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| A NEw conspiracy AGAINST THE REPUBLIC. |
sPEECH
of
| HON. J. C. BURROWs,
- of
INACICIEHTIG-ALINT,
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
On Friday, April 18th, 1879.
WASHINGTON, D. (. . . . .
RUFUs H. DARBY, STEAM-Power PRINTER.
1879.
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| | 66
A NEw conspirAcy AGAINST THE REPUBLIC.
S P F. E. C. H
OF
HON. J. C. BURRows |
OF
INATICIEHIG-AINT,
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,
On Friday, April 18th, 1879.
WASHINGTON. I.). C. :
RUFUs H, DARBY, STEAM-I’oweR PRINTER,
1879,
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| o C.
z 27
A NEW CONSPIRACY AGAINST THE REPUBLIC.
SIEPIEECIEL
H () N. J. (). BU R R () WS.
The House being in Committee of the Whole on the state of the Union, and
having under consideration the bill (H. R. No. 2) making appropriations for the
legislative, executive, and judicial expenses of the Government for the fiscal year
ending June 30, 1880, and for other purposes—
Mr. BURROWS said:
Mr. Chairman, I have no disposition to revive or discuss the
issues of the war. It is my purpose to confine myself to the ques-
tions of the present. No sooner had the republican minority of
this House, overborne by numbers, been driven from its first in-
trenchment where it made a stand in the defense of a peaceful bal-
lot, than it is again assaulted by an exultant and defiant majority,
and forced to do battle in the defense of a pure ballot. Now, as
then, we present upon this side of the Chamber a solid front, con-
fident of the strength of our position and the justice of our cause,
and confident also that though defeated now we shall ultimately be
supported by that mighty reserve, the majority of the American peo-
ple, whose invincible power no party can possibly withstand.
It will be remembered that upon the Army appropriation bill
recently passed the democratic majority of this House ventured to
undertake the modification of but two sections of existing law.
Flushed with victory and emboldened by success, it will be observed
that upon this bill they have determined not only upon the modifi-
cation of four sections, but the absolute repeal of fourteen more. It
is also a noticeable fact that in both instances the main force of
the majority has been hurled against the election laws, laws which
have for their purpose only the maintenance of the sanctity of the
ballot-box.
I have neither the time nor the disposition to enter into a general
discussion of the character of those laws sought to be repealed.
Their nature and purpose are well known to the House and the
country; but I cannot refrain from observing that if gentlemen
on the other side of the Chamber are really anxious to preserve
the peace and purity of the ballot-box, why attempt to tear down
the only remaining national fortress reared for the defense of
either ? Do you desire, gentlemen, an honest registration?
These laws provide for it. Do you want a pure ballot? They pro-
mote it. Do you want a fair count? They insure it. Do you de-
4
sire a true return ? They enjoin it. Do you want order and peace
at the polls 2 They command it. Do you want repeaters and bal-
lot-box stuffers, thugs and red-shirts punished? They secure it.
And there is nothing in these laws that is a terror to any man ex-
cept him who has already committed or is now meditating some
outrage upon the ballot-box of the country.
You declare that you want a pure and peaceable election; and
while you have been unsparing in your denunciation of all means
employed by the Federal Government to insure it, not one word of
rebuke, not a word of regret even has fallen from the lips of any
man on that side of the Chamber for the outrages perpetrated at the
polls in the South, especially in Louisiana and in South Carolina,
not six months ago; in South Carolina, where you carried the elec-
tions by a system of frauds and ballot-box stuffing unparalleled in
the history of natious; in Ilouisiana, by driving voters from the
polls, seizing ballot-boxes through the instrumentality of armed
ruffians, destroying ballots, driving men into exile, and invoking
that system of murder and intimidation so long in vogue in the
South, and which has been so efficient in crushing an entire race.
Let me read a word from the report of a Senate committee touch-
ing the question of elections in Louisiana in the fall of 1878. I
read from the report of the Teller committee:
The examination of the committee, it will be seen, was confined to but seven of
the fifty-two parishes of Louisiana. In these seven parishes the evidence shows
there were murdered “for political purposes,” during the campaign of 1878, twen-
ty-three persons. Besides these there were fully as many others murdered, whose
names the committee were unable to ascertain, whose corpses were seen, by wit-
messes, who testified before the committee, .#. on trees or lying dead in the
streets or fields. Dozens more were wounded from shots fired at them with mur-
derous intent, some of whom were present as witnesses before the committee ex-
hibiting their scars; others were whipped, or beaten, and mutilated; wives were
tied up by the thumbs and whipped for refusing to tell where their husbands were
secreted; scores of leaders in politics among the colored men were driven from
their homes, leaving their crops in the field and their families unprovided for. In
brief, a literal “reign of terror '' existed, and in fact still exists, over a consider-
able portion of Louisiana as the result of the policy adopted by the democracy for
perpetuating its rule in that State.
Mr. GIBSON. Will the gentleman yield for a question?
