speaker, I do not raise the question whether oaths are of divine gave to them an immortalization on earth by the muse of history or human origin ; nor whether their use tends to the keeping of ob­ and gave to their immortality in heaven the beauty of holiness which ligations and the telling of truth. Certainly it will be agreed that was their "saints' rest" forever. It gave that grace and spirituality their frequent and careless application to judicial n.nd political affairs to the better part of the Puritan character, of which there is so much is a prostitution. Is not our reverence for them and their dignity just boasting in our own country, and that, too, by men who have for­ lost when they become too fa.mi1iar ¥ If we could diminish their gotten their shining example. number, would it not add solemnity to the remainder T PRESIDiT PURITANifili-ITS DEGENERACY. EXGLISH OATHS-LATE REFORMS. It is a sad, almost savage satire on those who thus vaunt of these :Mr. Speaker, there has been great progress in dispensing with oaths stanch men of spiritual faith and austere manners, that their ., stal­ in Great Britain, and in their simplification. This remark applies to wart" descendants in the New World are the loud leaders in perpet­ ecclesiastical as well as to civil oaths. As to the former, the old oath uating the same system of proscriptive oath-taking and mock-jury still remains as to the doctrine, prayer, and sacraments of the estab­ trial which gave to England her revolution of 1688 and to America lished church, and against simony and stipend. This ecclesiastical her earliest and bravest lovers of liberty. The lesson it teaches to law was passed in 1865. (28 and 29 Vic., page 793.) It repeals eleven New England is that- stat utes from Henry Vill to 1865. These statutes are a body of nar­ Those who on glorious ancestora enlarge row legislation. It ought long since to have been changed or re­ Produce their debt, instead of their discharge. [Laughter.] pealed. Rome in the Middle Ages had a tribune, Rienzi. He was a scholar The law of July 31, 1868, (31 and 32 Vic., 426,) shows a. most en­ and an antiquarian, and gave enthnsiasm to the rebellion against the lightened progress, from which we might draw valuable lessons. licentious nobles, by displaying the relics of old Rome. Although Compared with our verbose, vindictive, and ridiculous "iron-clad" Pope Clement gave him his friendship as God had ·given him elo­ oa,th, its oath is a. model of brevity and sense. It reads: quence, yet "freedom's withered trunk" put forth but a leaf, and I do swear that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to Her Majesty Queen these emblems of ancient greatness became only a garland for its Victoria, her heirs and snccessors, according to law: So help me G-Od. tomb. Not all the fantastic dresses and rare relics and classic har­ The official and judicial oaths are in the same pithy style. A sched­ angues could arouse the people from their lethargy. The champion ule of the officers who are to take them is appended to the law. They of freedom, the new-born Numa, fell bythehandof the assassin; and are few in number. The wisdom of Parliament is also shown by the tyranny had a new lease of riot and wrong. Let those who eulogize reduction of the wholesale swearing at custom-houses and elsewhere. ancestry Imitate its spirit, and not display merely the faded emblems It repeals the oath for hosts of officers and objects, and substitutes a. of ancient renown. simple declaration. THE OLD PUJUTAN HEROES. The oath to members of Parliament is fixed by the act of April 30, These very test oaths, sir, drove many a Puritan, Quaker, and 1866. (29 Vic., p. 157.) It is nearly as simple as the one quoted. Catholic to the New World. It was reserved for their descendants For a failure to take it, by a commoner, there is a fine of £500, and to re-enact them here in the noon of our century, not only to affect a further penalty "that his seat sha.U be vacated in the same man­ religion and State but to inflict penalties and perpetuate hatred. ner as if he were dead." The schedule to this act reveals a long list Ah, where is that old Puritan spirit which led to the abolition of of acts from Charles II to its date. These are modified or repealed. the star chamber, the high commission, and the Council of York, They constitute a terrible catalogue of bigotry as discreditable to which demanded the execution of Strafford and the King, and which England as their repeal is praiseworthy. always held to the "petition of right" as a palladium of English Some of these oaths bad remained unrepealed from the time of Eliz­ liberty Y Where is that spirit of parliamentary courage which ar­ abeth. They were used in England against Catholics. The act of rested the attempt of the King upon the Commons when he strove supremacy was amended in 1673. It waa framed to exclude the Cath­ to .suppress Wentworth and to arrest Hampden, Pym, Hollis, Has­ olic; but it had a similar bearing against all dissenters. It increased selrig, and Strode for high treason, because they spoke for the great the confusion and contention in the troublous era when it passed; charter-the petition of right and the privileges of the Commons 'I but it fell under the keen blaze of our nineteenth century, which Where is the Puritan nerve and spirit which resisted the a.ttempt of consumed the mass of the debris of intolerant ages. Along with it the King when he ca.me to the Commons to demand the five mem­ fell many politico-religious tests. The thirty-nine' articles were no bers, with his guard of pensioners ~nd tories, exclaiming that he longer to the Jew a stumblin§-block, nor to the Baptist foolishness. would not break their privileges, but that treason had no privi­ Anew era of "reform" and 'emancipation" opened in the time of lege 'I He found his birds had flown, and retreated ignominiously George IV. It not only relieved the Catholic of disabilities, but" every from the Commons, saluted with the cry, "Privilege-! privilege!" person of the persuasion of the people called Quakers," besides three This was at a time, too, when the ax hung over the heads of out­ repeals of the disabilit.ies of that divine and eternal race of races, spoken Puritans. the Hebrews, and a substitution of declarations in lieu of oaths! Yet I would not derogate from the Puritan character nor unduly exalt with this light radiating from the English legislature, we, who vaunt it. It has been said that the Puritans who came to this country had so much, grope in the darkness of her earlier proscription. not the heroism of those who remained at home to fivht for freedom .!n English writer insists that one-half of the oaths taken in the againsb the King. It is known that many of them became more in­ codrts should be dispensed with, including all promissory oaths as to tolerant here than their persecutors had been in England. It is not the performance of duty. He would increase penalties for falsohood, for me to praise their burning of witches, their persecution of Catho­ while he diminishes oaths. lics, their cutting out the