U u
1 1
V - r
. : f ,
BY S. J JtOW.
CLEARFIELD, PA., WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 1868.
VOL. 14.-AT0. 24.
: ill i?a- e w. w fi isi w izn,m-
THE ISSUE!
SEUATOS MOETON'S GEEAT SPELCH.
' Delivered January 24, 1868.
Mr. President, if I had not been referred
to by my honorable friend from Wisconsin
Mr. Doolittle) in the debate yesterday, I
should not desire to .speak 011 this question,
especially at this time. 1 fear that I shall
not have the strength to say what I wish to.
The issue here to-day is' the same which
Erevails throughout the country, which will
e the issue of this canvass, and perhaps for
years to come. To repeat what 1 have had
occasion to say elsewhere, it is between two
paramount ideas, each struggling tor the su
premacy. One is, that the war to suppress
the rebellion was right and just on our part ;
that the rebels forfeited their civil and po
litical rights.and can only be restored to them
upon such conditions as the nation may pre
scribe for it future safety and prosperity.
The other idea is, that the rebellion was not
sinful, but was-vight ; that those engaged in
it forfeited no rights, civil or political, and
have a right to take charge of their State
governments and be restored to their repre
sentation in Congress just as if there had
been no rebellion and nothing had occurred.
The immediate issue before the Senate now
is between the existing State governments
established under the policy of the President
of the United States in the rebel States and
the plan of reconstruction presented by Con
gress. '
When a surveyor first enters a new territory
lie endeavors to ascertain the exact latitude
and longitude of a given spot, and from that
an safely begin his survey ; and so I will
endeavor lo ascertain a proposition in this
debate upon which parties are agreed, and
start from that proposition. That- proposi
tion is, that at the end of the war, in the
spring of I860, the rebel States were without
State governments of any kind. The loyal
State-governments existing at the beginning
of the war had been ovei turned by the reb
els; the rebel State governments erected
daring the war had been overturned by our
armies, aud at the end of the war there were
no governments of any kind existing in those
States. This fact was recognized distinctly
by the President of the United States in his
proclamation under which the work of re
construction was commenced in North Caro
lina in 1865, to which I beg leave to refer.
The others wete mere copies of thus procla
luatiou. In that proclamation he says :
-'And whereas, the rebellion which has been
waged by a portion of the people of the United
States against the properly constituted authori
ties of the Government thereof, in the most vio
lent and revolting form, but whose organized and
armed forces have now been almost entirely over
come, has in its revolutionary progress deprived
the people of the State of North Carolina of all
civil government." - ;
Here the President must be allowed to
speak for his party,and I shall accept this as a
proposition agreed upon on both tides : that
at the end of the war there were no govern
ments of any kind existing in those States.
'ihe fourth section of the fou: th art icle of the
Constitution declares that "the UuitedStates
i-hall guarauty to every State iu this Union a
republican form of government." This pro
vision contains a vast, undefined power that
has never yet been ascertained-a great super-'
visory "power given the United States to keep
the States in theirorbits, preserve them from
anarchy, revolution, a fid rebellion. The meas
ure of power thus conferred upon the Gov
ernment of the United States can only be
determined by that which is requisite to
guaranty or maintain in each State a legal
and republican form of government. What
ever power, therefore, may be necessary to
enable the Government of the UuitedStates
thus to maintain in each State a republicau
irm of government is conveyed by this pro
vision. "' ;
Now, Mr. President, when the war ended
and these States were found without govern
ments of any kind, the jurisdiction of the
United States, under this provision of the
Constitution at once attached ; the power to
reorganize State governments, to use the
common word, to reconstruct, to maintain
and guaranty republican State governments
in those Slates, at once attached under this
j revision. Upon this proposition there is
a!o a concurrence of the two parties. Tha
President has distinctly' recognized the
fart that its jurisdiction'attached when those
States were found without republican State
Governments, and he himself claimed to act.
under this clause of the Constitution. I
will read the preamble of the President's
proclamation : .
