Mr. ASHLEY, of Nevada. Mr. Speaker, the correctness of rules is determine some times by a reference to extreme cases. Maryland and Missouri, and I Mieve Tennessee, (which it is proposed to bring in) are in the same category in that respect; they do not allow those who have been engaged in the rebellion to vote. Now, sir, the great mass of those who were engaged in the rebellion have had an amnesty granted them; they are not to be punished. I think that very few practically will be punished; certainly the great mass of those who were engaed in the rebellion will not be. This class of persons are left with all their rights of property; and they constitute, if not in Maryland and Missouri, in some of the southern States, perhaps 9 10ths of the population; and if we are to permit our system of popular government again in those States, we must allow the people resident there to control their own local State governments. We cannot rule those States as conquered provinces by military law for any considerable ength of time without violating the spirit of our Government and endangering its continuance, for military power soon for ets to loose its hold, and unhrolren history the ls how surely in the end liberty always perishes under martial rule. and, sir, ifyou wish to sustain the principles of your Government by punishing tiose men who have been engaged in rebellion, the propermethod is to bring them before the courtst to answer in accordance with law for the crimes which they may have committed. If they are not fit to be citizens, if they are not fit to be intrusted with power on account of crimes, you ought to have brought them before the courts and sent them to prison or the gallows, As long as you allow them to constitute 4/5ths of the community, as long as you tax them on account of their labor and wealth, as long as you allow them to hold property and occupy the country, excluding ot ier people, tell you, as long as you care anything for the genius of our institutions, you must allow them to control their States, rebels though they were. If that is not to be the rule, why did we grant them an amnesty? Whether founded upon correct principle or not, it will practically work out in that way; and the only escape we have from the results of giving them increased Representation on account of the abolition of slavery is to adopt this amendment for the voters basis. I thin that answers the question put to me as to allowing rebels to vote. We do not allow, we simply cannot escape it. You can no more through Congress pass alaw regulating suifrage in Tennessee or Arkansas than in NewYork or California. I think, sir, it is a strange era in the history of the American Government when, in Congress, we are to punish a portion of the people y de priving them of their political rights. I thong t heretofore, when men had committed crimes, they were to be punished in the courts of law. If they presumed to make arebellion, we opposed force to force, and in that manner, to some extent, they have been punished. Why sir, all the institutions of the outh were based upon slavery. It was the substratum of the aristocratic system which raised armies against the Government, and they have been punished by having that swept away. Indeed t iosic men who had political power and were the rulers in the South are no more potent than I Or any other humble individual in this country today except so far as their individual weight and merit aids them. They have been punished in. that respect. They have lost large numbers of their population. They have lost the irestige which made them leading men, and they are not to regain it except through petty divisions among ourselves we throw it into their hands. I do not believe we ought to vituperate against each other. I do not believe we ought to take it for granted so soon, until it is forced upon us inevitably, that men who have been with the Union party, and have made sacrifices for the Government, who came from the southern States and were as loyal and as brave in defense of this Union as men from any other section, are traitors to the Union cause or affiliate with rebels because their plan of reconstruction is not ours. I, for one, do not believe we have 8 this day the right to assume that. the man who, of all others, was loyal in Tennessee, and finally established a civil government there before the l rebellion was entirel closed, is now false to his 1 country. I will not Join with those who believe We ought to drive him from our ranks by abuse, assuming beforehand he is a traitor. I say, no matter what men may do in this District, and in this atmosphere, it will be hard to make the voters of the country believe that AndrewJohnson, whom they elected VEEP a little more than a year ago, is a traitor. No, it cannot be. Traitor for what? Because he is not willing that negro suffrage shall be forced upon the country? I never heard he favored that measure, and certainly during the election the adherents of Lincoln and Johnson on the pay cilic coast disclaimed holding such a doctrine. I do not. believe negroes should have equal political power with other men given them now, because they are not yet fitted to vote. I cannot think that where the are in a