tongues of Quakers, and their exile of the MM.""tl'ER OF SWEARING. Baptists. Nor would it be proper to .refer to their trade in slaves or The manner of administering oaths has much to do with their their treatment of the Indians. Enough remains of the history of the strength or feebleness. How ridiculous was the oath of allegiance Puritans of New England during the many years prececling our own administered during our war! A cavalry company dashes from house Revolution to show that the spirit of Pym, Hampden, and Wentworth to house, and swears the rebels in. It is followed soon by a company was instinct and alive in the Warrens, Adamses, and Hancocks of our of rebels, who swear them out. [Laughter.] Some of our solcliers elder day. But, ala.s, how have their descendants degenerated! They liked the swearing in at the rear more than the fighting at the front. cannot read the history of these their own test oaths placed on our At breakfast, dinner, and supper, over hardtack or whisky, night and statute by them, even on ''Revision," and the laws for the use of the day, when the swearer was in the humor, off he dashed after n. disloyal Army to control civil affairs and override by force local rights, with­ victim. out a blush. They were not merely the passive instruments of their One who had that line of patriotic duty in charge has given me an enactment and execution, but the active instruments a-swell. oath which illustrates this point: When Ma-caulay describes the Puritans of old England as "look­ You do solemnly swear (Look here! tako that cigar out of your mouth!) that ing down upon the rich and the eloquent, upon nobles and upon you'll bear true faith and allegiance to the United States of America ; that you'll priests, with contempt, esteeming themselves rich in a more endur­ serve them honestly and faithfully (Stop that damned talking in the ranks!) against ing treasure, and eloquent in a more sublime language- nobles by all enemies and opposers whomsoever; (.Tohnny, bring me that demijohn!) that you'll observe and obey orders of the President of the United States, (Take off the right of an earlier creation, and priests by the imposition of a. your hat, and keep your hand up !) and the orders of the officers appointed over mightier hand "-could he have dreamed that out of a civil war in you; so help you God. Now git! [Great laughter.) this land this domineering element, so proud and great, would faU This kind of swearing was not peculiar to the war. Dickens gives so far as to keep on the statute tests, pains, and penalties which a similar mode in the English courts. The constant habit of admin­ France, Tarkey, Russia, and even Asiatic and African barbarians istering the same oath naturally begets this unpunctuated and min­ would be ashamed to defend 'I gled monotone of indifference and frivolity. It is like Chaucer's Thus, when we follow this quasi-Puritan of this latter day, we find monk, who forever repeated: nothing of heroism to worship. It is like going into the old Egpytian - ''a few terms, two or three, temples; its priests are of grave aspect; its porticos and vestibules That he had learned out of some decree, and groves beautiful; its walls resplendent with paintings, gems, No wonder was, he heard it all the day." 1752 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE. JUNE 3,

One of the peculiar features of the iron-clad is that it compels a per- CLASSIC ..u.L> OTHER OATHS. son to swear that while e is takingthe oa,th he is not forswearing him- Classic literature is full of oath-taking. Homer's heroes, like the self, i.e., that he has no mental reservations, that he is playing no army in Flanders, swore terribly. [Laaghter.] Even Helen swore sleights with his conscience, no thimblerig with words; or, in other fidelity to Menelaus. We know how she kept it. [Laughter.] The words, he is sworn that while he is swearing he is not lying I I have immortal gods swore by the wa.ters of the Styx; but the bulk of here an illustration of a, peculiar mode of swearing. It is an oath which classic swearing was done by attesting and imprecating in the name reserves so many conditions and qualifications that it nullifies itself. of the gods. Sometimes the Romans swore by their swords and their Carlton publishes it of one of his Celtic characters. Being urged by Coosars. Numa swore by the goddess Fides, while now and then a his good priest to take a pledge against intemperance, the affiant went warrior swore by the quiver of Diana. The Egyptians swore by cats, to the schoolmaster of his village a.nd had the following drawn: · dogs, snakes, crocodiles, baboons, and onions. [Laughter.] Some- Oath against liquor made by me, Cornelius O'Flaherty, philomath, on behalf of times the soldiers of that early era killed a bull, dipped their hands Misther Peter Connell, of the Cross-Roads, merchant, on one part, and of the soul in its gore, and, like other valiant men, swore to Bellona to do brave of Mrs. Ellish Connell, now in purgatory, merchantess, on the other. a ds [L ht J I solemnly, and meritoriously, and soberly swear that a single tumbler of whisky ee · aug er. punr.h shall not cross my lips during the twenty-four hours of the day, barring In China a saucer is broken, and they swear to be broken like it if twelve, tlle locality of which is as followeth: they lie; in India they cut off the h(lad of a rooster, with the same Imprimis-Two tumblers at home ...... ···-----·--····--·---·-----··-----·----· 2 sort of imprecation. Sometimes they swore by holding a cow by the Secundo-Two more ditto at my sonDan's ...... 2 tail, that useful beast being sacred with the Brahmins. [Laughter.] Tertio-Twomoredittobehindmyowngarden ...... _. 2 All through history, from Justin Martin down to George Fox, by Quar..o-OnedittoattheReverendFatherMnlcahy's ...... 1 d h th k b · · f Chr' Qainto-Twomoredittoa.tFrankM'Carroll's.ofKilcl:.\y ...... 2 eat at e sta e even, ylillpnsonment o ten, istian martyrs Se:tto-One ditto wid onldBartle Gorman, of Cargah ...... ·----- ...... 1 and preachers suffered, because they would not swear. After the res- Septimo-Two more ditto will honest Roger M'ffil.ugy, of Nurchnsey ...... 2 toration in England, three thousand n.nd sixty-eight Quakers went 12 to jail rather than give up their non-oath-taking tenets. N. B.