' Whereas, the fourth section of the fourth arti
cle of the Constitution of the United States de
clares that the United States shall guarantee to
fery State in the Union a republican form of
'jvernment, and shall protect each of them against
iomiun and domestic violence ; and whereas the
President of the United States is, by the Constitu
tion, made Commander-ln chief of the Army and
-Navy as well at chief civil executive officer ot the
United States, and Is bound by solemn oath faith
fully to execute the office of President of the Uni
ted States, and to take care that the laws , be
faithfully executed ; and whereas,. the rebellion
Mch has been waged by a portion of the people
f the Lnited Stateagainst the properly consti
tuted authorities of the Government thereof in
the most violent and revolting form, but whose
organized nnd armed forces have now been al
0iX entirely overcome, ha in its revolutionary
progress deprived the people of tbe State of North
Carolina of all civil government ;. and whereas,
't becomes necessary and proper to carry out and
etiforoe the obligations of the United states to the
People of North Carolina in securing them in the
"j'jyment of a republican form of government.
I read this, Mr. President, for the purpose
lowing that the President of the United
tates.in his policy of reconstruction, started
it with a distinct recognition of the appli
cability of this clause of the Constitution,
and that he based his system of reconstruc
tion upon it. It is true he recites in this
proclamation that he is the Commander-in-chief
of the Army of the United States ; but
at the same time he puta his plan of recon
struction, not upon the exercise of the mil
1Ul7 power which is called to its aid, but on
the execution of the guarantee provided by 1
I tbe clause of the Constitution to which I have :
referred. He appoints a Governor for North ;
Carolina aud for these other States, the of- I
fice being civil in its character, but military j
in its effects. This Governor has all the !
power of one of the district commanders, j
and, in fact, far greater power than was con- '.
ferred upon Gen. Pope or Gen. Sheridan or
any general in command of a district ; for it ;
is further provided :
"That the military commander of the depart
ment, and all the officers and persons in the luili- i
tary and naval set vice, aid and assist the said i
provisional Governor in carrying into effect this
proclamation."
We are then agreed upon the second prop
osition, that the power of the United States
to reconstruct and guarantee lepub'.ican forms
of government at once applied when these
States were found in the condition in which
they were at the end of the war. Then, sir,
being agreed upon these two propositions,
we are brought to the question as to the
proper form of exercising this power and ly
whom it shall be exercised. The Constitu
tion says that "the United States bhali guar
antee to every State in this Union a republi
can form of .government." IJy the phrase
"United States" here is meant the Govern
ment of the United States. The United
States can only act through the Government,
and the clause would, mean precisely the
same thing if it read "the Government of
the United States shall guarantee to every
State in this Union a republican lorm of
government.'''
Then, as the Government of the United
States is to execute this guarantee, the ques
tion arises, what constitutes the Government
of the United States? The President does
not constitute the Gavcrnuienr. ; the Con
gress does not constitute the Government ;
the judiciary does not constitute the Gov
ernment ; but all three together constitute
the Government ; and as this guaranty is to
be executed by the Government of the Uni
ted States, it follows necessarily that it must
be a legislative act. Tbe President could
not assume to execute the guarantee without
assuming that he was the Unite! States
within the meaning of that provision, with
out assuming that he was the Government
of the United States. Congre-1 could not
of itself assume to execute the guarantee
without assuming that it was the Govern
ment of th UuitedStates; nor could the
judiciary without a like assumption. Tin?
act must be (he act o the (jovernment, ami
therefore it must be a legislative act, a law
passed by Congress, submitted lo the Presi
dent for his approval, and perhaps, in im
proper case, subject to be reviewed by the
judiciary.
