Congress.

These are some of the laws on this subject which it is the duty of
the executive department of the Government to enforce. The intent and
effect of the sixth section of this bill is to prohibit all the civil
officers of the United States, under penalty of fine and imprisonment,
from employing any adequate civil force for this purpose at the place
where their enforcement is most necessary, namely, at the places
where the Congressional elections are held. Among the most valuable
enactments to which I have referred are those which protect the
supervisors of Federal elections in the discharge of their duties at
the polls. If the proposed legislation should become the law, there
will be no power vested in any officer of the Government to protect
from violence the officers of the United States engaged in the
discharge of their duties. Their rights and duties under the law will
remain, but the National Government will be powerless to enforce its
own statutes. The States may employ both military and civil power to
keep the peace and to enforce the laws at State elections. It is
now proposed to deny to the United States even the necessary civil
authority to protect the national elections. No sufficient reason has
been given for this discrimination in favor of the State and against
the national authority. If well-founded objections exist against the
present national election laws, all good citizens should unite in
their amendment. The laws providing the safeguards of the elections
should be impartial, just, and efficient. They should, if possible,
be so nonpartisan and fair in their operation that the minority--the
party out of power--will have no just grounds to complain. The present
laws have in practice unquestionably conduced to the prevention of
fraud and violence at the elections. In several of the States members
of different political parties have applied for the safeguards which