ere any such registration or election or canvass of votes,
or of making any returns or certificates thereof, may be had,
or who molests, interferes with, removes, or ejects from
any such place of registration or poll of election, or
of canvassing votes cast thereat, or of making returns or
certificates thereof, any supervisor of election, the marshal
or his general or special deputies, or either of them, or
who threatens, or attempts or offers so to do, or refuses or
neglects to aid and assist any supervisor of election, or the
marshal or his general or special deputies, or either of them,
in the performance of his or their duties, when required
by him or them, or either of them, to give such aid and
assistance, shall be liable to instant arrest without process,
and shall be punished by imprisonment not more than two years,
or by a fine of not more than $3,000, or by both such fine and
imprisonment, and shall pay the cost of the prosecution.

The Supreme Court of the United States, in the recent case of _Ex
parte_ Siebold and others, decided at the October term, 1879, on
the question raised in the case as to the constitutionality of the
sections of the Revised Statutes above quoted, uses the following
language:

These portions of the Revised Statutes are taken from the act
commonly known as the enforcement act, approved May 31, 1870,
and entitled "An act to enforce the right of citizens of the
United States to vote in the several States of this Union,
and for other purposes," and from the supplement to that
act, approved February 28, 1871. They relate to elections of
members of the House of Representatives, and were an assertion
on the part of Congress of a power to pass laws for regulating
and superintending said elections and for securing the purity
thereof and the rights of citizens to vote thereat peaceably
and without molestation.

It must be conceded to be a most important power, and of a
fundamental character. In the light of recent history and of
the violence, fraud, corruption, and irregularity which have
frequently prevailed at such elections, it may easily be
conceived that the exertion of the power, if it exists, may be
necessary to the stability of our form of government.

The greatest difficulty in coming to a just conclusion arises
from mistaken notions with regard to the relations which
subsist between the State and National G