of its report (printed as S. Rept. 99, 38 Cong., 1 sess., Serial 1178), including the testimony taken, is available (38A-D1). Other Committees The Select Committee to Examine the Condition of the Overland Mail Service (appointed Mar. 3, 1865) does not appear to have become active. 39TH CONGRESS Select Committee on the Levees of the Mississippi Authorized June 8, 1866, to consider the memorials from the boards of levee commissioners for the State of Louisiana and the Yazoo Valley district of the State of Mississippi asking the reconstruction of the levees on the Mississippi River; appointed June 11, to consist of Daniel Clark (N. H.), Zachariah Chandler (Mich.), Edgar Cowan (Pa.), John B. Henderson (Mo.), and Reverdy Johnson (Md.). In reaching its conclusions the committee reviewed the history of the prewar and wartime productivity of this area. There are no manuscript records of this committee. Its report was printed as S. Rept. 126, 39 Cong., 1 sess., Serial 1240. See also S. Rept. 2, 40 Cong., 1 sess., Serial 1309. 40TH CONGRESS Select Committee on the Message of the House of Representatives Relating to the Impeachment of Andrew Johnson Authorized and appointed Feb. 25, 1868, to consist of Jacob M. Howard (Mich.), Lyman Trumbull (Ill.), Roscoe Conkling (N. Y.), George F. Edmunds (Vt.), Oliver P. Morton (Ind.), Samuel C. Pomeroy (Kans.), and Reverdy Johnson (Md.). The committee reported a resolution the next day. Its report of Feb. 28, 1868, "Rules and Procedure and Practice in the Senate When Sitting as a High Court of Impeachment, was printed as S. Rept. 59, 40 Cong., 2 sess., Serial 1320. See also "Proceedings of the Senate Preliminary to the Trial of Articles of Impeachment of Andrew Johnson, President of the United States," appended to S. Journal, 40 Cong., 2 sess., Serial 1315. There are no papers of the committee as such, but its original report is available (40A-D1). 41ST CONGRESS Select Committee on the Removal of Political Disabilities Authorized and appointed Mar. 20, 1869, to consist of Thomas J. Robertson (S. C.), Thomas W. Osborn (Fla.), Hannibal Hamlin (Maine), Timothy O. Howe (Wis.), Orris S. Ferry (Conn.), Arthur I. Boreman (W. Va.), and George Vickers (Md.). To the committee were referred "all matters relating to the removal of disabilities under the 14th amendment of the Constitution, "sec. 3 of which provided as follows: No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by a vote of two-thirds of each House, remove such disability. To this committee were referred all previous petitions and memorials for the removal of political disabilities. The committee reported many bills to remove disabilities; these, after concurrence of the House of Representatives and enrollment, were presented to the President for signature. Records. The main file of petitions for removal of disabilities (41AH27)--arranged alphabetically by State of residence and thereunder alphabetically by name of petitioner--represents men holding public office or otherwise prominent in public life (such as State legislators, mayors, postmasters, judges and other court officials, magistrates, bankers, overseers of the poor, and notaries public) and includes also former officers and soldiers of the Confederate Army. Many petitions relate circumstances of allegiance to the Confederacy or give personal histories of wartime activities or service; others indicate the petitioners' refusal of allegiance to the Confederacy. There are also many lists of names handed by Senators to the committee for favorable action, endorsements on individual applications, and occasional protests against disability removal. A few other papers of the same kind are in the records of the next Congress (42A-H25); and there is a separate file of remonstrances against the removal of the political disabilities of Zebulon B. Vance and others of North Carolina (42A-E22). Select Committee to Investigate Alleged Traffic With Rebels in Texas Authorized Jan. 4, 1871, to investigate the arrest during the war of Harris Hoyt "for trading with the rebels in Texas" and of Byron Sprague and William H. Reynolds for alleged complicity with him; appointed Jan. 5, to consist of Allen G. Thurman (Ohio), Hannibal Hamlin (Maine), Lyman Trumbull (Ill.), Timothy O. Howe (Wis.), and Waitman Willey (W. Va.). There are no papers of the committee as such, but the original of its report (printed as S. Rept. 377, 41 Cong., 3 sess., Serial 1443) is available (41A-D1). Select Committee on Alleged Outrages in the Southern States Authorized Jan. 19, 1871, to investigate matters referred to the Senate by the President in his messages of Jan. 13 and 17 (S. Ex. Doc. 16, 41 Cong., 3 sess., Serial 1440); appointed Jan. 20, 1871, to consist of John Scott (Pa.), Henry Wilson (Mass.), Zachariah Chandler (Mich.), Benjamin F. Rice (Ark.), James W. Nye (Nev.), Thomas F. Bayard (Del.), and Francis P. Blair, Jr. (Mo.). The first of the President's messages had presented abstracts from military and other reports alleging the prevalence of crime in the Southern States after 1866, and the second had communicated copies of reports received at the War Department "relative to disloyal organizations in the State of North Carolina." To the committee's printed report (S. Rept. 1, 42 Cong., 1 sess., Serial 1468) are appended its journal, the exhibits, and testimony pertaining primarily to North Carolina (revealing political and social conditions in the State at the end of the war and in the immediate postwar period). The views of the minority were separately presented (S. Rept. 1, pt. 2, 42 Cong., 1 sess., Serial 1468). There are no papers of the committee as