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Government, all the State governments in the adoption of the accompanying resolutheir relations to Federal authority, for- tion: eign nations, the people of the United Resolved, That the two Houses of the States, all the material interests and indus- Forty-fourth Congress having counted the tries of the country, have acquiesced in, votes cast for President and Vice-Presiand acted in accordance with, the pro-dent of the United States, and having denounced finding of that Congress. In theclared Rutherford B. Hayes to be elected opinion of this committee, the present President, and William A. Wheeler to be Congress has no power to undo the work elected Vice-President, there is no power of its predecessor in counting the electoral in any subsequent Congress to reverse that vote, or to confer upon any judicial tri- declaration, nor can any such power be bunal the right to pass upon and perhaps exercised by the courts of the United set aside the action of that predecessor in States, or any other tribunal that Congress reference to a purely political question, the can create under the Constitution. decision of which is confided by the Constitution in Congress.

But apart from these fundamental objections to the bill under consideration, there are features and provisions in it which are entirely impracticable. Your committee can find no warrant of authority to summon the chief-justices of the supreme courts of the several States to sit at Washington as a jury to try any case, however grave and weighty may be its nature. The right to summon must carry with it the power to enforce obedience to the mandate, and the Committee can see no means by which the judicial officers of a State can be compelled to assume the functions of jurors in the Supreme Court

of the United States.

There are other objections to the practical working of the bill under consideration, to which we do not think it necessary

to refer.

We agree to the foregoing report so far as it states the reasons for the resolution adopted by the committee, but dissent from the concluding portion, as not having reference to such reasons, as not pertinent to the inquiry before us, and as giving an implied sanction to the propriety of the pending investigation ordered by a majority vote of the House of Representatives, to which we were and are opposed.

WM. P. FRYE.

O. D. CONGER.
E. G. LAPHAM.

Leave was given to Mr. KNOTT_to_present his individual views, also to Mr. BUTLER (the full committee consisting of Messrs. Knott, Lynde, Harris, of Virginia, Hartridge, Stenger, McMahon, Culberson, Frye, Butler, Conger, Lapham.)

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yeas 235, nays 14, not voting 42.

The Hayes Administration.

The question being on the resolution reIt may be true that the State of Mary-ported by the committee, it was agreed to land has been, in the late election for President and Vice-President, deprived of her just and full weight in deciding who were legally chosen, by reason of frauds perpetrated by returning boards in some of the States. It may also be true that these fraudulent acts were countenanced or encouraged or participated in by some who now enjoy high offices as the fruit of such frauds. It is due to the present generation of the people of this country and their posterity, and to the principles on which our Government is founded, that all evidence tending to establish the fact of such fraudulent practices should be calmly, carefully, and rigorously examined. But your committee are of the opinion that the consequence of such examination, if it discloses guilt upon the part of any in high official position, should not be an effort to set aside the judgment of a former Congress as to the election of a President and Vice-President, but should be confined to the punishment, by legal and constitutional means, of the offenders, and to the preservation and perpetuation of the evidences of their guilt, so that the American people may be protected from a recurrence of the crime.

Your committee, therefore, recommend

It can be truthfully said that from the very beginning the administration of President Hayes had not the cordial support of the Republican party, nor was it solidly opposed by the Democrats, as was the last administration of General Grant. His early withdrawal of the troops from the Southern States, and it was this withdrawal and the suggestion of it from the 'visiting statesmen which overthrew the Packard government in Louisiana,-embittered the hostility of many radical Republicans. Senator Conkling was conspicuous in his opposition, as was Logan of Illinois; and when he reached Washington, the younger Senator Cameron, of Pennsylvania. It was during this administration, and because of its conservative tendencies, that these three leaders formed the purpose to bring Grant again to the Presidency. Yet the Hayes' administration was not always conservative, and many Republicans believed that its moderation had afforded a much needed breathing spell to the country. Toward its close all became better satisfied, the radical por

to report it, and even after a request to do so from the Democratic caucus,—a course of action which heralded him every where as a "hard-money" Democrat.

