5740 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD- HOUSE. MAY 26, ~

H. E. Blakeman, to be postmaster at California, in the county Mr. BARRETT and Mr. BARTLETT of New York addressed ths of Moniteau and State of Missouri, in the place of Lewis W. Bar­ Chair. ton, whose commission expired December 23, 1895. The SPEAKER (to Mr. BARRETT). For what purpose does the Alvah A. Clark, to be postmaster at Somerville, in the county gentleman rise? of Somerset and State of New Jersey, in the place of William H. Mr. BARRETT. To ask if that motion is now in order pend- Thompson, whose commission expired February 8, 1896. ing the call for the regular order? Alfred W. Dey, to be postmaster at Asbury P ark, in the county The SPEAKER. The motion is now in order. of Monmouth and State of New Jersey, in the place of Edmund :Mr. BARRETT. I wish to offer an amendment. G. Harrison, whose commission will expire July 18,1896. :Mr. EVANS. I have moved the previous question. Henry G. W alter, to be postmaster at Lebanon, in the county The SPEAKER. The question is on seconding th~ ca.U for the of Lebanon and State of Pennsylvania, in the place of Asaph S. previous question. As many.as are in favor of-­ Light, whose commission expired March 23, 1896. Mr. BARRETT. I rise to a point of order. Harry L. White, to be postmaster at Eldred, in the county of The SPEAKER. The gentleman will state it. McKean and State of Pennsylvania, in the place of Albert H. Mr. BARRETT. Mr. Speaker, I do not think that any member Mayo, whose commission will expire May 27, 1896. of the House heard the gentleman from Kentucky call for the John C. Neltnor, to be postmaster at West Chicago, in the previous question. I certainly did not. county of Dupage and State of illinois. This nomination is The SPEAKER. The Chair heard him. made in consequence of .a change of name of the post-office from The question having been put on ordering the previous ques- Turner to West Chicago. tion, Phoebe Mann, to be postmaster at Carlisle, in the county of The SPEAKER. The ayes seem to have it. Nicholas and State of Kentucky, in the place of Homer B. Bryson, Mr. BARRETT. I call for a division. whose commission expired January 21, 1896. The question being again taken, there were-ayes 91, noes 54. Charles W. Ellison, to be postmaster at Melrose, in the county Mr. BARRETT. I call for the yeas and nays. of Middlesex and State of Massachusetts, his commission having The yeas and nays were ordered, 34 voting in favor thereof­ expired May 9, 1896. more than one-fifth of the last vote. Jennie A. Harmon, to be postmaster at Palmyra, in the county The question was taken; and there were-yeas 125, naye 89, not of Wayne and State of New York, in the plac;e of Daniel B. Har­ voting 141; as follows: mon, deceased. YEAS-125. James McCloskey, to be postmaster at Johnsonburg, in the county Adams, Doolittle, Kyle, Ray, Aldrich, Ala. Ellis, Lacey, Scranton, of Elk and State of Pennsylvania, in the place of George Cooley, Andrews, Evans, Layipn, Settle. whose commission will expire May 27, 1896. Avery, Faris, Leighty, Shafr oth, Babcock, Gamble, Leonard, Smith, ill. Baker,Md. Gibson, Lewis, S:q1ith, Mich. CONFIRMATIONS. Bart h oldt, Grosvenor, Linney, BOrg, Executive nominations conjirrned by the S~ate May 26, 1896. Bell, Tex. Grow, Little, Southard., Berry, Hadley, Loud, Stahle, UNITED STATES ATTORNEY. Bishop, Hager, Low, Stewart, Wis. Blue, Hainer,Nebr. McCall, Tenn. Stone,C.W. J. Ward Gui-ley, of Louisiana, to be United States attorney for Broderick, Ha.ll, McCreary, Ky. Strode, Nebr. the eastern district of Louisiana. Brosius, Harmer, McCulloch, Strong, Brown, Harris, McDearmon, Tawney, POSTMASTERS. Buck, Harrison, McLachlan, Tayler, Phcebe Mann, to be postmaster at Carlisle, in the County of Burrell, Hart, McRae, Terry, Nicholas.and State of Kentucky. Burton , Mo. Hatch, Mercer, Thomas, Burton, Ohio H enderson, Miles, Tracewell, Alvah A. Clark, to be postmaster at Somerville, in the County Cannon, Hendrick, Miller , W.Va. Turner, Ga.. of Somerset and State of New Jersey. Clark, Iowa Henry, Ind. Milliken, Underwood, Alfred W. Dey, to be postmaster at Asbury Park, in the County Cob b, Hermann, Milnes, Van Voorhis, Oook e, ID. Hilborn, Minor, Wis. Walker,Va.. flf Monmouth and State of New Jersey. Cooper, Fla. Hopkins, Mondell, Washington, Augustus N. Cunningham, to be postmaster at East Providence, Cousi ns, Hubbard, Neill, Watson, Ohio Providence County, R. I. · Crump Hulick, Noonan, Wilson, Idaho Curtis, Kans. Hyde. Odell, Wilson, Ohio UNITED STATES CONSUL. Dalzell. J enkins, Otjen, Wilson, S.C. John Fowler, of Massachusetts, to be consul of the United Danford, Johnson, N.Dak. Overstreet, Wood, Daniels, Kerr, Payne, Wright. States at Chefoo, China. Denny, Kiefer, Pearson, D e Witt, Kirkpatrick, Pendleton., WITHDRAWAL. Dingley, Kleberg, Phillips, Executive nomination withd1·awn May 26, 1896. NAYS-89. Allen, Utah Fitz~erald, Loudenslager, Shuford, T. J. Glenn, to be postmaster at Carlisle, in the State of Ken­ Apsley, Fowler, Maguire, Simpkins, tucky. Atwood, Gardner, Marsh, Skinner, Bailey, Gillett, Mass. McCalJ~ Mass. Spencer, Baker , Kans. Griffin, McCleuan, Strait, Baker, N.H. Grout, McEwan., Strowd,N.C. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. Bankhead, Hardy, McLaurin, Sulloway, Barrett, Hartman., Meredith, Sulzer, TUESDAY, May 26, 1896. Ba rtlett, Ga. Henry, Conn. Money, Swanson, Bartlett, N.Y. Hill, Moody, Talbert, The House met at 12 o'clock m. Prayer~y the Chaplain, Rev~ Bell, Colo. Hooker :l't!orse, Tate, HENRY N. COUDEN. Bennett, Howard, Otey, Towne, Calder head, Howe, Parker, Treloar, The Journal of the proceedings of yesterday was read. Clardy , Howell, Pickler, Tucker, The SPEAKER. Without objection, the Journal as read will Clark, Mo. Hunter, Pitney, Updegraff, Colson, Hurley, Poole, · Wadsworth, be approved. Cooper, Te:x;. Johnson, Cal Powers, Walker, Mass. Mr. KEM. I object to the approval of the Journal, and call for Coop er, Wis. Jones, Quigg, . Walsh, the regula.r order. Crowther, K ern, Richardson, Wilson,N. Y. The SPEAKER (having put the question on the approval of the Cummings, Knox, Royse, Woodard. DeArmond, Latimer, R ussell, Conn. Journal). The ayes seem to have it. Erdman, Lester, Shannon, Mr. KEM. I make the point of no quorum. F enton, I... in ton, Sherman, The SPEAKER (having counted the House). One hundred and NOT VOTING-141. · eighty members are present-a quorum. The ayes have it; and Abbott, Catchin~s, Downmg, Hitt the Journal is approved. Acheson, Chickermg, Dra per, Huff, Aitken, Clark e, Ala. E ddy, Ruling, ORDER OF BUSINESS. Aldrich, m. Cockrel1, Ellett Va.. Hun, Mr. EVANS. I move that the House resolve itself into Com­ Allen , Miss. Codding, Elliott, S. C. Hutcheson, Ander son , Coffin, F'airchild, Johnson, Ind. mittee of the Whole on the state of the Union for the purpose of Arnold, Pa. Connolly, F ischer, Joy, considering revenue bills; and pending that motion, I move t h at Arnold, R. L Cook , Wis. Fletch er, K endall, the time for general debate on the bill which was before the Com­ Barh am, Corliss, Foote, Kulp, Bar ney, Cow en., Foss, Lawson, mittee of the Whole yesterday be limited to 2 o'clock, and on that Beach , Cox, Gillet, N.Y. Lefever, I demand the previous question. BPlknap, Crisp G oodwyn, L eisenring, Mr. BARTLETT of New York. Whatis the arrangement pro­ Bingham, Crowley, Graff, Livingston, Black, Ga. Culber son, Griswold, Lockhart, posed? Black, N.Y. Curtis, Iowa Halterman., Long, The SPEAKER. The Chair will state the proposition. The Boutelle, Curtis,N.'Y. Hanly, Lor imer, gentleman from Kentucky [Mr. EvANs] moves that the House Bower s, Dayton, Heatwole, 1\laddox, resolve itself into Committee of the Whole on the state of the Brewster, Dinsmore, Heiner , Pa. Mah any, Bromwell, Dockery, H em enway, Mahon., Union for the consideration of revenue bills; and pending that, Brumm, Dolliver, He}:lburn, McCleary, Minn. he moves that all general debate be closed at 2 o'clock. Bull, Dovener, Hicks, McClure, 1896. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE. 5741

McCormick, Price, Spalding, Wanger, If the gentleman will permit me, I hope he will make another dlir McMillin, Prince, Sparkman, Warner, Meiklejohn, Pugh, Sperry, Watson, Ind. tribution of the time. Meyer, Raney, Stall.bigs, Wellington, Mr. EVAN8. I would suggest that you allow us forty-five Miller, Kans. ·Reeves, Steele, Wheeler, minutes, then, and you take the remainder. Min"8r,N. Y. R&eyberurntson' ,La. Stephenson. White, Mr. RUSSELLof Connecticut. We shallneedatleastanhour. Moses, 0 b Stewart, N.J. Wilber, Mozley, Robinson,Pa. Stokes, Williams, Mr. EVANS. If there was that much time I would be willing Murphy. Rusk, Stone,W.A. Willis, to do so. 1 suggest that we occupy forty minutes and you occupy Newlands. Russell, Ga. Taft, Woodman, the balance.. Would that be satisfactory? Northway, Sa.uerhering, Thorp, Woomer, Ogden, Sayers, Tracey, Yoakum. Mr. RUSSELL of ConnBcticut. Well, we will have to submit Owens, Shaw, Turner, Va. to it; it is the best we can get. Patterson, Snover, Tyler, Mr. EVANS. Then I suggest that we will occupy forty min­ Perkins, Southwick, Van Horn, utes, and the remainder of the time, being thirty-five min11tes, So the previous question was ordered. will be occupied by your side. The following pairs were announced: The CHAIRMAN. In the absence of objection, the Chair will Until further notice: regard that arrangement as acceptable to the committee. Mr. HEATWOLE with Mr. HUTCHESON. There was no objection. Mr. BROMWELL with Mr. DOWNING. Mr. DOLLIVER. Mr. Chairman, I do not believe that it is Mr. Foss with Mr. ELLETT of Virginia. necessary for those of us who are in favor Df the pending bill to Mr. KuLP with Mr. WHEELER. go further in defending the policy of the Ways and Means Com­ Mr. BINGHAM with Mr. DOCKERY. mittee of the House than to quote the admissions that were made Mr. GooDWYN with Mr. CoWEN. on the floor during the discussion on yesterday by my colleague Mr. ARNOLD of Pennsylvania with Mr. LIVINGSTON. on the committee, the distinguished gentleman from Connecticut Mr. LEFEVER with Mr. TYLER. [Mr. RussELL]. He said, and that is all that we have claimed, Mr. CORLISS with Mr. MOSES. that section 61 of the act of 1894 is "crude and faulty." He says Mr. JOHNSON of Indiana with Mr. Cox. that the repeal of section 61 is justifiable because of the fact ''that Mr. SNOVER with Mr. MADDOX. it is crude and possibly impossible of execution." He admits that Mr. BowERS with Mr. MINER of New York. section 61 of the a.ct of 1894 is not only crude but it is impracti­ Mr. HULL with 1\:t:r. OGDEN. cable and can not be executed, and that it" would cause frauds Mr. WILLIAM A. STONE with Mr. BLACK of Georgia, on the revenue" if this law exempting alcohol for use in the in­ Mr. CoFFIN with Mr. LAWSON. dustrial arts from the internal-revenue tax were kept on the Mr. STEPHENSON with Mr. DINSMORE. statute book. Mr. MEIKLEJOHN with Mr. ROBERTSON of Louisiana. Now, what mpre could any man claim in behalf of the bill Mr. DALZELL with Mr. CRISP. which is now pending? It is without dispute, measured by the Until June 3; wisdom of both political parties, that this provision for the exemp­ Mr. TRACEY with Mr. SAYERS. tion of alcohol used in the industrial arts from the internal­ For this day: revenue tax upon distilled spirits is wholly iinpracticable. That Mr. WILBER with Mr. STALLINGS. was the opinion of the Republican Commissioner of Internal Mr. HEMENWAY with Mr. CATCHINGS. Revenue in the last Administration. That was the unanimous Mr. WomiER with Mr. RussELL of Georgia. opinion of the Ways and Means Committee of the Fifty-first Con­ Mr. TAFT -with Mr. ABBOTT. gress, and it is the opinion of the present Commissioner of Internal Mr. CROWLEY with Mr. CODDING. Revenue. It was the unanimous opinion of this Honse in the last Mr. HICKS with Mr. LOCKHART. Congress, after the Wilson bill had passed, and it is the unani­ Mr. BouTELLE with Mr. McMILLIN. mous opinion, if the admissions made by the gentleman from Mr. HITT with Mr. CLARKE of Alabama. Connecticut may be counted, of the Ways and Means Committee Mr. BRUMM with Mr. PRICE. of the present Congress. That being true, what is the situation Mr. BULL with Mr. RusK. of the Government at this time? On this vote: We say that this section ought to be repealed because, unless Mr. WELLINGTON with Mr. ALLEN of Mississippi. that is done, we are inviting a mountain's weight of claims against The result of the vote was announced as above recorded. the Treasury of the United States. And for whose benefit, 1\:tr. The question recurring on the motion of Mr. EvANS that the Chairman? Why should this section be retained in the law? Cer­ debate be closed a.t 2 o'clock in Committee of the Whole, on a tainly not for the benefit of the manufacturers, because they are division (demanded by Mr. BARRETT) there were-ayes 91, noes 30. required by the section to pay an internal tax and no regulations· Mr. KEM. No quorum. are in force for the rebate of the tax paid on alcohol used in the The SPEAKER. The Chair overrules the point of no quorum, industrial arts. It is not for the benefit of the American public_, as 213 members have just voted. because everybody knows that the uncertainty a-bout the collec­ So the motion to limit debate to 2 o'clock was ~o-reed to. tion of that rebate has prevented the manufacturer from extend­ The question recurring on the motion of Mr. EvANS that the ing to his customers any advantage whatever by reason of this House resolve itself into Committee of the Whole House on the law. The law as it stands helps nobody, and the admission, can­ state of the Union for the consideration of revenue bills, it was didly and fairlymade yesterday bymycolleague [Mr. RussELL of agreed to. Connecticut], that it ought to be repealed ought to be very influ­ ALCOHOL IN Tll:& ARTS. ential in the settlemeij.t of this dispute. • The Honse accordingly resolved itself into Committee of the Therefore we say, appealing for the vindication of our judg­ Whole House on the state of the Union, Mr. SHERMAN in the ment to the common opinion of all political parties, of experts of chair. both Administrations, appealing to the judgment of the Ways and Mr. EVANS. The gentleman from Iowa [Mr. DOLLIVER] will _Means Committee in every House since the Forty-ninth Congress~ occupy the time. . that this section 61 ought to be repealed without delay. But my Mr. RUSSELL of Connecticut. Before the gentleman proceeds, friend from Connecticut [Mr. HILL] comes forward and says to I would like to inquire of my colleague as to how he proposes to us, if this is repealed- divide the remaining time. Dare the gentlemen from the grain-raising States go back to their constit­ uents and tell them that the only tariff legislation that they have succeeded Mr. EVANS. I suppose your side has had an hour and a half, in passing was to put the highest tax in all the world upon the farmer's grain, while our side has occupied but fifty-five minutes. Suppose we and thereby narrow the market which the Wilson tariff bill by accident had divide the remaining time, we taking forty-five minutes and you broadened? taking the remainder. I will say to my friend from Connecticut [JI.Ir. HILL] that the Mr. McMILLIN. I would like to have a little of the time my­ repeal of this section has no connection whatever with the tariff self, I would state to the gentleman from Kentucky. question. The tariff question is not involved here. The only Mr. EVANS. The gentleman from Connecticut will see the question is a plain business proposition, as to whether a section of pressure that is brought to bear upon me- the law 6f 1'894 which we have a. prospect of repealing, a section Mr. RUSSELL of Connecticut. There is the same pressure on which, by the admission of my friend from Connecticut, is crude, me. May I ask how the time has been consumed? impracticable, and ought to be repea.led-- The CHAIRMAN. The affirmative have occupied fifty-five Mr. HILL. I do not wish to be put in that position. I did not minutes, and the negative, the side represented by the gentleman say that. from Connecticut, has occupied one hour and twenty-five minutes. 1\:t:r. DOLLIVER. I referred to my colleague on the Ways and Mr. RUSSELL of Connecticut. I would suggest that my col­ :Means Committee [Mr. RussELL of Connecticut]. The question league _on the committee allow the remaining time to be divided is whether we ought to be put in the position of leaving that sec­ equally. tion on the statute book when, by the admission of my colleague Mr. EVANS. Suppose we take fifty minutes and you take the [Mr. RussELL of Connecticut], it is crude, impracticable, and remainder. ought to be repealed. Mr. RUSSELL of Connecticut. That would not 'be sufficient• But he says before we repeal it we .ought to pass some more

• 5742 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE. _ MAY 26, suitable measure relative to the matter in order to do justice to He went to the banquet with the material prospects of onr great legitimate manufacturing interests. I admit fully the force of State done up in a rag bag and sat down between Grover Cleve­ his contention, and if we were not entirely at the mercy of an land and Mr. Carlisle and put the rag bag under his chair. Mr. opposition Senate and a hostile Executive I would cheerfully fol­ Cleveland, then a private citizen, was the first speaker; Mr. Car­ low my friend in his efforts to promote the prosperity of the great lisle, then the junior.Senator from the State of Kentucky, fol­ industrial interests for which he speaks. lowed, both of them sticking close to the text of tariff reform. To But I undertake to say-and I address myself to Republicans on the mind of both of these great men the people and their welfare this floor-that no man of us who really weighs the political situ­ were separated exactly as ': to the Jews old Canaan stood, while ation in which we are placed ought to stand in this House and Jordan rolled between" [laughter], and with them Governor Boies lecture the Ways and Means Committee, or the Republican ma­ agreed. Not a word was said about the money question and not jority, for not having tried to move on party lines against the a word about silver. When he rose to speak he reached 1.mder his inert Populistic mass called the Senate, and the inert Democratic chair and took out of his rag bag-then and ever since the faithful mass called the President. [Applause and laughter.] It takes at traveling companion of his politics-and I will read the conclu­ least three branches of Government in this .country to put any sion of what he said: kind of a political measure through; and at present the Senate I have spoken of the condition of agricultural industries in my own Stat e. and the President are against this House. I will not 1·ail at the I have called attention to the fact that for years these industries have been Senate. If it had not been for the fact that it requires three prosecuted at a loss, instead of a profit, and I affirm without fear of contra­ diction that there i~ no Stat e in this Union where the great staples of agricul­ branches of legislation to do business in the United States, the ture-the productions that supply the necessary food of man and beast-can programme of free trade, which my friend from Connecticut [Mr. be more cheaply produced. . H ILL] laments, would have come to fruition in this country He declared that the tariff had ruined agriculture, and ended twenty years before it did. For all these years the Senate alone by warning his hearers- stood between the people and the impending threat, and forfour of to prep!J-re for a storm the consequence of which in both a political and those years, from 1885 to 1889, the Senate alone steadied t'9.e business economic sense no man can measure. . of the American people in the midst of free-trade proclamations I have read his words, not for the purpose of entering into an from the White House and free-trade majorities on this floor. argument as to the truth of them, but solely for the purpose of I belong to an old-fashioned school of theology which believes showing how graciously Providence, knowing that the people of that Providence, in all these years, was holding the Democratic America were about to throw away the protective tariff, purposed party in check, and used Brother Wilson, somewhat diluted and to give them one up to date, with all the modern prosperity-pro­ modified by Brother GORMAN, for the purpose of setting up in the ducing improvements. In response to that purpose, I think, the United States an object lesson in practical economics that should Fifty-first Congress came together. It was a Republican Congress bring the American people, as the old preachers used to say, to a through and through. In the chair sat THOMAS B. REED, great in 1·ealizing sense of their lost condition. [Laughter.] Notice, for council, splendid in courage, rnagnificentin action. [Applause.] example, how long the object lesson was put off and postponed. At the head of the table yonder, in Ways and Means, sat William If it had come before the waste and extravagance of the period of McKinley, of Ohio [applause], the colored map of whose political the civil war had been repahed, before a disordered currency had victories, made out, I believe, by the gentleman from Ohio [Mr. been restored, before a promise to pay that still occupies a promi­ GROSVENOR], would seem to indicate that he has carried nearly nent position on the face of eve:ry paper dollar of the United States everything on this continent except the Gulf of California and the had been kept, a thousand explanations would have befogged the Great Lakes. [Laughter.] Arm.md him sat the strong men of inquiring citizen, and nobody would have known either the mean­ his party-Bayne of Pennsylvania, now gone out of the noise of ing or the purpose of the visitation. time; McKenna of California, now a circuit judge of the United If it had come before we had had a reasonably long experience States; Lafollette of Wisconsin. young and eloquent champion of with the protective tariff, operating upon the basis of a sound our cam;e; GEAR of Iowa and BURROWS of Michigan, fruitful in currency, the educational effect of it would have been limited, industry and knowledge, translated now, both of them, to that because we should not have been in a position to appreciate the elysinm of our politics where the wicked cease from troubling and blessings we had cast away. As it was, Proviuence gave us ten the weary are at rest [great laughter and applause]; PAYNE of years of prot::ction, from 1880 to 1890, years of comparative New York and Governor DINGLEY of Maine, still splendid leaders plenty, years of industrial growth, years of good markets for the among us-men whose comprehensive grasp of great affairs has won farmer, years of good customers for the factory, years in which for them a place among the notable political figures of our time. American manhood was lifted up into the largest and most hope­ [Applause.] From that committee, not as the product of one man's ful outlook since the primeval benediction, "In the sweat of thy wisdom, but of the wisdom of· all, came the tariff law of 1890: face shalt thou eat bread." It passed this House without a dissenting vote. It went to the And yet the clamor still continued in this country. Walking Senate and was there shaped under the hands of experienced delegates were going in carriages from factory to factory and from statesmanship. It took on provisions for reciprocity with the farmhouse to farmhouse_, preaching the gospel of discontent, and commercial world, fresh from the genius of James G. Blaine. from their easy chairs here in this Capitol, with the studied reit­ [Applause.] It went to the conference committee, was .carefully eration of the patent-medicine advertisement, to which so many of considered, and came back to receive every Republican vote in our colleagues have lentthelightof their countenance [laughter], the House and in the Senate; and afterwards the President of the Democratic statesmen were telling the American people that their United States, with a pen that has become an heirloom in the case was hopeless and that all that would save them would be the household of our faith, added to it the commanding signature of immediate application of the favorite Democratic prescription. Benjamin Harrison. (Applause.] It was a courageous thing' to In my own State, for ~ample, a land whose chief industries de­ do, to pass a law touchmg·everyman's business and go to the peo­ pend entirely on the farm, a land which I have sometimes thought ple in a general election within a month. The Republican party merits the tribute that Homer paid to Argos when he called it the was brave enough to do it. But that little month was long enough breast of Greece, because it furnished food for the whole nation, to call forth all the legions of calnmny and false pretense. Every we had, by an accident that sometimes happens even in well-regu­ line of the bill was belied, every sentence of it was distorted, and lated communities, a Democratic governor, Horace Boies. in the tumult created by the panic-stricken iinport.ers, jobbers, All his lifetime, even down to old age, he had been a Republican, and bargain-counters of the country, the splendid political phalanx looking through the dust and cobwebs of a country law office for a that stood by the side of REED in his quorum insurrection of 1890 place on the ticket, until patience finally was regarded by him no [laughter], and that voted to a man with McKinley on the motion longer as a real virtue, and so he joined himself to that portion of for the previous question on the conference report, melted away the population which believ:ed that the corkscrew is the most into private life, and saw their places taken by the most grotesque essential device in the mechanism of civilization; and as an anti­ assortment of political freaks that ever contributed to the gayety prohibition Republican he was selected· to· lead the Democratic of nations. [Great laughter and applause.] party to victory. [Laughter.] And he led it to victory; a vic­ Even McKinley himself, who gave his name to the bill, had the tory "cheap and nasty "; exactly the kind of victory that is not experience of being burnt in effigy at Sheffield · on~e same day very much better than defeat. that the Democracy defeated him for Congress in Ohio. [Laugh­ Hardly had he got seated in his office before his horizon began ter and applause.] But the purpose of Providence was not to be to widen. He saw at once that while a local dispute about the turned aside. Hardly had the tumult of politics quieted before legal status of the town pump was a large enough question to get business resumed its normal condition. Prices, instead of going in on, it was hardly great enough to feed the aspiration of an immor­ up, went down, or at least were equalized; men, instead of losing tal soul [laughter]; so he enlarged his horizon, or at least shifted employment, were happy in new industrial opportunities, and it, and at the first opportunity carried his laurels to the city of American business in every department of it responded to condi­ New York, and laid them down at the annual dinner of the Tariff tions the most satisfactory that ever existed in the whole history Reform League. He got from one J. R. Sovereign (a gentleman of the Republic if not in the record of the human race. The object now grown obsolete as the head of a labor organization on whose lesson of prosperity was complete. It was palpable enough even assessments he manages to live in a style becoming the leisure to create a proper impression on the mind of our friend Governor he has always enjoyed), certain alleged statistics of the condition Boies, whom we left a short time ago inNew York sitting between of industry in the Stat.e of Iowa. Mr. Cleveland and Mr. Carlisle; for he delivered a message to the 1896. ~ . CONGRESSIONAL· RECORD~HOUSE. "· 5.743

legislature of Iowa, January 13,1892, beginning~th words ~hioh man from Connecti.cut fMr. RussELL]. · In the second place, we I wish to read here for the purpose. of preservmg them m the have got to a point ~ in the session where-time is of some conse­ political records of the day. He said: quence. But, notwithstanding all that, and notwithstanding the A provision in the constitution of our State directs that the governor shall' speech of the gentleman from Iowa, I would be willing to enter convey to the general assembly information concerning the conditio~ of the now upon a general revision of very many p1·ovisions of the Wil­ State and recommend such legislation as he deems expedi~nt . . In d:u;Grover Cleveland. for a moment, I have been informed by the Chair that t}fe arra?ge­ But, 1\fr. Chairman, I am opposed to any paJ.-tial or piecemeal change in the present law. I am opposed to the repeal or substan­ ment has been made to give the gentleman from Iowa the ~me, tial change of any of its important provisions without changing which I hardly think is fair wh~n it is to ~e exhaus~d not .1!1 a discussion of the measure before the comnnttee, but m a poht1Cal other important. provisions, especially those which relate to the discussion altogether foreign to the measure and which is not to very -enactments sought to be changed. I say it is not right or be answered on this side. I want simply to enter my protest, and just to repeal this section and· give no consideration whatever to I think the gentleman's sense of fairness will lead him to see the the other provisions of our tariff and revenue laws which depend upon it and are connected with it. The rates of duty upon many justice of it. articles of ma.nufacture, it is to be presumeti, were considered in Mr. DOLLIVER. Mr. Chairman, I will say to my friend from relation to this tax upon alcohol. · If that is not so, then it is fair Tennessee that I recognize the propriety of his suggestion, and to presume that when the tax on alcohol was fixed its effect upon that I intend to occupy only a few minutes more. theEe articles was considered. We at one sweep undertake tore­ Think of it! Less than two years-hardly more than one year; peal thiE! single section, caring nothing and considering nothing as yet it was long enough to turn the rags of our misery into the to what or whom it affects in this country. Now, we have done very royal purple of prosperity! Now; it would. almost seem that the little for the manufacturers of this countTy. We have done noth­ dramatic unity of the narrative would reqmre that I should tell ing for its industries. Let us be very careful that we do not, in you that Governor Boies, his backslidings having been healed, addition to that failure, strike a blow and do an injury to already ' had been trying to get the people of our Sta~e · and o_f the co~~ try existincr industries. back over the main traveled road to the mdustr1al" conditwns 1\Ir. Chairman, is this an important provision of the present which prevailed in 1892. I regret that I am compelled to state tariff law-the internal-revenue portion of it? It is said in the that the governor's point of view has again widened, or at least report of this committee that the estimate made of the alcohol shifted, and that he is now engaged in trying, with more or less likely to be claimed under the act is 10,000,000 gallons per an­ local success to induce the people to change the treatment and num-a total for the fiscal years 1895 and 1896 of 20,000,000 gal­ wind up our' worldly affairs by the unlimi~ed c~inage of silver . lons-making a tax of about $10,000,000 per annum. Is it not, dollars out of material now worth 51 cents, m order that our peo­ then, an important provision that proposes to place now upon the ple may use such of these coins as they can get .hold of in going industries of this country-burdened, struggling; tJ.·odden down th1·ough the motions of paying their debts. [Laughter.] I regret to the gTound-an additional burden of $10,000,000 a year? to have to say this, a.nd I h.aye put this. message forward only to Is it not of some consequence that we render them to that show how easily a good pohticalleader 1s able to forget the blun­ amount just so much less able to compete with the manufactm·e der of 1892 in his new-born interest in the crime of 1873. of articles in which alcohol enters that come into this country Now a word more. I do not suppose that we can put through from abroad? this co'ngress any tariff legislation. It is reasonably certain, how­ But it is an important provision, Mr. Chairman, in other re­ ever that we can put through this Congress the legislation which spects, in that it is a practical declaration of a Republican doc­ this hill proposes. And I do not think that .we should hesitate to trine that we shall reduce our revenue taxation as fast as possible do our part. I do not believe that y;e, ~ Republicans, since the and look for our revenue to the duties laid on imported articles. opportunity has come to correct th~ e:v:-1 of the l~w of 1894, ought We have now got this general provision incorporated into the to shrink from the duty and respons1b1hty of saVIng the Treasury law. I say to you if it is taken out no man can tell when, if ever, of the United from the accumulation of claims under a law which it will get ba.ck. We have got it. If there are faults under it, let I have already suggested benefits n~ manufacturing industrY: in us provide for them; let us amend the act; but. let us retain the its present shape and is of no possible benefit to the consunnng principle, and not lose what we have already gained. millions of the United States. [Applause]. What are the rea~ons offered for the repeal of the provision? I reserve the remainder of my time. If you will read the whole report of the Committee on Ways and Mr. EVANS. Mr. Chairman, I suggest now that the gentlemen :Means through, you will find that four reasons are assigned. In on the other side proceed with their thirty-five minutes. We have the first pla.ce, that no rules can be framed under it; in the second fifteen minutes remaining, the whole of which, if possible, I shall place, it is not the consumer that gets the benefit; third, that we yield to the gentleman from Tennessee. need the revenues, and fourth, because of the wood-alcohol trust. Mr. RUSSELL of Connecticut. Mr. Chairman, the gentleman The second and third arguments are all contained in the first one, from Iowa [Mr. DoL~ryER] hav:ing prese~ted to. this commi~~e a and there is no reason, when you analyze the report, why this very picturesque political k.ale1doscope, mcludmg the poh~1cal should be done except that the regulations can not be framed un- ' migrations of Governor Bmes, I hope now that the committee der it, and second, that it should not be repealed because itwould may be favored with a return to the discussion of the subject­ be in contravention of the wood-alcohol interest. Analyze it, and matter in hand. [Applause.] you will find that it all comes down to these two provisions. I yield ten minutes to the gentleman from Massachusetts [Mr. Now, in regard to the inability to frame regulations, let us con­ KNOXl. sider that for a moment. Under the section I submit to the House, 1\fr.-KNOX. Mr. Chairman, during the speech just concluded and to the able gentlemen upon the Ways and Means Committee, I came to an understa~ding of why it was that the gentleman who as well as to the distinguished lawyers in this committee, that bas this bill in charge was so anxious to close this debate at 2 this section is drawn strongly in favor of the Government; that o'clock, instead of allowing the extended time that was desired. if you had the general doctrine which is therein embodied and The reason is perfectly apparent-that they have got through di')­ incorporated in the internal-revenue laws you could not draw a cussing this measuTe which is before the House, and on which section more in the interest of the Government and against the this House will soon be called upon to vote, and have gone to talk­ manufacturer who has to receive the article. You provide, for ing general politics, especially Western politics, and that in the instance, in the first place, that he shall pay the tax before receiv­ State of Iowa. ing the commodity. The money gets into the hands of the finan­ Now, I think that such a political harangue as that will be a cial officers of the United States. It is to be gotten out by the very poor answer when the question is asked by the various ind_us­ manufacturer from the possession of the Government. How is tries affected and to be affected, "Why was the repeal of section he to do it? He can only get it under the language of the sec­ 61 necessary?" Some better reason than anything offered by the tion, by "satisfying" somebody. No method of proof is pre­ gentleman from Iowa will be required. Now, I do not propose to scribed, no kind of evidence is laid down by which he is to do it; take up the time of this committee at any length! for two reasons. but he can only receive the money back by satisfying-- - In the first place, the arguments upon this side of the case were Mr. WALKER of Massachusetts. Bowler. [Laughter.] very admirably and very ably stated yesterday by the gentle- Mr. KNOX. No; the Supreme Court satisfied Bowler. Thisw 5744 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD- ROUSE. MAY 26, unfortunately apparently a "Bowler" game to prevent the Gov­ Now, is there any difficulty, when 500 barrels of alcohol per ernment from paying its just dues. That seems to be what it is. year go to their factory with the stamps on the barrels, and they But I say you have got to satisfy somebody. Now, when you produce those stamps, as required by this law, to the Secretary of have this general provision, why is it that regulations can not be the Treasury, is there any chance for fraud? How? They can only framed to carry those provisions out? [Applause.] use the alcohol in manufacture. They can not sell it. All the fHe1·e the hammer fell.] laws of the State and of the United States prevent such sale. :Mr. RUSSELL of Connecticut. I now yield ten minutes to the They receive the barrels full, they send them back empty. They gentleman from New Jersey [Mr. PARKER]. return the stamps, which show what they have used in their The CHAIRMAN. The committee will be in order. trade; and whether it be in factories of varnish, medicines, or per­ Mr. PARKER. I thank the Chairman, I thank the gentleman cussion caps, or whatever it may be, any honest manufacturer can from Connecticut, who has been only able, however, to give ten do the same thing, under such regulations as the Secretary of the min~tes to the Representative of the second manufacturing dis­ Treasury shall prescribe, and there will not be a looting of the trict of the United States in defense of its industries. Treasury, as has been stated here, but simply a return of the tax I have nothing, Mr. Chairman, but respect for the gentlemen which they themselves pay, a return made because it is for the who urge the passage of this bill. but.if I j ndge by the last speech benefit of American industries that they should have this protec­ for it, I would say, with all due deference, that they do not under­ tion. stand it. I want to give you some facts in connection with the Protection may be by duty; it may be by bounty; it·may be by matter. It is a protective measm·e that is proposed to be repealed­ exemption. Here it is by exemption. It is none the less protec­ protective both to agriculture and manufactures. I do not be­ tion; and as a representative of the protective principle, with all lieve if the members of this House understood that fact that my reverence for the leaders who framed the tariff bill of 1890, either Democrats or Republicans would try to bring further who are its parents, when it comes to the principles of protection, trouble upon these industries. I must stand here in this House on facts which I believe they do Commercial alcohol costs 23 cents a gallon. It was news to me, not thoroughly realize and understand, to appeal to this House, and I think it is news to you, to learn that fact. The tax on al­ Republican and Democratic, to all who believe in American agri­ cohol of $1.10 a proof gallon, the pure article being 88 per cent culture, American manufacture, and American trade, binding the above proof, amounts to 82.06 a gallon, and the commercial article people together from one end of this country to the other, and to is sold, therefore, for about $2.30 a gallon. Men can, and often do, ask them, as they love their country, as they are trusted by their pay that price for a beverage, and my friend from Massachusetts constituents, not to vote for this repeal. [Applause.] would say that they ought. There are somewhere between one fHere the hammer fell.] and two hundred drinks in a gallon, but men can not afford to Mr. RUSSELL of Connecticut. Mr. Chairman, I yield five min­ use alcohol in the arts at any such price as that, and no nation in utes to the gentleman from Kentucky [Mr. COLSON]. the world requires it. We used to have a bmning fluid made of Mr. COLSON. Mr. Chairman, in the five minutes which have alcohol and benzine. We have it no longer, because we could not been yielded to me by the gentleman from Connecticut, to whom afford to use alcohol in that way. We used to have alcohol var­ I return thanks for the kindness. I can not go into detail, but I nishes; now more seldom. We can use alcohol in the arts to an can and do enter my protest against the repeal of section 61 of the extent that is absolutely unknown until you have had occasion to Wilson bill, which provides for free alcohol in the arts and in any investigate. It is destroyed in the manufacture of chloroform, medicinal compound. which changes its ch~racter. It is destroyed in making photo­ Some members of the committee from which this bill was re­ graphic materials. It is used as a vehicle in varnish. It is used ported have complained at the criticism which has been made by in a shellac composition to put into hats and then allowed to many members of the House of the action of the committee in evaporate and get away. It is used in medicines as a mere sol­ reporting measm·es here, but I think the criticism of which they vent. I do not mean in alcoholic preparations, such a.s so-called complain is just and proper, for the measm·es which are referred bitters, but in medicinal preparations, whether in making such to that committee are measures of most general interest to the drugs as quinine or morphine, or in making corrosive sublimate. people of this country and in which every member upon this floor It is used in making a like compound of mercury, for the manu­ has an intense interest. I submit that the Republican members facture of percussion caps. It is used in making tinctures, ex­ of the Committee on Ways and Means have not done what they tracts of fruits, and extract of flavors. should have done in regard to these great public measures, in that The expressiofi ''medicinal and other like preparations" means they have failed to submit them to a caucus of the Republican preparations of medicine and preparations of that sort, not alco­ members of this House. holic preparations under that guise, and any Secretary of the They have no right to expect the Republicans of this House to Treasury who can discriminate between silver ore and lead ore come up and support any bill which they may seek to report here can discriminate between the preparations mentioned in that sec­ regardless of its merits, that measure not having been submitted tion and frauds upon the Treasury in the way of alcoholic prepa­ to a caucus of the Republicans of this House. I say they have l'ations. It would be used in hundreds of other ways. It would no right to complain at any criticism that may be made on their be used in many times the present quantity. It would give a action. That action should be discussed freely and fully here market for grain. The enforcement of this section would give a when they have not submitted any measure to a Republican cau­ chance to manufactures and agriculture and employment to our cus. I would like, Mr. Chairman, for the Committee on Ways people. But the Secreta1·y of the Treasury has said he will not and Means to explain why it is that other matters of equal impor­ enforce it. He has said he will not prescribe regulations, and a tance have not been considered by that committee and bills re­ Republican House is asked to support him in opposing the manu­ ported in regard to them. The Wilson bill, passed in 1894, thor­ facturers of this country. What is more, under the present law oughly eliminated from our tariff system the reciprocity feature, that same alcohol is free for export and is exported in bond. and certainly that is of more importance than the matter embraced Think what that means, gentlemen. That very alcohol at 23 cents in this bill now before the committee for consideration. By the a gallon was sent to Canada. There they made the explosive repeal of the reciprocity clause of the McKinley law we have lost powder for percussion caps. They got the benefit of the manu­ millions of dollars of foreign trade. The flour-mill men in Ken­ facture and sent it back, on a small duty, to us. That very alco­ tucky and other States, who· had not before the passage of the hol can be sent to England or Germany to make medicines there McKinley law been able to sell a baiTel of flour in Cuba, under to send back to us. the reciprocal relations established with Spain, under section 3 of Now as to a matter of history. Somebody has said that this that bill, were afforded a market in Cuba for millions of dollars provision was accidental. It was not. A constituent of mine worth of flour, which market was taken from them as soon as the who pays $48,000 a year in the way of tax on alcohol used in mak­ 1\IcKinley law was repealed. Why have not the Ways and Means ing sulphuric ether knows of that fact. The tariff of 1894 raised Committee reported a bill here restoring reciprocity? Oh, they the internal revenue on commercial alcohol from $1.70 a gallon to say, we can not secure the passage of such a bill-that the Senate $2.06, an increase of 36 cents. They protest-ed. They said they will not pass it, and the President would veto it. I say to you could not continue their manufacture under those circumstances, that this House has not the right to anticipate the action of the much more when duties were reduced, and when the duty on hats Senate of the United States; it has not the right to anticipate the went down from 100 per cent to 35 per cent, when the duties on action of the President of the United States. We should act; we sulphuric ether, their product, likewise went down, and e"'lery­ should do our duty; we should, in my judgment, have laid before thing was lowered, they said they could not use alcohol or con­ the Senate a general tariff measure with reciprocity a prominent tinue their manufactm·e, and then they were told by this bill: feature, and put the responsibility upon that body if it failed to 1 "Make no objection. This bill is only against alcohol that is to pass it. [Applause.] And if the Senate passed it, let the respon­ be drunk, not against alcohol to be used in the arts." They have sibility for its failure to become a law rest upon the Chief Execu· relied upon this law. They have made contracts based upon it. tive of the United States. (Applause.] They have not received the rebate, but they have agreed with all The CHAIRMAN. The time of the gentleman has expired. 1 their customers to give them the rebat-e when received. They Mr. RUSSELL of Connecticut. I yield five minutes to the gen­ have made their sales upon that basis, and you are asked to destroy tleman from New York [Mr. BARTLETT]. those industries. They could make many other things, notably Mr. BARTI~ETT of New York. I thought I was to have ten chloroform. with cheap alcohol. minutes. 1896. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE. 5745