such, but the originals of testimony taken and the minority report are available (42A-D1). HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES The United States House of Representatives was established by Article I, Section 1, of the Constitution, which provides that "All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives. "Section 7 of Article I provides that "All Bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives; but the Senate may propose or concur with Amendments as on other Bills." No express provision vests in the House the sole power to originate general appropriation bills, but customarily such bills originate there. In addition to the legislative function, Article I, Section 2, provides that the House "shall have the sole Power of Impeachment, " that is, the bringing of charges against the President and other public officials for trial before the Senate; and Section 5 provides that "Each House shall be the Judge of the Elections, Returns, and Qualifications of its own Members." Section 2 of Article I of the Constitution, before the adoption of the Fourteenth Amendment, provided as follows: Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons. On July 5, 1861, the Secretary of the Interior, as required by an act of The House of Representatives had moved on Dec. 16, 1857, from the chamber now known as Statuary Hall to a much larger chamber in the newly constructed House Wing of the Capitol. Its general organization during the Civil War conformed closely to its traditional organization from 1789. As in the Senate, important changes occurred in committee organization during the war; these are explained below in describing the records of the House committees. Most Representatives from the seceding States withdrew from the House toward the end of the 38th Congress, and in the 37th Congress there were no Representatives from States that had seceded except that Benjamin F. Flanders and Michael Hahn represented Louisiana from Feb. 23 and 17, 1863, respectively; William G. Brown, John S. Carlile, Jacob B. Blair, Joseph E. Segar, Charles H. Upton, Lewis McKenzie, and Kellian V. Whaley represented Virginia for various periods; and George W. Bridges, Andrew J. Clements, and Horace Maynard represented Tennessee from Feb. 25, 1863, Jan. 13, 1862, and Dec. 2, 1861, respectively. Neither the 38th nor the 39th Congress included any members from the States that had seceded. Galusha A. Grow was elected Speaker of the House of Representatives on July 4, 1861, when the 37th Congress convened; and Schuyler Colfax was elected Speaker for the 38th Congress on December 7, 1863, and again for the 39th Congress on December 4, 1865. Clerks of the House in the 37th Congress were successively John W. Forney and Emerson Etheridge; and for the 38th Congress were successively Etheridge and Edward McPherson. McPherson continued as Clerk of the House through the 43d Congress. The printed journals of the House for the Civil War period are in the congressional serials as follows: Record Group 233. --The records of the House of Representatives consist almost wholly of those pertaining to the official business of the House that were filed with the Clerk of the House or that were created by his Office. They include no personal papers of individual Representatives; but the official records are useful in conjunction with personal papers deposited elsewhere. For this reason the chairmen of standing committees and the members of select committees of the House in the period covered by this Guide are named below in the sections devoted to such committees. House records available for the three Congresses spanning the Civil War (36th, 37th, 38th) are principally the minute books (3 vols.); legisla- The House committee papers per se and those referred to the commit- The wartime records include also papers (4 ft.) pertaining to impeachment proceedings against John C. Watrous, judge of the U. S. District Court for the District of Texas (36B-A1), and against Andrew G. Miller (2 in.), judge of the U. S. District Court for the District of Wisconsin (38B-A1). There is also an original report on the "Astronomical and Meteorological Observations Made at the Naval Observatory During the Year 1861" (37A-K2). Postwar but war-related House records, besides committee records (see below), include notably the papers (2 ft.) pertaining to impeachment proceedings against President Andrew Johnson, with the journal of the managers of the House (40B-A1); and papers (2 ft.) pertaining to impeachment proceedings against Richard Busteed, judge of the U. S. District Court for the District of Alabama (40B-B1, 41B-A1). The record books of the Office of the Clerk of the House for the three Civil War Congresses (23 vols.) include bill books of House and Senate bills and resolutions, registers of bills and resolutions passed, petition books, records of orders of the day, records of committee reports, records of miscellaneous documents, the union calendar, and account books. The Clerk's letter book of outgoing correspondence, from the 33d Congress to the 1st session of the 38th Congress, is among the records of the 33d Congress(33C-C1); and his record of the membership of standing and select committees, from the 32d Congress to the 38th Congress, is among the records of the 32d Congress (32C-A9). His other wartime records include receipts for records withdrawn and, for the 36th Congress only, a subject index to House bills and resolutions. Also of possible use is the Clerk's 1-volume index to papers submitted to various committees in support of claims, pensions, and other forms of private relief, 39th-43d Congs. |