Mr. BAKER. Mr. Chairman, I rise to the question of reconstruction. In the very opening of my remarks Iwill saythat on the present occasion I must firmly decline to yield the floor to any interruption whatever; and this not from the slightest possible feeling of discourtesy to ward any gentleman who may desire such a privilege, but because of the entire newness of my position in this or any other legislative body, and because at the present stage of the debate, when no particular measure is under consideration, but only general principles out of which measures must come, I prefer to select my own undisturbed line of march overthe wide field of argumentation that is now opened up, and to marshal in unbroken order the great principles which in my judgment ought to controlthe action of this House and this Congress. Though I shall have occasion to deal plainly with great public facts and principles of conduct, I beg gentlemen on the other side of this House to accept my sincere assurance that I am very anxious to cultivate the most kindly personal relations toward every gentleman on this floor, and shall not, therefore, transcend the limits of parliamentary proriety and the true uses of debate, by passing from principles and groups and masses to the disconnected treatment of individuals. I will add that I shall speak only for myself, and with that untram meled freedom from authority and influence which I think appropriate to a direct Representative of the people in this Government. If in this my unpracticed judgment shall lead me into error, I only will be to blame for that error. To proceed at once, sir, toward the heart of the general question. In one very important aspect of the case, my analysis only enagles me to discover 2 fundamentally distinct ideas of policy so far as et manifested in this Hall: the one is firmly adhered to by the small Dem ocratic opposition which the loyal country has returned, and is also apparently favored by a few members of the overwhelming Union majority on this floor; the other draws to it the support of the great body of that Union majority. The one idea is that, in the very important business of restoring the revolted States to their complete normal position in the Union, the Congress of the U.S. has now nothing e“lse to do but to judge, each House for itsel, of the elections, returns, and qualifications of its own members.” The honorable Gentfrom NewYork [Mr. RAYMOND] informs us that “all but this has been done in the exercise of his (the Presidents) functions, and in the performance of his duties as POTUS and as CommanderinChief of the ir armies;” while the honorable Gentfrom Ohio [Mr. FXNCK] inquires, ” by refer this question to a JtCommee of the Senate and Housewhen the constitution provides that each House shall be the judge of the elections, returns, and qualifications ofrts own members?" and thus, sir, the voice from this side the Hall, and that of the Opposition member from Ohio, blend in perfect accord upon the main point, and unite in the assertion of the idea that this, the 1st American Congress thntassembles after the crushing of the rebellion, shall be dwarfed to the mere consideration of work fitly springing from a ComElections; signalizing its diminished existence by canvassing poll books. inspectin certificates, and in uning after the persona status of a few gent emen claiming seats on this floor. “Only this and nothing more I” That, indeed, would be a big performance on the part of the lawmaking power of the Government of the U.S. at a time like thiseovering it undoubtedly with a glory that would become historic. The other fundamental idea is, in my judgment, infinitely more in kee i with the just prerogatives of Congress, wrtht e demands of the people, and the imperative requirements of patriotic duty. It is that the Legislature of the Government, which is the constitutional source of all national law in the Republic, should go far behind the comparatively trivial, surface business of elections and personal qualifications, consider well the state of the Union in reference to the late rebellion, judge what further or safer precedent guarantees are necessary to the assured safety of the nation and provide for the same, admit no member from any State which has been in rebellion until after those guarautees shall be executed, and then, in conormity with law, declaring such State again entitled to representation. such, sir, is my conception of the function and duty of congress m the present emergency. The very statement of these 2 opposing views shows on which ide is the weight of reason; the one affirming, the other denying, that, the loyal people of this nation, through their Representatives in Congress, should be the judge of what great and just guarantees will make them secure in the future before readmitting to full power in the system those States which have just now laid upon our shoulders 3000 millions of debt, and, in their mad effort to blot this country from the political may of the world, filled the graveyards of the Nort and the battlefields of the South withthe mold cring bodies of the patriot children of the republicl Sir, if there ever was or ever can be upon earth a case, calling in the name of out raged right and humanity for complete and perfect security