entirely to different subjects, and all the statutes to which he
adverted are statutes of the same description. What is the
twenty-sixth section of the act of 1790 to which he referred? The
preceding section provided that no one should sue a foreign minister,
and the section to which my friend referred particularly, said that if
a party did sue a foreign minister he should be liable to be punished.
Certainly; but why? Because the Government of the United States was
vested with the exclusive authority in all cases depending upon the
law of nations; and the law of nations saving from responsibility
embassadors accredited to the United States, for civil debts, he who
attempted to interfere offended against the Government, and he
offended in relation to a subject exclusively committed to the General
Government. The power, therefore, which Congress exerted in the
particular legislation to which the honorable member reverted is just
the power which they exert when they provide for the punishment of any
man who counterfeits the currency of the United States, or forges its
paper, or forges its bonds, or interferes with the administration of
the Post-office Department. These are all powers incidental to the
possession of the express power, and in the case to which he adverted
the express power was one necessarily belonging to the Government,
because it was a power belonging to and regulated by the law of
nations, and not by any municipal regulation.
"The honorable member from Illinois tells us that the President's
objection, that there are eleven States not now represented, is
entitled to no consideration whatever. The honorable member seems to
suppose that the President adverted to the fact that there were eleven
States not represented as showing that Congress possessed no
constitutional authority to legislate upon the subject, supposing that
they would have had the authority if those States were represented.
That is not the view taken by the President; it is an entire
misapprehension of the doctrine of the President. He says no such
thing, and he intimates no such thing. But assuming, what in another
part of the message he denies, that the authority might be considered
as existing, he submits as a question of policy whether it is right to
change the whole domestic economy of those eleven States, in the
absence of any representation upon this floor from them. My honorable
friend asks whose fault it is that they are not represented. Why are
they not here? He says their hands are reeking with the blood of loyal
men; that they are unable to take the oath which a statute that he
assumes to be constitutional has provided; and he would have the
country and the Senate to believe that that is the reason why they are
not here. Is that the fact, Mr. President? These States are organized,
and how organized? What have they done? They have abolished slavery by
an astonishing unanimity; they have abolished nearly all the
distinctions which antecedently existed between the two races. They
have permitted the negroes to sue, they have permitted them to
testify; they have not yet permitted them to vote.
"Why are they not received? Because, in the judgment of the Senate,
before the States can be considered as restored, Congressional
legislation on the subject is necessary. Whose fault is it that there
has not been Congressional legislation? Is it the fault of the eleven
States? Certainly not; it is our own fault. And why is it that we are
in point of fact delaying their admission, whether it is to be
considered as a fault or not? Because we want to inquire into the
condition of these States. Why, in the name of Heaven! how long have
we been here? We came here early in December, and this is the month of
April; and here we may remain until July, or, as rumor has it, until
next December; and shall we be satisfied within that time that
Congressional legislation may be safely adopted?
"I have a word or two more to say. My honorable friend from Illinois,
as it seemed to me--his nature is impulsive, and perhaps he was
carried further than he intended--seemed to intimate that the
President of the United States had not acted sincerely in this matter;
that his usurpation was a clear one, and that he was to be censured
for that usurpation. What has he done? He has vetoed this bill. He had
a constitutional right to do so. Not only that; if he believed that
the effect of the bill would be that which he states in his Veto
Message, he was not only authorized but bound to veto it. His oath is
to 'preserve' as well as to 'protect and defend' the Constitution of
the United States; and believing, as he does, and in that opinion I
concur, that this bill assails the Constitution of the United States,
he would have been false to his plighted faith if he had not returned
it with his objections.
"He desires--and who does not?--that the Union shall be restored as it
originally existed. He has a policy which he thinks is best calculated
to effect it. He may be mistaken, but he is honest. Congress may
differ with him. I hope they will agree sooner or later, because I
believe, as I believe in my existence, that the condition in which the
country now is can not remain without producing troubles that may
shake our reputation, not only in our own eyes, but in the eyes of the
civilized world. Let the day come when we shall be again together, and
then, forgetting the past, hailing the present, and looking forward to
the future, we shall remember, if we remember the past at all, for the
exhibition of valor and gallantry displayed on both sides, and find in
it, when we become one, a guarantee that in the future no foreign
hostilities are to be dreaded, and that no civil discord need be
apprehended."
Mr. Trumbull said: "The opinion of Judge Curtis, from which the
Senator read, was the opinion of a dissenting judge, entitled to very
great credit on account of the learning and ability of that judge, but
it was not the opinion of the court, and an examination of the entire
opinion, which is very lengthy, would perhaps not sustain the precise
principles the Senator from Maryland laid down. But, sir, I have
another authority which I think of equal weight with that of Judge
Curtis--not pronounced in a judicial tribunal it is true, but by one
of the most eminent members of the bar in this nation; I may say by a
gentleman who stands at the head of the bar in America at this
time--an opinion pronounced, too, in the exercise of official duties;
and I propose to read a few sentences from that opinion, for it is to
be found reported in the Congressional Globe containing the
proceedings of this body less than ninety days ago. This is the
language:
"'While they [negroes] were slaves, it was a very different
question; but now, when slavery is terminated, and by
terminating it you have got rid of the only obstacle in the
way of citizenship, two questions arise: first, Whether that
fact itself does not make them citizens? Before they were
not citizens, because of slavery, and only because of
slavery. Slavery abolished, why are they not just as much
citizens as they would have been had slavery never existed?
My opinion is that they become citizens, and I hold that
opinion so strongly that I should consider it unnecessary to
legislate on the subject at all, as far as that class is
concerned, but for the ruling of the Supreme Court, to which
I have adverted.'
"Sir, that opinion was held by the honorable Senator from Maryland who
made this speech to-day. He holds the opinion so strongly now that
slavery is abolished, which was the only obstacle in the way of their
being citizens, that he would want no legislation on the subject but
for the Dred Scott decision! What further did the Senator from
Maryland say less than ninety days ago? It is possible, doubtless--it
is not only possible but it is certainly true--that the Senator from
Maryland, by reading the conclusive arguments of the Veto Message in
regard to Chinese and Gypsies, has discovered that he was in error
ninety days ago. I by no means mean to impute any wrong motive to the
Senator from Maryland, but simply to ask that he will pardon me if I
have not been able to see the conclusive reasoning of the Veto
Message."
