Sacramento Daily Union, Volume 8, Number 60, 13 May 1879 — ANOTHER VETO. [ARTICLE]

ANOTHER VETO.

The President Refuses %to Sip the - * "Military Interfer- - ence" Bill. OBJECTIONS TO THE MEASURE. ' -'. ■- .'*•*'? "s-- ■ .■• ' : Unanswerable Reasons Why. the Bill Should Not Become a Law. ., . ■ ' ~ ''')*\\'''-' ~ ~ '• ? ~ - --■*■ / ■ ■ ■ ■ '."■*'? [SPECIAL BT TKLEOKAI'II TO THK REcriRD-l SION. ) ' . Washington, May 12th.— Following is the message of | the { President : of the . United States, returning to the House of Representatives the bill entitled " An Act to prohibit military interference at elections :"'■'■■ i M ■ THE MESSAGE. To the House 'of Representatives : After a careful i consideration of the bill entitled "An Act to prohibit military interference at elections,! I return it to .the House of Representatives, in which it originated, with the following objections to its approval : In a communication sent to the -. House of Representatives on the 29th of last month, returning to the House j without my ' approval the bill entitled "An Act making appropriations for the support; of the army for the fiscal year ending .Tune 30, 1880, and fur other purposes," I endeavored ' to show by quotations from the statutes of the United States, now in force, and by a brief statement of facts in regard to the recent j elections in the several States, that NO ADDITIONAL LEGISLATION WAS NECESSARY To [ prevent interference with elections by the military or naval forces of the United States. : The fact was presented in that communication that at the time of the passage of the Act of June 18, 1878, in relation to the employment of the army as a posse comitatus or otherwise, it was maintained by its friends that it would establish a vital and fundamental principle which would secure to the people protection against a standing army. The fact was also referred to since the passage of this Act that Congressional, State and municipal elections have been held throughout the Union, and that in no instance has complaint been made of the presence of United States soldiers at the polls. Holding, as I do, the opinion that any military interference whatever at the polls is CONTKABT TO THE SPIRIT OK OUR INSTITUTES, And would tend (^destroy the freedom of elections, and sincerely desiring to concur with Congress in all of its measures, it is with very great regret that I am forced to the conclusion that the bill before me is not only unnecessary to prevent such interference, but is a dangerous departure from long-fettled and important ,' constitutional principles. The true rule as to the employment of military force at an election is not doubtful. No intimidation or coercion should be allowed to control or influence citizens ill the exercise of their right to vote, whether it appears in the shape of combinations of evil disposed persons or of armed bodies of militia of a State, or of the military force of the United States. The election should be • FREE FROM ALL FORCIBLE INTERFERENCE, And, as far. as practicable, from all apprehension of such interference. No soldiers, either of the Union or State militia, should be present at the polls to take the place or to perform the duties of the ordinary civil police force. i There has been and will be no violation of this rule, under orders from me, daring this Administration ; but there should be no denial of the right of the National Government to employ its military force on any day and at any place, in case such employment is necessary to enforce the Constitution and laws of the United States. The bill before me is as follows : THE " MILITARY l.vmu'ESCK" BILL. Be it enaetc', etc., that it shall not be lawful to bring M <-r to employ at any place where a general or special election is being held in a State, any part of the army or navy of the United States, only such Force as is found to be necessary to repel armed enemies of the United States, or to enforce section 4, article 4, of the Constitution of the United States, and the laws made i i pursuance thereof, on application of the Legislature or Executive of the State where such force is to he aged, and bo much of all lnws as is inconsistent herewith is hereby repealed. THE EXCEPTION'S. It will be observed that the bill exempts from general prohibition against the employment of military force at the polls two specified cases. '.. These exceptions recognize and concede the soundness of the principle that a military force may properly and constitutionally be used at the place of elections when such use is necessary to enforce the Constitution and laws. , Bat the excepted cases leave the prohibition so extensive ami [far-reaching that its adoption will seriously impair the efficiency of the Executive Department of the Government. THE FIRST ACT, Which expressly authorizes the use of the military to execute the laws, was passed almost a.< early as the organization of the Government under the Constitution, and was approved by President Washington May 2, 1792. It is as follows : Section 2. And be it further enacted, That whenever the laws of the United States shall be opposed or the execution thereof obstructed in any State by combinations too powerful to be suppressed by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings, or by the powers vested in M rshals by this Act, the same being ratified to the President of the United States, by an Associate Justice or District Judirc, it shall be lawful for the President of the United .states to c.ill for the militia of such State to suppress such combinations, and to cause the laws to be duly executed ; and if the militia of a State wh re such combinations may happen shall refuse, or be insufficient, to suppress the same, it shall be lawful for the President, if the Legislature of the United States be not in session, to call forth and employ such numbers of the militia of any other State or States m -• convenient thereto as may be necessary, and the use of militia so to be called forth tiny be continued, if necessary, until the expiration of thirty days after the commencement of the ensuing session. | THE ACT OF 1807. ' In 1795 this provision was substantially reenacted in a law which repealed the ' Act of 17112. In 1807 the following Act became the law by the approval of President Jefferson : "That in all cases at insurrection or obstruc- I tion to the laws, either of the United States j or of any individual State or Territory where | it is. lawful for the j President of the United j States to call for the militia, but the army j and navy of the United States, in causing i the laws to be duly executed." The important provisions of the Acts of 1792, 1705 and I 1807, modified in its terms from time to time, I to adapt it to existing emergencies, remained in force until by an Act • pproved by President Lincoln July 211, 1861, it was re-enacted substantially in the same language in which it is now found in the Revised Statute*, viz : Section 5,298. Whenever, by reason Of unlawful obstruction, combinations or assemblages of persons, or a rebellion against the authority of the Government of the United States, it shall become impracticable, in the judgment of the President, to enforce, by the ordinary course of judicial proceedings, the laws of the United States within any State or Territory, it shall be lawful for the President to call forth the militia of any or all the States, and. employ such parts of the land and the naval forces of the United States as lie may deem necessary to enforce the faithful execution of the laws of the United States ■ or to suppress such rebellion, in whatever State or Territory thereof the laws of the United States may be forcibly opposed or the execution thereof forcibly obstructed. ■._■ ; . THIS ancient AND fundamental LAW Has been enforced from the foundation of the Government, j It is now proposed to abrogate it on certain days : and at certain places. "'■' In my judgment no fact has been produced which tends to show that it ought to be repealed or suspended for j a single hour at any place in any of the States or Territories of the Union.' All the teachings of experience in the course of our history are in favor of sustaining its efficiency unimpaired on every occasion, when the supremacy of. the Constitution has been resisted and the perpetuity of our institutions imperiled. v -ff ~{ THE PRINCIPLE OF THIS STATUTE, i •* Enacted by the fathers, has enabled the Government of the Union to maintain its authority and to ; preserve ; the 1 integrity •of \ the : nation -at : the most .."critical ■'■. periods ■ of our ' history. "i.'s My j" predecessors in ",K the Executive • office • have i relied on this t great principle. ".^ It v was 3on this | principle i that President Washington suppressed the whisky rebellion in Pennsylvania in 1794. In 1806, on I the : same 1 principle, j President Jefferson broke up the Burr, conspiracy by issuing order" for the employment of such force, either of the regulars or of the militia, and by such proceedings of the city authorities, a* might enable \ them jto £ suppress i eu'ectu ally i the