for the future, before reclothing with power the now paralyzed arm of treason still red with blood scarcely dry, this is that case! and, sir, when we reflect that these guarantees must consist of civil measures, laws, constitutional or statutory, I undertake to say that the assertion, directorby implication, that conas is not the proper judge of what they should embrace, is one of the most monstrous, indefensible, and pernicious assumptions that ever found expression in this Hall or out of it. How an mind of legal training, any mind acquainte with the great and prominent constitutional landmarks that separate the powers of this Government, could come to entertain such an idea, I am totall at a loss to conceive, except it be upon the ypothesis that the Executive, having justly and wisely wielded the gi gantic powers of war, and having thereby for a time fixed upon itself the peculiar and concen trated attention of the people, it should now, after the last n is fired, after the last armed fee has surren ered, yield to the force of habit and throw the shadow of the executive will over an immense field of law and civil jurisdiction! Sir, I am not advised that it is the purpose of our able and patriotic Executive to stand upon any such assumption. But e honorable Gentfrom NewYork [A Mr. Runoxn] has seen fit to maintain that the whole subject of precedent requisitions belongs solely to the president. In reply to a question upon the very point he says: “My impression is that these requisitions are made a part of the terms of surrender we have a right to demand at the hands of the defeated insurgents and that it belongs therefore to the President. as commanderinChicf of the Army and Navy of the U.S., to make them and to fix the limitas to what they shall embrace.” To my mind the concluding part of this statement presents an amazing proposition. Very true, sir, we may make properpolitical recauisitions a part of the terms of surrender an concession we have a right to demand of the defeated insurgents; but rt is not true, that the military surrender of men in arms, munitions of war, flags, and cannon, and the political surrender, involving permanent legal security for the future, are objects belonging to the same class, and amenable therefore to the same ultimate judgment and prevision. That, sir, is bad logic which commences with bad classification, forcing totally unlike things together and grouping them under the comprerension of the same particular idea and I submit that no 2 objects can be more distinct in their form and in their substance, than a Military surrender on the one band, and subsequent civil and political enactments in the nature of guarantee on the other. Most obviously the one a pertains to the Executive; most obviously t oother appertains to the Legislative; each in its own proper sphere having no limitation but that imposed by the constitution. What. sir, are the contents of a military surrender? Things military in their nature. What are the contents of a political surrender? Things political in their nature. Oil and water will no more mix in one than will these 2 objects obey the voice of the honorable Gentfrom NewYork, and marshal themselves together under the solitary control of the executive will. As well might Congress have undertaken to settle the military surrender of the rebel armies, “and fix the limit as to what it shall embrace " as for the Executive in accordance with the ideas of the Gentfrom NewYorkto assume definite control of the intervening civil policy which shall precede the return of the rebel States to full power in the Union, and “fix the limits" asto what this civil policy shall embrace. The very truth is, sir, that the putting down the rebellion and the final restoration of a nor mal order called for the exhibition of 2 great agencies, essentially different in their characterthe powers of warto crush the rebel forces in the fied and on the sea, and after that, a civil policy prescribing a secure basis of pacification or the country. She 1st of these agencies consisted of the Army, the Navy, military material and supplies. These were raised and provided by Congress and then wielded by the resident as Comman erinChief. The executive idea entered predominantly into this great a ency of war, because the executive will was the more immediate source of the battles, the sieges, and the grand military and naval movements of the conflict. The work of this agency is substantially accomplished. The other controllin agency consists of great pacifying measures o security to the country leading the way to the ultimate restoration of the revolted States to full and equal power in the Government. The legislative idea enters predominantly into this agency, and its work yet remains in great part to be done. That the 1st of these agencies should swallow up the 2nd, undertake to judge of its work, and oust it of its jurisdiction, ought never to he claimed or defended by an American statesman l But, sir, to place this matter beyond all controversy, at least in the forum of reason and law, let us inquire with more particularity what are and onght to be the elements of that civil policy which should go before and inaugurate such return of the late rebel States to power. There 1st is the required