After quoting still further from Mr. Johnson's speech, made on a
previous occasion, Mr. Trumbull said: "But as I am up, I will refer to
one other point to which the Senator alluded, and that is in regard to
the quotation which I made yesterday from the statute of 1790. I
quoted that statute for the purpose of showing that the provisions in
the bill under consideration, which it was insisted allowed the
punishment of ministerial officers and judges who should act in
obedience to State laws and under color of State laws, were not
anomalous. I read a statute of 1790 to show that the Congress of the
United States, at that day, provided for punishing both judges and
officers who acted under color of State law in defiance of a law of
the United States. How does the Senator answer that? He says that was
on a different subject; the law of 1790 provided for punishing judges
and officers who did an act in violation of the international law,
jurisdiction over which is conferred upon the nation. Let me ask the
Senator from Maryland, if the bill under discussion does not provide
for the punishment of persons who violate a right secured by the
Constitution of the United States? Is a right which a citizen holds by
virtue of the Constitution of his country less sacred than a right
which he holds by virtue of international law?"
Mr. Johnson replied as follows: "It is singular, in my estimation, how
a gentleman with a mind as clear as Mr. Trumbull's, with a
perspicacity that is a little surprising, could have fallen into the
error of supposing that there is any inconsistency between the
doctrine contained in the speech to which he has adverted and the one
which I have maintained to-day. What I said then I say now, that as
far as the United States are concerned, all persons born within the
limits of the United States are to be considered as citizens, and that
without reference to the color or the race; and after the abolition of
slavery the negro would stand precisely in the condition of the white
man. But the honorable member can hardly fail, I think--certainly he
can not when I call his attention to it--to perceive that that has
nothing to do with the question now before the Senate. His bill makes
them citizens of the United States because of birth, and gives them
certain rights within the States."
Mr. Fessenden asked: "Were not your remarks made on this very question
in this bill?"
"No," replied Mr. Johnson; "on another bill." He continued: "What I
maintain is this--and I have never doubted it, because I entertained
the same opinion when I made those remarks that I entertain now--that
citizenship of the United States, in consequence of birth, does not
make a party a citizen of the State in which he is born unless the
Constitution and laws of the State recognize him as a citizen. Now,
what does this bill propose? All born within the United States are to
be considered citizens of the United States, and as such shall have in
every State all the rights that belong to any body else in the State
as far as the particular subjects stated in the bill are concerned.
Now, I did suppose, and I shall continue to suppose, it to be clear,
unless I am met with the almost paramount authority of the Chairman of
the Judiciary Committee, that citizenship, by way of birth, conferred
on the party as far as he and the United States were concerned, is not
a citizenship which entitles him to the privilege of citizenship
within the State where he is born; if it be true, and I submit that it
is true beyond all doubt, that over the question of State citizenship
the authority of the State Government is supreme.
"Now, the honorable member is confounding the _status_ of a citizen of
the United States and the _status_ of a citizen of the United States
who as such is a citizen of the State of his residence. Maintaining,
as I do, that there is no authority to make any body a citizen of the
United States so as to convert him thereby into a citizen of a State,
there is no authority in the Constitution for this particular bill,
which says that because he is a citizen of the United States he is to
be considered a citizen of any State in which he may be at any time
with reference to the rights conferred by this bill."
Mr. Trumbull replied: "I desire simply to remark that the speech from
which I quoted, made by the Senator from Maryland, was made upon this
very bill. It was in reference to this bill that he was speaking when
he laid down the proposition that every person born in the United
States since the abolition of slavery was a citizen of the United
States, and if there was any doubt about it, it was proper for us to
declare them so, and not only proper, but our duty to do so; and to
make the matter specific, the honorable Senator voted for this
proposition, which I will now read, on the yeas and nays:
"'All persons born in the United States, and not subject to
any foreign Power, excluding Indians not taxed, are hereby
declared to be citizens of the United States, without
distinction of color.'
"Upon the adoption of that proposition as an amendment, it not being
in the bill as originally introduced, the Senator from Maryland, with
thirty others, voted in the affirmative. So we have his high authority
for saying that all persons born in the United States, and not subject
to any foreign Power, are citizens of the United States, exactly as it
appears in this bill."
"Mr. Yates, of Illinois, remarked: "I remember very well that the
Senator from Maryland offered an amendment to the Freedmen's Bureau
Bill to this effect: to strike out the words 'without distinction of
color.' The Freedmen's Bureau Bill applied legislation by Congress to
the freedmen in the States and to the condition of the freedmen in the
States. It was legislation that affected the freedmen in the
rebellious States. If I remember aright the Senator from Maryland
moved to strike out the words 'without distinction of color' in one
section of that bill, and for that motion he gave this reason:
because, under the Constitution of the United States, as amended,
abolishing slavery in all the States and Territories of the United
States, the freedmen occupied precisely the same position with any
other citizen of the United States in any State or Territory. I
understood him as taking the broad position, which I have maintained,
and which Republican Senators have maintained, and which I think the
country maintains, that under the Constitution, as amended, the
freedman occupies precisely the same position as any man born in any
State or Territory of the United States; and that was the object, if I
understood the Senator from Maryland, of his moving to amend the
Freedmen's Bureau Bill by striking out the words 'without distinction
of color.'
"I recognize the authority of the decisions quoted by the Senator from
Maryland before the adoption of the amendment to the Constitution. The
States had the power over the question of slavery in the States before
the amendment to the Constitution; but by the amendment to the
Constitution, in which the States have concurred, the freedman becomes
a free man, entitled to the same rights and privileges as any other
citizen of the United States."
Mr. Cowan, of Pennsylvania, spoke in favor of the veto, premising that
his words, "if they are not to convince any body in the Senate, may go
to the country and be reflected on there." Mr. Cowan said he was quite
willing that all the people of this country should enjoy the rights
conferred upon them by this bill. But, supposing the bill had all the
merit in the world, it would not be effective to attain the ends hoped
for by its friends; and apart from that, its provisions were
exceedingly dangerous. It gave married women and minors the right to
make and enforce contracts. The grammatical structure of a portion of
the bill was such as to enable a corrupt, passionate, or prejudiced
judge to take advantage of it in order to widen the jurisdiction of
the United States courts, and drag into them all the business which
had heretofore occupied the State courts. This would be enough in this
nineteenth century to make a man tremble for the fate of
constitutional government. "If," said Mr. Cowan, "we had undoubted
authority to pass this bill, under the circumstances I would not vote
for it, on account of its objectionable phraseology, its dubious
language, and the mischief which might attend upon a large and liberal
construction of it in the District and Circuit Courts of the United
States." The trouble and expense of obtaining justice in the United
States courts, but one, or at most two existing in any of the Southern
States, would debar the African from applying to them for redress.
"Your remedy," said the Senator, "is delusive; your remedy is no
remedy at all; and to hold it up to the world as a remedy is a gross
fraud, however pious it may be. It is no remedy to the poor debtor
that you prosecute his judge, and threaten him with fine and
imprisonment. It is no remedy to the poor man with a small claim that
you locate a court one or two hundred miles away from him which is so
expensive in its administration of justice that he can not enter
there.
[Illustration: WM. M. Stewart, Senator from Nevada.]
