Mr. ROGERS. I am truly sorry that a committee of this House should consider it right and proper to urge through questions of so grave and momentous importance as this without allowing anybody upon this side of the House to be heard. I say that the only essence of liberty in this country is in having the poeople heard through their representatives the floor of Congress., And every man who has any regard for the right of free speech must see that we upon this side of the House are not allowed and I say it with all due courtesy to gentlemen upon the other side of the House that right to express our sentiments in behalf of 2 millions of voters in this country which we ought to be allowed. No one can expect, that a question involving constitutional principles as this does, one that strikes at the very foundation of our judicial system, that attempts to inaugurate this congress into a judicial body or legislative court, can be fully discussed in the short, paltry time of 8 minutes. gThis.bill undertakes to override the plain laid down in the decision of the SCOTUS in the case of exparte Garland, where the test oath was declared to be unconstitutional upon the lain and simple ground that it inflicted a punishment for past offenses which did not attach to them at the time of their commission. The very object of this bill is to deprive persons of the right and privilege of acting as attorneys and counselors in the courts of the U.S. simply because they were engaged in the rebellion; thus attaching to that offense a punishment which did not attach to it at the time of its commission. It also authorizes and allows judges of the courts to condemn, without trial before a jury, attorneys and counsel ors who make application to be admitted to practice as guilty of treason and other high crimes named in the bill which has been presented for the consideration of this House. I deny the authority of this Congress, or of any other body known to the Constitution of this country, to deprive a citizen of the U.S., where his character, his life, his property, and his reputation are concerned, of his right to be tried by the tribunal guarantied to him by the Constitution, a jury of 12 men, to be impanneled to consider and try his case according to the law. This bill mistakes the Constitution in 2 very material particulars. One is, that it inflicts an additional punishment for an offense that was not provided for at the time it was committed. The other is, that it organizes a system of trial unknown to the courts of this country; and it establishes a judicial system through Congress which alone ought to be and can only be constitutionally exercised by the courts of iudicature. . an attorney or counselor is not an officer of the Government, nor is he a State officer. He is a mere deputy or agent appointed by a court for the purpose of carrying on the necessary functions and powers which have been lodged in that court by virtue of the Constitution of the U.S. From time immemorial, from the earliest days of the common law in England down through the whole history of jurisprudence in this country, attorneys and counselors have been appointed and commissioned by the courts, hol. their offices during good behavior, and forfeiting them by any act of misbehavior in the court. And if a man is not of good moral character, or has been guilty of any of the offenses named in this bill, when he has been tried by a tribunal competent to try the case, and has been found guilty, he will be removed by the court. If men of character and standing are to be placed in jeopardy in this manner, are to be tried without the benefit of a jury, then I will say that liberty in this country has flown from the lumine us sphere which she has heretofore occupied in the courts; and nothing but des potism exercised by Congress is to be the rule of action. And this outrage is to be inflicted upon every man who cannot come up to the test of loyalty laid down and prescribed by the members of this honorable body. And I apeal to members upon the other side of the house that out of regard to the dignity of the Congress of the U.S., and the rights of the free men of this land, measures of such momentous consequence should not be rushed through the House in this manner without allowing to gentlemen who oppose them any opportunity to state the reasons of their opposition. Sir, I will not undertake in the short time allotted to me to discuss the constitutional questions involved in this matter. Those questions have been fully examined in the decision of the Supreme Court in the case of exparte Garland; and any member of the House who may read that decision, if he has any regard whatever for the supreme law of the land as enunciated by that tribunal, cannot hesitate to say that there is no authority lodged in this Congress to do directly what we were unable to do indirectly by the passage of the test oath act, which inflicted this punishment in an indirect manner upon those who had been engaged in the rebellion. Sir, this bill is objectionable, not only be: cause it exceeds our constitutional authority; it is injudicious in point of policy. We must practice the principles of charity., Christian;ity must rule in this country. The laws of God must govern men's consciences. To undertake now to inflict punishment upon men in this manner by depriving them of “. means of earning a livelihood by practicing law in the courts of justice, after they have received a full pardon for any offenses they may have committed, mustengender aspirit of animosity and revenge which years will not be able to wipe out. [Here the hammer fell]