The main business of the extra session was devoted to the consideration of the Appropriation Bills which the regular session had failed to pass. On all of these the Democrats added "C riders "" for the purpose of destroying Federal supervision of the elections, and all of these political riders were vetoed by President Hayes. The discussions of the several measures and the vetoes were highly exciting, and this excitement cemented afresh the Republicans, and caused all of them to act in accord with the administration. The Democrats were equally solid, while the Nationals divided-Forsythe, Gillette, Kelley, Weaver, and Yocum generally voting with the Republicans; De La Matyr, Stevenson, Ladd and Wright with the Democrats.

tion by the President's later efforts to pre- | unlimited coinage of silver, the Senate Fi vent the intimidation of negro voters innance Committee refused to report it, the the South, a form of intimidation which Chairman, Senator Bayard, having refused was now accomplished by means of rifle clubs, still another advance from the White League and the Ku Klux. He made this a leading feature in his annual message to the Congress which began December 2d, 1878, and by a virtual abandonment of his earlier policy he succeeded in reuniting what were then fast separating wings of his own party. The conference report on the Legislative Appropriation Bill was adopted by both Houses June 18th, and approved the 21st. The Judicial Expenses Bill was vetoed by the President June 23d, on the ground that it woul 1 deprive him of the means of executing the election laws, An attempt on the part of the Democrats to pass the Bill over the veto failed for want of a two-thirds vote, the Republicans tinglidly against it. June 26th the veltoed bill was divided, the second division stil forbidding the pay of deputy marshals at elections. This was again vetoed, and the President sent a special message urging the necessity of an appropriation to pay United States marshals. Bills were accordingly introduced, but were defeated. This failure to appropriate moneys called for continued until the end of the session. The President was compelled, therefore, to call an extra session, which he did March 19th, 1879, in words which briefly explain

the cause:

THE EXTRA SESSION OF 1879.

President Hayes, in his veto of the Army Appropriation Bill, said:

I have maturely considered the important questions presented by the bill entitled 'An Act making appropriations for the support of the Army for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1880, and for other purposes, and I now return it to the House of Representatives, in which it originated, with my objections to its approval.

'The bill provides, in the usual form, for "The failure of the last Congress to the appropriations required for the support make the requisite appropriation for legis- of the Army during the next fiscal year. lative and judicial purposes, for the ex- If it contained no other provisions, it would penses of the several executive departments receive my prompt approval. It includes, of the Governinent, and for the support of however, further legislation, which, atthe Army, has made it necessary to call tached as it is to appropriations which are a special session of the Forty-sixth Con-requisite for the efficient performance of gress.

"The estimates of the appropriations needed, which were sent to Congress by the Secretary of the Treasury at the opening of the last session, are renewed, and are herewith transmitted to both the Senate and the House of Representatives.

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some of the most necessary duties of the Government, involves questions of the gravest character. The sixth section of the bill is amendatory of the statute now in force in regard to the authority of persons in the civil, military and naval service of the United States at the place where any Regretting the existence of the emer-general or special election is held in any gency which requires a special session of State.' This statute was adopted February Congress at a time when it is the general 25, 1865, after a protracted debate in the judgment of the country that the public Senate, and almost without opposition in welfare will be best promoted by perma- the House of Representatives, by the connency in our legislation, and by peace and current votes of both of the leading political rest, I commend these few necessary mea-parties of the country, and became a law sures to your considerate attention." by the approval of President Lincoln. It

By this time both Houses were Demo-was re-enacted in 1874 in the Revised Stacratic. In the Senate there were 42 De- tutes of the United States, sections 2002 mocrats, 33 Republicans and 1 Independent and 5528.

