Mr. FESSENDEN. I wish to make a single remark upon the proposition of the honor able Senfrom Connecticut. He thinks that the remarks which he read from the NewYork Evenin Post are so very wise, so very just, that he as some hope, to use his own language, that they may not be without their effect even upon the members of this bod; thus, I suppose, intendin to intimate that the last place where wise an just views could be expected to have any effect would be upon the members of this body. Sir, we have not given ourselves over to the keeping of the honorable Senfrom Connecticut, or those who act with him. We do not pretend to any very particular wisdom or any particular sense of justice but we who were on the JtCommee of 15, and who are most immediately touched by the remark, feel that at any rate we have tried to do our duty. We have been in session a considerable length of time but not longer than we deemed it absolutely necessary in order to reach a conclusion, and in reaching that conclusion we have been obliged to take into consideration a great many things: 1st, what it would be wise and just to do, and next what, if it is wise and just, we can do; what would be acceptable in the 1st place to congrass, and in the next place what would be acceptable to the people. Unquestionably in the committee there was veryconsiderable difference ofopinion. That differenee of opiuion had to be reconciled. I do not suppose that the scheme as presented would be exactly in all particulars what would suit perhaps a large number; but the question is one be yond more personal opinion, and mere adherence to personal opinion or personal feeling either; and the committee, after much deliberation, came to the conclusion that its duty was to agree upon that which seemed to be the best scheme with regard to reconstruction upon which they could come to a unanimous or nearly unanimous agreement. The proposition made by the honorable Senfrom Oregon this morning would indicat for instance, that he is not exactly satisfie with the result to which the committee came. I really, with all respect to my friendfrom Oregon, beg leave to say that when a committee after great deliberation has come to a conclusion upon a subject which has been assented to and reported, at any rate the members of the committee should abstain from pressin individual views in advance of the genera action of the body to which the reart has been made, because it has a ten ency to weaken the effect of the report itself. I accede to what has been said by the honor able Senfrom Connecticut with regard to the eminent standing of the press from which he has read; but, eminent as it is, I think it is not immodest on the part of the committee of 15, selected with very considerable care, and, with one exception, perhaps, composed of gentlemen eminently fitted for the position which was assi ned to them, to suppose that after months of (feliberation, after great stud and reflection, after careful examination ofy the evidence before them, not only as to what was wise to do, but as to what could be done, the united opinions of a very large majority of them might be supposed to come about as near the right as the opinion of an individual who may hap pen towrite in the columns of a newspaper. I acknowledge, as a general rule, that the editor of a newspa or knows by intuition far more of the state of the country and what is wise to be done, no matter what his age or what his oaition, than Congress can possibly know; but I think, at any rate, a little faith should be given to a committee of Congress, so large as this committee, and to Congress itself, devotin itself carefully t6the study of the great questions on which it proposes to act. I cannot agree with my honorable friendfrom Connecticut, that because the opinions which he read happen to appear in a press of character they are therefore so conclusive as at once to overturn all the conclusions to which, after much deliberation, the committee have arrived. At any rate I shall beg leave to ask, when the propertime comes, for the careful consideration of the Senate of all these important questions; and having no pride of opinion on the subject, if Congress shall come to the conclusion that the scheme which has been presented needs amendment and alteration, I shall submit with perfect willin ess and perfect contentment, in the hope that something wiser and better will be reached; but until we come to the discussion I am unwilling to admit, even upon the authority of the NewYork Evening Post, that what we have done cannot be acceptable to the people of the U.S.