tory my predecessors in the
executive office have relied on this great principle. It was on this
principle that President Washington suppressed the whisky rebellion in
Pennsylvania in 1794.

In 1806, on the same principle, President Jefferson broke up the Burr
conspiracy by issuing "orders for the employment of such force, either
of the regulars or of the militia, and by such proceedings of the
civil authorities, * * * as might enable them to suppress effectually
the further progress of the enterprise." And it was under the same
authority that President Jackson crushed nullification in South
Carolina and 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 has been usefully exerted to enforce the laws, without
objection by any party in the country, and almost without attracting
public attention.

The great 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 States possesses under the Constitution,
in full measure, the power of self-protection by its own agencies,
altogether independent of State authority, and, if need be, against
the hostility of State governments. It should remain embodied in
our 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 a provision of the Constitution itself.

There are many other important statutes containing provisions that are
liable to be suspended or annulled at the times and places of
holding elections if the bill before me should become a law. I do not
undertake to furnish a list of them. Many of them--perhaps the most of
them--have been set forth in the debates on this measure. They relate
to extradition, to crimes against the election laws, to quarantine
regulations, to neutrality, to Indian reservations, to the civil
rights of citizens, and to other subjects. In regard to them all it
may be safely said that the meaning and effect of this bill is to take
from the General Government an important part of its power to enforce
the laws.

Another grave objection to the bill is its discrimination in favor
of the State and against the national authority. The presence or
empl