Mr. President, that this is necessarily the
case from the simple reading of the Consti
tution seems tome cannot bo for a moment
denied. The President, in assuming to ex
ecute this guarantee hiniseif, is assuming to
be the Government of (he United Stales,
which he dearly- is not, but only one of its
co-ordinate branches ; and. therefore, as this
guarantee must be a legislative act.it fol
lows that the attempt on the p.irt of the
President to execute the guarantee was with
out authority, and that the guarantee can
only be executed in the form of a law, first
to be passed by Congress and then to be sub
mitted to the President for his approval, and
if he does not approve it then to he Dao 1
over his head by a .piujority of twr-thirds in
each House. That law, then, bocomes the
execution of the guarantee and is the act of j
the Government of the United Slates.
Mr. President, this is not an open qnes- j
tion. I send to the Secretary anJ. ask him ,
to read a part of rhe decision of the Supreme
Court of tho Urited States in the case of.
Luther vs. Borden, as reported in 7 Howard.
The Secretary read as follows :
'.Moreover.the Constitution of the United St.ite
as far as it has provided for an emergency of this
kind, and authorized the General Governm nt to
interfere- in tbe domestic concerns of a State, has
treated the subject as political in its na ure and
placed the power in the hands of that department.
"The fourth section of tbe fourth article of tbe i
Constitution of the United States provides that
the United States shall guarantee to every State in :
the Union a republican form of government, and '
shall protect each of them against invasions ; and ,
upon tho application of the Legislature or of the ,
executive (wben the Legislature cannot be con
vened) against domestic vio ence.
'Under this article ot the Constitution it rests
with Congress to decide what government is the
established one in a State, For as the United
States guarantees to each State a republican gov- J
eminent, Congress mvst necessarily decide wnat !
government is established in the State before it j
can determine whether it is republican or not. i
And when tbe Senators and Representatives of a
State are admitted into the councils of the Union
the authority of the government under which
they are appointed, as well as its republican char-
acter. is. recognized by the proper constitutional
authority. And itsdecision is bindinz upon every
other department of the Government, and could i
not be questioned in a judicial tribunal. . Iis true
that the contest in this case did not' last long ,
enough to bring the matter to this ifsue; and as
no SenatorsorKapresentatives wereelected under
the authority of the Government of which Mr :
Dorr was the head, Congress was not cailed upon
to decide the controversy. Yet the right to decide
is placed there, and not in the courts." .' j
Mr. Morton. In this opinion of the Su- j
prcme Court of the United States, delivered ;
many years ago, the right to execute the
guarantee provided for in this clause of the j
Constitution is placed in Congress and no-f
where else, and therefore the necessary read- j
ing of the Constitution is confirmed by the -highest
judicial authority which we have. j
Mr. Johnson. Do you read from the o- ;
pinion delivered by the Chief Justice?
Mr. Morton. Yes,- sir ; the opinion of.
Chief Justice Taney. He decides that this
power is not judicial; that it is one of the
nigh powers conferred upon Congress ; that j
it is not subject to be reviewed by the Su- i
preme Court, because it is political in its na-!
ture. It is a distinct enunciation of the fact i
that this guarantee is net to oe executed by ;
the President, or by the Supreme Court, but '
by the Congress of the United States, j" the
form of a law to be passed by that body anil
to be submitted to tne President for his ip- J
proval ;' and should he disapprove it, it may
become a law by being passed by a two-thirds
majority over Lis head.
Now, I will cad theattenliou of myfriend
from Wisconsin to some other authority. As
ry-
lie
been
pieasnd to refer to a
former
s
speech of mine to show that lam not quite
consistent.,! wiil refer to a vote given bv him
CO
in iG4 on a very important provision. On
the 1st of July, 1804, the Senate having uu
der consideration, as in Committee of the
whole, "a bill to guarantee to certain States
whose governments have been usurped or
overthrown a republican form of govern
ment," Mr. Jirown, ot Missouri, offered an
amendment to strike out all of the bill after
the enacting clauseand to insert a substitute,
which I will ak the Secretary to read.