Mr. BURROWS. Not now. When I read such a history and re-
member how you have overcome majorities in the South and stamped
out a party in blood, and made free speech and a free press, free
homes, free emigration, and a free ballot impossible within many
portions of the Southern States, I must confess that I listen with im-
patience to the hypocritical cant about peace, protection, and purity
at the polls. [Applause.] This very hour while you are professing
such jealous care for the rights of American citizens, a whole race
is fleeing from your presence as they would fly from a pestilence.
Not to escape Federal bayonets, but Southern bludgeons; not to es-
cape Federal bullets, but Southern bowie-knives; not to escape
Federal interference, but Southern intimidation; not to escape Fed-
eral force, but Southern fraud; not to escape election laws, but en-
forced exile; not to escape from Federal marshals, but from South-
ern murders; not from honest registration, but from masked raid-
5
ers; not from supervisors of election laws, but from Southern shot-
guns. In a word, fleeing from a people and country where their
every right is cloven down and their every wrong unredressed.
When I hear gentlemen on the other side of this Chamber denounce
these outrages upon a free ballot and free men in the Southern
States, it will be time for me to believe that you are really sincere
and solicitous for the protection of the citizen and the purity of the
ballot-box. Pardon me if I express my honest convictions.
Mr. GIBSON. Will the gentleman yield now to a question ?
Mr. BURROWS. I cannot. Pardon me, I say, if I express my
honest convictions that with all your professions you want neither
peace nor purity at the polls. Your chiefest desire is the election
of a democratic President in 1880. By what means you little care.
You want these laws repealed because they stand in the way of the
consummation of such a purpose, for you know full well, and the
country knows, that if they are permitted to stand, and can be en-
forced, and every man in this Republic, North and South, allowed
to vote as his conscience dictates, without injury or fear of injury
to life or property, you could no more elect your President in 1880
than you are honestly entitled to your majority in either House of
this Congress to-day. [Applause on the republican side.]
But I did not rise to address myself so much to the character of
the election laws and the necessity for their continued existence as
to the method and means by which their repeal is sought to be con-
summated. The country, Mr. Chairman, is to-day alarmed, and
justly so, not for the safety of these laws, but for the security of the
Government itself. They are alarmed at the oft-repeated declar-
ation of the democratic majority in this Congress, that they propose
to wipe from the statute-books all the legislation of the last eigh-
teen years, which is regarded as offensive to the democratic party,
and to enter upon that work now by starving the Government into
submission. This threatened revolution inas overshadowed all
other questions, and has become the main issue of the hour. The
question now is not whether we may have an army to keep the
peace at the polls, but whether we shall have an army at all. It is
not a question whether the Navy may be used for this or that pur-
pose, but whether its deck shall be wholly abandoned and our men-
of-war lie with stripped sails rotting on our shores. It is not so
much a question whether the President of the United States has
the constitutional power to place troops within the limits of a State
as whether the executive department shall be permitted to exist at
all unless supporting itself by private resources or public charity.
It is not so much a question whether the judiciary of the country
would hold the election laws constitutional, as whether we shall
have a judiciary at all unless it shall consent to surrender its judg-
ment on constitutional law to the dominant party in Congress and
drag its unsullied ermine through the slough of a democratic cau-
cus. It is not so much a question whether Congress had the con-
stitutional power to pass these laws as whether we shall have a
Congress at all. It is not so much a question which one of the
6
three great co-ordinate branches of the Government has power to
direct the use of the Army and Navy as it is whether there shall
any longer be three branches or only one, and that this democratic
House, holding sovereignty and unquestioned sway, at whose feet
executive and judiciary alike shall kneel with uncovered head and
like cringing mendicants plead for bread. In a word, the issue
this democratic Congress presents is simply this: to the minority
in both Houses, “Yield your judgment to ours; ” to the President
of the United States, “Sign the bills we present; ” to the judiciary,
“Echo our views of the Constitution,” permit us to load appropri-
ation bills with political riders until we have effected the repeal
of all laws offensive to democratic caucus, or we will withhold all
supplies for the support of the Government, throw the machinery
out of gear, and hold it there until we starve you into submission.
These are questions of the hour, and if this be not revolution, in
the name of Heaven what is it 7 -
It has been stated that your conduct in 1861 was honorable and
heroic, meaning, I suppose, as contrasted with what is now proposed,
but I am prepared to characterize the rebellion of 1861 as treason,
and your purposes of to-day but little better, and, so far as the South
is concerned, an exhibition of the basest ingratitude. Is it fitting
for you to smite the hand that fed you and sting the breast that
warmed you back to life? Iſave I exaggerated your purpose ?
Let me recount a brief but startling history. On the 4th day of
March just passed the President of the United States, by public
proclamation, informed the country that the Forty-fifth Congress had
closed its deliberations “without making”—and I quote the language
of the proclamation—“the usual and necessary appropriations for the
legislative, executive, and judicial expenses of the Government for
the fiscal year ending June 30, 1880, and without making the usual
and necessary appropriations for the support of the Army for the
same fiscal year.”
Every statement in that proclamation is literally true. That Con-
gress did adjourn without making the slightest provision for the
support of the legislative, executive, or judicial branches of the Gov-
ernment, and without appropriating one single dollar for the support
of the Army of the United States. That same Congress knew, the
moment it adjourned, that if no further legislation was had until the
time for the regular session of this Congress in December next it
was inevitable that in less than four months from the hour of its
adjournment the three great pillars that sustain and support the
Federal fabric would, unless upheld by the omnipotent arm of a
patriotic people, crumble and fall, while the Army, disbanded by
starvation, would not be suffered to survive the desolation that it
might even stand guard over the sacred ruins.