The CHAIRMAN. The gentleman is recognized for five min­ "right and justice," " honor," and ".moral claim." I use the same utes. words to you to-day, and I can upon you in tlae name of common Mr. BARTLETT of New York. Mr. Chairman, it is very singu­ honesty not to repeal this section 61 without some saving clause lar that with an able and distinguished Committee on Ways and providing for the repayment of the rebates to manufacturers. Means, we find that the great measure now under consideration, Those manufacturers who have filed their claims can not be barred which affects the North, the East, and the Middle States, and the out by the failure of the Secretary of the Treasury to make proper great manufacturing interests of those States, has been abandoned regulations. If he is chargeable with nonfeasance in having failed to the custody and control of the gentleman from Kentucky. It to prepare proper regulations, the manufact-m·ers can not be de­ is hardly necessary for me to call attention to the names of the barred from the prosecution of their claims for the rebates to distinguished gentlemen upon that committee. I repeat that it which they are entitled under the act of 1894. is very remarkable that we find that no one of those distinguished The CHAIRl\'LJ\N. The time of the gentleman has expired. gentlemen rises in advocacy of this bill; for the only prominent Mr. EVANS. Mr. Chairman, I believe I am entitled to control member of that committee who has ventured to add.Tess this Com­ the remainder of the time. mittee of the Whole, the distinguished gentleman from Iowa [Mr. The CHAIRMAN. The gentleman from Connecticut [Mr. DOLLIVER l, has given us a speech-what on? On the triumphs of RussELL] has one minute remaining, and the gentleman from his party;-on the alleged virtues of a protective policy, without Kentucky [Mr. EvANS] bas the other eleven minutes. uttering one word in favor of the measure now under considera­ Mr. EVANS. When the gentleman n·om Connecticut gets tion. through we will use our rema,ining eleven minutes unless the Let me, before passing on to consider the merits of this bill, .gentleman chooses to yield us that one minute. call the attention of the committee to the fact that only a few Mr. RUSSELL of Connecticut. I will reserve it. days ago we had a bill passed hurriedly through this House, under Mr. EVANS. No; we want you to use it now, unless you will the guidance of the gentleman from Kentucky fMr. EVA..'\'S], a yield it to us. · bill in the interest of the distillers of Kentucky ana of the whisky Mr. RUSSELL of Connecticut. I yield it to the gentleman. trust; a bill which will do incalculable damage to the city of New Mr. EVANS. Now, Mr. Chairman, I yield five minutes to the York, which I have the honor to represent in part. I am told that gentleman fTom Tennessee (Mr. McMILLL~]. The remainder of it will deprive the Federal Government in licenses of three-quar­ the time will be occupied by the gentleman from Maine [Mr. ters of a million dollars; and for what purpose-to give the distil­ DINGLEY]. lers of Kentucky an opportunity to bottle their liquor and sell it Mr. :McMILLIN. Mr. Chairman, upon a purely business prop· for their own added benefit and advantage, and not through the osition so vastly important as this, I can not but regret that the dealers. time which was given for the presentation of the affirmative of Mr. STEELE. And t o deprive Canada of that hade? the pending measure should have been wasted, as a portion of it Mr. BARTLETT of New York. That was the measure passed was, in a discussion which, if no friend of mine were involved in last week, and now we have another measure proposed in favor it, I should have to call a harangue. of the distilling interests and the whisky trust. What is the proposition here? It is to repeal section 61 of the The only objection which I understand the committee made to tariff act passed two years ago. It has been held by the Secre· the existing law is that it is impracticable to execute. Can it be tary of the Treasury that this section is wholly impossible of en· possible, Mr. Chairman, that we, the Congress of the United forcem~ by reason of its vagueness and uncertainty. It is held States, confess our incapacity to frame adequate laws? Can it be by the ways and Means Committee of this House, it was held by possible th~.t the See1·etary of the Treasury or the Commissioner the Ways and Means Committee of the last House, that the Sec· of Internal Revenue finds it beyond his brain power to fi·ame retary's contention in that regard was correct, and that it was regulations adequate to control this matter? wholly impossible for any Secretary of the Treasury, under any Let me call your attention to the fact that section 61 of the regulation, to enforce what was supposed to be the law. Before Wilson tariff bill of 1894 is very broad. It leaves tliis whole mat­ going fm-ther, I want to disabuse the mind of my good fi·iend fi·om ter to the Secretary of the Treasury. He has absolute powe1· in New York [Mr. BARTLETT] of the idea that this is some legisla· his discretion to frame proper r egulations. Then the collector of tion in favor of the distillers and of the whisky trusts. Nothing internal revenue in each district must be satisfied about the manu­ could be further from the truth, though :I know the gentleman facture. So that it is first only necessary that the Secretary of believes what he says or he would not say it. My friend in front the Treasury should frame the proper regulations, however strin­ of me [Mr. HILJ,] also took the same position. Now, does not the gent they may be, and it is all within his discretion. Then it is gentleman know that n·ee alcohol in the arts would increase the incumbent upon the manufacturer to satisfy the collector of inter­ amount of spirits used in the arts and would thereby increase the nali·evenue that he has complied with the law, and when he has possibilities of distilling and of sale by the trust? If the whisky executed it he is entitled to a rebate. This repeal will work a distillers and the whisky trusts are interested on either side of great deal of harm to the manufacturing interests of New Ymk; this question, they are interested in having free alcohol. to the great drug trade; to those who are engaged in the manu­ Mr. BARTLETT of New York. , Will the gentleman yield for facture of perfumes, varnishes, and paints, a~d in many other in­ a question? dustries. Mr. Mcl\ULLIN. I can not. I am generally quite liberal in If you look back to the Forty-seventh Congress you will find that respect, but my time is so limited that I can not yield on this that in 1882 it was stated in a Republican House, when Ches-ter occasion. Now, Mr. Chairman, what are the facts? Already A. Arthur was President of the United States, that every member there are heaped up before the Court of Claims millions of dollars of the Committee on Ways and Means was in favor of free alcohol of claims arising out of this vague, uncertain, indefinite provision for use in the arts and sciences. of the tariff act. It is estimated that $10,000,000 a year in claims Now, let me say one word, which I think should be controlling will be brought in in the future, and that ten millions a year for in this matter. The bill now under consideration provides for the last two years will be presented as soon as there is an intima.. what? For simple repeal, without any saving clause. Let me tion that the court will hold thattheclaimants are entitled tofree call your attention to the language of the Supreme Court of the alcohol in the arts. I want to cite here the evidence of men who United States. have examined this question. The CHAIRMAN. The time of the gentleman has expired. This is no new proposition. It bas been suggested to every Mr. BARTLETT of New York. Give me one minute more. \Vays and Means Committ.ee ever since I have been a member of Mr. HEPBURN. Mr. Chairman, will the gentleman allow me that committee, and it has been my fortune to be a member of it for to ask him a question? twelve years past. There has never been a single Ways and Means Mr. KEM. I object, if this is by unanimous consent. Committee, either Republican or Democratic, in that time that The CH-1\.IRMAN. It is not by unanimous consent, the Chair thought it was possible to give n·ee alcohol in the arts and still will say to the gentleman from Nebraska. have an honest and thorough enforcement of the internal-revenue Mr. RUSSELL of Connecticut. I yield two minutes more to law. So thinks the present committee. So thought the last com· the gentleman from New York. mittee,.which fi·amed the Wils001 bill. So thought the McKinley Mr. EVANS. Mr. Chairman, unless the gentleman from Con­ committee, which fi·amed the bill that has been lauded so much necticut has some more time, 1 object. bymyfriend from Iowa. So thought the Mills committee, which The CHAIRl\IAJ.~. The gentleman n·om Connecticut has the framed the Jllills bill. I need not go further back. There has time and yields two minutes to the gentleman from New York. never been a suggestion either by the majority or the minority Mr. HEPBURN. I simply desired to a.sk, Mr. Chairman-­ that it would be proper for the Government to give free alcohol Mr. BARTLETT of New York. I have the greatest regard for in the arts and thus give opportunity for possible frauds that my friend n·om Iowa, and shall be glad to talk with him after I would result in pulling down the revenue derived from that great get through with my two minutes. [Laughter.] source of revenue to our Government. And the Finance Commit· I desire to call the attention of the committee to the point that tee of the Senate took the same ground in the last Congress. The we can not in common honesty repeal this section 61 without a section that it is proposed to repeal was the woTk of Mr. Ho.A..R. saving clause. Look at what the Supreme Court decided yester­ alone. day in the sugar-bounty cases. In that decision they use the words It is the proposition of one man. It is crude, uncertain, and XXVTII-360 5746 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE. MAY 26,

indefinite. If you gi.ve free alcohol in the arts-if you give free bill, when we undertake the task of providing sufficient Federal alcohol in every drug store in the United States-if at every cor­ revenue, let us take up this question and consider to what extent ner where a drug store may be erected you may have a free barrel and under what regulations and restrictions we can safely grant and free spigot and free spile and free bung, who can tell what this exemption to certain industJ.·ies of this country. But if we ·will become of the hundred and odd millions of revenue without propose to open the doo~· in the manner provided in the existing which thi.s Government is unable to proceed at the present day? provision of law, certainly the Treasury must suffer; and no one [Applause.] among the great mass of the people can possibly be benefited, [Here the hammer fell.] because no manufacturer, no person using alcohol under the ex­ :Mr. EVANS. I yield the balance of the time to the gentleman isting law will reduce his price on the goods manufactured be­ from Maine fMr. DINGLEY j. cause of the fact that the rebate of the tax is so uncertain. It Mr. DINGLEY. Mr. Chairman, in the few minutes remaining would not be good business for him to do so. Yet these claims I can only state three facts. The first is that the bill now pending are already piled up and are piling up every day; and if these gen­ before the committee is not a tariff bill. It does not touch the tlemen recover in the Court of Claims, then the Treasury of the question of duties upon imports or relate to that subject in any United States will suffer in the future. direct or even indirect manner whatever. It is simply an internal­ My own personal judgment, as the friend of free alcohol so far revenue bill. And we have passed through this session of Congress as it can be had without trenching upon the revenue, is that we already three internal-revenue bills, modifying the internal-reve­ should repeal the existing provision and adopt the amendment for nue provisions in the act of 1894, and no one has suggested until an inquiry, thus closing the door which has been opened into the this bill came up that we were changing the tariff of 1894. Treasury; and then, when we frame a tariff bill, let us cover the Mr. PARKER. May I ask the gentleman whether it is not---­ whole ground and provide sufficient revenue; and as to this par­ Mr. DINGLEY. I can not in my limited time yield for any ticular matter, let us within certain limits do efficiently what the interruption. existing law in an unguarded and insufficient manner has at- This question is purely a business question-nothing more, tempted to do. . nothing less. It has no connection with party politics. The ques­ The CHAIRMAN. The time for general debate under the tion is simply what a business man shouJd do in the circumstances order has expired, and the Clerk will report the bill for amend­ in which the Government finds itself to-day. In the closing ses­ ment. sion of the last Congress the then House of Representatives, every The Clerk read as follows: Republican member concurring, passed precisely this bill which Be it enacted, etc. , That section 61 of an act entitled "An act to redncetaxa­ we have before us to-day, all agreeing that in the interest of the tion, to provide revenue for the Government, and for other purposes," which Government, in the interest of good administration, this provision became a law August 25, 1894, be and the same is hereby, 1·epealed. in the internal-revenue sections of the law of 1894 on this f:mbject Mr. EVANS. Mr. Chai~·man, I have been instructed by the should be repealed. Committee on Ways and Means, which committee was most anx­ Thirdly, I have to say that this situation arises from a peculiar ious to do what has seemed to be the best and most proper thing condition of circumstances. When the bill of 1894 was under con­ in the premises, to offer an additional amendment to those already sid-eration in the Senate, after all the tariff provisions had been suggested by the committee, and pursuant to that authority I offer concluded and that body was considering the inter~al-revenue the additional E:ection which was· printed in the RECORD of yes­ provisions, this provision was offered with the distinct un.derstand­ terday, and of which I gave notice during the time I occupied the ing in the Senate that it was to go to the committee of conference, floor in the discussion of this bill. and that if they thought on examination that any provision sliould The Clerk read as follows: be framed to giVe in 9ertain cases exemption from the intemal tax S<:c. 2. That a joint select committee is hereby authorized, to consist of three Senators, to be ap:Qoint~J by the presiding officer of the Senate, and on alcohol, without opening the door to frauds on the revenue, it three members of the House of Representatives, to be appointed by the should be done. Not a single vote would have been given for that Speaker of the House, which select committee shall consider all questions provision in the Senate if it had been supposed that that precise relating to the use of alcohol in the manufactur.::s and arts, free of tax, and to report their conclusions to Congress on the first Monday in December, 1!!96. provision was to be the law, and nothing more. It is utterly im­ Said joint select committee is authorized to sit by subcommittee or other­ practicable; and that is the agreement not merely of the present wise d u rin!r the recess or session of Congress at such times and places as they Commissioner of In:ternal Revenue; not merely of the present Sec­ deem advisable; to summon witnesses, administer oaths, print testimony or other information, and to employ such stenographic, clerical~ and other as­ retary of the Treasury, but in 1890, when we framed that act we sistance as may be necessary, one-half of the expense to be paia from the con­ submitted substantially the same proposition, with other proposi­ ting-ent fund of the Senate and one-half from the contingent fund of the House tions, to the then Republican Commissioner of Internal Revenue of Representatives. and to the thenSecretaryoftheTrea-sury, and theyagreed that the Mr. EVANS. I believe that no member of this House who lis­ provisions were utterly impracticable and that the duty on alco­ tened with attention to the very clear, very pertinent, and per­ hol could not be remitted under such a law with safety to the fectly correct exposition of this bill from the gentleman from Treasury of the Government. Maine [Mr. J?INGLEY] w~ll for one moment doubt the -propriety of , We had this question before us when we framed the tariff act the act10n of the Committee on Ways and 1\ieans with respect to of 1890, notwithstanding the declaration of the platform of 1888; their recommendation that section 61 should be now repealed. and after considering it for weeks we decided, in view of the wide But in order that those friendly to the use of free alcohol in the extent of this country and the peculiar circumstances in which manufactures and in the arts may have an opportunity, deliber­ we are placed. that we could not then frame a measure making ately and carefully, to investigate the question further, the Com­ alcohol free of tax in all the various arts and manufactures and mittee on Ways and :Means has directed me to recommend to the in medicine without effectually depriving the Government of es- House for its action the second section, which has just been read, sentialt·evenue. . in order that the whole question may be carefully investigated My own belief-certainly my hope-is that when we can spare by a committee of both Houses, having full power in the prem­ the 1·evenue and when we come to frame a new tariff act that will ises and having the best opportunities to get at the merits of the give the country sufficient revenue we can provide within certain case. limits for free alcohol in many manufactures. But that is a ques- . Mr. QUIGG. Will the gentleman allow an interruption? tiou which requires further investigation. This country is so Mr. EVANS. Certainly. wide in its territory, there are so many difficulties in the adminis­ Mr. QUIGG. Why will not the committee consent to have this tration of such an act, that Republican and Democratic Admin­ amendment passed as a substitute for the bill, and then wait for istrations alike have agreed that it would be exceedingly difficult the repeal of section 61 until the commission has made its report? to frame provisions on this subject that will adequately protect Mr. EVANS. Because of the arguments and statements of fact the revenue; and all agree that the present provision is absolutely introduced before the committee and here before the House, dem­ unworkable unless we propose to practically deprive ourselves of onstrating that section 61 is operating to the injury of the Gov­ revenue. ernment of the United States at a rate of not less than $1,000,000 What is the effect of this provision as we have it now? If we a month. That is the reason that there ought to be an instan­ do nothing, if we allow this proVision to run along for a year, taneous repeal. That is the t·eason there is a demand for the im­ it is the opinion of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue that at mediate repeal of the section; to stop the spigot, a8 I characterized least $10,000,000 of claims will be piled up during that time which it yesterday, and then through the select joint committee to inves­ the Republican Administration next year will b3 called upon to tigate and see if some wise provision, some well-guarded mea'Sure, pay in case the courts sustain the contention of the claimants. some proper legislation upon the subject, could not be evolved And I ask gentlemen on this side whether they are prepared to from its labors. pile up such claims against the Administration which we know Mr. MOODY. If the gentleman will permit me to suggest, if will come in on the 4th of March next. that is the reason why he would not accept the suggestion of the Let us, then, at once repeal the unworkablefree-alcoholprovision gentleman from New York, would he not accept this: That in­ of the act of 1894. Let us then tm·n ·Over this subject to a careful stead of repealing the law at this time its effects be suspended committee of inquiry. Let them consider what can be done with­ lmtil, say, the 1st of April, 1897; and the appointment of the com­ out depriving the Government of revenue, and let them report at mission in the meantime having been made, they can make their tho next session. And then when we come to frame a new tariff report after their investigation, so that the friends of free alcohol 1896, CONGRESSIONAL . REC.ORD-· HOUSE. 5747 by this arrangement would see that they still have something to It appears to be a justification of the whole Democratic position, hold onto, and not give up everything. which we shall hear. through the next Congress in every Demo- M.r. EVANS. Mr. Chairman, what I have said upon this sub- cratic speech. ject, and what has been said generally by others on the floor of Let me say, Mr. Chairman, that it will be found impossible for the House, regarding the demerits of and the objections which are Congress to pass any law for the use of free alcohol in the arts raised to section 61, that it is uttedy impracticable, that it is un- and manufactures that can by any possibility be as effective as workable and inapt as a legislative provision, demonstrates the the provision of the law which they seek to repeal. The provision unwisdom of suspending such a provision of statutory law, in- of law which they seek to repeal puts it in the power of the ablest stead of repealing it outright. It ought to be repealed, not sus- man that can be found in this country, with as many experts as pended; and then a suitable provision, if necessary, can be enacted he chooses to employ, to frame a law to-day, and amend the law after the report of the joint select committee of the two Houses to-morrow, and amend the law the next day and every day, and has been received. change the. law until he finds it fits the circumstances, and this is Mr. QUIGG. Does not the gentleman from Kentucky think 1 impossible to the whole Congress of the United States. that it is worth while to get a unanimous Republican party on I submit that the chairman of the committee, the gentleman this subject? from Maine [Mr. DINGLEY], gave his whole case away when he Mr. EVANS. I do not think the~·e is any politics in the ques- said that th.ey would make an effort in the next Congress to frame tion. I do not think the effort to inject politics into it has been a law allowmg free alcohol, as in the present law. I do not believe fair, either to the Ways and Means Committee or to the Repub- that it has come to this, that the Governments of England, of lican party, for I say it is not a doctl·ine of the Republican party France, of Germany can frame laws which are effective in those that you should subject the Treasury of the United States to ex- countries and that we can not frame a similar law which shall be penditures by way of bounties at the rate of Sl,OOO,OOO a month as safe and effective in this country. And I want again to call the without confeiTing some compensating benefit upon the public attention of this House to the fact that by no possibility can we which alone would excuse it in any case. fr~me a law that will not need amendment. By no possibility can Mr. QUIGG. If the gentleman will permit me, there are some we fra~e a law that will be as effective as to commit the whole fifty or sixty Republicans here, however, on the floor who differ lawmaking power (which is done under this section now sought with him on that point, and think this is a political question. They to be repealed) to the Administration, that can amend the law differ with the gentlemen constituting the Committee on Ways every day and every hour, at any point where it is found ineffective. and Means in that respect. Why not, then, have some considera- Therefore, I say that if this House votes to repeal this law it is tion for their feelings in the matter? stultifying itself and condemning the whole doctrine of protection Now, if the gentleman from Kentucky will a~cept the proposi- as well as limiting the lawmaking power to a single act, when tion of the gentleman from Massachusetts simply to suspend the under the words to berepealeditmaybecontinuous through -vears, law temporarily, it will save the money to which the gentleman until it is as perfect as expert ingenuity can make it. " from Kentucky refers. [Here the hammer fell.] Mr. EVANS. That is a fanciful idea, whollvimpracticable, and Mr. HILL. I desire to offer an amendment at the proper time, unworthy of a legislative body-- · of which amendment I have given notice. Mr. MOODY. But it will save the money which you say is The OHAIRMAN. An amendment to the amendment, or an being wasted. amendment to the bill? Mr. EVANS. We ought to repeal the law when we find it pro- Mr. HILL. An amendment to the amendment. ducing such disastrous i·esults. The CHAIRMAN. An amendment to the amendment is in Now, Mr. Chairma.n, in justice to myself, in a matter that is order now. somewhat personal to myself, I ask time to make a few remarks. Mr. SKINNER. I offer an amen.dment.. . . The CHAIRMAN. The time of the gentleman has expired. Mr. HILL. The a~endment which I ~h to offer 1s to s~~ke :Mr. EVANS. I ought to be permitted to take up as much time ~mt all after the enactmg cl~use and substitute another proVIsiOn as was occupied in questions, for reasons personal to myself. m ~he place of the present ~Ill. The CHAIRMAN. The gentleman can only proceed by unani- TheC~AIRMAN. That~s~otanamendmenttotheamendment. mous consent. 1\Ir. HILL. When that ISm order, I wish to be recognized. Mr. KEM. I demand the regular order. The CHAIRM~. The Chair will recognize the gentleman Mr. WALKER of :Massachusetts. Mr. Chairman-- from North Carolina [1\'lr. SKINNER] for an amendment to the Mr. BARRETT. Mr. Chairman-- amendment, as the Charr understands. The CHAIRMAN. For what purpose does the gentleman from Mr. SKIN~ER. ~ es. . Massachusetts [Mr. BARRETT] rise? The Clerk Iead as follows. Mr. BARRETT. I rise in opposition to the amendment. Amend by adding: .h CHAIRMAN Th Ch · · h l '' That all brandies, high and low wines, alcohol, and distilled spirits of all T e . e· au· recognizes t e gent eman from grades, distilled entirely from fruit, shall hereafter be and the same are Massachusetts fMr. WALKE~] to op:eose the amendment. hereby, exempted from the operation of the revenue iaws of the United Mr. SKINNE"R. Mr. Charrman, 1 have an amendment, and I States, and the same is permitted free of tax or Federal supervision." rise to know when it will be the proper time to offer it? Mr. DINGLEY. A point of order against that amendment. · The CHAIRMAN. After the discussion on the pending amend- The CHAIRMAN. The Chair thinks that amendment is not mentis exhausted and the amendment has been disposed of. germane to the amendment. It may be germane to the bill. Mr. WALKER of Massachusetts. I move to strike out the last Mr. BARTLETT of New York. I wish to offer an amendment. word. Mr. SKINNER. I rise to a parliamentary inquiry. The CHAIRMAN. The gentleman is recognized without that- T~.e • m France, England, and other countries in demethylating I do Section 61 would immensely benefit a few manufacturers and wholesale not know, but demethylation has thus far proved ineffectual by deal.,rs in certain lines by returning to them, long after the product was reason of this. marketed and sold, a sum equal to the taxes on the alcohol used, but that · the great consuming public would not, probably in a single instance, owing Mr. MORSE. That is right. It kills 60,000 a year. to the exceptional nature of the case, have a cheaper price made to them. Mr. McMILLIN. It is not the methylated that kills. That is 5748 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE. MA_y 26, some that has never been methylated, my friend. I yield to the Mr. STEELE. But you have claimed that the Secretary's deci· superior information of my friend from Massachusetts on that sion is final. subject. It is one that I do not know anything about. Mr. QUIGG. I have claimed nothing respecting the Secretary's }!r. Chairman, the effect of the law as it now stands is this: decision. Those gentlemen who suppose that the consumer is going to be Mr. STEELE. Well, the gentleman from Connecticut [Mr. benefited, and who vote against this bill on the idea that they HILL] did yesterday. are benefiting the consumer, are very much deluded. We had a Mr. QUI~G . .W~at I do say is th~t you c~n perfectly well number of manufacturers before the Ways and Means Committee, s~pend th~ sect_ion if you mean anythm&' practical by proposing and they were asked the question whether they had fixed the price this committee, mstead of merely throwmg out the proposition of their goods in the open market aa."ter they were manufactured as a sop. with a view to the reduced price of the alcohol that was used in Mr. STEELE. It is no sop. them, or whether they had gone in the open market aud sold them Mr. QUIGG. Well, ~ you intend ~nything by it, you can just as if manufactured from taxed alcohol. A very large majority as well suspend the law m the meantime. Yon can suspend it as stated very candidly, much to their credit, that they had been sell­ well as you can repeal it; and I appeal to the members of this ing on the basis they would have sold on with taxed alcohol. So House to vote for that proposition. that if you go on from year to year and enable the manufacturer Mr. KNOX. I do not wish to tire the committee, but I wish to get his product free of tax, you at the same time give uncer­ to add a few words to what I said before applicable to my amend­ tainty still longer to other people to which the product is sold in ment. The whole case for the repeal of the law has r ested upon open market at the same rate it would bear if a tax were imposed the proposition that it is impossible to frame regulations under on it instead of free alcohol. this provision of law which shall permit the use of free alcohol in Thus much on those two points. Now one word as to how this the arts and manufactures and at the same time secure the proper became law. The House of Representatives refused to adopt it. collection of the tax levied by the internal-revenue law. Now I The majority of the Finance Committee of the Senate refused to say this amendment of the committee in itself directly contra­ adopt it. The Republican minority of the Finance Committee of dicts that proposition and says, in effect, that it is possible for the the Senate refused to father it; but in that period of difficulty and committee who are to sit in the recess, ~nd who are to have power uncertainty of passing the Wilson bill through the Senate it was to send for persons and papers, to n-ame rules and regulations offered by an individual member on his own responsibility, and which will adequately protect the revenue and at the same time was permitted to go into the bill under the same idea that many give us free alcohol in the arts and in manufactures. other things did, that they could be stripped off in conference. Mr. WALKER of Massachusetts. The committee's proposition Now, if I may speak of past history, and I think I may without gives away their whole case. violating proprieties, there was not a single member of the com­ Mr. KNOX. It gives away their whole case. Upon another mittee of conference, either of Senate or House, who did not favor ground also I appeal to this House. Have you more confidence, stripping the bill of this, and so far as I know the minority favored gentlemen, in a committee of 6 to be appointed by the Speaker of it as well as the majority of this House. If the conference report the House and the President of the Senate than vou have in the could have been adopted, that inevitably and certainly would have 17 men who constitute the Committee on Ways and Means of this been stricken out of the bill. It was not in the bill with the con­ House? ~ these abuses have been going on and it is possible, as sent of that Senate or that House or that Congress, and it will not the Committee on Ways and Means now say, to frame regulations be permitted to remain in with the consent of this Congress. to prevent them, why have not they devoted their time during Mr. QUIGG. Mr. Chairman, let us understand exactly what this session to the framing of such regulations? this situation is. The existing law imposes a tax on spirits. A Mr. STEELE. They have tried to do so. provision of law says that if a man can show that he is using Mr. KNOX. Put them in here, then, and let us see them. We those spirits in arts or manufactuTes he can get back the money have not heard of them before. The proposition here has been that he has paid into the Treasury. The Committee on Ways that it is impossible to frame such regulations. and Means proposes that that provision of law, permitting this Mr. QUIGG. And yet they propose the appointment of a com­ rebate, shall be repealed; and then, in order to show that maybe mittee to frame such regulations! they do not mean to prevent the use of free alcohol in the manu­ Mr. DALZELL. The proposition is that it is impossible to factures or the arts, they suggest the appointment of a commission frame reg11lations under this law. - to inquire into the subject. Now, if they are sincere in the provi­ Mr. KNOX. I agree fully to the gentleman's proposition, but I sion they make, if they would like to see an effective law on this submit now that you can frame nothing that will be more general subject, a law permitting free alcohol to be used in the arts and or stronger in favor of the Government than this. The Ways manufactures, and if they wa.nt a united party here in this House and Means Committee have had plenty of time. They have not on that question, all in the world they have to do is to accept the been overburdened in framing legislation during this session. suggestion of the gentleman from Massachusetts, which is a per­ Mr. DALZELL. I will say to the gentleman that the Ways fectly reasonable one, a perfectly easy one, and that is that this and Means Committee has met nearly every day in the week from law, instead of being absolutely repealed, be simply suspended the beginning of this session. pending the report of this commission. Mr. KNOX. Very well. I submit that there was time to frame I want the attention, if I may have it, of the gentleman from regulations for this purpose, and for my part I have more confi­ Kentucky and of the chairman of the Ways and Means Commit­ dence in the distinguished gentleman from Pennsylvania [Mr. tee. Those gentlemen say·that the suggestion of a suspension of DALZELL], in the distinguished gentleman from Maine [1\fr. DING­ the law pending the report of this proposed committee is a fan­ LEY], and in the other members of the Committee on Ways and tastic proposition. Why any more fantastic than the repeal of Means than I have in any committee of six that can be appointed the law? It simply sets a date at which the repeal of the law by the Speaker of the House and the President of the Senate. I say shall cease to be operative. That is the only effect of the suspen­ let this law stand until the next session. Let the Ways and Means sion. Now, if the gentleman will not accept the proposition of Committee, in the meantime, be thinking over the rules and reg­ the gentleman from Massachusetts, does it not show conclusively ulations that they can prescribe, and let us have the benefit of their to every Representative on the floor of this House that the com­ reflection and judgment at the next session of Congress. They mittee does not mean free alcohol in the arts and manufactures, owe us that duty; they owe it to the House. Free alcohol in the and that somehow or other it does mean to facilitate the opera­ arts is a Republican principle, a Republican doctrine. We ha\e tions of the whisky trust? I do not suppose that any gentleman it now. And what I beg is that it shall not be thrown out because has that deliberate intention, but-- gentlemen say that regulations can not be framed, while at the :Mr. EVANS. Will you state how it facilitates the operations same time they ask the House to appoint a committee to frame of the whisky trust? regulations. Mr. QUIGG. I would if I had time. Mr. STEELE. This measure has been suggested to the com­ Mr. EVANS. Take time a,nd do it. mittee in the interest of the manufacturers and is presented at Mr. QUIGG. I would like to. What it does is to make alcohol their request. so expensive that it can not be bought practically for use in the Mr. KNOX. We refuse it. It means nothing. It is simply a arts and manufactures. Now, the committee can accept the sugar coating-- amendment of the gentleman from Massachusetts if they will. Mr. STEELE. The manufacturers. request it-nobody else. It is a perfectly reasonable one. Only private opinion can stand Mr. KNOX. What manufacturers request it? No manufac­ in the way of their accepting it. turer that I know anything about has requested it. Mr. STEELE. The Attorney-General and the Secretary of the Mr. STEELE. Ask Mr. RussELL of Connecticut who have re- Treasury have both decided that this law is not in effect and is quested it. · not operative; the gentleman from New York wants us to declare The CHAIRMAN. The time of the gentleman from Massa­ that it is operative and to suspend it. In other words, he wants chusetts rMr. KNOX) has expired. us to legalize claims which the Treasury Department rejects. Mr. SKINNER. Mr. Chairman, this discussion illustrates, I Mr. QUIGG. Not at all. That is not a question which the may say exemplifies, in parables synonymous with truth how 'It-easury Department can dispose of. It is a question for the inconsistent, how unjust, inequitable, and un-American is the courts_ to dispose o~ and they will do it. entire internal-revenue system; a system which tbe late Senator 1896.· CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE. 5749

