Mr. BINGHAM. The want of the Republic today is not a Democratic party, is not a republican iarty, is not any party save a party for the nion, for the Constitution, for the supremacy of the laws, for the restoration of all the States to their political rights and powers under such irrevocable guarantees as will forevermore secure the safety of the republic, the equality of the States, and the equaPrights of all the people under the sanctions of invio lable law. I trust, Mr. Speaker, that after the roll shall have been called this day, and the departing sun shall have gilded with its last rays the dome of the Capitol, it will not be recorded by the pen of the historian that the sad hour had come to this great Republic which, in the day of its approachin dissolution, came to the republic of ancient Romc, when it was said Caesar had his party, Antony had his party, Brutus had his party, but the Commonwea th had nonel I speak today, Mr. Speaker, to the party that is for the Republic; to the partyt at is for the Constitution; to the party that is for the speedy restoration to their constitutional relations of the late insurrectionary States, under such perpetual guarantees as will guard the future of the Republic by the united voice of a united people against the sad calamities which have in these late years befallen it. Mr. Speaker, the final settlement of this grave question which touches the nations life is at last with the people of the loyal States the loyal people of the Union. of the and, therefore, knowing, as the committee did know, that parties must dissolve, that men must perish from the earth, but that the Commonwealth is for all time, if its laws be just and its people be faithful, they propose to the severa States a perpetual covenant in the form of a constitutional amendment, never to be broken so long as the people adhere to their cherished forms of government, which, when ratified, will secure the safety of all and the rights of each, not only during the present generation, but throu bout all generations, until this grand examp c of free government shall itself be forgotten. The amendment reported by the committee is as follows: Anriens. SEC. 1. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizensof the U.S.; nor shall any State de privo any personof life, liberty or property Without due processof law: nor deny to any person within its jurisdietion the equal protection of the laws. L$0.2. rereseutatives shallbe uportioned among the several tateswhich may beinc uded within this Union according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in each State. excluding Indians not taxed. But whenever. in any State. the elective franchise shall be denied to any portion of its male citizens not less than 21 years ofage.orinanywa abridged. Except for participation in rebellion or 0t or crime. the basisof repro sentzitionin such State shall he reduced in the proBortinn which the numberofsuch malecitizens shall car to the whole number of male citizens not less than 21 yearsof age. Sec. 3. Until the 4th day of July, in the yenr1870. all persons who voluntarily adheredto the late insurrection. giving it aid and comfort, shall beexcluded from the right to vote for Representatives in congressand for electors for President and VEEP Sec. 4. Neither the U.S. nor any State shall assumeor pay any debt or obligation already incurred or which may hereafterbe incurred. in aid of insurrection or of war against the U.S., or any claim for compensationfor lossoiinvoluntary serviceor labor. Soc. 5. The Congress shall have power to epforcoby appropriate legislation the provisions of this article. The necessity for the 1st section of this amendment to the Constitution, Mr. Speaker, is one of the lessons that have been taught to your committee and taught to all the people of this country by the history of the past 4 years of territic conflict that history in which God is and in which He teaches the profoundest lessons to men and nations. There was a want hitherto, and there remains a want now, in the Constitution of our country, which the proposed amendment will supply. What is that? It is the power in the people, the whole people of the U.S., by express authority of the Constitution to do that by congressional enactment which hitherto they have not had the oiver to do, and have never even stompieirauo {that is, to protect by national law the privileges and immunities of all the citizens of the {epublic and the inborn rights iof every person within its jurisdiction when icver the same shall be, abridged or denied by the unconstitutional acts of any State. Allow me, Mr. Speaker, in passing, to say that this amendment takes from no State any right that ever pertained to it. No State ever had the right, under the forms of law or otherwise, to deny to any free man the equalprotection of the laws or to abridge the privileges or immunities of any citizen of the the public, although many of them have assumed and exercised the power, and that without remedy. The amendment does not give, as the 2nd section shows, the power to Congress of regulating suffrage in the several States. The 2nd section excludes the conclusion that by the 1st section suffrage is subjected to congressional low; save, indeed, with this exception, that as the right in the people of each State to a republican government and to choose their Representatives in Congress is of the guarantees of the Constitution, by this amendments. remedy might be given directly for a case supposed by Madison, where treason might change a State government from a republican to a despotic government, and thereby deny suffrage to the people. Why should any has been suggested, not here, but elsewhere, if this section does not confer suffrage the need of it is not perceived. To all such beg leave again to say, that