-1 except in case any docthor of physic might think it right and medical But of all the oaths, the one most repugnant to good sense and con­ to ordher me more for my health; or in case I could get Father Mulcahy to take science is that as to future conduct. When men swear, as did Harold the oath off of me for a start, at a wedding, or a. christening, or at any other meet­ to William of Normandy, that he would renounce the crown, and then ing of friends where there's drink. [Applause and laughter.] began to rebel; when King John and his son Henry swear to Magna I do not know whether Congressmen would make these extensive Charta only to break it; or Cromwell, to keep Parliament in session reservations. [Laughter.] How would it affect my collen.gue [Mr. five months, and then breaks it; or Fmncis I breaks his oath after his CHITTEJ:\'DEN] from the City of Churches. [Laughter.] He is our release,-then we perceive how cheap historic oath-taking is; but swearing member. [Laughter.] He could not take this oath after what shall we say of tests in the form of oaths as to past opinions and his orthodox apology. [Laughter.] conduct and as to countenancing and comforting a lost cause! By Gentlemen here know how recruits were sworn, and how they were them you require a man either to perjure himself, or be proscribed prepared for the battles of the Republic. No custom-house officer from jury and other official duty. You make him the pariah of society. ever administered a stressless oath with more haste and nonchalance When we consider how many cunning devices are resorted to, as than do some of our courts. Who feels their binding force i Who is by kissing the thumb instead of the Book, and how many lies are not shocked by the irreverence a.nd frivolity T When the captain of the told which, as Coke says, "concern not the snit1 and therefore are Pinafore, in a hasty fit .of temper, says "damme," the chorus of good extrajudicial," and upon which no perjury can be assigned, may we­ sailors it:i horrified. The burlesque is equally n.pplicable to other not conclude that these make-shifts contribute to lying. Do they oa.ths. Such trivial and frequent swearing is no swearing at all; and not belittle the importance of the oath f A.re Lhey not the effect of by extremes, it comes near the Bible command, "Swea,r not at all." frequent and familiar swearing f Do they not dishonor society and They remind one of the man who wn.s swearing loudly to Hercules. government-its agent f Do they not call down religion from its His companion said: "Do not call so loud or the god may hear you." heavenly home and drag H into the mire of human depravity f There­ [L:mghter.] Our statutes groan with oaths at every page, and, like fore, do they not corrupt the very well-springs of truth and justice f theghostinHamlet,moan: ''Swear!" "Swear!" Theyshouldevanish It is because, .Mr. Speaker, the iron-clad oath, which is the test for with the dawn. Governments condemn thugs, carnonari, ku-klux, jurors and others,.is a portion of such a system of demoralization :tnd nihilists, and secret societies generally, for their mystic oaths. Let barbarism, that I introduced the bill for its abolition. I will not say government set an example and abolish the custom. The wisest now that I woald go further and abolish all political retrospective writers, like Bentham, hold them repugnant to the Christian religion. and promissory oaths. But no fear of revolution, no timidity about He wonders why, under sucQ_ a reiigion, oaths should be so common. coercion, no abhorrence of riders, would for a moment deter me from The answer is not complimentary to our civilizn.tion. In earlier days following a policy which would save society from that reckless invo­ society was cemented by oaths. Liberty was assured, as in Switzer­ cation of the Divine Majesty which is so carelessly used on the occa­ land, by an oath. Patriotism, perhaps, is nerved and obligations sions of o~. th-taking. Is it not appalling that upon so many trifling sanctified by it, when the bonds of society become loose and require occasions we call upon the sacred name of God and dim that efful­ tightening. But now what a farce is this constant swearing I gence which emanates from the promise of His word by contamina­ DIBLIC.AL 0.A.THB. tion with the imperfections and vices of men t You say they aredrawn from the Bible~ They are not peculiar to MISSOURI TEST 0.A.TU. the Good Book. True, Abraham took oaths; he lifted up his hand to I doubt, if all the oaths ever recorded in sacred or classic lore, or do it; and on one occasion he swore in a peculiar way. God is rep· propounded in any land, for political, religious, judicial, martial, or resented as swearing unto Abraham by Himself, as He could swear festive purposes; whether for jurors, witnesses, or officials; whet.her by none greater. The angel in the Revelations swears by Him that at custom-houses or at marriage rites; whether to suspected patriots liveth for ever and ever that time should be no longer. Was it not a or supposed traitors; from Noah, who took the fir t oath, down to beautiful invocation, that of Ruth Y Not less so than the declarn.tion the cloucl of investigation-committee witnesses, can compare for one by which Eli bound the little Samuel. All through the Old Testa­ moment with what is known as our'' iron-clad oath" for the ridiculous­ ment, from the death-bed of Jacob to Hannah's address to Eli; from ness and variety of its application. 'rhere is one exception; and that,. the answer of Abner to Saul to that of Elijah to Elisha, there are too, is in our country. It is to be found in the Missouri constitution oaths recorded; but they do not impress us as frivolous. made by the republicans just before the end of the war. There has been much metaphysical discussion as to the definition That oath illnstrates that there are some laws and some men who of an oath. Is it a religious affirmation or an invocation to God as a defy the everlasting order and congruity of things to can·y out their witness T Is it an imprecation for the vengeance of God upon him grudges. It is enough to damn the party which made it to an eter­ who swears falsely, or a mere promise Y This discussion may be set­ nity of infamy. Luckily the Supreme Court of the United States tled by the Old and New Testaments. What was the custom and cut it up by the roots. .AJtbough it remained five years to blot the law of the .Jews t The Greek word often used in the latter interprets organic Jaw of a great and growing State, and although its provis­ one meaning of the oath, t~op1dl),J -" I adjure thee," "I call on thee ions again and again were used to give a small minority of the peo­ to declare on oath." All the versions of the Scripture and the writings ple of Missouri the ruling power, yet at last its authors hid from of Josephus and the Greek classics confirm this view. The corre­ public execration, and the oath was stamped out by the decision of sponding Hebrew word is l':lt!t, and signifies at all times and places :Mr. Justicu Stephen J. Field, in an opinion which adds to his fame­ in the Jewish history an adjuration. From Genesis to Revelations as an enlightened and liberal-minded jurist. it is the sarue, and its sacred and majestic adjuration, used by the The decision was made iu tlle case of Cummings vs. the Statt> of high priest to evoke the truth, is not lessened by too much frequency Missouri, 4 Wallace, page 277. The plaintiff was a Catholic priest. He­ and by no frivolity in its administration. was indicted and co_nvictecl of the crime of teaching and preaching The new dispensation discloses another custom: "Let your com­ the Christian religion without having first taken the oath required munication be yea, yea, and nay, nay; for whatsoever is more than by the amended constitution of April, 1 65. He was fined $500. Re­ the~e cometh of evil." Many sects besides the Anabaptists, Mora­ fusing to pay it, he was committed to jail; and, like St. Paul, would vians, an