That same Congress knew the moment it adjourned that if matters
were undisturbed, that if the country now would comply with what
Jefferson Davis demanded in 1861, “Let us alone,” the rising
sun of July 1, 1879, would gild, not the temple, but the tomb of
the Republic. IIad there been no Executive to disturb this plot the
7
nation to-day would be tottering to its dissolution. Yet, thanks to
the President of the United States, thanks to his patriotism and his
courage, it is made possible for us to avert so dire a calamity.
Sir, by the same proclamation, a portion of which I have already
read, both Houses of the present Congress were convened in extra
session on the 18th of March for the simple and single purpose of
making provision for the support of the Army and the legislative,
executive, and judicial expenses of the Government, a work so sim-
ple that it might have been consummated in one week, and the
session closed. But what have we witnessed ? For more than ten
days both Houses of this Congress, now under democratic control,
went through the idle ceremony of meeting and adjourning from
day to day. For what? Awaiting the pleasure of a democratic
caucus which, if rumor is to be credited, was considering, not how
the needed supplies for the support of the Government might best
be provided, but how rather they might be withheld, and the very
necessities of the Government, which we were summoned to relieve,
seized upon and made available to prosecute and sustain a siege
already inaugurated, until the Executive should be forced to sur-
render to the domination of Congress. The democratic majority
of this Congress began just where the democratic House of the last
left off.
Why did the Army bill and the general legislative bill fail in the
last Congress? Was it because there was any serious or irreconcil-
able difference of opinion between the House and Senate on any
item of appropriation ? I understand not. Not that. But these
bills failed solely because the then democratic IIouse insisted upon
ingrafting upon these appropriation bills measures of a political
character known to be offensive to a republican Senate, then say-
ing to the Senate in spirit if not in words, “Consent to the ob-
noxious legislation or no supplies will be voted for the support of
the Government.”
And now what is attempted? Why, sir, it is no longer necessary
to coerce a Senate, for both branches are now under the undisputed
control of the democratic party. But an Executive is to be over-
come, and the very same measures which were then used to coerce
a Senate are now invoked to coerce the President. Am I mistaken
in this? If you do not mean coercion, divest this bill of its offensive
political legislation, and I venture the assertion that it will pass this
House to-day without one dissenting voice from this side of the
Chamber; will as quickly receive the sanction of the minority of the
Senate, and within forty-eight hours become a law by executive
approval. If you do not mean coercion, separate these measures
and let each stand or fall upon its own merits. First feed the Army
and supply the means for the support of the Government, and then
consider your political legislation. Do tilis, and I think I hazard
nothing in saying that there will not be the slightest objection on
this side of the Chamber to the introduction and immediate consid-
eration of any bill embodying this or any other legislation you may
8
see fit to enter upon touching the use of the Army or the modifica-
tion of the election laws.
Do I hear consent to this proposition from the other side? Oh, no.
The siege is to be prosecuted without mercy and with no terms of
capitulation but unconditional surrender. In a word, your avowed
purpose is this: to ingraft upon any and all of the appropriation
bills any measure of general legislation which a democratic caucus
shall have previously approved, and then pass these bills with such
legislation attached; and if the President, in the exercise of his con-
stitutional power of veto, shall return such bills to this House with
his objections thereto, and we of the minority shall not in sufficient
numbers surrender our judgment to constitute the requisite two-
thirds to overcome such veto, then you will withhold all supplies for
the support of the Government and adjourn this session of Con-
gress; and if again summoned by the President, you will repeat the
folly and persist in the crime until the President or the minority of
Congress is starved into submission, or until the Executive and con-
gressional terms shall have expired by limitation of law. Have I
overdrawn your designs ? Have I exaggerated your intentions ?
When the distinguished gentleman from Ohio [Mr. GARFIELD]
now before me, in opening the debate on the Army appropriation bill,
charged the democratic majority of this House with such revolu-
tionary purpose the evidence in support of the accusation was in a
large measure circumstantial, but nevertheless of sufficient weight
to carry conviction to the mind of the most incredulous. Time,
which reveals the purposes of men, has dispelled all doubt, and to-
day there is no question of your purpose; to-day you stand arraigned
before the country at the bar of public judgment, on your own plea
of guilty, self-convicted conspirators against the life of the nation.
[Applause.]
Bear with me while I read some of your voluntary confessions of
guilt. The distinguished gentleman from Ohio, [Mr. HURD, in his
speech of April 2, said:
It is objected to these measures of legislation which we propose that there is a
possibility by our passing these laws of restraining the veto power of the Presi-
dent; or, as my distinguished friend from Ohio put it the other day, of “interfering
with his participation in the legislation.” I deny that the President of the United
States has any right to participate in the legislation of this country.
