No. 104.

Use of the Army at the Polls

May 4, 1880

THE army appropriation act of June 18, 1878, forbade the use of the army as a posse comitatus save as authorized by the Constitution or an act of Congress. The army appropriation bill of the next year, containing a provision prohibiting the use of the army at the polls, was vetoed by President Hayes. The army bill of 1880 was reported in the House March 30, and April 13 the amendment contained in section 2 of the act was agreed to, the vote being 117 to 96, 79 not voting. April 22, in the Senate, amendments offered by Edmunds, Blaine, and others to nullify this section were rejected and the bill passed, the final vote being 28 to 18.

REFERENCES.

Text in U.S. Statutes at Large, XXI, 113, 114. For the proceedings see the House and Senate Journals, 46th Cong., 2d Sess., and the Cong. Record. Hayes's veto message of April 29, 1879, reviews the previous legislation.

An act making appropriations for the support of the Army for the fiscal year ending June thirtieth, eighteen hundred and eighty-one, and for other purposes.

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SEC. 2. That no money appropriated in this act is appropriated or shall be paid for the subsistence, equipment, transportation, or compensation of any portion of the Army of the United States to be used as a police force to keep the peace at the polls at any election held within any State: Provided, That nothing in this provision shall be construed to prevent the use of troops to protect against domestic violence in each of the States on application of the legislature thereof or of the executive when the legislature cannot be convened.

APPROVED, May 4, 1880.

SECTION 2 of the sundry civil appropriation act of March 3, 1881, authorizing the application of the surplus to the purchase of bonds, was offered as an amendment to the bill, March 2, by Thomas F. Bayard of Delaware, from the Senate Committee on Finance, and was agreed to without debate. In his annual message of December 6, 1887, President Cleveland pointed out that "the only pretense of any existing executive power" to prevent the accumulation of surplus revenue "consists in the supposition that the Secretary of the Treasury may enter the market and purchase the bonds of the Government not yet due, at a rate of premium to be agreed upon"; and he expressed a doubt as to whether the provision of the act of 1881 was properly to be regarded as still in effect. A bill to give the Secretary of the Treasury the necessary authority was introduced in the House January 16, 1888, and passed that body February 29. The Senate passed the bill with amendments April 5, and the bill went to a conference committee, where it remained. By a resolution of April 16, agreed to under suspension of the rules, the House declared that the provision of the act of 1881 "was intended to be a permanent provision of law; and the same is hereby declared to have been since its enactment and to be now, in the opinion of the House, in full force and effect." The vote on the motion to suspend the rules was 138 to 64, 123 not voting.

REFERENCES. Text in U.S. Statutes at Large, XXI, 457. For the later proceedings see the House and Senate Journals, 50th Cong., 1st Sess., and the Cong. Record; see also Senate Report 453.

An act making appropriations for sundry civil expenses of the government for the fiscal year ending June thirtieth, eighteen hundred and eighty-two, and for other purposes.

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SEC. 2. That the Secretary of the Treasury may at any time apply the surplus money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, or so much thereof as he may consider proper, to the purchase or redemption of United States bonds: Provided, That the bonds so purchased or redeemed shall constitute no part of the sinking fund but shall be cancelled.

APPROVED, March 3, 1881.

No. 106. Anti-Polygamy Act

March 22, 1882

IN his annual message of December 6, 1881, President Arthur called attention to the spread of Mormonism in the Territories, and repeated the recommendations of previous messages for more stringent legislation. A bill "in reference to bigamy, and for other purposes," was introduced in the Senate, December 12, 1881, by Edmunds of Vermont, and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary. January 24 the committee reported the bill with numerous amendments. The bill passed the Senate February 16 and the House March 13, the vote in the House being 199 to 42, 51 not voting.

REFERENCES. - Text in U.S. Statutes at Large, XXII, 30-32. For the proceedings see the House and Senate Journals, 47th Cong., Ist Sess., and the Cong. Record. On the constitutional bearings of the act see Murphy v. Ramsey, 114 U.S. Reports, 15; Cannon v. United States, 116 ibid., 55; Davis v. Beason, 133 ibid., 333.