"There is another provision of the bill, which, notwithstanding the
act of Congress relied upon by the honorable Senator from Illinois, I
think is unquestionably anomalous, and to me not only anomalous, but
atrocious; and that is, the substitution of an indictment for the writ
of error. What has been the law of these United States heretofore?
When an act of Congress came in contact with a State law, and the
judge of a State court decided that the law of Congress was
unconstitutional, there was an appeal given to the debated party to
the Supreme Court of the United States in order to determine the
constitutionality of the law. But, sir, who, until the last few
months, ever heard of making the judge a criminal because he decided
against the constitutionality of a law of the United States? One would
think we were being transported back to the dark ages of the world
when a man is to be accused and perhaps convicted of a crime who has
done nothing more than honestly and conscientiously discharged his
duty. I know that the persons of embassadors are sacred, and I know
that it is a very high offense against the law of nations, which no
civil judge of any court could justify, to invade this sacred right of
the embassador, but every body knows that that is an exceptional case.
Every body knows that in all times and at all ages the judge was
punishable who did not respect the person of an embassador. But that
is not this case. That analogy will not help the third section of this
bill. It is openly avowed upon the floor of the Senate of the United
States, in the year of our Lord 1866, in the full blaze and light of
the nineteenth century, that the indictment is to be a substitute for
the writ of error, and it is justified because a judge ought to be
indicted who violates the sacred person of an embassador! What potency
there must be in the recent amendment of the Constitution which has
foisted the negro and set him upon the same platform as the envoy
extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary of Great Britain or of all
the Russias to the United States of America, and made him as sacred as
an embassador, and the judge who decides against him is to be punished
as a criminal!"
Mr. Stewart showed that States might easily avoid all the annoying
operations of this bill which were feared by its opponents: "When I
reflect how very easy it is for the States to avoid the operation of
this bill, how very little they have to do to avoid the operation of
the bill entirely, I think that it is robbed of its coercive features,
and I think no one has any reason to complain because Congress has
exercised a power, which it must be conceded it has, when it has
exercised it in a manner which leaves it so easy for the States to
avoid the operation of this bill. If passed to-day, it has no
operation in the State of Georgia; it is impossible to commit a crime
under this bill in the State of Georgia; and the other States can
place themselves in the same position so easily that I do not believe
they ought to complain."
He then read the second section of an act passed in Georgia, precisely
similar to the first section of the Civil Eights Bill. Nothing could
be done in Georgia under "color of law," which would subject officers
to the penalties provided by the Civil Rights Bill. "It being so
easily avoided by being complied with, by doing a simple act of
justice, by carrying out the spirit of the constitutional amendment, I
can not give my consent to defeat a bill the purpose of which is good,
the operation of which is so innocent, and may be so easily avoided."
The Republican Senators were desirous of bringing the bill to a final
vote on this evening, but on account of the illness of Senator Wright,
of New Jersey, it was proposed by Democratic members to appoint some
hour on the following day when the vote should be taken in order that
they might have a full vote.
Mr. Wade, of Ohio, said: "If this was a question in the ordinary
course of legislation, I certainly would not object to the proposition
which the gentlemen on the other side make; but I view it as one of
the greatest and most fundamental questions that has ever come before
this body for settlement, and I look upon it as having bearings
altogether beyond the question on this bill. The bill is, undoubtedly,
a very good one. There is no constitutional objection to it; there has
been no objection to it raised that creates a doubt in the mind of any
mortal man; but, nevertheless, we are at issue with the President of
the United States upon a question peculiarly our own. The President of
the United States has no more power under the Constitution to
interpose his authority here, to prescribe the principle upon which
these States should be admitted to this Union, than any man of this
body has out of it. The Constitution makes him the executive of the
laws that we make, and there it leaves him; and what is our condition?
We who are to judge of the forms of government under which States
shall exist; we, who are the only power that is charged with this
great question, are to be somehow or other wheedled out of it by the
President by reason of the authority that he sets up.
"Sir, we can not abandon it unless we yield to a principle that will
unhinge and unsettle the balances of the Constitution itself. If the
President of the United States can interpose his authority upon a
question of this character, and can compel Congress to succumb to his
dictation, he is an emperor, a despot, and not a President of the
United States. Because I believe the great question of congressional
power and authority is at stake here, I yield to no importunities of
the other side. I feel myself justified in taking every advantage
which the Almighty has put into my hands to defend the power and
authority of this body, of which I claim to be a part. I will not
yield to these appeals of comity on a question like this; but I will
tell the President and every body else that, if God Almighty has
stricken one member so that he can not be here to uphold the dictation
of a despot, I thank him for his interposition, and I will take
advantage of it if I can."
Mr. McDougall, of California, replied to Mr. Wade. This wayward
Senator from California has wide notoriety from his unhappy habits of
intemperance. He has been described by a writer unfriendly to his
politics as "the most brilliant man in the Senate; a man so
wonderfully rich, that though he seeks to beggar himself in talents
and opportunities, he has left a patrimony large enough to outdazzle
most of his colleagues." He frequently would enter the Senate-chamber
in a condition of apparent stupor, unable to walk straight; and after
listening a few moments to what was going on, has arisen and spoken
upon the pending question in words of great beauty and force.
On this occasion Mr. McDougall is described as having been in a worse
condition than usual. His words were muttered rather than spoken, so
that only those immediately about him could hear; and yet his remarks
were termed by one of his auditors as "one of the neatest little
speeches ever heard in the Senate." His remarks were as follows: "The
Senator from Ohio is in the habit of appealing to his God in
vindication of his judgment and conduct; it is a common thing for him
to do so; but in view of the present demonstration, it may well be
asked who and what is his God. In the old Persian mythology there was
an Ormudz and an Ahriman--a god of light and beauty, and a god of
darkness and death. The god of light sent the sun to shine, and gentle
showers to fructify the fields; the god of darkness sent the tornado,
and the tempest, and the thunder, scathing with pestilence the
nations. And in old Chaldean times men came to worship Ahriman, the
god of darkness, the god of pestilence and famine; and his priests
became multitudinous; they swarmed the land; and when men prayed then
their offerings were, 'We will not sow a field of grain, we will not
dig a well, we will not plant a tree.' These were the offerings to the
dark spirit of evil, until a prophet came who redeemed that ancient
land; but he did it after crucifixion, like our great Master.
"The followers of Ahriman always appealed to the same spirit
manifested by the Senator from Ohio. Death is to be one of his angels
now to redeem the Constitution and the laws, and to establish liberty.
Sickness, suffering, evil, are to be his angels; and he thanks the
Almighty, his Almighty, that sickness, danger, and evil are about! It
may be a good god for him in this world; but if there is any truth in
what we learn about the orders of religion in this Christian world,
his faith will not help him when he shall ascend up and ask entrance
at the crystal doors. If there can be evil expressed in high places
that communicates evil thoughts, that communicates evil teachings,
that demoralizes the youth, who receive impressions as does the wax,
it is by such lessons as the Senator from Ohio now teaches by word of
mouth as Senator in this Senate hall.
