ravest 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 general or special election is held in any
State." This statute was adopted February 25, 1865, after a protracted
debate in the Senate, and almost without opposition in the House
of Representatives, by the concurrent votes of both of the leading
political parties of the country, and became a law by the approval of
President Lincoln. It was reenacted in 1874 in the Revised Statutes of
the United States, sections 2002 and 5528, which are as follows:

SEC. 2002. No military or naval officer, or other person
engaged in the civil, military, or naval service of the United
States, shall order, bring, keep, or have under his authority
or control any troops or armed men at the place where any
general or special election is held in any State, unless it be
necessary to repel the armed enemies of the United States or
to keep the peace at the polls.

SEC. 5528. Every officer of the Army or Navy, or other person
in the civil, military, or naval service of the United States,
who orders, brings, keeps, or has under his authority or
control any troops or armed men at any place where a general
or special election is held in any State, unless such force
be necessary to repel armed enemies of the United States or
to keep the peace at the polls, shall be fined not more than
$5,000 and surfer imprisonment at hard labor not less than
three months nor more than five years.

The amendment proposed to this statute in the bill before me omits
from both of the foregoing sections the words "or to keep the peace
at the polls," The effect of the adoption of this amendment may be
considered--

First. Upon the right of the United States Government to use military
force to keep the peace at the elections for Members of Congress; and

Second. Upon the right of the Government, by civil authority, to
protect these elections from violence and fraud.

In addition to the sections of the statute above quoted, the following
provisions of law relating to the use of the military power at the
elections are now in force:

SEC. 2003. No officer of the Army or Navy of the United States
shall prescribe or fix, or attempt to prescribe or fix, by
proclamation, order, or otherwise, the qualifications of
voter