Mr. MULDRow, of Mississippi, in his speech of April 3, said:
If the gentleman from Ohio is correct in his assumption that the President will
veto these repeals, then, I repeat, let the responsibility be upon him and the repub-
lican party. If there is revolution in that they are the revolutionists; they are the
party and he is the officer whose veto will thwart the will of the people as expressed
by their representatives in Congress, and he will for partisan purposes exercise a
constitutional prerogative in the interest of tyranny and in violation of every prin-
ciple of liberty and freedom. -
Mr. ARMFIELD, of North Carolina, in his speech of April 3, said:
The President shall veto no law passed by Congress except for one of two rea-
sons: first, that it is unconstitutional ; second, that it is hasty or inconsiderate.
Mr. SINGLETON, of Mississippi, declared in a speech on April 4:
For myself, President or no President, veto or no veto, I am prepared to fight
9
upon this line until the work proposed is done, effectually dome, whatever of time,
labor, or expense it may involve.
Mr. TURNER, of Kentucky, in a speech made April 4, said:
Well, sir, if Mr. Hayes vetoes this bill on account of the sixth section guarding
the right of suffrage, then the responsibility will rest on his shoulders, and not on
Ours, for starving the Army. I do not believe Mr. Hayes will veto the bill on ac-
count of the sixth section. But if he does, and persists in that veto, and thereby
starves the Army of the United States, then let the responsibility rest where it be-
longs, on the head of the President, for vetoing a bill, right, proper, and constitu-
tional, passed by a majority of the representatives of the people in the exercise of
their constitutional rights.
The distinguished gentleman from North Carolina, [Mr. KITCHIN,)
in a speech on April 3, said:
The honorable gentleman need not remind this House of the evil results that
might flow from the anticipated act of the President; it will neither drive nor lead
from an honest and faithful discharge of duty; we will perform our duty to the
country and let them assume the responsibility of defeating the will of the major-
ity and, if you please, as they say, destroying the Government. I plant myself on
this rock and say, in the language of the valiant I'itz-James :
Come one, come all, this rock shall fly
From its firm base as soon as I.
The gentleman from South Carolina [Mr. O’ConnoR] said:
We have been thus early convoked here by the President to furnish supplies to
run the Government, just as we were prepared to do in the last Congress until
impeded and opposed by the Senate. The representatives of the people, who are
the sovereigns of this country and hold the purse, do not intend to be coerced. It is
our province and our prerogative, it is our duty, to see before we give the taxes of
the people that all grievances are redressed. -
The gentleman from Mississippi [Mr. CHALMERs] said in his speech
on April 2:
Sir, it is said that the Army shall eat nothing because the republican party in its
arrogance refuses to eat humble pie. You threaten to starve the Government to
death because you have grown so great that you cannot even do what is right if it
happens to be demanded by the majority of an opposite party.
Now, I do not believe that the Government is going to die ; but if it should die
from the issue now presented, upon whose shoulders will the responsibility rest?
× × >k >k 2k × ×
Andrew Johnson on that trying occasion set an example to his republican friends
which they would do well to remember now. Rather than see the wheels of this
Government stopped he signed that bill; but he signed it under protest, and thus
made his appeal to the country.
If it is deemed necessary to make another appeal to the people on the question
now at issue, the republican President can make his choice—he can either follow
the example of Andrew Johnson, or he can, as the gentleman from Ohio said, de-
stroy this Government without firing a single hostile gun. It is for him, not for
us, to say which course he will choose.
2K xk - × xk sk >k ×
If free government must die, and die at the hands of such a President as this,
then the democratic party can look in the face of the expiring goddess of liberty
and say: -
- Shake not thy gory locks at nue,
Thou canst not say I did it.
Mr. McMAHON, of Ohio, in his speech of March 29, said:
I believe that we have made up our minds fully to take all the consequences be-
fore the people of an adherence to our views. If the President of the United States
prefers to “starve the Government * * * * with him will rest the respon-
sibility.
10
The gentleman from Illinois, [Mr. SPARKs, who had the Army
bill in charge, said : . -
I deny, therefore, that the President has any legislative power. He has the
power to arrest ; only the power to arrest. Now let us take the case before us. It
is insisted that the President is attempted to be coerced by the proposed legislation
and that this action is revolutionary. Now, sir, we pass a law. All appropriations
of inoney from the Treasury must be made by law. We pass this law appropri-
ating nearly $27,000,000. In that law we make provision that the Army, for which
the appropriation is made, shall not be used “to keep the peace at the polls '' in
the various precincts and polling places throughout the United States. The Presi-
dent chooses, if you please, to arrest it. He says: “I arrest this law and return it
to Congress with my objection.” What do we do? I do not know what gentle-
men generally will do ; but my idea in this particular case would be to say to the
President, “Very well, sir; if you do not need this law, why should we want it?
We certainly have the constitutional power to let it alone, and, Mr. President, as
you have chosen to arrest it by your positive act of objection or veto, all right;
now just let the subject drop.” But then he will say, “But, gentlemen, that will
not do ; this law must be passed ; I unust have this law.” “Well, then,” we an-
swer, “why did you not take it, sir, and make it effective after we had passed it
and presented it to you?” “Because,” he says, “it had some provision in it that
was objectionable to me.” “Well, sir, what do you propose to do?” “Why, I
propose that you shall pass a law unobjectionable to me; in other words, you shall
pass the kind of law that I want you to pass.”