States, but p.ever by act or word manifested his adherence to the en­ which should blister forever the cowardice and cruelty of a test so emy or his desire or sympathy with those in rebellion, and had never odious and hateful. [Applause.] 1 harbored or aided or countenanced any person so engaged, and had Sergeant Talfourd in his" Ion ' exquisitely describes the solace and never come into or left Missouri to avoid enrollment or draft or to comfort of those who by benevolent endeavor mold their lives into escape his duty in the military service of the United States or the benevolence : militia of the State, and had never indicated in any terms his disaffec­ 'Tis a. little thing tion. · To givo a cup of water; yet its draught Of cool refreshment, drained by fevered lips, Those who could not or did not take this "oath of loyalty," as it :May give a shock of pleasure to the frame was called, within sixty days, were ousted from office, if in; and in­ More exquisite than when nectarean juice capacitated from holding office, if out. They wero debarre. How was it executed T Let one instance illustrate. The radical The Supreme Court has more than once passed on the iron-clad oath. ghouls of Cape Girardeau County, under this law, indicted the Sisters In the case of the eminent Senator GARLAND, who desired to resume of Charity who taught in a convent. Three of these angels of mercy his practice in the Supreme Court of the United States, and at the were dragged into court several times, indicted, and tried; and even same term, the same principles ru;i in tha Cummings case, were­ the foreman of the grand jury sent his own child to the convent to be adopted. 'rhe court allowed him to resume his practice in the United taught, so as to get proof of the teaching and so as to convict. They States Supreme Court. By a law passed on the 24th of January, 1865, had not taken the oath. In their case, however, public opinion re­ the iron-clad oath had been extended to the attorneys of the courts of volted, and the Titus Oatesee of Missouri hid their heads for a time the United States. But the court held that the oath prescribed oper­ from public opinion, but not until they left for us lessons of their ated as a legislative decree of perpetual execution and was ex post proscriptive meanness which, in degenerating from the days of Pym facto. and Hampden, Baxter and De Foe, left imperishable evidence of their IBON·CLAD UNCOKSTITUTIONAL AS TO JURORS. unfitness to live as generous co-workers for good in human society. In furtherance of these precedents and based on these enlightened Ah, if those Sisters of Charity and Mercy, the Florence Nightingales principles, the Supreme Court of the Uniteu States, the same cour­ of our conflict,. have passed from earth and found their beatitudes in ageous judge (Stephen J. Field) delivering the opinion, in the case­ the yonder azlll'e sheen, where they walk white-handed in celestial of George Burt against Maria M. Paiyaud, decided at the October light, singing the praises of the good Saviour they served here among term of 1878, in error to the circuit court for the northern district of men,-with what pitying eye do they look down upon the foolish and Florida, that the iron-clacl oath affecting the jury-box was novel, spiteful human craftiness which sought to break the blessed utility oppressive, odious and repugnant to the spirit of our free institutions, and unity of their lives by relentless persecution. Language has no unconstitutional, and void. I copy his decision: vehicle of expression, the mind no idea, fit to tell the burning shame I agree with the court that t.hejnror Holmes, in this case, could not be required 1754 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE. JUNE 3, to answer the 9._uestions put to him; but I go further. I do not think that the act ern brethren equals here, when they came back redeemed from their of Congress which requires a test oath as to pa.st conduct, and thereby excludes a great majority of the citizens of one-half the country from the jury-box, is valid. prostrat i~n ancl the oppression of your military snitraps, under the re­ In my judgment the act is not only oppressive and odious and repugnant to the construction Y Is it because southern men have joined with us in the spirit of our institutions, but is unconstitutional and void. As a war measure, to back pay and pensions of Union soldiers Y Is he sorry that we would be enforced in the insurgent States when dominated by the national forces it could build up by generous policies the waste places of the South and lift be sustained; but after t.he war wa.s over, and those States were restored to their nor­ mal and constitutional relations t-0 the Union, it was as much out of place and as u~ ~highway for the p~ople yet wande!ing in the mazes of t~st oaths, inoperative as would be a law quartering a soldier in every southern man's house. military force at elections, and supervisor espionage and oppression f l\Ir. Speaker and gentlemen, the repealing of these statutes, which Would be make a desert or an aceldema of the South Y cloud our representative system, is our paramount duty. No appro­ Is it a pleasure to depreciate, denounce, and degrade the northern priation can satisfy a free people while they remain. Let us re­ democracy Y Does his own party need require this T Did our party fail crown the discrowned majesty of the people. Let us re-enthrone by i~ furnis~g troops for the war T Was it a falsehood when a repub­ the repeal of these statutes the States in their proper relation to the lican Legislature of New York gave Governor Seymour the crodit for Government, and thus reset and repolish the jewels of popular sov­ even exceeding the call for soldiers Y Did they fail to pay their taxes Y eignty. Did they ~ail in giving their youth, their manhood, their sympathy HEROES OF 1861 A.ND THEill COXTRAST. to the Umon which their fathers loved and to the Constitution which Washington helped to frameT How can such statements be charac- The distinguished gentleman from Ohio, [Mr. GARFIELD,] in his terized f · opening speech at this session, sought to place the onus of repealing these obnoxious statutes upon the southern democracy. I beg to say GEXERAL ~TY. that the action taken at the last and at this session was not the ac­ The other day when urging general amnesty uifon the House, a tion of one section or of one cla.ss of democrats. The points of the sneering insinuation was made, that perhaps even one so humble as compass have no bearing upon this matter. Our action binds all sec­ myself, might be reluctant to take the loyal oath, and that perhaps I tions. The advice which led to it wa.s not taken exclusively from any would feel much more satisfaction in taking the iron-clad oath. This part of the country. The gentleman found no end to his admiration innuendo touches a long and anxious service here on the side of my -0f the democratic Congressmen who seceded from this Hall in 1861. Government before and during