The Secretary read as follows :
"That when the inhabitants ofany State have
been declared in a state of insurrection against
the United States by proclamation of the Presi
dent, by force and virtueof th act entitled 'an
act further to provide lor the collect ion of duties
on imports,and for other purposes.' approved July
13. Ihtil, they shull be and aro hereby declared to
be incapable of casting any vote for electors of
i'refcidentor Vice President of the United States,
or of electing Senators or Hepresentutives in Con
gress until said insurrection lo t-aid State is sup
pressed or abandoned, and said inhabitants have
returned to their obedience to the Government of
tbe United States, and until such return to obedi
ence shall be declared by proclamation of tbe
President, issued by virtue of . an uct of Congress
hereafter to bo passed, authorizing the same. '
Mr. Morton. The honorable Senator from
Wisconsin voted for that in Committee of
the whole aud on its tinal passage. I call
attcutioa to the amendment, which declares
that tliey shall be
"i ccapuble or casting any vote for electors of
President or Yioe President of the United States
or of electing Seuators or liepf osentatives in Con
gTess until said insurrection in said State is sup
pressed or abandoned, and said inhabitants bave
returned to their obedience to the Government of
tbe United States, and until such return and obe
dience shall be declared by proclamation of the
President, issued by virtue ot an act of Congress
hereafter to be pa.-seJ, authorizing (he same."
Recognizing that a state of war shall be re
garded as continuing until ital.all be declar
ed no longer to exist by the President, in
virtue of an act of Congress to be hereafter
parsed. I am glad to find by looking at the
vote that the distinguished Senator from
Maryland Mr. Johnson 1 voted for this pro
position, and thus recognized the doctriue
for which I am now contending ; that the
power to execute the guarantee invested in
Congres alone, and that it is for Congress
:al-iie to determine the stains and conditioa:
of those States, and that the President , bus
no power to proclaim peace or to declare tho
political condition of those States until he
shall first have, been thereunto authorized
by an act of Congress.
I therefore, Mr. President, take the pro
position as conclusively established, both by
reason and authority, that this clause of the
Constitution can be executed only by Con
cress; and taking that as established, I now
proceed to consider what are the power of
Congrcss in the execution of the guarantee,
how it shall be executed, and what means
maybe employed for that purpose. The
Constitution does not define the means. It
does not say how tho guarantee shall be ex
ecuted. All that is left to the determina
tion of Congress. As to the particalar char
acter of thi iaaans that. must be employed,
that, I take it, wil depend upon the pecu
liar circumstances of each cae : and the ex
tent of the power will depend upon the oth-"
er question a to what may be required for
the purpose of maintaining or guaranteeing a
ioyai republican form of government in
each State. I use the word '"loal," al
though it is not used ih tha Constitution,
because loyal is an inhering qualiSeation,
not only in , regard to persons, who are to
fill public offices, but in regard to State
Governments. and we have no right to recog
nize a State Government that is not loyal to
tha Government of the United States. Now,
st, as to the use of means that are not pre
scribed in the Constitution. I call the atten
tion of the Senate to the eighteenth clause
of", section eihi of the first article of the
Constitution of the United States, which de
clares that :
The Congress shall bave power to make all
laws which shall Vie necessary and proper for
carrying into execution the foregoing powers and
all other powers vested by this Constitution in the
Government ot the L nitod btates or any depart
ment or officer thereof."
Herels a declaration of what would oth
erwise be a .general principle anhow. that
Congress shall have the power to pass all
laws necessary to carry into execution all
powers ihat are vested in the Government
under the Constitution. As Congress has
the power to guarantee or maintain a loyal
republican government in each State, it has
the right to use whatever means may be
necessary for that purpose. As I before re
marked, the character of the means will
depend upon the character of the case. In
one case it may be the use of an army ; in
another case perhaps it may be simply pre
senting a question to the courts,and having
it tested in that way ;; in another case it may
go to the very foundation of the Govern
ment itself. Atid I now propound this propo
sition : that it Congress, after deliberation,
after long and bloody experience, shall come
to the conclusion that loyal republican State
governments cannot be erected and main
tained in the rebel States upon the basis of
the white population, it has a right to raise
up and make voters of a class of men who
had no right to vote under the State laws.
