Senate bill

“ No legislation shall originate in the Senate. Its function is to advise as to measures sent there by the House, to make suggestions and such amendments as might seem pertinent, and return the measure to the House, for its final action.
(b) When a bill is sent to the Senate by the House, if approved, it shall become a law, if disapproved, it shall be returned to the House with the objections stated.
(c) If the House considers a measure of sufficient importance, it may dissolve immediately and let the people pass upon it, or they may wait until a regular election for popular action. ”

“ I believe the language of the Senate bill is sufficiently large and comprehensive to embrace any other class of officers that might be charged with any act that was necessary to enable a citizen to perform any prerequisite to voting. But, sir, individuals may prevent the exercise of the right of suffrage; individuals may prevent the enjoyment of other rights which are conferred upon the citizen by the fourteenth amendment, as well as trespass upon the right conferred by the fifteenth. ”

“ He went on to say, 'That has been the law ever since that time. It was the law of the Senate bill; and in putting in this express prov sion from the House bill, (§ 14 (b) ) we in no way change the bill as passed by the Senate of the United States. ”

“ Here, for the first time, these two opposite principles commingled in one legislative channel; and it is immediately subsequent to this junction that we discern the precise responsibility assumed by different parties. And now observe the indubitable and decisive fact. This bill, thus composed, containing these two elements, this double measure, finally passed the Senate by a test vote of twenty-four yeas to twenty nays. The yeas embraced every Southern Senator except Nathaniel Macon, of North Carolina, and William Smith, of South Carolina. ”

“ The decisive majority in favor of the new bill sharply discredits this belittling view of our duty as a nation. It also marks a most encouraging advance in public sentiment which is daily growing more and more appreciative of that rare variety of legislation which is founded on right and justice. There is good ground to hope that the bill will meet with equal success in the Senate, while the President, with his well-known devotion to principle, is already committed in its favor. ”

“ After much discussion and deliberation, the two committees agreed that there should be reported in the Senate the bill which, without amendment in either House, became the law under which the procedure of the two Houses and the Electoral Commission took place. This bill was reported by me to the Senate January 18, 1877. After much debate and the rejection of sundry amendments it passed the Senate, January 24, by a vote of forty-seven yeas and seventeen nays. The negative votes were nearly all cast by Republicans. ”

“ Under the constitutional provision the Senate was required to reconvene in not more than three days and thus would be able to act with reasonable promptitude upon the President's objections. There is no greater difficult in returning a bill to one of the two Houses when it is in recess during the session of Congress than in presenting a bill to the President by sending it to the White House in his temporary absence. ”

“ In supporting this bill Mr. Bryan said: “Mr. Speaker—I desire to call the attention of the House to what I consider a very important question involved in this joint resolution. I shall not consume time in discussing the general principle of electing senators by the people. If the people of a state have enough intelligence to choose their representatives in the state legislature, their executive officers, judges, and their officials in all the departments of the state and country, they have enough intelligence to choose the men who shall represent them in the United States Senate. ”

“ This is the third bill of Reconstruction on which we have acted. We ought never to have acted on more than one; and had the Senate been sufficiently radical, had it founded its bill on clear, definite principle, there would have [Pg 227] been no occasion for more than one. Just so far as we have failed to found ourselves on clear, definite principle, our bills have failed; and should there be failure under the present bill, it will be precisely on that account. ”

“ You have everything you want -- technically, you've got a bill through the House, you're going to get a bill through the Senate. Why aren't you taking a victory lap?
GIBBS: I think we've made tremendous progress. I think what you've seen and hopefully what you'll see the Senate do by sometime tomorrow is get a pretty enormous recovery plan that's needed in America through both Houses of Congress. But there aren't any victory laps until we start putting Americans back to work. ”

“ The Senate has the power of trying impeachments of State officials. It also ratifies appointments of the Governor. In all States, except four, acts of the legislature require the signature of the Governor before they become laws. To pass a bill over a veto requires in twenty-three States a two-thirds vote in both Houses; in two, a three-fifths vote, and in nine, a majority vote of the total number of members. A State legislature can enact no law which will be effective beyond its own boundaries. ”

“ The Senate frequently holds secret, or, as they are called, executive sessions, for the consideration of treaties and nominations of the President, in which the House of Representatives has no voice. It is then said to sit with closed doors. An immense amount of business must necessarily be transacted by a Congress that legislates for nearly 63,000,000 of people. ... Lack of time, of course, prevents a consideration of each bill separately by the whole legislature. ”

“ It was hoped by many that the Senate, being Democratic, would defeat the bill, and thus the Whigs would have credit for great economy at the expense of the Democrats. But when it came to that body, the Democracy, not to be out done by their opponents, favored the bill. ”

“ But suppose we adopt that policy, what would it lead to in the case of Virginia? The bill of the Senator from Massachusetts, as far as I know — and I may say that by way of illustration, although that bill is not up for discussion in the Senate to-night — does not provide who shall fill the seats of the legislators thus to be thrown out by the application of the test-oath. In all probability he desires, as the memorialists demand, that those who remained in the minority should fill the seats of those who now claim them by right of majority. ”

“ You're saying you can live with either bill or some meld of the two; you're not going to go in and try to change in some way or another that you would like to fix it to make it better?
GIBBS: I'll check particularly on sort of what the legislative strategy is. You know, I think we're focused on getting something to the President's desk as quickly as we can.
[REPORTER] : Are you concerned about what was cut out of the bill on Friday night in the Senate? I mean, those would be new jobs for school construction and state aid. ”