"Sir, the President of the United States is a constitutional officer,
clothed with high power, and clothed with the very power which he has
exercised in this instance; and those who conferred upon him these
powers were men such as Madison, and Jay, and Hamilton, and Morris,
and Washington, and a host of worthies; men who, I think, knew as much
about the laws of government, and how they should be rightly balanced,
as any of the wisest who now sit here in council. It is the duty of
the President of the United States to stand as defender of the
Constitution in his place as the conservator of the rights of the
people, as tribune of the people, as it was in old Rome when the
people did choose their tribunes to go into the senate-chamber among
the aristocracy of Rome, and when they passed laws injurious to the
Roman people, to stand and say, 'I forbid it.'
"That is the veto power, incorporated wisely by our fathers in the
Constitution, conferred upon the President of the United States, and
to be treated with consideration; and no appeal of the Senator to his
God can change the Constitution or the rights of the President of the
United States, or can prevent a just consideration of the dignity of
this Senate body by persons who have just consideration, who feel that
they are Senators.
"It is a strange thing, an exceedingly strange thing, that when a few
Senators in the city of Washington, ill at their houses, give
assurance that they can be here to act upon a great public question on
the day following this, we should hear a piece of declamation, the
Senator appealing to his God, and saying, with an _Io triumphe_ air,
'Well or ill, God has made them ill.' Sir, the god of desolation, the
god of darkness, the god of evil is his god. I never expected to hear
such objections raised among honorable men; and men to be Senators
should be honorable men. I never expected to hear such things in this
hall; and I rose simply to say that such sentiments were to be
condemned, and must receive my condemnation, now and here; and if it
amounts to a rebuke, I trust it may be a rebuke."
The Senate adjourned, with the understanding that the vote should be
taken on the following day. In the morning hour on that day, as the
States were called for the purpose of giving Senators an opportunity
of introducing petitions or resolutions, Mr. Lane, of Kansas,
presented a joint resolution providing for admitting Senators and
Representatives from the States lately in insurrection. This bill,
emanating from a Republican Senator, who professed to have framed it
as an embodiment of the President's policy, was evidently designed to
have an influence upon the action of the Senate upon the Civil Rights
Bill. It proposed that Senators and Representatives from the late
rebellious States should be admitted into Congress whenever it should
appear that they had annulled their ordinances of secession, ratified
the constitutional amendment abolishing slavery, repudiated all rebel
debts, recognized the debts of the United States, and extended the
elective franchise to all male persons of color residing in the State,
over twenty-one years of age, who can read and write, and who own real
estate valued at not less than two hundred and fifty dollars.
As a reason for introducing this measure, Mr. Lane, of Kansas,
remarked: "I have been laboring for months to harmonize the President
of the United States with the majority on the floor of Congress. I
thought yesterday that there was a hope of securing such a result. It
did seem that some of the members of this body were disposed to
harmonize with the President. I proposed to go very far yesterday to
secure that harmony. But while pursuing this course, we were awakened
by one of the most vindictive assaults ever made upon any official, by
either friend or opponent, from the Senator from Ohio [Mr. Wade]--an
assault upon my personal friend, a man who for two years sat side by
side with me here, whom I learned to respect and admire for his pluck,
his ability, and integrity, and to love for his manly virtues; a man
whom I originally selected as the candidate of the Republican party
for the second office within the gift of that party; a man whom I
urged on the Republican convention at Baltimore as their candidate; a
man whose election I did my utmost to secure against the efforts of
the Senator from Ohio. In the most critical moment of that political
campaign, an assault was made on our presidential candidate in the
same spirit evinced by him yesterday in his attack upon the President.
I defended the candidate of the Republican party against that assault,
and I defend the President of the Republican party against the assault
of yesterday.
"'A despot!' 'A dictator!' In what? In seeking to reconstruct the
rebellious States in violation of the wishes of the Congress of the
United States? When Mr. Johnson took his seat in the presidential
chair, I ask you, sir, what had Congress done? The people of the
United States had done this: Mr. Lincoln had marked out the policy of
reconstruction, since adopted by Mr. Johnson, and the people of the
United States, the party to which the Senator from Ohio and myself
belong, indorsed by triumphant majorities that very reconstruction
policy. A despot for proposing, in violation of the wishes of the
Congress of the United States, to reconstruct the insurrectionary
States upon the theory expressed in that joint resolution annulling
the ordinances of secession, ratifying the amendment to the
Constitution abolishing slavery, repudiating the Confederate debt,
indorsing the national debt, and extending suffrage to all colored men
who can read the Constitution of the United States and sign their
names, and to all colored men owning and paying taxes upon $250 worth
of property!
"Mr. President, I am not as conversant with the constituency of the
Senator from Ohio as he is, but I venture the assertion that outside
of New England there is not a single Northern State in this Union but
will by a majority vote to indorse the policy of reconstruction
advised by President Johnson and expressed in that joint resolution.
You can not carry before the people of this country suffrage to the
unqualified black man. You can not find a State in this Union outside
of New England, in my judgment, that will indorse that policy.
Restrict it to a qualification clause, as the President of the United
States recommends, and you can carry the Republican Union party
every-where, and with unanimity.
"The President of the United States 'a despot' for exercising a
constitutional right in vetoing a bill passed by Congress! Mr.
President, had the Senator from Ohio occupied the position which is
occupied by President Johnson, in my judgment, he would have vetoed
the Civil Rights Bill. 'A despot!' What is the exercise of the veto
power? It amounts merely to a vote to reconsider, with the lights
given in his reasons for the veto. When before has the exercise of a
constitutional right justified a political friend of the President of
the United States in denouncing that President as a despot and a
dictator? He has been and is now, in my judgment, as anxious to
harmonize the difficulties in the Union party as any Senator upon this
floor. If he was met in the same spirit, that party would be reunited
and this Union would be restored. His advances are met by insult; his
advances are met by denunciation from the leader of the Republican
party upon this floor in language without a parallel. Mr. President,
so far as I am concerned, I propose to-day and hereafter to take my
position alongside the President of the Republican party, and stand
there unflinchingly so long as he remains faithful to the principles
of that party, defending him against the Senator from Ohio as I
defended his predecessor against the same Senator."