the war. Their noble and heroic conduct was the theme of his admiration ; Sir, I never was recreant to this Government. In my relations to but he more than intimated his detestation of their present conduct southern men, I have no disguise as to my attachment to the unity of in seeking to obliterate these legislative anomalies, born of the war. our country, in all its struggles. I was almost the first to denounce It was so unhandsome and unheroic in contrast with their splendid here separation as fraught with every evil. I print it because I was heroism as rebels. Ah! the gentleman's purpose is understood. It threatened by some one with my record of loyalty. Let this prophecy is not so much to fix opprobrium upon the solid South as to revamp from a speech in 1861 answer all calumnies: the old slander against the demncracy of the North. He would ad­ I call this secession re>olution. I will not in an American Congress, with an mire the military heroes of 1861 to derogate from their civil coura.ge oath O!J- my conscience to support the Constitution, argue the right to secede. No -0f 1879, and by reviving the bad blood of other times, endeavor to re­ such r~ghtcan ever be had, except by amendment of the Constitution legalizing such secession. It is a solecism to speak of the right of secession. It is re>olution · gain for his party their lost power over roads macadamized with stale and the burden of proof is on hi.In who be~s it to show why he seeks the chan.,.e'. libels upon the northern democracy. I regret to say that some color I would. ther~fore ~a.rd. against the least recognition of this ri.,.ht of secession tothis view has been given by southern men; especially by one gen­ or of nullification, which is the lesser type of the same disease. It would, I say, tleman, who in the heat of debate said that the South learned seces­ ~estt:oy all government; it would dissolve the united mass of powers now depos­ ited~ the Union into thirty-~Jiree separate and conflicting States, each with a flag, sion from the northern democracy. I wish he had waited until my ~ taiiff, a;i army, a foreign policy, a diversity of interest, and an idiosyncrasy of eloquent friend from Mississippi [Mr. CHALMERS] had spoken. He i4e!i's· Nay, that would be tolerable; but it would do more and worse. It would fitly discriminated between the northern and southern democracy dismtegrate States, counties, towns; tear cities from their J,>laces on the map; dis­ ordei; ffuances, taxes, re>enue, tariffs, and convert this fabric, now so fair and firm when he said : that it seems built on the earth's base, pilla.red with the firmament, into a play­ When the war was closed and the republican party undertook to destroy the house of cards built on a. base of stubble. It would thus destroy the established Constitution, history will say that the same gallant northern democracy, with the o-rder. .And is such order among men, with a view to permanency, nothin.,. ' The .same fla./,!: in their hand, rallied the southern democrats and drove the republicans N~rth has rights, property, interests. relations in the South not to be s':mdered back to their duty". We, sir, in the South loved the Constitution more than the "?t~out loss; and the Sout~ in the North vice versa. Is this nothingi Is depre­ Union; the republican party loved the Union more than the Constitution; but it ciation of property, depression of business, loss and lack of employment, with­ will be written in history that the gallant democracy of the North were the truest draW:al of capital, derangement of currency, increa e of taxes, lniscarriage of patriots of the land, and that they1oved both the Union and the Constitution, one public works and enterprise, destruction of State credit, the loss of that national and indivisible. symmetry, geography, strength, name, honor, unity, and glory, which publicists This statement might go further and be equally just. Does the gentle­ tell us are themselves the creators and guardians of cash, credit, and commerce, are these consequences nothing? mn.n forget, what Mr. Greeley in his volume on the "Conflict" would I wish that I could contemplate secession as a peaceful remedy; but I cannot. inform him, that the great body of men of the South were opposed to ~t must be a forcible disruption. The Government is framed so compactly in all secession 'I He will find the facts and votes furnished in that vol­ its parts that to tear away one pa.rt you tear the whole fabric asunder. It cannot ume. Does he forget, too, the men of the democratic party who op­ be done by consent. There is no authority to give consent. The Constitution looks to no catastrophe of the kind. It is a. voluntary, nolent, and ex parte proceeding. posed secession and risked and lost their lives for the Union 'I Would A majority of the States and a great majority of the people are hostile to it. Tu he ignore the McClella.ns and Hancocks a.nd men of no less note, this an~ and warlike disruption of the compa-0t, where shall we find our more who maintained the vigor of our Federal system against secession, perfect Union, the establishment of justice, domestic tranquillity, provision for the and who fought for both Union and Constitution f It pleased him COIIlll?-on def~nse, the promotion of the general welfare, and the security of the and others to derogate from the Northern democracy, when he arro­ blessmgs of liberty to ourselves and posterity ~ . gated unto his party all the praise of quelling the "so-called" heroic Yet, sir, in thus speaking I was never averse to reunion and frn.t.e;~ rebellion. We understa.nd his eulogy and its subtle intent, when he nity, never during the war nor since. I remembered the Hiawatha. praises his party and the southern democracy in 1861, in order to dis­ case, and Vattel's code; with a line of force-and a blockade. Surely praise the democracy of the North then and the democracy of both ~here was room and verge enough for some of the liberalities of pol- sections now. 1~ics. When I predicated the exchange of prisoners and no con:fisca­ Does he remember that in 1860 the democratic party divided, one t10n of the fee-simple, it was in the line of these liberalities. great portion of it, under Douglas, representing the Union-constitu­ Allow me to say that from the time the war closed until the pres­ tional sentiment, with 1,365,976 votes, and the other, representing ent time, I have objected to individual amnesty bills, though voting the southern sentiment, with 847,953 votes f Is it manly, just, and for them, preferring a general bill, because based on a principle. In fair to ignore his democratic brothers-in-arms and those of us who the Forty-fourth Congress, on my motion, such a bill passed this voted all supplies to quell the rebellion 'I When the democracy were House by a two-thirds vote. Gentlemen seem to forget that. I sundered, was there no patriotic principle for us North, to guide our have not favored this principle altogether because it would be a. conduct 'I He forgets that the northern democracy, in States like gra-ce and help to the South, but because