Mr. BANKS. I propose one remedy for that difficulty, as for others. It is to separate the civil from the military government: to. the 1st to the loyal, the 2nd to the i Army, and to both the support and authority of the Government. I speak now of the question of universal amnesty and universal suffrage. Universal amnesty brings the rebels in power, [f they have the control of those States no suffrage we can give to the lower classes will deprive them of that power. The South is not, and never has been, governed by public opinion. It is governed by force. All aristocracies govern by force. The South will never allow the colored people or the white people to take from their hands the power they have wielded so long, and to which they think they have indisputable right. We can never expect the colored vote of the southern States to take the power out of the hands of the ruling classes when they have been restored to full power by the Government of the U.S. I do not oppose suffrage for the colored people. What I say is, we ought under no circumstances restore the ruling class to political power until the sovereignty of the Government i. been firmly and finally established. Uni versal amnesty and universal suffrage, in my opinion, will make the South a unit. It will be a unit now as when the institution of slavery existed. The North can never be united. The North is governed exclusively by public opinion; and there is not a State, a city, community, or family where there is not more or less of division. On the contrary, in the South there is no difference of opinion tolerated, and whenever the ruling class is threatened in the exercise of power they resort to their legitimate engines of force and fraud to maintain their position and to sustain their power, The southern States—I do not speak of the ten insurgent States now out of the Union, but I speak of the former slave States—have a distinct interest, in which they are alone concerned, so powerful, so gigantic, that it is hardly possible they can ever divide if they are permitted a chance to regain control of public affairs. Their losses amount, according to their estimate, to $7,000,000,000. In the outset we require them to abandon all hope of recovering their losses. The debt of the U.S. is $3,000,000,000. While we refuse to recognize their debt or to pay for their loss in the emancipation of slaves or otherwise, we require them to pay their share of our public debt. Here is a gigantic financial interest of $10,000,000,000, at their estimate, made up of losses which they hope to recover, and public debts from which they hope to escape, and if they are permitted to consolidate the elements of political power with this object in view it is impossible to expect anyone of the 15 States shall resist any policy proposed for their advantage in this regard. Take the case of Missouri; that is the strong est. Missouri is unquestionably a loyal State; yet if the rebels, be restored to power, even with suffrage to the colored people, even proposing to the people of Missouri they are to recover their share of this loss of $7,000,000,000, and to escape the payment of taxes upon their share of a debt of $3,000,000,000, it is impossible any other party should maintain power except that identified with the southern interest. ence you may expect to see every one of these States, Kentucky, Tennessee, Maryland, and Delaware ranged, as they were formerly, upon the side of the loyal States in support of.interests and results. W is their power? They will have in the HoRep, if restored without restriction, 98 votes. The ten insurgent States have 58 and the border States now in the Union have 28 votes; that does not include the 3/5ths representation, which will give them 12 additional votes. They will have 98 votes in favor of a policy which affects the condition of every individual and family of the South. The number of members by statute is 241; with the addition of 2/5ths of the colored people now unrepresented it will be 253. A majority will be 128. They want but 30 votes from the North to give them that majority, and there can never be an election in the 15 or 20 loyal States that will not give in the aggregate a minority of at least 30 votes, which, added to the united vote of the South, gives them the control of the Government of the U.S. What will they do? What would any party do with such interests and such united power” It will control the Electoral College, direct the choice of Cabinet officers, shape the decrees of the Supreme Court, and force the Chief Justice and the General of the Army from their positions or to do its will. They will have the power to do it. Will they pay our debt? Many propositions have been made to secure its payment, but I think it is not in human power to put in language any statute or constitutional amendment which can compel to pay the debt. It may be repudiated in many ways: by increasing its volume to such extent as to make its liquidation impossible and absurd, as well as by a formal and authorized act of repudiation, Nothing can prevent this power, if installed in power here, from destroying in one session and at one blow all hope of the payment, either principal or interest, of the debt. The South is poor. It cannot pay. A Representative from the South, when asked whether he will or will not tax his constituents, will have indis' putable power to say yes or no, as he or they may think just or expedient. If they are unwilling the debt shall be paid they will say n;o and with a negative so powerful as that it is impossible to provide for the payment of the interest or the ultimate payment of the principal by any legislation or constitutional enactmentS. But that is not the only difficulty. They have the power to increase the expenditures of the Government—possibly with the cooperation of the East or the West, perhaps the whole North—to such an extent as very soon to make it impossible to pay the debt. The remedy for this condition of things is the re organization of political society in the insur gent States upon such a basis as to make it consistent with the interests of the people as well as with their wishes to maintain the credit, increase the prosperity, and perpetuate the power of the Government. It is to give power to its friends rather than its enemies. Upon this theory of universal amnesty and universal suffrage I see no hope of such reorganization, and nothing but disaster to the Government. I do not expect, I dare not hope, that if they have this power they will wield it for any other advantage than their own. And, sir, as a man representing a constituency, loyal, intelligent, and patriotic, I am obliged to say that if the tables were turned, if the rebel debt were to be fastened upon us and our own repudiated, and I, representing a portion of the people of Massachusetts, were permitted to say yes or no to the repudiation of our debt and the payment of the rebel debt incurred to destroy this country, in behalf of my constituents I should be obliged to say no. Nor do I expect that the rebels would do more or better; and therefore and upon that ground, Iimpeach the right of the Representatives of the loyal people to restore them to power. Gentlemen on the other side of the House have said, Why not admit the Representatives of the southern States upon condition that they take the oath prescribed by law—the test oath, as it is called? A political oath, Mr. Speaker, is no bar to political action. It necessarily depends upon the conscience of the person who takes it. It is a question between him and his God, and in this case we have been compelled to rest the contlitions of the oath upon the will of the actor. That does not disqualify which is not voluntarily done. And when an agent is left at liberty to interpret his will for himself and say what has been and what has not been voluntarily done he is completely master of the situation. History does not exhibit many instances in which a Government has been served or a people saved by political oaths. In this view there is scarcely a man in the South who cannot take the test oath; and whenever this shall be required of them, either to retain property or to secure power, they will all, as one man, accept it. It is substantially to swear that they have not voluntarily entered into rebellion against the U.S. There are few persons in the South that will admit that they entered voluntarily into the war. Mr. Davis, the president of the confederacy, when he left the Senate of the U.S., stated as the reason for his secession that he was “obliged “ to take the course which he followed. It was a plea of compulsion. Taking the Speech of davis in the Senate and the language of the test oath, is it probable that the rebels would refuse it if made a condition of the restoration to power?