constitutional amendment abolishin slavery throughout the jurisdiction of the Republic, and giving congress power to make the same effectual by law. [hat was deemed one very essential condition precedent. What has or ever had the Executive to do with the initiation, the judging, or making of this amendment? The constitution expressly confers on Congress by a 2/3rds majority the power to propose, and on the States by a 34ths majority the powerto ratify, all constitutional amendments. Here, then, ll] this great part of the pacifying policy, the executive nowhere appears, but only Congress and the States. Again, another precedent condition is that the revolted States should each (present a government republican in form, an of this congress is the exclusive judge. In the great Rhoda sland case, (Luther vs. Borden and decided in 1849, the SCOTUS considering o that section of the constitution which provides for the guarantee of a RFGuses the following language: “Under this article of the constitution it rests with Congressto decide what government is the existing one in a State. For as the U.S. guaranty to each State a republican government, Congress! must necessarrl decidewhat government is establishedin the State cforo 1!run 1 cfernnnz: whether a u republimn or not and when the Sens&Reps of a State are admitted into the councilsof the the authority of the government under which my“"“tl. “f"W”:srm:s. u. rapz“rfa. af. imlli2hfliifaf.;. ) the Government.” Thus the opinion of the court is that the con462 January 27, stitution devolves itupon Co ato look at the government of a State and “ determine whether it is republican or not, ” and further, that the decision of congress upon the point “is binding upon every other Dept of the Government.” But aside from what the court has said, it is a parent from the Very nature of the thing, that the great civil and political questionbi with the rights of the soutern people, white an black involved in the determination of what is or is not a republican State, belongs essentially to the legislative branch of the Government. Of course, in the execution of this guarantee affirm ative legislation by Congress would, as in other cases, have to be accompanied by the sanction of the President. Again: there are at least 4 other guarantees of safety and justice to the loyal people who have saved this country at so great a cost ofblood and treasure, every one ofwhich should, in my judgment, be incorporated in the constitution of the U.S. before admitting representation from an State which has been in rebellion, and from alconsideration, authority, or judgment concerning which, the Executive is discurged, as I have explained, by the Constitution itself: 1st, anamendment lhced, in the fundamental law of the whole lan, put ting it above all question and all cavil, that no State has a right to secede from, le Union at her sovereign will and pleasure. econdly, an amendment guarding against all uctuations of time and part, all possible relapses of corruption, giving the people of the Union and the people of every State perfect repose, perfect security against the possibility of ever being burdened with the payment of any portion of that enormous rebe debt which was contracted in the satanic effort to lay the Republic in ruins., 3rdly, making representation, and conse fquent power in this “overnmeut, bear an exact proportion to the measure of political justice practiced by each State in the uion mean an amendment apportionin representation in congress, with properguar s, accordi to the number of persons who are represented in each State respectivelythereby protecting the loyal people of the nation from tecrying injustice and palpable danger of restoring the late rebel communities, as proposed by some, not to equal rights in this Union, air, as is delusively said but on a basis ving to the recent traitors of the South, man for man, nearl double the political. powerin the popular branch of the Government, and over the uture destinies of the Republic, which belongs to the loyal citizensof the country who have saved it from destruction at the hands of these very traitors. 4thly, an amendment., forever excludin all rebels from the high of fices, civil and military, under this Government thereby giving bloodless satisfaction to jus tice, and a deadly blow to the aristocracy out of which the rebellion sprung. Every one of these suggested amendments is not only needed as a means of giving security, repose, and satisfaction to the country, but, what is more and higher, they are all inherently right. You can look an honest man straight int to eyes while demanding them, sir. Isit not rightt at a final and unmistakable constitutional quietus should be given to both of those twin monstrosities, divinity of slavery and ascendenc of State over national sovereignty, which were Iowa 11 together by political demagogues and a prostituted clergy, until they finally exploded in wrath and blood and treason through the land? Is it not right that a like quietus should be placed upon terebel debt; that the loyal ieople of the nation, North and South, should lave perfect security against the corru ting power and contingent danger of that det? nd is it not a mockery and an insult to tell them they should take any risk whatever when they