Mr. McKEE. Mr. Speaker, it is my purpose at present to submit some remarks on the proposition just read. I know, sir. that the country is excited, agitated, and perplexed on the great question of reconstruction upon which all men talk, and yet, sir, ifwe adopt the the cry of certain persons, and of a certain party, the term is wholly inappropriate. These men tell us the work is done; na more, that when the conflict of arms cease that people who had hurled war upon the land were and are today entitled to all the rights the same as if they had for 4 years moved on in the smooth path of obedience to law. If this be true, then why talk of reconstruction? We are told again by this same party and these same men that we have no need of Constitutional amendments, and he who proposes them and the party which advocates tiilm are denounced as men who seek to destroy the Government of our fathers. Now, sir, how does the nition find herself today? A great war has swept over the land, a war seton foot and carried on by an armed cons iracy for the avowed purpose of destroyin the nion of the States secured to us by the blood of our fathers. This war against the Union, against the Constitution, against freedom, and in the interest of slavery, having failed in its purpose, and the armed powero the cons ira tors having been crushed, at the end of the great struggle it appears most fit and proper to examine the framework of our Government, see if any of its parts have been shaken, if any have been broken in by the storm, to take them out, put new ones in their places, remove the rotten planks and put in new bulwarks against which the storm cloud of treason in future may (hish its winds in vain. Even while the war raged the great loyal heart of the nation when it discovered the rotten plank tore it out of the ship of state and cast it forth into the sea of oblivion. Like a skillful physician we went right at the root of the disease, tore it from the si e of the patient who had groaned under its smart for almost a century, and cast it out for ever. Ycs, forever! for freedoms voice has recorded the verdict, “The curse of slavery shall never blight this fair land again." One great work has been accomplished even during the struggle with arms. t the end, what do we nee 2 We need to reconstruct the Government. Not that it has been destroyed, but to ada tit to our changed condition, and to secure to the people the rule of that Government they risked their all to save. I care not to argue the question or discuss the theory as to whether the States lately in rebellion are dead or living States; this is not mate rial to my purpose nor to the proposition which I submit. this much I will only say. That so faras the rebellion could, it destroyed their State governments, and certainly while it held con, trol over the 11 seceded States claimed by the now defunct confederacy they had no State governments which the Constitution of the U.S and the power which administered it recognized as lo a Men may cry out until the end of time, “ nce a State always a State, ” but that cry will prove nothin, and cannot conceal the fact that their logo governments were overthrown. The structures set up for them by the Constitution and laws of the U.S. were thrown down. Disloyal ones and governments foreign to our laws took their places. At the end of the war these disloyal and foreign State organizations are swept out of existence. New governments must be given the people of these States. In the absence of Congress the executive head of the nation begins the work. Has he any power given him under our laws to create a civil government for any State? Yet in all these States he ulls down whom he wills and sets up whom he csircs. Whatprovision of the Constitution or what law of Congress authorizes him to appoint RJHQVlSlOmll governor for a State? What power oes he derive from our theory of civil government to prescribe an oath for a voter and make a franchise law for a State? By what authority does he say to a Legislature of a “sov creign State, ” you must ratify certain constitutional amendments before I can accept 01las being in your properrelations with the nion over which I reside? Upon what law does he proceed to or or a convention to remodel the constitution of a State which neverlost its power and say to that convention when assembled, you must repudiate your war debt, you must abolish slavery, before you can resume your place in the Union again? I make no war upon the President for these acts. These are questions for his newly acquired supporters to reconcile to themselves. But 1 would scorn to accept the most costly jewels of earth handed over into my hands by one who had plucked themillegally and unlaw fully from the head which wore them. By the law martial he exercised these acts. For my self I found no fault with them at the time, except that they perhaps fell short; but I do contend that all these acts are matters that the representatives of the people, the national Congress, has the right to pass upon, and that it belongs to them to determinc when and how these States shall again resume their proper relations in the Union. Their structures, then, having been thrown down, we must see that they are set up again; and in doing this, oppression, wrong, injustice, cruel laws, everything which stands in freedoms pathway, must be buried with the dead of the