Mr. FINCK. Mr. Speaker, I promise to trespass upon the attention of the House but a very few minutes in what I have to say on this question. An amendment to the Constitution is at. all times a matter of grave importance, and should command calm and patient deliberation. It is of the last importance to the prosperity and happiness of a people that stability in the great organic laws of the nation should be maintained. Amendments sometimes, I agree, become necessary to the constitution of evefy nation; but they should not be hurriedly made, and never without considering the interests and opinions of the whole people. To me, Mr. Speaker, this of all other seems the most inauspicious time to propose or make changes in our Constitution. We are just at the close of the most stupendous war which has ever scourged any nation, and the passions and alienations which have been engendered by this strife have not yet completely passed away. The amendments proposed are to affect the people of this whole country, but more especial v are they intended to affect the people of the States lately in insurrection; antiait would seem not only to bean actofeven handed justice, but of the highest wisdom, if we would consult the teachings of the wise and pure men who established our Government, that these people should have an opportunity of consideringand discussing these amendments here, and to record their votes through their representatives either for or against them before they are finally submitted to the States for their action. Now, what is the condition in which we today find ourselves? The war terminated over a year ago. The people of the late insurgent States have fully and completely yielded obedience to the constitution and laws of the U.S. Their State governments are completely restored. Their courts are in the full exercise of their j ni is diction, and profound eace reigns through out our borders. To allow that these are in earnest and actingin good faith, penoepeled only refer to the fact that they have ratified the amendment abolishing slavery, abandoned the pretended claim to the right of secession, and elected members of Congress. But, sir, the men who control this Congress have failed, in my judgment, to meet these people in that true spirit of kindness and forgiveness dictated by a wise and enlarged states manship, and which now alone are necessary to restore cordial relations between the 2 sections. At the commencement of this session a most extraordinary resolution was adopted, creating a JtCommee of 15 on reconstruction, and to which it was ordered that everything relating to the admission of members from the late insurgent States should be referred, and none of their representatives were to be admitted until this committee should report on the subject. Thus this House, in the faceof that provision of the Constitution, which declares that each House shall be the judge of the elections, returns, and qualifications of its own members, surrendered the exercise of that right to a JtCommee, the distinguished chairman of which [Mr. STEVENS] had already pronounced these States conquered territories and their citizens aliens. Ie have been advised from time to time, with an air of supreme defiance atl the resto ration policy of the President, that Congress must 1st ascertain and declare that these were States really in the Union, with governments republican in form; and that until these things were satisfactorily declared by Congress, no Senator or Representative could be admitted from any of these States. Well, sir, we have waited, and the country has waited, with feverish anxiety for the period when this committee should report on thesequestions and the congressional plan should be finally presented. Witnesses have been brought from a 1parts of the country and examined by the committee, to ascertain and report on the loyalty of the southern people and the condition of their Stategovernments. Atlast, after 5 months labor, this committee has broughtin itsreport, and what information do they bring us? and what do they propose that Congress shall do? Do they tell us whether these States are in or out of thelnion; or whether they have governments republican in form? Notu bit of it. But they report an amendment to the Constitution,containing 4 or 5 sections, with 2 bills accompanying it, and theso are to constitute the congressional plan, as opposed to the policy of the President. The time to which I am limited by the resolution of the House regulating this discussion; will prevent me from entering into an elaborate examination of this plan of the committee; and I shall have, therefore, to content myself with a very brief examination of it. The 1st section provides that No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizons of the U.S.: nor shall any State deprive any per IOH of life liberty or property without due process of law. nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. Well, all I have to say about this section is, that if it is necessary to adopt it, in order to confer upon Congress power over the matters contained in it, then the civil rights bill, which the President Vetoed, was passed without authority, and is clearly unconstitutional. The 2nd section provides a new basis for the apportionment