An act to amend' section fifty-three hundred and fifty-two of the Revised Statutes of the United States, in reference to bigamy, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted. . ., That section fifty-three hundred and fiftytwo of the Revised Statutes of the United States1 be, and the same is hereby, amended so as to read as follows, namely:

"Every person who has a husband or wife living who, in a Territory or other place over which the United States have exclusive jurisdiction, hereafter marries another, whether married or single, and any man who hereafter simultaneously, or on the same day, marries more than one woman, in a Territory or other place over which the United States have exclusive jurisdiction, is guilty of polygamy, and shall be punished by a fine of not more than five hundred dollars and by imprisonment for a term of not more than five years; but this section shall not extend to any person by reason of any former marriage whose husband or wife by such marriage shall have been absent for five successive years, and is not known to such person to be living, and is believed by such person to be dead, nor to any person by reason of any former marriage which shall have been dissolved by a valid decree of a

1 Section I of the act of July 1, 1862 [No. 21, ante].

competent court, nor to any person by reason of any former marriage which shall have been pronounced void by a valid decree of a competent court, on the ground of nullity of the marriage contract."

SEC. 2. That the foregoing provisions shall not affect the prosecution or punishment of any offense already committed against the section amended by the first section of this act.

SEC. 3. That if any male person, in a Territory or other place over which the United States have exclusive jurisdiction, hereafter cohabits with more than one woman, he shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and on conviction thereof shall be punished by a fine of not more than three hundred dollars, or by imprisonment for not more than six months, or by both said punishments, in the discretion of the court.

SEC. 4. That counts for any or all of the offenses named in sections one and three of this act may be joined in the same information or indictment.

SEC. 5. That in any prosecution for bigamy, polygamy, or unlawful cohabitation, under any statute of the United States, it shall be sufficient cause of challenge to any person drawn or summoned as a juryman or talesman, first, that he is or has been living in the practice of bigamy, polygamy, or unlawful cohabitation with more than one woman, or that he is or has been guilty of an offense punishable by either of the foregoing sections, or by section fifty-three hundred and fifty-two of the Revised Statutes of the United States, or the act of July first, eighteen hundred and sixty-two, entitled "An act to punish and prevent the practice of polygamy in the Territories of the United States and other places, and disapproving and annulling certain acts of the legislative assembly of the Territory of Utah," or, second, that he believes it right for a man to have more than one living and undivorced wife at the same time, or to live in the practice of cohabiting with more than one woman; and any person appearing or offered as a juror or talesman, and challenged on either of the foregoing grounds, may be questioned on his oath as to the existence of any such cause of challenge, and other evidence may be introduced bearing upon the question raised by such challenge;

But as to the first person challenged

and this question shall be tried by the court. ground of challenge before mentioned, the shall not be bound to answer if he shall say upon his oath that he declines on the ground that his answer may tend to criminate himself; and if he shall answer as to said first ground, his answer shall not be given in evidence in any criminal prosecution against him for any offense named in sections one or three of this act ; but if he declines to answer on any ground, he shall be rejected as incompetent.

SEC. 6. That the President is hereby authorized to grant amnesty to such classes of offenders guilty of bigamy, polygamy, or unlawful cohabitation, before the passage of this act, on such conditions and under such limitations as he shall think proper; but no such amnesty shall have effect unless the conditions thereof shall be complied with.

SEC. 7. That the issue of bigamous or polygamous marriages, known as Mormon marriages, in cases in which such marriages have been solemnized according to the ceremonies of the Mormon sect, in any Territory of the United States, and such issue shall have been born before the first day of January, anno Domini eighteen hundred and eighty-three, are hereby legitimated.

SEC. 8. That no polygamist, bigamist, or any person cohabiting with more than one woman, and no woman cohabiting with any of the persons described as aforesaid in this section, in any Territory or other place over which the United States have exclusive jurisdiction, shall be entitled to vote at any election held in any such Territory or other place, or be eligible for election or appointment to or be entitled to hold any office or place of public trust, honor, or emolument in, under, or for any such Territory or place, or under the United States.

SEC. 9. That all the registration and election offices of every description in the Territory of Utah are hereby declared vacant, and each and every duty relating to the registration of voters, the conduct of elections, the receiving or rejection of votes, and the canvassing and returning of the same, and the issuing of certificates or other evidence of election in said Territory, shall, until

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