Vance (who, I will add by way of parenthesis, was the greatest the interest of revenue, yea, in the interest of humanity, assume man ever furnished by North Carolina to public life) was accus­ the control of the sale. In this manner you can double the revenue. , tomed to designate as infernal and those engaged in its execution raised fi·om this source and at the same time ameliorate the I as red-legged grasshoppers, a name which will follow them so conditions of consumers and protect the homes of the land against , long as the name and memory of Vance is revered and honored an abuse of its use. · in the good old North State. The evil of the traffic is seen, felt, and heard from as it passes The amendment which I introduced, and which was ruled as over the counter into the human system, destroying alike the not germane, reads as follows: manhood, the happiness, and prosperity of the people. At this Amen<'tby adding: point, where it becomes the fruitful source of pauperization, crime, " T hat all b r andies, low and high wines and spirits of all grades and kinds, insanity, disease, and death, is whe1·e the Government should levy distilled en t irely from f1'Jlit, shall hereafter be, and t.he same are hereby\ ex­ empted from the o_peration of the internal-revenue laws of the Umted and collect its revenues, both in the interest of an increased States, and the same IS hereby permitted without Federal tax or supervision." revenue and the good morals, health, and happiness of the Every principle consistent with natural and individual liberty human family. demands the abolition of the entire revenue system, with its My sympathy in this matter is with the fruit and grain grower; espionage, its inquisitiollil, its detectives, and its "red-legged these are the ones whose conditions I would ameliorate, and these grasshoppers" nosing and spying around the homes of the honest are the industries that I would encourage and stimulate, alike with grain and fruit growers of the country. Every principle consist­ all industries of our country, so as to bring equal prosperity and ent with the American doctrine of protection would exempt the the exercise of equal rights. orchards and the vineyards of the colmtry from this tax and I want to restore to the plain people their natural right to con· thereby stimulate fruit growing and the vineyard industry of vert that product which they produce by' their honest toil, under the country and give individual liberty to the small fruit growers the favor of heaven, as they may please, into meal or hominy, of the country to do as they desire with their grapes, their wine, whisky, or brandy, without interference, surveillance, or apples, their peaches-to sell them in bulk or to distill them into tax from the Federal Government. If the public revenues require ·wine or brandy, as they ought to have the right to do, and as the tax, let it be applied in the control of the sale for a beverage. they did have the right to do in good old antebellum days. rHere the hammer fell.] Mr. Chairman, the House can hardly conceive with what joy 'l'he CHAIRMAN• . Debate on the pending amendment is ex· and satisfaction the small farmers of the country would receive hansted. this simple. message of relief, that in the next fruit season, if Mr. PAYNE. I move to strike out the last two words. Providence should bless them with a reasonable harvest, they The CHAIRMAN. The entire debate on the pending amend· might have the privilege of converting their surplus fruit into ments is exhausted. brandy for their own family use or sale, without tax and without Mr. PAYNE. I move to strike out the last three words. Let Federal espionage and surveillance. It is simply tyranny on the us have debate on that. part of the Government to exact this tax and surveillance, and to The CHAIRMAN. Debate on the pending amendment is ex. force the fruit grower to see his fruit rot and waste, because he hausted; and there are pending two formal amendments which can not comply with the harsh and tyrannical revenue laws of the must be disposed of. If there be no objection, the informal country. Mr. Chairman, it does seem that the growers of fruit in amendments of the gentleman from Tennessee and the gentleman this liberty-loving country should be permitted to make useful in from Massachusetts will be considered as withdrawn. Th4: every form the harvest with which Providence shall bless them, Chair hears no objection. The question is now on the amendment and to restrain them is abridging their natural rights and ancient of the gentleman from Kentucky [Mr. EvANS]. privileges. 1\Ir. EVANS. There are three amendments proposed by the If this hand of oppression was raised you would see every Committee on Ways and Means. The first is to change the dati) farmer in the country increase his vineyard and orchard, and in this ascribed to the Wilson bill from the 25th t o the 28th of August. w ay the country would prosper in the sense of being the better The CHAIRMAN. The amendment will be read. self-sustaining and happier in the sense of enjoying their natural The Clerk read as follows: rights unrestrained by the Federal Government. Mr. Chairman, In line 5, strike out "25th " and insert "28th." to the ab&tra-ct question of the use of free alcohol in the arts and The CHAIRMAN. On that amendment the Chair will reoog· manufactures there would be no division of sentiment. The trouble nize the gentleman from New York [Mr. PAYNE]. arises in the practical execution of the law, that is to permit the Mr. PAYNE. Mr. Chairman, as a member of the Committee same without subjecting the internal system to fraud. on Ways and Means of the Fifty-first Congress I entered upon the The same objection is raised to free fruit alcohol-that is, if fruit deliberation, in the formation of the bill reported and passed in were permitted to be distilled free that it would open the door to that Congress, with a firm conviction that we ought to have free adulteration and fraud. alcohol for use in manufactures and the arts in this country. I This inability of the Secretary of the Treasury to provide a was as firmly convinced of that then as my friend from Connecti· system for these exemptions to the revenue laws is moonshine, and cut is to-day; and on an examination of the subject I was as in the interest of Kentucky moonshine at that. It reminds me firmly convinced that it was a very easy thing to formulate just of the puerile argument of the Secretary of the Treasury against as he seems to think to-day it is a very easy thing to do. We free coinage at 16 to 1-that the mints are not sufficient, when every examined the matter before the Committee on Ways and Means child knows the Government can easily build more mints; and for a number of weeks and were unable absolutely to hit on any likewise I am convinced that the Secretary of the Treasury could plan by which we could accomplish the result, as we thought, provide a plan to protect the Government if he was interested and practically and without danger of serious frauds on the revenues willing to do so. of the Government: It illustrates, however, that the entire internal-revenue system is I have given a great deal of thought and collilideration to the radically wrong in principle. It can only be justified by the subject since that time. When the Wilson bill was formulated expediency of raising revenue, and on this line permit me to sug­ in 1894 the matter was considered and this clause went in on the gest to the House it is a failure-both in the net revenue raised suggestion of a Senator from Massachusetts who, in reply to and in its dem0ralizing methods. We commence at the wrong queries, said that he did not think the clause he offered was prac­ end. The person to bear the tax is the consumer-as a beverage. tical or that it could be enforced, but he offered it in order that We ought to have the free manufacture of alcohol of all grades the subject might go into conference, and see whether the con· and all kinds. Then you would have free alcohol for the arts and ferees could not get something out of it. And it was put on in manufactures, and free fruit brandy without embarrassment, and the Senate on that suggestion in the hope that something migh_t without fraud or temptation to fraud. grow out of the conference and some practical suggestion made Let the Government levy its tax, raise its revenue from the per­ by the conferees on the part of the two Houses to carry it into sonal consumer of all grades of alcohol, and not restrain manufac­ effect. But we all know how the Senate amendments were agreed turers with Federal tax or interference. This can be done in either to here in the Housewithout anycollilideration whatever, because of two ways: by leaving to the States to collect through their own the conference failed. machinery such taxes, or by federalizing the South Carolina plan Now, that section is an utterly impracticable measure. It can in a practical manner. This is such a control of the sale for bev­ not be enforced. Of all the laws that have been drawn or pro­ erage as will tend to decrease the evils of the whieky traffic and posed on the subject of f1·ee alcohol, none are so well calculated afford sufficient revenue to meet the deficiency in the Treasury, to defeat the very object it claims to have in view as this section and with a smaller and less objectionable Federal army than is 61, and there is no provision of law so difficult of enforcement. employed in the internal-revenue system, which is now primarily It is in fact utterly incapable of enforcement as it stands, and in the interest of the Kentucky whisky trust, and secondarily for hence there has grown up throughout the country a demand for revenue, and to the distaste and condemnation of all people who the repeal of this section 61 of the law of 1894. ru:e familiar with its methods, plans, and results. I have seen no suggestion yet where there was safety for the Mr. Chairman, give the country free manufacture of alcohol revenues of the Government, save in the single proposition that of all kinds and granes, then you will have restored to the people every factory using alcohol for the pm·pose of manufacture their natural rights, to do with their own as they please. Then, in should become a bonded warehouse with all the restrictions and 5750 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE. MAY 26,

all the regulations and all the expenses that attend every distillery In 1880 you took up the superb Hancock, also of New York, or bonded warehouse in the United States. The cost of such and he went down in defeat; and the immortal Garfield was elected a system would be enormous-a million or more of dollars annu­ to the Presidency. In 1884 you took up Cleveland, another New ally, and the Ways and Means Committee did not think that they York candidate, and he was elected by the vote of New York, ought to try to saddle this cost on the Government of the United which more r ecent developments show to have been fraudulent. States or upon the manufacturers who use alcohol and charge In 1888 you again nominated Cleveland, and he went down in them with the expense unless it is the last resort in legislation defeat; and the great Indianian, Benjamin Harrison, took hold of upon the subject, because if we charge it on the factories it the helm of the ship of stat.e and guided ·her in safe channels for necessarily drives out the small men from the business. They four years, and gave the people an Administration which c.ourted can not come in and manufacttue at the enormous expense that and received the respect and admiration of every loyal American would attend the bonded manufacturer or the distiller under the citizen. law. It would involve an entire suspension of the smaller estab­ In 1892 the Democracy again nominated Cleveland and he was lishments. They might better pay the tax on the alcohol, which declared elected, and in July, 1896, when the contending hosts of would drive them out of business. Democracy meet in national convention in Chicago, amidst strjfe For my own part, I hope that some way may yet be devised to and tm·moil, you will find that Eastern Democrats will again meet the difficulties that exist, because such laws have been in control the convention and your candidate will be chosen from a force in England, in France, in the Netherlands, and in other coun­ State lying east of the Alleghanies, and he will be a single gold tries with dense populations for some time. In countries where standard man; leaving the Western free-silver Democracy .floun­ hundreds of their citizens surround the various factories and watch dering in a fathomless sea without compa.ss or rudder. [Applause them, it is so easy, under such circumstances, to watch and detect on the Republican side.] fraud if any is committed. But we could not get along here in fHere the h ammer fell.] that manner. We can not even get along in the distilling of Mr. LACEY. Mr. Chairman, I move to strike out the last whisky, with all the care· that is taken, without great fraud in the word. moonshining districts, away from population. We have not yet I was very much impressed yesterday by a suggestion made by devised a plan that enables us to collect all the revenue on dis- the gentleman from Connecticut [Mr. HILLl, that some methyl­ tilled whisky for that very reason. · ating process had been adopted in England by which the Gov­ I hope, therefore, that some provision will be made with refer­ ernment could give free alcohol. The question was asked then ence to this very question that will be more satisfactory in the why we should not, instead of repealing this act, pas$ an amend­ future. I want to see every legitimate manufacturer who uses ment that would enable this country to do the same thing. Now, alcohol permitted to get it free from all taxation. In saying that, I want light upon that question, and I want my friend from New however, I desire to say also that I have no sympathy with those York [Mr. PAYNE], if he can, to give the House the information people who peddle medicinal compounds and manufactured medi­ why it is not possible for us to adopt the same methods that have cines throughout the country, because I believe as a rule that 95 been adopted in England, and which we are assured have been per cent of them are used strictly for beverages by the people of successful there? I yield to the gentleman from New York to the United States, as whisky is handed over the bar in a glass in answer, and let it be taken out of my time . . the various saloons in our great cities. And I want to see, as long M.r. PAYNE. I understand that the process of methylation con­ as we have the internal-revenue system in force, all of these stuffs sists of mingling about 10 per cent of wood alcohol with 90 per that are used as beverages compelled to pay this tax. But I shall cent of grain alcohol, which renders the mixture poisonous, and welcome any legitimate plan that will enable the manufacturer, of course while it is in that form it can not be used as a beverage. using alcohol in his man~acturing processes, to get it free of cost It would be deadly. That is the method which is used in England. as far as taxation is concerned, and I hope such a plan can be de­ But it is found that it is the easiest thing in the world to separate vised, or scheme formulated, to protect the revenues, while at the the wood alcohol from the grain alcohol. The specific gravity is same time it allows alcohol free in the manufactures and arts. not the same, even at normal temperature, and by slightly raising fHere the hammer fell. J . the temperature, not high enough for the purpose of distillation, Mr. HARDY. :Mr. Chairman, it strikes me that this is one of the wood alcohol can be separated from the grajn alcohol. the fragments of the Wilson bill broughtinto thisCongressfor re­ Mr. LACEY. How do they get over that difficulty in England? peal. I am glad to know that we have at last started along on Mr. PAYNE. They are living so compactly together, there that line-a line bearing in the right direction. I regret, how­ are so many noses to smell the operation, all over the Kingdom, ever, that we can not bring in the entiJ.·e bill and repeal it all at that it would be discovered. Because of the sparsely settled char­ one fell swoop. acter of many parts of this country we have a great deal more Now, I want to say to my distinguished friends who belong to danger of avoidance of the internal-revenue laws by illicit dis­ one of the great political parties who are advocating the free and tillers. It is a notorious matter that all over the country there unlimited coinage of silver that they are going to the Chicago are many illicit stills which are almost impossible of detection, convention, many of them, to nominate a candidate for the Presi­ and that we can not regulate the collection of this revenue upon dency who shall be pledged to the free and unlimited coinage of the products of distilleries without the strictest surveillance on silver. [Applause.J But, Mr. Chairman, these gentlemen of the the part of the Government, necessitating a large number of offi­ Democratic party, who maintain for a moment that tbey can, in cers and a large expense. We should have to guard in the same that convention, nominate such a man, are reckoning without their way to protect against the frauds upon the revenue by th9 de­

~~ ' methylating of methylated alcohol. When you meet in Chicago you will find that the Paul of free Mr. LACEY. Is the methylating of alcohol the only method silver may plant and the Apollos of bimet~llism may water, but used in England to protect the Government? the gold-standard god of Democracy alone can give the increase, Mr. PAYNE. I think that is the only method, so far as I am and that god of Democracy to-day is Grover Cleveland, now Pres­ informed, which is used in England. They have some strict rules ident of the United States. You will find that your convention and regulations, but that is the only method of rendering the will be controlled and absolutely dominated by the Clevelands, alcohol unfit for use as a beverage. the Harritys, the Gormans, the Carlisles, and the Whitneys of the Mr. LACEY. I believe there are only five distilleries in Eng­ country, and you free-silver men who represent the ginseng and land? hoop-pole districts of the country, when you go to Chicago as del­ Mr. PAYNE. I do not know. The number is small. egates, will belong to the great family known as the family of Mr. RUSSELL of Connecticut. I should like to ask the gentle­ Not-in-it. man from New York whether he knows if there has ever been Go back into the history of Democracy since the war, and you any successful demethylation of m ethylated spirits in what may will see that every man you have nominated has been an Eastern be called commercial quantities? It has been done chemically at man-every one from· the State of New York; and in 1896 you the Treasury Department, but is it not a fact that in England it will not make a new precedent. is found iJ.npracticable and too expensive to demethylate the In 1864 you nominated McClellan from New York, and he went methylated spiJ.·its which are used in manufactures? down in defeat. In 1868 you nominated Seymour, and he went Mr. PAYNE. My information is that it can be done at a very down in defeat; and Grant, the American patriot, statesman, and slight expense. greatest soldier the modern world has known, was triumphantly 1\Ir. RUSSELL of Connecticut. My information is just the elected to the Presidency. [Applause.] In 1872 no Democrat in contrary. your party was found worthy of a nomination, and knowing that Mr. QUIGG. That is why we want this commission. defeat hopelessly confronted the Democracy, you took up that Mr. PAYNE. I hope the gentleman's view of the case may grand old apostle of Republicanism, Horace Greeley, and in his old prove to be correct. If we appoint this commission, they may age you immolated and murdered him on the altar of a decaying investigate that subject, and if his information proves to be cor­ and defunct Democracy. In 1876 you made Tilden of New York rect I shall be with him. your nominee and he went down in defeat by the overwhelming, [Here the hammer fell.] fairly cast, and honestly counted vote of the country. [Derisive Mr. EVANS. Mr. Chairman, I should not have further troubled laughter on the Democratic side.] the committee had it not been that some expressions fell from the 1896 .. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-. HOUSE. 5751 lips of the gentleman from Connecticut [Mr. HILL] yesterday and Mr. DINGLEY. I desn·e to say to the gentleman from Ken­ the gentleman from New York [Mr. BARTLETT] which insinuat­ tucky that the gentleman from Connecticut [Mr. HILL] was as­ ingly connected me and Kentucky and my labors in this behalf sured that there would be an opportunity given him to offer an with t he so-called whisky trust or with some whisky ring. That amendment and to make a few statements respecting the same; was alike unkind and unjust, not otherwise to characterize it. and in view of that fact, I ask the gentleman from Kentucky to Furthermore, I will venture to say that neither gentleman knows make his motion to limit all debate on the section and pending what t he whisky trust is. amendments to 3 o'clock. That will give a vote on the pending Mr. HILL. Will the gentleman pardon me? Does the gentle­ amendments, and we can then take up other amendments. m an from Kentucky say I made that statement yesterday? Mr. EVANS. I accept that modification. Mr. EVANS. It is in your speech, I think. Mr. BARRETT. :Mr. Chairman, will the adoption of the vote Mr. HILL. All of my remarks are printed in the RECORD, and preclude the offering of amendments to the bill or a motion to the gentleman is entirely mistaken in stating that I made such a report the bill to the House with the recommendation that the remark. enacting clause be stricken out? Mr. EVANS. I may have confounded it with the remark of The CHAIRMAN. It would not. some one else. I have referred to it, however, without any feeling The question was taken on the motion of Mr. EvANS, and it with r espect to either gentleman. was agreed to. Mr. Chairman, this question was as new to me as to any mem­ The CHAIRMAN. The question is on adoption of the commit­ ber of this body until it fell to my laborious duty as chairman of tee amendments. the subcommittee on internal revenue of the Ways and Means The Clerk read as follows: Committee to investigate the subject as a part of my work as such Strike out the words "twenty-fifth," in line 5, and insert in lieu thereof the chairman. I never heard of free alcohol in the arts under section words "twenty-eighth." 61, so far as I know, until the bill, not a Kentucky bill, but a bill The amendment was agreed to. introduced by the gentleman from Pennsylvania [Mr. CHARLES W. The CHAIRMAN. The question is on the adoption of the STONE], came to the subcommittee for .investigation. Now, I as­ amendment to the title of the bill. sert that the whisky trust of all the manufacturers of distilled The question was taken; and the Chairman announced that the spirits is the one which is particularly interested in the continu­ ayes seemed to have it. ance of section 61. The whisky trust, it may surprise gentle­ Mr. BARRETT. Mr. Chairman, I rise to call the attention of men to know, makes no whisky, but manufactures alcohol alone, the Chair to the fact that an amendment to the title of the bill and gentlemen ought to understand that the whisky trust is the should not be submitted until the body of the bill has been per­ American Spirits Manufacturing Company, a corporation which fected. has distilleries in several parts of the country, mostly in Illinois, The CHAIRMAN. An amendment can not be agreed to, as in but none in Kentucky so far as I know. Let me say, by the way the House, but the Chair assumes that a recommendation of the of r elief to the inflamed gentlemen, that the Kentucky distillers, amendment can be made by the committee. so far as I know, have not the slightest interest in this question, The motion was agreed to. any more than any other citizen has in stopping a leak in the The CHAIRMAN. The Clerk will now report the amendment Treasury. of the committee. :Mr. BARTLETT of New York. Will the gentleman allow me The Clerk read as follows: a question? SEc. 2. That a joint select committee is hereby authorized, to consist of Mr. EVANS. Yes. three Senators, to be appointed by the Presiding Officer of the Senate, and . three members of the House of Representatives, to be appointed by the Mr. BARTLETT of New York. I understand the gentleman to Speaker of the House, which select committee shall consider all questions re­ say that so far as he knew the distillers of the country had no lating to the use of alcohol in the manufactu1·es and arts, free of tax, and to interest in this matter? report their conclusions to Cong1·ess on the first Monday in December, 1896. Said joint select committee is authorized to sit by subcommittee or other­ Mr. EVANS. I say the distillers of Kentucky. wise during the recess or session of Congress at such times and places as they Mr. BARTLETT of New York. Ohl deem advisable; to summon witnesses, administer oaths, print testimony or Mr. EVANS. So far as I know they have not. I am not here other information, and to employ such stenographic, clerical, and other as­ • to speak for the distillers of Kentucky, and I do not know whether sistance as may be necessary, one-half of the expense to be paid from the contingent fund of the Senate and one-half from the contingent fund of the they have or not, but in what I have done with reference to this House of Representatives. bill I am only discharging the duties devolved on me by reason The question being taken, the Chairman declared that the ayes of committee assignment and not otherwise, and I know of no dis­ seemed to have it. tillers being specially interested in this bill except the manufac­ A division being called for, the committee divided, and there turers of alcohol, and their influence is in opposition to this bill. were-ayes 112; noes 9. The maker of whisky has nothing to do with the matter. So the amendment was adopted. Mr. BARTLETT of New York. Let me ask the gentleman one Mr. MOODY. Mr. Chairman, I move to amend by inserting in question. line 3, after the word ''that," the words ''the effect and operation Mr. EVANS. Certainly. of"; and in line 7 by striking out the word "repealed" and in­ Mr. BARTLETT of New York. Has the gentleman forgotten serting "suspended until July 1, 1897"; so that if the amend­ that in the hearings before his subcommittee it was testified by ments be adopted the bill will read: the distillers that every distiller in this country was interested in That the effect and OJ?eration of section 61 of an act entitled "An act tore­ this legislation? duce taxation, to prov1de revenue for the Government, and for other pur­ Mr. EVANS. OnePennsylvaniadistiller,fromPittsburg,didso, poses," which became a law August 28, 1894, be, and the same is hereby, volunteering a few words; and he was the only one, and whether suspended until July 1,1897. he spoke as one having full knowledge or not I know not. Mr. Chairman, it is not strange, after the Ways and::M:eans Com­ Mr. COLSON. Did he bringanyMonongahelaryewithhim? mittee have deliberated throughout all this session, and, having Mr. EVANS. Mr. Chairman, I only rose for the purpose of found one single section in the Wilson-Gorman bill which con­ making this brief personal statement, and to move that debate on forms to Republican doctrine, have brought in here a measure for the bill and all amendments in the committee be closed at 3 o'clock. the purpose of repealing that section, that there should be some Mr. BARTLETT of New York. I rise to a parliamentary in­ difference of opinion upon the Republican side of the House. The quiry. committee, fearing that that pill, not sugar coated, can not go The CHAIRMAN. The gentleman will state it. through this Committee of the Whole and the House of Repre­ Mr. BARTLETT of New York. I have sent up an amendment sentatives, have now offered an amendment which has just been which is to be offered after the committee amendments. Does the adopted-! will not call it a bunco amendment, but the effect of motion of the gentleman from Kentucky affect debate on my it is that. It has the effect of deluding the House with false hopes. amendment? It provides that a commission shall report upon this subject on The CHAIRMAN. It will affect debate upon amendments. It the 1st day of December, 1896. will not affect the offering of amendments. The question is on In what condition will the House find itself at that time? All the motion of the gentleman from Kentucky. reference to free alcohol will have been stricken out of the statute Mr. ~UIGG. A parliamentary inquiry, Mr. Chairman. book. There will be a Democratic Senate and a Democratic Pres­ The CHAIRMAN. The gentleman will state it. ident, and it will be utterly impossible to enact any measure which Mr. QUIGG. Will the adoption of this motion prevent the will lessen the receipts from internal revenue and give the oppor­ introduction of other amendments? tunity to seek receipts at the custom-house. Therefore, if this re­ The CHAIRMAN. It will not prevent the introduction of other peal is now made by the House, no measure such as the appointment amendments. of a commission will accomplish anything during the remaining Mr. MOODY. Anotherparliamentaryinquiry. Will the adop­ session of this CongTess. Further than that, the result depends tion of this motion shut out debate on any amendment which may greatly upon the men who may be appointed upon the commission. hereafter be offered? If a majority of them believe, as the gentleman from Tennessee The CHAIRMAN. It would. [Mr. McMILLIN] believes, that revenue ought to be raised by in­ Mr. EVANS. But amendments can be offered. ternal taxation and not at the custom-house, they will not be able 5752 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD- HOUSE. MAY 26,·

to find any method of regulation which will provide for free alco­ all believe, even our friends on the other side, that it will be a hol any more than the present Secretary of the Treasury has been Republican Administration)-to the extent of millions of dollars able to find such a method of regulation. that the Republican Administration will be called upon to pay. If, on the other hand, they consist of friends of free alcohol Gentlemen must bear in mind that by a decision of the Supreme they may bring in some measure. It depends somewhat, though, Court as long ago as 6 Cranch-every lawyer will remember the on what kind of friends they are. The distinguished gentleman case of Fletcher vs. Beck-all these claims stand upon a basis that from Maine [Mr. DINGLEY] has declared that he is a friend of free is impossible to be affected by legislation. And it matters not alcohol. I wish he had devoted his great talents and learning to what this House may do, whether it repeal this law or not, those the discove1·y of a proper system of regulations to give effect claims will exist as claims against the Government until they to the provision for free alcohol instead of bringing in this bill to shall have been finally passed upon by the proper tribunal. If by repeal the law. Free alcohol might well say to the distinguished the common-law principle that were not so, I call the attention of gentleman from Maine who calls himself its friend, "It was all the committee to chapter 2 of the Revised Statutes, section 13: very well to dissemble your love, but why did you kick me down­ The repeal of any statute shall not have the effect to release or extinguish stairs." [Laughter.] For that is precisely what is done by the any penalty, forfeiture, or liability incurred under such statute, unless the passage of this bill. Now, the amendment which I offer pro­ repealing act shall so expressly provide, and such statute shall be treated as poses to suspend the operation of the law until the 1st of July, still remaining in force for the purpose of sustaining any proper action or 1897, until the commission that is to be appointed can reasonably prosecution for the enforcement of such penalty, forfeiture, or liability. consider the subject and make its report to this House. When Mr. BAKER of New Hampshire. Does that provision apply in that report is made at the next session of this Congress, we may any other cases of repeal than repeals made by the Revised Statutes? find that we can get cooperation from the President and the Sec­ Mr. DALZELL. I think it does. retary of the Treasury if they think they can exchange a bad law Mr. BAKER of New Hampshire. I think it does not. for the good law which will be suggested by that commission; 1\Ir. DALZELL. But whether it does or not, let it be conceded but if they find that, in accordance with Democratic principles, that it does not-- · the whole theory of free alcohol is wiped from the statute book, The CHAIRMAN. The· time of the gentleman from Pennsyl· we can get no such cooperation and we shall be powerless. As vania rMr. DALZELL] has expired. was pointed out by the gentleman from New York, if all that is Mr. EVANS. I move that debate on this bill and all amend· aimed at is the elimination of the vicious element contained in ments be now closed. I believe the gentleman from Connecticut the law, if the principle of free alcohol in the arts is not aimed at, [Mr. HILL] does not wish to occupy any further time. then the House will adopt the amendment which is now before it. Mr. HILL. I beg the gentleman's pardon, I do. It is an amendment hastily drawn. I should have preferred to Mr. EVANS. I understood the gentleman othe1·wise. have had the same object brought about by a more carefully Mr. IDLL. I said that I wanted to offer an amendment and fi·amed measure, but if the words in my amendment do not a-c­ explain it. complish the purpose, words can be found that will accomplish it. Mr. PARKER. I desire also to offer an amendment. 1\Ir. DALZELL. 1\Ir. Chairman, I think it can be truthfully The CHAIRMAN. Does the gentleman from Kentucky [Mr. said that at least every memberof the Republican end of the Com­ EvANs] withdraw his motion? mittee on Ways and Means is in favor of free aJ.cohol under some Mr. EVANS. I will move that debate be closed in five minutes, well-regulated and practicable law. But, not to use any more so that the gentleman from Connecticut [Mr. HILL] may have an emphatic terms, it seems to me that the remarks made by numer­ opportunity to offer his amendment and explain it. ous gentlemen on the floor with respect to the conduct of the Ways 1\Ir. BARTLETT of New York. I have sent to the desk an and Means Committee have been exceedingly unfair. That com­ amendment which I propose to offer, providing a saving clause mittee gave to this subject, as it gave to every subject that has drawn in accordance with the views of the distinguished gentle­ been brought before it at this session, the most earnest and serious man from Pennsylvania. , consideration. The result of that consideration was the conclu­ Mr. DALZELL. I trust the gentleman will not do that. There sion that the law on the statute bpok now in question was futile is no use of our legislating as to whether those claims are good or • to bring about the object that was intended by its framers. The bad. Let the courts pass on them when they come up. Committee on Ways and Means did not rely simply upon the tes­ Mr. EVANS. I modify my motion and move that debate on timony presented before them, but they considered the opjnion of the bill and all amendments be closed in ten minutes from this the last Republican Commissioner of Internal Revenue, the opin­ time. ion of the present Commissioner of Internal Revenue, the opinion Mr. PARKER. If this motion be adopted, shall I be permitted of the last Republican Secretary of the Treasury, and the opinion to offer an amendment? of the present Secretary of the Treasury. And gentlemen who are Mr. DINGLEY. Amendments will be in order. fair will recognize at once that there is no argument in the asser- The CHAIRMAN. This motion will not prevent the offering . tion that this is declared an impracticable provision by a Demo­ of amendments. cratic Administration merely because it does not wish to carry The motion of Mr. EvANS was agreed to. out the law. The opinions of the Secretary of the Treasury and Mr. HILL. Mr. Chairman, it was my intention, and I gave of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue as to matters falling notice to that effect on yesterday, that at the close of the general within their respective spheres are entitled to consideration; and debate, or when the opportunity offered, I would present the com­ that consideration they have had. mittee amendment as a substitute for the whole proposition re­ Coming into this House with the opinion that this a~t ought ported from the Committee on Ways and 1\feans. My purpose to be repealed, the Committee on Ways and Means made a con­ was this: The moment this law is repealed the manufacturers in cession to the opponents of the measure. It is embodied in this my district at least, and I presume the other manufacturers second section. And now gentlemen get up on the floor and in throughout the country generally, believe that instantly the such language as that used by the gentleman from Massachusetts price of the only substitute for grain alcohol entering into the fMr. MOODY) who has just sat down accuse US of submitting to arts and manufactures will be largely advanced and that they the House a ''bunco" measure. will be placed at the mercy of a trust which controls the output Mr. MOODY. Oh, Mr. Chairman, if the gentleman under­ in this country of the product. They believe that honestly, and I stood me as reflecting upon the motives of the committee, I beg believe that they are right, from the very fact that the price of to disclaim any such suggestion. alcohol has been practically, during the last two and a half years, Mr. DALZELL. That is just exactly what the gentleman said. controlled by the Congress of the United States as the result of 1\Ir. MOODY. Then I did not mean it. I withdraw it. I in­ its legislation, and for that reason I was opposed and am now to tended no such suggestion. the repeal of that provision of the law. 1tir. DALZELL. Well, I think the gentleman does himself I believe the same result may be practically gained, and perhaps credit in withdrawing it. with better results to the United States, if the proposition of the 1\Ir. MOODY. I should regret exceedingly to be so understood. gentleman from Massachusetts [Mr. MoODY] were adopted and Mr. DALZELL. Now, the question before the House is not put in force, and I give notice now that I shall not offer the sub­ whether or not we shall ·have free alcohol. The question before stitute I had intended to offer, and which I have suggested, but the House is whether the law on the statute book gives us free Will vote for the amendment of the gentleman from 1\!al:isachu­ alcohol, whether it accomplishes the purpose for which it was setts. I ask the members of this House to at least give the pro­ intended. If it does not accomplish the purpose for which it was tection of a possible future competition, if they will not grant the intended, then it ought to be stricken from the statute book, un­ protection of present competition, to the manufacturers who are less it accomplishes some other good purpose. Now, what good compelled, if they are to continue business, to use wood alcohol purpose does it accomplish, or rather what evil purpose does it at any price ranging from 90 cents to $2.30 a gallon, the price of accomplish? It does not give to the manufacturer free alcohol. grain alcohol with the tax paid, and it seems to me that if the It does not give to the consumer free alcohol. What does it do? country is not to suffer, as I believe it will not suffer by the adop­ It piles up day by day, month after month, so long as it remains tion of the amendment of the gentleman from Massachusetts and upon the statute book, claims upon the Government of the United a suspension for a short time of the present law, that the manu· States, claims that the next Republican Administration (for we facturing industries are at least entitled to that protection. 1896. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE. 5753

