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dissatisfaction, and enmity. There is but one given for reflection, that this decision has been a ground on which such conduct can find any ex-fortunate one for the whole country, they receiv cuse-a supposed public necessity; the peril of ing the like benefits from it with those who op destruction to which the government would be posed them in the field and in the cause. * * subjected, if the right was allowed. But for such a supposition there is not, in the opinion of the undersigned, even a shadow of foundation.

The representatives of the States in which there was no insurrection, if the others were represented, would in the House, under the present apportionment, exceed the latter by a majority of seventy-two votes, and have a decided preponderance in the Senate. What danger to the Government, then, can possibly arise from southern representation? Are the present Senators and Representatives fearful of themselves? Are they apprehensive that they might be led to the destruction of our institutions by the persuasion, or any other influence, of southern members? How disparaging to themselves is such an apprehension. Are they apprehensive that those who may succeed them from their respective States may be so fatally led astray? How disparaging is that supposition to the patriotism and wisdom of their constituents. Whatever effect on mere party success in the future such a representation may have we shall not stop to inquire. The idea that the country is to be kept in turmoil, States to be reduced to bondage, and their rights under the Constitution denied, and their citizens degraded, with a view to the continuance in power of a mere political party, cannot for a moment be entertained without imputing gross dishonesty of purpose and gross dereliction of duty to those who may entertain it. Nor do we deem it necessary to refer particularly to the evidence taken by the committee to show that there is nothing in the present condition of the people of the southern States that even excuses on that ground a denial of representation to them.. We content ourselves with saying that in our opinion the evidence most to be relied upon, whether regarding the character of the witnesses or their means of information, shows that representatives from the southern States would prove perfectly loyal. We specially refer for this only to the testimony of Lieutenant General Grant. His loyalty and his intelligence no one can doubt. In his letter to the President of the 18th of December, 1865, after he had recently visited South Carolina, North Carolina, and Georgia, he says:

"Both in travelling and while stopping, I saw much and conversed freely with the citizens of those States, as well as with officers of the army who have been among them. The following are the conclusions come to by me:

"I am satisfied that the mass of thinking men of the South accept the present situation of affairs in good faith. The questions which have heretofore divided the sentiments of the people of the two sections-slavery and State rights, or the right of a State to secede from the Union -they regard as having been settled forever by the highest tribunal, arms, that man can resort to. I was pleased to learn from the leading men whom I met that they not only accepted the decision arrived at as final, but that now, the smoke of battle has cleared away and time has been

My observations lead me to the conclusion t that the citizens of the southern States are and ious to return to self-government within the Union as soon as possible; that while reconstructing, they want and require protection from the Gov ernment; that they are in earnest in wishing to do what they think is required by the Govern ment, not humiliating to them as citizens; and that if such a course was pointed out, they would pursue it in good faith. It is to be regretted that there cannot be a greater comming. ling at this time between the citizens of the two sections, and particularly of those intrusted with the law-making power."

Secession, as a practical doctrine ever hereafter to be resorted to, is almost utterly aban doned. It was submitted to and failed before the ordeal of battle. Nor can the undersigned imagine why, if its revival is anticipated as pos sible, the committee have not recommended an amendment to the Constitution guarding against it in terms. Such an amendment, it cannot be doubted, the southern as well as northern States would cheerfully adopt. The omission of such a recommendation is pregnant evidence that secession, as a constitutional right, is thought by the majority of the committee to be, practi cally, a mere thing of the past, as all the proof taken by them shows it to be, in the opinion of all the leading southern men who hitherto entertained it. The desolation around them, the hecatombs of their own slain, the stern patriotism of the men of the other States, exhibited by unlimited expenditure of treasure and of blood, and their love of the Union so sincere and deepseated that it is seen they will hazard all to maintain it, have convinced the South that, as a practical doctrine, secession is extinguished forever. State secession, then, abandoned, and slavery abolished by the southern States themselves, or with their consent, upon what statesmanlike ground can such States be denied all the rights which the Constitution secures to States of the Union?, All admit that to do so at the earliest period is demanded by every con sideration of duty and policy, and none deny that the actual interest of the country is to a great extent involved in such admission. The staple productions of the Southern States are as important to the other States as to themselves. Those staples largely enter into the wants of all alike, and they are also most important to the financial credit of the Govern ment. Those staples will never be produced as in the past until real peace, resting, as it can alone rest, on the equal and uniform operation of the Constitution and laws on all, is attained. To suppose that a brave and sensitive people will give an undivided attention to the increase of mere material wealth while retained in a state of political inferiority and degradation is mere folly. They desire to be again in the Union, to enjoy the benefits of the Constitution, and they invoke you to receive them. They have adopted constitutions free from any intrinsic objection, and have agreed to every stipulation thought by