conspiracy. The great, mad scheme of armed treason having failed; the death stroke aimed at the nation having been thrust back and in the midst of war having cast out a great disturbing clement, we want protection such as will be a a guarantee for the future; such guarantees as will say to those who sought the nations death, you cannot seize the helm and guide the ship of state avain. We want, and the loyal people of the land demand, such action here as wrll secure to us in peace the triumph we have obtained by war. Daily almost we are told on this floor and all over the country that the law which says no man who cannot take the oath commonly called the “test oath” is unconstitutional, that it is a disgrace to a free people a, sir, it does disgrace traitors that we ha no authority to pass it, and that we have no power under the Constitution to enforce it; that red handed traitors, if they have taken an oath to support the Constitution, have as much right to come into this Capitol and legislate for the peopleas the gallant soldier who bore the flag of his country amid the smoke and thunder of battle, and crushed out by war those men who sought the life of the Republic; that these betrayers of their country have equal rights and are to stand in future side by side in equal honor and esteem with the war worn veterans of fourlong weary years of toil and battle to save the nation from destruction. Go tell it to these men, and the will hurl it back with such scorn as will with or him who dare assert it in their presence. Go tell it to the survivors of the 12,000 heroes who in the low, flat marsh of Belle Isle, passed the terrible winter of 1868 and 1864, an the ghosts of the starved and freezing dead of that pen of misery will confront you with the living heroes; and if shame itself does not compo you to call back the assertion, then you have not the heart of a man. Go tell it to the 1200 who in the same winter looked out through the iron bars of “old Libbys” gloomy walls, and in sight of boxes piled up across the street, stored for them by the loved ones at home with all the necessaries of life, starved and sickened for food, that the men who thus insulted them through those iron bars, taunted them and stole from them the bread for lack of which so many died, are to be their lawgivers in future, and you change humanity if you are not rebuked. Go tell it in the homes, once happy and briht, of the 60,000 starved soldiers who ( ied in loathsome and foul prisonens, that the men who committed those terrilile crimes against them, against humanity and God, must make laws for the widow and orphan of the dead, and if your heart is not scared and cold as death. you will see the ghosts of their lean and wasted forms rise up before on and hear their sepulchral voices crying. “ ack, back, back! Hide yourselfalong with the traitor whose cause you come to plead.” If the present law which prevents these men seizing e best places and all Federal offices l is unauthorized and unconstitutional, then there " is need that we make a constitutional provision l itselfwhich will say to them, “ Having failed by arms in your purone to rule, you must be ruled hereafter by the loyal men who defeated your mad and wicked design." Let us make the substance of this law a part of the Constitution itself, and then the great triumph is secured to the people, that those, and those only, whoare true to the nation, and who fight against treason, shall have the reward given them to rule the land, and by this prove that the 100s of 1,000s who have gone down to their graves in the death grapple with treason have notdied in vain. l Again, treason by law is declared a crime. The present head of the nation has uttered the i sentiment over and over again in every position i he has held during the war, from that of a private citizen even up to the very exalted position he now holds. Shall a crime go unpunished?, Shall men guilty of this the greatest of all crimes against the State, and those who are its guilty actors, go free? Shall they in future be regarded as on an equal footing with those who for more than 4 long years perilled their vlives in defense of the li erties which these mensought to destroy? Shall they be permit ted, simply upon taking an oath to the Constitution ol the YU.S., to come back into these Halls, from which, when they took their voluntary departure, they swore in their wrath they never would return, to stand here again and legislate for the widow and orphan of the brave men whose lives were sacrificed by the insane attempt of these men to destroy all that i is great and good on the continent of America? Is this the punishment treason is to have meted out to it? Is this what the POTUS meant when he declared that treason is a crime and must be punished? Is this the meaning of his declaration of March 2, 1861, in the other end of this Capitol Show me who has been engagedin these conspir acies, who has fired upon our flag. who has given instructions to take our forts and customhousesand arsenals and dock ards and I will show you a traitor. Were I POTUS I would do as Thomas Jefferson did in 1806with Aaron Burr. I would have them arrested and if convicted within the meaning and scopeof the law, by the eternal God I would executethem." Hear another declaration from the same voice as late as April 20, 186 5, only 6 days after the conspirators of treason