utional duty in respect of
the general legislation thus placed before me can not be
discharged without seeming to delay, however briefly, the necessary
appropriations by Congress for the support of the Government. Without
repeating these objections, I respectfully refer to that message for
a statement of my views on the principle maintained in debate by the
advocates of this bill, viz, that "to withhold appropriations is a
constitutional means for the redress" of what the majority of the
House of Representatives may regard as "a grievance."

The bill contains the following clauses, viz:

_And provided further_, That the following sections of the
Revised Statutes of the United States, namely, sections 2016,
2018, and 2020, and all of the succeeding sections of said
statutes down to and including section 2027, and also section
5522, be, and the same are hereby, repealed; * * * and that
all the other sections of the Revised Statutes, and all
laws and parts of laws authorizing the appointment of
chief supervisors of elections, special deputy marshals of
elections, or general deputy marshals having any duties to
perform in respect to any election, and prescribing their
duties and powers and allowing them compensation, be, and the
same are hereby, repealed.

It also contains clauses amending sections 2017, 2019, 2028, and 2031
of the Revised Statutes.

The sections of the Revised Statutes which the bill, if approved,
would repeal or amend are part of an act approved May 30, 1870, and
amended February 28, 1871, entitled "An act to enforce the rights of
citizens of the United States to vote in the several States of
this Union, and for other purposes." All of the provisions of the
above-named acts which it is proposed in this bill to repeal or modify
relate to the Congressional elections. The remaining portion of the
law, which will continue in force after the enactment of this measure,
is that which provides for the appointment, by a judge of the circuit
court of the United States, of two supervisors of election in each
election district at any Congressional election, on due application
of citizens who desire, in the language of the law, "to have such
election _guarded_ and _scrutinized_." The duties of the supervisors
will be to attend at the polls at all Congressional elections, and
to remain after the polls are open until every vote cast has been
counted; but they will "have no authority to ma