can so easily and so justly guard against all risk by amending the fundamental law before admitting the exrebel communities to power? lfthis is notdone I regard it as eminent y probable, if not morally certain, that the rebel States, under the old ruling class, will, each for itself, burden the labor of its 001 people, white and black, loyalist and trai flm whth the payment of the rebel debt it has contracted; thus grinding with cruel injustice the loyalists of the South, and greatly impairin the ability of thatsectiouto contribute itsjusts are in the liquidation of our legitimate national debt. That statesman assumes a fearful responsibility, sir, who would leave the nation, and especially the producing laborers of the South, exposed to such a danger as this! But, further, is it not right that the exrebel of Tennessee or Carolina, Virginia or Mississippi, should be restored to no more political weight in the Government he has striven so hard to destro, than is enjoyed by the northern patriot who as given all that was mortal of his son to some battletrench of the South, or southern graveyard where starved men were buried? and is it not right that the nation should smite with the voice of its fundamental law, as utterly and forever unworthy of its trust, those ringleaders who betrayed it so infamously and to such deadly hurt? Send these nestionsto 1 he country, sir. Send them to NewqEngland, N NewYork, and Pennsylvania, whose volunteerlevies gauged the high water mark of human heroism upon the immortal field of Gettysburg; send them to Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, and the Northwest, whose invincible legions, abler than those. of Alexander or Cmsar, cleared the banks of the great river to the Gulf, stormed the mountain! barriers of Chattanooga, and swept in a circle! of fire and blood sheer through the heart of the opprobrious confederacy; send them sir, to the; whole loyal countr, whose grand ost, marshaled for the fin conflictfrom every loyall State, bore the banner of Liberty and Union triI um hantly through that Titanian struggle of the Wi derness, and, though 90,000 brave comrades fell from themraaks, planted itat last, amid the wild plaudits of the nation, amid the reeling of steeples, the clangor of bells, and th boom of artillery over Spottswood, Castle Thanl dle, and Libby firison ! Ask these people who have thus given 500 and 25,000 of the ir strong sons to the jaws of death in order to rescue the republic from the parricidal hand of treasonas them whether they will now have an skindeep tinkering of statesmanship, any pa tering in a double sense, any uncertainty and danger in regard to the great and vital and plainly just points of security I have named; and, sir, an answer shall come back to you which will startle you into a realizing sense of the grand purpose, the high moral power which lies locke u in the great loyal heart of this country! That purpose is strong, because it is allied to patriotism, justice, humanity; because it recognizes progress as well as order; because it is the will of God, exressed in historic form, and workin out the istoric ends of the Republic. It will not be thwarted of these ends, sir! No power in the nation, official or other, is stron enough to stand before it and turn it back. dt demands that the old reign of brotherly love based n on infernal injustice shall cease, and cease effectually. It demands that the character of the American citizen shall no more be degraded uorhis patriotism corrupted by being reqnired to surrender his conscience as a peaceoffering to either an imperious or a suing aristocracy of class. It demands that the honor of the nation shall not be soiled with base invratitude by abandoning our southern allies who have done so much by strong arms and patriotic sympathy to turn the scale of the conflictin our favor abandoning them, sir, to the bullet, the knife, the halter, the scourge, the cruel code, the enforced ignorance, and compulsorg poverty which the bitter “ grudge" that is owe them will so surely bring upon their unprotected heads. The loyal people of the nation feel, sir, and they know, that if one Curtius leaping into the chasm was an offer in propitious to the gods, iving back solid cart for men to stand upon, this mighty holocaust of more than half amilion of lives ought to have the moral and political consequence of giving to them and their posterity forever 9. firm and assured ground of justice and safety to stand upon! The feel, sir, and they are proud of the fact, that their nd army of citizen soldiery has covered itee f with imperishable glory, by executing the most prodi oua military performance recordedin history. hey now look) to their civil representatives, and demand the exhibition of a statesmamhip which history will not blush to record in contrast with its great military antecedent a statesmanship which shall inaugurate the new and better order, by 1st gathering up the most vital results of the yvar and conereting them as the expressed will of the nation, some in the fundamental law of the Republic, and others in great and stable statutes of liberty. When this 18done, and not before, let the late rebel States resume full political power in the Government. Some one has said that America produces the largest