(David Davis). In the House 149 Demo

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crats, 130 Republicans, and 14 Nationals- "Upon the assembling of this Congress, a name then assumed by the Greenbackers in pursuance of a call for an extra session, and Labor-Reformers. The House passed which was made necessary by the failure the Warner Silver Bill, providing for the of the Forty-fifth Congress to make the

"The last act of Democratic domination in this Capitol, eighteen years ago, was striking and dramatic, perhaps heroic. Then the Democratic party said to the Republicans, If you clect the man of your choice as President of the United States we will shoot your Government to death;' and the people of this country, refusing to be coerced by threats or violence, voted as they pleased, and lawfully elected Abraham Lincoln President of the United States.

"Then your leaders, though holding a majority in the other branch of Congress, were heroic enough to withdraw from their seats and fling down the gage of mortal battle. We called it rebellion; but we recognized it as courageous and manly to avow your purpose, take all the risks, and fight it out on the open field. Notwithstanding your utmost efforts to destroy it, the Government was saved. Year by year since the war ended, those who resisted you have come to believe that you have finally renounced your purpose to destroy, and are willing to maintain the Government. In that belief you have been permitted to return to power in the two Houses.

needful appropriations for the support of the Government, the question was presented whether the attempt made in the last Congress to engraft, by construction, a new principle upon the Constitution should be persisted in or not. This Congress has ample opportunity and time to pass the appropriation bills, and also to enact any political measures which may be determined upon in separate bills by the usual and orderly methods of proceeding. But the majority of both Houses have deemed it wise to adhere to the principles asserted and maintained in the last Congress by the majority of the House of Representatives. That principle is that the House of Representatives has the sole right to originate bills for raising revenue, and therefore has the right to withhold appropriations upon which the existence of the Government may depend, unless the Senate and the President shall give their assent to any legislation which the House may see fit to attach to appropriation bills. To establish this principle is to make a radical, dangerous, and unconstitutional change in the character of our institutions. The various Departments of the Government, and the Army and Navy, are established by the "To-day, after eighteen years of defeat, Constitution, or by laws passed in pursuance the book of your domination is again thereof. Their duties are clearly defined, opened, and your first act awakens every and their support is carefully provided for unhappy memory and threatens to destroy by law. The money required for this pur- the confidence which your professions of pose has been collected from the people, patriotism inspired. You turned down a leaf and is now in the Treasury, ready to be of the history that recorded your last act of paid out as soon as the appropriation bills power in 1861, and you have now signalare passed. Whether appropriations are ized your return to power by beginning a made or not, the collection of the taxes second chapter at the same page; not this will go on. The public money will accu-time by a heroic act that declares war on mulate in the Treasury. It was not the in- the battle-field, but you say if all the legistention of the framers of the Constitution lative powers of the Government do not that any single branch of the Government consent to let you tear certain laws out of should have the power to dictate conditions the statute-book, you will not shoot our upon which this treasure should be applied Government to death as you tried to do in to the purpose for which it was collected. the first chapter; but you declare that if Any such intention, if it had been enter- we do not consent against our will, if you tained, would have been plainly expressed cannot coerce an independent branch of in the Constitution." this Government against its will, to allow you to tear from the statute-books some laws put there by the will of the people, you will starve the Government to death. [Great applause on the Republican side.]

The vote in the House on this Bill, notwithstanding the veto, was 148 for to 122 against a party vote, save the division of the Nationals, previously given. Not receiving a two-thirds vote, the Bill failed.

The other appropriation bills with political riders shared the same fate, as did the bill to prohibit military interference at elections, the modification of the law touching supervisors and marshals at congressional elections, etc. The debates on these measures were bitterly partisan in their character, as a few quotations from the Congressional Record will show:

The Republican view was succinctly and very eloquently stated by General Garfield, when, in his speech of the 29th of March, 1879, he said to the revolutionary Democratic House:

"Between death on the field and death by starvation, I do not know that the American people will see any great difference. The end, if successfully reached, would be death in either case. Gentlemen, you have it in your power to kill this Government; you have it in your power, by withholding these two bills, to smite the nerve-centres of our Constitution with the paralysis of death; and you have declared your purpose to do this, if you cannot break down that fundamental element of free consent which up to this hour has always ruled in the legislation of this Govern

ment."