I had another reason for opposing this matter. It seems to me Mr. BARRETT. Mr. Speaker- to be utterly impossible as the Government is now constituted, The SPEAKER. For what purpose does the gentleman rise? and it is liable to be so constituted for the next two- years, to enact Mr. BARRETT. I rose in my place desiring to make a motion into law the regulations the commission would formulate. That which is in order, and which I now desire to submit. has been already touched upon, and I simply ask at this time that The SPEAKER. The gentleman will state his proposition. the amendment of the gentleman from Massachusetts may be Mr. BARRETT. It is a motion to recommit with instructions. passed, so that the possible future competition may prevent the The SPEAKER. That will be in order after the engrossment advance of this product among our manufacturers who are com­ and third reading is ordered. pelled to use it in large quantities, for if they are forced to pay Mr. BARRETT. I understand that motion is in order pending this high price for it it is a very serious drawback to this business. the previous question on the passage of the bill. The gentleman I hope, therefore, that the amendment of the gentleman from from Kentucky [Mr. EvANS] expressly moved the previous ques~ Massachusetts will be adopted. tion up to and including the passage of the bill. The question being taken on the amendment of Mr. MooDY, The SPEAKER. That is the proposition which he made. the committee divided, and there were-ayes 51, noes 88. Mr. BARRETT. And pending that motion I rose to offer a So the amendment was rejected. motion to recommit, which I think is in order. Mr. PARKER. Mr. Chairman, I offer a further amendment. MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT, The GHAIRMAN. The Clerk will read the amendment pro- A message in writing from the President of the United States posed by the gentleman from New Jersey, was communicated to the House of Representatives by J\fr. PRu­ The Clerk read as follows: DEN, one of his secretaries, who also announced that the President Strike out the last word, "repealed-" Insert in lieu thereof, "amended by adding thereto the following words: had approved and signed bills of the following titles: " 'And the Secretary of the Treasury may retain not to exceed 10 per cent of On May 25, 1896: such rebate to form a fund for the payment of the expenses of such regula­ An act (H. R. 4179) to amend section 3719 of the Revised Stat­ tions and of such inspectors as may be needful thereunder, which inspectors utes relative to guarantees on proposals for naval supplies; the said Secretary is hereby authorized to employ from time to time."' An act (H. R. 4324) authorizing the Secretary of the Navy to Mr. PARKER. I desire simply to state the effect of the amend­ deliver one condemned cannon to the city of Elmwood, Peoria ment in a single word. County, Ill., and for other purposes; Mr. EVANS. I believe the debate has been closed. An act (H. R. 270) changing the time of holding terms of the The CHAIRMAN. There are five minutes yet of the time, and circuit and district courts of the United States in the northern the Chair will recognize the gentleman from New Jersey. distTict of California; Mr. PARKER. I shall not want but a very few moments. I An act (H. R. 5217) making one year's residence in a Territory do not propose to occupy five minutes. a prerequisite to obtaining a divorce there; The proposition is now that the section shall be repealed. I say An act (H. R. 5379) making it unlawful to shoot at or int-O any no. The Secretary of the Treasury says it can not be enforced railway locomotive or car, or at any person thereon, or to throw as it is now, because he has no money to employ inspectors in the any rock or other missile at or into any locomotive or car in the various factories and manufacturing establishments throughout Indian Territory, and for other purposes; the country. I say do not repeal the section, but amend it by An act (H. R. 4255) to provide for settlement of titles and dis­ allowing the Secretary of the Tl·easm·y to retain 10 per cent of all position of public lands in the Arredondo gTant, in Columbia of the rebates collected to form a fund out of which he may County, Fla.; and employ inspectors and see that the law is enforced, as it was his An act (H. R. 8260) to authorize the establishment of a life-sav~ duty all of the time to do. ing station at Port Huron, on the coast of Lake Huron, Michigan. I therefore say try that suggestion. Give him the means to try NoTE.-The following bills were presented to the President May it. He says he lacks the money to carry the section into effect. 13, 1896, and not having been returned by him to the House of Now, this proposes to give it to him. Congress in which they originated within the ten days prescribed In the case of my constituents they pay $48,000 a year. Ten per by the Constitution, have become laws without his approval: cent of that, or $4,800, would pay for the inspection, I think, and An act (H. R. 3606) granting a pension to French W. Thornhill; see that they do not defraud the Government. That is all. and I ask a vote on the amendment. An act (H. R. 1020) granting an increase of pension to Gilman The question being taken, the committee divided; and there Williams. were-ayes 39, noes 80. MESSAGE FROM THE SENATE. So the amendment was rejected. Mr. EVANS. I move that the committee rise and report the A message from the Senate, by Mr. PLATT, one of its clerks, bill back to the House with the recommendation that as amended announced that the Senate bad passed with amendments the bill it do pass. (H. R. 8293) making appropriations t-0 supply deficiencies in the Mr. SKINNER. Mr. Chairman, the time in which to offer appropriations for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1896, and for amendments has not expired. prior years, and for other purposes; in which the concurrence of The CHAIRMAN. For what purpose does the gentleman rise? the House was requested. _ Mr. SKINNER. I rise for the purpose of asking for the read­ The message also announced that the Senate had disagreed to ing of the amendment which was ruled not germane to the origi­ the amendments of the House of Representatives to the bill (S. nal amendment. 2928) to extend the routes of the Eckington and Soldiers' Home Mr. EVANS. The time for amendment has expired. Railway Company and of the Belt Railway Company of the District The CHAIRMAN. The amendment has not been offered as an of Columbia, and for other purposes, asked a qonference with the amendment to the bill. House on the disagreeing votes of the two Houses thereon, and Mr. SKINNER. I now offer it. had appointed Mr. McMILLAN, Mr. HARRIS, and Mr. PROCTOR as Tl].e CHAIRMAN. The Chair will say to the gentleman that the conferees on the part of the Senate. the time within which debate was allowed has expired, and the The message also announced that the Senate had agreed to the gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. EvANS] has moved that the com­ reports of the committees of conference on the disagreeing votes mittee rise and report the bill favorably to the House. of the two Houses on the amendments of the House of Representa­ Mr. BARRETT. I move to amend by recommending that the tives to bills-of the following titles: enacting clause be stricken out. A bill (S. 710) granting a pension to Ada J. Schwatka, widow The CHAIRMAN. The question is upon the motion of the gen­ of the late Lieut. Frederick Schwatka; and tleman from Massachusetts [Mr. BARRETT] that the committee . A bill (S. 804) granting a pension to Mrs. Eleanor Carroll Poe. recommend the striking out of the enacting clause. The message also announced that the Senate had agreed to the The question was taken; and on a division (demanded by Mr. amendments of the House of Representatives to the bill (S. 1659) BARRETT) there were-ayes 54, noes 92. to amend the laws of the District of Columbia as to married Accordingly, the motion was lost. women, to make parents the natural guardians of their minor The motion of Mr. EvANs was agreed to. children, and for other purposes. The committee accordingly rose; and the Speaker having re­ .A.LCOHOL IN THE ARTS. sumed the chair, Mr. SHERMAN, Chairman of the Committee of The SPEAKER. If the Chair is not mistaken, the motion of the Whole House on the state of the Union, reported that that the gentleman from Massachusetts [Mr. BARRETT] is in order committee had had under consideration the bill (H. R. 3282) to after the bill has been ordered to be engrossed. repeal section 61 of an act to reduce taxation, to provide revenue l\1r. BARRETT. Mr. Speaker, if the Chair will allow me, the for the Government, and for other purposes, which became a law rule says: August 25, 1894, and had directed him to report the same to the It (the motion to recommit) shall be in order pending the motion for or House with amendments, and with the recommendation that as after the previous question shall have been ordered on its passage. amended the bill do pass. The SPEAKER. That is, pending the motion on the passage. Mr. EVANS. I move the previous question on the bill and That refers to a separate proposition where the previous question amendments to the passage. is moved on the passage, as it may be. The Chair supposes that The previous question was ordered. the practical principle involved is this: After the House has 5754 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE. . MAY 26,

proceeded to amendment of ·the bill, and the bill has reached its Mr. CANNON. I suppose it is not privileged. final position, ready to be engrossed, or ordered to be engrossed, The SPEAKER. The Chair thinks not. then, if the House is dissatisfied with it, it may move to commit, Mr. HOPKINS. I do not propose it, unless it is agreeable to or recommit, as the phraseology ordinarily is. That is to enable my colleague. the House to correct its action in case the bill when finished is not Mr. CANNON. It is not at this time. I think it can be reached satisfactory. bette1· further along. I want the bill to get into conference, and :Mr. BARRETT. Mr. Speaker,! understand that it is the inten­ I ask to make the motion. I think it will take but a few minutes tion of the Chair to allow me at some time to offer this motion, but to dispose of it. I wish to submit this proposition: We will suppose for a moment The SPEAKER. If there be no objection the motion can be that I wish to recommit this bill, being a friend of the bill. I entertained. - understand the rule provides that that shall be allowable. We Mr. KEM. I object. will suppo111e that the present position of the Chair_is correct, ~nd The SPEAKER. Objection is made by the gentleman from then we will suppose that the House, on the question of ordermg Nebraska fMr. KEM]. the bill to be engrossed, should vote in the negative. That would 1\Ir. CANNON. The gentleman from Nebraska is now stopping shut out my motion to recommit, which this rule intends shall the steamboat. have precedence over any final action of the House, whether on ALCOHOL IN THE ARTS. the motion to engross or on the motion to the final passage. I The SPEAKER. The question is on agreeing to the"amend· submit that the reading of this rule is perfectly clear, that it has ments reported by the Committee of the Whole. reference to the time pending the motion for the previous ques­ The amendments were agreed to. - tion as well as pending the motion on the passage of.the bill after The SPEAKER. The question is on the engrossment and third the previous question has been ordered. I think the illustration reading of the bill as amended. · that I have offered covers the point, because it shows how it is The question was taken; and the Speaker announced that the possible, under the suggestion made by the Chair, for tpis House, ayes seemed to have it. without having a,n opportunity to vote on the motion to recommit, I\fr. COLSON. The yeas and nays! to kill this bill, when it is intended by this rule and the practice The SPEAKER. Does the Chair understand that a gentleman of the House that pending the final disposition of the bill it shall demanded the yeas and nays? be in order to move its recommittal. Mr. BARRETT. A call was made for the yeas and nays by a Further, the motion to refer (which is analogous to committal gentleman in the rear of the House. or recommittal) is, by the rule of the House, made to take preced­ Mr. COLSON. I do not wish the yeas and nays on the engross­ ence of the motion to amend. In fact, it is the general parlia­ ment and third reading. mentary rule that practically all subsidiary motions rank ahead of The bill as amended was ordered to be engrossed for a third that to amend. reading; and being engrossed, it was accordingly read the third The SPEAKER. If the gentleman from Massachusetts will for time. a moment consider the general course of business, the Chair thinks The SPEAKER. The question is now on the passage. he will see reason to change his opinion. Until the previous ques­ Mr. BARRETT. Mr. Speaker, I move to recommit to the Com­ tion is ordered, a motion to recommit is in order, and when the mittee on Ways and Means with instructions ttO> report to this previous question is ordered, it is because the House orders a House on or before January 1,1897, such amendments to the pres­ vote to be taken. ent law as will provide for the enforcement of the present laws The House would not be likely to order a vote to be taken and relating to the use of alcohol in the manufactm·es and arts free still reserve or leave the right to commit until some further action of tax. had taken place. That .further action is to vote on the amend­ The SPEAKER. The question is on agreeing to the motion to . ments and to engrossment. After that the rules provide that the recommit with instructions. House, if dissatisfied with the action thus taken, may recommit The question was taken; and the Speaker announced that the the bill. First, there is an opportunity of committal prior to the noes seemed to have it. motion for the previous question. If the previous question is Mr. BARRETT. Division. ordered, it is ordered on the main question and the amendments. The House divided; and there were-ayes 56, noes 129. Mr. BARRETT. The Chair has misunderstood mycontention. Mr. BARRETT. . I ask for the yeas and nays.. [Cries of" Oh, My contention was that w~ile the mo~on for th~ previous ques­ no!"] tion on the passage of the bill was pendmg I rose m my place and The question was taken on orde1·ing the yeas and nays. asked to be recognized to make a motion to recominit. The SPEAKER. Twenty-seven gentlemen have risen in sup­ The SPEAKER. Precisely. But this is a motion for the pre­ port of the demand-not a sufficient number; and the yeas and vious question on the engrossment of the bill, on the amend­ nays are refused. [Applause.] The noes have it, and the motion ments, and on the passage, not what. was referred t~ in what ~he to recommit is disagreed to. The question is now on the passage gentleman has quoted, namely, a motiOn for the preVIous questwn of the bill. _ on the passage of the bill. Pending that, a proposition can be The question was taken; and the Speaker announced that the made such as the genlileman speaks of. ayes seemed to have it. Mr. BARRETT. Then I understand, Mr. Speaker, that the Mr. PITNEY. The ye_as and nays, Mr. Speaker. Chair holds that no motion has been made for the previous ques­ The yeas and nays were ordered. tion on the passage of the bill. The question was taken; and there were-yeas 166, nays 69, not The SPEAKER. The Chair holds that the motion has been voting 120; as follows: ' made for the passage of the bill, but it is a motion for the pre­ YEAS-166. vioas question on a series of motions such as the rules authorize. Abbott, Cooke, ill. Henderson, McLamin, Mr. BARRETT. And the Chair holds that a motion to recom­ Aldrich, Ala. Cooper, Fla. Hendrick, McMillin, Allen, Mi s. Cooper, Tex. Henry, Ind. McRae, mit is not in order until the question comes on the passage of the Allen, Utah Crowther, Hermann, Mercer, bill? Anderson, Crump, Hilborn, Miles, The SPEAKER. The motion is in order, but the vote is taken Andrews, Culber~on, Hopkins, Milnes, Arnold, R.I. Curtis, Iowa Howard, Minor, Wis. on it after the bill is engTossed. Avery, Curtis, Kans. Hubbard, Mondell, Mr. BARRETT. Then l desire to give notice that at the proper Babcock, Dalzell, Huff, Money, time I shall move to recommit the bill. Ba.k er, Kans. Danford, Ruling, Neill, Buker, M~ Daniels, Hunter, Odell, The SPEAKER. \Vhen presented it will be pending. Bankhead, DeArmond, Jenk-ins, Otey, Barh..'lm, Denny, Johnson, N.Dak. Otjen, DEFICIENCY APPROPRIATION BILL. Bartlett, Ga. De Witt, Kem Overstreet, Beach, Dingley, Kendall, Owens, Mr. CANNON. Mr. Speaker, pending the disposition of this Belknap, Doolittle, Kerr, Payne, bill, I would like to call up the general deficiency bill, and move Bell, Colo. Dovener, Kirkpatrick, Pendleton, that the House disagree to the Senate amendments and ask a Bell, Tex. Eddy, Kleberg, Phillips, Berry, Elliott, S. C. Kyle, Prince, conference. Blue, Ellis, Lacey, Richardson, The SPEAKER. The question is on agreeing to the motion of Broderick, Erdman, Latimer, Sauerhet-ing, the gentleman from Illinois. Buck, Evans, Layton, Sayers, I\fr. HOPKINS. One word with my colleague. There are two Burrell, Faris, Leighty, Scranton, Burton, Mo. Gamble, Leonard, Settle, or three amendments offered by the Senate on which I would like Burton, Ohio Gibson, L ewis, Shafroth, to ask an expression of the House. Would the gentleman be Cannon, Grow, Linton, Shuford, wi1ling to let a vote be taken on those amendments before the con­ Catchings, Hadley, Little, Smith, m. Clardy, Ha~er, Lockhart, Smith, Mich. ferees are appointed or after they are appointed? Clarke, Ala. Hamer, Nebr. Long, Sorg, Mr. CANNON. If it is a matter of real difference. Clark, Iowa Halterman, Mahon, Spalding, Mr. BENNETT. Is this a report of a committee of conference? Clark, 1\fo. Hardy, McCall, Tenn. Spencer, Cockrell, Harmer, McClure, Stahle, The SPEAKER. It is not a report of a committee of conference. Connolly, Harrison, McCulloch, Stallings, Mr. BENNETT. Then it is not privileged. Cook, Wis. Hart, McDearmon, Steele. 1896. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE. 5755

Stewart, Wis. Tate, Tru·ner, Ga. Wilson, Ohio Mr. CANNON. I would not do that. Stokes, Tawney, Turner, Va.. Wilson, S. C. Stone, C. W. Tayler, VanHorn, Wood, Mr. RICHARDSON. :Mr. Speaker, I rise to a question of order. Strait, Terry, Walker, Va. Woodard, There is so much confusion that we can not hear what is going on. Strode, Nebr. Thomas, W ashlngton, Woodman, The SPEAKER. The gentleman from Illinois [Mr. CANNON] Strong, Tracewell, Watson, Ohio Yoakum. Strowd, N.C. Treloar, Williams, moves that the bill be taken from the table, and that the House Talbert, Tucker, Wilson. Idaho nonconcur in the Senate amendments and ask for a conference. Mr. MAHON. I move, Mr. Speaker, that the House concur in NAYB-69. the amendment on page 85 of the bill, known as section 4, a new Adams, Fitz~era.ld, Lester, Shannon. section. Apsley, Fowler, Linney, Sherman, Mr. CANNON. Mr. Speaker, I again appeal to the gentleman, Atwood, Gardner. Loudenslager, . Simpkins, Baker N.H. Gillett, Mass. Low, Southard, and state that there are over one hundred pages ofSenateamend· Barrett, Graff, Marsh Stewart, N.J. ments. The gentleman need have no fear that the amendment Bartholdt. Griffin, McCa~l Mass. Sulloway, he refers to will be settled in a conference report (so far as the Bartlett, N. Y. Grout, McClellaD, Sulzer, Beunett, Hartman, McCormick, Towne, conferees can settle it) until matters of disagreement shall have Bishop, Henry, Conn. Moody, Underwood, been reported back to the House. By that time the bill will be Brewster, Hill, Northway, Updegraff, printed and the amendments numbered. When the report comes Brown. Hooker, Parker, Van Voorhis, Calderhead, Howe, Pearson, Walker, Mass. back ·with the bill printed and the amendments numbered, the Cobb, Howell, Pitney, Walsh, whole matter can be taken up and discussed intelligently, and Colson, Hulick, Poole. Wilson, N. Y. that method will ce1·tainly facilitate the business of the House. Orunmings, Hurley, Powei·s, Wright. Curtis, N . Y. Johnson, Cal Quigg, Mr. MAHON. This is a Senate amendment. Fairchild, Joy, Royse, Mr. CANNON. I understand that. Fenton, Knox, Russell. Conn. 1.Ir. MAHON. Suppose the Senate conferees should agree to recede from that amendment, then it would never come back to NOT VOTING-1.20. the House. Acheson, Draper, Livingston, Ray, Aitken, Ellett, Va. Lorimer, Reeves, Mr. CANNON. But you could vote down the conference ra. Aldrich, IlL Fischer, Loud, Reyburn, port. Besides, the gentleman and I are both familiar enough with Arnold, Pa.. Fletcher, Maddox, Robertson, La. the Senate to know that it never recedes on an amendment-at Bailey, · Foote, Maguire, Robinson, Pa.. least never on the first conference. Barney, Foss, Maha:t~y, Rusk, Bingh::~.m, Gillet, N.Y. McCleary, Minn. Russell, Ga.. Mr. MAHON. Somethingsareveryuncertain around this ter­ Black, Ga. Goodwyn, McCreary, Ky. Shaw, ritory. [LaughterJ · Black, N.Y. Griswold, McEwan, Skinner, Mr. RICHARDS N. Mr. Speaker, I make the point of order Boutelle, Grosvenor, McLachlan, Snover, Bowers. Hall, Meiklejohn, Southwick, that these amendments should receive consideration in Commit­ Bromwell, Hanly, Meredith, Sparkman, tee of the Whole. Unless gentlemen will agree to give us a sep-· Brosius, Harns, Meyer, Sperry, a1·ate vote on the amendment which nrovides for claims under Brumm, Hatch, ~filler, Kans. Stephenson, Bull, Heatwole, Miller, W.Va.. Stone, W. A. the Bowman Act, I must insist upon tii.e point. Chickering, Heiner, Pa. Milliken, Swanson, 1\ir. DOCKERY. The point of order comes too late. Codding, Hemenway, Miner, N. Y. Taft, Mr. RICHARDSON. No. I insist, Mr. Speaker, that I have Coffin, Hepburn, Morse, Thorp, Cooper, Wis. Hicks, Moses, Tracey, been trying to hear what gentlemen were saying and could not Corliss, Hitt, Mczley, Tyler, hear. Cousins, Hull, Murphy, Wadsworth, The SPEAKER. The Chair put the proposition to the House. Cowen, Hutcheson, N ewlands, Wanger, Cox, Hyde, Noonan, Warner, Mr. RICHARDSON. There has been no matter submitted to Crisp, Johnson, Ind. Ogden, Watson, Ind. the House. Crowley, Jones. Patterson, Wellington, The SPEAKER. The Chair submitted it to the House. Dayton, Kiefer, Perkins, Wheeler, Dinsmore, Kulp, Pickler White, Mr. RICHARDSON. There has been no vote submitted to the Doekery, Lawson, Price, ' Wilber, House. Dolliver, Lefever, Pugh, Willis, The SPEAKER. The gentleman from Illinois [Mr. CANNON] Downing, L eisenring, Raney, Woomer. proposed that the House should nonconcur in the amendments of So the bill was passed. the Senate and agree to a conference. The Chair certainly put Mr. HATCH. Mr. Speaker, I desire to withdraw my vote, as I that. am paired with the gentleman from Minnesota, Mr. :McCLEARY. Mr. RICHARDSON. The Chair is correct in his statement of If he were present, I would vote '' yea" and he would vote ''nay." the question, but there has been no matter submitted to the House. Mr. MORSE. Mr. Speaker, I am paired on this question with The SPEAKER. And there has been debate since that time. the gentleman from Kentucky, Mr. :McCREARY. Were he present, Mr. RICHARDSON. Purely on the question of order. he would vote "yea" and I would vote "nay." Mr. BARRETT. Mr. Speaker, I understood the motion to be to :Mr. HENRY of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, my colleague, Mr. HEM­ take the bill from the table, which motion has not been adonted. ENWAy, is detained from the House by sickness, and I ask that he until that has been adopted and the matter is before the House, be excused. the gentleman from Tennessee has the right to raise any relevant There was no objection, and it was so ordered. point of order. Mr. FISCHER. Mr. Speaker, I voted, but having ascertained Mr. CANNON. Anewpa.Tliamentarian has arrived! [Laugh· that I am paired with the gentleman from Pennsylvania, Mr. ter.] GRISWOLD, I withdraw my vote. Mr. BARRETT. Well, Mr. Speaker, I suppose I have the same Mr. RUSSELL of Connecticut. Mr. Speaker, my colleague, Mr. rights on this floor as even a gentleman who has been here as long SPERRY, has been called home on account of sickness. If present, as the gentleman from Illinois. he would vote ''nay." . Mr. CANNON. Oh, certainly. The following additional pairs were announced: Mr. DOCKERY. I suggest to my friend from Tennessee that Until further notice: debate has been going on. Mr. COUSINS with Mr. MEYER. Mr. RICHARDSON. There has been no debate on the motion. For this day: I raised the question at once and asked for order. .1\fr. lliTT with Mr. SPARKMAN. ?Ylr . WASHINGTON. There has been no debate in any sense Mr. HICKS with Mr. PATTERSON. of the word. Mr. GROSVENOR with Mr. JoNES. 1\Ir. CANNON. The motion was stated by the Chair, and the Mr. PICKLER with Mr. DOWNING. gentleman from Pennsylvania [Mr. MAHo~], in pursuance of his Mr. HATCH with Mr. McCLEARY of Minnesota. right, moved that the House concm· in a certain numbered amend· Mr. TRACEY with Mr. BAILEY. m ent. On this question: The SPEAKER. That is the fact. Mr. MoRSE with Mr. McCREARY of Kentucky. Mr. BARRETT. I raise the question whether the motion to Mr. KIEFER with l\1r. HARRIS. concur or nonconcur is in order, atanyrateuntil after the motion Mr. WADSWORTH with Mr. LOUD. to take fTom the table has been passed upon. The result of the vote was then announced as above recorded. The SPEAKER. The Chair thinks it is. On motion of Mr. EVANS, a motion to Teconsider the vote by Mr. DOCKERY. I believe an agreement can be very readily which the bill was passed was laid on the table. reached. GENERAL DEFICIENCY BILL. The SPEAKER. The gentleman from Illinois moves to non­ concur in the amendments-- Mr. CANNON. Mr. Speaker, I move to take from the Speaker's Mr. RICHARDSON. Mr. Speaker, that can only be done by table the general deficiency Nll, and to nonconcur in the amend­ unanimous consent. ments of the Senate and ask for a conference. The SPEAKER. And the gentleman from Pennsylvania [Mr. Mr. MAHON. I desire to move to concur in some of the amend­ MAHON] moves to concur in a specified amendment, which is his ments. right. 57 5o CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE. MAY 26, -