rivers, the handsomest women, and the most impudent men anywhere to be found on the face of the whole earth. it is true, indeed, sir, as to the impudeucc. If there is one pos tulate of common sense and common honesty and common decency which more plainly than another is seen to be true at the 1st glance, it is that the tried and proved friends of the Government, who have stayed it up from overthrow during this terrible war, have now a right to set the national house in safe order, before read1 mitting to power and influence over that house, those who have just now stolen its treasure, cap tured its sentinels, plundered its arsenals, fired its rooms, blown 11 its buttresses and covered its wide halls and orig corridors eep with the blood of its loyal deenders! and now, that these mischievous rioters have been quelled and disarmed by the friends. of the house, that they should expect, or dream, or imagine that they have any other right but to take a back seat. until those friends have time to fix up the house for their proper future accommodation, is an instance of impudenee having no parallel in profane and only one in sacred history and that was when the devil extended an invitation to the Lord to fall down and worship him! That preliminary fixingup of the housein addition to what has already been donecon sists essentially in myjudgment of the 5fundamental things which I have named. Let us look at these a little more in detail, and see more particularly what relation the sustain to the honor, the sense of justice, an the future repose and security of the nation; and, with a view to being strictly practical in our conduct, let us keep in view the probable voice that will come back from the country when it comes to be linterrogated oneach of these points respect we. 1st, the guarantee of a RFG, which, as we have seen, belongs to [Congress to judge of and determine. Will anyone question that the loyal people of the whole count wish to have this guarantee executed before a mitting the revolted States to political power? Do they notwish that these States shall come with republican governments?Is it not inherently right that they should be required so to come? and is thata republican State which is based upon afraction of even its white population. but especially, and moredirectly and certainly to the point, is that a republican government which signally fails to protect the great right of liberty which haahcen conferred upon 1/2 of its people by the sovereign Will of the nation? certainly, sir, it is not; and right here comes in the power of Congress toard and make real the precious boon of civi freedom which has been pledged to the colored people of the South, in consideration of their great service to the Government in its time of need. I say nothing sir, of the political right of suffrage in itself or the purpose of assuming a position of impregnable practical strength, upon which all uion men unite, I limit mysel to the very terms of the bond, and say that the loyal people of the country stand pledged to secure civil berty to the colored man of the South and that they demand an ellicient execution of that pledge as part of the basis of reconstruction. 2ndly, a constitutional amendment declaring in literal terms the indissolubilit of the Union. Is there not a real need oft is? Are the opinions that a State has a sovereign I 1866. 463 right to secede, and that the constitution is broken by coercing it back, quite given up in our land? Far from it, sir. The number of persons in the North who held and hold one or 0th of these positions is ver large, while in v the South both opinions, on the point of very right, are probab y as prevalent as they ever were. They mourn “a just but lost cause.” They admit that the Government had more men, more resources, and a longer purse. But men, resources and money are measures of force and not o right. So teinward conviction of the heart remains unchanged. Now, sir, upon this cat point of nationahty, we want the Victory o force to draw with it the logical consequence of passing on to a victory of perma nent, quieting law, sohterally certain that no future Calhoun, Davis, or Yancey will be able to mislead any portion of the people. When we consider that by and by we may number 100 States; when we take into view our vast prospective population; when we reflect upon the climatic and other natural causes which will tend to segregate in parts a dense population extending over such an immense area, I warn you, sir, that in the great future which awaits us, we shall need a opsfitnjjmn whose language sp. 1 yin terms so plain as to preclude “the possibility” maisinterpretation. Now, before readmrtting the seceding communities, who asserted so mightily the right of secession, is the time to secure that amendm ent. Afterward it will be. too late forever; the golden opportunity will be lost; the bitter heresy of State secession, now cloven to the ground by the scythe of war, will spring up anew from its unextirpated and living roots, and return to plague again our public life. 3rdly, a constitutional amendment tabooing the rebel debt as to State and nation. Who can doubt that this form of security is really needed? I have said already, and it appears to me entirely obvious, that the rebel States, if