The gentleman from Virginia, [Mr. TUCKER, in his speech of
April 3, said:
I tell you, gentlemen of the House of Representatives, the Army dies on the 30th
day of June, unless we resuscitate it by legislation. And what is the question here
on this bill? Will you resuscitate the Army after the 30th of June, with the power
to use it as keepers of the polls? That is the question. It is not a question of re-
peal. It is a question of re-enactment. If you do not appropriate this money,
there will be no Army after the 30th of June to be used at the polls. The only
way to secure an Army at the polls is to appropriate the money. Will you appro-
priate the money for the Army in order that they may be used at the polls? We
Say no. a thousand times no.
× sk × × × >k :K
The gentlemen on the other side say there must be no coercion. Of whom ? Of
the President? But what right has the President to coerce us? There may be
coercion one way or the other. He demands an unconditional supply. We say we
Will give him no supply but upon conditions.
× × 2; xk x}. >k ×
When, therefore, vicious laws have fastened themselves upon the statute-book
which imperil the liberty of the people, this House is bound to say it will appropri-,
ate no money to give effect to such laws until and except upon condition that they
are repealed. [Applause on the democratic side.]
× sk × >k x x
We will give him the Army on the single condition that it shall never be used or
be present at the polls when an election is held for members of this House, or in
any presidential election, or in any State or municipal election.
× sk × × × × sk
Clothed thus with unquestioned power, bound by clear duty, to expunge these
vicious laws from the statute-book, following a constitutional methőd sanctioned by
venerable precedents in English history, we feel that we have the undoubted right,
and are beyond cavil in the right, in declaring that with our grant of supply there
must be a cessation of these grievances, and we make these appropriations condi-
tioned on securing a free ballot and fair juries for our citizens.
The distinguished gentleman from Kentucky, [Mr. BLACKBURN,
in his speech of April 4, said:
May I not assure that gentleman and his associates that the dominant party of
this Congress, the ruling element of this body, is also equally determined that
until their just demands are satisfied, * * *, this side of the Chamber, which
has demonstrated its power, never means to yield or surrender until this 6'ongress
11
shall have died by virtue of its limitation. [Applause on the democratic side.) We
will not yield. A principle cannot be compromised. It may be surrendered ; but
that can only be done by its advocates giving proof to the world that they are
cravens and cowards, lacking the courage of their own conviction. We cannot
yield, and will not surrender.
sk × × × sk & *
Now, sir, the issue is laid down, the gage of battle is delivered. , Lift it when
you please ; we are willing to appeal to that sovereign arbiter that the gentleman
so handsomely lauded, the American people, to decide between us.
× >k $: sk >k sk sk
I do not mean to issue a threat. * * * But I do mean to say that it is my
deliberate conviction that there is not to be found in this majority a single man who
will ever consent to abandon one jot or tittle of the faith that is in him. He can-
not surrender if he would. I beg you to believe he will not be coerced by threats
nor intimidated by parade of power. He must stand upon his conviction and there
we will all stand. IHe who dallies is a dastard, and he who doubts is damned.
[Great applause on the democratic side.]
At the close of the Forty-fifth Congress, Senator THURMAN, of
Ohio, said:
We claim the right * * * to say that we will not grant the money of the
people unless there is a redress of grievances. •
The distinguished Senator from Kentucky, [Mr. BECK, in the last
Congress, said:
They seemed further to agree, and I agreed with them, that if an extra session
must be called, much as it is to be regretted, the very moment it is called the com-
mittees of both IIouses would be organized and separate bills would be framed and
passed as soon as possible, asking the President of the United States to agree with
the representatives of the States and people.
+. × × 2k × × x
We insist that those matters pertain solely to the States and are part of their
absolute right. * * * When these three laws are submitted to the President for
liis approval, as they will be, and are approved by him * * * the next Congress
will, in my opinion, be ready to pass every appropriation bill. * * * If, how-
ever, the President of the United States, in the exercise of the power vested in
him, should see fit to veto the bills thus presented to him, which, I repeat, will sim-
ply be to keep soldiers from the polls, to allow proper jurors to serve who will try
cases honestly, and allow the States to control their own election, then I have no
doubt those same amendments will be again made part of the appropriation bills,
and it will be for the President to determine whether he will block the wheels of
Government and refuse to accept the necessary appropriations rather than allow
the representatives of the people to repeal odious laws, which they regard as sub-
versive of their rights and privileges. * * * Whether that course is right or
wrong, it will be adopted, and I have no doubt adhered to, no matter what hap-
Dens with the appropriation bills.
Such, gentlemen, are your voluntary confessions. Are they not
sufficient to dispel all doubt from the public mind that it is your
deliberate, premeditated, unalterable, and wicked purpose to starve
this Government to death if the Executive shall dare to use his con-
stitutional power to arrest legislation which his judginent cannot
approve 2 And what do you urge in extenuation of this crime 7
What have you to say why the judgment of the country should not
now be pronounced ? From one I hear the feeble response that the
President, in exercising his veto power, is resisting the will of the
majority in Congress, and therefore his wishes should be disregarded.