Mr. MAHON. I should like to say a few words in explanation ask that the Clerk read the resolutions presented by the majority and support of my motion. of the Committee on Elections No. 3. Mr. CANNON. What is the amendment? Let it be read. The Clerk read as follows: Mr. MAHON.· It might take two or three hours to read it. I Resolved, That Thomas B. John::~ton was not elected a Representative in can explain it. the Fifty-fourth Congress from the Seventh Congressional di!!trict of the State of South Carolina, aud is not entitled to a seat therein. Mr. CANNON. I will again ask the gentleman from Pennsyl­ Resolved, That J. William Stokes was duly elected a Representative in the vania whether he proposes to insist on his motion at this time? Fifty-fourth Congress from the Seventh Congressional district of South Car· Mr. MAHON. I do propose to insist for this reason: This is a olina, and is entitled to a seat therein. Senate amendment, in which a great many members of this House Mr. JENKINS. Mr. Speaker, I desire to say first that the are interested. If in conference the House conferees succeed in gentleman from Indiana [Mr. OVERSTREET] will have chru·ge of o-etting the Senate conferees to recede from the amendment of the the other side of this case, and that at this time it is impossible to §enate, we shall never see it again in this House. We have now limit the debate, but both sides promise that no unnecessary time an opportunity to vote on a question that interests a great many will be consumed in presenting the case to the House. of us. There are several important questions involved in this contro­ :Mr. CANNON. The amendment to which the gentleman's versy. One of them is as to the power of this House to declare motion refers is the one covering claims under the Bowman Act? the election law of a State unconstitutional when the right of a Mr. MAHON. French spoliation claims and claims under the member to a seat would be thereby affected. Another is as to Bowman Act. what effect should be given to an election held under an uncon­ :Mr. CANNON. Including claims in which the gentleman from stitutional registration law of a State. Still another is as to what Tennessee rMr. RICHARDSON] is interested? rule should be adopted with reference to counting the votes of Mr. RIC!IARDSON. I am in perfect accord with the gentle­ the electors when lawfully tendered and unlawfully refused by man from Pennsylvania on this question. The amendment is the election officers when sufficient inn umber to change the result embraced in section 4 of the bill as amended. in the following cases: First, when it is shown for whom the Mr. CANNON. The gentleman from Pennsylvania desires his elector offered to vote; second, when it is not shown for whom motion to cover both classes of claims-the French spoliation the elector offered to vote if permitted by the election officers to claims and the claims under the Bowman Act. cast his vote, and still fm·ther as to the competency of the evidence Mr. MAHON. Yes, sir. sufficient to warrant the counting of the vote. Mr. CANNON. Now I will ask for a vote on nonconcurring in I address myself particularly to the case of Johnston against the other amendments. Stokes, and generally to the cases of Moorman against Latimer, The SPEAKER. The question is on nonconcun-ing in the other Wilson against McLaurin, and Murray against Elliott, all four amendments. cases arising in the State of South Carolina. At the threshold of The question being taken, the amendments were nonconcurred three of the cases named the committee was met with the propo­ in. sition that the entire registration law of South Carolina and the On motion of Mr. CANNON, a motion to reconsider the last vote election laws of that State under which all of these cases arose was laid on the table. are unconstitutional, and an election held under the same a mere 1\fr. CANNON. Now, 1\Ir. Speaker, I wish to say a word. This nullity; and the further claim is made that on that fact alone the bill, with the amendments of the Senate, has not been printed contestants in these cases urgino- the unconstitutionality of the either on the Senate side, except the copy which I hold in my hand, law are entitled to their seats. The question is one of very great or in the House. If it is satisfactory to the gentleman from Penn­ importance, and has been very carefully considered by the Commit­ sylvania, I will ask that the amendments be numbered and printed, tee on Elections No.3, and on the report of that committee two and that this matter go over until to-morrow after the reading of of the cases have been decided by this House in favor of the sit­ the J om·nal. ting members. I have some views on the subject, for which I am Mr. RICHARDSON. I hope the gentleman from Pennsylvania alone responsible, and will endeavor very briefly to disclose them. will agree to that. And I might say at the outset that I am a Federalist and an ardent Mr. MAHON. · I will agree, Mr. Speaker, that this question be Republican, and have never done anything and will never attempt taken up after the reading of the Journal. to do anything that will promote the interest of any other polit­ There being no objection, it was ordered accordingly. ical party than the Republican party. Without being partisan or narrow, I do not hesitate to say that ELECTION CO?~EST-ALDRICH VS. UNDERWOOD. the future of this great Republic and the success and prosperity of Mr. DANIELS. On behalf ofthe CommitteeonElectionsNo.1, the people depend upon the elevation and continuation in power I desire to p1·esent a report on the contested-election case of of the Republican party. Democracyis alone valuable as a small Aldrich vs. Vnderwood, from the Ninth Congressional district of minority; but in disposing of the election cases, and particularly Alabama. This report is concuiTed in by four members of the the grave constitutional question involved, I do not purpose being committee. I ask leave that the minority of the committee have influenced in the slightest degree from impartially discharging my leave to file their views by Friday next, as we desire to bring the full duty as a member of this House, and I am satisfied such has case before the House on Monday next, immediately after the read­ been the intention of the committee, and I believe that is the senti­ ing of the Journal. ment of this House. No matter what has been done in the past, The report of the committee was ordered to be printed. it is high time that election cases be disposed of according to law The SPEAKER. The gentleman from New York rl\Ir. DAN­ and the evidence. Partisanship ought no longer to exercise any IELSl asks consentthat the minority of the committee have leave influence or have any control in determining this question. A to fife their views by Friday next. Is there objection? right to a seat should be judicially disposed of and no longer be J!.Ir. KEM objected. determined by pa~·tisan bias. The disposition of some of the cases The SPEAKER. Objection is made by the gentleman from disposed of by former Congresses is a disgra-ce to the Republic. Nebraska rMr. KEMl. No matter how obnoxious it may be to us, we should see to it Mr. DANIELS. f move, then, that the House consent to that that the will of the people as declared at the ballot box is carried disposition of the matter. · out. That will include condemnation of fraud and intimidation. The SPEAKER. The gentleman from New York moves that Every effort ought to be made to have free and fair elections. It the House allow the minority of the committee until Friday next is the very substructm·e of Government. Murder, robbery, and to file their views. As many as are in favor of that motion-- horse stealing should have a secondary consideration compared Mr. BARTLETT of Georgia. Before the motion is put, I desire with the great questions involved in a free, fair election and an to be heard a moment. This has been a very long case, and there absolutely honest «>unt. Any attempt at dishonesty in elections is a very long report. I r(>present the minority of the committee. should not only be frowned upon and condemned, but those re­ My colleague, the gentleman from Arkansas [Mr. DINSUORE], is sponsible for it should be punished to the full extent of the law, sick. I will ask that, in the event we can not finish the minority ostracised, and absolutely disqualified from ever participating in report by Friday, we be allowed a reasonable time after Friday. elections or holding any office of profit or trust. So important Mr. DANIELS. You will be ready, no doubt, by Saturday. has the question become that it is one of the highest du2;ies of We desire to bring the case before the House on Monday next, citizenship to demand that nothing shall be more sacred than the after the reading of the Journal. right of the citizen to vote and have his vote counted. Mr. BARTLETT of Georgia. I do not consentto that, though, All dangers of a man losing his vote by reason of technicalities as a matter of course, the gentleman has a right to call up the should be removed. Fair and just registration and election laws case if he wishes. should not only be favored, but fairly and honestly enforced, and The question being put on the motion of Mr. DANIELS, it was this political right should be so prominently advanced that it will agreed to. be highly prized by every American citizen. It will have a tend­ ency to enlarge and improve the quality of citizenship. It should ELECTION CONTEST-JOHNSTON VS. STOKES, be so regulated and enforced as to encourage education, for there Mr. JENKINS. I call up the contested-election case of John­ is danger in allowing the ignorant to vote, and this fact induced ston vs. Stokes, from the Seventh district of South Carolina. I me at this session of Congress to introduce a resolution providing 1896. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE. for an amendment to the Cons:ti.tu±ion of the United States-, pro­ the law of 1882,. the amendments referred to and the codification viding an educational qualification as a condition precedent to the of the law not changing the law of 1882 or affecting any present exercise of the elective franchise. In a great government of the case from South Carolina. The material provisions of the regis· people it is worse than a farce to allow men to vote and partici­ tration law are as follows: pate in government who can not read or write and have to have CHAPTER VIII (SECTIONS 131 TO 156, INCLUSIVE) OF THE ELECTION L.A. W OP their ballots marked for them. SOUTH C.A.ROLIN.A.. It is prolific of fraud, and has been not only a perplexing but SEc. 131 (89). Every male citizen of. the United States of the age of 21 years disturbing question in these cases. Ignorance is to be deprecated and upwards, not laboring under the disabilities named in the Constitution, and feared in all things, but particularly so in exercising the right without distinction of race, color, or former condition, who shall have been a resident of the State for one year, and in the county in which he offers to to vote in a popular government like ours. Notwithstanding the vote for sixty days next preceding any general election, shall lie entitled to many contests to be determined by this House at this session of vote: Provided, That no person while kept in any almshouse or asylum, or Congress, there has not been the leas-t expression of unfairness or of unsound mind, or confined in any public prison, or who shall have been convicted of treason, murder. burglary, larceny, perjury, forgery, or any any attempt upon the part of the great majority here to allow other infamous crime, or dueling, shall be allowed to vote. politics to control their action; but it seems to be the determina­ SEc. 132 {90) . All electors of the State shall be registered; and no person tion on the part of every Republican to be absolutely fair and to shall be allowed to vote at any election hereafter to be held unless he shall allow the will of the people to prevail, which is very commenda­ have been heretofore regist,ered in conformity with the requirements of Chapter VII of the General Statutes of 1882, and acts amendatory thereof, ble. With these few preliminary remarks, I will invite attention or shall be registered as herein required. to the constitutional question involved: SEc.133 (91, 106). On or before the 1st day of March in every second year reckoning from 1882 the governor shall appoint, by and with the advice of THE TEST. the senate, if in session, and if not in session, subject to its appro:val at its All regulations of the elective franchise must be reasonable, uniform, and next session, and subject to remo,al by the governor by and with the advice impartial. They must not have for their pur:pose, directly or indirectly, to and consent of the senate, one competent aud discreet person in each county, deny or abridge the constitutional right of citizens to vote or unnecessarily who shall be a qualified voter thereof, and who shall hold his office at the to impede its exercise. lf they do, they must be declared void.-Cooley's county seat, and shall be known as the supervisor of registration of such Constitutional Limitations, page 758. county, and whose duty it shall be to supervise the registration of the elec­ Certainly no one can question this authority. This very broad, tors of such county as herein specified. He shall keep a record of all his official acts and proceedings. The term of his office shall be for two years fair, safe, and reasonable statement of the law is sustained by an from the date of his appointment; he shall continue in office until his suc­ unbroken current of authority. The many courts stating the cessor shall be appointed and shall qualify; and his compensation shall be doctrine are of the highest character, their logic and reasoning fixed by the general assembly from time to time, as may be deemed proper. His accounts for advertising (and in the county of Charleston for clerk hire· unanswerable, and ought to meet the approval of every fair-minded and rent for registration precincts also) and for stationery shall be audited voter in the land, and the very safety of our institutions calls for and paid by the county commissioners of his county. its enforcement according to its letter-and spirit. As already said, "Term of office of supervisor appointed during vacation was not for the period of two years, but terminated when senate, at its next session, ad­ there were four cases pending before Committee on Elections journed without approval of appointment. (State vs. Williams, 20 S. C., 12.} No. 3 from the State of South Carolina. The contes-tants were not "• Next session' means the next session in fact, whether regular or spe­ uniform in regard to the high constitutional question involved, cial." (lb.) SEc. 13..1:. The governor is authorized to appoint a deputy supervisor in while the contestees were unanimously in favor of the validity of ca.so of the inability of the supervisor to act, who, when so appointed, shall the law. In Moorman against Latimer, Wilson against McLaurin, havo all the powers and be charged with the duties of the supervisor, and and Johnston against Stokes the contestants insisted that the shall receive S5 per diem when actually employed. · The governor shall also appoint two assistant supervisors of registration, registration and election laws of South Carolina are in violation who shall serve without compensation, and shall sit with the supervisor of of the constitution of the State of South Carolina and the Consti­ registration in the determination of all cases of contested registration in. tution of the United States; anQ. if I" understand them correctly, which the supervisor shall refuse to register the applicant; the three super­ visors shall sit for as many days, beginning on~ second Tuesday in July, from that fact alone they were entitled to their seats, while in as may be necessary to hear and aetermine all such contested cases. Murray against Elliott the contestant makes no point as to the SEc. 135 (92). The secretary of state shall cause to be prepared a sufficient constit utional question; but the committee are unanimously of number of re!rlstration books and blanks, so that there shall be two of said the opinion that the constitutional question must be disposed of books for eacli: precinct in each cotmty, which books shall be ruled in col­ umns, with proper headings, so as to indicate the name, age, occupation, and alike in all of the four cases the same as though the contestants place of residence of each elector, with a separate column to the right side were all agreed upon this question, and that it can not be ignored of the page for such entries as may be necessary. And the secretary is in the one case because not raised, or decided differently in that authoriZed and required to provide additional registration books to supply the place of such as have become defaced and injured by use at the elections_ case becanse the contestant did not present it, when all four cases heretofore had, and he shall furnish the same upon application of any su-:per­ were argued before judgment was reached in either one of them, visor certifying to the necessity thereof. .And in such case the superVISor and therefore ought to be ruled alike on this point. so procuring such additional registration books slmll copy from the original book the names and record thereof into the new book, and when the same ·Each case being alike affected, I will first consider the constitu­ shall be so copied it shall be the duty of the county auditor and clerk of the tion and laws of South Carolina in order to determine whether or court of common pleas of the county, together with the supervisor, carefully not the registration and election laws of that State are in violation to compare the names and record in the n ew book with those in the book so injured or defaced, and if the same is found correct to certify to its correct­ of the constitution of that State. It is as follows: ness; and such new book shall not be used at any election unless so certified. ART. 1, SEC. 31. All elections sh3J.l be free and open, and every inhabitant SEC. J.3j) (93) . For the purpose of r~g-istration, each township, as now laid of this Commonwealth possessinl? the qualifications provided for in this con­ out and defined, and in those counties where there are no such townships, the stitution shall have equal right to elect officers and be elected to fill public parish, as formerly known and defined, is declared a registration precinct. cftices. In the city of Columbia each ward registration precinct; and in the city of ART. 8, SEc. 2. Every male citizen of the United States of the age of 2J. years Charleston the registration precinct shall be the same as the voting precincts and upward, not laboring under the disabilities named in this constitution, now established in the several wards of said city, as designated and defined \vithout distinction of race, color, or former condition, who shall be a resident in section 158. of this State at the time of the adoption of this constitution, or who shall here­ SEC. 131 (9!). After every general election the registration books shall be after reside in this State one year, and in the county in which he offers to opened for registration of such persons as shall thereafter become entitled vote sixty days next preceding any election, shall be entitled to vote for all to register on the first Monday in each month until the 1st day of July pre­ officers that are now or hereafter may be elected by the people, and upon all ceding a general election, when the same shall be closed until such generaJ. questions submitted to the electors at any election: Provided, That no per­ election shall have taken place. . son shall be allowed to vote or hold office who is now or hereafter may be "Previously registration on Sunday was good." (State vs. Schneirle, 5 disqualified therefor by the Constitution of the United States until such dis­ Rich., 299.) qualifications shall be removed by the Congress of the United Statea: Provided SEC. 138. It shall bs the duty of the supervisor of registration to deposit said further, That no person while kept tn any almshouse or asylum, or of unsound books in the office of the clerk of court of· common pleas in their respectiva mind, or confined in any public prison shall be allowed to vote or hold pub­ counties, excPpt in the counties of Charleston and Greenville, where they shall lic office. be deposited in the office of the register of mesne conveyance; and it sha.ll be ART. 8, SEC. 3. It shall be the duty of the general assembly to provide, from the duty of the clerk of said court and the register of mesne conveyance to. time to time, for the registration of all electors. safely keep the ~ame, to~ether with the other books of record in their respec­ tive offices; and it shall oe unlawful for any person or persons to removo the It will be observed that by section 3, ar-ticle 8, express power same from the said offices, except the superVlsors, who are hereby authorized was conferred upon the general assembly "to provide from time to take the same from the said offices when it shall be necessary in the dis­ to time for the registration of all electors," so no question can charge of the duties imposed upon them by this chapter. SEC. 139 (96). The supervisor shall determine as to the legal qualifications ar-ise as to the power of the general assembly to pa-ss a law requir­ of allap-phcants for registration by summary process, requiring oath, evi­ ing the registration of all electors. The general assembly did dence, or both, if he deem proper. subject to revision by the assistant su­ p~s a law requiring as a condition precedent to voting that all pervisors and himself in all cases where he has refused to register an appli­ cant. From their decision any applicant who is rejected shall have the ri~ht persons otherwise qualified to vote be registered in conformity to to a review thereof by the circuit court: Provided, He give notice in writmg law, and obtain a certificate to that effect evidencing registration, to the supervisor of. his application for such review, and the grounds thereof' and produce it at the polls before being allowed to vote, and the within five days from the date of his rejection, and commence his proceed­ contention is, by those who raised the question, that this law is in:rs within ten days from the service of said notice. §Ec. 140 (96) . .Any person coming of age and otherwise qualified as an in conflict with the constitution of South Carolina. Original elector may appear betore the supervisor on any day on which the books provisions for the registration of voters in that State will be are opened as aforesaid, and make oath (which the superviso1· is hereby au­ found in the" act approved February 9, 1882,"17 Statutes at Large, thorized to administer) as to his name, age, occupation, and place of resi­ dence; and if the supervisor find him qualified, he shall enter his name upon page 1110, and these provisions are incorporated in General the registration book of the precinct in which he resides. Such person shall Statutes 1882, beginning with section 89 and ending with section have the right of appeal, as provided in the last section, if the supervisor 106. These provisions were subsequently amended and incorpo­ sh::ill not find him qualified. SEc. 141 (97)_ In case a person shall not be of age to qualify him as an rated in the Revised Statutes of 1893 as sections 131-156, both in­ elector on the day of the closing of the books of registration before any gen­ clusive, but as instructed on the arguments, we are governed by era! election, but shall be of such age as will qualify him as such elector 5758 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE. before the said general election, and shall appear before the supervisor of ~1:1 ~ge~ office, that the report is correct as appears from the records of registration and take oath there'w, the supervisor. if he shall find him qual­ 0 ified, shall enter his name upon the registration book as aforesaid. Any clerk of the court who shall fail or neglect to comply with the provi· SEC. 142 (9~). Each elector registered as aforesaid shall thereupon be sions of this section shall forfeit and pay to the county in which he holds his furnished by the supervisor with a certificate, which shall contain a state­ office the sum of $=>0 for each and every failure so to report. ment of his age, occupation, and place of residence, as entered in the said SEc. 153. Every trial justice in the State shall, on or before the 15th day of registration book, and which certificate shall be signed by the said super­ October, A. D.lS9-2, and biennially thereafter on or before the same day, make visor; and no person shall ba allowed to vote at anv other precinct than the out, under his hand and seal, and submit to the supervisor of registration for one for which he is registered, nor unless he produces and exhibits to the the county in which be holds his office, a certified list of all male persons con­ managers of election such certificate: Provided, In case there shall be no victed of petit larceny before him, or any of his predecessors whose trial election precinct within any township or parish the supervisor shall desig­ q.o cke~ is ~ his possessio~, during the two P.re~di~g years, or the period nate in the certificate at which of the neighboring precincts the elector shall followmg .his next _PI"<;JCedin~ report. .Any tria_! JUStice going- out of office vote; and in case there be more than one precinct m any township or parish, shall furrush such hst Immediately upon his retirement and up to that time, the supervisor shall likewise designate in the certificate at which of the said and any trial justice hereafter appointed shall furnish such list from the precincts the elector shall vote. The certificate of registration shall be of the time of his entry upon the duties of his office. following form: Anr trial justiCe 'Y"bo shall fail or neglect to. furni.sh such reports as herein "Registration certificate No.--. reqmred shall forfe1t and pay to the county m which be holds his office the "-County, -township, or parish, election ;precinct-. sum of SlO for each and every such failure to report. •• The bearer, -----, is a qualified voter m the above precinct, and f?Ec.lM. Therepor!'Sprovid9d for i:t?- the two-preceding sections shall be re­ resides at--, in --township or --parish, and is --years of age, ceived by the superviSor as pr1ma fame proofs of the facts stated therein, and and entitled to vote at said precinct. h_e shal1Im!J1e~iately erase the n~:>.mes of all such persons from the registra­ "Registered on the-- day of --, A. D.l8-. tion books m hlS county, and they shall not be allowed thereafter to register "----, or vote in any elections in this State: Provided, That if any such person whose "Supervis01· of Jlegistration.'' name is so furnished shall present to such supervisor, within sixty days after SEC. 14.3. Wherever a new polling precinct is established by law, it shall be the next following election, a pardon from the governor, or,within such time, the duty of the supervisor to transfer from the books of re~istration the prove "to the satisfaction of such supervisor that he was not convicted of the names of such qualified voters registered at other precincts as should, under crime or misdemeanor stated in such certificate, his name shall be restored this section, register and vote at the new precincts so established, and who to the list of registered voters as completely and effectually as if the same may request such transfer, and to make such changes as maybe necessary in had not been stricken therefrom. the certificates of registration issued to such voters, who shall thereafter vote SEC. 155 (105). At each and every election the supervisor of registration only at the I>recincts to which they have been thus transferred. shall furnish the mana.~ers of election with one of the registration books for 8EC. 14 registered and shall surrender his certificate of registration; and the said supervisor the circuit court. Any person not of age when the registration shall thereupon enter the fact of such removal upon the registration book as books are opened but becoming of age before election may appear aforesaid, and shall give such elector a certificate of transfer to the county before the supervisor and have his name entered on the books at to which such elector bas removed, upon thepreseutationof which the super­ visor for such county shall cause such elector to be registered in the precinct any time. of such county to which he shall have removed, and shall furnish such When a voter is allowed to register he obtains a certificate, elector with a certificate, as. hereinbefore provided. which must be produced when offering to vote, but if he moves SEC. 149 (103). No elector removing from one residence, precinct. parish, his residence in the same precinct or moves into another precinct ward, or county to another shall be allowed to register or vote without a transfer of registration as above provided. he must have a transfer of his certificate, and if he loses his certifi­ SEc. 150 (99). Every elector shall have the right to a renewal of his cer­ cate be must obtain another. The statute also authorizes the tificate without fee or charge, when the same becomes defaced by time or supervisor before election to revise the list, marking off the names accident, upon his surrendering such certificate so defaced to the supervisor of registration. In case of the loss of any certificate, the elector losing the of those who have died or removed, those convicted of murder, same shall be entitled to a renewal thereof by the supervisor, upon applica­ burglary, larceny, perjury, or any other infamous crime, or duel­ tion and proof of such loss, in the following manner, to wit: He shall, at least ing, and petit larceny, without notice to the elector, and if thirty days before the next general election, make applic.ation under oath, setting forth the fact Of such loss. and the circumstances attending it, as near strieken off unlawfully the elector must prove to the satisfaction as may be, and stating that he has not sold, bartered, or parted with the of the supervisor that he was not convicted of the crime of which same for any pecuniary, valuable, or other consideration, and has not will· he is charged or that he has apardonfrom the governor. So with fully destroyed the same: which application the supervisor shall examine and consider, requiring other evidence under oath if in his judgment neces­ the constitution and statutes of South Carolina before us we will sary to a determmation as to the loss thereof; and, upon such examination proceed to determine by the authority cited whether or not the and consideration, if the supervisor shall be satisfied that the certificate has regulations provided as a condition precedent to the exercises of been actually lost, he shall issue to the appliCft~t a r~newal ther~of,marking the elective franchise in South Carolina are reasonable, uniform, or stamping the same •· renewal." The deciSion of the superVISor shall be subject to revi.'!ion by the assistant supervi<>ors, together with the super­ and impartial, and whether the same have for their purpose di­ visor to whom the application is made, in all cases in which he has refused rectly or indirectly to deny or abridge the constitutional rights of to renew the said certificate. From the decision of the supervisor and assist­ citizens of South Carolina to vote, or unnecessarily impede their ant supervisors any applicant who has been refused a renewal of his certifi­ cate shall have the nght of a review thereof by the circuit court of the exercise of the right to the elective franchise to such an extent as county in which he was regi3tered: P1·ovided, He give notice thereof to the to affect the rights of the contestants to their respective seats. supervisor to whom he made application for such renewal within five days After giving the subject much thought, and fully appreciating of the refusal thereof by the supervisor and assistant supervisors, and com­ mence proceedings within ten davs from the givino- of sa1d notice. the responsibilities surroundig euch an important step, and consid­ SEC. 151 (101). The supervisor of registration shaY!, immediately preceding ering carefully the claims of the contestants that they are denied each election, revise the registration of electors, and mark off the names of valuable rights; consideringalsothesituationof affairs in that State such electors as have died, and such as have removed from one residence, precinct, parish, ward, or county to another without notifying him and ever since the late civil war, sympathizing greatly with the success obtaining a certificate of transfer as hereinbefore provided. of Republican aspirants, keeping in view the rights of the States SEC. 15t. The clerks of the courts of general sessions and common pleas in and the plain duty of the Federal Government, without the least in­ the several counties of the State shall, on or before the 15th day of October, A.. D. 1892, and biennially thereafter on or before the same day, make out tention or desire to impair the one or shirk the other, I am willing and .report to the supervisors of regist:f'ation for their respective counties a to go on record as saying that both branches of Congress have the complete list of all male persons convicted during the two preceding years, power to inquire into the constitutionality of the law of the State up to the 1st day of October aforesaid, of the following offenses, to wit: Murder, burglary, larceny, perjury, or any other infamous crime, or dueling; whenever the same affects the right of a person to a seat in Con­ such report must be accompanied by the certificate of the clerk, under the gress, and should exercise that power in all proper cases, for by 1896.· CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE. . 5759 the Constitution of the United States all questions affecting the as fiscal officers, from paying the expenses incurred under the elections, returns, and qualifications of its own members are re­ registration laws on the alleged ground that the same were un­ fei-red to and must be determined by each House. constitutional. The two associate justices held that the court Each House shall be the judge of the elections, returns, and qualifications was not one of ori_ginal jurisdiction for the determination of of its own members. * * * Article I, section 5. cases like this and dismissed the bill, but the chief justice deliv- ­ I regret the almost entire absence of authority on so important ered a dissenting opinion, not only sustaining the original juris­ a point, but this will be a good opportunity to create authority, and diction of the court, thereby conceding the power of the court I would call attention to the case of Miller against Elliot, Fifty­ to determine the whole question, but held that the law was un­ first Congress, first session, H. R. Report 2502, part 2, where constitutional. Both of the opinions of these learned jm·ists are these same laws were involved and considered in Committee on lengthy and discuss every question in the respective cases, leav­ Elections, the same contestee as in one of these cases, and I quote ing nothing of the law. Chief Justice l\fciver is a Democrat, an from the majority report, page 6- able jurist, and evidently an upright man, familiar with the laws . That these provisions of the registration statutes are unconstitutional and of the State and manner and object of enforcement of the same, yoid can not be seriously questioned. and thoroughly qualified to speak of it. His opinion ought to The honorable and distinguished gE;Jntleman from Georgia, Mr. carry great weight, and can not be said to be in any sense parti­ CRISP, was a member of the committee and signed the minority san. Both of these able jurists agree that the law in question repc..rt, and that report impliedly sustains the conclusion arrived at falls under the condemnation of the test formulated by Judge by the majority of the committee as to the power of Congress in this Cooley, and the particular points made by these eminent jurists, regard, as will be shown by examining it. The contestant in that briefly stated, are as follows: case wa.s insisting that the law under which the election was held BY JUDGE GOFF. wa.s unconstitutional. The majority report sustained the conten­ tion of the contestant, The able gentlemen composing the minor­ First. Requiring any certificate. ity, always ready to defend the rights of the State, and jealous of Second. Closing of the registration books on the 1st day of July the power of the National Government, did not in the minority preceding a general election when held in November following. report controvert the position of the majority or in any manner Third. That an elector qualified and entitled to register in May deny the power of the House in this regard, but contented them­ and June, 1882, and failing to register by reason of inadvertence, selves in their answer to the majority by offering three reasons sickness, absence, or other cause when the books were open for why the law was constitutional. that year, has been disqualified as a voter ever since July 1, 1882, First. That contestant had not in his notice of contest stated because the only ones going op. the books since that time being that he relied upon the unconstitutionality of the law a.s one of those coming of age since July 1, 1882. the grounds of contest, thereby defending the constitutionality of Chief J ustic.e Melver in his opinion nowhere refers to the opinion the law, and not denying the power of Congress, conceding the of Judge Goff, but fully sustains Judge Goff in conclusions 2 and power of Congress to pass upon the constitutionality of the law, 3, as I have condensed and numbered them; and while holding by insisting upon the presence of the question in the notice of that to require a voter to obtain a certificate is not unconstitu­ contest. If they were prepare.d to deny the power of Congress in tional, yet to compel an elector to get a new certificate in case of this regard they would not have defended the constitutionality of loss or transfer, or in case of a removal from one place to another the law, but would have in place thereof denied the powerof Con­ in the same precinct or from one precinct to another, as a prere­ gress to pass upon the question. quisite to voting after registration and once having obtained a Their second answer was, '' That there was no proof that the law certificate, is well calculated to impede and obstruct the exercise was acted upon in the strict interpretation put upon itl'; and of the right of suffrage; and from the language implied by the Third. "That the minority of the committee could not have learned jurist we infer that on this point he regards the law uncon­ been serious in reporting that the law was unconstitutional," to stitutional. say the least of it, a very serious way of answering a great consti­ We now have the opinion of two competent to judge, after care­ tutional question involving to so great an extent the rights, priv­ ful c:onsidera tion of the question, that the registration law of South ileges, and liberties of American citizenship. The majority r eport Carolina is unconstitutional. Certainly no one in South Carolina was adopted without argument and without division. will question the opinion of Chief Justice Mciver, his ability, his Among all of the able Democratic members of the Fifty-first integrity, or the fact that he is a Democrat and has always been a Congress there was not one of them willing to put himself on rec­ Democrat. I differ from both opinions in their reasoning, and in­ ord as denying the power of Congress to inquire into the constitu­ asmuch as no injustice be done these learned gentlemen, I submit tionality of the laws of the State affecting the right of the claimant the opinions of both: to a seat in the Congress. By their silence we have a right' to [Opinion of Judge Goff in the ca-se of l\fHls vs. Green, in the circuit f'..ourt of .brrue that the Democrati'c pai·tv is committed to the docti·I·ne that the United St~tes for.the district of South Ca-r:olina, decided May 8, 1895, ai J and reported ill full ill 67 Fed. Rep., 818, and m the News and Courier, this power does exist in Cgngress. Having arrived at the con- Charleston, s. c., May 9, 189?i.] elusion that Cong1·ess has the power to inquire into the COnstitu- JUDGE GOFF'S REGISTRATION DECISION. tionality of these statutes, the next question is as to their constitu- In the circuit court of the United States for the district of South Carolina- tionality. The contestants favoring the unconst.itutionality of the Lawrence P. Mills vs. W. Briggs Green-In equity. registration laws call attention to two cases wh~ch they insist On the 20th day of April last, on consideration of the bill in thi'l cause, I . h th tit ti al"t f th 1 d f ll passed an order that- the defendant, W. Briggs Green, individually and as c l ear l Y esta blIS euncons u on I Y 0 ese aws an as u Y supervisor of registration for Richland County, in the State of South Caro- sustaining them in their positions, and contend that these cases lina, be enjoined and resti·ained until the further order of this court from ought to have great weight in determining the question because the commission of the acts complained of in complainant's bill, and I directed the same are the opinions of two great J·urists, both familiar with that said defendant sh?w cause before me, if any he could, at Columbia, S.C., on Thursday, 1\-~ay 2, mstant, why such order shoulu not be continued, or the laws of South Carolina and the manner of enforcement and som~ ~rdet: of hke _pu~·p~rt and effect be then gr~nted, enj~ining and re­ effect of the same, and for the fm·ther reason that both cases were stramillg hun, both mdividually and as such superVIsor of registration from direct actions brought to test the constitutionality of the laws in the commission of said acts until the final hearmg and determination ~f this question. ca~~~· plaintiff, a citizen of the State of South Carolina and of the United One is Mills against Green, circuit court of the United States States, brings this suit against W.- Briggs Green, a citizen of said State and h • t f S th C 1· t d M 8 189- 67 F d of the United States. The plaintiff exhibits his bill in his own bf'half and f or the dis~.~nc o ou ,aro Ina, repor e ay • t>, e - for all others, citizens of the county of Richland, in the State of South Caro- eral Reporter, page 818, by Nathan Goff, circuit judge. The tina circumstanced like him, who are too nnmeroas to be named and made other is Butler vs. Ellerbee et al., supreme court of South Caro- parties hereto. It is set forth in the bill that the nlaintiff was 26 vears of lina, July 6, 1895, 22 Southeastern Reporter, pa.ge 425, opinion by ~eon the~th. day _of February, 1?95; that he is ?-resident?~ Ward 4, precinct ot Columbia, m said county and State; that he IS a male Citizen of the United Mciver, chief justice. The case in the United States court was States; that he btts resided in the State of South Carolina for more than one brought on the equity side of the court, to prevent the defendant vear preceding the last general election in that State, and in the county of Green individually and as supervisor of registration of Richland Richland for more than sixty days prior to said election; that he is an elector of the State of South Carolina, possessing all the qualifications of an elector County, S. C., from delivering the book s of registration to the of the most numerous branch of the Btate legislature, and is subject to managers of election in the different precincts in that county, on none of the disqualifications set forth in the constitution of that State, and the ground that the law was unconstitutional under which he that he is under the Constitution and laws of the United States duly quali­ was acting. A vigorous defense was interposed, and an earnest ~~~ Jfa;e~te at all Federal and State elections held in said ward, county, effort made to uphold the constitutionality of the law. Judge It is set forth in the bill that section 90 of the general statutes of South Goff sustained the bill, granted the prayer for relief, and in an Carolina, 18b'2, provides as follows: "All electors of the State shall be regis- · · · ' 1 t th d f t · th 1 d tered as hereinafter provided, and no person shall be allowed to vote at any e1 a b ora t e opm10n p01nooc ou e many e ec S ln e aw, an election hereafter to be held unless registered as hereinafter required· that held the entire registration act invalid. by section 94 of said statute it is provided: When the said registratibn (in The case went to the United States circuit court of appeals and c~rta~n books to be provided for and made in the manner provid~d for in sec­ was reversed for want of equity so the constitut;onal question twn 93 >. shall_ have been completed, the books shall b_e closed ana _not opene~ • • - _ • i • • for regiStratiOn, except for the purposes and as heremafter mentioned until mvol ved was not discussed 1n the appellate court, the positiOn after the next general election for State officers. After the said next g~neral being taken that the elector had mistaken his remedy in proceed-~ electi.·on the books shal} be opene4 for regist1'ation of such_persons as shall inO' on the equity side of the com·t. The case brought in the thereaf~er become entitled_ to regi~ter OJ?. the first ¥onday m eacp. month to 0 . • . and until the first Monday ill July, mclusi ve, preced.illg the followmg general . supreme court of South Carolina was to restrain the defendants, election, upon which last-named day the same shall be closed and not reopeued ' 5760 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE.. MAY 26, for registration until after the said general election, and' that thereafter the standing. The mandate of the nation's Constitution is addressed to ali the said books shall be o-eened for the registration of such electors on the days officers of the United States, as well as to all the officers of all the States. The above mentioned until the 1st day of July preceding a. general election, when judges of the Federal, as well as of the State courts, mliSt respect it, for it de­ the same shall be closed as aforesaid 1m til the said general election shall have clares that the judges of every State- shall be bound thereby. As is said by taken place"; that in section 137 of said revised statutes itr is provided: the Supreme Court mDodge vs. Woolsey (18 How., 331) : •• To make its suprem­ "After every general election the registration books shall be opened for reg­ acy more complete, impressive, and practical, that there should be no escape istration of such persons as shall tliereafter become entitled to register on from its operation, and that its binding force upon the States and the mem­ the first Monday in each month until the 1st day of July, preceding a general bers of Congress should be unmistakable, it is declared that the Senators and election, when the same shall be closed until such election shall have taken Representatives before mentioned., and the members of the several State leg­ pia~"; that section 97 provides: "Any person coming of age, and being islatures, and all executive and judicial officers, both of the United States qualified as an elector, may appear before the supervisor of registration and of the several States, shall be bound by oath or affirmation to SUJ?port on any day on which the books are opened, as aforesaid, and take oath as this Constitution." It would be a strange admission, a startling deciSion, to his age and qualifications as hereinbefore provided, and if the supervi­ that the courts of the United States can not open their doors to the citizens sor find him qualified he shall enter his name upon the registration book of of the United States whoalle~e that they are by the unconstitutional laws the precinct wherein ho resides." It is also alleged that said registration of a State deprived of their privileges or immunities as citizens of the Umted laws provide that the supervisors of registration in the several counties shall States and denied the equal protection of the laws within the jurisdiction of issue to the voter when registered, a. eertificate of registration, and that said such State. I am not aware that any court of the United States bas ever so voter shall present the same at the polls to the managers of the election, and held. I trust I will never be advised of such a decision, and I am sure, as I that no one shall be allowed to vote at any election to be held in said State now see the law and my duty, that I will not so rule, not establish such a. unless his certificate of registration is exhibited when he offers to vote, and precedent. . . that it is required by said law that in case a voter shall r emove fi·om one The case of In re Ayres· (123 U.S., 443),relied on by defendant's counsel, does county to another in said State, or from one precinct to another in the sarme not in my judgment sustain the position taken by them. In that case the county, or from one residence to another in the same precinct, that he shall jurisdiction of the circuit court was denied not because the officers of the obtain a transfer and a renewal certificate, and that should a voter lose his State were sued, but-because the court found that the act of the legislature certificate he must obtain a renewal thereof upon furnishing evidence satis­ complained of did not violate a.n-y contract, and b ecause the bill did not factory to the registrar of the county wherein he resides, that his certificate allege any ground of equitable relief against the individual defendants for has been mislaid or lost, and that the same has not been willfully or inten­ any personal wrong committed or threatened by them, because it did. not tionally disposed of. The bill also alleges tliat by the provisions and require­ charge against them in their individua.l character anything done or threat· ments of said enactments, the voter failing for any reason to comply with ened which constituted in contemplation of law a violation of personal or any of the pronsions of the same, is denied the right of suffra~e, both in property rights or a breach of contract to which they were parties. In these Federal and State elections. Complainant clai.Jns. that the provisiOns of the particulars the Ayres case differs materially from the case now before me. said enactments fixing the time for registration a.nd the closing of the books In that case the Supreme Court says~ "But this is not intended in any way for that purpose on the 1st day of July preceding every election, and the to infringe upon the principle which justifies suits against individual de­ many requirements and conditions set out in the various sections of said reg­ fendants, who, under- coioz~of the authority of unconstitutional legislation istration law were intended, and that they in effect do abridge, impede-, and by the State, are guilty of personal trespasses and wrongs, nor to fm·bid destroy the suffrage of the citizens, both of the State and ofthe United. States. suits against officers in their official capacity either to arrest or direct their It is also averred tho.t on the 2-ith day of December~ 1894, an act was passed official action by injunction or mandamus, where such suits are authorized by the general assembly of South Carolina entitled "An act to proVIde for by law, and the act to be done or omitted is purely ministerial, in the per­ calling a constitutional convention, to provide the number and qualifications formance or omission of which the plaintiff h:JS a legal interest." of members of the convention, their compensation, etc., and to provide for In Davis vs. Gray (16 WalL, 200) the Supreme Court held that a circuit court the election of the same, and to define and prescribe the qualifications of the of the United States, in a proper casein equity, may enjoin a State office1·from electors and the manner of the election and of declaring the result." That executing a State la.w in coii.flict with the Constitutwn or a statute of the. by section 4 of SP.id act it is declared who shall be entitled to vote for delP.­ United States when such execution will violate the rights of the complainant; gates to said constitutional convention, and that in addition to the qualiiica· that making a State officer a party does not make the &tate a party, although tions prescribed for electors by the constitution of the Stat'e of South Caro­ her law may prompt hi-s action and she may stand behind him as the real lina is provided a further one, viz: "That the elector be duly registered, as party in interest. That case was a suit by Gray against Davis, the governor now required by law, or who, having been entitled to register as a voter at of the State of Texas, and Keuchler, commissioner of the land office of that the time of the general regist1·ation of electors in the State., which took place State, and the injunction issued by the circuit court of the United States for in the year 1882, or at any time subsequent thereto. failed to register at such the western district of Texas, restraining said officers from issuing and sign­ time, or who bas become a. citizen of this State and who shall register as ing certain land warrants, was sustained, as I have mentioned, by the ~u­ hereinafter provided in such cases." preme Court of the United States. Other provisions of the laws and of the constitution of the State of South In the case of Pennoyer vs. MeConna.ughy (140 U. S., 1), in which the Carolina are set forth, but I do not deem it necessary to now recite them. Supreme Court reviewed the cases bearing on the subject, Mr. Justice Lamar, The bill charges that W. Briggs Green bas been appointed to the otfice of speaking for the court, said: "But the general doctl-ine of Osborne 1:s. The supervisor of registration for Richland County in pursuance of said re~istra­ Bank of the United States, that the circuit courts of th.e United States will tion laws; that be is now exercising the duties prescribed by the same, and restrain a State officer frolll executing an unconstitutional statute of the that be intends to continue so to act, and that he intends to furrisb to the State, when to execute it would violate rights and privileges of tb.e complain­ several boards of managers for the precinct in which plaintiff resides in said ant which bad been ~ranteed by the Constitution, and would work irre­ county, who bold .tJ?.e election of_delegates to said 9onsti~utional convention, parable damage and mjury to him, bas never been departed from. On the certain paper writmgs purporting to be the regiStratiOn books for use at contrary, the principles of that case have been recognized and enforced in a. such precincts. very large number of cases, notably in those we have referred to as belong­ The complainant says that he failed to register at the registration made ing to the se-cond class of cases above mentioned." In reference to the case after the general election in 1888, and during the ten days in March, 1895, pro­ just referred to, he used this language: "The first class is where the suit is vided for m the act of 1894, bec..