unrestrained by the constitution of the Union, will, as soon as they get full control of themselves, set aside the little arranvements which have been made at the point of the bayonet, and burden their people with the great debts they have contracted for the overthrow of this Governmentthus absorbing their revenues in the payment of these debts, and so crippling their abiity to aid the exchequer of the nation. Who can doubt that the 100,000 exrebels of Tennessee, opposed to her 40,000 loyalists will, when left to themselves, and unrestrainedb the national constitution, take charge of that State bodily? and so, and worse, if possible, of the other seceded States. either, sir, do the people feel so secure as they wish inst this rebel debt in a national sense. That!” it will come to be said after awhile, “tax us to pay our debt, to put large sums of money annually into the pockets of your people, and you reuse to help us to pay our debt, which grew out of the same squab ble, which was honestly contracted, and is justly duel and weequal States in the Union! Call you this equality ctween members of the same family? qWe getting all the shearing and you all the wool! Arguments not a whit sounder have, on more than one occasion, controlled the action of a once dominant party in this country; and when we recall the final nether swoo of that party, when, compassing not mercl) the imposition ofawicked debt, but the very ife of tenation, 1/2 of it rushed frantically at the throat of the Republic, while a large portion of the other half la like a threatening thundercloud upon the lorth, growling in sympathy with treason and when we contemplate the assemblage of their wise men, standing upon the banks of the great western lake, and crying with a loud voice, ” Great is Babylon! great is Babylon ! her proud towers will not be brought down by the battering ram of war!” and this just before those towers were in fact laid prone by the stalwart blows of Grant and Sherman; and now, when we look at these same wise men on the one hand, and these disarmed traitors on the other, and see that, like 2 longseparated lovers, they are fairly glowing with eagerness to rush into each others embrace, we are admenished that it is prudent to postpone this embrace until we shall rave taken ample surety that the result of it cannot be another spawn of plagues upon the nation ! 4thly, the suggested amendment making representation in Congress correspond with the measure of suffrage behind it. This, or substantially this, I regard as a measure not only perfectly just in itse f, but as one of the most po tent agencies that can be wielded by the friends of progress. Who can stand before the people of the North and tell them that the late rec! communities ought as a matter of right, to have between 30 and 40 representatrves in congress upon no better basis than the uuvotin and therefore unrepresented colored people of the South? Let this be changed, by all means; so that a State shall either a low its people to vote or else not have them counted in the basis of her representation. Sir, by this sign we conquerl B this sign we move forward the whole co umn o civilization! For thus we make not only the stars to fight against Sisera, but set Satan to the work of casting out Satan. Would you have power in this Republic, over whose capitoline ome towers the oddess of Liberty as a grand and beautiful symbol of the rights of man? Be just, be humane and incorporate the great principles of true democracy in your State. You do not wish to do this? Then submit to have your power shorn to the exact measure of your justice. Thus, sir, we have a mechanism by which, placing our lever on the fulcrum of selfishness. we prly the whole man upward. Thus we supply an a embic, by which prejudiee is dissolve, humanity quickened and a whole brood of old barbarisms transmute into new and beau tiful elements of civilization. The poor, the little, the despised and downtrodden would then take on a new value to society, and would consequently be more respected and better treated than ever before. Say not that such an amendment would be odious, as placing a recognition of class distinction in the fundamental law of the Republic. You know that distinction already exists in fact, and that the practical tendency of the amendment would be to remove it; so that the objection not only sticks in the bark, but breaks the faith to the heart while keeping it to the ear. Finall, the suggested amendment excluding rebe s forever from all the high offices of honor or profit under the Government of the U.S. The value of such an amendment would be great. As I have suggested, it would furnish a large, humane, and bloodless satisfaction to justice. I have heard much said about making treason odious. The adoption of such an amendment would be doing something to the purpose in that direction. Iwill say, sir, that I will hiss no man on in the scent of blood. I am not strong on hanging. Neither am Ivory strong on confiscation, though willing to do a reasonable thing in that way. I look rather to the up lication of great principles, of unquestiona e justice and humanity, giving large satisfactions, operating upon large masses, removing torpid and brutal social obstructions, and he ping society on in its