finally counted; and said persons and either of them shall have the right to affix their signature or his signature to said register for purposes of identification, and to attach thereto, or to the certificate of the number of votes cast, and [any] statement touching the truth or fairness thereof which they or he may ask to attach ; and any one who shall prevent any person so designated from doing any of the acts authorized as aforesaid, or who shall hinder or molest any such person in doing any of the said acts, or shall aid or abet in preventing, hindering, or molesting any such person in respect of any such acts, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and on conviction shall be punished by imprisonment not less than one year.

SEC. 6. And be it further enacted, That in any city having upwards of twenty thousand inhabitants, it shall be lawful for the marshal of the United States for the district wherein said city shall be, to appoint as many special deputies as may be necessary to preserve order at any election at which representatives in Congress are to be chosen; and said deputies are hereby authorized to preserve order at such elections, and to arrest for any offence or breach of the peace committed in their view.

SEC. 7. And be it further enacted, That the naturalization laws are hereby extended to aliens of African nativity and to persons of African descent.

APPROVED, July 14, 1870.

No. 88. Act for refunding the National Debt July 14, 1870

IN his annual report of December 6, 1869, the Secretary of the Treasury called attention to the fact that the bonds known as 5-20's, amounting to $1,602,671,100, were either redeemable or soon to become redeemable. A bill to provide for refunding the national debt was introduced in the Senate by Sumner January 12, 1870, and referred to the Committee on Finance, which

1 Repealed by act of February 28, 1871, section 18 (post, p. 261).

reported February 3, through Sherman, a substitute. The matter formed one of the principal subjects of discussion for the remainder of the session. The substitute bill with amendments passed the Senate, March 11, by a vote of 32 to 10. The House left the bill without action until July 1, when a substitute reported by Schenck, from the Committee of Ways and Means, was agreed to, the final vote being 129 to 42, 58 not voting. The chief difference between the two bills was in the character of the bonds to be issued. The Senate refused to accept the substitute of the House. A report of a conference committee, July 12, being the act as approved with an additional section requiring the deposit of registered bonds as security for bank circulation, was rejected by the House by a vote of 88 to 103. A second report was agreed to the next day, in the House by a vote of 139 to 54, 37 not voting, and in the Senate without a division. An amending act of January 20, 1871, increased the amount of five per cent bonds to $500,000,000, but without increasing the total issue.

REFERENCES. Text in U.S. Statutes at Large, XVI, 272–274. For the proceedings see the House and Senate Journals, 41st Cong., 2d Sess., and the Cong. Globe. On Sumner's bill see his remarks in the Globe, January 12; on the Senate substitute, Sherman's remarks, ibid., February 28, and Senate Report 4. Cf. Sherman's strictures on the act in his Recollections, I, 451–458. On the funding of the debt see Dewey, Financial History, chap. 14, and references there given. See also House Exec. Doc. 207, 43d Cong., 1st Sess.; House Report 951, 50th Cong., Ist Sess.

An Act to authorize the Refunding of the national Debt. Be it enacted That the Secretary of the Treasury is hereby authorized to issue, in a sum or sums not exceeding in the aggregate two hundred million dollars, coupon or registered bonds of the United States, in such form as he may prescribe, and of denominations of fifty dollars, or some multiple of that sum, redeemable in coin of the present standard value, at the pleasure of the United States, after ten years from the date of their issue, and bearing interest, payable semiannually in such coin, at the rate of five per cent. per annum; also a sum or sums not exceeding in the aggregate three hundred million dollars of like bonds, the same in all respects, but payable at the pleasure of the United States, after fifteen years from the date of their issue, and bearing interest at the rate of four and a half per cent. per annum; also a sum or sums not exceeding in the

aggregate one thousand million dollars of like bonds, the same in all respects, but payable at the pleasure of the United States, after thirty years from the date of their issue, and bearing interest at the rate of four per cent. per annum; all of which said several classes of bonds and the interest thereon shall be exempt from the payment of all taxes or duties of the United States, as well as from taxation in any form by or under State, municipal, or local authority; and the said bonds shall have set forth and expressed upon their face the above-specified conditions, and shall, with their coupons, be made payable at the treasury of the United States. But nothing in this act, or in any other law now in force, shall be construed to authorize any increase whatever of the bonded debt of the United States.

SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That the Secretary of the Treasury is hereby authorized to sell and dispose of any of the bonds issued under this act, at not less than their par value for coin, and to apply the proceeds thereof to the redemption of any of the bonds of the United States outstanding, and known as five-twenty bonds, at their par value, or he may exchange the same for such five-twenty bonds, par for par; but the bonds hereby authorized shall be used for no other purpose whatso

SEC. 3. [Payment of bonds, in what amounts, how determined, &c.]

SEC. 4. And be it further enacted, That the Secretary of the Treasury is hereby authorized, with any coin in the treasury of the United States which he may lawfully apply to such purpose,

1 An act of January 25, 1879, provided "that the Secretary of the Treasury is hereby authorized in the process of refunding the national debt under existing laws to exchange directly at par the bonds of the United States bearing interest at four per centum per annum authorized by law for the bonds of the United States commonly known as five-twenties outstanding and uncalled, and, whenever all such five-twenty bonds shall have been redeemed, the provisions of this section and all existing provisions of law authorizing the refunding of the national debt shall apply to any bonds of the United States bearing interest at five per centum per annum or a higher rate, which may be redeemable. In any exchange made under the provisions of this section interest may be allowed, on the bonds redeemed, for a period of three months."

or which may be derived from the sale of any of the bonds, the issue of which is provided for in this act, to pay at par and cancel any six per cent. bonds of the United States of the kind known as five-twenty bonds, which have become or shall hereafter become redeemable by the terms of their issue. .

SEC. 5. And be it further enacted, That the Secretary of the Treasury is hereby authorized, at any time within two years from the passage of this act, to receive gold coin of the United States on deposit for not less than thirty days, in sums of not less than one hundred dollars, with the Treasurer, or any assistant treasurer of the United States authorized by the Secretary of the Treasury to receive the same, who shall issue therefor certificates of deposit, made in such form as the Secretary of the Treasury shall prescribe, and said certificates of deposit shall bear interest at a rate not exceeding two and a half per cent. per annum; and any amount of gold coin so deposited may be withdrawn from deposit at any time after thirty days from the date of deposit, and after ten days' notice and on the return of said certificates: Provided, That the interest on all such deposits shall cease and determine at the pleasure of the Secretary of the Treasury. And not less than twenty-five per cent. of the coin deposited for or represented by said certificates of deposits shall be retained in the treasury for the payment of said certificates; and the excess beyond twenty-five per cent. may be applied at the discretion of the Secretary of the Treasury to the payment or redemption of such outstanding bonds of the United States heretofore issued and known as the five-twenty bonds, as he may designate under the provisions of the fourth section of this act; and any certificates of deposit issued as aforesaid, may be received at par with the interest accrued thereon in payment for any bonds authorized to be issued by this act.

SEC. 6. [Bonds purchased and held in the treasury under act of February 25, 1862, and other bcnds hereafter purchased and held, &c., to be destroyed.]

APPROVED, July 14, 1870.

No. 89. Act for the Restoration of Georgia

July 15, 1870

A BILL for the restoration of Georgia, similar in purport to the acts for the restoration of Mississippi and Texas, was reported in the House, February 25, 1870, by Butler of Massachusetts, from the Committee on Reconstruction, and passed, March 8, by a vote of 115 to 71, 34 not voting. The Senate added section 2 of the act, and further amendments declaring the existing government of the State provisional, directing the holding of a new election, and authorizing the President to suppress disorder. The amended bill passed the Senate, April 19, by a vote of 27 to 25. The bill was left without further action until June 24, when the House Committee on Reconstruction reported in favor of the passage of the House bill with amendments. The Senate refused to concur, and the final form of the bill was settled by a conference committee. The report of the committee was accepted by both houses, July 14, without a division.

REFERENCES.

Text in U.S. Statutes at Large, XVI, 363, 364. For the proceedings see the House and Senate Journals, 41st Cong., 2d Sess., and the Cong. Globe. On political conditions in Georgia see House Exec. Doc. 288.

An Act relating to the State of Georgia.

Be it enacted. . ., That the State of Georgia having complied with the reconstruction acts, and the fourteenth and fifteenth articles of amendments to the Constitution of the United States having been ratified in good faith by a legal legislature of said State, it is hereby declared that the State of Georgia is entitled to representation in the Congress of the United States. But nothing in this act contained shall be construed to deprive the people of Georgia of the right to an election for members of the general assembly of said State, as provided for in the Constitution thereof; and nothing in this or any other act of Congress shall be construed to affect the term to which any officer has been appointed or any member of the general assembly elected as prescribed by the Constitution of the State of Georgia.

SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That so much of the act entitled "An act making appropriations for the support of the army for the year ending June thirty, eighteen hundred and