lurtlier progress of tbe enterprise. It was 1 under the same authority that President Jackson crushed nullification in South Carolina ; that President Lincoln issued his call for troops to save the Union in 1861. On numerous other occasions of less significance, under probably every Administration, and certainly under the present, this power ha-s been fully exerted to enforce the laws without objection by any party in the country, and almost without attracting public attention. The tfreat elementary constitutional principle which was the foundation of the original statute of 1792, and which has been its essence in the various forms it has assumed since its first adoption, is that the Government of the United State 3 possesses under the Constitution in full measure the power of self-protection of its own agencies, altogether independent of State authority, and, if need be, agamst the hostility of State Governments. IT SHOULD REMAIN EMBODIED IN OCB STATUTES UNIMPAIRED, As it has been from the very origin of the Government. It should be regarded as hardly less valuable or less sacred than the provisions of the Constittition ifeself. There are many other important statutes containing provisions that are liable to be suspended or annulled at times and places of holding elections if the bill before me should become a law. Ido not undertake to furnish a list of them. Many of them, perhaps most of them, have been set forth in debates on this measure. They relate to extradition, to crimes against election laws, to quarantine regulations, to neutrality, to Indian reservations and to the civil rights of citizens. Under this bill the presence and employment of the army or navy of the United States would be lawful, and might be necessary to maintain theconduetof a State election against the domestic violence that would overthrow it, but it would be unlawful to maintain the conduct of a national election against the same local violence that would overthrow it. THIS DISCRIMINATION Has never been attempted in any previous legislation by Congress, and is no more compatible with the sound principles of the Constitution or necessary maxims and methods of our system of government on occasion of elections, than at other timei. In the early legislation of 1792 and of 1795, by which the militia of States was the only military power resorted to for the execution of the constitutional powers in support of State or National authority, both functions of the Government were put upon the same footiner. By the Act of 1807 the employment of the army and navy was authorized for the performance of both constitutional duties. In the same terms, in all late statutes on the same subject matter, some mea-sure of authority to the Government has been accorded for the performance of both these duties. Xo precedent has been found in any previous legislation, and no sufficient mason has been given for the discrimination in favor of the State and against the national authority which this bill contains. Under the sweeping terms of this bill *,he National Government is effectually shut out from the exerciseof its right,aud from the discharge of the imperative duty, to use its whole Executive powers whenever and wliereever required for the enforcement of its laws in places and times where and when its elections are held. The employment of its organized army force for any such purpose would be an offense against the law, miiescalled for by and therefore upon permission . : the authorities of the State in which the occasion arises. What is thin but the substitution of the discretion of the State governments for the discretion of the Government of the United States, as to the performance of its own duties V In my judgment this is an abandonment of its obligations by the" National Government, a subordination of national authority and an intrusion of State supervision over national dutk-s, which amounts, in spirit and tendency, to State supremacy. Although I believe that the existing statutes are abundantly adequate to completely prevent military interference with the elections, in the sense in which the phrase is used in the title of this bill, and as employed by the people of this country, I shall find no difficulty in concurring in additional legislation limited to that object which does not interfere with the indispensable exercise of the powers of the Government and the Constitution and laws. RiTHutKoim B. Hayes. Executive Mansion, Ma; 12, 1879.