This is simply the use of the necessary
means in the execution of the guarantee. If
we have found after repeated trial that loy
al republican State governments, govern
ments that shall answer the purpose that
such governments are intended to answer,
cannot be successfully founded upou the ba
sis of the white population, because the
great majority of that population are disloy
al, then Congrtj8 has a right to raise up
a new loyal voting population for the pur
pose of establishing these governments in
. of the guarantee. I think,
tne pxeuuLiuu . , .i : : nn
sir, this Drooos
sition us so r
necessary to elaborate it.
j quired to find in the Constitution a particu
lar grant or pover for this purpose ; but we
find a ger t rai grant of power authorizing
us to use whatever means may be necessary
to execute the first; and we find that the
Supreme Court of tke United States has
sail that the judgmeut of Congress upou
the question shall be conclusive, that it can
not !e reviewed by the courts, that it is a.
purely political matter ; and therefore the"
determination of Congress, that raising up
colored men to the right of suffrage "is a
means necessary to the execution of that
power, is a determination which cannot be
reviewed by the courts, and is conclusive
upon the people of the country.
The President of the United States, as
suming that he had the power to exeeutc
this guarantee, and basing his proclamation
upon it, went forward in the work of rccon-stru-.
twin. It ws so announced, if not by
himself, at least formally by tha Secretary
of State, Mr. Seward, that the governments
which ho would erect during the vacation of
-Congress "were to be erected as provisional
oniy, that his plan of reconstruction and the
work that was to be done under it would be
submitttd to Coi. gross for its approval or
disapproval at the next sci-siou. If the
President had adhered to that determination
I believe that ail wou'd have been well, and
that the present state of things would not
exist. Uut, sir, the Executive undertook
finally to execute the guarantee himself
without the cooperation of Congress. He
appointed Provisional Governors, giving to
them unlimited power until such lime as the
new State governments should be elected.
He 'prescribed ui his proclamation who
should exercise tho right of suffrage" iu the
election of delegates. And allow me for one
moment to refer to that. Ife says in his
proclamation :
"No person shall be quallGel as an elector, or
shall he be eligible as a member of such conven
tion unless be shall have previously taken and
subscribed the oath of amnefty as sot forth in the
President's proclamation of May 2U, 18oi "
which was issued -on the same day and was a
part of the same transaction
"Ami is a voter qualified as prescribed by the
Cousiitutiou and laws of the State of North Car
olina in force immediately before the 2uth day of
May, 161."
The persos having the right to vote must
have the right to vote by the laws of the
State, aui must, in addition to that, have
tuketiLthe oath of amnesty. Th President
dif fanchisod in voting tor delegates totlie
conventions from two hundred aud fifty
thou-and to three hundred tiiousand men.
His disfranchisement was far greater than
that which was done by Congress. In the
proclamation of amnesty he says:
'The following elases of persons are excepted
from the benefits of this proclamation"
lie then anuounccd fourteen, classes of er
sons '
'I. All who are or shall have been pretended
civil or diplomatic officers, or. otherwise domestic
or foreign agents, of the -pretended Confederate
Government" . .
"13. All persons who have voluntarily partici
pated in said rebellion, aud the estimated value
of whote taxable property is over twenty thou
sand dollars."
And twelve other classes, estimated to
number at least two hurdredand fifty thou
sand men, while the disfranchisement that
has becu created by Congress docs not ex
tend perhaps tC more than forty-five or fifty
thousand persons, at the furthest. These
provisional governors, undek authority ot
the President, were to call conventions; they
Mi' ore to hold the elections, and they were to
count the votes; they were to exercise all
the powers that are being exercised by the
military commanders under the recoustruc-.
tioa acts of Congress. After these consti
tutions were formed the President went for
ward and accepted them as Lcing loyal and
republicau in their character. He author
ized tin voter's under them to proceed to e-
lect Legislatures, members to Congress, and
Legislatures to elect Senators to take their
seats in this body, in orber words, tho 1
President launched those State governments
into full life and activity without contulta-!
tion with or co-oporatiou on the part of
Longi ess.