Mr. Lane then expressed his desire that his proposition should lie
upon the table and be printed. An order having been entered to that
effect, Mr. Wade addressed the Senate. He remarked: "It is said I made
an attack on the President of the United States. As a Senator upon
this floor, I care no more about the opinions of the President of the
United States than I do about those of any respectable Senator upon
this floor, or any Senator on this floor. Who is your President, that
every man must bow to his opinion? Why, sir, we all know him; he is no
stranger to this body. We have measured him; we know his height, his
depth, his length, his breadth, his capacity, and all about him. Do
you set him up as a paragon and declare here on the floor of this
Senate that you are going to make us all bow down before him? Is that
the idea? You [to Mr. Lane, of Kansas,] are going to be his apologist
and defender in whatever he may propose to do! Is that the
understanding of the Senator from Kansas?
"I do not believe that his constituents will be quite satisfied with
so broad a declaration, that he is to wear any man's collar, and
follow him wherever he may go. Did I use harsh language toward the
President yesterday? All that I said I stand by to-day and forever.
What was the question upon which I made those observations, and what
has been the opinion of the President heretofore? what has been his
action since? Here are three million people, our friends, friends to
the Government, who generously came forward in its difficulty, and
helped us throughout the war, sacrificed their blood and their lives
to maintain the issue on our side, and who were faithful beyond all
men that were ever faithful before, to us during the whole of the
difficulty, every-where assisting our brave soldiers in the field,
laying down their lives to maintain our principles, and ministering in
every way to the misfortunes of our brave men whenever they fell into
the hands of those worse than savages with whom we were warring; and
now these men are laboring, are under one of the most frightful
despotisms that ever settled down upon the heads of mankind. Three
million people are exposed to the outrages, the insolence, the murder
of those worse than savages, their former masters, murdered as we hear
every day, oppressed every-where, their rights taken away, their
manhood trampled under foot; and Congress, under the Constitution of
the United States, endeavors to extend to them some little protection,
and how are we met here? Every attempt of your Moses has been to
trample them down worse, and to throw every obstruction in the way of
any relief that could be proposed by Congress. He has from all
appearances become their inveterate and relentless foe, making violent
war upon any member of Congress who dares raise his voice or give his
vote in favor of any measure having for its object the amelioration of
the condition of these poor people. Talk to me about the President
being their friend! When did it ever happen before that a great
measure of relief to suffering humanity on as broad a scale as this
was met by the stern veto of the President of the United States, and
without being able when he undertakes to make his obstruction to our
measures to designate a single clause of the Constitution that he
pretends has been violated.
"Yesterday what was the issue? I was charged with great cruelty on
this floor, because I was unwilling to wait for recruits to be brought
in here for the purpose of overthrowing the ground we had taken upon
this important question whether these poor people shall have relief or
not. Now, I wish to say that I am willing to extend courtesy to our
old associates on this floor under other circumstances; but when you
extend this kind of courtesy to them, the result is death and
destruction to three million people, trampled under the feet of their
former masters. My courtesy is extended to those poor men, and I would
not wait a moment that their enemies may be brought in here in order
to prevent our doing any thing for their relief, joining with the
President, who is determined, if we may judge by his acts, that no
measure having for its object any relief shall be extended to them.
"Did you hear the fact stated here the other day, that bills were
drawn with a view to escape the anathemas of your President, and were
exhibited to him, and he asked 'if he had any objection to them to
look them over well, because if we can, consistent with the object
aimed at, make them clear of any objection you may have, we will do
it?'
"I said, sir, that he seemed to have meditated a controversy with
Congress from the beginning, and he has. He has treated our majorities
as hostile to the people; two thirds of both branches of Congress have
been treated by him as mere factionists, disunionists, enemies to the
country, bent upon its destruction, bargaining with the enemy to
destroy the Government. This is the way the President has treated
Congress, and every bill they have passed, which promised any relief
to the men whom we are bound to protect, has been trampled under the
Executive heel; and even when members of this body did what I say they
ought not to have done--for I do not approve of my brother Trumbull's
going up to the President, when he has a measure pending here as a
Senator, to ask the President, in the first place, whether he will
approve of it or not; even when he was asked if he objected to this
measure, and made no objection, he still undertakes to veto it.
"If Congress should recede from the position they have taken to claim
jurisdiction over this great question of reädmitting these States,
from that hour they surrender all the power that the Constitution
places in their hands and that they were sworn to support, and they
are the mere slaves of an accidental Executive; of a man who formerly
associated with us upon this floor; who was no more infallible than
the rest of us poor mortals; and yet the moment, by death or accident,
he is placed in the executive chair, it would seem as if some Senators
believed him to be endowed with superhuman wisdom, and ought to be
invested with all the powers of this Government; that Congress ought
to get on their knees before him, and take his insults and his
dictation without resentment and without even an attempt to resist.
Some States may send such instrumentalities here, but God knows some
will not; and I pity those that do, for they would hold their freedom
on a very uncertain tenure.
"Some gentlemen may be patient under the charge of treason, perhaps
the more so because treason is becoming popular in this day; but, sir,
I am a little too old-fashioned to be charged by the executive branch
of this Government as a traitor on the floor of Congress, and not
resent it. I do not care whether he be King or President that
insinuates that I am a disunionist or traitor, standing upon the same
infamous platform with the traitors of the South; I will not take it
from any mortal man, high or low, without repelling the charge. If any
man here is tame enough to do it, he is too tame to be the Senator of
a proud-spirited people, conscious of their own freedom. I claim to be
their representative, and they will censure me if they do not like my
doctrine.
"And now, Mr. President, I wish to make an appeal to those great,
patriotic statesmen on this floor, who, by their love of principle, by
their unswerving honesty, unseduced by the blandishments of executive
power, unawed by threats of violence, stand here to defend the rights
of the people upon this floor, and will stand here forever. I say to
you Senators, we, the majority who are stigmatized as traitors, are
the only barrier to-day between this nation and anarchy and despotism.
If we give way, the hope of this nation is lost by the recreancy--yea,
sir, I will say the treachery--of a man who betrayed our confidence,
got into power, and has gone into the camp of the enemy, and joined
those who never breathed a breath of principle in common with us."
Mr. Lane replied: "I stated that the party to which I belong nominated
the present President of the United States and elected him, and that
as long as he fought within our lines and remained in our party, I
would endeavor to defend him upon this floor against all unjust
assaults. After making that statement, the Senator from Ohio,
forgetting the position he occupies, has suggested that I have taken
upon myself the collar of the President of the United States. I hurl
the suggestion in the teeth of the Senator from Ohio as unworthy a
Senator. I wear a collar! The pro-slavery party of the United States,
backed by a Democratic Administration, sustained and supported by the
army of the United States, could not fasten a collar upon the handful
of Kansas squatters of whom I had the honor to be the leader. The
gallant fight made in this Senate-chamber by the Senator from Ohio,
aided by the Senators from Massachusetts and other Senators, would
have been of but little avail had it not been for that other fight
that was made upon the prairies of Kansas under the lead of your
humble speaker. I wear a collar! Indicted for treason by a pro-slavery
grand jury, hunted from State to State by a writ founded upon that
indictment for treason, and $100,000 offered for my head! Jim Lane
wear a collar! Wherever he is known, that charge will be denounced as
false by both friends and enemies."
