Force Bill

After the pa age of the Act of 1828, authorizing a higher protective tariff system, great discontent prevailed through many of the Southern States. In 1832-33 South Carolina claimed that State power to nullify objectionable Federal enactments was an integral feature of American constitutional law. A bill, nullifying the protective tariff law, prepared according to John C. Calhoun’s theory, was pa ed by the State Legislature. A bill to enforce the tariff law was therefore at once introduced into Congre and became law March 2, 1833. It was called the ‘‘force bill,’’ or the ‘bloody bill.” Compromise adjusted the trouble.—During the reconstruction period, at the first indication of an attack on the reconstructed governments, Congre at once took steps to defeat the attempt. A bill for the enforcement of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments, commonly called the ‘*force bill,”? was pa ed in Congre by a strict party vote and became law May 31, 1870. It made punishable by fine or imprisonment all attempts at intimidation, bribery or hindrance in the matters of registration and qualifying for voting. April 20, 1871, a much more stringent law was enacted to put down the conspiracies against civil rights by the Ku-Klux Klan and similar organizations.—The name has recently been applied to the Lodge Election Bill. July 2, 1890, a bill ‘‘ to amend and supplement the election laws of the United States, and to provide for a more efficient enforcement of such laws,’’ pa ed the House, having been submitted by Lodge, of Ma achusetts, but was forced out of the way in the Senate by a combination of Democratic and Republican Senators anxious for the adoption of free coinage legislation. Forefathers’ Day. The celebration of the landing of the Pilgrims began in 1769. At that time December 11, old style, was taken to be December 22 of new style, instead of December 21, as it should be. Hence an error and confusion regarding the day was perpetuated. 264