had struck down by as“sassination Abraham Lincoln: It is time the American people should be taught to understand that treasonisacrime not in revenue not in anger. but that treason is a crime and should be esteemedas such and punished as such." Again, sir, I make no attack upon the President. I indorse every word in the 2 quotations which I have read, and again I leave it to the unhung rebels, the unpardoned trai tors, the antiwar part 1 at the North, who make up the great mass of the new supporters of the President, to reconcile their sentiments with the support they now extend. In this connection I know Iwill be pardoned for observing that an evening journal of this city, which has kept these declarations at its masthead in flaming capitals for many months, has, since the extraordinary scene in this capital of the 22d of last month, struck them out altogether. Are these declarations to be with drawn? Are we to lose sight of them? Sir, I pray God the people will not forget them, but that the will proc aim them with a voice so loud on deep thatit will bring back the nation to the sound, and thunder it into the ears of power until they compel their fulfillment, at east upon the chiefs of the conspiracy. But et me quote once more, and let the people think over this language when they view what has followed upon the dome of the war. On the 10th of June, 1864, at Nashville, we find the President use this language. For language similar to this, used by members upon this floor, such members have been denounced by those who now clamor for the President and his policy as traitors and disunionists: “But, in calling a convention to restore the State, who shall restoreand roiistabhshit? Shall the “who gave his influence and means to destroy the goveminent? Is he to participate in the great work of reorganization? Shall bewho brought this misery upon the State be permitted to control its destinies? If thisbe so, then all this precious bloodo four bravo Ioldiers and of the crs.so freely poured out, will have been wantonly spilled. All the glorious Victories by our noblearmieswill gofor naught and all the battle fields which have been sown with dead heroesduring this rebellion will have been made memorable in vain. Why all this carnage and devastationI it was that treason might be put down and traitors unislied. Therefore I saythat traitors should take a ark seat in the work ofrestoration. If there bebut 5,000 men in Tennessee loyal to the Constitution 10al to freedom. loyal to justice, these true and faithful men should control the work of reorganization and reformation absolutely. I say that the traitor ha ceasedto be a citizen, and in Joining the rebellion has become a public enemy." "Before these repenting rebels can be trusted, let them bring forth the fruits of repentance." “And he added: and these leaders must feel the powerof the Government, Treason must.be made ions and traitors must be impoverished. Their great plantations must be seized and divided into small farms and sold to honest. industrious men." Let us see how these utterances have been followed. Have traitors a back seat in the res tomtion of the States recently in rebellion? Who is Governor of the State of Mississippi? Benjamin J. Humplircys, elected even before he had his pardoninhis oekct. Who of NCarolina? Jonathan Worth, who beat Holden, whose loyal to the South was such that the soldiers of eti. Davis threw his printing, rpress into the streets. Who of the State of SCarolina? James L. Orr, who was aleader in the rebel congress. Who ruled their conventions in their reorganization? Men fresh from the rebel armies. Who came knocking at the doors of these Halls for admission? An unbroken delegation of traitors from the States of SCarolina. Georgia, and Alabama; men who served as Sens&Reps under that bastard concern of Jeff. Davis. Even the unpardoned VEEP of the socalled confederacy is sent as a Senfrom the State of Georgia, and the sterling patriot Hill is told, we have no use for such men as you in Georgia, and she wants no such representatives at the national capital. Now, sir, we do not expect to him all the traitors. The world atiords no para lel of a great conspiracy, such as we have had in this country, in which all the uilty actors suffered the penalty of the law or myself, I shall be satisfied if the President will carry out his declarations so far as to hang even a few of the leading actors in this drama of blood; butI will not be satisfied to see these men and their sympathizers gain the trium h, when the war has passed, by the ballot which they failed to secure by the bayonet in the field. Again, sir, we are told that we musttrust those people. these men who sought the life of the nation. We are told, now that they submit, that they are as loyal as any people. Yes, we are told more than this; we are now told that the men who stood by the flag of their country, and who defied treason in the darkest hours of the Republic, and who now demand guarantees for the security of their hard earned labors, and the representatives of these loyal people who demand these guarantees, are disunionists, traitors, disloyal men, and that we are seeking to destroy the Government. Mr. Speaker, if seeking to secure to those who resisted a great cons iracy, and who de feated its aims, the controi) of the Government which their strong arm has saved constitutes a disunionist, then