The Democratic view was ably given by Representative Tucker of Virginia, April 3. 1879: "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 repeal. 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 appropriate the money for the Army in order that they may be used at the polls? We say no, a thousand times no. The gentlemen on the other side say there must be no coercion. Of whom? Ỏf 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.

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When, therefore, vicious laws have fas-
tened themselves upon the statute-book
which imperil the liberty of the people,
this House is bound to say it will appro-
priate no money to give effect to such laws
until and except upon condition that they
are repealed. [Applause on the Demo-
cratic side.] *
We will give him the
Army on a 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. ***
Clothed thus with unquestioned power,
bound by clear duty, to expunge these vi-
cious laws from the statute-book, following
a constitutional method sanctioned by
venerable precedents in English history,
we feel that we have the undoubted right,
and are beyond cavil in the right, in de-
claring 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 Senate, July 1, passed the House bill placing quinine on the free list.

manifested it in his veto messages. It was a losing battle to the Democrats, for they had, with the view not to "starve the gov ernment," to abandon their position, and the temporary demoralization which followed bridged over the questions pertaining to the title of President Hayes, overshadowed the claims of Tilden, and caused the North to again look with grave concern on the establishment of Democratic power. If it had not been for this extra session, it is asserted and believed by many, the Republicans could not have so soon gained control of the lower House, which they did in the year following; and that the plan to nominate General Hancock for the Presidency, which originated with Senator Wallace of Pennsylvania, could not have otherwise succeeded if Tilden's cause had not been kept before his party, unclouded by an extra session which was freighted with disaster to the Democratic party.

The Negro Exodus.

During this summer political comment, long after adjournment, was kept active by a great negro exodus from the South to the Northwest, most of the emigrants going to Kansas. The Republicans ascribed this to ill treatment, the Democrats to the operations of railroad agents. The people of Kansas welcomed them, but other States, save Indiana, were slow in their manifestations of hospitality, and the exodus soon ceased for a time. It was renewed in South Carolina in the winter of 1881-82, the design being to remove to Arkansas, but at this writing it attracts comparatively little notice. The Southern journals generally advise more liberal treatment of the blacks in matters of education, labor contracts, etc., while none of the Northern or Western States any longer make efforts to get the benefit of their labor, if indeed they ever did.

Closing Hours of the Hayes Administra

tion.

At the regular session of Congress, which met December 1st, 1879, President Hayes Ap-advised Congress against any further legislation in reference to coinage, and favored the retirement of the legal tenders.

The extra session finally passed the propriation bills without riders, and adjourned July 1st, 1879, with the Republican party far more firmly united than at The most important political action tathe beginning of the Hayes administra- ken at this session was the passage, for tion. The attempt on the part of the Demo- Congress was still Democratic, of a law to crats to pass these political riders, and their prevent the use of the army to keep the threat, in the words of Garfield, who had peace at the polls. To this was added the then succeeded Stevens and Blaine as the Garfield proviso, that it should not be conRepublican Commoner of the House, re-strued to prevent the Constitutional use of awakened all the partisan animosities the army to suppress domestic violence in which the administration of President a State-a proviso which in the view of Hayes had up to that time allayed. Even the Republicans rid the bill of material the President caught its spirit, and plainly partisan objections, and it was therefore