President to be necessary for the protection | To force negro suffrage upon any State by means benefit of all, and in the opinion of the un- of a penalty of a loss of part of its representaigned they are amply sufficient. Why ex- tion, will not only be to impose a disparaging as a preliminary condition to representa- condition, but virtually to interfere with the more? What more are supposed to be clear right of each State to regulate suffrage for essary? First, the repudiation of the rebel itself, without the control of the Government of t; second, the denial of all obligation to pay the United States. Whether that control be exmanumitted slaves; third, the inviolability erted directly or indirectly, it will be considered, ur own debt. If these provisions are deemed as it is, a fatal blow to the right which every essary, they cannot be defeated, if the South State in the past has held vital, the right to e disposed to defeat them, by the admission regulate her franchise. Congress of their representatives. Nothing ore probable, in the opinion of the undered, than that many of the southern States ld adopt them all; but those measures the mittee connect with others which we think people of the South will never adopt. They asked to disfranchise a numerous class of their ens, and also to agree to diminish their repntation in Congress, and of course in the elec1 college, or to admit to the right of suffrage r colored males of twenty-one years of age upwards, (a class now in a condition of ost utter ignorance,) thus placing them on same political footing with white citizens of age. For reasons so obvious that the dullest discover them, the right is not directly ased of granting suffrage to the negro. That ild be obnoxious to most of the Northern and stern States, so much so that their consent not to be anticipated; but as the plan adoptbecause of the limited number of negroes in h States, will have no effect on their represent>n, it is thought it may be adopted, while in southern States it will materially lessen their nber. That these latter States will assent to measure can hardly be expected. The effect, n, if not the purpose, of the measure is forever eny representatives to such States, or, if they sent to the condition, to weaken their repretative power, and thus, probably, secure a tinuance of such a party in power as now trol the legislation of the Government. The sure, in its terms and its effect, whether deed or not, is to degrade the southern States. consent to it will be to consent to their own

To punish a State for not regulating it in a particular way, so as to give to all classes of the people the privilege of suffrage, is but seeking to accomplish incidentally what, if it should be done at all, should be done directly. No reason, in the view of the undersigned, can be suggested for the course adopted, other than a belief that such a direct interference would not be sanctioned by the northern and western States, while, as regards such States, the actual recommendation, because of the small proportion of negroes within their limits, will not in the least lessen their representative power in Congress or their influence in the presidential election, and they may therefore sanction it. This very inequality in its operation upon the States renders the measure, in our opinion, most unjust, and, looking to the peace and quiet of the country, most impolitic. But the mode advised is also not only without but against all precedent. When the Constitution was adopted it was thought to be defective in not sufficiently protecting certain rights of the States and the people. With the view of supplying a remedy for this defect, on the 4th March, 1789, various amendments by a resolution constitutionally passed by Congress were submitted for ratification to the States. They were twelve in number. Several of them were even less independent of each other than are those recommended by the committee. But it did not occur to the men of that day that it was right to force the States to adopt or reject all. Each was, therefore, presented as a separate article. The language of the resolution was, "that the following articles be proposed to the legislatures of the 'he manner, too, of presenting the proposed several States as amendments of the Constitution stitutional amendment, in the opinion of the of the United States, ALL OR ANY OF WHICH lersigned, is impolitic and without precedent. ARTICLES, when ratified by three-fourths of the several amendments suggested have no con- said legislatures, to be valid to all intents and tion with each other; each, if adopted, would purposes as parts of the Constitution. The Conre its appropriate effect if the others were re-gress of that day was willing to obtain either ed; and each, therefore, should be submitted of the submitted amendments-to get a part, if separate article, without subjecting it to the tingency of rejection if the States should refuse atify the rest. Each by itself, if an advisameasure, should be submitted to the people, I not in such a connection with those which y may think unnecessary or dangerous as to ce them to reject all. The repudiation of the el debt, and all obligation to compensate for loss of slave property, and the inviolability he debts of the Government, no matter how tracted, provided for by some of the sections the amendment, we repeat, we believe would et the approval of many of the southern tes; but these no State can sanction without ctioning others, which we think will not be ne by them or by some of the northern States.