I plead guilty to the charge. If asking that traitors be punished, and have given to them the very modified form of pnnishment which simply prohibits them from holding office under the Gogernment whose death they sought, then I bear upon me the mark of traitor, and shall wear it to my grave as the proudest badge of honor my country could be stow upon me. Ifto ask that the victory won by loyal arms be secured by a fundamental law to those who never faltered in their support of the Union against armed foes, and that those fees in future shall not stand on an equality with these brave men, then I am a disloyal man; but bear in mind, sir such a disloyal man, such a traitor, such a isunionist as no: law, no statute and no constitutional provision known in this Republic condemns either to death, to exile, to imprisonment, or to disqualification from office. How stands my case in comparison with the followers of JeffersonDavis? I leave the country tojudge as to who are the traitors. The law defines treason as a crime and fixes the penalty; but as no man exacts or desires, as history shows no case, and s iould not where all who have engaged in such gigantic conspir acies have suffered the extreme menalt of the law, and as the President himscif has declared that treason is a crime, must be punished, and traitors made odious, let us by this amendment punish them for their crimes; let us make all who have engaged in treason infamous in the eye of the law to all time by saying to them, you can neither make laws nor can you administer them for the loyal people of this land and while I do think that the vindication of the power of the Government demands the execution of certainly the leading traitors of the rebellion, justice to the memory of the dead requires that their graves shall not he ruled over by men who waged a war against the nation in whose defense these heroes fell. In my humble judgment, this is the safest and surest guarantee the nation can have for the future. Men know when they enter a great conspiracy that if it fails they will not have the extreme penalty of death inflicted upon them, therefore they do not hesitate when it gets under way to enter it; but let the Constitution out them off forever from all the offices of trust, honor or profit, and let this revision be enforced, an ambitious men will be slow to commit an act which silences their voices in all that pertains to the great rights of free men for ever. Let us adopt this amendment, and the men who have proved unfaithful, the men who made war upon us, can never assume control of this Government again. Adopt this amendment, and you put the legal stamp of condem nation upon them, and forever secure to the loyal the victory over armed treason which the Arm of the Union achieved and scaled by the bloo slain soldiers of the Republic. Now, let us see how much these people are to be trusted. We must judge the future by the past. What has been their past? Do they present such a record as will Justify this case, the Representatives of the people, the executive power, and the great loyal country which maintained the Government, in trustin them? Their great leaders sat in these Hal 3, held high places in all Depts of the Government, and the most responsible positions in each of the States which went into secession. Each and every one had sworn to support the constitution of the U.S and to uphold the laws thereunder, and with this solemn oath resting upon their souls they plunged into a rebellion having for its chief purpose the destruction of the very Government they had thus pledged their honor to maintain. They then eagerly took a 2nd oath, and ledged their eternal support to a bogus conederac in direct antago nism to the Government of the U.S. 4 years roll on cars of strife, of din and battle and war, in aliits fury, by reason of this treachery; and these same leaders, with their deluded followers echoing their sentiments, pour out anathemas and invectives against the lreemen of the North, swear and reswear and then swear once more that they never will consent to live under Federal power again; that the war must go on until their independence is achieved, or war forever; that they would continue until the last of the race had gone down into bloody graves upon the battle field rather than yield; that the honor of the sons of the South would carry on the struggle until victory or death crowned their labors. What has come of all their oaths; what of all their boasts; what of their honor? They perjured themselves in their 1st oath of alle of more than 300,000.giance to the Government of the U.S. when they left our flag. Their boastings and their honor fell back interror, and presented a hastly show before the advance of the grand. rmy of the Union as it swept on from Cul pepper. through the Wilderness, over the ram parts of Spottsylvania, across the Rapidan, and thundering at the ates of Petersburg, rolled its echoes to the reel capital, and made the great leader of treason tremble for his safety. Ay, sir, went out of their souls as the heroes of liberty, with the grand shout of victory. closed around their lines, and the riling waters of the Appomattox told the story, “ our vaunting words have failed.” What scene do we witness then? Not having taken oaths enough yet; not having pledged their honor sufficiently often, theya vance from their dis. comfiture, and