Xow,sir,when it is claimed that these gov
ernments are legal, let it be remembered
that they took their origin under a proceed
ing instituted by tne President of the Uni
ted States in the execution of this guaran
tee, when it now stands confessed that he
could uot execute the guarantee. But even
if he had the power, let it be further borne
in mind that those constitutions were form
ed by conventions that were elected by less
thau one third of the white voters in the
States at that time ; that the conventions
thus formed by a small minority even of the
white voters; and that those conventions
thus formed by a very small minority have
never been submitted to the people of the
States for ratification. They are no more the
constitutions of those States to-day than the
Constitutions formed by the conventions now
in session would jbe if we were to proclaim
them to be the Constitutions ot those States
without haviug submitted them to-the peo
ple for ratification. How can it be pretended
tor a moment,even admitting that the Presi
dent had the power to start forward in the
work of reoonstruction, that those State
Governments are legally formed by a small
minority, never ratified by the people, the
people never haviug had a chance to vo'
for them. They stand as mere arbitrary
constitutions, established not by the people
of the States, but simply by force of execu
tive power.
And, sir,if we shall admit those State to
representation on this floor and in the other
House under those constisuttons, when the
thing shall have got beyond our keeping and
they are fully restored to their political rights,
they will then rise up and declare that those
constitutions are not binding upou them,,
that they never made them, and they will
throw them off, and with them will go tho:;
provisions which ; were inecrporated there
in, declaring that slavery should never be re
stored and that their war debt was repudia
ted. Those provisions were put into those
constitutions, but they have never been
sanctioned by the people of those States,
and they wiil cast them out as, not being
their act and deed, as soon as they shall
have been restored to political power in this
Government. Therefore, I say that even if
he concedes that the President had the pow
er, which he has not, tostart forward in the
execution of this guarantee, there can still
be no pretense that those governments are
legal and authoiized aud that we are bouud
to recognize them.
The President of the United States, in his
proclamation,' declared that those govern
ments were to be formed only by the loyal
people of those States; and I beg leavo to
call the attention of the Senate to that e'.anse
in his proclamation of reconstruction. He
says:
"And with authority to exercise, within the
limits of said State, all the powers necessary and
proper to enuble such loyal people of tbe Sta'eof
North Carolina to restore raid State to its con
stitutional relations with the Federal Government.'!
Again speaking of the army :
'And tliey are eijoinod to abstain from in any
way hindering, impnding or discouraging tbe
loyal people from the organization of a Stale gov
ernment as herein authorized."
Now, sir, so far from those State govern
ments having been orgauized by the loyal
people, they are organized by the disloyal;
every oihce passed into the hands of a reb
el, the Union men had lo part or lot in
those governments ; aud so far t rom answer
ing the purpose for which governments are
intended, they failed to extend protection to
the loyal men, either white or black. The
loyal men were murdered with impunity;
and I wiil thank any SeDatorupon this floor
to point to a single case in any of the rebe'
States where a rebel has beeu tried and
brought to punishment by the civil authori
ty for the murder of a Union man. Not one
case I am told can be found. Those govern
ments utterly failed in answering the pur
pose of civil governments ; and not only
that, but they ..returned the colored people
to a condition of quasi slavery ; they made
them the slaves of society instead of being,
as they were before, the slaves of indvidu
als. Under various forms of vagrant laws,
they deprived them of the rights of free
men, and paced them under the power and
control of their rebel masters, who were fill
ed with hatred aud revenge.