• 1896. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD- HOUSE. _ 5761

eligible to any office which now is, or h~reaft~r shall be, elec~ive by the people that, notwithstanding the restraints of those articles on the States and the in the county where he shall have resided siXty days preVIous to such elec­ laws passed under the additional powers granted to Congress, they were tion, except as otherwise provided in this constitution or the.Constitution and inadequate for the protection of life, liberty, and property, without which laws of the United States." freedom to the slaves was no boon. They were in all those States denied the ART. 8, SEO. 8. "The general assembly shall never pass any law that will right of suffrage. The laws were administered by the white man alone. It deprive any of the citizens of this State of the right of suffragei except for was urged that a race of men distinctively marked as was the negro, living treason, murder, robbery, or dueling, whereof the person shal have been in the midst of another and dominant race, could never be fully secured in duly tried and convicted." their person and their propertv without the right of suffrage. . Section 2, Article I, of the Constitution of the United States is as follows: Hence the fifteenth amendment, which declares that "the right of a citi­ "The House of Representatives shall be composed of members chosen every zen of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by any State second year by the people of the several States, and the electors in each E ~ate on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude." The negro shall have the qualification requisite for electors of the most numerous having by the fourteenth amendment been declared to be a citizen of the branch of the State legislature." United States, is thus made a voter in every State of the Union. Section !~Article XIV (amendment), is in these words: "All ~ersons born or We repeat, then, in the light of this recapitulation of events, almost too naturalizea in the Unit-ed States and subject to the jurisdictwn thereof are recent to be called history, but which are familiar to us all, and on the most citizens of the UnHed States and of the State wherein they reside. No State casual examination of the languaae of these amendments, no one can fail to shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immu­ be impressed with the one pervading purpose found in them all, lying at the nities of the citizens of the United States; nor shall any Stat.e deprive any foundation of each, and without which none of them .would have been even person of life, liberty, or property without due process of law, nor deny to suggested. We mean the freedom of the slave race, the security and firm any person within its jurisdiction the eq_ual protection of the laws." establishment of that freedom, and the protection of the newly made free­ Article XV of the amendments to the Constitution reads: man and citizen from the o_:ppressions of those who bad formerly exercised SECTION 1. "The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be unlimited dominion over him. It is true that only the fifteenth amendment denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, iu terms mentions the negro by speaking of his color and his slavery. But color, or previous condition of servitude. it is just as true that each of the other articles was addressed to the griev­ •• SEC. 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appro­ ances of that race and designed to remedy them as the fifteenth. priate legislation." We do not say that no one else but the negro can share in this protection. The Congress has given to the circuit courts of the United States jurisdic­ Both the language and spirit of these articles are to have their fair and just tion of all suits to enforce the right of citizens of the United States to vote weight in any question of construction. Undoubtedly while negro slavery in the several States. alone was in the mind of the Congress which proposed the thirteenth article, it We find now that a citizen of South Carolina is a citizen of the United forbids any other kind of slavery now or hereafter. If Mexican peonage or States residing in that State. The rights, privileges, and immunities belong­ the Chinese cooly-labor system shall develop slavery of the Mexican or Chi­ ing to him as a free citizen are his as a citizen of the United States, and do­ nese race within our territ.ory, this amendment may safely be trusted to not depend upon his citizenship of that State. The plaintiff, Mills, a citizen make it void. And so if other rights are assailed by the States which prop­ of African descent, is a citizen of the United States and of the State of South erly and necessarily fall within the protection of these articles, that protec­ Carolina. . tion will apply, though the party interested may not be of African descent. By tht1fourteenth amendment he has been made a citizen of the United But what we do say, and what we wish to be understood, is that in any fair States, and by the fifteenth amendment he is a voter in the State in which and just constructiOn of any section or phase of these amendments it is nec­ he resides. Previous to the adoption of these amendments the race to which essary to look to .the purpose which we have said was the pervading spirit of he belongs had no rights that the white men of this country were bound to them all, the evil which they were designed to remedy and the process of respect, and it was not possible for anyone belonging to it to be a citizen of continued addition to the Constitution, until that purpose was supposed to the United States. In the Slaughter House Cases (16 Wall.,68) the Supreme be accomplished as far as constitutional law can accomplish it. Court of the United States, referring to the time immediately preceding and The first section of the fourteenth article, to which our attention is more folloWing the adoption of these amendments, said: - especially invited, opens with a definition of citizenship-not only citizenship "The institution of African slavery, as it existed in about half the States of the United States, but citizenship of the States. No such definition was of the Union, and the contests pervading the public mind for many years previously found in the Constitution, nor had any attempt been made to de­ between those who desired its curtailment and ultimate extinction and those fine it by act of Congress. It had been the occasion of much discussion in who desired additional safeguards for its security and perpetuation cul­ the courts, by the Executive Departments, and in the public journals. It minated in the effort on the part of most of the States in which slavery had been said by eminent judges that no maL was a Citizen of the United existed to separate from the Federal Government and to resist its authority. States except as he was a citizen of one of the States composing the Union. "This constituted the war of the rebellion, and whatever auxiliary causes Those, therefore, who had been born and resided always in the District of may have contributed to bring about this war, undoubtedly the overshadow­ Columbia or in the Territories, though within the United States, were not ing and efficient cause was African slavery. citizens. Whether this proposition was sound or not had never been judi­ "In that struggle, slavery, as a legalized social relation, perished. It per­ cially decided. But it had been held by this court, in the celebrated bred ished as a neces.<>ity of the bitterness and force of the conflict. When the Scott case (19 How., 393), only a few years before the outbreak of the civil armies of freedom found themselves upon the soil of slavery they could do war, that a man of African descent, whether a slave or not, was not and nothing less than free the poor victims whose enforced servitude was the could not be a citizen of a State or of the United States. This decision, while foundation of the quarrel, and when hard pressed in the contest these men­ it met the condemnation of some of the ablest statesmen and constitutional for they proved themselves men in that terrible crisis-offered their services lawyers of the country, had never been overruled; and if it was to be ac­ and were accepted by thousands to aid in suppressing the unlawful rebellion. cepted as a constitutional limitation of the right of citizenship, then all the Slavery was at an end wherever the Federal Government succeeded in that ne~ro race who had recently been made freemen were still not only not purpose. The proclamation of President Lincoln expressed an accomplished citiZens, but were incapable of becoming so by anything short of an amend- fact as to-a. large portion of the insurrectionary districts when he declared ment to the Constitution. · slavery abolished in them all. But, the war bemg over, those who had suc­ To remove this difficulty primarily and to establish a clear and compre­ ceeded in reestablishing the authority of the Federal Government were not hensive definition of citizenship which would declare what should constitute content to permit this great act of emancipation to rest on the actual results citizenship of the United States and also citizenship of a State the first clause of the contest or the proclamation of the ExecutLve, both of which might of the first section was framed: have been questioned in after times, and they determined to place this main "All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the and most valuable result in the Constitution of the restored Union as one of jurisdiction thereof are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein its fundamental articles. Hence the thirteenth article of amendment to that thev reside." instrument. Its two short sections seem hardly to admit of construction, so The first observation we have to make on this clause is that it puts at rest ~~~t~~-is their expression and so appropriate to the purpose we have both the questions which we stated to have been the subject of differences of opinion. It declares that persons may be citizens of the United States with­ . •· '1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment out regard to their citizenship of a particular State, and it overturns the Dred for crime, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist Scott decision by making !tll persons born within the United States and sub­ within the United States or any place subject to their jurisdiction; . ject to its jurisdiction citizens of the United States. That its main purpose "' 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legis­ was to establish the citizenshi~ of the negro can admit of no doubt. The lation.' * * .* phrase "subject to its jurisdiction" was intended to exclude from its opera­ "The proces.se situated like him from exercising the rights to suffer by the stronger? How difficult for them to thus write out the books conferred upon and guaranteed to him.? A registration law is not per se un­ of their lives and have all the pages thereof attested by t wo witnesses reputa.­ constitutional, but is the one referred to in the bill such as should be upheld ble in the estimation of the registrar who is to judge them. In my opinion by the courts? Does the State of South Carolina by this legislation deprive the fact that there still remains several days -prior to the election-during the plaintiff of any of the privilege to which he is entitled by the Constitution which the plaintiff may apply for registration does not, in the light of the of the United States and of that State? Does it deprive him of his liberty by allegations of the bill, the proofs tendered, and admissions made prevent him taking from him a right by which he can preserve that liberty? Does it deny from asking for nor the court from granting the relief prayed for. him the equal protection of her laws by enacting- a system of registration I w~ ask~d, in ~~ any portion of the said r egistration laws should. be which does not protect but destroys his right.<>? lf it does disfranchise him, found mvalid to elimmate the part so found and decree that the remainmg are not his liberty and his property taken from him? If it does prevent him section should stand. I have not been able to make the ~.eparation, for I find from voting (it i'3 shown that he is duly qualified) for delegates to the consti­ it all so interwo>en as to render it impracticable, so far as re ults are con­ tutional convention mentioned in the bill, which ma.y so change the organic cerned, and I can not winnow when there is no grain in behalf of those so law of the State as to affect his life, his property, his liberty, his franchise, treated. All intere;,ted in the welfare of their country and desirous of seeing does it not do him a grievous wrong, and by what authority? As pertinent its laws enforced should prote.st in order that public sentiment should no to this I quote the words of Mr. Justice Swayne in the Slaughterhouse Cases: longer be dormant. but m ay by its activity rouse the community that has "Life, liberty, and property are forbidden to be taken without due process long suffered b y such outrages to a realization of their cause, and to an appre­ of law, and Pqual protection of the laws is guaranteed to all. Life is the gift ciation of the beneficial results to be secured by the abolishment of the sys­ of God, and the right to preserve it is the most sacred of the rights of man. tem that has caused them. Liberty is freedom from all restraints, but such as are justly imposed bylaw. If we may judge of what the intention of the legislature was by the inevi­ Beyond that line lies the domain of usurpation and tyranny. Property is table result of its enadment, as we are assured we can (Soon Hing vs. Crow­ everywhere that which has an exchangeable value, and the right of property ley, 113 U. S., 703; l\Iinnesota vs. Barber, 136 U. S., 313), then the one object includes the power to dispose of it according to the will of the owner. Labor that controlled the minds of those who formulated the enactment I have been is property, and as such merits protection. The right to make it available is considering was how be t to abridge and destroy the greatest number of votes next in importance to the rights of life and liberty. Itliestoalargeextentat of the citizens of African descent, while at the same time interfering with as the foundation of most other forms of property, and of all solid individual few as possible of the votes of the white race. The fact is that with a candor and national property. 'Due process of law' is the application of the law as that was as frank as it was amazing this was nrtually admitted during the it exists in the fair and regular course of administrative procedure. • The argument of this case. It is evident that the effect of this registration system equal protect ion of the laws' places all upon a footing of leJ?al equality and is to fearfully impede the exercise of the right of suffrage by the colored gives the same protection to all for the preservation of life, lioerty, and prop­ voters of the State of South Carolina. It to a great extent defeats their con­ erty and the pursuit of happiness." (16 Wall., 127.) stitutional right to vote, and it seems to be its leading I must be permitted It is not my intention at this time to state in detail the requirements and to say its only object, the effort being to so legislate as to apparently respect effect of each section of said registration law, but simply t.he result that I constitutional requirements, but at the same time stab to the death the rights reach after a careful scrutiny of them all, aided as I have been by the ex­ and immunities guaranteed by them. haustive analvsis of the same made by counsel. I find no warrant in the Finding as I d o that the r egistration laws.of South Carolina are unconsti­ constitution for the certificate required by the registration law to be issued tutional, and that their enforcement will deprive the plaintiff, a citizen of to the voter, the production of which is required at the polls or his vote is to the United States, of the rights of a citizen of the same, I conclude 'that this be rejected. This is not regist ration which is simply the entering on the court has jurisdiction of this case, and that the same is not a. proceeding books or lists of voters of the names of those qualified under the constitution against the State of South·Carolina prohibited by the eleventh amendment to vote, but it is an adchtional requirement to those mentioned iii the organic to the Constitution of the United States. I find that the bill does present a law, not intended, I am constramed to believe, to facilitate the full, free, and question arising under the Constitution and laws of the United States, and legal expression of those entitled to exercise the right of suffra~e- Such re­ that the plaintiff has not a plain and adequate remedy at law; that the bill is quirement is unreasonable, burdensome, and harassing, and Cieat·ly it im­ sufficiently verified and not multifarious. Under these circumstances it is pedes and abridges the right of the constitutional voters of the State to cast the duty of the circuit court of the United States for the district of- South their ballots. The additional requirement that the voter moving from one Carolina to ent-ertain this complaint-an instance in which duty mingles with place to another in the same precinct must surrender his old and secure a inclination. · new certificate is without reason and vexatious, while the mode prescribed I have noticed during the progress of this case a disposition to re~ard this for securing a renewal thereof in case of lossis so cumbersome and peculiarly court as a foreign jurisdiction. much to my surprise and regret. This is as stringent that it likely fulfills its object in deterring the ordinary voter from much a court of the State of South Carolina as is the circuit or supreme court making the effort. of that State. The State of South Carolina a sisted in forming the Constitu­ The re~istration of voters closes on the 1st day of July preceding a gen­ tion and making the laws by virtue of which this court was organized and eral electiOn, which is held in November following. What possible reason is now convenes. This court is and will be as careful and as jealous of the honor there for this un!easonable course? During the four m~)Dt~ precedin~ an and the interests of that State as any of her citizens can be, and it hopes to election-the period voters generally devote to the exammation of questions merit their esteem by being worthy of it. A distinguished jurist of that State then to be determined and to the placing of their names on the voting lists is my associate on the circuit and the Chief Justice of the United States is i.ts when such lists are required-it is utterly impossible for any duly qualified presiding justce. Why such a court of the United States, convening in South voter to have his name registered, and necessarily results in depriving many Carolina administaring the laws of the nation and of that State, should be of them of the right of suffrage. The only parties permitted to register regarded as a foreign court is wonderful in the extreme and as strange as is during the four months preceding the election are those becoming of age the story relative to which it is about to enter its decree. during the period, provided they furnish satisfactory proof. The constitu­ I will pass an order, as prayed for by complainant, restraining and enjoin­ tion says that the citizen who shall have been a resident of the State for one ing t he defendant individually and as supervisor of r egistration from the per­ year and of the county in which he offers to vote for sixty days next preced­ formance of any of the acts mentioned and complained of in the bill. mg any election shall be entitled to vote at such election, and yet he is pro­ NATHAN GOFF, hibited by this requirement from so doing.. He has completed his one year's United States Circuit Judge. residence after the 1st day of July, but he can not register because the books MAYS, 1895. are closed, and he can not vote because his name is not UJ;>On the books, and there is no provision by which he can prove to the electiOn officers at the polls that he is a qualified and legal voter. This entire provision is most [Opinion of Melver, C. J., of the snpreme court of South Carolina, in the case peculiar, without a precedent, and without defense even from the advocates of Matthew C. Butler vs. William H. Ellerbe and another, as fiscal offi.cers of the law. of the State. 22 S.C. Rep., 425,437. Rendered .Tuly 6, 1895.] Why the books sho~d. be closed .for mtration law, in pursuance of which such tions.'' But, m addition to this, in section 8 of the same article it is expressly application is threatened to be made, violates the constitution of the State. declared that the general assembly "shall never pass any law that will de­ If It does, then, of course, it is null and void, and any appropriation of the prive any of the citizens of this State of the right of suffrage, except for public funds in pursuance of the provisions would be illegal and should be treason," and other offenses named in the section, "whereof the person shall restrained. We see no ground whatever for the estoppel claimed. have been duly tried and convicted." The provision of section 3 of article Coming, then, to the main question in the case, we find that the question 8 is as follows: "It shall be the duty of the general assembly to provide of the constitutionality of a. statute requiring the registration of voters has from time to time for the registration of all electors. . , : - been very frequently before the courts of the several States, and it seems to The original provisions for the re!ristration of voters will be found in the be settled that. even in States whose constitutions are silent upon the subject, act apJ?roved 9th of February, 1882 d7 Statutes at Large, page ll10), and these a statute requiring a registration of voters is not per se unconstitutional, as proVlSwns are incorporated in General Statutesl882, beginning with section such a statute is regarded as a mere regulatjon of the constitutional right to 89 and ending with section 106; and such provisions, as subsequently amended, vote. and is designed to furnish evidence of the fact that the voter is pos­ are incorporated in the Revised Statutes of 1893 as sections ~31-156 both in­ sessed of the qualifications fixed by the constitution. But it seems to be as clusive. From a careful examination of the various statutory provisions1 thus well settled that where the purport and effect of a registration law is to add referred to, it seems to us that the manifest scope and intent of such legisla­ to or to take away any of the qualifications prescribed by the consticution, tion was that there should be but one general registration of voters, to wit~ or where its effect is to obstruct, subvert, or even unnecessarily to impede, tliat provided for in 1.882, and that when the registration books were closea the exercise of the right conferred by the constitution., it can not be sus­ for that year a person who was then a qualified voter, but who had failed tained, but must be held an unconstitutional invasion of the constitutional from any cause, whether from sickness, absence, or other cause, to register, right of suffrage. was ever thereafter deprived of this right of suffrat\e, for there is no pro­ These views are fully supported by the authorities elsewhere (for so far as vision by which such a person could afterwards be auowed to register; and weare informed we have no casein this State upon the subject), which. though section 132 of the Revised Statutes expressly declares that "no person shall not binding on us, are recommended to our approval by the reasoning upon be allowed to vote at any election hereafter to be held unless he shall have which they are founded, as well as by the high character of the courts from been heretofore registered in conformity with the requirements of chapter 1 which they_come. (See Capen vs. Foster, It Pick., 485, reported also with of the General Statutes of 1882, and the acts amendatory thereof, or shall be elaborate notes in 23 Am.. Dec., 632, frequently referred to as the leading case registered as herein required." upon the subject.) In Kinneen vs. Wells,144 Mass.,497; ll N. E.,916,~.the ques­ Now, on turning to the chapter of the General Statutes of 1882 and the acts tion was as to the constitutionality of the registration law of that o::;tate, con­ amendatory thereof, we find that, while provision is made in section 9-i of taining a provision forbidding any naturalized person to be registered as a that chapter, corresponding with section 137 of the RAvised Statnte!S, for open­ voter within thirty days after his naturalization, and it was held that such :pro­ ing the books of re~istration after every general election, not, however, for vision was unconstitutional because it purported to add to the qualificatiOns the purpose of reglStering voters generally, but "for registration of such of a voter as fixed by the constitution the further qualification that such :persons as shall thereafter become entitled to register" (italics ours), there voter should be possessed of the qualifications named in the constitution for 1s no provision for the registration of persons who had previously become a period of thirty dayR before he could be registered as a qualified voter. entitled to register. Renee it follows, necessarily, that one who had been a The court, after noticin~ the further objection that such a. provision was qualified voter and, as such, entitled to register before such general election unconstitutional because It was not impartial, inasmuch as it imposed are­ could not then avail hilllSelf of the privilege offered by that section. The striction upon a. certain class of voters-naturalized persons-not imposed language found in section 94 of the General Statutes of 1882 is stronger than upon any other cla s, ~oes on to say that even if the provision were general that found in section 137 of the Revised Statutes from which we have quoted, in its character, applymg alike to all classes of ~oters, it would still be uncon­ for in the Gi3neral Statutes of 1882 the language is prohibitory and forbids stitutional, because it added to the qualifications of a. voter as fixed in the reopening the registration books except for the purpose of registration of constitution the further requirement that he should be possesed of such qual­ such persons as shall become entitled to register after the next election; and ifications for a speCified time before be offers himself for re~tration, even as to this privileged class, their day of g~ce expires on the 1st day of whereas every person who is possessed of the necessary qualifications at the July preceding a general election, something over four months before the time he offers himself for reglStration is entitled to be registered, without general election, which is fixed by law for the first Tuesday after the first any regard to the length of time he has been possessed of the necessary Monday in November in every second year. reckoning from the year 1870. qualifications. (Const., article 2, section 3; Rev. Stat., section 162.) It is true also that In delivering the opinion of the court,Devens,J.1 uses this language: "It is sections 96 and 97 of the General Statutes of 1882, as well as the correspond­ not an unreasonable provision that all persons entitled as voters shall be reg­ ing sections of the Revised Statutes (:!.40 and 141), do make special provisions istered as such previously to depositing their ballots, and if the legislature for a certain class of voters, to wit, minors who come of age and are other­ deems that such an inquiry could not proceed concw·rently with the actual wise qualified, but; this provision is confined to that particular class, and is, voting or election, and both be conducted in a deliberate and orderly manner, therefore, not an impartial provision. it is not unreasonable that it should provide that such an inquiry should ter­ It seems to us that this feature of the registration law, to say nothing of minate before the election actually commences at a previous time sufficiently other constitutional objections, renders it obnoxious to that provision of the long to make proper preparations therefor." Again, after referring to Capen constitution above quoted which makes it the duty of the general assembly vs. Foster, supra, as a leading case on the subject, he says: "But, while it is to provide from time to time for the registration of all electors. The lan­ held to be within the proper limits of legislative power to provide suitable guage of that constitutional provision necessarily implies that its purpose regulations for exercising the right of suffrage in a prom~t and orderly and was to require the general assembly to provide every facility for the regis­ tration of all electors, by providing for the registration of a.ll electors "from :~:f~~i~~ta!fda:npS~c~h: ~~~ir:J:~~~ul~~?o~d~e~ar~~~e f!h~':~h';: time to time," so that, as far as practicable, no elector should be deprived of exetcise of legislative power as, under the pretense and color of regulating, his right of suffrage, and that this law, wh!.ch provided for one general regis­ should subvert or injuriously restrain, the right itself.'" tra.tid'n more than ten years ago, and afforded no other opportunity t.o any And again he says: "Every system of registration of voters contemplates elector, except tbose of a certain class, to comply with its provisions, even that the registration will be completed and that the list of voters will be pre­ though his failure to avail himself of the first and only opportunity ever pared before voting actually commences. No system would be just that did offered him to register resulted from sickness, al>sence, or other good cause, not extend the time of registration up to a time as near that of actually de­ must be regarded as a violation both of the spirit and letter of the consti­ positing the votes as would be consistent with the necessary preparation for tution. conducting the election in an orderly manner,and with a reasonable scrutiny Inasmuch as the right of suffrage is provided for and guaranteed by the for the correctness of the list." In the case of City of Owensboro vs. Hick­ constitution, and the general assembly is expressly forbidden from passing man (Ky.),l4 S. W.,688, the registration law there considered provided for a any law depriving any citizen of the right of suffrage, exce_pt in certamcases registration of voters in the city of Owensboro, to be made on the first Mon­ not pertinent to the present inquiry, it would seem at first blush as if any law day in July and the two succeeding days, at which those only could be- regis­ making it a prerequisite to the exercise of this constitutional privilege that tered who would be entitled to vote at the August election ensuing, and also the voter should be registered would be in violation of the constitution as provided that no vote shall be received at any election h!'ld within a year adding an additional requirement to those mentioned in the constitution for unless the voter's name is on the registry made in July. Held that the act the exercise of this right. But, as we have seen, this is not the correct view was not a. reasonable regulation of the elective franchise, and was void under of a registration law, which is a mere regulation as to the mode and manner the constitution of Kentucky, :providing that every male citizen 21 years in which this constitutional right maybe exercised. The constitution simply of age, who had resided in the State two years, and in the county, town, or provides that every citizen :possessed of certain specified qualifications shall city one year next preceding the election shall be a voter. be entitled to exercise the nght of suffra~e, but It makes no provision as t o In that case the court< while conceding the power of the legislature to enact how the fact shall be ascertained that a citizen claiming the right to vote is a uniform and reasona.ole registration law, used this language: " T he true possessed of the required qualifications. It is, therefore, not only proper b ut theory u pon which those laws are based is that t hey m ust not impair or necessary t hat t he legislature should make such r egulations as 1t may deem 5764 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD- HOUSE. !fAy. 26, best for the purpose of determining the question of fact whether a person those features which have been' specially commented on are eliminated from offering to vote is possessed of the necessary constitutional qualifications; the act, as they must be if in conflict with the constitution, then the effect and this, in our judgment, is the true office of a registration law. would oe that we would have upon the statute book a law in a form which It is also nothing but reasonable and proper that such an inquiry should never received the sanction of the legislature, and this can not be. To use terminate prior to the election, as it might greatly delay and possibly defeat th~ languag~ of the Michigan court in A_ttorney-~enf!~ralvs. City of Detroit the full exercise of the right of suffrage if it had to be conducted while the (Mich.) (4:4 N. W.,388), we may say: "This law bemg,m the respects pointed election was going on; and hence a law which provides for closing the regis­ out, both unreasonable and in conflict with tht~ constitution, and 1t being tration books for such a len~th of time as would be reasonably n ecessary to apparent th!l-t the legislature would not have enacted the other portions of enable the supervisor of regiStration to prepare and furnish the managers of the act had 1t foreseen that the courts would declare these parts unconstitu­ elections at each polling precinct with ~copy of the list of registered voters tional, the whole act must fall and be held unconstitutional and void." We for such pracinct would not probably be regarded as an unreasonable reg­ must therefore conclude that the registration law of this State is uncon­ ulation. If, however, the law provides for closing the registration books for stitutional, null, and void, and hence any appropriation of the public moneys such a length of time before the election as would be manifestly unreasona­ for the pay of the supervisors of regi tration for carrying out the provisions ble and unnecessary for that :purpose, then such a law could not be defended ~~ ~~~Md~~~titutional statute is without the warrant of law, and should :1s a legitimate exercise of legislative power; for under color of regulation, it would have the effect of subverting and injunously1 restraining the right of suffrage, and would in some cases tota.lly defeat such right. :Mr. JENKINS. I agree with both of the learned judges that It seems to us that the law under consideration is open to this objection, the law is unconstitutional, but disagree with both as to the rea­ tor it provides that the registration books shall be closed on the 1st day of July preceding every general election, which, as we have seen, is fixed for sons or points upon which the law should be held unconstitu­ the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November in every second year, tional. I do not think that any lawyer, even in South Carolina, reckonin~ from the year 1870, and shall not be reopened prior to such gen­ would have any respect for the opinion of any gentleman who eral electwn, except for the purpose of enabling mmors coming of age and possessed of the other necessary qualifications to register. Surely a period would say that the law in question is constitutional. For the of four months is wholly unreasonable aud entirely unnecessary for the clos­ purposes of the discussion 1 will very briefly refer to the consti­ ing of the registration books previous to a general election, and the inevita­ tution and point out the defect in the law as I understand it. ble effect is to deprive a certain class of citizens of the ri~ht to vote at such election, to wit, those who, being otherwise qualified, complete their required Article 8, section 2, of the constitution of South Carolina provides: term of residence either m the State or county within such period of four month.q, Every male citizen of the United States- Take, for instance, the case of a person who, being possessed of other con­ With certain exceptions not necessary to be noticed- stitutional qualifications, only completes the required term of residence, either in the State or county, on the 1st day of October immediately preceding any 21 years or upward, resident of the State at the time of the adoption of general election. By this provision of the law he is deprived of his right of the constitution, or who shall hereafter reside in the State one year and in suffrage, although it may be susceptible of proof to a demonstration that on the county where offering to vote sixty days preceding any electiOn, shall be the day of election he is, and for more than a month preceding has been, entitled to vote; in short, the only qualification in general terms required by fully possessed of all the qualifications of an elector as fixed by the constitu­ the constitution is that the man shall be 21 years of age, a resident of the tion, simply because he had not performed an impossible act by registering State one year, and a resident of the county where offering to vote sixty prior to the precedin~ July, which, under the case supposed, it would have days. been impossible for him to have done, as he had not, prior to the preceding July, completed his required term of residence. It is manifest that such a It will not require any argument to prove that the lawful elect;.. law can not be defended as a reasonable and necessary regulation of the mode ors of South Carolina are by the requirements of the statute de­ of exercising the elective franchise, and is in direct conflict with the constitu­ prived of their constitutional rights, and that the statute does tion; for, in the case supposed, which no doubt has freq_uently occurred, the constitution guarantees the right to vote, but the regiStration law forbids impair the rights of electors and imposes conditions and makes the exercise of such right because the person in question had not shown, four unreasonable and burdensome requirements not warranted by the months previous to the election, what it was impossible for him then to have Constitution; and I think the law is void for reasons following: shown-that he was then possessed of all the constitutional qualifications­ notwithstanding the fact that there was ample time for him to have shown, First. As affecting electors moving into South Carolina from a if allowed the opportunity that he was on the day of election, and had been sister State or from a foreign country, or from one county to an­ for at least one month, fully possessed of all the qualifications of an elector. other in the State; for by the terms of the constitution a person, Much complaint has been made in the argument against what may be designated as the certificate feature of the act, which, it is claimed, is pe­ otherwise qualified, removing into South Carolina from outside culiar to the registration law of this State, by which it is provided that the the State can vote if a resident of the State a year and of the supervisor of registration is required to furnish to each registered voter a county where offering to vote sixty days prior to any general certifl.e&te in the form prescribed in section 142 of the Revised Statutes, which he is required to exhibit to the managers of election before he can be election. allowed to vote, and which forbids him from voting at any other polling It will be observed by the terms of the statutes that the person precinct than that mentioned in such certificate. seeking registration must be an elector when offering to register. We must say, however, that we are not prepared to condemn this act simply on account of that feature. Indeed, if the proper construction of the act is By the terms of the constitution an elector should be permitted that the exhibition of such certificate is conclusive of the voter's right to to register the day before the general election in order not to deny vote, we are inclined tothinkthatsuch afeature is not only unobjectionable, the elector the right to vote when moving into the State one year but preferable to a. provision whereby the voter's right to vote is made to before or from one county to another sixty days before a general depend upon the fact that his name is found on the list of registered voters furnished the managers of election by the supervisor of registration; for in election. An elector who has lived all of his days in South CarO­ the former case the voter is made the custodian of the evidence of his right lina is, if he moves from one county to another sixty-one days be­ to vote. whereas in the latter case his right is made to depend upon the act fore election, as much affected by the statute as one coming in of another, and he may entirely lose his right by the carelessness or incom­ petency of an official in making out the list, to say nothing of the danger of from outside the State, for the constitution in imposing qualifica­ his being deprived of his right by the willful omission of his name from the tions for electors in this particular simply requires that he reside list by a corrupt official. If, however, upon a proper construction of the act in the countr where offering to vote sixty days prior to the next it is necessary, as is supposed by some-for which supposition the languap:e of section 155 of the Revised Statutes affords some warrant-that to entitle general election. one to vote he must not only exhibit his certificate to the managers of election, Neither of the learned judges so often referred to speak of this but his name must also appear upon the list furnished the managers by the feature of the law. In other words, if at any time after the 1st supervisors of registration, then 1t does seem that such double requirement is unnecessarily burdensome, well calculated to impede the exercise of the right day of July before a general election and sixty days before the of suffrage, and sometimes entirely defeat such r1ght, without any fault on the same general election an elector of South Carolina and who has part of the voter; for, though he may have carefully preserved and promptly lived all of his days in the State moves from one county to another, exhibited his certificate of registration to the managers of election, he yet may lose his right to vote solely because his name does not appear on the list he can not vote; for by the terms of the registry law he must be furnished by the supervisor, for the act makes no provision for the publica­ registered in the county where offering to vote, and his name tion of the list of registered voters prior to an election, whereby the voter must appear upon the registration books of his precinct on or be­ can ascertain whether his name appears on such list and if it had been omit­ fore the 1st day of July, and the provisions of section 148 under ted through carelessness or even oversight on the part of the official charged with the duty of preparing such list, have it inserted. the codification or 102 of the law of 1882 do not help out the voter We do not deem it necessary to go into any detailed consideration of the removing from one county to another, and are really of no benefit; various provisions of the act in regard to the substitution of a new certificate for the books were closed July 1 to every elector as far as regis­ for one which has been lost or destroyed by no fault on the part of the voter, or of the provisions of the change of certificate where the holder changes his tration is concerned, excepting those coming of age after July 1 place of residence, even from one point to another in the same precinct, but or awarded a certificate on appeal. must say that these provisions seem to be unnecessarily harsh and burden­ No doubt it was intended to protect the voter removing from some, and, whether so intended or not, are well calculated to impede and obstruct the exercise of the right of suffrage. one county to another in the State, but taking the statute as a There is one feature of this act which is not without significance. Sections whole, providing explicitly for the closing of the books on the 1st 151-154, Revised Statutes, expressly require that the supervisor of re~istra­ day of July, it certainly disfranchises this class of electors. The tion •· shall, immediately preceding each election, revise the registratiOn of electors and mark off the names of such electors as have died and such as section quoted only applies to such removals taking place more have removed from one residence precinct, parish, ward, or county to an­ than sixty days prior to July 1, and affords no relief to the class other without notifying him and obtaining a certificate of transfer," and the who I insist are barred by these statutes. The same difficulty is other sections referred to make provision for obtaining the names of per­ sons who, within the two preceding years, have been convicted of any offense met with in case a citizen of Georgia should move into South Car­ disq.ualif-png a person from voting, which names shall be erased from the olina a year before a general election to be there held. By the reg1stratwn list; but there is a singular absence of any like provision for re­ constitution his year's residence would make him a voter; but he vising the registration list "immediately preceding each t~lection" by adding thereto the names of qualified electors whose names, from any cause, may can not vote, for he has not been registered. He could not regis­ have been omitted from the list. The revision thus expressly provided for ter, for he was not an elector on or before July 1, when the books is altogether one-sided, and can not, therefore, be regarded as e1ther reason­ were closed against him until after the election was held. able or just. Second. Because the electo:q3 are required to go to the county The features of our registration law which have thus been shown to be unconstitutional are so intimately connected with and so interwoven with it.s seat to register instead of being permitted to register at the pre:­ other p1·ovisions that the whole act must be declared unconstitutional. If cinct where entitled to vote. This ground was not mentioned by 1896. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-- HOUSE~ - 5765

either of the same learned judges, but I think the objection is qualified? In this pa-rticular the law should be liberally construed good. It is an unreasonable requirement greatly abridging the for the benefit of an elector in the light of the constitution, so as constitutional right of the elector, imposing greatly upon his time not to deprive a voter of his political rights fully and clearly ex- and ability, an imposition not warranted by the constitution, and pressed in the letter of the statute. . not a reasonable regulation of the elective franchise. Both of the judges condemn this feature of the law as they con­ Third. In case of change from one polling place to another in strue it in strong terms. One of them remarks "that it was a requiring the surrender and cancellation of the former certificate, stupendous outrage, and that while the statement is correct, it and such evidence as the register may deem proper as to the right seems incredible," and evidence has been offered to prove that the of the elector to such change. The constitution does not contem­ construction placed upon the law in this particular by the two plate that any such extensive power should be conferred upon the learned judges is the construction placed upon the law by some supervisor of registration. An American citizen ought to be per­ of the registration officers of South Caro~na. I can not agree mitted to change his place of residence at will without being com­ that the construction is colTect, and am loath to believe that the pelled to disclose to the supervisor of registration his reasons for lawmakirig power of a State would ever intend such a step, and I making the change when endeavoring to comply with the law to am satisfied that if so intended the general assembly did not accom­ entitle him to vote. plish their intention. When the law provided that the registra­ Fourth. In giving any power whatever to the supervisor of tion books should be opened for registration after every general registration to mark off the name of any elector for any reason, election for such persons as shall thereafter become entitled to and particularly because the law allows it to be done without register, it must have meant to apply it to every person who was notice to the elector, and in requiring the elector, if his name is a lawful elector at the time the books opened, including those en­ improperly stricken off, to apply within sixty days after the next titled to register in May and June, 1882. If not, what was the following election to prove to the satisfaction of the supervisor language used for?-if entitled to, but not registered in May or that his name should not be stricken from the book. The only June; 1882, he would thereafter become entitled to register. disability named in the constitution of South Carolina is in case The law must mean something, and, if not construed as I under­ of persons kept in almshouses, asylums, or of unsound mind or stand it, would be absolutely useless, for according to the conten­ confined in any public prison. All others are electors, yet the tion of the learned judges only those coming of age after 1882 and law permits the supervisor of registration to mark off the names those moving into the State would be entitled to register; but of electors who have removed from one residence, precinct, parish, there is an express provision of law for the registration of those ward, or county to another, those convicted of murder, burglary, subsequently coming of age, and if the general assembly had in­ larceny, perjury, or any other infamous crime, or duelling or tended this provision of the law for the benefit only of those mov­ petit larceny. The constitution does not disqualify even a mur­ ing into a State after the 1st day of July, 1882, they would have derer. As far as crime is concerned it is only those who are con­ said so in plainer and more unmistakable terms. Under the law fined in a public prison who axe disqualified by the constitution, once registered, always registered, unless stricken off, and as soon but it will be observed in this particular that the registration as the books were opened after a general election every person not statute imposes a great many disqualifications in addition to those registered and otherwise qualified for registry could register. contained in the constitution. However this may be, and however much we may differ as to the­ Under the constitution any man convicted of crime is still an rea~on and the extent that the law should be considered unconsti­ elector as soon as he gets out of the public prison, but under the tutional, it will make no difference; and while I desire to express statute a very large number are disqualified. In order to vote an myself in favor of the unconstitutionality of the law, I do not elector should not be required to prove a negative. The ridiculous­ want to adopt the entire reasoning of the two learned judges, but ness of it is seen in striking off the name of an elector reported express my individual views of the question. dead. One person in the county can not keep track of every other Conceding that there is ground for a difference as to the reason inhabitant, but the register is informed that the man is dead; he and extent, fair-minded people, qualified to speak on the subject, strikes his name off the roll, when, as a matter of fact, he is not must admit that not only is the law unconstitutional, but that in dead; but he has got to come up before the register and prove the proper cases Congress should so regard it and so act as to remedy fact that he is alive before he can vote. Every man entitled to any wrong. In my view of the South Carolina cases before the register should be permitted to have his-name remain on the reg­ House it will make no difference whether the law is unconstitu­ istration book without reference to ani subsequent disqualifica­ tional or not, but as the question has been raised, and is so very tion to vote. This view is not suggested by either of the learned important, it must be disposed of as justice requires, and it ought judges, but as far as the point is concerned I consider the objec­ to be done so fairly and understandingly. The mere fact that the tion well taken. law of a State is unconstitutional would not, in my judgment, be a It will be noted that both of these same learned judges expressed foundation for Congressional action or intervention, and ought the opinion that the law is unconstitutional for the reason that if not to make any difference if an election is held under it unless an -elector in 1882 duly qualified to registe-r failed to register prior a su:fficient·number be deprived of their rights..,by the law to 'affect to July 1 preceding the next general election, to be held N ovem­ the result. An unconstitutional law is the same as no law, but ber 7 of that year, he was not only prevented from voting at the may be a barrier until removed in proper proceedings brought by general election held in November, 1882, but has ever since that an interested party whose rights are affected, but no one can time been prevented from registering, and consequently denied complain of it unless deprived of some rights by reason of it. the right to vote. · - Suppose the entire registration law of a State to be unconstitu­ Perhaps I ought not to express my opinion as against the opin­ tional; in an election held under it for members of the Fifty-fourth ·ions of these two excellent jurists; but, however, I can not agree Congress, no one is deprived of his rights. What action could Con­ with them, and desire to express myself according to my own un­ gress take in regard to it? None whatever, in my judgment. derstanding of the law. The particular statute in question pro­ Concede that contests are inaugurated in every district on the ·vides in brief that all electors of the State shall be registered, and sin~le specification of the unconstitutionality of the law under no person shall be allowed to vote at any election hereafter to be which the election was held. Could the contestants be awarded held unless he shall have heretofore been registered iri conformity their seats? I contend not; neither could Congress deprive the with the requirements of chapter 7 of the General Statutes of 1882 contestees of their seats and declare the State um·epresented. The and acts amendatory thereof,' or shall be registered as herein re­ ca~:~e would be entirely different, in my judgment, if the uncon­ quired, and after every general election the registration books stitutional law was so worded as to deprive one party or the other shall be opened for registration of such persons as shall thereafter of a sufficient number of votes to overcome the vote of the sitting become entitled to register on the first Monday of each month member, and if those disfranchised voters came to Congress with until the 1st day of July preceding the general election, when the a statement of facts showing that they were electors entitled by the same shall be closed until such general election shall take constitution of their State to vote, had applied for registration but place. · were denied it, had offered to vote but were refused on the ground A general election having taken place in South Carolina in 1882, that they were not registered, and that if they had been permitted the electors had until the 1st fday of July to register. We were to vote would have voted for the contestant, Congress would not not informed when the law o 1882 took effect, but presumably be doing its duty if it did not count the vote of the disfranchised on or about the 1st day of May, as both judges speak of the months electors and seat the contestant. of May and June in which the electors had to register, so that the Certainly before a man can be heard to declare a law unconsti­ books would be opened on the first Monday of May 2nd the first tutional or have it set aside for his benefit he must show that the Monday of June, and remain open, if necessary, to hear applica­ law or manner of its enforcement impairs his constitutional tions for registration until the 1st day of July. Those then not rights or that he ha.s endeavored to enforce his rights under the registering, if otherwise qualified, would certainly be permitted law and been denied his constitutional rights. As applied to this to thereafter register within the letter of the statute. Certainly case an elector can not remain inactive and absolutely refrain from it could not be presumed that the legislature intended the con­ attempting to register, or if denied registration refrain from vot­ struction claimed by the learned judges; that is, Is a man who was ing, and then come to Congress and ask the House in a contest to qualified to register in May or J nne, 1882, but did not, forever dis- count his vote. I do not mean to be understood as claiming that 5766 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD--HOUSE. MAY 26,

if the registration law be unconstitutional the elector must first There is no question but that if the law cited is to be fairly con· attempt to register, because he might be permitted to register strne~, every specification excepting the fourth is entirely in­ under an unconstitutional law, and if he could register under an snffiClent. Not one of them would be sufficient as a pleading unconstitutional law he has not been denied any of his rights. ~der an~ code .or at eomlllf>n law. Not one specifies the ground But where it is well known, as claimed in these South Carolina With particularity. We will take the tenth a.nd twelfth as a fair case that it would be useless for him to attempt registration, he illustration of all except the fourth: certainly ought to go as far as he can be permitted to go in offer­ ';l'enth. Th~t at the pr cinct of Bea~h Hill, in Colleton County, in the dis­ ing his vote, and then if denied the right to vote Congress should trlCt aforesa1d, the managers of election refused to receive the ballots of 300 certainly count it upon competent evidence that he is a voter. or more le~l vote_rs who desire? to v.ote forme, alleging as the reason there­ think for that thror cer tificates of regiStration were for Rid~ville p r ecinct· that I can not that when it is well known that the registration the Beach Hill preciz~d ~nd the said Ric;lge~le pre_cmct are one and the law is unconstitutional; that electors can refrain from exercising ~· the change bemg m name only, R1d~eV1lle bemg now in Beach Hill their rights, and then come here and ask Congress to do for them ~~~;\e~f~h~.formerly wa in Ri geville precinct, the metes and what they have not attempted to do for themselves, because it .?'welfth. That at the pre~inct of Su~ter, in Sumter County, in said dis­ can not be known whether the sam~ men won1d have voted if ti 1ct, t-h~ mana~1·s of elec~on by allowmg persons not r egistered to vote for permitted to or bow they would have voted. To attempt anything you, while denymg my fr1ends and supporters the same right by fraudu­ of the sort would be a dangerous exercise of power, liable in the lently abstra.cta?g from the ballot box ballots bearing my name 'for member of Congress whicli had been legally cast, and substituting and cormting bal­ end to do more harm than good, .and it would be far safer tore­ lots bearing your name for member of Congress, by false returns of the votes quire a voter to take the initiative and go as far as the officers of ?1 t and ~ounte4, and .other misconduct of said managers, you were accred­ election would allow him before complaining to Congress of the Ited at said preCinct With 233 votes, and I was accredited with 65 votes, when a correct count and return and proper management would have shown that denial of his rights. It would simply be a case of another wrong. you received 65 votes and I received 233 votes. Two wrongs can not make a right. Congress would be as much in error as the election officers of the State. Congress is as much A contestant has no right to assume fraud, make a general bound to observe the law as any other tl:ibunal. They must sup­ charge, and trust to the futm·e to find evidence to support it. port the proposition that every elector should be permitted to vote Such general specifications imply that they are not based upon if he wanted to and have his vote counted, and not disfranchise cr~ditabl~ eviden~; merely speculation general enough to admit electors unless entirely ju-stified in so doing. ~VIdence if a sufficient number of parties can be found to testify The power of Congress in this regard is very great, and should m suport of the general wording of the specification without be fairly and honestly exercised in a judicial manner, and not as knowledge ofthetrnth. Thenamesof thepersonsshould begiven, politicians would farm out appointments. I trust the time has and if any reliance is to be placed upon specification 12 the num· come when the Congress will so _act as to command the respect of ber allowed to vote not being I'egistered and the n~es of the all fair-minded people in the disposition of election cases, giving friends and supporters of the contestant, with the number of votes all interested parties to understand that it will always exercise its that were fraudulently abstracted from the ballot box bearing full constitutional powers in assisting to carry out the declared the nru;ne of the contestant, should be given. In short, the lan­ will of the people as expressed at the ballot box; that while it will ~age IS altogether too general to allow of any proof, and it is a not encourage unlawful or um·easonable contests, it will discom·­ fraud upon a contestee to uphold such general averments· fm it age every disobedience of the law, frauds, and intimidations. It deprives him of every opportunity to fm·nish evidence to defend is to be regretted that contests for seats in a legislative body have himself. to be determined by the house where the membership is sought, The fourth specifie3:ti~n charges that each and every membe1· and a tribunal should be erected in every State to dispose of all of the board of commiSsiOners were Democrats. That one might election contests, and when the National Government is inter­ b.e s~ent . The fluctuating decisions upon this important ques­ ested some suitable person or persons should join the State tri­ tion m many cases open the door to fraud, and it is time that the bunal in disposing of Federal cases. practice was settled, so that when -a notice of contest is served the The committee have endeavored to be governed in each case contestee will know just exactly what he has got to answer and by the law and the particular facts involved in each case, and what proof is required. In some cases the Honse has gone so far speaking for myself, I sincerely regret the condition of things ex­ as ~o hold that evid~c~ can be reqeived when there is no specifi­ isting in South Carolina as shown by the record, and earnestly cation. Such practice IS altogether too loose. The question has hope for the education of the people and a closer conformity to often been raised, and as it ic:; meritorious it should be not only the law as practically the only solution of this very threatening carefully but rightly considered. question. I have been speaking with reference to the constitu­ In the case of .J csep~ Varnum, in the Fourth Congress,- the tional questions alone, not considering or including fraud or in­ House, after full d1scuss10n, resolved that the allegation that 5 votes timidation, which, to my mind, present an entirely different ques­ were received and certified by the p1·esiding officers which were tion, and to aid me in determining the facts in each particular given by persons by the law not qualified to vote at said meeting · case I have not felt bound by the technical rules of evidence estab­ is not sufficiently certain, and t hat the-names of the persons ob­ lished for the trial of cases in courts of justice, but believe if there jected to for want of sufficient qualifications ought to be set forth is a way of finding out how an elector voted that that vote should prior to the taking of the testimony. be counted just as the electo1· intended. Substantial justice re­ But in order to do the contestant no injustice, the case has been quires that broad, equitable, uniform rules be laid down for the examined as though the specifications were snffident, and we will determination of election cases. proceed to examine the vot.e as returned. Another ve1·y important question arises in the case of Johnston Report of the secreta1-y of state to the general assembly of South Cat·olina­ against Stokes by reason of what might properly be called the Election 1·eturns. state of the pleadings. The notice of contest contains fourteen specifications, and the contestee in his answer endeavors to raise SEVENTH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT. the question of the insufficiency of the specifications, and in the F. C. opening part of his answer, refenfug to the insufficiency of the Counties. J_ W. T . B. E . M. Caugh­ R. W. Scatter­ specifications, alleges: Stokes. Johnston. Brayton. man. Mim.s. ing. ANSWER TO NOTICE OF CONTEST. Lexington.------­ 1,39-! 3{() OR.ANGEBURG, S. C., Janua:nJ 14, 1895. Orangobru·g. ------2, 7'29 477 s} --·------~- ====~=== ------3 Mr. THoMAs B. JOHNSTON. Sumter ______------1,142 670 Sm: The undersigned, contestee, protests that the notice served on him by Oolleton __ ----- ___ _ 1,416 472 ~ ------if -----T ~ you that you propose to contest his right to sit as a. member of the .Fjfty­ Berkeley_----- ___ _ 669 68S 4 ------fourth Congress from the Seventh district of South Carolina is merely a Richland------8 sweeping allegation that frauds wet'e committPd in said district a.t said eiec­ tion, as a result of whicb the conte&tant was defeated; that said charges are 7,358 2,656 56 1 vague and indefinite, and dono~ as by the law they should, specify particu­ larly the grounds upon which the contestant r elies in the contest, so that this contestee may be informed and know definitely what it is to which he is re­ STATE oF SoUTH C..AROLINA, quired to make answer and against what it is he is to defend; and as to such OjJice Secl"etary of State. defective and insufficient paragra-phs and allegations the contestee is n ot bound by the law to make answer, and will move the House, as soon as a reso­ We, the State board of canvassers, do hereby certify that the foregoing is lution to that effect can be heard, to dismiss said notice, or such paTagraphs a correct sta.temeut, based upon the statements made by the county boards or counts thereof as may be adjudged to be insufficient. of canvn.ssers and the findings of this board of the whole number of votes Second. And without waiving any objection to the irregola.rity :md insu:fli­ given for the ofiica of Representative in the Fifty-fourth Congress, held on ciency of said notice, or any paragraph thereof, or the right to move that it the 6th November, 189J.. or such paragraphs aH may be adjudged def-ective and msu:fficient be dis­ It is hereby agreed this page is to be considered as filed as a. part of the tes­ missed, contestee says tha~ the allegations of the first paragr~ph of said notice timony in the contested election case of Johnston vs. Stokes, Fifty·fourth • are not true. Congress, Seventh South Carol.in.a district. April 6, 1895. B. H . MOSS, The law requires the contestant in his notice of contest to" spec- : Attorney for Contestee. ify particularly the grounds upon which he relies in the contest." ABIAL LATHROP, (R. S. U.S., section 105.) Mtorn.ey for Contestant. 1896. CONGRESSIONAL REOORD-HOUSE.