it would be a grace, an Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio, favored Douglas, while the extreme States anodyne, a comfort, and a benefit to ourselves. It has been said of the South only, were largely for Breckinridge. He 'forgets that that forgiveness to your enemy is a charming way of revenge. It in the three great States of Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio the whole leaves your foes your friends and brings about grateful retaliations. democratic vote waa cast for Douglas, with the exception of some An enemy reconciled by force is not so readily to be trusted. As the 25,000 for Breckinridge. Italians have it: "Sospetto licenzia fede;" suspicion dismisses faith. He forgets that the southern secession leaders could muster only I would appeal to gentlemen on the other side, if they have not the n.bout one-fifth of the total votes of the United States, and that the spirit of kindness toward others, not to be cruel to themselves. As northern democracy fought through the crisis of 1 60-'61 and the Sir Thomas Brown has said, "It only feathers the arrow of the enemy." remn.ining years of trial and blood, like men as heroic as those from It destroys all that iB knightly and magnanimous. There is no lack whom they parted. He forgets that in Illinois 75 votes were given of patriotism in following the precepts of history as to clemency. It to Douglas to 1 for his extreme southern competitor; yet the gentle­ teaches that revenge is injustice and hurts most those who indulge man glorifies southern heroism to detract from his northern demo­ in it. cra.tic neighbors. At what particular time did the gentleman from Fourteen years have passed since the war was closed. We have Ohio learn to love rebellion, t.hat he should make an apotheosis to felt, those of us who are northern democrats, that a. great wrong its heroism f Ah! why'I Is it because we of the North opposed ex­ was done by this long delay in healing the wounds of the war; but tra-constitutional methods of conscription and confiscation; or is it we were prompt to draw the curtain upon our wrongs. Christian, because since the war the democracy have shown the spirit of for­ Hebraic, and even pagan lessons are plentiful to teach us to regard giveness and favored amnesty, that all might come under the shadow such civil wrongs as though they had not been. Gentlemen on the of the Governmentf Is it because we have sought to make our south- other side would forgive; yet they "powder their opiate with scorn 1879. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE. 1755 and contempt." They punish while they forgive. This isnocharity. look upon His brightness; not from Tabor, where the great trans­ Reservation in forgiveness is a species of hatred. Let us imitate the formation was enacted; not from Pisgah, where Moses made his fare­ divine forgiveness. It lies in the principle of loving and being loved: well to the people he had delivered and led so long; not from Carmel, "to love Him because He first loved us." It is the doctrine of peace where the prayer of Elijah was answered in fire; not from Lebanon, and good-will. whose cedars were the beauty of the earth; not from the Mount of A DEMOCRATIC OATH. Olives, which saw the agony of the Saviour; not from Calvary, at Is it for us, who have our brothers near us here as our eqaaJs, to whose great tragedy nature shuddered and the heavens were covered harbor the spirit of separation, distrust, and enmity'/ Let us, if we with gloom; not from one or all of these secular and sacred mountains can, be bound and solidified by one Constitution, for one insepMable that our best teaching for duty comes. It comes from that nameless Union, and under it, for the untrammeled will and rich heritage of mountain, set apart, because from it emanated the great and be­ its past wisdom and glory. If we must have a test, let us swear to nignant truths of Him who spake as never man spake. [Appl::i.use.] each other by each and every star upon the blue field of our ensign, Here is the sublime teaching: by the white radiance, in which all colors-red, whita, blue, ay, and Ye have heard in the aforetime, tha.t it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neigh­ gray-blend as one-not, as in the old Italian code, by the God who bor, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them avenges, but as the old Anglo- Saxon kings were adjured, by the grace that hate you, and pray for them which despitefnlly use yon, and persecute you. and mercy of His Son-thatgood-willand·amnestyshall be the spirit That ye may be children of your Father which is in heaven: for He maketh His and aim of our legislation. Let us swear that no check shall be placed sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the upon the will or the tribunals of the people but for the people, and unjust. never, by the Eternal I never to yield our right, how ever and how The spirit of this teaching has no hospitality for test oaths, and often defeated, to grant the money and substance of the people that asks no compensation for grace. [Applause.] Along with this teach­ it mav be used for their own undoing! ing and to the same good end, are the teachings of hist.ory, patriotism, • When our laws require of all officers, jurors, and agents of the Gov­ chivalry, and even economic selfishness. Yet these teachers are often ~rnment, that they should take the test oath, so help them God,-what blind guides to duty. They are but mole-hills compared with the God do they invoke 'I On w horn do they call 'I Is it the God of vengeance lofty mountain whose spiritual grandeur brings peace, order, and and hate, or is it the God of love and mercy 'I If it be the latter, civilization! . then what a mockery is the oath which is the proof and perpetu.ation When these principles obtain in our hearts, then our legislation will of revenge and unforgiveness 'I The God we would invoke for am­ conform to them. When they do obtain their hold in these halls, nesty and peace has given us a code of ethics, whose highest illustra­ thero will arise a brilliant day-star for America. When they do ob­ tion is drawn from the Sermon on the Mount. Would that I could tain recognition, we may hail a. new advent of that Prince of Peace, picture to you that mountain, with its divine orator speaking those whose other advent was chanted by the angelic choir I ineffable truths I In conclusion, sir, let me say that, in comparison with this celestial Is it possible that my friend from the Silver State could have used code, by which we should live and die, how little seem all the contests these words 'l here about armies, apvropriations, riders, and coercion, which so ex­ Prosperity sleeps benumbed in the frozen vault of fear; and the great and mighty asperate and threaten ! Let our legislation be inspired by the lofty North, with its generous and forgiving heart, stands at the door, aa .Jesus stood at thought from that Judean mountain, and God will care for us. In the tomb of Lazarus, ready to resurrect and quicken it, with the inspiration of 3i new life. our imperfections here