many instances of State inustice and oppression have already occurre in the State legislation of this Union, of flagrant violations of the guarantied privileges of citizens of the U.S., iiir which the national Government furnished and could furnish by law no remedy whatever. Contrary to the express letter of your Constitution, “cruel and unusual punishments” have been indicted under State laws within this Union upon citizens not only for crimes committed, but for sacred duty done, for which and against which the Government of the U.S. had proKvided no remedy and couldprov ide none. Sir, the words of the Constitution that “the privileges and immunities of citizens in the the right to bear true allegiance to ttution and laws of the U.S., and to be protected in life, liberty, and property. Next, sir, to the allegiance which we al owe to God our Creator, is the allegiance which we owe to our common country. The time was in our history, 33 years ago, when, in the State of SCarolina, by solemn ordinance adopted in a convention held under the authority of State law, it was ordained, as a part of the fundamental law of that State, that the citizens of SCarolina, bein citizens of the U.S. as well, should abjiire their allegiance to every other government or authority than that of the State of SCarolina. That ordinance contained these words: "The allegiance of the citizens of this State is due to the State: and no nlle iance is due from them to any other Power or authority: and the General Assembly of said State is hereby empowered from time to time. when they may deemit proper. to provide for the administration to the citizens and otficersof the State or such of the said oflioers as they may think fit.of suitnble oathsor atfirmatipns.binding them to the observanceof such allegiance, and abJuring all otherallegiance; and also todefinewhat shall amount to a noation of their allegiance, and to provide the properpunishmentfor such violation." There was also, as gentlemen know, an attempt made at the same time by that State to nullify the revenue laws of the U.S. What was the legislation of Congress in that day to meet this usurpation of authority by that State, violative alike of the rights of the national Government and of the rights of the citizen? In that hour of danger and trial to the country there was as able a body of men in this Capitol as was ever convened in Washington, and of these were Webster, Clay, Benton, Silas Wright, John Quinc Adams, and Edward Livingston. They provied a remedy bylaw for the invasion of the rights of the federal Government and for the protection of its officials and those assisting them in executing the revenue laws. (See 4 Statutes at Large, 63233.) No remedy was provided to protect the Citizen. Why was the act to provide for the collection of the revenue passed, and to protect all acting under it, and no protection given to s.iire the citizen against punishment for fide to American citizen object to that? But, sir, it, u v“ citizens of each State shall be entitled to all several States" include, among other privileges, i e Constitution of his country? But one answer can be given. There was in the Constitution of the U.S. an express grant of power to the federal Congress to lay and collect duties and imposts and to pass all laws necessary to carry that grant of power into execution. But, sir, that body of great and patriotic men looked in vain for any grant of power in the Constitution by which to give protection to the citizens of the U.S. resident in SCarolina agalnst the infamous provision of the ordinance which required them to abjure the allegiance which they owed their country. It was an opprobrium to the Republic that for fidelity to the U.S. they could not by national law be protected against the degrading punishment inflicted on slaves and felons by State law. That great want of the citizen and stranger, protection by national law from unconstitutional State enactments, is supplied by the 1st section of this amendment. That is the extent that it hath, no more; and let gentlemen answer to God and their country who oppose its incorporation into the organic law I“ of the land. The 2nd section of the amendment simply provides for the equalization of representation among all the States of the Union, North, South, East, and West. It makcs no discrimination. NewYork has a colored population of 50,000. By this section, i thatgreat State discriminates against her colored population as to the elective franchise, (except in cases of crime) she loses to that extent her representative power in Congress. So also will it c with every other State. upon the 3rd section of the amendment gentlemen are divided upon this side of the House as well as upon the other. It is a provision that until the year 1870 all persons who voluntarily adhered to the late insurrection, giving it aid and comfort, shall be excluded from the right to vote for Representatives in Congress or for electors for President or VEEP This section imoses no other or further disability. t seems to me, Mr. Speaker, that this section can bring no strengtii to the amendment, although I fully agree with the honorable Gentfrom Massachusetts [Mr. BANKS] in the words which he so litly uttered, it is within the authority of the people of the U.S. to disfranchise these parties. But, sir, I submit to the honorable gentleman, nndI submit to the House, that if we have the power by a mere act ofCongress, ( as is concede by the committee) to take from rebels the franchise of office under the Government of the U.S. for life, as is provided in the bill reported by the committee, we can as well take from them until 1870, by an act of COngress, the right to vote for Representatives in Congress or for Presidential electors, as is provided in the 3rd section of this amendment.