of Representatives to congress, and is substantially the same which was efeated some weeks since in the Senate. The 3rd section deprives all persons who voluntarily aided in the rebellion from voting for members of conrose and for electors for President and Vice resident until the 4th day of July, 1870. The majority of the committee have made a most wonderful discovery, as disclosed in this 3rd section of the proposed amendment, and have gravely announced to the world that a citizen of the U.S. who is now entitled to vote, but whose loyalty is suspected, would be an unsafe voter in 1866, or even in the presidential election of 1868 which are , but will, after having his feelings soothed and his love of country encouraged by boin bmnded as an outlaw and compelled to heart c burdens of Government in the nicely adjusted and ascertained perio of 4 years from the 4th day of July, 1866, which is a safe and reasonable time after the next presidential election, be converted into a true and loyal citizen, and will by that time become attached to the Government which had disfranchised him, and may then safely be intrusted with the great right of suffrage. certainly this discovery deserves to be protected by some law. But, sir, this proposition to disfranchise these people by an amendment to the Constitution, to which you require the consent of the States yvhose citizens are thus to be disfranchised, is a most solemn admission that you have no authority to do so without such an amendment. I trust gentlemen have no design in this proposition to disfranchise 9 10ths of the voters of 11 States, unfuirl to perpetuate their political power, or to in uence the next presidential election. The 4th section provides that the rebel debt shall never be paid. Well, I suppose no one can be found in this country sill enough to believe Qifll the rebel debt ever will be paid. These p o osed amendments are accompa nied by a bi l which constitutes a part of the plan of the committee, the 1st section of which provides That whenever the aboverecitedamendments shall have becomepart of the Constitution, and any State lately in insurrection shall hitterntified the same, and shall havemodified its constitution and laws in conformity therevuth. the Sens&Reps from such State, if found duly elected and qualified, may, after having taken the required oaths of office, be admitted into Congress. Also, another bill, which declares Cortain personsineligible to officeunder the government of the U.S. Here, sir, in these propositions, we have the result of the wisdom and statesmanship of the distinguished gentlemen who compose the majority of the committee; and I say it without intending the least disres ect to these gentlemen, that in the future tiey will be quite unwilling to fix upon this report as the standard and measure of either, the ir ability or statesmanship. Allow me to say, further, that this committee have had the opportunity, in the most important period of our history, to base inscribed their names among the 1st statesmen of the age, by a liberal and enlight ened polic, which would have bound all sections of this great country together.in the o stron bond mutual friendship and a restore Union. But they have let that of ifirth nity pass. Striped of all disguises, this measure is a mere scheme to deny reiresentation to 11 States; to prevent inde nitely a complete res toration of the Union and perpetuate tcpower of a sectional and dangerous party. I am, Mr. Speaker, in the present attitude of our affairs, opposed to making any amendments to the constitution; and, beside this objection, I am opposed to the measure under discussion, because it seeks to introduce into our system a principle which is wholl unau thorized, and will, i adopted, I fear, lead to serious difficulties in the uture. What is the theory on which these propositions are based? This Union is composed of 36 States; and by law in full force, but the provisions of defied and utterly disre arded, this House is legally and constitutional y to be composed of 241 members; at we have Representatives ere from only 25 States, and only 184 members. lhe constitutional number of Senators is 2 for each State, and when full that body would now consist of 72, while it is in fact, composed of but 50. So that 11 States are enied all representation in both branches of Congress, although the Constitution provides “that no State, witl out its consent, shall be deprived of its equal suffrage in the Senate;” and the right to representation in the House is equally c ear. But this House by the mere exertion and combination of numbers excludes from its deliberations 57 members; and the Senate by the same power excludes 22 members from a voice and vote in that Chamber and it is, sir, in this strange and extraordinary condition of our affairs that we are gravely invited to proceed to change the Constitution in such a anner as to deeply and materially affect every State whose represeubatives are excluded from Congress; and we are further asked to say to these States thus excluded that if they refuse to debase themselves as equalStates in the Union and decline to ratify and approve by affirmative action these changes, that their exnsion shall be perpetual. I ask gentlemen to pause and reflect before they commit themselves to so monstrous and revolutionary a scheme as this. I may bedeluded and mistaken when I assume that we are still legislating under a Constitution which we have all sworn to support. 