as legislators, let us look aloft, :;i,nd then " Bis I observe this eloquent language in the RECORD. Could a repre­ greatness will flow around our incompleteness, and round our restless­ sentative of our Mountain State have forgotten the teachings of the ness, His rest!" Then, measures which make for forgiveness, tran­ Saviour'l quillity, and love, like the abolition of hateful oaths and other re­ THE SERMON OX THE MOUNT. minders of our saii and bloody strife, will rise in supernal dignity above the party pa.ssions of the day; and that party which vindi­ Mr. Speaker, it may be a fancy, but I sometimes think that the cates right against might, freedol:ll against force, popular will against loftiest and purest thoughts come down to us from the mountain. Federal power, rest n.gainst unrest, and God's goodness and mercy, But in the mountains we do feel our faith. All things responsive to the writing ·there around "l.nd above all, will, in that sign, conquer. [Applause.] Breathed immortality, revolvin~ life, To those in our midst who have the spirit of violence, hate, and· And greatness still revolving; infinite; unforgiveness, and who delight in pains, penalties, test oaths, bay­ There littleness was not; the least of things onets, and force, and who would not replace these instruments of Seemed infinite. turbulence, with love, gentleness, and forgiveness, my only curse upon I hope it may not be presuming to say, Mr. Speaker, that I have such is, that God Almighty, in his abundant and infinite mercy, may been something of a traveler, and have been upon many mountains forgive them, for "they kn'lw not what they do." [Long-continued -0f our star. I would that my observations had been better utilized applause.] . for duty. I have been upon the Atlas, whose giant shoulders were Mr. O'NEILL. I move that tho Honse now n.djourn. fabled to have upheld the globe. I have learned from there, that .even to Northern Africa the Goths brought their fueros or bills of WITHDRAWAL OF PArims• right, with their arms, from the cold forests of the North to the sunny By unanimous consent, leave for withdrawal of papers was granted plains i:md rugged mountains of that old granary of the Roman world. in the following cases, no adverse report having been made : I have been amid the Alps, where the spirit of Tell and liberty is al­ To Mr. ROBERTSON, in the case of Moliere Lauge, Nicholas Wax, ways tempered with mercy, and whose mountains are a monument and Micha-el Granary, and in the case of C. S. Baldwin; -through a thousand of years of republican generosity. I have been To 1\Ir. DIBRELL, in the case of William English ; and .among the Sierras of Spain, where the patriot Riego-whose hymn is To Mr. BUCKNER, in the C(),8"' of Solomon T. Kauble. the Marseillaise of the Peninsnla-wsi.s hunted after he had saved con­ LEA. VE OF ABSENCE . .stitutional liberty a.nd favored amnesty to all,- the noblest examplar ·Of patriotism since the days of Brutus. From the seven hills of Rome, By unanimous consent, indefinite leave of absence was granted to -down through the corridors of time, comes the story which Cicero Mr. LAPHAM, on account of n. death in his family. relates from Thucydides: that a brazen monument was erected by the ADJOURNME:NT. 'Thebans to celebrate their victory over the Lacedremonians, but it The SPEAKER. 'fhe question is on the motion of the gentleman was regarded as a memento of civil discord, and the trophy was abol­ from Pennsylvn.nia, [Mr. O'NEILL,] that the Honse adjourn. ished, because it was not fitting that any record should remain of the Mr. ATKINS. I had desired to report from the Committee on Ap­ -conflict between Greek and Greek. From the same throne of ancient propriations a little joint resolution which has been on h:;i.nd some . power, come the words which command only commemoration of foreign time; but it is suggested to me that I can bring it up to-morrow. -conquests and not of domestic calamities; and that Rome, with her It will not take five minutes. imperial grace, believed that it was wisest to erect a bridge of gold, The question being taken on agreeing to the motion of ~Ir. O'NEILL, that civil insurgents should pass back to their allegiance. From the there were-ayes 92, noes 59. Acropolis at Athens, there is the story of the herald at the Olympic Mr. BROWNE and others called for the yea.a and nays. games, who announced the clemency of Rome to the conquered, who The yeas and nays were ordered. had been long subjected to the privations and calamities imposed by The question was tRrken; and there were- yeas 114, nays 89, not the conqueror. The historian says that the Greeks, when the lierald voting 83 ; as follows: announced such une:x:pected deliverance, wept for joy at the grace YEAS-114. which had been bestowed. Acklen, Clark, .John B. Dunn, Hatch, All these are but subordinate lights around the central light, which .Aiken, Clymer, Elam, Henry, Armfield, Cobb, Ellis, Herbert, came from the mountain whence the great sermon was spoken. Its Atherton, Coffroth, Evins, Herndon, name is unknown ; its locality has no geography. All we know is Atkins, Colerick, Ewing, Honse, that it was "set apart." Beale, Cook, Felton, Hunton, The mountains of our Scriptures are full of inspiration for our guid­ Beltzhoover, Covert, Finley, .Johnston, Bicknell, Cox, Forney, Kenna, ance. Their teachings may well be carried into our political ethics. Blackburn, Cravens, Forsythe, Kimmel, But it was not from Ararat, which lifted its head first above the flood Bliss, Culberson, Frost, Kini?, and received the dove with its olive branch; not from Sinai, which Bright, D

Manning, Phelps, Slemons, Turner, Thomas l\IESSAGE FRO:\:I THE SENATE. Martin, J3enj. F. Phister, Smith, A. Herr Upson, Martin, Edward L. Poehler, Smith, William E. Vance, A message from the Senate, by Mr. BURCH, its Secretary, announced :McKenzie, Reagan, Speer, Waddill, the passage of a. bill (H. R. No. 1999) to amend an act entitled "An McLane, Richardson, J. S. Springer, Wellborn, act making appropriations for the construction, repair, preservation, llcMillin, Richmond, Steele, Whitthorne, Mills, R-0bertson, Stephens, Williams, Thomas and completion of certain works on rivers and harbors, and for other Morrison, Rothwell, Stevenson, Willis, purposes," approved March 4, 1879. New, Ryon, John W. Talbott, Wise It further announced the passage, with an amendment in which Nicholls, Samford, Taylor, Wright, concurrence was requested, of a bill (H. R. No. 1152) to extend the O'Brien, Sawyer, Thompson, Yocum, O'Connor, Scales, Tillman Young, Casey. time for the payment of pre-emptors ou certain public lands in the O'Neill, Simont.on, Townsh~nd, R. W. State of Minnesota and Territory of Dakota. Persons, Singleton, O. R. Turner, Oscar ENROLLED BILL. NAYS-89. Aldrich, N. W. Daggett, Hostetler, Robinson, Mr. KENNA, from the Committee on Enrolled Bills, reported that Anderson, Davis, George R. Houk, Russell, W.A. they had examined and found truly enrolled an act (S. No. 644) to Bailey, Deering, Hubbell, Sherwin, authorize the Secretary of War to furnish condemned ordnance