ngressional elections is without warrant in the Constitution.

It is evident, however, that the framers of the Constitution regarded
the election of members of Congress in every State and in every
district as in a very important sense justly a matter of political
interest and concern to the whole country. The original provision of
the Constitution on this subject is as follows (sec. 4, Art. I):

The times, places, and manner of holding elections for
Senators and Representatives shall be prescribed in each State
by the legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time,
by law, make or alter such regulations, except as to the
places of choosing Senators.

A further provision has been since added, which is embraced in the
fifteenth amendment. It is as follows:

SEC. 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote
shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by
any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of
servitude.

SEC. 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article
by appropriate legislation.

Under the general provision of the Constitution (sec. 4, Art. I)
Congress in 1866 passed a comprehensive law which prescribed full and
detailed regulations for the election of Senators by the legislatures
of the several States. This law has been in force almost thirteen
years. In pursuance of it all the members of the present Senate of the
United States hold their seats. Its constitutionality is not called
in question. It is confidently believed that no sound argument can
be made in support of the constitutionality of national regulation of
Senatorial elections which will not show that the elections of members
of the House of Representatives may also be constitutionally regulated
by the national authority.

The bill before me itself recognizes the principle that the
Congressional elections are not State elections, but national
elections. It leaves in full force the existing statute under which
supervisors are still to be appointed by national authority to
"observe and witness" the Congressional elections whenever due
application is made by citizens who desire said elections to be
"guarded and scrutinized." If the power to supervise in any respect
whatever the Congressional elections exists under section 4, Article
I, of the Constitution, it is a power which, like every other power
belonging to the Government of the United States, is paramount and
su