CHAPTER VII.

REBEL DEBT-CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT.

Resolution of Mr. Farnsworth reported by Mr. Wilson with amendments. Amendment agreed to.-Debated by Mr. Wilson, Mr. Rogers, Mr. Farnsworth, Mr. Rousseau, Mr. Johnson, Mr. Higby, Mr. Sloan, Mr. Niblack and Mr. Randall.-Resolution passed.-Resolution by Mr. Sumner.— Resolution by Mr. Wilson.-Speech by Mr. Wilson.

In the House of Representatives on the 6th of December, 1865, Mr. Farnsworth of Illinois introduced a resolution to amend the Constitution so that no tax, duty or impost should be laid, nor appropriation of money be made by the United States or any one of the States, for the purpose of paying any debt incurred in aiding the rebellion against the Constitution and laws of the United States. The resolution was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary, and on the 19th Mr. Wilson of Iowa, chairman of the committee, reported it with an amendment. The House proceeded to the consideration of the resolution, and the amendment of the Judiciary Committee was agreed to. The question recurring on the passage of the Joint Resolution, Mr. Wilson of Iowa said that the proposition was so generally concurred in, that it was not necessary to occupy the time of the House in discussing it; he

therefore moved the previous question. Mr. Rogers of New Jersey, a member of the Judiciary Committee, maintained that three-fourths of the States had no right, by an amendment to the constitution, to dictate to the States what debts they should pay. Mr. Farnsworth asked Mr. Rogers if he held that the Constitution intended to give a State the right to tax its loyal people to pay debts incurred in rebellion against the United States. Mr. Rogers replied that the people, through their legislature, had the right to tax themselves to pay any debt, whether that debt was contracted in a righteous or an unrighteous, a just or an unjust cause. Mr. Rousseau of Kentucky asked Mr. Rogers if it was one of the reserved rights of the States to break up the government of the United States. Mr. Rogers said it was the right of a State to pay its own debts, in its own manner, and at its own time, and three-fourths of the States had no right to say, by an amendment to the Constitution, that the other fourth should not pay any debt they might see fit to pay. Mr. Wilson of Iowa said that if any portion of the people of New Jersey desired to remove to any of the rebel States, he desired that they should not be liable to pay any debts incurred for the destruction of the government. He was desirous of protecting the government against the corrupting influences of the immense amount of money involved in the rebel debt. Mr. Hale of New York thought the resolution was not broad enough, that it ought

to prevent the assumption of any rebel debt contracted in the past or in the future. Mr. Wilson thought the resolution broad enough to cover the object stated by the member from New York. Mr. Bingham of Ohio suggested that the resolution should be amended by adding the words, "nor shall the United States or any State of the Union ever assume or pay any part of such debt or liabilities." Mr. Wilson thought the resolution in its present form broader than it would be if amended as suggested by the gentleman from Ohio. Mr. Johnson of Pennsylvania objected to the immediate passage of the resolution, and entered his protest against hasty legislation. Mr. Higby of California and Mr. Ingersoll of Illinois, Mr. Sloan, Mr. Niblack and Mr. Rogers demanded further time for the consideration of the resolution. Mr. Wilson expressed his willingness to have the question go over till the next day and be made a special order. Mr. Randall of Pennsylvania objecting to make it a special order for the next day, Mr. Wilson withdrew the proposition and insisted upon his demand for the previous question. The previous question was ordered and the resolution passed.-Yeas 150, nays 11.

In the Senate on the 5th of January, 1866, Mr. Sumner of Massachusetts introduced a joint resolution proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States, for the protection of the national debt and the rejection of the rebel debt. The resolution was referred to the Committee on

the Judiciary, and on the 20th of June Mr. Trumbull reported it back with the recommendation that it be indefinitely postponed, and it was so postponed.

On the 24th of January Mr. Wilson of Massachu setts introduced a resolution, proposing to amend the Constitution so that no payment should ever be made by the United States or any State, for or on account of the emancipation of any slave or slaves, or for or on account of any debt contracted or incurred in aid of rebellion against the national Gov

ernment.

Mr. Wilson said in support of the resolution, which he proposed to refer to the committee on reconstruction, that utterances in Louisiana, Georgia and other rebel States gave warning that rebel slave masters hoped to be compensated by the national authority for slaves emancipated. "To maintain," he said, "the unity of the Republic, and preserve the menaced life of the nation, the Government of the United States summoned more than two million men to the field, organized vast armies, created naval squadrons for the blockading of southern ports, and carried on for more than four years a war of gigantic proportions. To support those vast armies, to create these great naval squadrons that hovered along the southern coast from the Potomac to the Rio Grande, the Government was compelled to call upon the loyal people for nearly three thousand million dollars. That people, ani

mated with the same lofty and self-sacrificing patriotism that carried their sons to battle-fields, at this call of their country loaned these millions to feed, to clothe, to arm, to pay the soldiers of the Republic, and to pension the widows and orphan children of heroes fallen in battle for the existence of the Republic. With the same holy zeal that filled the ranks of our war-wasted battallions, that contributed seventy-five millions in charities to the sick and wounded defenders of their country, the loyal people-bankers, merchants, farmers, mechanics, laborers, all conditions of men, and women, too -in the dark and trying days of the rebellion, when men of little faith doubted the result of the struggle for national existence, and rebel sympathizers and rebel apologists prophesied disaster and national bankruptcy, trusted their interests and fortunes to the faith of their endangered country. These millions of the loyal people, loaned upon the plighted faith of the periled nation, the money that created the armies and navies that lined the coasts, and swept the fields of rebellion till the slave-masters' confederacy crumbled into dishonored fragments. This national debt, created by the Government for the preservation of the national life, is as sacred as the blood of our heroes poured out on battle-fields. This national debt is the price of national existence. Faith, honor, interest, all alike demand that it shall be guarded as we guard and cherish the scarred heroes and the widows and orphans of the nation's dead."