0!" can it be possible that while the forms and provisions of that sacred instrument are still contained in our books, that its whole spirit and bindin authority have been destroyed, and that the tie heritage of our fathers, of a free Government regulated bylaw, has become already a mere machine by which the majority in Congress are left free and untrainnieled to do just what they please? Mr. Speaker, I trust that we are still in possession, not only of the Constitution of our fathers, but that we will be animated and controlled, at least in some degree, by their wisdom and patriotism. Sir I deny wholly that there exists under our constitutionany right whatever for any number of States to combine together to exclude the rest from their constitutional representation in Congress, and to say to these States so excluded that they shall only exercise the right of representation on the terms and conditions of adopting certain proposed amendments to the Constitution, because by the recognition of such a priuciple on at once saction the right of 3 ourt s of the States, not to make amendments merely, but to adopt a provision which they may on lan amendment, and then drive the remaining on 4th of the States out of the Union, unless they shall also adopt the same proposition. For that is virtually what is assumed may be done by the proposition of this committee. Nay, more tharothis is assumed. It is the assertion of the hight of 3/4ths of the States to say to the other 4th, you shall be held in this Union for the purpose so taxation; you shall be subjected to all the burdens and duties of States in the Union, but you shall never be represented in Congress unless you a ree to the conditions which we shall see p perto impose on on, although the Constitution expressly dec ares that “ no State without its consent shall be de rived of its equal suffrage in the Senate, ” an that each State shall have at least one Representative in the House. Sir, the whole scheme is revolutionary and a mostshallow pretext for an excuse to excluded the vote of 11 States in the next President tial election. You cannot exact conditions in this way from any State in the Union; no more from Georgia, than from Massachusetts. They are each equal States in the Union. held together by the same Constitution, neither being the superior of the other in their relation to the Federal Government as States. I cannot pretend to say, Mr. Speaker, what will be the action of these States, on these proposed changes. but I trust they will have spirit enough left to reject, with firm and manly independence, a scheme which disfranchises a large majority of their citizens and brands with the humiliating marks of inferiority States which are constitutionally the equals of any other States in this Union. I trust, sir, these people will rally with a United and patriotic around the wise and just policy of pAunrporeswe Johnson. Gentlemen cannot justify themselves in supporting this proposed legislation on the ground that these States are out of the Union, a d that therefore this Congress may require sue conditions precedent as they please to their admission. No, sir; these States are not out of the Union. They have never been out of the Union. The have been recognized by the executive an judicial Depts of the government as States in the Union, and Congress has, by its legislation, more than once during the war fully recognized them as States in the Union, and the very measure which is now proposed to them for their acceptance is a recognition of the fact that they are existing States of the Union; and yet gentlemen who support these propositions put themselves in the attitude of reairing conditions from these States, on which &c are to be entitled to representation, which they do not for a moment believe the have a right to exact from NewYork or Pennsylvania. Sir, these 11 States are in the Union as equal States and as clearly entitled to representation, as Ohio or Massachusetts. They are to be counted in the number of all the States, 3/4ths of which are necessary to ratify an amendment to the Constitution. They are so far regarded by this committee as States as to be called upon to exercise one of the highest functions which a State can exercise, namely, to adopt or reject a proposed change in the organic law of the country. But, sir, a strange spectacle is presented in this measure. States are called upon to deliberate on proposed amendments within their own respective jurisdictions; and these very States are deprived of all opportunity of discussing or voting upon these propositions in Congress, and are States which it is gravely proposed shall not be represented, unless they sha l 1st adopt amendments presented to them by 2/3rds of the representatives of 25 out of the 36 States of this Union and more than all, these States are thus invited to deliberate on the modest demand made of them to disfranchise a large majority of their own citins, through Legislatures elected or to be elected, by the votes of the very men who reto be disfranchised under this