ionor.

not able to procure the whole. They thought
(and in that we submit they but conformed to
the letter and spirit of the amendatory clause of
the Constitution,) that the people have the right
to pass severally on any proposed amendments.
This course of our fathers is now departed from,
and the result will probably be that no one of
the suggested amendments, though some may be
approved, will be ratified.
This will certainly
be the result, unless the States are willing practi-
cally to relinquish the right they have always
enjoyed, never before questioned by any recog-
nized statesman, and all-important to their in-
terest and security-the right to regulate the
franchise in all their elections.

There are, too, some general considerations

that bear on the subject, to which we will now | proclamations of amnesty issued by Mr. Lincoln

refer.

and his successor under the authority of Congress are also inconsistent with the idea that the parties included within them are not to be held. in the future, restored to all rights belonging to them as citizens of their respective States. A power to pardon is a power to restore the offender to the condition in which he was before the date of the offence pardoned.

First. One of the resolutions of the Chicago convention, by which Mr. Lincoln was first nominated for the presidency, says, "that the maintenance inviolate of the rights of the States is essential to the balance of power on which the prosperity and endurance of our political fabric depend." In his inaugural address of 4th March, 1861, which received the almost universal appro- It is now settled that a pardon removes not val of the people, among other things he said, only the punishment, but all the legal disabili "no State of its own mere motion can lawfully ties consequent on the crime. (7 Bac. Ab. Tit. get out of the Union;" and that "in view of the Par.) Bishop on Criminal Law (vol. 1, p. 713) Constitution and the laws, the Union is un-states the same doctrine. The amnesties so debroken, and to the extent of my ability I shall clared would be but false pretences if they were, take care, as the Constitution itself expressly en- as now held, to leave the parties who have joins upon me, that the laws of the Union be availed themselves of them in almost every parfaithfully executed in all the States." ticular in the condition they would have been in if they had rejected them. Such a result, it is submitted, would be a foul blot on the good name of the nation. Upon the whole, therefore, in the present state of the country, the excite ment which exists, and which may mislead legislatures already elected, we think that the matured sense of the people is not likely to be ascertained on the subject of the proposed amendment by its submission to existing State legislatures. If it should be done at all, the submission should either be to legislatures hereafter to be elected, or to conventions of the people chosen for the purpose. Congress may select either mode, but they have selected neither. It may be submitted to legislatures already in existence, whose members were heretofore elected with no view to the consideration of such a measure; and it may consequently be adopted, though a majority of the people of the States disapprove of it. In this respect, if there were no other objections to it, we think it most objectionable.