for Baker, Dunnell, Humphrey, Starin, the monument of Colonel Robert L. McCook, Ninth Ohio Volunteers, Barber, Farr Jones, Stone, Barlow, Field, Jorgensen, Townsend, Amos in Washington Park, in the city of Cincinnati, Ohio; when the Speaker Bayne, Fisher, Joyce, Tyler, signed the same. Bingham, Ford, Keifer, Updegraff, J. T. The vote was then announced as above recorded; and accordingly Blake, Ketcham, Updegraff, Thomas (a.t two o'clock and live minutes p. m.) the House adjourned. Bowman, ~eld, Lowe, Urner, • Boyd, Gillette, McCoid, Valentine, Brewer, Godshalk:, McGowan, VanAernam, PETITIO~S, ETC. Brig~s, Hall, McKinley, Voorhis, Brignam, Hammond, John Mitchell, Wait, The following petitions, &c., were presented at the Clerk's desk,. Browne, Harmer, Murch, Ward, under the rule, and referred as stated : Burrows, Harris, Benj. W. Norcross, Washburn, Butterworth, Haskell, Orth, Weaver, By the SPEAKER: Papers relating to the pension claim of Mary Cannon, Hawk, Osmer, Wilber, E. Ryon-to the Committee on Invalid Pensions. Carpenter, Hawley, Overton, Williama, C. G. By Mr. BARBER : Papers relating to the claim of Malinda. Thurs­ Caswell, Hayes, Prescott, Willits. ton and Nancy Littleton for compensation for property taken by the Conger, Henderson, Price, Cowgill, Hiscock, Rice, Mormons at the time of the Mountain Meadows massacre-to the Crapo, Horr, Richard.Eton, D. P. Committee of Claims. NOT VOTING-83. By Mr. COBB: The petition of Henry T. Skinner, for a pension- to Aldrich, William Einstein, Marsh, Ross, the Committee on Invalid Pensions. Bachman, Errett, Martin, Joseph J. Russell, Daniel L. By Mr. ELLIS: Papers relating to the claim of Reuben Hopkins Ballou, Ferdon, Mason, Ryan, Thomas Plass for compensation for work and labor done, materials furnished, Belford, Fort, McCook, Sapp, Bland, Gibson, McMahon, Shallenberger, and money pa.id out under contract with the Navy Department for Blount, Hazelton, Miles, Shelley, furnishing fifty-pounder rifled guns, &c., and for a failure of the Gov­ Bouck, Heilman, Miller, Singleton, J. W. ernment to fnlfill said contract-to the Committee of Claims. Braag, Henkle, Money, Smith, Hezekiah B. By l\Ir. EWING: The petition of Thomas Ewing, (accompanied by Buclrner, Hill, Monroe, Sparks, Calkins, Hooker, Morse, Thomas, draught of bill,) for the enactment of a law authorizing the payment Camp, Hull, Morton, Tucker, of the claim of Colonel Thomas Worthington for furnishing water at Chalmers, Hurd, Muldrow, Van Voorhis, Camp Denison, Ohio-to the Committee on War Claims. Chittenden, James, Muller, Warner, By Mr. GILLETTE: The petition of Thomas Mitchell and others, Claflin, Kelley, Myers, Wells, Clark, Alvah A. Killinger, Neal, White, that the title to certain lands be confirmed to Louis M. Bourke-to Converse, Ladd, Newberry, Whiteaker, the Committee on Private Land Claims. Crowley, Lapham, O'Reilly, Wilson, Also, the petition of settlers on the Des Moines Rivet· lands, for Davis, JosephJ. Lay, Pierce, Wood, Fernando an immediate investigation of their treatment by the Des Moines Dick, Le Fevre, Pound, Wood, Walter A. Dickey, Lindsey, Reed, Young, Thomas L. River Land Company-to the ~ommittee on Public Lands. Dwight, Loring, Robeson, By Mr. HENDERSON: The petition of Mrs. H. F. Gleason and So the motion was agreed to. others, against any change in the revenue laws that will promote During the roll-call the following announcements were 'made: the interest of dealers in spirituous liquors-to the Committee of Mr. DAVIS, of North Carolina.. I a.m paired with my colleague, llfr. Ways and Means. MARTIN. If he were here, I should vote" ay." By Jtfr. MURCH: Tho petitions of A. P. Snow ~nd 116 others, cit­ Mr. FORNEY. My colleague, Mr. SHELLEY, is paired with Mr. izens of Winthrop, Maine, and of J. Fred Hall and 199 others, citizens CAMP, of New York. · of Rockland, Maine, that Congress alone issue the currency, and that Mr. COFFROTH. My colleague, l\fr. BACHMAN, is paired with Mr. the Secretary of the Treasury be directed to pay off and cancel the BELFORD, of Colorado. bonds \flth the same-to the Committee on Banking and Currency. Mr. DAVIDSON. My colleague, Mr. HULL, who is absent by leave By Mr. O'NEILL : The petition of the officers and members of the of the House, is paired with Mr. ALDRICH, of Illinois. Women's National Christian Tempera.nee Union and other citizens of Mr. BOUCK. I am paired with Mr. WmTE, of Pennsylvania. the United States, against any change in the revenue laws that will promote the)nterest of dealers in spirituous liquors-to the Com­ l\fr. COVERT. Mr. FE~ANDO WOOD is paired with Mr. ROBESON, and Mr. MULLER is paired with Mr. HEILMAN. mittee of Ways and Means. Mr. HISCOCK. }rfr. CROWLEY is pa.ired with Mr. MONEY, of Mis­ By 11.ir. PRICE: Memorial of officers and members of the Women's sissippi. National Christian Temperance Union and others, numbering 8 0 Mr. LAPHAM. I a.m pa.ired on all political questions with l\fr. persons, of similar import-to the Committee on the Judiciary. TUCKER, of Virginia. By Mr. YOUNG, of Tennessee: Papers relating to the war claim of Mr. BAILEY. l\fr. DWIGHT is paired with Mr. MULDROW, and Mr. William H. Hughey, administrator of Jacob Hughey, deceased- to VA..'i VooRms with Mr. CHALMERS. the Committee on War Claims. Mr. SAPP. On all political questions I am paired with Mr. CON­ VERSE, of Ohio. If he were here, I should vote "no." Mr. TOWNSEND, of Ohio. Mr. BELFORD, of Colorado, is paired with Mr. BACHMAN, of Pennsylvania. Mr. COWGILL. My colleague, 11.ir. HEIL111AN, is paired with Mr. IN SENATE. MULLER, of New York. l\fr. SHALLENBERGER. I am paired with Mr. HENKLE, of Mary­ WEDNESDAY, June 4, 1879. land. Prayer by the Chaplain, Rev. J. J. BULLOCK, D. D. Mr. HARMER. Mr. Smrn, of New Jersey, is paired with 11.ir. The Journal of yesterday's proceedings was read and approved. WASHBURN, of Minnesota. Mr. LINDSEY. I am paired with my colleague, Mr. LADD, and my EXECUTIVE COMMUNICATION. colleague, Mr. REED, is paired with Mr. SPARKS, of Illinois. The PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Chair lays before the Senate a. Mr. TOWNSHEND, of Illinois. My colleague, Mr. SrnGLETON, is communication from the Secretary of War, transmitting a letter from paired with Mr. M.ILES, of Connecticut. the chief quartermaster of the military department of Texas of the Mr. PRESCOTT. Mr. NEWBERRY is paired with M.r. RICHI't:IO:ND 12th ultimo in regard to the advisability of erecting barracks and on all political questions, but Mr. RICHMOND not regarding an ad­ quarters at San Antonio, for the headquarters of the Department of journment as a political question has voted. Texas. Mr. CHALMERS. I am paired with Mr. VAN VOORHIS, of New The communication was read. York. The PRESIDENT pro ternpore. Owing to what wa& said in the Mr. ROBINSON. Mr. MORSE is paired with Mr. KELLEY. Senate the other day, the Chair is in doubt whet.her this communica­ Mr. HENDERSON. My colleague, Mr. FORT, is paired with Mr. tion should go to the Committee on Military Affairs or the Committee Mn.Ls, of Texas. on Public Buildings and Grounds. As the chairman of neither of those