amendment. sir, the proposition need only be stated to condemn it as an republican and wholly at war with all the well settled principles of a free Peliiresentative Government. t is, sir, the assertion of a principle which may embarrass the nation in the future. I trust this Government may continue a ftQe Government for countless generations to come. The life of man is of but short duration, that of a nation is often counted by centuries and we should remember that it is always unsafe to establish precedents which may disturb the union f these States or sanction a combination of States to impair that perfect equality of the rights of the States as they exist and are secured, under our federative system. We all know that one of the compromises made by the framers of the Constitution was the recognition of the equality of each State in the Senate; and to 1: this equality they provided in the Constitution “that no State without its consent, " shonld be deprived of its equal suffrage in the Senate. Well, you not only refuse this constitutional right of equal suffrage in the Senate, but go further, and den all representation to 11 States in either House of Congress, and propose that the exercise of this plain right, secured by the Constitution to all the States, shall be enjoyed only on such terms and conditions as you may see fit to propose, through a Congress which thus exclu es these States. Gentlemen would do well not to forget that it is possible, if this combination of the majority of the representatives of 25 of the 36 States, should now be successful, and should be sanctioned by the people, that a generation who may come after us, may deem it best for the true interest of a country which may then number 100 million people, an 50 States, to modify the rights of some other States in their representation. The 6 NewEngland States have 12 Senators, but have a population less than the single State of NewYork, and in the next generation will probably have a population ess than some of the States in the rent valley of the Mississippi, and who can tel but that some other interest may not then form a combination and say to these 6 States, you have too much dpower in the Senate for your population, an we can only agree that you s a l enjoy the right to be represented in Congress on the condition that you will consent to a reduction of your equal suffrage in the Senate? Gentlemen from NewEngland might then appeal to the Constitution and to the sanctity of that provision which gives to each State 2 Senators. But, sir, the answer could be made, and with tremendous force, that the same provision existed from the foundation of the government; and notwithstanding that fact, these States once, on a memorable occasion in the history of this country, combined to disregard this provision and denied the benefit of this right to 11 of their sister States unless they should 1st sanction and adopt conditions which the majority had no right to impose; and depend upon it, sir, the appeal, if made to men like those who now control our legislation, would be made in. vain. Sir, this measure is dangerous to our safety. It protracts an unfortunate contest without promisin any beneficial results to the har mony an prosperity of the country. The time has come, most respectfull submit, when the feelings of sectional ate an animosity should give way to the higher and nobler principles of may nanimity, of kindness, conciliation, and true c rarity. The people of the U.S. will never consent to a dissolution of the Union. They have sacrificed too much to preserve it ever to abandon it or sanction measures which will delay the complete restoration of all the States to their constitutional relations with the federal Government. It was for this that our brave men fought. For this oceans of blood and treasure were poured out like water; and the man or st of men who may attempt to obstruct or delay the full fruition of the great struggle will be ground into powder by that people whose purposes to maintain the nion and preserve the Constitution are as fixed as our ount ains. Speaker, the North and the South are destined to live together as one people, in the same Union, and under a common Constitution. Let us, I beseech you, endeavor to live together as true friends and brothers. Let us rise O who the great occasion and imitate the nobeieexample of our brave armies in the field, who, when the conflict had ended, no longer regarded the southern people as enemies, but as friends. “ Enemies in war, in once friends.” Let as welcome into these Ealls representatives from all the States who maybe true to the Constitution and the Union; and, when all these States shall once more gather around this common council chamber of the nation, then, and not till then, let the great questions of amendment be fairly discussed and voted upon. Sir, if we shall be true to our destiny, obedient to the great principles of the Constitution and the rights O all the States, this Government will endure, and we shall be enabled to transmit it unim airedto our children as aprice less herita c, which has come down to us from the men of the Revolution, to be, as I most earnestly pra, pe etuated for ages to come as the mode of recgovernments and the asylum for the oppressed of every land.