Did it ever occur to the constitutional lawyers upon the other
side of this Chamber that the veto power of the President is always
exercised against the will of the majority of both Houses of Con-
12
gress; that until a measure shall have passed Congress the Presi-
dent is powerless to veto? I have been unable to find a single in-
stance where any President ever vetoed a measure that had not
passed Congress. [Laughter.] To say, then, that the veto shall
not be used against the will of the majority is to say that it shall
not be exercised at all.
Another responds, “We are not responsible for the death of the
Government; we vote supplies and the President declines them ;
and with him and the minority rests the responsibility.” Such a
plea is a compound—pardon the expression—of idiocy and inso-
lence seldom equaled, never excelled. It deserves no answer. As
well might the merciless jailer place before a famishing prisoner
food mixed with poison and then say to him : eat or refuse; the
responsibility of your life rests entirely with you.
To the many other pleas interposed, that the President has no
part in legislation, that he is a sort of chief clerk to a democratic
Congress, I shall only reply in the language of two distinguished
democratic Presidents. I refer to the messages of Franklin Pierce
and James K. Polk upon the veto power of the President.
In the fourth annual message of President Polk, sent to Congress
December 5, 1848, I find the following:
The Constitution provides that “every bill which shall have passed the House of
Representatives and the Senate shall, before it becomes a law, be presented to the
President of the United States; if he approve, he slall sign it, but if not, he sli:ill
return it, with his objections, to that House in which it shall have originated, who
shall enter the objections at large on their journal, and proceed to reconsider it.”
The preservation of the Constitution from infraction is the President's highest
duty. He is bound to discharge that duty, at whatever hazard of incurring the
displeasure of those who may differ with him in opinion. He is bound to discharge
it, as well as by his obligations to the people who have clothed him with his exalted
trust as by his oath of office, which he may not disregard. Nor are the obligations
of the President in any degree lessened by the prevalence of views different from
his own in one or both Houses of Congress. It is not alone hasty and inconsider-
ate legislation that he is required to check ; but if at any time Congress shall, after
apparently full deliberation, resolve on measures which he deems subversive of the
Constitution, or of the vital interests of the country, it is his solemn duty to stand
in the breach and resist them. The President is bound to approve, or disapprove,
every bill which passes Congress and is presented to him for his signature. The
Constitution makes this his duty, and he cannot escape it if he would. He has no
election. In deciding upon any bill presented to him, he must exercise his own
best judgment. If he cannot approve, the Constitution commands him to return
the bill to the House in which it originated, with his objections.
>k × sk >k × × ×
Any attempt to coerce the President to yield his sanction to measures which he
cannot approve, would be a violation of the spirit of the Constitution, palpable
and flagrant; and, if successful, would break down the independence of the execu-
tive department and make the President, elected by the people and clothed by the
Constitution with power to defend their rights, the mere instrument of a majority
of Congress. A surrender on his part of the powers with which the Constitution
has invested his office, would effect a practical alteration of that instrument, with-
out resorting to the prescribed process of amendment.
With the motives and considerations which may induce Congress to pass any bill
the President can have nothing to do. He must presume them to be as pure as his
own, and look only to the practical effect of their measures when compared with
the Constitution or the public good.
But it has been urged by those who object to the exercise of this undoubted con-
stitutional power, that it assails the representative principle and the capacity of the
people to govern themselves; that there is greater safety in a numerous represent-
13
ative body than in the single Executive created by the Constitution. and that the
executive veto is a “one-man power,” despotic in its character.
4: × × sk xk × sk
That the majority should govern is a general principle, controverted by none;
but they must govern according to the Constitution, and not according to an unde-
fined and unrestrained discretion, whereby they may oppress the minority. The
people of the United States are not blind to the fact that they may be temporarily
misled, and that their representatives, legislative and executive, may be mistaken
or influenced in their action by improper motives. They have, therefore, inter-
posed between themselves and the laws which may be passed by their public
agents various representations, such as assemblies, senates, and governors in their
several States, a House of Representatives, a Senate, and a President of the United
States. The people can by their own direct agency make no law ; nor can the
House of Representatives, immediately elected by them ; nor can the Senate; nor
can both together without the concurrence of the President, or a vote of two-thirds
of both Houses.
The people, by the Constitution, has commanded the President as much as they
have commanded the legislative branch of the Government to execute their will.
They have said to him in the Constitution, which they require he shall take a sol-
emn oath to support, that if Congress pass any bill which he cannot approve “he
shall return it to the House in which it originated, with his objections.” In with-
holding from it his approval and signature he is executing the will of the people,
constitutionally expressed, as much as the Congress that passed it. No bill is pre-
sumed to be in accordance with the popular will until it shall have passed through
all the branches of the Government required by the Constitution to make it a law.
A bill which passes the House of Representatives may be rejected by the Senate:
and so a bill passed by the Senate may be rejected by the House. In each case the
respective Houses exercise the veto power on the other.