numerical majority they ought to have the control of States; and you cannot make the people believe men are traitors for that opinion. Negroes did not establish this Government and they did not maintain it. They gave us aid during the rebellion, and for that we gave them freedom; and for thatI am in favor of their education and improvement to qualify them for the exercise of political rights. But I would not insist on their having those powers now. If we can et an amendment of the Constitution of the c aracter I have discussed, let it be adopted, for we can get nothing else. If that cannot pass we might as well stop. We ought to have an amendment to the constitution that no State shall a any debt contracted for the rebellion. ith 2 or 3000 millions of debt, I tell you the southern States will have an important influence hereafter in urging the payment of that debt. Therefore we ought to have that constitutional amendment. Then we should have another constitutional amendment prohibiting the States from levying taxes to ay pensions to the men engaged in the rebellion against the Government of the U.S.; because men who have devoted their property and their time to the defense of this Government, who may happen to go into the southern States hereafter, should never be subjected to the least exaction to ay any of the obligations contracted by those who engaged in the rebellion. Then there should be an amendment of the Constitution prohibiting payment for the value, of slaves that have been emancipated and then, if on are to have any change of representation, et it be based upon the number of voters. With these amendments of your Constitution what else do you want? Do you wish to have it said that you are going to exclude southern Representatives from this floor so long as you can maintain your power in Congress simply on the ground that.esouthern States have rebelled? If so, try it. But let me tell you there will be opposition enough to defeat that policy before 3 years pass away. Thus having stated what I consider all the essential rowsions needed in the way of constitutions. amendments, I insist we should leave the people of the various States to govern themselves as heretofore. You cannot force negro suffrage upon the States either by statutory enactment or constitutional amendment, and I do not believe in enforcing political penalties against those who took part in the rebellion any further than the law holds them personally responsible. The Gentfrom hio [Mr. Senescn] uttered the true doctrine in his re marks on this floor when the constitutional amendment in regard to the basis of representation was before this House, when he declared that “ now is the golden opportunity for us to base representation upon the number of voters, and it should not be 0st." There is a volume of wisdom in the remark. These amendments are to be adopted not as penalties, but as changes really desirable in themselves, and as the irreversible guarantees for future security which the nation has a right to demand as the fruit of its many sacrifices. You have now the opportunity toingraft a principle in yourConstitution as the basis of representation which will not be regarded as a penalty, for it affects all the States alike, and can be adopted because it is right, and not for the sake of punishment. Representatives ought to come from the rulin people, from the men who vote, and not fromt ose who are excluded. Thus let this amendment be urged upon the South as the true principle of representative government, while it leaves them full control over the matter of suffrage in their own States. The experience of the ast 60 years has demonstrated that a mistake was made at the outset, to some extent, by the framers of the Constitution in basing representation upon a class that were excluded from all participation in Government, and adopted only as a compromise to secure the right to levy direct taxes on slav property, which property now having ceased to must, eaves the injustice of the provision more marked than before. By this exerience let us profit, and introduce a rule needing no defense or explanation and enduring as the temple of reason. We must hasten in our policy of reconstruction, for there is a growin impatience to have the countrylquieted. The ate rebel States have acceptedt e abolition of slavery. Now, suppose complete restoration isproffered with these other bases of organic law equal power and representation to every citizen voter through out the nation; no taxation to pay debts or obligations incurred in warring against the Union, and no gratuity or donation for services against our country. no compensation for loss or emancipation of slaves; loyal men to be accepted as Sens&Reps from the now unrepresented States ought not the offer to be accepted by those we have spared from the sword, and cannot we, the victors, generously grant these terms? Yes; and the loyalsmasses who sustained your Government through the late trials will not falter in your support. Only present your plan of revonstruction, rather than theories and ) modes of exclusion, and the clouds that now darken our prospTact will give way from horizon to zenith, leaving all briht in a restored and strengthened country.