Mr. Brown, of Missouri, made a short speech, in which he set forth the
position of Mr. Lane, of Kansas, on questions previously before the
Senate, showing their inconsistency with some of his recent remarks.
Mr. Doolittle next delivered a speech, in the course of which he
called attention to a bill which he had drawn "to provide appropriate
legislation to enforce article thirteen of the Amendments to the
Constitution, abolishing slavery in the United States." His object in
presenting this bill was to "avoid the objections raised by men not
only in this body, but in the other house, and the objections raised
by the President of the United States, to the bill now pending."
He endeavored to explain his position and changes of opinion upon the
Civil Rights: "While this measure was upon its passage, I took no part
in its discussion except upon a single point in relation to the Indian
tribes. The bill passed, and the final vote was taken when I was not
present in the Senate; but it was not under such circumstances that,
had I been here, I should not have voted for the bill. I have no doubt
that if I had been present I should have voted for it. My attention
was not drawn very earnestly to the consideration of all the
provisions of this bill until the bill had passed from Senate and had
gone to the House of Representatives, when the speeches of Mr.
Bingham, of Ohio, and of Mr. Delano, of Ohio, both able and
distinguished lawyers of that State, arrested my attention and called
me very carefully to the consideration of the great questions which
are involved in the bill. The bill was passed by the House of
Representatives; it went to the President. From the fact that it was
not signed and returned to this body at once, and from all I heard, I
became satisfied that, at least, if the bill was not to be returned
with objections, it was being withheld for most earnest and serious
consideration by the Executive.
"Then, Mr. President, it was, in view of all that had occurred, what
had been said by gentlemen in whom I had the utmost--I may say
unbounded--confidence, that I began to look into this measure and to
study it for myself. It is not my purpose now to go into a discussion
of the provisions of this bill any further than to say that there are
provisions in it upon which the judgments of the best patriots, the
best jurists, the most earnest men disagree. There are men, in whom I
have entire confidence, who maintain that all its provisions are
within the purview of the Constitution; there are others in whom I
have confidence, and equal confidence, who maintain directly the
contrary; and this has brought me seriously to consider whether there
be no common ground upon which friends can stand and stand together.
Sir, I may have failed to find it; but if I have, it is not because I
have not most earnestly sought for it with some days of study and most
earnest reflection. I have endeavored to put upon paper what I believe
would carry this constitutional provision into effect and yet would be
a common ground on which we could unite without violating the
conscientious convictions of any."
In concluding his remarks, Mr. Doolittle referred to instructions
received by him from the Legislature of Wisconsin: "Mr. President, I
have received, in connection with my colleague, a telegraphic dispatch
from the Governor of the State of Wisconsin, which I have no doubt is
correct, although I have not seen the resolution which is said to have
been passed by the Legislature, in which it is stated that the
Legislature has passed a resolution instructing the Senators in
Congress from Wisconsin to vote for the passage of the Senate bill
commonly known as the Civil Rights Bill, the veto of the President to
the contrary notwithstanding. I have already stated, from my
stand-point, the reasons why, in my judgment, I can not do it; I have
stated them freely and frankly, and, as a matter of course, I expect
to abide the consequences. I know that it has sometimes been said to
me, by those, too, in whom I would have confidence, that for me, under
circumstances like these, not to follow the instructions of the
Legislature of my State, would be to terminate my political life. Sir,
be it so. I never held or aspired to any other office politically than
the one I now hold; and God knows, if I know my own heart, if I can
see this Union restored after this gigantic war which has put down the
rebellion, and to which I have lent my support, I shall be satisfied.
I do not desire to remain in political life beyond that hour. There is
nothing in that which will have the slightest influence whatever upon
me. The duty which I owe to myself, the duty which I owe to the
country, the duty which I owe to the union of these States, and the
preservation of the rights of the States, and the duty which I owe to
the great Republican party, which I would still desire to save,
prompts me to pursue the course which I now do."
Mr. Garrett Davis, of Kentucky, addressed the Senate in a long speech,
of which the following is the closing paragraph: "Public justice is
often slow, but generally sure. Think you that the people will look on
with folded arms and stolid indifference and see you subvert their
Constitution and liberties, and on their ruins erect a grinding
despotism. No; erelong they will rise up with earthquake force and
fling you from power and place. I commend to your serious meditation
these words: 'Go tell Sylla that you saw Caius Marius sitting upon the
ruins of Carthage!'"
Mr. Saulsbury thought a revolution would result from the passage of
this bill: "In my judgment the passage of this bill is the
inauguration of revolution--bloodless, as yet, but the attempt to
execute it by the machinery and in the mode provided in the bill will
lead to revolution in blood. It is well that the American people
should take warning in time and set their house in order, but it is
utterly impossible that the people of this country will patiently
entertain and submit to this great wrong. I do not say this because I
want a revolution; Heaven knows we have had enough of bloodshed; we
have had enough of strife; there has been enough of mourning in every
household; there are too many new-made graves on which the grass has
not yet grown for any one to wish to see the renewal of strife; but,
sir, attempt to execute this act within the limits of the States of
this Union, and, in my judgment, this country will again be plunged
into all the horrors of civil war."
Mr. McDougall said: "I agree with the Senator from Delaware that this
measure is revolutionary in its character. The majority glory in their
giant power, but they ought to understand that it is tyrannous to
exercise that power like a giant. A revolution now is moving onward;
it has its center in the North-east. A spirit has been radiating out
from there for years past as revolutionary as the spirit that went out
from Charleston, South Carolina, and perhaps its consequences will be
equally fatal, for when that revolutionary struggle comes it will not
be a war between the North and its power and the slaveholding
population of the South; it will be among the North men themselves,
they who have lived under the shadows of great oaks, and seen the tall
pine-trees bend."
At the conclusion of the remarks by the Senator from California, the
vote was taken, with the following result;
YEAS--Messrs. Anthony, Brown, Chandler, Clark, Conness,
Cragin, Creswell, Edmunds, Fessenden, Foster, Grimes,
Harris, Henderson, Howard, Howe, Kirkwood, Lane of Indiana,
Morgan, Morrill, Nye, Poland, Pomeroy, Ramsey, Sherman,
Sprague, Stewart, Sumner, Trumbull, Wade, Willey, Williams,
Wilson, and Yates--33.
NAYS--Messrs. Buckalew, Cowan, Davis, Doolittle, Guthrie,
Hendricks, Johnson, Lane of Kansas, McDougall, Nesmith,
Norton, Riddle, Saulsbury, Van Winkle, and Wright--15.
ABSENT--Mr. Dixon.