This gives the contestee a plurality of 4,702. The contestant the unlawful action of the election officers, who were guilty of no claims the vote of the district, as it should have been received and fraud, but r-eally intended well, but did not happen to consider the counted, is as ·follows: law rightly. If there is to be no election, he might not be a candi- date again, and thereby would be defrauded of his rights, and it County. stokes Stokes sfg:~~- Jg:~~- J~g~- Jo~;on would be opening the door for fraudulent acts, because in all cases returned. deducted. turned. jected. ston. counted. where the election was close election officers might by improper ------!---- construction of the law exclude a good many voters-sufficient to change the result. In short, many excellent reasons can be given 0 543 ------11~~~ -~======------368- ~ 932 in favor of counting the votes,andto mymind no good reason can Orangeburg______2,i:m 729 ---·------477 ---2;800------229 be given against counting the votes. Sumter------1,142 ------678 1 The argument thatis made in some of the cases that the voting Berkeley------672 ------688 'm :=====~ ------48 StrawberryFerry ------must all be done on election day has no force. The ·putting of the 204 ------ballot in the box on election day is the best evidence· of the inten­ Ric~~ri~~~~~~~-:::: ------8- ::::::::::: -----427- ~ ::::::: ------265 tions of the voter, and the-rejected vote loses none of its sh·ength Totals------7,361 368 3,090 6,572 . 932 542 when properly offered by a qualified elector from the mere fact that it is rejected and not counted until -some subsequent time. Johnston's returned vote------· ------~------3,000 It is what took place on election da:y'that determines the right, Johnston's rejected vote ------· 6,:572 not what may happen afterward-s. If a qualified elector makes Johnston's to be added vote------932 evm·y effortTequired upon his part to vote and his voteis improp­ _Johnston's not counted vote------542 erly .rejected, it ought to be as effective as though it actually went ll,l36 into the box. If we determine to count the vote, it becomes nee­ Stokes's returned vote .. ------7,B61 essary in this case to find what proof will be required·to permit a. £tokes's deducted vote------·------· ------~ , vote ·to ~ be counted, ·and Tthink'it must appear by competent testi- 6 993 --- mony- J'ohnston's majoritY------4,143 First. When no particular reason is given for rejection, but The contestant claims that :fuere·shouia be deducted 368 votes rejected generally for no reason, that the rejected voter was a. .from the vote of the contestee and that 8,04-6 should be added to male citizen of the United States of the age of 21 years and the vote of contestant, whi.ch, ~ if correct, would .change the 1·esult, upward, a resident of 'the State one year, and the county where -giving the contestant a plurality of 4,143. The claim is itself offering to -vote sixty days]>recedingthe election. astounding on account of the large number of vot~s involved and Second. That 'he presented his ballot a1;1d offered to vote or the character of the evidence and arguments of contestant in sup- excuses the presentation and offer by showing that he belonged port of his claim. This increased vote of the contestant is made to arclass of excluded voters who went to the polls for the pur­ up of three items or classes of votes-votes .rejected, 6,572; to be pose of voting and would have votea if permitted to . ..added vote, 932; not counted -vote, 542. If the 'l'ejected vote of Third. That the vote was rejected on his offering it or on ac- 6,572 be counted, contestant will be entitled to his seat. .If the count of the ruling made as to the cla.ss he belonged to. vote rejected be not counted and the other two classes of votes of Fourth. For whom he would have voted. 1,474 be counted, it will not change the .l'esult; so the case tm·ns It might be sufficient when a voter is rejected for a particular 'Upon the rejected vote. As this vote is so large and the questions :reason -to negative the objection, and 'the other qualifications identified with it so important, it demands careful consideration. might be assumed in his .favor, It seems hard to apply the .same The facts relied upon by contestant for counting the increased rule in a case where the election has been ·fair and only one or vote present legal ques.tions not·free from embarrassment. I wm more votes have been unlawfuHyT-ejected by the ·officers unaer ..first address. myself to-what the contestant is pleased to call the the mistaken idea that they were doing their duty and in a ease 'l.'ejected vo'te: _ . like-this, where over 8,000 -votes have been ..1·ejected, and things First. Can lawful votes tendered, but not receiVed, be made transpiring apparently with the approval of a large element af available by either party? the people and practically of all of .the officers of the State from Second. If the number be sufficient to change the result, shall the lowest to the highest that ought to bring the blush of shame the same be counted according to the intention of the voter and to the-face of every honest man, and to .make us serious1y doubt the contestant seated, or shall the seat be declared vacant and the the perpetuity of popular government, when it seems to be· con­ -rejected votes not counted? ceded that the law under which the election was held was so Third. In either case wha-t-shall be competent evidence that the framed as tq deny the right of suffrage to a very large number of vote of a qualified elector has been lawfully tendered and unlaw- a certa,in class of voters, and each officer of the law charged with fully rejected? the execution of the same seemed intent on enforcing it so as to Fourth. Shall any different rule be adopted in a case like this at absolutely exclude those the law was aimed at. bar where thousands of votes are involved and in a case where It seemed almost like a denial of justice to require the evidence only four or five or less votes be involved? of the rejected voter himself, or, what might answer as well, ·the While principles of law ought to be just, equitable, and uniform, evidence of a person who stood close enough to the ballot box to and ought not to become of more importance in one case than an- hear all that was said, and could testify-that he saw A tender his ·other, it presents at least a delicate question when arising between vote and heard him say that he wanted to vote for the contestant, a State and the Federal Government. In 13Alabama,805; 340al., and that his vote was refused because he was not registered; and 273; 19 How. Pr., 245; 13 B. Munroe, Ky., 515, and Biddle and it should appear by the testimony of A, or some one else knowing Richard vs. Wing, first session Nineteenth Congress, it was held the fa-cts, that the rejected voter was a qualified elector of the J>re­ that rejected votes can not be made available for either party. cinct where offering to vote. ·Elementary rules of evidence should be followed ~far as possible, Hard cases make a shipwreck of principles, and while the power and when cases arise that necessitate the...making of new. rules the of the House is very great, and while I think we ought not to-be rule should be broadly and equitably formulated so as to be fol- controlled by technical rules of evidence, I believe it very safe to lowed in all cases applicable, just guides in all parallel cases not be governed in these cases by common-law rules of evidence, and to be departed from as soon as there is a change in the political do not think we ought to formulate a rule for the government of complexion of the Hou-se, but acceptable to all honest people inside any particular case; but think that every case can well afford to or outside of Congress. ~ be proven by well-established rules of evidence that have come Notwithstanding the respectability of the cases supporting the down to us through the many years of our jurisprudence, and doctrine that rejected votes can not be made available for either that the case should be ruled without reference to the numbers of party, I think it a...safer and better rule to hold that when prop- the rejected vote. Without reference to the exceptions which .erly proved they ought to be made available for the party that have no application to this case the rule is elementary-that:hea.r­ tb:e voter intended them for. It is said in some of the cases cited say evidence is not admissible to prove any fact, .and particularly that to count the 1·ejected votes would be opening the door to is hearsay evidence inadmissible when the fact material to be .fraud and give designing persons an opportunity to control the proved can be ·established by witnesses who speak from their own e1ection contrary to the wishes of a majority of the electors. To knowledge. 'lily mind there is no force in the position, and l think-the very The contestant seeks to prove the r!')jected vote through what reverse, that to-count the vote will promote the ends of justice ' they' call lists and list keepers, and in order that no injustice may :and ·have a tendency 'to lessen fraud and ma.ke officers of election be done and the question fairly presented 1 will give a sample of more ~a1·eful, for it is much ea-sier to get a vote out of the box what is offered as evidence and take the very strong~t for the than to get one in the box, as is plainly shown in this case: Two men contestant as selected by him in his re.PlY brief. After a careful offer themselves for the same office. If -every lawful voter was al- examination of -the whole case I can find but ·very little difference J.owed to vote, A would be entitled to the office by one·majority; but in the testimony of the Jist keepers, and ·the ·form ·of the lis.t:is the officers of-election seeiit to reject two votes. According to the alike in all cases, the only difference in the lists being the differ­ -theory of the eases cited, upon due proof being made of these facts, ence in the names·and the number of signeFs. While there is a. ;there is .no election. Now A ou_gh t not to be denied .his .xights by, .little variation in ,the testimo~y of the list -kee..Per-s it is ·not 5768 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-- . HOUSE. MAY 26," sufficient to be material, and what is herein selected is the strong­ lican nominee for Congress for the Seventh Congressional district, state est that can be found in favor of the contestant. Here ia the testi­ what it was. · A. I kept a list of all the names of those who voted for Colonel Johnston; I mony of Mr. Ramsey, who was a witness for the contestant, and also kept a list of those who presented themselves to vote for Colonel John- a copy of his list: ston but did not have registration certificates. · . · (Mr. Efird objects t.o the first clause of the answer because it is hearsay.) W. W. RAMSEY, Jr., 'being duly sworn, deposes as follows: Q. Have you that. li~t with you? Q. What is your name, age, residence, and occupation? · A. Yes, s1r; here 1t IS. A. W. W . Ramsey, jr.; age, 35; residence, Stateburg precinct, Sumter (Mr. Efird, for contestee, submits the following question, which is objected County; occupation, farming. to by contestant: Do you say positively that it was only three-quarters of an Q. Where were you on election day, the 6th of last November? hour from the time -r.ou say you heard the convers ::~. tion between Mr. Efird A. At the Federal poll, in State bur g precinct. and MRjor Frye until Mr. Frye voted, or are you guessing at it? • Q. In whose inwr est were you there, if anyone's? Objection sustained, not 'being cross-examined upon any new matter A. I was ther e in the interest of Col. T. B. Johnston, the Republican nom- brought out in reply.) inee for Cono-ress from the Seventh district. JAS. W. WARING. Q. If you ilid anything in his interest, state what it was. [L. s.] J. A. MOLLER, Notary P ·ublic. (Counsel for contestee objects to q_uestion as leading.) A. I kept a tally sheet or list of reJected voters. A. W. JOHNSON, sworn, says: Q. Have you the list with you? If so, produce it. Q. What is your age? .A. I have fwitness produces a list]. A. I am 35 years old. Q. How din you secure the names on this list? Q. What position do you hold politically in Lexington County? A. Tl'ley were given to me by th?se whose vot.es were rejected. A. I am county chairman of the Republican party. Q. Was it possible for you while keeping the list to obtain a view of the Q. Where w ere you on the 6th day of November,1894? ballot box, the poll list, the registration book, the managers, and the voting A. I was here at Lexington Court-HouRe, round about the polls. going on? . . . . . Q. Did you take any special interest in the election of T. B. Johnston for a A. It was posSible for me to obtam a VIew of the ballot box, regiStratiOn m ember to the Fifty-fourth Congress? book. but not of the p oll list. 1 could see the managers and the voters as A. Idid. they depositt>d their ballots. Q. What did yon do toward that in way of special interest? Q. Are the persons whose names you have on your list residents of State- A. I appointed at this-precinct here a clerk·to take down the names of all burg precinct? those that they refused to let vote, or that did vote, that he could get the A. Theyare. names of, and authorized the precinct chairmen at other precincts to do the Q. Do you know for whom they offered to vote? same. (Counsel for contestee objects to question.) Q. At the close of the polls in the evening did you Inake any request of the A. They offered to vote for Col. T. B. Johnston, the Republican nominee managers of the Federal box, in behalf ofT. B. Johnston, to allow you to be for Congress. present at the counting of the vote, in such p osition as yon would be enabled Q. Please look at the list and tell us how many names it contains? to see the count as they proceeded with the same? · (Counsel for contestee objects to question on the ground that the list itself A. Yes, sir; I asked them to let me come in and take down the vote of Mr. is the best evidenee of what it contains.) Johnston. A. One hundred and forty-nine names. Q. Did t~ey grant. the request asked? Q. How many of these did you write? A. No, Sir; they did not. .A. One hundred and eleven. Q. Did you see that day any ballots bearing the name of J. William Stokes ~: ~ rl~~k~~~~~~;~~ ~~~~t~~~:s~~d? at the polls. Q. Was there any obstruction at the door to keep the _Public from the view (Counsel for contestee objects to the witness answering as to whose name of the count being made in such way that the ticket bemg read by the Inan- the ballots, if any were there, bore, as the ballots would themselves be the ager could not be seen by the spectator? : best evidence of the name or names thereon.) A. The door was open, but there was a bar across the door that is used to • A. !did. hold the door shut when it is closed, and they were about midway the house, Q. Where were they? . and we could not see what was on the ticket. A When the polls closed, in counting the ballots there were several tickets Q. Was there anyone present inside of the polls except the managers and folded together. The managers threw away the excess in that lot, and I got their clerks at the time of the count? hold of one bearing the name of J . William Stokes. A. ~o, sir. Q. Who distributed the Johnston tickets on that day? Q. When you 1nade that request to be allowed to be l?resent inside of the .A. They were distributed by myself from the table at which I sat. building at the polls, was there any parties present outSide besides yourself? Q. Did you see anyone outside distributing Stokes ballots? A. Yes, sir. A. I do not recollect. . . Q. How far, in the judgment of your own knowledge, does Mr. Daniel Q. Were you in Sumter during last year prior to the elect10n on regiStra­ Frye live from Lexington? - tion days? A. It is between 6 and 7 miles. A. !was. ' Q. Did you see Mr. Daniel Frye here on that day? Q . Were you ever at the supervisor's office on those days? If so, state for A. I saw Mr. Frye; I did not know his name was Daniel. 0 Q. You stated you had taken a special interest in the appointing of James w~\P~~ f~ere for the purpose, if I could, to assist some voters in being W. Wa.ring forT. B. Johnston at the polls at Lexington; what caused you to registered. take that spe-cial interest? (,!. What was your success? A. W ell, sir, we had no managt>rs or anything else at the election, and I A. A failure. had been authorized to do that. Q. Why? . Q. Were you aware that all Federal laws relating to elections had been .A. Couldn't get in the office because of the dense crowd which surrounded rept>aled? the door. . A. In 1890 I know that they had asked for managers at the Federal election, Q. Is it, or not, a notorious fact that in Sumter County Repu?hca~ voters and they were refused. were unable to obtain an -issuance change or· renewal of registratiOn cer- Q . In 1894 were they allowed? tificates? . h 't , · f t' A. No,sir. (Counsel for contestee objects to questiOn, for t e Wl ness s m orma 10n Q. Did you know that there was no Federal protection at the Federal boxes could only have been obtained by hearsay and report, and therefore incom­ in 1894? petent.) (Mr. Efird objects to question as leading.) A. It is a fact, to my belief. A. I knowed that the law had been repealed. Q. Who assisted you in keeping the list of rejected voters! Q . Was that your reason for having these v~rious a~pointments made to A. John H. Douglass. look after the interest of Mr.Johnston at the vanous pollS, and get the names Cross-examined by Mr. REYNOLDS: of those voters who were rejected? Q. What time did you reaeh the polls that day? (Mr. Efird objects to question as leading.) A. By my watch, twenty minutes past 6 o'clock a. m. A. I was instructed to do so Oy Mr. Johnston. Q. D1dlou have that paper that dayP Cross-examination: A. Idi. (Paper referred to being the list.) Q. Were you permitted to stand at the door and see the managers and clerk Q. Where did you procure it? · while they counted the votes? A. It was given me by S. J. Bradley, precinct chairman for the Republican A. Yes, sir; on the outside of the bar. - party of Stateburg. Q. How far were. you froD;l the managers during the countingP Q. Do you undertake to swear that each and every one of the 149 voters of A. I guess it was 5 or 6 feet; it may have been a little more and may not your own knowledge offered to vote on that day? have been quite so much; it was about halfway of the building. · A. I cau say that the greater portion of that number offered ~o vote. Q. Was there anything between the bar at the door and the managers to Q. Can you undertake to swear what number of that portiOn offered to obstruct your view? A. No, sir; there was a table, but it did not obstruct. vo_r.?I can not say precisely the number, but the greater portion did so offer to vote. · h lis On this class of testimony we are asked to count the rejected ~- Can you say of your own knowledge why the greater portiOn on t e t votes, and the contestant supports the claim by a long legal argu­ diA n~~~~~!ofnothavingre · trationcertificates, as to some of them; others ment and the doctrine of res gestre is invoked in order to make bad· but because of change of:esidence and of failure to obtain r enewals. this evidence competent. It certainly violates the rules that the ' W. W. RAMSEY, JR. very best evidence that the case in itself is susceptible of must be Sworn to and subscribed before me, after being read to deponent, this 20th da,_y of February, 1895, at Wedgefield, S.C. offered. The very best evidence would be the rejected voter lSEAL.] W. T. ANDREWS, Notary Public. himself, or, as J have said, what I consider to be equally as good, the testimony of a person who was present and saw the vote I now give the testimony of :Messrs. Waring and Johnson, who offered and rejected, and who could testify that the rejected were witnesses for the contestant. voter was qualified and that as a part of the offer to vote heard JAS. W. WARING, sworn, says: him state who he would vote for. I can not think of any other Q. State your name, your age, your OCCUJ?ation, and your resi!lence .. way in which the matter can be proved. The testimony in the A. J. W. Waring; am 33 years old; am a farmer, and I reside m Lexmgton County, in about 1 mile from the court-house. record is certainly hearsay and the doctrine of res gestre will Q. State where you were on the 6th day of November last, the ~ay of not save it. It is certain to my mind that if there were not more election. · than 2 votes involved no lawyer could contend for a moment A. I was at Lexington Court-House precin~t, at the Federal box. that this kirid of hearsay testimony would be ·admissible or th~t Q. Did you vote there that day?-..;.. Yes, Sir. · Q. U you did anything in the interest of Col. T. B. Johnston, the Repub- the doctrine of res gestoo would help it out. Now, the·question 1896. - CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE. 5769 is whether the fact that there is a large number of votes involved could do under the circumstances, the entire election machinerl with all its makes any difference. ~~~~r~~!a:Jr3-a~~inst the Republican candidate and in avor of the In the testimony of Mr. Ramsay there is nothing to justify the There is no evidence to the contrary in the record. In this connection we claim that a single vote can be counted. It is wholly hearsay and f~~;E~~e~!~sel for the contestee this quotation from section 83, 1 Green- insufficient. There is not a word in it to show that anyone was " All rules of evidence, however, are adopted for practical purposes in the really a rejected voter. It falls far short of what is required to ad~nistration of justice~.., and must peso applied as to promote the ends for show that a vote was unlawfully rejected. whiCh they were designea." The testimony of Mr. Waring is no better. It is true he says The applic11.tion of these rules so as to :promote the ends of justice will not that 39 on the list offered to vote for Mr. Johnston. That is the reject the evidence which we are discussmg. merest conclusion. It is not such testimony as would justify any I must confess the argument failed to convince me that the evi­ tribunal in holding that a lawful vote had been unlawfully dence is competent. It may be more laborious and expensive to rejected. take the testimony of so many men, but that will not justify the Johnson's testimony does not add to that of Waring. The lists, violation of the plainest and safest rules of evidence-rules adopted of course, can not be considered as evidence. They are not mem­ to promote justice and prevent injustice; rules that have the in­ oranda. It would be extremely dangerous to hold that such loose dorsement of ages, the approval of all courts and text writers general statements should be regarded as evidence of so material wherever jurisprudence is known. My own mind is clear on the a point, and if we are going to take the position that a lawful vote subject; but if any lawyer has a doubt when the question is first unlawfully rejected shall be counted, we ought to require that it sprung upon him he has only to read the able brief of the contest­ be proved by competent testimony in order to admit the vote. ant to satisfy himself that the testimony is incompetent. Not one of the men who signed the lists was sworn or was The testimony of Mr. Ostendorf! shows that the Republicans before the notary for examination, and not enough of them can anticipated fraud, and substituted the keeping of the lists for an be found to change the result who made a declaration sufficient attempt to vote, and omitted to lay the foundation to properly to prove anything, even if the declaration could be considered as expose the unfairness and frauds that were feared. And it is evidence. It was assumed that the Republicans were not to upon this class of testimony that the House is asked to count receive fair treatment anJ in many ways were to be defrauded votes enough to seat the contestant. As I have said, the case turns of their votes, and these lists were kept in order to prove the upon what the contestant calls the rejected vote; for if there is Republican vote. If a contestant com~s and asks for a seat in counted for the contestant what he calls to-be-added vote, 932, this House he must show, under the law by competent evidence, not-counted vote, 542, it still leaves the contestee a plurality of that his claim is good. The House can assume nothing. Two 3,228. While fraud is alleged in general terms, and an attempt wrongs can not -make a right. If the State officers have done made to prove it, and no doubt many things were done that can wrong the injured party must prove it. The House must not do not be approved of, yet enough has not been proven to make any a wrong in order to rectify an assumed wrong committed by the difference in the result. Contestant in his brief takes the same State. view of the evidence by saying: I can not bring myself to think that the lists and declarations Owing to the fact that the whole machinery of the election was in the hands of the partisan. friends of contestee, it is impossible to present direct made by the rejected voters can be received as part of the res proof o~ actual fz:aud m the conduct of th~election ' at tbevarious precincts, gestm. !have been willing to concede for the purposes of this e;cept m a few mstances, and tha:t W!l-8 m most cases by admissiOn of the case that the declarations of the rejected voter made at the ballot ~~:~} :~t!~t:":. on cross-exammatwn when produced as witnesses in box as a part of his offer to vote would be competent. What he said afterwards as explanatory of what he had tried to do at the We are judging this case by the record, not by the cry of fraud box is not evidence. What he failed to say at the box as a part of that has come up from South Carolina for years and gone all over his offer to show he was a qualified voter would still have to be the land; and while no doubt, if what is told is true, there has proven. It was urged in the argument, for the purpose of count­ been a deliberate attempt, according to the forms of law, to pre­ ing these rejected votes, that the declarations made by the rejected vent the colored electors from voting, it is to be regretted, when voter after he had concluded his efforts to vote, away from the so much has been said, that sufficient evidence has not been fur­ ballot box, should be received as part of the res gestm-a part of nished to afford relief; but, measured by the cry of fraud in the the thing itself. case, it is not as bad as one would be led to believe. Here is a Assuming what the voter said at the box as a part of his offer sample of the record, taken from the brief of the contestant: to vote to be competent evidence, the moment the voter left the Mayesville precinct.-In the town of Mayesville Republican voters were rejected without cause and when they.presented certificates. box he left the res gestm, and what he said and did subsequently The circumstances attending these rejections are aggravating and mean. is most certainly hearsay. In fact, it is my opinion that as soon We find that the managers, all Democrats, allowed 15 white voters, all non as the vote was rejected the res gestm terminated, and every­ residents of Mayesville precinct, to vote (pa~s 373, 314, 375), and even one manas-er voted without a certificate.(page 375 . thing thereafter would be but hearsay. It would be a dangerous Beginning at page 261 of the record, to page , inclusive, we find the testi­ exercise of power-for this House to call such evidence· for any mony of 11 Republican voters who presented certificates, intended to vote for purpose. It was also urged that to receive the lists and other contestant, and were rejected by the managers. . . declarations as competent evidence would not be a substitution It will be seen by an examination of the statutes cited that of evidence, but only a selection of weaker instead of stronger electors had a right to vote outside of their precincts (sections 142 proofs.- I will read from contestant's brief the strongest point of (98), 143, 145, and 156). It is true that all or most all of the elec~ his argument in favor of the admission of the testimony: tion officers were Democrats, but that of itself does not change No doubt it is true, as a general proposition, that the rule which governs the result. Common fairness would have suggested that theRe­ the production of evidence in a court of justice is that the :party offering it publicans be given one member of each board. There is another is required toproduce the best evidence of which the case m its nature is susceptible. You will observe that the nature of the case is to be considered. aspect of the case worth considering. For over twelve years the Here a class of men, numbering thousands, were denied the right to vote, be­ people of South Carolina have acquiesced in these registration and cause of the nature, as well as the administration, of the. registration law of election laws, and all of this time no elector of that State has been South Carolina. To have examined ea('h of these witnesses concerning each and all of the facts establishing his right to registration and to vote, disprov­ interested enough to bring an action to enforce registration or ing the existence of the constitutional qualifications, as the contestee insists the right to vote, and thereby test the validity of those laws and should have been done, and subjecting the. witnesses to the lengthy cross­ determine their rights as electors. . examination which would have been given them by contestee's attorneys, would ~ve prolop.ged the taking of evidence beyond the life of this House; Now one branch of Congress is invited to nullify these laws. and so 1t became mcumbent upon the contestant to offer the best evidence It was said in the argument of these cases that it would not do of which the case in its nature was susceptible, and he did that by furnish­ any good to bring an action, as the State judiciary was absolutely ing the written declarations of these men as to their qualifications, supple­ under the control of the element unlawfully controlling the elec­ me~ted by the te!ltimonyof men who knewt~em to th~ effect that they were entitled to the right of suffrage. In speaking of this general rule of evi­ tion machinery of that State. Chief Justice Mciver was not and dence, above stated. Professor Greenleaf, in the first volume of his work on I regret that some elector did not bring in the State court ma'nda­ Evidence. fourteenth edition, section 82, says: "But where there is no substitution of evidence, but only a selection of mus to compe\ the registration of his name, or bring an action to weaker instead of stronger proofs, or an omission to supply all the proofs test his right to vote, and after the courts had concluded their ac­ capable of being produced, the rule is not infringed." tion we could better tell whether the judiciary of the State would We submit that the contestee's evidence was a selectivn of weaker instead of stronger proofs, and for the very best of reasons, considering reasons from properly discharge its duty. the standpomtof existing conditions and not of theory. Hon. John H. Osten­ The ju~iciary is the bulwark of American liberty, and I place do!ff• one of the contestee's witnesses (Record, page 101) testifies on this great reliance upon the courts, notwithstanding the judges are pomt as follows: partisans. It will be a dark day for the Republic when the courts "Q. Why was it found necessary to make lists of rejected voters, a.lso of those voting? are under the control of men undermining the foundations of . "A. B~cause of the repeal of th:e F~deral election laws, which left the Repub­ Government. It is to be regretted, however, that we do not have licans without any representatiOn m the election booths, thus leaving the election absolutely in the hands of Democratic managers of election. At before us the opinion of the supreme court of South Carolina on p~evious elections we had a safeguard in the person of a Republican super­ these importa~t q"';les?ons .. Tlie manner of holding elections for VISOr of election, who remained at the ballot box, kept the poll list, and viewed Congressmen 1s Wlthm the power of State governments. While all proceedings and was enabled to detec: any unfairness or frauds by the Congress has the power, it has never attempted to exercise it m~nagers of election.. Hence the only guard or protection for us was to keep a list of those who sru.d they had voted for Johnston and also those who said (section 4, Article I, Constitution United States), but has always they had offered to vote for Johnston and were rejected. This was all we left the manner of electing Congressmen to the States. The 5770 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE. MAY 26,

House can not interfere with the manner of holding elections in Senate bill no, granting a pension to Ada. J. Schwatka, widow of the late Lieut. Frederick Schwatka, submit the foUowing statement: the States. The duty of the House is confined to determining The Senate passed the bill allowing $30 a month. whethe1· the r eturn has been impeached. The House amended the bill by inserting in lien of $30 the amount of $17. Jf what has been asserted in this case :is true and can be proven, The Senate refused to agree to the House amendment and asked for a con· . notwithstanding the contestee is entitled to his seat by a vote of ference. The House in isted. on its amendment and agreed to a conference. the House, still Congress can inquire whether the State of South The conferees have agreed that in lieu of the amount pToposed by the Carolina has a r epublican form of government. But the House Senate, $30, and the amount proposed by the House, S17, that the sum of $20 alone can not make such inquiry. If what has been alleged and per month be allowed, and recommend the concurrence of the House. H. C. LOUDENSLAGER, stated by the contestant :is true, it :is to be regretted, in the-interest DAVID 0. COLSON of good govenunent, that it has not been proven. Freedom Manage·rs on the pa1't ojtke House. and purity of the ballot box must be upheld. No American citi­ Mr. LOUDENSLAGER. I ask the adpption of the report. .zen can afford to nphold fraud in elections, whethet· he be in the The report was agreed to. North orm the South. Matters are improving in the South. It On motion of Mr. LOUDENSLAGER, a motion to reconsider has taken longer than it ought to to b1.wg about the present state tbe last vote was laid on the table. .of improvement, and we can not afford to have it stop here. I trust that the South will fairly and honestly work out the great ENROLLED BILLS SIGNED. problems that have introduced themselves as a result of the war Mr. HAGER, from the Committee on Enrolled Billa, reported and do its part toward national unity and prosperity, which will that they had examined and found truly enrolled bills and joint never come until every American citizen -enjoys unmo1ested his resolutions of the following titles; when the Speaker signed the full political ·rights. The safety of the individual and the success same: of the nation depend upon a free ballot, a fair count, and absolute A bill (H. R. 4598) granting a pension to Mary Cray; oonformity to law. No on-e questions the loyalty of the South; A bill (H. R. 629~) to inc!·ease the I?ension of ~eter Rafferty; but I want to say to our Southern friends that yielding 'to a lawful' A bill (H. R. 339a) granting a penswn to Carr~e H. Green; majority and obedience to the law will be the highest evidence of A bill (H. R. 3.229) for 'the relief of Hannah Newell Barrett; · loyalty and fitness fo1· American citizenship, and will largely aid, A bill (H. R : 6833) defining the ·standard, shape, and size for dry in bringing to them desired prosperity. [App1ause.] measm·es in use in the District of Columbia, and for .other pur~ During the delivery of the foregoing remarks, poses; Mr. BARTLETT of Georgia. Will the gentleman yield tome A bill (H. R. 4785) to in"Corporate the National University; for ·a moment? A bill (H. R. 2373) granting .a .pension to Elvin J. Brown; Mr. JENKINS. Certainly. A bill (H.R.3033) toincrease the pension of Elizabeth T. Beall, Mr. BARTLETT of Georgia. .Mr. Speaker,.the gentleman from widow ·Of Benjamin L. Beall, late colonel First United States Wisconsin bas prepared certain matter in conn-ection with this Cavalry; contest that I ask he may have leave to print without reading. A bill (H. R. 4724) to increase the pension of Mrs. Mary L._.Ale- Mr. KEM. I call for the regular order. shire; · Mr. JENKINS. Very well, Mr. Speaker; I will read the matter A bill (H. R. 6111) granting a _pension to Elizabeth A. Sargent; myself. A bill (H. R. 3857) granting a pension to Thomas Brewer; Mr. LACEY. I understand from your report, if the gentleman A bill (H. R.1109) granting a pension to Elizabeth Marshall; will permit me, that you find there were rejected something ov-er A bill (H. R. 5792) granting a pension to 1\frs . .Tulia A. Jameson; 7,000 votes believed to be legal. Is that coiTect? · A bill (H. R. 4283) granting a pension to Delia A. Marsh; Mr. JENKINS. The gentleman has certainly misapprehended A bill (H. R, 5999) to correct the militat·y record of Elbridge the report. McFadden; Mr. LACEY. What :is the number you think were illegally A bill (H. R. 468) granting an increase of pension to Mrs. H. J. rejected? Kiernan; Mr. JENKINS. If the gentleman will permit me, I will state A hill (H. R. 5711) granting a pension to Richard P. Pilkington; to'him that I shall reserve time at the conclusion of this debateto A bill (H. R. 248) empowering and directing th-e Secretary of ·answer all questions of this character, and prefer not to be inter-· the Navy to furnish 4 pieces of condemned cannon to the city of rupted in the course of my argmnent to answer them just at this Hastings, Mich.; time. - A bill (H ..R.138) granting .an increase of peru.ion to 1\Iary E. Mr. LACEY. I would like to ask, also, what proportion of the Hazlip; various election boards had representation other than Democratic A bill (H. R. 6134) granting an increase of pension to Caroline representation on them? E. Purdum; Mr. JENKINS. That is a question to which I will also refer .A bill (H. R. 6132) granting an increase of pension to Thomas later on. The answer to the question would laTgely now antici­ M. Scott; pate my views on the constitutional question which I desire to .A bill (R. R. 5175) granting a pension toNancy Gentry; !Present. A bill (H. R. 3007) granting an increase of pension to Michael .Now, Mr. Speaker, before concluding, I wish tostatetothegen­ S. Pettit; tlemanfrom Iowa that every question he desires tohav eanswm·ed .A bill (H. R. 7334) granting an increase of pension to William can be and will be fully and · sat:isfacto1·ily answered, I think, T. Applegate; before this debate is closed. A bill (H. R. 2602) for the relief of Solomon Hyams; I move that the House do now adjourn. A bill (H. R. 5225) for the mlief of .M:rs. Elizabeth..M. Williams, Mr. LOUDENSLAGER. Will the gentleman yield to me for a of Monroe County, Tenn.; moment to submit a. conference report? A bill (H. R. 8184) granting a ·pension to Jesse 1\IcMillan; Mr. JENKINS. Before the motion is put I desire to rese1-ve the .A bill (H.R. 4753) granting an increase of pension to Lambert 'balance of my time. . L. Mu1ford; The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. SHERMAN). The time of the1 A bill (H. R. 4275) to increase the pension of Mrs. Annis H. gentleman will be reserved. Enochs, widow of Gen. Willia.m H. Enochs, .from S20 to S50 per Mr. JENKINS. I yield to the gentleman from New Jersey to, month; and .submit .a privileged report. -.A bill (S. 3011) for -the Telief of Nicolai Bros. ADA J. SCHW.A.TKA. · ·SENATE BILLS REFERRED. Under clause 2 of Rule XXIV, the following Senate bills were Mr. LOUDENSLAGER. Mr: Speaker, I send to the desk a con­ taken from the Speaker's table and refer1·ed by the Speaker as fol­ fiD.-ence report, on which I ask immediate action. lows: 'The Clerk .read as follows: The bill (S. 685) granting a pension to Ml.·s. Alice Martin-to the The committee of conference on the disagreeing votes of the two Hon es on the amendment of the House of Representatives to the bill (B. 710) g:ra.nt- Committee -on Pensions. ing a p ension to Ada J. Schwatka, widow of the late Lieutenant Schwatka, 1 The bill (S. 2507) granting an increase of pension to John N. Cor· having m et, after full and free conference have agreed to -r ecommend and gan, of McPherson, Kans.-to the Committee on Pensions. .do recommend to their respective Houses as follows: That the Senate recede from its disagreement to the amendment of the INDI.A.N A.PPROPRI.A.TION BILL. House, and agree to the same with an amendment as follows: In lieu of the amountproposed to be inserted insert "$20"; and the House agree to the Mr. SHERMAN. I desire to present a conference report on the same. Indian appropriation bill. H. C. LOUDENSLAGER, The conference r~port was read, as follows: DAVID G. COLSON, The committee of conference on t'he disagreei"f!gvotes of the two Houses on Manage·rs on the pa1·t of the H01Lse. certain amendments of the enate to the bill (H. R 6249) making appropria­ J. H. GALLINGER, tions for· current and contingent expenses of the Indian Department and ftil­ GEO. L. SHOUP, fi.lling treaty atipulations with various Indian tribes for the fiscal yeaT ending Managers on the pa:rt of the Senate. June 30, 1897, and for other purposes, having met, after full and free confer­ The statement submitted by the House managers was read, as ence have-agreed to recommend and do recommend to their respective Houses as follo-ws: follows: That the Senate recede 1'rom its amendment numbered -66 . The managers on the part of the House having had under consideration .Amendment numbered 37: That the House recede from its disagreement 1896. CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE.- 5771