“ The bill was debated at full length, nearly every prominent man in the Senate taking part. Mr. Hendricks of Indiana and Mr. Garrett Davis of Kentucky opposed it in speeches of excessive bitterness, and Mr. Guthrie of Kentucky with equal earnestness but less passion. It was sustained with great ability by all the leading Republican senators; and on the final passage, in an unusually full Senate, the vote in its favor was 37 ”

“ There is grave reason to believe that they are in sympathy with the practices that this Government is seeking to suppress, and that its efforts in that regard will be more likely to encounter their opposition than to receive their encouragement and support. Even if this view should happily be erroneous, the law under which the commissioners have been acting should be made more effective by the incorporation of some such stringent amendments as they recommend, and as were included in bill No. 2238 on the Calendar of the Senate at its last session. ”

“ I was determined that some bill should be passed at that session. The debate was long and interesting. There were comparatively few set speeches. It was a hot, running debate almost from the beginning, participated in by the strongest men in the Senate, many of whom were the ablest men of their day. Senators Aldrich, Edmunds, Evarts, Gorman, Hoar, Ingalls, Manderson, Miller, Mitchell, Morrill, Platt, Sewell, Sherman, Spooner, Teller, Vest, Morgan, Cameron, Dawes, Frye, Hale, Harrison, and Voorhees all engaged in it. ”

“ Now, when we take away this power which the Legislature has for extraordinary emergencies and say that the election shall be held upon a particular day, do we not presume in advance, conclusively, that that condition of things will not arise at that time?
Mr. SCHURZ. Inasmuch as the Senator from Nevada has not occupied any time yet to lay his views on this subject before the Senate, [laughter,] I am very glad that he takes part of my time for the purpose of doing so. But I will tell him that this provision in the bill does not rest upon any presumption at all. ”

“ Do we not all feel the necessity, under the pressure of that excitement which now prevails in the country — unnecessarily, I think, but it does exist — of passing some bill covering this subject at the present session of Congress? ”

“ On a point of order made by any Senator, no amendment offered by any other Senator which proposes general legislation shall be received to any general appropriation bill, nor shall any amendment not germane or relevant to the subject matter contained in the bill be received ”

“ President, I will not take up the time of the Senate by going into a discussion of all the abuses under which the civil service suffers, but briefly enumerate some of the most important which seem to be within the reach of reform, and to which the provisions of my bill apply.
In the first place, appointments to office are mostly made upon the recommendations of politicians of high and low grade. ”

“ The Senator from Missouri withdraws his amendment to the amendment, and accepts that offered by the Senator from Iowa, which will now be reported.
Mr. HAMLIN. That is a process which cannot be got through with here without the consent of the Senator from Missouri on my right, [Mr. Schurz,] who proposes to perfect, as it is called, the first section of the bill. You cannot move to strike out the section until the motion is first put on the amendment which he has offered to perfect it. ”

“ The only yea and nay vote in the Senate on the passage of that bill, after two days debate, occurred on the 10th of January, 1871. Those who voted in favor of the bill were Messrs. Bayard, Boreman, Brownlow, Casserly, Cole, Conkling, Corbett, Davis, Gilbert, Hamlin, Harlan, Jewett, Johnston, Kellogg, McCreary, Morton, Nye, Patterson, Pomeroy, Pool, Ramsey, Rice, Saulsbury, Spencer, Stewart, Stockton, Sumner, Thurman, Tipton, Trumbull, Vickers, Warner, Willey, Williams, Wilson and Yates—36.
Every one of the six members of the Pacific coast voted for the bill after full debate. ”

“ Mr. SCHURZ. The observation I was going to submit upon this amendment to the appropriation bill had no reference at all to the matter which the Senator from Vermont was touching upon. I consider it rather a smart piece of strategy on his part to turn the flank of what I was going to say by such a previous remark. However I do not intend to let him escape in that way.
We are asked here to commence a building, one small portion of which will cost in all probability, as the Senator states, something over a million dollars. ”

“ We have to deal with a system of temptations which will work the same results as long as it exists at all. Let us see, then, whether legislative means are available and bid fair to be effective.
The present practice of distributing office in the way of patronage being the root of the evil, the problem consists in reaching that, without running against the spirit of the Constitution. I desire to move the bill to reform the civil service, which I introduced at the commencement of the last session, as a substitute for the bill introduced by the Senator from Illinois. ”

“ On the 5th of June I made a speech covering not only the pending bill, and the cognate questions involved, but all the irrelative topics introduced by other Senators. I said:
"I approach the discussion of this bill, and the kindred bills and amendments pending in the two Houses, with unaffected diffidence. No problem is submitted to us of equal importance and difficulty. Our action will affect the value of all property of the people of the United States, and the wages of labor of every kind, and our trade and commerce with all the world. ”

“ The ease with which they would, upon all occasions, have secured a majority in the legislature, might, in times less virtuous than the present, have operated as temptations to designing and ambitious men to sacrifice the public good to private views. This cannot be the case at present; the different mode of representation for the Senate will, as has already been observed, most effectually prevent it. The purpose of establishing different houses of legislation was to introduce the influence of different interests and principles ”

“ I consider it as a capital excellence of the proposed constitution, that the senate can be wholly renewed but once in six years.
Experience is the best instructor—it is better than a thousand theories. The history of every government on earth affords proof of the utility of different branches in a legislature. But I appeal only to our own experience in America. To what cause can we ascribe the absurd measures of Congress, in times past, and the speedy recision of whole measures, but to the want of some check? ”