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Second. Actual conflict soon afterwards ensued. The South, it was believed, misapprehended the purpose of the Government in carrying it on, and Congress deemed it imporant to dispel that misapprehension by declaring what the purpose was. This was done in July, 1861, by their passing the following resolution, offered by Mr. Crittenden : 'That in this national emergency, Congress, banishing all feeling of mere passion or resentment, will recollect only its duty to the whole country; that this war is not waged, upon our part, in any spirit of oppression, nor for any purpose of conquest or subjugation, nor purpose of overthrowing or interfering with the rights or established institutions of those States, but to defend and maintain the supremacy of the Constitution, and to preserve the Union, with all the dignity, equality, and rights of the several States unimpaired; that as soon as these objects are accomplished, the war ought to cease.' The vote in the House was 119 for and 2 against it, and in the Senate 30 for and 5 against it. The design to conquer or subjugate, or to curtail or interfere in any way with the rights of the States, is in the strongest terms thus disclaimed, and the only avowed object asserted to be "to defend and maintain the spirit of the Constitution, and to preserve the Union, AND THE DIGNITY, EQUALITY, AND RIGHTS OF THE SEVERAL STATES UNIMPAIRED. Congress, too, by the act of 13th July, 1861, empowered the President to declare, by proclamation, "that the inhabitants of such State or States where the insurrection existed are in a state of insurrection against the United States," and thereupon to declare that "all commercial intercourse by and between the same, by the citizens thereof and the citizens of the United States, shall cease and be unlawful so long as such condition of hostility shall continue." Here, also, Congress evidently deals with the States as being in the Union and to remain in the Union. It seeks to keep them in by forbidding commercial intercourse between their citizens and the citizens of the other States so long, and so long only, as insurrectionary hostility shall continue. That ended, they are to be, as at first, entitled to the same intercourse with citizens of other States that they enjoyed before the insurrection. In other words, in this act, as in the resolution of the same month, the dignity, equality, and rights of such States (the insurrection ended) were not to be held in any respect impaired. The several

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Whether regard be had to the nature or the terms of the Constitution, or to the legislation of Congress during the insurrection, or to the course of the judicial department, or to the conduct of the executive, the undersigned confidently submit that the southern States are States in the Union, and entitled to every right and privilege belonging to the other States. If any portion of their citizens be disloyal, or are not able to take any oath of office that has been or may be constitutionally prescribed, is a question irrespective of the right of the States to be represented. Against the danger, whatever that may be, of the admission of disloyal or disqualified members into the Senate or House, it is in the power of each branch to provide against by refusing such admission. Each by the Constitution is made the judge of the election returns and qualifications of its own members. No other department can interfere with it. Its decision concludes all others. The only correc tive, when error is committed, consists in the responsibility of the members to the people. But it is believed by the undersigned to be the clear duty of each house to admit any Senator or Representative who has been elected according to the constitutional laws of the State, and who is able and willing to subscribe the oath required by constitutional law.

It is conceded by the majority that "it would

of time; while its opposite cannot fail to keep us divided, injuriously affect the particular and general welfare of citizen and Government, and, if long persisted in, result in danger to the nation. In the words of an eminent British whig statesman, now no more, "A free constitution and large exclusions from its benefit cannot subsist together; the constitution will destroy them, or they will destroy the constitution." It is hoped that, heeding the warning, we will guard against the peril by removing its cause.