to the amendment of the Senate numbered 37, and agree to the same with On motion of Mr. SHERMAN, a motion to reconsider the last amendments as follows: Add at the end of said amendment the following: I t 1 · d th t bl "That saidcommissionisfurtherauthorizedanddirectedtoproceedatonce vo e wa£ ai on e ~ e. . . . to he.o1.r and determine the application of all persons who may apply to them The SPEAKER. Tne ChaiT will appomt the former conferees. for citizenship in any of said nations, and after such hearing they shall de- termine the right of such applicant to be so admitted and enrolled: Pro'dded, VETO MESSAGE-BENJAMIN F. JONES. however, That such application shall be made to such commissioners within . . three months after the passage of this act. The said commission shall de- The SPEAKER la1d before the House the followmg message cide all such applications within ninety days after the same shall be made. from the President of the United States: That in determming all such appli<:ations said commission shall respect all law of the several nations or tribes not incorurlstent with the laws of the To the House of Representatives: United States, and all treaties with either of said natio~ or tribes, a.nd shall I return herewith without a-pproval Honse bill numbered 7161, entitled give due force and effect to the rolls, usages, and customs of each of said na­ "An act for the relief of Benjamin F. Jones." tions or tribes: .And pmvided further, That the rolls of citizenship of the This bill directs the payment of $50 to the beneficiary, late postmaster at several tribes as now existing arc hereby confu·med, and any person who Beauregard, :Miss., or to bis order, of the sum of 50, m full compensation shall claim to be entitled to be added to said rolls as a citizen of either of for services and expenses in carrying and distributing the mails between said tribes and whose right thereto has either been denied or not acted upon, Wesson and Beauregard, in the State of Mississippi, in 1883. or any citizen who may wit'hin three months from and after the passage of It appears from the report of the House committee recommending the this act desire such citizenship, may applf. to the legally constituted court passage of this bill that on April22, 1883, while .Mr. Jones was postmaster at or committee designated by the several tribes for such mtizenship, and such Beauregard, a cyclone destroyed every building in the place, including that court or committee shall determine such application within thirty days from in which the post-office was kept. That in consequence of this disaster the the date thexeof. mails for Beauregard were for a period of thirty-five days and until :May?!!, "In the performance of such duties said commission shall have power and 1883, deposited at Wesson, 1 mile distant_ That during that time it became authority to administer oaths, to issue process for and compel the attend­ necessary to transport such mails from Wesson to Beauregard, and that the ance of witnesses, and to send for persons and papers, and all depositions postmaster caused this to be done, at an expense of $97. a»d affidavits and other evidence in any form whatsoever heretofore taken A report from the Postmaster-General discloses the fact that this claim was where the witnesses giving said testimony are dead or now residing beyond presented to the Department in 1884 and was rejected on the ~ound that if the limits of said Territory, and to use every fair and reasonable means the service was performed as alleged it was not authorized or directed by the within their reach for the purpose of determining the rights of persons Department. claiming such citizenship, or to protect auy of said nations from fraud or In 1885 a suit was instituted against this postmaster and his sureties for a wrong, and the rolls so prepared by them shall be hereafter held and consid­ balance due the Government from him on his official accounts for the quarter ered to be the true and correct roiL~ of persons entitled to the rights of citi­ ending June 30,1883. zenship in said several tribes: P,·ovided, That if the tribe, or any person, be It will be observed that this quarter covered the period within which the ag,oorieved with the decision of the tribal authorities or the commission :pro­ alleged services were performed. vided for in this act, it or he may appeal from such decision to the Umted In the snit referred to a judgment was recovered by the Government States districtconrt: Provided, however, That the appeal shall betaken within against the postmaster for $1.90.45, being the balance found due from him. sixty days, and the judgment of the court shall be final. This judgment still remains unpaid. "Tha."t the said commission, after the exP-iration of six months, shall cause a ln this condition of affab.·s it is quite plain that in fairness and justice no complete roll of citizenship of each of said nations to be made up from their appropriation should be made in favor of the claimant. records and add thereto the names of citizens whose right may be conferred It is the opinion of the Auditor of the Post-Office Department that even if under tb; act, and said rolls shall be, and are hereby, made rolls of citizen­ this bill became a law, payment of the money approprmted should be with­ ~ of said nations or tribes, subject, however, to the determination of the held under a section of the Revised Statutes which provides: Uruted States courts,_ as provided herein. "No money shall be paid to any person for his compensation who is in "The commission IS hereby required to ffie the lists of members as they arrears to the United Sta.tes until he has accounted for and paid into the finally approve them with the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, to remain there Treasury all sums for which he may be liable." for use as the final judgment of the duly constituted authorities. And said GROVER CLEVELAND. commission shall aJso make a roll of the freedmen entitled to citizenship in said EXECUTIVE MANSION, May 1!6, 1896. tribes, and shall include their names in the lists of members to be filed with the CoiDIIll.."'!ffiioner of Indian Affairs. And said commission is further author­ Mr. SPENCER. Lmove that this message be printed, and that ized and directed to make a full report to Congress of leases, tribal and indi­ the bill and message be referred to the Committee on Claims. vidual, with the area, amount, and value of the property lease~ and the amount received therefor, and by whom and from wb.om- said property is The motion was agreed to. leased, and is further directed to make a full and detailed report as to On motion of Mr. SPENCER, a motion to reconsider the last the excessive holdings of members of said tribes and others. "It is hereby declared to bethedutyof the United Statestoestablishagov­ vote was laid on the table. ernment in the Indian Territory which will rectify the many inequalities BRIDGE OVER MISSOURI RIVER, ST. CHARLES, MO. and discriminations now existing in said Territory and afford needful pro­ tection to the lives and property of all citizens and residents thereof. The SPEAKER laid before the House the bill (H. R. 5675) au­ "Sisseton and Wahpeton Indians: That all the interest due the Sisseton thorizing the construction of a wagon and motor bridge over the and Wahpeton Indians on March 3, 1896, is hereby appropriated to be paid at Missouri River at St. Charles, Mo., with Senate amendments once in cash per capita, and hereafter all interest on the permanent fund of said Indians after deducting the amount expended for education, shall be thereto. paid in cash per capita on the 1st day of November of each year. The amendments of the Senate were read. "Seneca Nation of Indians: That the Secretary of the Interior be, and he Mr. TRELOAR. I move that the House concur in the Senate hereby is. authorized and directed to ascertain and report to Congress a detailed statement of all the leases made and entered into by the Seneca amendments. Nation of Indians with all persons or corporations of all lands in the Alle­ The motion was agreed to. gany Indian Reservation, m the State of New Ym·k, giving an itemized On motion of TRELOAR, a motion to reconsider the l-ast statement of each and every lease now in existence or force, with the date 1\fr. and terms of each lease and B,l:llonnt or amounts due on each lease." vote was laid on the ta-ble. Alld the ::;enate agree to the same. TITLE TO LANDS, HOMESTEAD ENTRIES, ETC. On amendments numbered 64, 69, and 70 the committee of conference has been unable to a.gree. The SPEAKER also laid before the House the bill (H. R. 1436) J. S. SHERMAN, to quiet title to lands in persons who purchased the same in good CHARLES CURTIS - GEO. C. PENDLETON, faith, without notice and for a valuable consideration, and to Managers on the pm-t of the House. enable the Government to issue patents on such lands, and that R. F. PETTIGREW, commu4iations of homestead entries shall take effect from date of H. M. TELLER, settlement and not from date of entry, with Senate amendments. F. l\1. COCKRELL, Managers on the pa1-t of the 8e1mte. The Senate amendments were read. Mr. LACEY. I move to concur in the Senate amendments. The statement of the Honse conferees was read, as follows: The motion of Mr. LACEY was agreed to. STATEMENT TO ACCOMPANY CONFERENCE REPORT NO.~ ON INDIAN APPRo­ PRIATION BILL. On motion of Mr. LACEY, a motion to reconsider the last vote The Senate recedes from its amendment numbered 66. was laid on the table. Senate amendment 37 is aweed to with an amendment. As passed by the Senate, it provided simply for the continuance of the Dawes Commission, NORTHERN PACIFIC RAILROAD INDEMNITY LANDS. makin~ an appropria.tion therefor. ..As agreed to in conference, it gives the Mr. LACEY. Mr. Speaker, I desire to call up the conference ComiDISSio:n authority to determine the question of citizenship, where the question is voluntarily submitted to it, with the right of either party to appeal report on the bill (H. R. 2221) for the relief of settlers on the to the United States court; it confirms the rolls of citizenship as they exist N orther:n Pacific Railroad indemnity lands. to that extent only, and requires the Com.m.iss:ion to make a complete roll The conference report was read. from the original roll and the additions within six. months. It gives the Com­ mission authority to administer oaths, issue process, etc., in the execution of [For text of the conference report see House proceedings of their duty. It also provides that the Commission shall ascertain and make May 20.] full and detailed report to Congress in reference to leases in the Indian Ter­ Mr. LACEY. I move to agree to the conference report. My ritory; and lastly, it declares it to be the duty of the United States to estab­ colleague upon the committee [Mr. McRAE] has some objection lish a government in said '.rerritory. It also makes provision as to the inter­ est due the Sisseton and Wah~eton Indians, and for a report as to the leases to make to it, and I should like to yield to him such time as he of:f;~ lands of the Seneca Indians. Neither proposition involves any appro­ may need to present his objection. How much time will the gen- · pnatwn. tleman require? Mr. SHERMAN. Mr. Speaker, this report is not a final report, ~h-. McRAE. I do not want very much time, but I want the and it does not dispose of the two questions which are most right to make a motion. mooted, to wit, the question of sectarian schools and the Old Set­ Mr. LACEY. I will yield ten minutes to the gentleman from tlers' claims. Those questions are still in conference. I move Arkansas fMr. McRAE]. that this report be adopted and that a. further conference be Mr. McRAE. Mr. Speaker, I stated the principal objection I ordered. have to this conference report when it was prematurely presented The conference report was agreed to. the other day. To granting relief to all settlers who had filed or Mr. SHERMAN. Now, I move to further insist and agree to a entered, as wasfust proposed by the gentleman from Minnesota fnrthex conference. [Mr. TowNE], I will make no objection. But this conference sub­ The motion was agreed to. stitute for the two bills, one passed by the Senate and the other by _5172 CON_GRESSION AL RECORD-HOUSE. MAY 26,

the House, ignores a requirement and regulation that I conceive land it required thirty months before he could get title. This bill, to be importa.nt and essential in the homestead law. I do not be­ in short, gives these settlers who cultivated certain lands for six lieve that such was intended by the gentlemen who have signed this months the right to make cash entry of any other public land a.t report, and therefore I think the report should be rejected and the $1.25 per acre. conference committee instructed to make the correction necessary Mr. Speaker, this error, I think, was committed by the com­ to prevent the error. - mittee of conference in confusing preemption and homestead The act of October 1, 1890, which first sought to relieve these entries. Under the homestead law no entry can be made until settlers, did not apply to any who had not filed upon or entered the settler bas made an affidavit and paid the fees. Under the under the preemption or homestead law, and in addition to that preemption law the settler was required to make a settlement be­ it required as a test of good faith not less than three months' con­ fore he could make his filing. If it was upon offered lands, then tinuous residence prior to final proof. The fact that the settlers within thirty days after his settlement he was requil:ed to make his have not complied with that act shows that they do not want the filing; and if upon unoffered lands, within three months from set­ lands for homes, but to sell. This bill requil'es no residence what­ tlement. But the entry under the preemption law was not made ever for commutation. I doubt the wisdom of yielding that, but until be made the final proof and payment. This could be done I will not press that point except to say that it has always been in the case of offered lands within twelve months from the settle­ required in such laws heretofore. ment; but if unoffered land, then within thirty months. Under I will, however, pass that; for the principal objection I make is the homestead law the entry is made by the applicant declaring that it allows squatters on the public domain to count, for the under oath that he wants a certain piece of land for a home, showing purpose of commuting, the time they may have occupied the land his qualifications for it an~ paying the commissions. The settle­ before they made entry. As long as no one applies to enter occu­ ment and cultivation must in such cases follow the entry and at pied land the Government will not dispossess a squatter, but he th~ end of five years be proven by at least two witnesses. In the gets no right to take under the homestead law by simply getting case of preemption the settlement must precede the filing. In the on the land. I will ask the Clerk to read what is required of a case of homestead no payment, except fees, is required unless settler before he can enter under that law. commuted. In preemption the full Government price and fees 'l'be Clerk read as follows: were required in all cases. One is a homestead entry, the other is To obtain a homestead the party should select and personally examine the a cash entry. It is perfectly clear to my mind that the person land and be satisfied of its character and true description. who drew this bill did not understand the proper distinction be­ He must file an application stating his name, residence and post-office tween preemption entries and homestead entries, and in trying to address, and describmg the land he desires to enter, and·make.a.ffidavit that he is not the proprietor of more than 160 acres of land in any State or Terri­ combine the two in general language be made a blunder that may tory; that he is a citizen of the United States, or that he has filed his declara­ make serious trouble unless corrected. tion of intention to become such, and that he is the head of a family, or over I have no disposition to antagonize this measure. In fact, I 21 years of age, as the case may be; that his application is honestly and in good faith made for the purpose of actual settlement and cultivation, and want it passed, in proper form, for the sake of my friend who in­ not for the benefit of any other person, persons, or corporation, and that he troduced it. His constituents who have made entries or filings will faithfully and honestly endeavor to comply with all the requirements of are entitled to it, but I do not believe that this House ought tQ law as t1o settlement, residence, and cultivatiOn necessary to acquire title to the land applied for; that he is not acting as agent of any person, corpora­ commit itself to the dangerous principle of legalizing the right of tion, or syndicate in making such entry,nor in collusion with any person, squatters upon the public domain who have paid nothing, assumed corporation or syndicate to give them the benefit of the land entered, or any no obligation to settle, and who have complied with no part of the part thereof, or the timber thereon; that he does not apply to enter the same law and regulations. I will therefore ask the House to vote down for the/urpose of speculation, but in ~ood faith to obtain a home for him­ self, an that he has not directly or indirectly made, and will not make, any this report and give the conference committee the instructions agreement or contract. in any way 9r manner with any person or persons, which I send to the desk to be read. corporation, or syndicate' whatsoever by which the t1tle which he might The Clerk read as follows: acquire from the Government of the United States should inure in whole or in part to the benefit of any person except himself; and, further, that since Strike out the following langua.ge in section 1; August 30, 1890, he has not entered under the land laws of the United States, "Within the period aforesaid for the space of six months settled upon, im­ or filed upon, a quantity of land agricultura.l in character, and not·mineral-1 proved, and cultivated any of said indemnity lands with a. view of entering which, With the tracts now applied for, would make more than 320 acres, ana f;he same under the homestead or preemption laws, being competent to make that he has not theretofore had the benefit of the homestead laws, and must such entries, and who were not permitted to make such entries, upon estab­ pay the legal fee and that part of the commissions which L-. payable when entry lishing these facts before the register and receiver of the local land office, in IBIDade. such mode and under such rules as the Secretary of the Interior may "{>re­ On compliance by the party with the foregoing requirements the receiver scribe, shall be allowed to enter under the homestead laws of the Uruted will issue his receipt for the fee and that part of the commissions paid, a. du­ States a quantity of land of the unappropriated public lands of the United pli<'.ate of which he will deliver to the party. The matter will then be en­ States subject to homestead entry, equal in amount to the land settled upon, tered on the records of the district office and reported to the General Land improved, and cultivated, as aforesaid, and under the homestead entry so Office. made shall, when making proof and fi.nal entry, receive credit for the settle· ment, improvement, and cultivation made upon the said indemnity land as Mr. McRAE. Now, Mr. Speaker, a sworn application of this aforesaid: Provided, '!'hat the law in force in 1889 governin~ the commuta­ tion of homestead entries shall apply to the commutation of entries under character must be made and the land office fees paid before any this section." • settler can make an entry under the homestead law. And insert the following: Mr. LACEY." May I ask my colleague a question? " In good faith settled upon, improved, and lived six months upon land in said second indemnity belt after having made filing or entry of the same, and Mr. McRAE. Certainly. who, for any reason other than voluntary abandonment, failed to make final Mr. LACEY. If I understand your objection to this bill, it is proof_thereon, may, within two years after the passage of this act, transfer that it allows these persons who took possession and who made no their claims to any vacant surveyed Government land subject to entry under filing to have the benefit of the law? the homestead laws, and make proof therefor, in the same way as proof might have been made for their original entries if the same had not been canceled; Mr. McRAE. In the main, that is my objection. r-am told and in making such proof credit shall be given for the period of their bona that so far as these settlers are concerned, it was only intended to fide residence and the amount of their improvements upon their claims iri give this right to those_who had made entries or filings, but the said indemnity belt as if the same had been made upon the claims to which the transfer is made. Payment for such final selections sha.ll be made as bill itself does not provide for that. It provides that " those per­ under existing laws. The provisions of this act shall be carri.ed into effect sons who for the period of six months settled·upon, improved, and under such rules and regulations as may be prescribed by the Secretary of cultivated any of said lands with a view of entering." Shall Con­ the Interior. . gress grant people who go upon the public lands as squatters with Mr. McRAE. Mr. Speaker, it can only delay the passage of a view of entering the same right as those who have entered? If this bill a very short time to reject this report and give these in­ so, then there is no necessity for entry, and all that a mari bas to structions. In this way you will protect everyone who bas made do is to occupy and cultivate public land . . a filing or entry and lived upon this land for the time required Shall we say that be must n:ot pay the fees or give the land office under the preemption or homestead law. notice that he intends to take it? If you are willing to say that Mr. LACEY. But would it not cut out those who have made because a settler has gone on the.public land be bas a right to hold no filings or to whom filing was denied? it indefinitely without entry at the land office, then what use have Mr. McRAE. It ought to cut them out. The settler who did we for land offices? Will you make the settler the judge· of his own not enter under the homestead law and made no filing under the qualifications, and allow him to segregate the land be wants from preemption law and paid nothing, lost nothing. If he applied the public domain without any record of it? There is no part of and was denied, then he certainly could not complain that be was the homestead law that does not serve a wise purpose; and it re­ misled. If he did not make an entry under the homestead law, quires every applicant to swear that be takes the land for actual be bas no legal status and ought not t.o be given this valuable settlement and cultivation and not for speculation; and the time right. If you adopt the principle of saying to everyman who bas he is required to reside upon it does not begin to run until the squatted upon the public lands, "We will give you the right togo payment of the land office fees and the issue of the receiver's re­ upon any other piece of land and have counted in your favor there ceipt. This bill also reduces the period of commutation from four­ the time that you have occupied the public lands as a squatter," teen to six months as to homesteads and revives the repealed pre­ you will find no end to the trouble and harassment to avery land emption law, with a reduction to the same period in favor of set­ district in this country, and it will be the means of depriving many tlers who had no legal status at the time these changes were made. a poor man of a home. No preemptor could under that law enter without at least one The only principle-upon which you can justify this bill is that year's residence on the land after filing, and if it was on unoffered as the Government declared these lands open to settlement and 1896. - CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-HOUSE. 5773

permitted ·homesteaders to make entries, it is the duty of the Mr. SHAFROTH, from the Committee on the Public Lands, to Government to protect those settlers who complied with the r~­ which was refeiTed the bill of the Senate (S. 2232), entitled" An qlrirements of the law. But as to the man who settled and culti­ act to vacate Sugar Loaf Reservoir site in Colorado and to restore vated the land, but refused to comply with the law as J;o entry the lands contained jn the same to entry," reported the same with­ and payment, there is no obligation to give him a right equal in out amendment, accompanied by a report (No. 2003); which said effect to land scrip which can be put upon any piece of land sub­ bill and repOl't were referred to the Committee of the Whole ject to homestead which he may find, and by paying $1.25 an acre House on the state of the Union. . and proving that he had settled upon and cultivated another Mr. PICKLER, from the Committee on Invalid Pensions, to piece of land for six months get title. The Gove1·nment has not which were referred House bills Nos. 6118 and 8552, reported in deceived him and owes him nothing. The precedent is extremely lieu thereof a bill (H. R. 9209) granting a service pension to all dangerous, and I warn the House against it. honorably discharged officers and enlisted men of the war of the Mr. LACEY. There is no scrip in this proposition. rebellion, accompanied by a report (No. 2004); which said bill Mr. McRAE. No; but it is about as dangerous as scrip. You and report were referred to the Committee of the Whole House reduce the period of commutation to six months and provide that on the state of the Union. every man who proves a residence for six months on any of these indemnity lands shall have the right to take any piece of public land in the United States which is subject to homestead. To illus­ trate: If an entry in any one of the land districts of the United REJ?ORTS OF COMMITTEES ON PRIVATE BILLS. States is rejected for technical reasons, and the land is declared Under clause 2 of Rule XIII, private bills and resolutions were· to be public, these preferred citizens can say," I will take this severally reported from committees, delivered to the Clerk, and piece of land"; and all he has to do is to prove that he improved referred to the Committee of the Whole House, as follows: and cultivated for six months any land within the indemnity lim­ By Mr. MINOR of Wisconsin, from the Committee on Claims: its of the Northern Pacific grant, etc. It is the right to make a The bill (H. R. 3927) for the relief of James B. Russell. (Report cash entry which is denied to other people. We have declared No. 2000.) that public lands should be held in trust for actual settlers. By Mr. KERR, from the Committee on Invalid Pensions: The I hope the report will be rejected and ·the insti·uctions I pro­ bill (H. R. 4924) granting an increase of pension to George D. pose adopted, and if that is done I am satisfied that the conference Cook, late of Company K, One hundred and tenth Ohio Volunteer committee in less than thirty minutes can agree to a proper meas­ Infantry. (Report No. 2001.) · ure for the benefit of these settlers. The gentleman from Minne­ sota [Mr. TOWNE] wisely proposed by his bill to give this right only to settlers who had made entries or filings, and never until to-day has it been admitted that it was sought to give this privi­ PUBLIC BILLS, MEMORIALS, AND RESOLUTIONS. lege to anybody else. Some of the conferees who signed this re­ Under clause 3 of Rule XXII, bills, resolutions, and memorial& port have stated that they did so believing that it was the final of the following titles were introduced· and severally referred as proof in homestead cases which was the entry, and that a home­ follows: st-ead entry was not made until the final proof was made. By Mr. SPARJU\.IAN: A bill (H. R. 9206) to establish a fish­ Mr. LACEY was recognized. hatching and fish-culture station in the State of Florida-to the Mr. KEM. Mr. Speaker, I make the point that there is no Committee on the Merchant Marine and Fisheries. quorum. By Mr. HOWARD (by request of James Seldon Cowdon, of The SPEAKER. There is no quorum present. Vienna, Fairfax County, Va.): A bill (H. R. 9207) to make the Mr. PAYNE. I move that the House adjourn. paper money of the United States receivable, not redeemable-to The motion was agreed to; and the House accordingly (at 5 the Committee on Ways and Means. o'clock and 22 minutes p. m.) adjourned. By Mr. GILLETT of Massachusetts: A bill (H.R. 9208) to re­ store to the classified service persons employed in the Record and Pension Office of the War Department prior to July 25, 1894-to EXECUTIVE COMMUNICATIONS, ETC. the Committee on Reform in the Civil Service. Under clause2 of Rule XXIV, the following executive commu­ By Mr. CONNOLLY: A joint resolution (H. Res.190) to facili­ nications were taken from the Speaker's table and referred as fol­ tate the reorganization of theN orthern Pacific Railroad Company; lows: to secure to actual settlers the right to purchase at a price not A letter from the assistant clerk of the Court of Claims, trans­ exceeding $2.50 per acre the agricultural lands within its grant, mitting a list of 27 cases wherein the preliminary examination and to prohibit said company or any successor company from does not show that the claimants were loyal to the Government giving by consolidation, sale, or other corporate action control of of the United States throughout the war-to the Committee on its railioad to any corporation, company, person, or association of War Claims, and ordered to be printed. persons owning, operating, or _controlling a parallel or competing A letter from the Acting Secretary of the Treasm·y, transmitting railroad-to the Committee on the Judiciary. By Mr. DINGLEY: A joint resolution (H. Res. 191) to author­ copies of the decisions of the Comptroller of the Treasury and of ize a scientific investigation of the fur-seal fisheries-to the Com­ the Auditor for the Post-Office Department, as to the amount to mittee on Ways and Means. be paid for the relief of George H. Lott-to the Committee on By Mr. LOW: A resolution (House Res. No. 383) providing for Claims, and ordered to be printed. the appointment of a committee of. five members to investigate and report to the next session of Congress all the material facts connected with the removal of chiefs of divisions, etc., since REPORTS OF COMMITTEES ON PUBLIC BILLS AND March 4, 1893, in the Treasury Department and in the various RESOLUTIONS. offices under the said Department, and for other purposes-to the Under clause 2 of Rule XIII, bills and resolutions were severally Committee on Reform in the Civil Service. reported from committees, delivered to the Clerk, and referred to By Mr. WILSON of Idaho: A resolution (House Res. No. 384) the several Calendars therein named, as follows: to pay Albert E. Werner $77.78 for services as messenger under Mr. SHERMAN, from the.CommitteeonlnterstateandForeign the Doorkeeper of the House-to the Committee on Accounts. Commerce, to which was referred the bill of the House (H. R. By Mr. SAYERS: A resolution (House Res. No. 386) providing 8551) to establish railroad bridges across the Cumberland and­ for the printing of 1,000 copies of House bill No. 7977, known as Tennessee rivers, in Kentucky, reported the same with amend­ the river and harbor bill-to the Committee on Printing. ments, accompanied by a report (No. 1998); which said bill and By Mr. ATWOOD: A memorial relative to an amendment to report were referred to the House Calendar. the Constitution of the United States enabling Congress to enact He also, from the same committee, to which was referred the laws regulating the hours of labor-to the Committee on the bill of the House (H. R. 9072) to authorize the Butler and Pitts­ Judiciary. burg Railroad Company to construct a bridge across the Alle­ By Mr. FITZGERALD: A memorial relative to an amendment gheny River, reported the same with amendment, accompanied to the Constitution of the United States enabling Congress to enact by a report (No. 2005); which said bill and report were referred laws regulating the hours of labor-to the Committee on the to the House Calendar. Judiciary. Mr. PHILLIPS, from the Committee on Labor, to which was By Mr. SIMPKINS: A memorial relative to an amendment to referred the bill of the House (H. R. 9188) authorizing the appoint­ the Constitution of the United States enabling Congress to enact ment of a nonpartisan commission to collate information and to laws regulating the hours of labor-to the Committee on the consider and recommend legislation to meet the problems presented Judiciary. by labor, agriculture, and capital, reported the same without By Mr. BARRETT: A memorial relative to an amendment to amendment, accompanied by a report (No. 1999); which said bill the Constitution of the United States enabling Congress to enact and report were referred to the Committee of the Whole House on laws regulating the hours of labor-to the Committee on the the state of the Union. Judiciary. 5774 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD-SENATE. MAY 27,

CHANGE OF REFERENCE. nayal record of Thomas Marshall-to the Committee on Naval Under clallSe 2 of Rule XXII, the Committee on Military Affairs Affairs. was discharged from the consideration of the bill (H. R. 6055) for · By Mr. KERR: Petition of George H . Ely and others, of Elyria, the relief of John A. Campbell; and the same was referred to the Ohio, favoring the passage of House bill No. 260, to increase the pay of letter carriers-to the Committee on the Post-Office and Committee on Naval Affairs. • Post-Roads. PRIVATE BILLS, ETC. By Mr. KIEFER: Petitions of citizens of Taylors Falls, Cam­ bridge, and St. Paul, Minn., asking for favorable action on House Under clause 1 of Rule XXII, private bills of the following titles bills Nos. 838 and 4566, amending the postal laws-to the Com­ were presented and refeiTed as follows: mittee on the Post-Office and Post-Roads. By Mr. BAKER of Maryland: A bill (H. R. 9210) to remove the By 1\Ir. LEIGHTY: Petition of citizens of Wolcottville, Ind., for charge of desertion from Patrick H. McCall, late an enlisted man favorable action on House bills Nos. 831:! and 4566, to amend the in the United State Navy-to the Committee on Naval AffaiTs. postal laws-to the Committee on the Post-Office and Post-Roads. By Mr. BISHOP: A bill (H. R. 9211) to grant a pension to Mrs. Byl\fr. :1\IcL.A.CHLAN: Petition of Cushing Post, No. 44, Grand Charles B. Gatewood, widow of Chru.·les B. Gatewood, late first Army of the Republic, of Ventura, Cal., favoring the passage of a lieutenant, Sixth United States Cavalry-to the Committee on service-pension bill-to the Committee on Invalid Pen ions. Invalid Pensions. By Mr. McRAE: Petition of J. E. Weir, T. S. Sandefer, and BJ 1\fr. CURTIS of Iowa: A bill (H. R. 9212) granting an in­ 36 other citizens of Clark County, .Ark., in favor of House bill No. crease of pension to John R. Lumbert, of Preston, Iowa-to the 6851, to aid Wilberforce University, located in Greene County, Committee on Invalid Pensions. Ohio-to the Committee on Military Affairs. By Mi. HARMER: A bill (H. R. 9213) to authorize the President By Mr. PRINCE: Petition of citizens of Moline, Dl., in favor to place William T. Godwin on the retired list with the rank of of House bills Nos. 838 and 4566, amending the postal laws-to first lieutenant-to the Committee on l\lilitary Affairs. the Committee on the Post-Office and Post-Roads. By Mr. JOY: A bill (H. R. 9214) to correct the naval record of By l\ir. STAHLE: Petitions of Cigar Makers' Union! No. 316, of Thomas Marshall-to the Committee on Naval Affairs. McSherrystown, Pa., praying for Government ownership of tela. By .Mr. LOUDENSLAGER: A bill (H. R. 9215) granting a pen­ graph lines-to the Committee on Interstate and Foreign Com­ sion to Martha Jennie Freer-to the Committee on Invalid Pen­ tnerce. sions. By Mr. STEELE: Petitions of citizens of Decatur, Dunkirk, and By Mr. McEWAN: A bill (H. R. 9216) to increase the pension Geneva, Ind., for favorable action on House bills Nos. 838 and of John Grimes-to the Committee on Pensions. 4566, proposing amendments to the postal laws-to the Committee By 11fr. STRODE of N ebra ka: A bill (H. R. 9217) granting a on the Post-office and Post-Roads. pension to John F. Adams-to the Committee on Invalid Pensions. By Mr. WADSWORTH (by request): Petition of ex-soldiers By Mr. COOPER of Texas: A bill (H. R. 9218) for the relief of and sailors of the Union Army and Navy residing in Varysburg, Martha A., wiuow of Joseph Hollingshead, late of Company A, N.Y., for the passage of a service-pension bill of at least S8 per Fifteenth Regiment United States Infantry-to the Committee on month to every honorably discharged soldier, sailor, and marine Invalid Pensions. who served ninety days in the late war on the Union side-to the By Mr. McCLURE: A bill (H. R. 9219) to remove the charge Committee on Invalid Pensions. of desertion against George Webb-to the Committee on Military By Mr. WILSON of Idaho: Petition of Knights of Labor Gen­ Affairs. eral Assembly, in favor of House bill No. 6119, for the appoint­ .Also, a bill (H. R. 9220) to remove the charge of desertion from ment of an impartial committee to investigate the labor problem the record of John T. Jones-to the Committee on Military Af- and suggest a remedy-to the Committee on Labor. fairs. · Also, a bill (H. R. 9221) to remove the charge of desertion against John G. Frost-to the Committee on Military Affairs. SENATE. Also, a bill (H. R. 9222) to remove the charge of desertion against David Edwards-to the Committee on MHitary Affairs. WEDNESDAY, May 27, 1896. By .M.r. PEARSON: A bill (H. R. 9223) to correct the militru.·y PI·ayer by the Chaplain, Rev. W. H. 1\!I:LBURN, D. D. record of Joseph J. Grasty-to the Committee on Military Affairs. The Secretary proceeded to read the Journal of yesterday's pro­ ceedings, when, on motion of Mr. HARRIS, and by unanimous PETITIONS, ETC. consent, the further reading was dispensed with. Under clause 1 of Rule XXII, the following petitions and papers El'\'ROLLED BILLS SIGl\TED. weTe laid on the Clerk's desk and referred as follows: The signature of the Vice-President was announced to the fol· l:Jy Mr. ADAMS: Resolution of the Commercial Exchange of lowing enrolled bills, which had previously been signed by the Philaclelphia, protesting against the pa sage of House bill No. 8536 Speaker of the House of Representatives: and Senate bill No. 2967, to amend the interstate-commerce act­ A bill (S. 3011) for the relief of Nicolai Bros.; to the Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce. A bill (H. R. 138) granting an increase of pension .to Mary E. Also, petition of railroad commissioners, opposing the repeal of Hazlip; section 10 of the inter tate-commerce law-to the Committee on A bill (H. R . 248) empowering and directing the Secretary of Inteistate and Foreign Commerce. the Navy to furnish four pieces of condemned cannon to the city By 1't1r. COOPER of Texas: Sundry petitions of citizens of the of Hastings, 1\Iich.; State of Texas, asking for favorable action on House bill No. 838, A bill (H. R. 468) granting an increase of pension. to Mrs. H. J . to reduce letter postage to 1 cent per half ounce, and House bill Kiernan; No. 4566, to amend the postal laws relating to second-class matter­ A bill (H. R . 1109) granting a pension to Elizabeth Marshall; to the Committee on the Post-Office and Post-Roads. A bill (H. R. 2373) granting a pension to Elvin J . BTown; By Mr. CRUMP: Resolutions of the executive board of the A bill (H. R. 2602) for the relief of Solomon Hyams; Knights of Labor, favoring the passage of the industrial commis­ A bill (H. R . 3007) granting an increase of pension to Michael sion bill (H. R. 6119), to inyestigate the labor problem-t-o the S. Pettit; Committee on Labor. A bill (H. R . 3033) to increase the pension of Elizabeth T. Beall, ByMl·. DOOLITTLE.: Petition of citizensof BayView, Wash., widow of Benjamin L. Beall, late colonel, First United States protesting against the pas age of House bill No. 4566, to amend the Cavalry; postal laws relating to econd-class matter-to the Committee on A bill (H. R. 3229) for the relief of Hannah Newell Barrett; the Post-Office and Post-Roads. A bi11 (H. R . 3395) granting a pension to Carrie H. Green; By Mr. GIBSON: Petition of W. H . Dietz, of Kingston, Tenn.., A bill (H. R . 3857) granting a pen ion to"Thomas Brewer; for a children's clay-to the Committee on the Judiciary. A bill (H. R. 4275) to increase the penirlon of Mrs. Annis H. By Mr. HATCH: Petitions of citize'tls of Lowell and Monon, Enochs, widow of Gen. William H . Enochs, from $20 to $50 per Ind., asking for favorableaction on House bills Nos. 838 and4566, month; to amend the postal laws-to the Committee on the Post-Office A bill (H. R. 4283) granting a pension to Delia A . Marsh; and Post-Roads. A bill (H. R. 459 ) granting a pension to Mary Cl·ay; By Mr. HITT: Petition of a convention of raih·oad commis­ A bill (H. R . 4724) to increase the pension of Mrs. :Mary L. Ala­ sionei'S of different States, May 20, 1896, protesting against a pro­ shire· posed amendment to section 10 of the interstate-commerce act­ A bill (H. R . 4753) granting an increase of pension to Lambert to the Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce. L. Mulford; By Mr. JOHNSON of Indiana: Petition of citizens of Knights­ A bill (H. R. 4785) to incorporate the National University; town, Ind., asking favorable action on House bills Nos. 838 and A bill (H. R. 5175) granting a pension to Nancy Gentry; 4566, amending the postal laws-to the Committee on the Post­ A bill (H. R . 5225) for the relief of Mrs. ElizabethM. Williams, Office and Post-Roads. of Monroe County, Tenn.; By Mr. J OY : P apers to accompany H ouse bill to correct the A bill (H. R. 5711) grantingapension to Rich ardP.PilkingtoDJ