Mr. COWAN. Then, Mr. President, I have to say that this resolution of the Senate, offered by me as an amendment, bein a substitute not for a JtResolution of bot I Houses, but a substitute for what is a concurrent resolution, and upon a subject matter which is pecu' liarly and exclusively within the control of the Senate according to the Constitution and laws, ought to be sustained. I agree that if this were aJtResolution, it it were in its nature a law to provide for some previous deficiency in the law, not exactly a statute, but something amendable and curable by a JtResolution, then my amendment would not be in order; butas this is an attempt on the part of the 2 Houses to' do that which is peculiarly within their own province separately to be done, and to do that by means of concurrent action, I have a right to amend by appealing to the senate to resume its separate functions, and declare in short what it intends to do by its own separate resolution. Where is the objection to this? What do Senators desire, what do the want? Certainly it cannot be presumed that they desire any political advantages in this matter? It cannot be presumed that there is any trick or politieal advantage to be derived from this. hey are not aiming at that. The real actual matter in hand, the subject in issue here is, whether the Representatives from Tennessee shall be admit;‘te upon this floor and upon the floor of the tothpr House. That is the whole of it, admit. ted to be. If we are to admit those Senators, let us say so. If the other House wants to admit Representatives, let them say so. Where is the necessity of raising the question as to whether Congress is supreme over this matter, or whether the President is supreme, or whether the judiciary is supreme? In truth and in fact the 3 branches of this Government are coordinate, equal, neither of them is supreme. The relations between the State of Tennessee and the General government, so far as the Executive is concerned, have been restored long ago, perfectly restored. Your JtResolution has not a thing to operate upon in that behalf. You have gone on and you have treated Tennessee pre cisely as you have treated all the other States in the Union so far as the executive dept of this government is concerned. Have you not been appointingassessorsund collectors of internalrevenue, and all other officers for that State, and confirming them here in the Senate as well as rejecting? Then the next question is, whether relations are restored with the judiciary of the country. Is it not well known that the Supreme Court opened their docket and took up cases from the rebellious States? I believe one from Tennessee; I am not so certain of that, but it is very certain if a case had come there from Tennessee or if a citizen of Tennessee had sued in a U.S. court a citizen of another State he would have been entitled to be heard, and that court would have opened its doors to administer justice to him. The only branch of the Government which has not recognized these States and their rela lations to the General Governmentis Congress. The Constitution declares that each House shall be the judge of the elections, returns, and qualfications of its own members. Therefore it is {withthe Senate to restore those relations with Tennessee which ought to exist between the Senate and that State; and it may well happen that Tennessee is entitled to Senators upon this floor when she may not be entitled to Rep e sentatives upon the floor of the House, out it‘ I might well nppen that she would be entitled to representation upon the floor of the House when she would not be entitled to representation here. The representatives to the lower House might be we] elected, whereas the lie gislature which elected the Senators might not be the true Legislature of the State. But as the sense of the Senate today has been repeatedly declared, and by repeated votes, that Tennessee now has a government and that she now has a Legislature, and that she is entitled to representation upon this floor, why not treat the matter as it has always been treated; why not meet it squarely an fairly and en that [Messrs Fowler and Patterson are entitled to t qualify and take their seats upon this floor as t to representatives of Tennessee, and avoid all this contriving and all this artifice, which, after all, amounts to nothing? It will not make a point for anybody in the end, because the people are not to be deceived by this kind of may neuvering and it will not make/the position of one or the other parties stronger in the least by adopting anythinglike these amendments, these preambles, and allegations which have been put already into the resolution. By this course you will avoid another difficulty. You propose to have the Executive concur in this. He may makea very good point on you there if it hap ens that your resolution is a resolution with which he has nothing to do and upon which his aproval or disapproval would have no effect. how are you gom to answer to the country when he says “ I have nothing to do with this; you can do all this as well without me as with me. Mya proval one way will make no difference.” 0 tells you further, “I wanted you to do this 6, 7 or 8 months ago." I say that Senators had better hesitate and take the direct course in stead of this roundabout way. I am delighted with the proceedings today. Although tardy, I am Willing to take it as an abandonment of the ground taken by the majority from the beginning of the session a total and entire abandonment. When we went into session on the 1st of December, what was the allegation ‘2 The allegation was that a committee of reconstruction must be appointed to inquire into what? To inquire into the condition of the people of the rebellious States and to ascertain whether they were entitled to representation upon the floor of either House. That committee sat and took testimony and reported distinctly against the affirmative side of the proposition, or in other words, that committee reported