.' -But, Mr. Pre'uient, time passed on. Con
gress assembled in December, 1805. For a
time it paused. It did not at once annul
those governments. ' Jt hesitated. At last,
in lSGt, the constitutional amendment, the
fourteenth article, was; brought forward as
a basis of settlement and reconstruction; and
there was a tacit understanding, thougU.it
was not embraced in any law or resolution,,
that if the Southern people should ratify
and agree to that amendment, then their
State governments would be accepted. Cut
that amendment was rejected, contemptu
ously rejected. The Southern people, coun
seled and inspired by the Democracy of the
North, rejected that amendment. They
were told that they were not bound to sub
mit to any conditions whatever; that the
had forfeited no rights by rebellion. Why,
sir, what did we propose by. this amend
ment? By the first section we declared that
all men born upoa our soil are citizens of
the. United States a thing that had long
been recognized by every department of the
Government uutil the I)red Scott decision
was made in 1S57. Th'c second sectiou pro
vided that where a class or race of men were
excluded from the right of suffrage they
should uot be counted in the basis of repre
sentation an obvious justice that uo rea
sonable man tor a moment could deny : that
iffiur million people down South were to
have no suffrage, the" men living iu their
midst ai.d surrounding them, and depriv-"
ing them of all political rights, should not
have members of Congress on their account.
say the justice or the seconJ clause lias
never been successfully impugned by any
argument, I care not how ingenious it may
be. What was tbe third clause? It was
that the leaders of the South, those men
who had once taken au official oath to sup
port the Constitution of the U. States, and
had afterward committed perjury by going
into the rebellion, should be made inelgible
to any ofiiee under the Government of the
United States or of a State. . It was a very
small disfranchisement. It was intended to
withhold power from those leaders by whose
instrumentality we had lost nearly half a
million lives and untold treasure. The jus
tice of that disfranchisement could not bo
disproved. And what was the fourth clause
of the amendment? That this government
should never assume nor pay any, part ot
the rebel debt, that it should never pay the
rebels for their slaves. This was bitterly
opposed in tne North as well is in the South.
How could any man oppose that amendment
unless he was in favoi of this Government
assuming a portion or all of the relnd debt
and iu favor of paying tbe rebels for their
slaves? When the Democratic 'party North
and South opposed that most importantand
perhaps hereaner to be regarded as vital a
mendment they were committing themselves
irr principle, as they had been before by dec
laration, to the doctrine that this Govern
ment was bound to pay for the slaves, and
that it was ju-c and right that wo should as
sume and pay the rebel debt.
This amendment, as I have before said,
was rejected, and when Congress assembled
in December 1866, they were confronted by
the fact that every proposition of compro
mise had been rejected; every hall-way
measure had been spurned by the rebels
themselves, and they had nothing left to do
but to begin the work of reconstruction
themselves; and in February, 1867, Con
gress for the first time entered upon the ex
ecution of the guarantee provided for in the
Constitution by the passage of the recon
struction law. A supplementary bill "was
found necewary in March; another one in
in July, and I believe another is found nec
essary at this time ; but the power is with
Congress. . Whatever it shall deem necessa
ry, whether it be in the way of colored suf
frage, whether it be in the way of military
power whatever Congress shall deem nec
essary in the execution t f this guarantee is
conclusive upon the courts, upon every
State, and upon the people of this nation
Sir, when Congress entered ur on this?
work it had become apparent", to all men
that loytd State governments could not be e
rected and maintained upon the basis of the
white population. We had tried them.
Congress had attempted the work of recon
struction through the constitutional amend
ment by leaving the suffrage with the white
men.and by leaving with the white people of
the South the question as to when the color
ed people-should exercise the right of suff
rage, it ever; but when it was found that
those white men were as rebellious as ever,
that they hated this Government more bit
terly than ever; when it was found that
they persecuted the loyal ueu, both white
and black,in their midst; wheh it was found
that Northern men who had gone down
there were driven out by social tyranny, by
a .thousand annoyances, by the insecurity ot
life and property, then it became apparent
to all men ofintelligenee that reconstruction
could not take place upon the basis of the
white population, and something else must
be none.