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passed and approved. The "political ri- The payment of the award of the Haliders were again added to the Appropria- fax Fisheries Commission-$5,500,000-to tion and Deficiency bills, but were again the British government was made by the vetoed and failed in this form to become American minister in London, November laws. Upon these questions President 23, 1879, accompanied by a communicaHayes showed much firmness. During the tion protesting against the payment being session the Democratic opposition to the understood as an acquiescence in the reGeneral Election Law was greatly tem-sult of the Commission "as furnishing any pered, the Supreme Court having made an just measure of the value of a participaimportant decision, which upheld its con- tion by our citizens in the inshore fisheries stitutionality. Like all sessions under the of the British Provinces." administration of President Hayes and On the 17th of December 1879, gold was · since, nothing was done to provide perma-sold in New York at par. It was first sold. nent and safe methods for completing the at a premium January 13, 1862. It reached: electoral count. On this question each its highest rate, $2.85, July 11, 1864. party seemed to be afraid of the other. The electoral vote was counted without . The session adjourned June 16th, 1880. any partisan excitement or disagreement.. The second session of the 46th Congress Georgia's electoral college had met on the began December 1st, 1880. The last an-second instead of the first Wednesday of nual message of President Hayes recom- December, as required by the Federal law. mended the earliest practicable retirement She actually voted under her old Confed-of the legal-tender notes, and the mainte- erate law, but as it could not change the nance of the present laws for the accumula- result, both parties agreed to the count of tion of a sinking fund sufficient to extin- the vote of Georgia "in the alternative,” guish the public debt within a limited peri-i. e.-"if the votes of Georgia were counted! od. The laws against polygamy, he said, the number of votes for A and B. for Presi-should be firmly and effectively executed. dent and Vice-President would be so In the course of a lengthy discussion of many, and if the votes of Georgia were not the civil service the President declared counted, the number of votes for A and B.. that in his opinion "every citizen has an for President and Vice-President would be equal right to the honor and profit of en- so many, and that in either case A and B, tering the public service of his country. are elected." The only just ground of discrimination is Among the bills not disposed of by this the measure of character and capacity he session were the electoral count joint rule; has to make that service most useful to the the funding bill; the Irish relief bill; the people. Except in cases where, upon just Chinese indemnity bill; to restrict Chinese and recognized principles, as upon the immigration; to amend the Constitution theory of pensions, offices and promotions as to the election of President; to regulate are bestowed as rewards for past services, the pay and number of supervisors of elec their bestowal upon any theory which dis- tion and special deputy-marshals; to abroregards personal merit is an act of injus-gate the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty; to protice to the citizen, as well as a breach of that trust subject to which the appointing power is held. Considerable space was given in the Message to the condition of the Indians, the President recommending the passage of a law enabling the government to give Indians a title-fee, inalienable for twenty-five years, to the farm lands assigned to them by allotment. He also repeats the recommendation made in a former message that a law be passed admitting the Indians who can give satisfactory proof of having by their own labor supported their families for a number of years, Congress adjourned March 3d, 1881, and and who are willing to detach themselves President Hayes on the following day refrom their tribal relations, to the benefit of tired from office. The effect of his adminthe Homestead Act, and authorizing the istration was, in a political sense, to government to grant them patents contain-strengthen a growing independent sentiing the same provision of inalienability ment in the ranks of the Republicans-an for a certain period.

hibit military interference at elections; to define the terms of office of the Chief Supervisors of elections; for the appointment of a tariff commission; the political assessment bill; the Kellogg-Spofford case; and the Fitz-John Porter bill.

The regular appropriation bills were all completed. The total amount appropriated was about $186,000,000. Among the special sums voted were $30,000 for the centennial celebration of the Yorktown victory, and $100,000 for a monument to commemorate the same.

element more conservative generally in its The Senate, on the 19th, appointed a views than those represented by Conkling committee of five to investigate the causes and Blaine. This sentiment began with of the recent negro exodus from the South. Bristow, who while in the cabinet made a On the same day a committee was appoint show of seeking out and punishing all cored by the House to examine into the sub-ruptions in government office or service. ject of an inter-oceanic ship-canal. On this platform and record he had con

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