s in any State, or in any manner interfere with the
freedom of any election in any State, or with the exercise of
the free right of suffrage in any State.

SEC. 5529. Every officer or other person in the military or
naval service who, by force, threat, intimidation, order,
advice, or otherwise, prevents, or attempts to prevent, any
qualified voter of any State from freely exercising the right
of suffrage at any general or special election in such State
shall be fined not more than $5,000 and imprisoned at hard
labor not more than five years.

SEC. 5530. Every officer of the Army or Navy who prescribes
or fixes, or attempts to prescribe or fix, whether by
proclamation, order, or otherwise, the qualifications of
voters at any election in any State shall be punished as
provided in the preceding section.

SEC. 5531. Every officer or other person in the military or
naval service who, by force, threat, intimidation, order, or
otherwise, compels, or attempts to compel, any officer holding
an election in any State to receive a vote from a person not
legally qualified to vote, or who imposes, or attempts to
impose, any regulations for conducting any general or special
election in a State different from those prescribed by law, or
who interferes in any manner with any officer of an election
in the discharge of his duty, shall be punished as provided in
section 5529.

SEC. 5532. Every person convicted of any of the offenses
specified in the five preceding sections shall, in addition to
the punishments therein severally prescribed, be disqualified
from holding any office of honor, profit, or trust under
the United States; but nothing in those sections shall be
construed to prevent any officer, soldier, sailor, or marine
from exercising the right of suffrage in any election district
to which he may belong, if otherwise qualified according to
the laws of the State in which he offers to vote.

The foregoing enactments would seem to be sufficient to prevent
military interference with the elections. But the last Congress, to
remove all apprehension of such interference, added to this body of
law section 15 of an act entitled "An act making appropriations for
the support of the Army for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1879, and
for other purposes," approved June 18, 1878, which is as follows:

SEC. 15. From and after the passage of this act it shall not
be