Congress, and each House of Congress, hold, under the Constitution, a check
upon the President, and he, by the power of the qualified veto, a check upon Con-
gress. When the President recommends measures to Congress he avows, in the
most solemn form, his opinions, gives his voice in their favor, and pledges himself
in advance to approve them if passed by Congress. If he acts without due consid-
eration or has been influenced by improper or corrupt motives, or if from any other
cause Congress or either House of Congress shall differ with him in opinion, they
exercise their veto upon his recommendations and reject them ; and there is no
appeal from their decision but to the people at the ballot-box. These are proper
checks upon the Executive wisely interposed by the Constitution, None will be
found to object to them or to wish them repealed. It is equally important that
the constitutional checks of the executive upon the legislative branch shall be pre-
served.
If it be said that the Representatives in the popular branch of Congress are
chosen directly by the people, it is answered, the people elect the President. If
both Houses represent the States and the people, so does the President. The
President represents in the executive department the whole people of the United
States, as each member of the legislative department represents portions of them.
xk × 2k × × sk xir
In the exercise of the power of the veto the President is responsible not only to
an enlightened public opinion, but to the people of the whole Union who elected
him, as the representatives in the legislative branches who differ with him in opin-
ion are responsible to the people of particular States or districts who compose their
respective constituencies. To deny to the President the exercise of this power
would be to repeal that provision of the Constitution which confers it upon him.
To charge that its exercise unduly controls the legislative will is to complain of the
Constitution itself. -
If the principle insisted on be sound, * * * we must remodel our whole sys-
tem, strike down and abolish not only the salutary checks lodged in the executive
branch, but must strike out and abolish those lodged in the Senate also, and thus
practically invest the whole power of the Government in the majority of a single
assembly—a majority uncontrolled and absolute, and which may become despotic.
To conform to this doctrine of the rights of majorities to rule, independent of the
checks and limitations of the Constitution, we must revolutionize our whole sys-
tem. We must destroy the constitutional compact by which the several States
agreed to form a Federal Union, and rush into consolidation, which must end in
14
monarchy or despotism. No one advocates such a proposition ; and yet the doc-
trine maintained, if carried out, must lead to this result.
× xk 3: >k +. × +
If he [the President] surrender this power [of the veto] or fail to exercise it in
a case where he cannot approve, it would make his formal approval a mere mock-
ery, and would be itself a violation of the Constitution.
sk sº sk >k xic x: *
The executive, legislative, and judicial, each constitutes a separate co-ordinate
department of the Government, and each is independent of the others. In the
performance of their respective duties under the Constitution neither can, in its
legitimate action, control the others. They each act upon their several responsi-
bilities in their respective spheres; but if the doctrines now maintained be correct,
the executive must become practically subordinate to the legislative, and the judi-
ciary must become subordinate to both the legislative and the executive ; and thus
the whole power of the Government would be merged in a single department.
Whenever, if ever, this shall occur, our glorious system of well-regulated self-gov-
ernment will crumble into ruins, to be succeeded first by anarchy, and finally by
monarchy or despotism.
President Pierce, in his message vetoing the French spoliation
bill, sent to Congress February 17, 1855, said:
It is not incumbent on the President to sign a bill as a matter of course, and thus
merely to authenticate the action of Congress, for he must exercise intelligent
judgment or be faithless to the trust reposed in him. If he approve a bill, he shall
sign it ; but if not, he shall return it, with his objection, to that House in which it
shall have originated, for such further action as the Constitution demands, which is
its enactment, if at all, not by a bare numerical majority, a s in the first instance,
but by a constitutional majority of two-thirds of both Houses.
While the Constitution thus confers on the legislative bodies the complete power
of legislation in all cases, it proceeds, in the spirit of justice, to provide for the
protection of the responsibility of the President. It does not compel him to affix
the signature of approval to any bill unless it actually have his approbation ; for,
while it requires him to sign if he approve, it, in my judginent, imposes upon him
the duty of withholding his signature if he do not approve. In the execution of
his official duty in this respect he is not to perform a mere mechanical part, but is
to decide and act according to conscientious convictions of the rightfulness or the
wrongfulness of the proposed law. * * * The President’s responsibility is to
the whole people of the United States as that of a Senator is to the people of a
particular State, that of a Representative to the people of a State or district. * * *
When, however. he entertains a decisive and fixed conclusion, not merely of the
unconstitutionality but of the impropriety or injustice in other respects of any
measure, if he declare that he approves, he is false to his oath and he deliberately
disregards his constitutional obligations.
In the light of this democratic authority let me say to the demo-
cratic party on the other side of the Chamber that you cannot pos-
sibly stand upon the position you have taken; it is wholly unten-
able; it is revolutionary and revolting to the better sentiment of
the American people; and because it is so we propose to resist it
now and here, as in the Army appropriation bill, to the extent
of our power. For if we yield now, when and where, tell me, are
we to make a stand? Let no gentleman upon this side of the
Chamber indulge the delusion that if this point is surrendered there
will be no further advance on the part of the enemy Sir, this is but
the beginning of a series of assaults to be followed up and pushed
with relentless vigor until every fortress reared for the defense of
free men and a free ballot—for peace and purity at the polls; for
national life and individual liberty—shall be torn down and demol-
ished, that lawless violence, fraud, and murder may run riot in the
land.’