Now, sir, what was there left to do ? Eith
er we must bold the.-e people coutiunally bv
military power, or we must use such ma
chincry upon such a uew basis us would en
able loyal republican State governments to
be raised up ; and in the last resort aud I
will say Congress waited long, the nation
waited long, experience had to ro me to the
rescue of reason before the thing was done
in the last resort, and as the last thrng to
be done, Congress determined to dig through
all the rubbish, dig through the soil and
the shifting sands, uud go down to the eter
nal rock, and there, upon the basis of the
everlasting principle of equal and exact jus
tice to all meu, we have planted the column
of reconstruction ; and-sir, it will arise slow
ly but surely, and "the gates ot hell bhall
not prevail against it" Whatever dangers
we apprehend from the introduction of the
right of suffrage of seven hundred thousand
men, just emerged from slavery, were put
aside iu the presence of a greater danger.
Why, sir, let me say -frankly to ray friend
from W ifcoousiu' that 1 approached univer
sal colored suffrage in thy South reluctant
ly. Not because 1 adhered to the rnisera
bie dogma that this was the white man's
Govermuent.but because I entertained fears
about at once entrust ing a la?ge body of men
just from slavery, to whom education had
been denied by law, to whom the marriage
relation had beeu denied, who had been
made the basest and most abject slaves, with
political power. ' And as the Senator has
relerred titja. speech which 1 made in Indi
ana iu ISCo, allow me to bhow the principle
that actuated me, for iu that speech I said ;
'Iu regard to the question . of admittiug the
freed men of tbe Southern States to vote, while I
admit the equal right of all men. and that in time
all men wiil have the right to vote, without dis
tinction of color or race, I yet believe that in the
case of four million of sUves", just freed from
bondage, there should be a period of probation
and preparation before they are brought to tha
exercise of political power."
Such was in feeling at that time, for it
had not theu been determined by the bloody
experience of the last two years that we could
not reconstruct upou the basis of the white
population, and such wa; the opinion of a
great majority of the people of the North ;
and it was not until a year and a half after
that time that Congress came to the conclu
sion that there was no way left but to resort
to colored suffrage to all men except those
who were disqualified by the commission of
high crimes and misdemeanors.
Mr. President, we hear much said in the
course of this debate and through tho press
about the violation or the Constitution. It
is said that in the reoon.-irriiiiou measures
of Congress we have gone outside of the
Constitution, and the remaik of some distin
guished statesman of the Kepublican party
is quoted to that effect.
Sir. if any leading Republican has ever
said so he tqioke only for himself, not for
another. I deny the statement tii tuto. I
insist that these reconstruction measurepare'
as fully within the powers of the Constitu
tion as any legislation that can be had, not;
only by reason, but by authority. And who
are the men that are talking so much about
the violation of. the Constitution, aud who
pretend to be the csjecial friends of that
instrument? The great mass of them only
three years ago were in arms to overturn the
Constitution and establish that of Montgom
ery in its place, or were their northern
friends, who were aiding aud sympathizing
in that undertaking.
I had occasion the other day to speak of
what was described as a constitutional Union
man a man living inside of the Federal
lines during the war, sympathising with the
rebellion, and who endeavored to aid the
rebellion by insisting that every war measure
for the purpose of suppressing it was a vio
lation of the Constitution of the United
States. Now, these men who1 claim to be
ihe especial friends of the Constitution t are
the men who have sought to destroy if by
force of arms,and those throughout the coun
try who haye given them aid aud comfort.
Sir, you will remember that once a cele
brated French woman was being drgged to
the scaffold, and as she passed the statne of
liborty she exclaimed : "How many rt-itnex
have been committed in thy n?me?" and I
can say to the Constitution.how many crimes
against liberty, humanity and progress are
being committed in thy name bv these men
who, while they loved not the Constitution,
and sought its destruction, now, for party
purposes, claim to be its special friends.
My friend from Wisconsin yesterday com
pared : what ho called the Radical party of
the North to, the Radicals of the Southland
eONCLUDpP ON FOURTH P4tK