The President _pro tempore_ then made formal announcement of the
result: "The yeas being 33 and the nays 15, the bill has passed the
Senate by the requisite constitutional majority, notwithstanding the
objection of the President to the contrary."
On the 9th of April, 1866, three days after the passage of the bill in
the Senate, the House of Representatives proceeded to its
consideration. The bill and the President's Veto Message having been
read, Mr. Wilson, of Iowa, demanded the previous question on the
passage of the bill, the objections of the President to the contrary
notwithstanding, and gave his reasons for so doing: "Mr. Speaker, the
debate which occurred on this bill occupied two weeks of the time of
this House. Some forty speeches were made, and the debate was not
brought to a close until all had been heard who expressed a desire to
speak upon the bill. At the close of that debate, the bill was passed
by more than two-thirds of this House. It has been returned to us with
the objections of the President to its becoming a law. I do not
propose to reöpen the discussion of this measure; I am disposed to
leave the close of this debate to the President by the message which
has just been read. I ask the friends of this great measure to answer
the argument and statements of that message by their votes."
The vote was finally taken on the question, "Shall this bill pass,
notwithstanding the objections of the President?" The following is the
record of the vote:
YEAS--Messrs. Alley, Allison, Delos R. Ashley, James M.
Ashley, Baker, Baldwin, Banks, Barker, Baxter, Beaman,
Benjamin, Bidwell, Boutwell, Brandegee, Bromwell, Broomall,
Buckland, Bundy, Reader W. Clarke, Sidney Clarke, Cobb,
Colfax, Conkling, Cook, Cullom, Darling, Davis, Dawes,
Defrees, Delano, Deming, Dixon, Dodge, Donnelly, Eckley,
Eggleston, Eliot, Farnsworth, Farquhar, Ferry, Garfield,
Grinnell, Griswold, Hale, Abner C. Harding, Hart, Hayes,
Henderson, Higby, Hill, Holmes, Hooper, Hotchkiss, Asahel W.
Hubbard, Chester D. Hubbard, John H. Hubbard, James R.
Hubbell, Hulburd, James Humphrey, Ingersoll, Jenckes,
Kasson, Kelley, Kelso, Ketcham, Laflin, George V. Lawrence,
William Lawrence, Loan, Longyear, Lynch, Marston, Marvin,
McClurg, McIndoe, McKee, McRuer, Mercur, Miller, Moorhead,
Morrill, Morris, Moulton, Myers, Newell, O'Neill, Orth,
Paine, Patterson, Perham, Pike, Plants, Pomeroy, Price,
Alexander H. Rice, John H. Rice, Rollins, Sawyer, Schenck,
Scofield, Shellabarger, Spalding, Starr, Stevens, Thayer,
Francis Thomas, John L. Thomas, Trowbridge, Upson, Van
Aernam, Burt Van Horn, Robert T. Van Horn, Ward, Elihu B.
Washburne, Henry D. Washburn, William B. Washburn, Welker,
Wentworth, James F. Wilson, Stephen F. Wilson, Windom, and
Woodbridge--122.
NAYS--Messrs. Ancona, Bergen, Boyer, Coffroth, Dawson,
Dennison, Eldridge, Finck, Glossbrenner, Aaron Harding,
Harris, Hogan, Edwin N. Hubbell, James M. Humphrey, Latham,
Le Blond, Marshall, McCullough, Niblack, Nicholson, Noell,
Phelps, Radford, Samuel J. Randall, William H. Randall,
Raymond, Ritter, Rogers, Ross, Rosseau, Shanklin,
Sitgreaves, Smith, Strouse, Taber, Taylor, Thornton,
Trimble, Whaley, Winfield, and Wright--41.
NOT VOTING--Messrs. Ames, Anderson, Bingham, Blaine, Blow,
Chanler, Culver, Driggs, Dumont, Goodyear, Grider, Demas
Hubbard, Johnson, Jones, Julian, Kerr, Kuykendall, Sloan,
Stilwell, Warner, and Williams--21.
The Speaker then made the following announcement: "The yeas are 122,
and the nays 41. Two-thirds of the House having, upon this
reconsideration, agreed to the passage of the bill, and it being
certified officially that a similar majority of the Senate, in which
the bill originated, also agreed to its passage, I do, therefore, by
the authority of the Constitution of the United States, declare that
this bill, entitled 'An act to protect all persons in the United
States in their civil rights, and furnish the means of their
vindication,' has become a law."
This announcement was followed by prolonged applause on the floor of
the House and among the throng of spectators in the galleries.
The following is the form in which the great measure so long pending
became a law of the land:
"_Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives
of the United States of America in Congress assembled_, That
all persons born in the United States and not subject to any
foreign Power, excluding Indians not taxed, are hereby
declared to be citizens of the United States; and such
citizens of every race and color, without regard to any
previous condition of slavery or involuntary servitude,
except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall
have been duly convicted, shall have the same right in every
State and Territory in the United States to make and enforce
contracts, to sue, be parties, and give evidence, to
inherit, purchase, lease, sell, hold, and convey real and
personal property, and to full and equal benefit of all laws
and proceedings for the security of person and property as
is enjoyed by white citizens, and shall be subject to like
punishment, pains, and penalties, and to none other, any
law, statute, ordinance, regulation, or custom to the
contrary notwithstanding.
"SEC. 2. _And be it further enacted_, That any person who,
under color of any law, statute, ordinance, regulation, or
custom, shall subject, or cause to be subjected, any
inhabitant of any State or Territory to the deprivation of
any right secured or protected by this act, or to different
punishment, pains, or penalties on account of such person
having at any time been held in a condition of slavery or
involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime
whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, or by
reason of his color or race, than is prescribed for the
punishment of white persons, shall be deemed guilty of a
misdemeanor, and, on conviction, shall be punished by a fine
not exceeding $1,000, or imprisonment not exceeding one
year, or both, in the discretion of the court.