The undersigned have not thought it neces

ndoubtedly be competent for Congress to waive Il formalities, and to admit those Confederate tates at once, trusting that time and experience ould set all things right." It is not, therefore, wing to a want of constitutional power that it not done. It is not because such States are ot States with republican forms of government. 'he exclusion must therefore rest on consideraons of safety or of expediency alone. The first, hat of safety, we have already considered, and, s we think, proved it to be without foundation. s there any ground for the latter expediency? We think not. On the contrary, in our judg-sary to examine into the legality of the measures lent, their admission is called for by the clearest xpediency. Those States include a territorial rea of 850,000 square miles, an area larger than hat of ve of the leading nations of Europe. 'hey have a coast line of 3,000 miles, with an nternal water line, including the Mississippi, of bout 36,000 miles. Their agricultural products n 1850 were about $560,000,000 in value, and heir population 9,664,656. Their staple proluctions are of immense and growing importance nd are almost peculiar to that region. That the North is deeply interested in having such a ountry and people restored to all the rights and rivileges that the Constitution affords no sane nan, not blinded by mere party considerations, or not a victim of disordering prejudice, can for moment doubt. Such a restoration is also necessary to the peace of the country. It is not only mportant but vital to the potential wealth of which that section of our country is capable, that cannot otherwise be fully developed. Every hour of illegal political restraint, every hour the possession of the rights the Constitution gives is denied, is not only in a political but a material sense of great injury to the North as well as to the South. The southern planter works for his northern brethren as well as for himself. His labors heretofore inured as much if not more to their advantage than to his. Whilst harmony in the past between the sections gave to the whole a prosperity, a power, and a renown of which every citizen had reason to be proud, the restoration of such harmony will immeasurably increase them all. Can it, will it be restored as long as the South is kept in political and dishonoring bondage? and can it not, will it not be restored by an opposite policy? By admitting her to all the rights of the Constitution, and by dealing with her citizens as equals and as brothers, not as inferiors and enemies, such a course as this will, we are certain, soon be seen to bind them heart and soul to the Union, and inspire them with confidence in its government, by making them feel that all enmity is forgotten, and that justice is being done to them... The result of such a policy, we believe, will at once make us in truth one people, as happy, as prosperous, and as powerful as ever existed in the tide

very

adopted, either by the late or the present President, for the restoration of the southern States. It is sufficient for their purpose to say that, if those of President Johnson were not justified by the Constitution, the same may at least be said of those of his predecessor. We deem such an examination to be unnecessary, because, however it might result, the people of the several States who possessed, as we have before said, the exclusive right to decide for themselves what constitutions they should adopt, have adopted those under which they respectively live. The motives of neither President, however, whether the measures were legal or not, are liable to censure. The sole object of each was to effect a complete and early union of all the States; to make the General Government, as it did at first, embrace all, and to extend its authority and secure its privileges and blessings to all alike. The purity of motive of President Johnson in this particular, as was to have been expected, is admitted by the majority of the committee to be beyond doubt; for, whatever was their opinion of the unconstitutionality of his course, and its tendency to enlarge the executive power, they tell us that they "do not for a moment impute to him any such design, but cheerfully concede to him the most patriotic motives." And we cannot forbear to say, in conclusion, upon that point, that he sins against light, and closes his eyes to the course of the President during the rebellion, from its inception to its close, who ventures to impeach his patriotism. Surrounded by insurrectionists, he stood firm. His life was almost constantly in peril, and he clung to the Union, and discharged all the obligations it imposed upon him, even the closer because of the peril. And now that he has escaped unharmed, and by the confidence of the people has had devolved upon him the executive functions of the Government, to charge him with disloyalty is either a folly or a slander: folly in the fool who believes it; slander in the man of sense, if any such there be, who utters it.

REVERDY JOHNSON,
A. J. ROGERS,
HENRY GRIDER.

VIII.

VOTES ON PROPOSED CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS.

The Constitutional Amendment, as Finally | tion or rebellion against the same, or given aid Adopted and Submitted to the Legislatures or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Con of the States. gress may, by a vote of two-thirds of each house, remove such disability.

IN SENATE.

1866, June 8-The Amendment in these words, as finally amended, was brought to a vote: Joint resolution proposing an amendment to the

Constitution of the United States.

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, (two-thirds of both Houses concurring,) That the following article be proposed to the legislatures of the several States as an amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which, when ratified by threefourths of said legislatures, shall be valid as part of the Constitution, namely:

ARTICLE 14.

SEC. 4. The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection ther the United States nor any State shall as or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But nei sume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emanci pation of any slave; but all such debts, obliga. tions and claims shall be held illegal and void.

SEC. 5. The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions

of this article.