faster than oaths can be filled up, they swear anew to support the Constitution of the U.S., swear to support all laws of Connress and all roclamations made by the President during the war in reference to slaves; ay, further, swearing to support all that are to be made in future; and having done this they coolly tell us, “We are loyal men, we are to be trhsted, ” and uniting with those who during the war were their sympa thizers in the North, and who aiding them by attempts to baflle the Government, against preaching it, and denouncin it as a tyranny an a usurpation, more than half fought their bat tles of treason. Joined to a few recrcants to pthe cause of their country and freedom. with fawners at the foot of power, they have the effrontery to say to the representatives of the nation in this Capitol, to the representatives of that people who crushed out treason, “ You are traitors to your country if you deny our right to rule.” Ay, more, it is printed in their papers, not only South but North, and their utterances whispered through excited crowds, led by men who during the war were shut up in prison for their treason, “ This traitor Congress inust be driven from the Halls of the nations Capitol” if We do not admit to our deliberations these unrepentant conspirators; these thrice perjured individuals; these men ofhonorl and are we to be controlled by such threats as these? Must we fling wide open our doors and bid such men, acknowledged traitors to their countrys laws, with fierce wrath burning in their hearts not only against us, but against all who resisted them, because of their defeat, and because we dare ask a vindication of the honored dead, because we dare propose laws to secure to the living heroes the control of the land in whose peril they went forth to battle, and which by their valor they saved; must we yield to them the fruits of our victory, bought by 4 long weary years of blood? Let others do as they may, but when you ask me to give my consent and to join in the surrender, I answer “ Never! never! never!” Believing this proposition to be right, I contend for it, and lush the rereseutatives oi the nations defenders to consider it, to adopt it, and hold out for it. until we have secured its ratification. Will men hesitate to do right because of a fear. because of opposition in certain quarters, a fear that it will not be adopted; that we cannot secure the required number of States in its favor? There is no measure, sir, that will so firmly unite the loyal people. There is nothing to the support of which they will more eagerly rally. Upon this the loyal party of the nation can stand and can and will win success, because it will be a success of the right, a victory over treason and crime, and crowning the heroes of the struggle in peace with the laurels they so nobly won in war. Dare any party go before the loyal North and contend that traitors shall be allowed to make and execute laws and rule over the men by whose strong arm the power of the conspiracy was crushed in war; they will be swept out of existence and more overwhelmingly defeated than were the armed hosts of JeffersonDavis. We can secure the adoption of this amendment, which, in my opinion, the country so imperatively demands. EveryState which was loyal during the war i! will passsuch an amendment: then, sir, if the Stateswhich went into the rebellion desire. to moveon again on the rent principle which the war has settled, thutt ose who stand by the I Governmentshall rule, let them accept this, the Greatestissue of the war. But weare told that these people and these Statessubmit now; that they accept the issues of war. Do they? How do they accept them I By theircourse sinhe their armies surrendered; by the irpublic and private acts; by their fierce and bitterinvectives against and denunciations of all whostood up to thwart their designs; by theirestrucism, politically, civilly, and socially, of all Union men within the limits of territory over which they lately ruled; by electing the mostviolent rebels to all the offices in all these States, and by the largest maiorities, when opposedby men who have dared to stand by their country: by insulting the loyal dead and the living victor in sendin up to this Capitol, to take:irtin the national legislation of the country, tic very leaders of the rebellion itself, and that, too. in the face of the law which says you shall not enter even sending to our doors unpardonedrebels? Sir, ifmen see submission in these things I do not. If men find an acceptanceof issues in these things their search is deeperand more incom irehensible than mine. Sir, I desire peace. i have seen enough of war. For 4 ears [lived and breathe and acted in the midst of war. I have seen it on the battle field, heard it in the groans of the dying: have seen its fierce fires sweep around my own home; have seen the soldiers of the Republic in the dark, gloomy, and horrid ensof misery. where rebel bayonetscompelled these heroes and defenders of freedom to starve and freeze and sicken under a banner which Haunted treason over them as, away from friends and all they held mostdear, life [led and their spir its went home to God; have seen it in all its horrors, and want to no more. But I want a peace which, when it binds up the wounded side of the Republic, will say to the widows and orphans of these (lead heroes of the nation, you shall