Believing that section 6 of the bill before me
will weaken, if it does not altogether take away, the power of the
National Government to protect the Federal elections by the civil
authorities, I am forced to the conclusion that it ought not to
receive my approval.
This section is, however, not presented to me as a separate and
independent measure, but is, as has been stated, attached to the bill
making the usual annual appropriations for the support of the Army. It
makes a vital change in the election laws of the country, which is in
no way connected with the use of the Army. It prohibits, under heavy
penalties, any person engaged in the civil service of the United
States from having any force at the place of any election, prepared to
preserve order, to make arrests, to keep the peace, or in any manner
to enforce the laws. This is altogether foreign to the purpose of
an Army appropriation bill. The practice of tacking to appropriation
bills measures not pertinent to such bills did not prevail until more
than forty years after the adoption of the Constitution. It has become
a common practice. All parties when in power have adopted it. Many
abuses and great waste of public money have in this way crept into
appropriation bills. The public opinion of the country is against it.
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