15 o
Should we yield now, how long will it be before upon an appro-
priation bill for the support of the Post Office Department a provi-
sion will be incorporated excluding from the Southern mails, as was
done in times of the slave power, all printed matter tending to in-
struct the colored people in their political rights and responsibili-
ties; and then say to the President, “Sign, or no mails?”
How long before upon an appropriation bill for the support of the
judiciary will a provision be incorporated making an appropriation
for the payment of slaves, and the Supreme Court menaced with
starvation to extort from it a decision that the constitutional pro-
hibition was never constitutionally adopted ? “Mr. President, sign,
or no court.”
How long before upon some appropriation bill a provision will be
attached, submitting an amendment to the Constitution abolishing
the three great constitutional amendments : “Mr. President, sign,
or no support.”
How long before a provision will be incorporated upon some ap-
propriation bill for the re-establishment of slavery 7 “Mr. Presi-
dent, sign, or the Government stops.” How long before upon some
appropriation bill a provision will be made for the payment of the
cotton tax, and the interest thereon, and the liquidation of all
Southern claims? “Mr. President, sign, or starve.” How long
before upon a bill granting pensions to Union soldiers a provision
will be incorporated for pensioning confederate soldiers also } Even
now you cannot pension the survivors of the Mexican war without
including Jefferson Davis. “Mr. President, sign, or no pensions
for Union soldiers.” And so the work might go on, through the
instrumentality of appropriation bills, of undoing the entire
legislation of eighteen years, as has been repeatedly threatened,
until the last vestige of those laws for the protection of human
liberty and individual rights shall have been swept away.
A word more and I have done. The distinguished gentleman
from Kentucky, [Mr. BLACKBURN, the acknowledged leader of at
least the Southern wing of the democratic party of this IIouse, took
occasion to say in his recent speech in this Hall that “this side of
the Chamber,” alluding to the democratic majority, “never means
to yield or surrender until this Congress”—mark the word not this
session or the next, but until “this Congress—shall have died by
virtue of its limitation.” I have given his exact words. That event
cannot happen until the 4th of March, 1881.
And so the order is promulgated from the Federal Capitol, in the
face of this nation, by an ex-confederate soldier, to prosecute the
siege until this Republic, which he and his co-conspirators could not
destroy by the sword, shall be reduced by starvation. And no
sooner is the order given than the whole democratic party, North
and South, leap into the trenches at the rallying cry of their chosen
leader, “He who dallies is a dastard, and he who doubts is damned.”
Thus is the siege begun, thus is it prosecuted. And with an air of
defiance, smacking a little of Southern domination, we are told that
“the issue is laid down, the gage of battle is delivered; lift it when
16
you please.” Be it so, and be this my answer: that it is our
supremest pleasure to lift it now and here, [applause on the repub-
lican side;] and we are prepared to make good the appeal. [Re-
newed applause.]
Sir, we accept the challenge you now present in no spirit of boastful
arrogance, but with an unflinching purpose and a sublime courage,
awaiting the issue with the utmost confidence and composure. It
is not the first time we have encountered a solid South conspiring
against the life of the Republic; and although your forces may be
somewhat augmented by your Northern allies, yet I see nothing in
the increased array to cause a heart to faint or a cheek to blanch.
ºr. As you failed then you will fail now. As you could not
ill, you cannot starve. Did it ever occur to you, gentlemen, that
although you should withhold all supplies for the support of the
Government that possibly it might yet survive * Did it ever occur
to you that although you should protract this siege until this Con-
gress shall have died by virtue of its limitation, that possibly there
would be no necessity for surrender Withhold support from the
Executive; are you quite sure there will be no President 2 Refuse
to feed the Army; are you entirely certain there will be no troops?
Deny to your Navy the means to keep it afloat; are you certain you
will force it to anchor : Withhold support from the judiciary; is it
clear there will be no courts? Refuse the needed supplies for main-
taining the legislative branch of the Government; are you confident
there will be no Congress : Why, sir, you are as impotent to over-
throw the Government by starvation as you were to annihilate it by
the sword. You may distress, but you cannot destroy. [Applause.]
For, let me tell you, when that time comes the same loyal people from
the same loyal States who took their lives in their hands, and went
forth to do battle for the defense of the Republic, enduring the weary
march, the protracted siege, the smoking hell of battle, and the more
horrible hell of Southern prison-pens, until from the dark waves of
rebellion they bore upon broken arm and lacerated breast the
bleeding form of the Republic and planted her feet upon the immu-
table rock of constitutional government and civil liberty—I say
from the same States thirty millions of people, animated by the
same patriotism, will, when you attempt to starve this Republic, fly
to her side at the first cry of her distress, and there they will stand
in ceaseless vigil, not with a sword, but with sustenance; not with
the implements of war, but with unmeasured wealth; not with
shotted cannon, but with unlocked coffers; not with bandages, but
with bounty; and, bending over her prostrate form, will they succor
and sustain her, ministering to her necessities, until, in the fullness
of time, they can wrench from her throat the cowardly hands that
clutch it; and then, thrilled with a new life, will she spring to her
feet, and the very altar you builded for her immolation shall become
a throne upon which she shall stand, in the majesty of her power,
resceptered and recrowned, goddess of nations. [Long continued
applause.] - -
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