enjoy the fruits of victory gained by the martyrs who have fallen. I want a peace i which places those gems of honor which men seek to wear in their crowns forever be 0nd the reach of him who has dared to raise is hand or lift his voice to bring dishonor upon our banner of beauty and glory, or who has had it in his heart to blot out one star from that cm blem of liberty and freedom. I desire to see our country move on in her career of glory, but I desire to see her made secure to the people who stood by and upheld her laws, and do not wish to see her destinies transferred into the hands of men who sought her destruction. I desire.to see those people who wandered away from their duty come back into our house again, but not to rule it. When the poor prodigal who without cause left his fathers house, found himself stnrving and in want, he did not come back claiming the inheritance as these men do. How would his father have met him had he come proudly boasting of his deeds, and said. Iall the matters over which you exercise control have an equal right to share and govern with my brother who always remained with you in obedience? Would the old man, think you, have killed the fatted calf for this unrepentant son? such is not the teaching of the Book from which this arable comes. Let these wan erers, then, accept the issues of war, the main one of which is that the loyal must rule. Let them prove their faith by their works; show their loyalty by their acts; show their submission bygiving their voices tosecure the rent ends for which the gallant army of the nion fought. Let us put this amendment before them. Upon it they may pledge their faith find when they adopt the proposition they then prove to the world that they do accept; the greatest of all issues, and the nation teaches l lesson to men to rebel against a free Government no more forever. If they refuse to accept t, it is proof that they do not accept the issues l of the conflict; that they do not admit their wrong; and with their hearts still burning with fiery zeal and indignation against those who prevented them from carrying into effecttheir schemes to destroy this Union are they, or so long (Is they hold these feelings will they be, fit to resume all their rights and properrelations in this Union? Are they the men to be placed upon an equal footing with those who never raised an arm against their countrys flag? Whether we would have the right or whether it would be true policy to say to them, you cannot resume your properrelations in the Union until you have ratified this amendment, is aquestion I need not answer. But should we emand such action, we have the precedent of the POTUS to guide, and I believe the loyal heart of the nation would respond in a loud amen. But we will be told that this kind of a restoration is incomplete; that its success will not tranquilize nor satisfy the South, and that it ought not to do so; that there are not. loyal men enough in the South who are fit to represent them; that only traitors are intelligent and have qualifications such as are suitable for representatives of the people. Then, sir, it is their fault and not ours. ct them go unrepresented until men rise up who are fit. In this land ideas are rapidly developed, and while we wait for material the interests of the country will not suffer because we have not these intelligent traitors to aid us in making and executing the laws of the nation. But the as sertion is nqt true. Today there are in every district in the southern States Union men as well qualified to hold Federal places of all kinds as the traitors who arrogate this wisdom to themselves. In the language of a man whose home is more southern than my own, “Let them have the benefit of equal laws, but take from them at once and forever the power and temptation to renew their assaults upon the life of their country. Let no Union man high or low, court the favor of traitors. Ife will never win it. From the 1st they have held him as their enemy, and to the last they will be his. Every Union man who puts his trust in them will sooner or later find it out.” Let the representatives of the people do their duty and the people will stand by them. Let us make this a part of the Constitution of our country. A real, permanent triumph will then have been achieved; the honor of the nation not only vindicated, but the nation itself protectedand guarantied for the future; the honor of the scarred veteran, and of his dead brother soldiers engraveu in colors of living light which no time can effacc on their countrys record; the widows and orphans of the departed heroes have their and homes made lonely by accursed treason comforted in the great accomplished fact, written in characters in the Constitution of the countr, in whose defense their martyred husbands an fathers died, in characters which will last so lonw as the Republiclives: the loyal rule the land they saved; the traitors voice is hushed and must be silent forever; the green rass which rows upon the patriots grave, the powerswhic bloomaround theirresting places shall wave in the triumph of freedom, and the whirlwind and the thunder cloud as they swee past their tombs, reecho with tones that will shake the world; the hand that liftsitseifagainst the law is struck down; the voice which advo cates treason, conspiracy, and rebellion shall not again be heard in the Republic forever.