Page:The Presidents of the United States, 1789-1914, v. III.djvu/218

 180 LIVES OP THE PRESIDENTS The Democratic members added to two general appropriation bills, in the shape of amendments, legislation intended to restrain the use of the army as a posse to keep the peace at elections, to repeal the law authorizing the employment of deputy U. S. marshals at the elections of members of con gress, and to relieve jurors in the U. S. courts from the obligation of the test oath. The senate, which was Republican, refused to concur in these amend ments, and so the session ended. An extra session was promptly called, which continued into mid summer. Contemporary criticism claims that, in this contest, Gen. Garfield reached, perhaps, the climax of his congressional career. A conservative man by nature, he revolted at such high-handed measures, and in his speech of March 29, 1879, characterized them as a &quot;revolution in congress.&quot; Against this insult to the spirit of the law he pro tested with unwonted vigor. .Like Webster in 1832, he stood the defender of the constitution, and his splendid eloquence and resistless logic up held the prerogatives of the executive, and de nounced these attempts by the legislature to pre vent or control elections, however, disguised, as an attack upon the constitution. He warned the house that its course would end in nullification, and protested that its principle was the &quot;revived doc trine of state sovereignty.&quot; (See speeches of April 26, June 10 and 11, and June 19 and 27,