"SEC. 3. _And be it further enacted_, That the district
courts of the United States, within their respective
districts, shall have, exclusively of the courts of the
several States, cognizance of all crimes and offenses
committed against the provisions of this act, and also,
concurrently with the circuit courts of the United States,
of all causes, civil and criminal, affecting persons who are
denied or can not enforce in the courts or judicial
tribunals of the State or locality where they may be, any of
the rights secured to them by the first section of this act;
and if any suit or prosecution, civil or criminal, has been
or shall be commenced in any State court against any such
person, for any cause whatsoever, or against any officer,
civil or military, or other person, for any arrest or
imprisonment, trespasses or wrongs, done or committed by
virtue or under color of authority derived from this act or
the act establishing a Bureau for the Relief of Freedmen and
Refugees, and all acts amendatory thereof, or for refusing
to do any act upon the ground that it would be inconsistent
with this act, such defendant shall have the right to remove
such cause for trial to the proper district or circuit court
in the manner prescribed by the 'Act relating to _habeas
corpus_ and regulating judicial proceedings in certain
cases,' approved March 3, 1863, and all acts amendatory
thereof. The jurisdiction in civil and criminal matters
hereby conferred on the district and circuit courts of the
United States shall be exercised and enforced in conformity
with the laws of the United States, so far as such laws are
suitable to carry the same into effect; but in all cases
where such laws are not adapted to the object, or are
deficient in the provisions necessary to furnish suitable
remedies and punish offenses against law, the common law, as
modified and changed by the constitution and statutes of the
States wherein the court having jurisdiction of the cause,
civil or criminal, is held, so far as the same is not
inconsistent with the Constitution and laws of the United
States, shall be extended to and govern said courts in the
trial and disposition of such cause, and, if of a criminal
nature, in the infliction of punishment on the party found
guilty.
"SEC. 4. _And be it further enacted_, That the district
attorneys, marshals, and deputy-marshals of the United
States, the commissioners appointed by the circuit and
territorial courts of the United States, with powers of
arresting, imprisoning, or bailing offenders against the
laws of the United States, the officers and agents of the
Freedmen's Bureau, and every other officer who may be
specially empowered by the President of the United States,
shall be, and they are hereby, specially authorized and
required, at the expense of the United States, to institute
proceedings against all and every person who shall violate
the provisions of this act, and cause him or them to be
arrested and imprisoned, or bailed, as the case may be, for
trial before such court of the United States, or territorial
court, as by this act has cognizance of the offense. And
with a view to affording reasonable protection to all
persons in their constitutional rights of equality before
the law, without distinction of race or color, or previous
condition of slavery or involuntary servitude, except as a
punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly
convicted, and to the prompt discharge of the duties of this
act, it shall be the duty of the circuit courts of the
United States and the superior courts of the Territories of
the United States, from time to time, to increase the number
of commissioners, so as to afford a speedy and convenient
means for the arrest and examination of persons charged with
a violation of this act. And such commissioners are hereby
authorized and required to exercise and discharge all the
powers and duties conferred on them by this act, and the
same duties with regard to offenses created by this act, as
they are authorized by law to exercise with regard to other
offenses against the laws of the United States.
"SEC. 5. _And be it further enacted_, That it shall be the
duty of all marshals and deputy-marshals to obey and execute
all warrants and precepts issued under the provisions of
this act, when to them directed; and should any marshal or
deputy-marshal refuse to receive such warrant or other
process when tendered, or to use all proper means diligently
to execute the same, he shall, on conviction thereof, be
fined in the sum of $1,000, to the use of the person upon
whom the accused is alleged to have committed the offense.
And the better to enable the said commissioners to execute
their duties faithfully and efficiently, in conformity with
the Constitution of the United States and the requirements
of this act, they are hereby authorized and empowered,
within their counties respectively, to appoint, in writing,
under their hands, any one or more suitable persons, from
time to time, to execute all such warrants and other process
as may be issued by them in the lawful performance of their
respective duties; and the persons so appointed to execute
any warrant or process as aforesaid, shall have authority to
summon and call to their aid the bystanders or the _posse
comitatus_ of the proper county, or such portion of the land
and naval forces of the United States, or the militia, as
may be necessary to the performance of the duty with which
they are charged, and to insure a faithful observance of the
clause of the Constitution which prohibits slavery, in
conformity with the provisions of this act; and said
warrants shall run and be executed by said officers anywhere
in the State or Territory within which they are issued.
"SEC. 6. _And be it further enacted_, That any person who
shall knowingly and willfully obstruct, hinder, or prevent
any officer, or other person, charged with the execution of
any warrant or process issued under the provisions of this
act, or any person or persons lawfully assisting him or
them, from arresting any person for whose apprehension such
warrant or process may have been issued, or shall rescue or
attempt to rescue such person from the custody of the
officer, other person or persons, or those lawfully
assisting as aforesaid, when so arrested pursuant to the
authority herein given and declared, or who shall aid, abet,
or assist any person so arrested as aforesaid, directly or
indirectly, to escape from the custody of the officer or
other person legally authorized as aforesaid, or shall
harbor or conceal any person for whose arrest a warrant or
process shall have been issued as aforesaid, so as to
prevent his discovery and arrest after notice or knowledge
of the fact that a warrant has been issued for the
apprehension of such person, shall, for either of said
offenses, be subject to a fine not exceeding $1,000, and
imprisonment not exceeding six months, by indictment and
conviction before the district court of the United States
for the district in which said offense may have been
committed, or before the proper court of criminal
jurisdiction, if committed within any one of the organized
Territories of the United States.
"SEC. 7. _And be it further enacted_, That the district
attorneys, the marshals, the deputies, and the clerks of the
said district and territorial courts shall be paid for their
services the like fees as may be allowed to them for similar
services in other cases; and in all cases where the
proceedings are before a commissioner, he shall be entitled
to a fee of ten dollars in full for his services in each
case, inclusive of all services incident to such arrest and
examination. The person or persons authorized to execute the
process to be issued by such commissioners for the arrest of
offenders against the provisions of this act, shall be
entitled to a fee of five dollars for each person he or they
may arrest and take before any such commissioner as
aforesaid, with such other fees as may be deemed reasonable
by such commissioner for such other additional services as
may be necessarily performed by him or them, such as
attending at the examination, keeping the prisoner in
custody, and providing him with food and lodging during his
detention, and until the final determination of such
commissioner, and in general for performing such other
duties as may be required in the premises; such fees to be
made up in conformity with the fees usually charged by the
officers of the courts of justice within the proper district
or county, as near as may be practicable, and paid out of
the Treasury of the United States on the certificate of the
judge of the district within which the arrest is made, and
to be recoverable from the defendant as part of the judgment
in case of conviction.
"SEC. 8. _And be it further enacted_, That whenever the
President of the United States shall have reason to believe
that offenses have been or are likely to be committed
against the provisions of this act within any judicial
district, it shall be lawful for him, in his discretion, to
direct the judge, marshal, and district attorney of such
district to attend at such place within the district, and
for such time as he may designate, for the purpose of the
more speedy arrest and trial of persons charged with a
violation of this act; and it shall be the duty of every
judge or other officer, when any such requisition shall be
received by him, to attend at the place, and for the time
therein designated.
"SEC. 9. _And be it further enacted_, That it shall be
lawful for the President of the United States, or such
person as he may empower for that purpose, to employ such
part of the land or naval forces of the United States, or of
the militia, as shall be necessary to prevent the violation
and enforce the due execution of this act.
"SEC. 10. _And be it further enacted_, That upon all
questions of law arising in any cause under the provisions
of this act a final appeal may be taken to the Supreme Court
of the United States."