Mr. DAWES. If my colleague had not been quite so anxious to find a point of difference with his colleague, as I am afraid he was, he would have been entirely satisfied, I. think, with the position I was about to state. I was upon the point of telling the Gentfrom Pennsylvania, [Mr. Runante when he inter" ruptedy me, just what, when congress assem bled in December last, I desired it to do, and just what. I think it ought to have done. It oes not differ much from what was done, but so far as it did differ I regret it, because I believe it led to mischief, and was the beginning of dissensions that are fraught with evil. Sir, the Constitution of the U.S. imposes this obligation upon the U.S., not upon this House, not upon the Senate, not upon the Executive, but upon all 3 “ the U.S.” is the term used namely, to guaranty a RFG to each and every one of the States of this Union; and when the 11 States, after havin, in the terrible commotions and civilWar which has been upon them, upheavod and overturned all the civil institutions within their borders, and blotted out all the civil governments there; after having been at war with this Government for 4 long years, came to lay down their arms and surrender to this Government, and then went to work to erect upon the ruins new forms of government and to adopt new constitutions, it was the duty of every one of those States, in my opinion, to present its new form of constitution to the POTUS, and it was his duty to have laid that form of constitution before the congress of the U.S., to the end that the t iree branches representing the Government of the U.S. the 2 Houses and the President might have those constitutions officially before them and pass judgment upon them whether they were republican or not. I regretted exceedingly that in his 1st communication to Congress the President had not laid each and all of those forms of government, whatever they were, and all the papers and evidences accomying them, before Congress. the gravityan importance of the subjectwould, in my opinion. have required the reference of those constitutions, with all the papers and all the evidence accompanying them, thus laid before the 2 Houses, to a Jtcommittee, and it would have been the duty of that committee to have inquired, 1st, whether those constitutions were republican in form; sec' ondly, whether they were the free not of the loyal people of the States from which they emanated; and 3rd ly, whether domestic tranquillity was so far restored among thatloyal people that this RFG, its own free act, could be maintained by that people against domestic violence. As to what constitutes a RFG my colleague will not find me differing essentially with him. We do not materially differ upon that point. But, sir, whenever a Jtcommittee of these 2 bodies should have pronounced, upon a faithful, deliberate, and careful examination of all the facts and circumstances, that the State of Tennessee, NCarolina, or Arkansas, or any other State, had set up such a form of government. that it was the free act of the loyal people of that State, and that domestic tranquillity had been so far restored that such government could be main tained, and such report, in fulfillment of the constitutional obligation of guaraiitying RFGs to the States, should become the judgment of the 2 Houses and the President, that is, of the U.S., then any loyal man elected as a Representative under such a State government, from a loyal constituency, would be entitled to admission, and I would like to ask my collca uc or any other member of the House upon what ground of constitutional right he or I could object to that man taking his seat here. Meantime, it would have better comported with what I thought ought to have been done if, while the constitutions of these States and the papers accompanying them had gone, as I have indicated, to a JtCommee, the cre dentials of those claiming to be Representatives had been referred to the appropriate committee under the rules of this house. Because, sir, the Constitution is just as explicit upon that point as it is in imposing upon us to guaranty a RFG to each State. It declares just as explicitly that this House and the other branch of Congress shall keep within itself, and under its own exclusive control, the credentials of those claiming to be members thereof. But, had I been a member of the committee to which such credentials were referred, I would not have taken action upon them until I was satisfied upon evidence that all the conditions I have indicated had been fulfilled in the States from which the Representatives claimed to come.