Mr. THAYER. I must ask the gentleman to excuse me, as my time has nearly expired. I have but a moment left, and I wish to explain to the House the object of my amendment. I was about saying when I was up before, that I have a repugnance to the passage of a law the sole object and purport of which is to construe an article of the Constitution of the U.S. In my judgment, a law which is to enforce a particular construction of the constitution of the U.S. should assume that that construction is not only the just and true construction, but the only construction in a word, that the evil intended to be prevented by the proposed law is already prohibited by the Constitution. We do not sit here, sir, to enact general views in regard to what may or may not be the proper and legal construction of the Constitution of the U.S. Nor would it be of any use to do so, for the evil would, notwithstanding our general abstractions, remain unpunished and unredressed. Now, sir, I propose as a substitute for the several declarations contained in the resolution of the Gentfrom Ohio a law to enforce the Constitution of the U.S.; a lawmaking those monstrous cruelties which are already plainly unconstitutional, and the perpetration of which is a violation of the dearest rights of citizenship, a crime punishable as a felony. I propose to rear an effectual safeguard in the future against these atrocious violations of the 13th article of the Constitution. Let us punish the offense; in that way we shall abolish it. The courts of the U.S and the officers of the U.S. must be charged with the duty of enforcing the Constitution in this respect in their several jurisdictions, and those who violate the Constitution and inso lently trample upon the rights and immunities which are guarantied by it to the humblest citizen who dwells beneath its protecting shelter must be made, by adequate laws, to feel its power in the condign punishment which it can inflict. I propose, therefore, to strike out the pending resolution, leaving the preamble to stand as it is, and to substitute in the place of the resolution a lawmaking this offense a felony against the U.S., and punishable in the manner specified in my amendment.