It passed-yeas 33, nays 11, as follow: SECTION 1. All persons born or naturalized in YEAS-Messrs. Anthony, Chandler, Clark, Conness, Cra the United States, and subject to the jurisdic-Henderson, Howard, Howe, Kirkwood. Lane of Kansas, Lane gin, Creswell, Edmunds, Fessenden, Foster, Grimes, Harris, tion thereof, are citizens of the United States of Indiana, Morgan, Morrill, Nye, Poland, Pomeroy, Ramand of the State wherein they reside. No State sey, Sherman, Sprague, Stewart, Sumner, Trumbull, Wade, shall make or enforce any law which shall Willey, Williams, Wilson, Yates-33. abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law, nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

NAYS-Messrs. Cowan, Davis, Doolittle, Guthrie, Hen

dricks, Johnson, McDougall, Norton, Riddle, Saulsbury, Van Winkle-11.

Wright-5.

ABSENT-Messrs. Brown, Buckalew, Dixon, Nesmith,
IN HOUSE.
June 13—The Amendment passed—yeas 138,
nays 36, as follow:

YEAS-Messrs. Alley, Allison, Ames, Anderson, Delos R
Ashley, James M. Ashley, Baker, Baldwin, Banks, Barker,
Baxter, Beaman, Benjamin, Bidwell, Bingham, Blaine, Blow,
Boutwell, Brandegee, Bromwell, Broomall, Buckland, Bun

SEC. 2. Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any elec-dy, Reader W. Clarke, Sidney Clarke, Cobb, Conkling, Cook, tion for the choice of electors for President and Dixon, Dodge, Donnelly, Driggs, Dumont, Eckley, Eggleston, Cullom, Darling, Davis, Dawes, Defrees, Delano, Deming Vice-President of the United States, representa- Eliot, Farnsworth, Farquhar, Ferry, Garfield, Grinnell, Gristives in Congress, the executive and judicial wold, Hale, Abner C. Harding, Hart, Hayes, Henderson, Ilig officers of a State, or the members of the legis- D. Hubbard, Demas Hubbard, jr., John H. Hubbard, James R by, Holmes, Hooper, Hotchkiss, Asahel W. Hubbard, Chester lature thereof, is denied to any of the male in- Hubbell, Hulburd, Ingersoll, Jenckes, Julian, Kasson, Kelhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years ley, Kelso, Ketcham, Kuykendall, Laflin, Latham, George of age, and citizens of the United States, or in V. Lawrence, William Lawrence, Loan, Longyear, Lynch, Marston, Marvin, McClurg, McKee, McRuer, Mercur, Miller, any way abridged, except for participation in Moorhead, Morrill, Morris, Moulton, Myers, Newell, O'Neill, rebellion or other crime, the basis of representa-Orth, Paine, Patterson, Perham, Phelps, Pike, Plants, Pome tion therein shall be reduced in the proportion Rice, John H. Rice, Rollins, Sawyer, Schenck, Scofield, roy, Price, William H. Randall, Raymond, Alexander H. which the number of such male citizens shall Shellabarger, Sloan, Smith, Spalding, Stevens, Stillwell, bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-Thayer, Francis Thomas, John L. Thomas, Trowbridge, Upone years of age in such State.

SEC. 3. 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 insurrec

SOD, Van Aernam, Burt Van Horn, Robert T. Van Horn, Ward, Warner, Ellihu B. Washburne, Henry D. Washburn, William B. Washburn, Welker, Wentworth, Whaley, Williams, James F. Wilson, Stephen F. Wilson, Windom, Woodbridge, the Speaker-138.

NAYS-Messrs. Ancona, Bergen, Boyer, Chanler, Coffroth, Dawson, Denison, Eldridge, Finck, Glossbrenner, Grider, Aaron Harding, Hogan, Edwin N. Hubbell, James M. Hum phrey, Johnson, Kerr, Le Blond, Marshall, McCullough, Niblack, Nicholson, Radford, Samuel J. Randall, Ritter, Rogers, Ross, Shanklin, Sitgreaves, Strouse, Taber, Taylor, Thornton, Trimble, Winfield, Wright-36.

James Humphrey, Jones, McIndoe, Noell, Rousseau, Starr10.

NOT VOTING Messrs. Culver, Goodyear, Harris, Hill,

102

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