troubled and benighted march to the realization of those better things which I devoutly believe God has in store for it and I say emphatically, that in my judgment such an amemment would be a very potent means of breaking dowrghat torpid and brutal social obstruction of class rule and aristocracy in the South, out of which came the rebellion, and which is still the tormenting evil of the Republic. Would you be humane to the great mass of the southern people, white and black? Wrench the scepter o power over this Government, at least, from hands which have only ruled to curse and to ruin. Is there not blood enough on those hands to work a forfeiture of right to the scepter? Besides, sir, the loyal people of the country, North and South, want permanent, reliable security that their eyes shall never behold that insufferable spectacle, some RobtELee from Virginia, some Wade Hampton from SCarolina, some Jacob Thompson from Mississippi, some Gideon J. Pillow, or Fort Pillow Forrest from Tennessee, walking into the other end of the Capitol or into this Hall to make laws for the people of the U.S. ! That, sir, ought to be made an impossible thing forever, and the only we to do it is to place the prohibition of it in the onstitution, high above the unstable security of a mere statute which is subject to be set aside at any moment. My stron impression is, that if this is not done before a mitting these communities to power a ain, it will not belong before we shall see the doors of these legislative Halls speckled over with generals and colonels who won the popularity whrich elevated them to office by leading on the serried rebel column, undera strange and detested flag, to the slaughter of the patriot sons of the Republic! Sir, the very ones of these heroic slain would rise up from the fields of carnage where they fell, and reproach us for the infamy of so base a wrong to the martyred deadl while their fathers, their mothers, their widows, and their orphan children would point the finger of scorn and cry “Shame! shame!” with an emphasis more blasting than the curse of the weird witch, because rnade pun ent by the justice of God! Look, sir, at e men who have already been elected, as it is called, by most of these communities! Look at the message of the socalled Governor Perry, of SCarolina, arguin that the statute alluded to is unconstitutrona and ought to be repealed, and openly confessing that the men returned by that State could not, without flat perjury, take the oath we have all here taken! Read, for you may, from the Richmond Whig of the 21st ultimo, that "In 5 its of the late defeat of the Democracyin Ohio and Pennsylvania. the respectand confidenceof the southern peoplein that party is aszrentas it ver was.” They know fullwe! that cifotnhgerreeswsiaosnaalDemooratic muiority in Congress the teatoathwould beawept mow" thus ushering upon these floors as lawmakers for loyal men, women, and children the ring leaders of the late bloody and infernal rebellion against count and against liberty! and that this opinion of the northern Democracy on the part of the errrebels is correct, is proved by the fact that the Representatives of that party upon this floor have already, at this very session, voted nearly unanimously to lay on the table a rgsolution asserting the binding force of that statute! whe want a constitutional barrier, sir against this impending irruption of rebel celebrities into the chief seats of the Republic, which they have been unable to subvert by stealth, fraud, and perjury, or to overthrow by armed force in the field. Sir, my sense of magnanimity would impel me to pass by another way, and decline to speak thus of a vanquished adversary, were it not that my sense of right is outraged by that evil conjunction of stars in one quarter of our heaven which threatens to throw awa the hardlyearned fruits of this blood war, on, after the fashion of the old, miserab e, loweringdown compromises of the past, to give to the nation, under the name of a quieting anacea, a mask that will sicken the stomachs of the people, leave “sour eyed disdain” to rankle in their hearts, and to ripen, it may be, after another cycle of angry unret, into another purifying cataclysm of blood! Now that Providence and the strong arms of brave men have laid bare the living rock of righteousness, hard by the weltering sloughs of injustice through whch the nation has struggled, let us, in Gods name, hail with eat joy the high privilege of placing our feet rmly upon that rock, remain in the mire who will! Now that that old Rookery of Barbarism, Spanning erewhile our whole concavefilled with all abominationscrawling creatures not a fewpeeping and mutterin creatures ugly as those seen by Dante perche in the infernal woodand sending from its high places dolcful notes of command across the night, marshaling the nation down, down to the abyss l n 0W that this obscene old Rookery 1189been 18 d ""18 404 January 27, open by the avenging sword of the Lord, sweeping in liery circles through its “adder dens" and its foul roosts, thus fillin earth with the hideous hubbub of its scampering inmates, and so letting in once more the sweet light of the stars by which a righteous nation walks lletus, I imlore you, sirif we would assert our man hood: if we would be liege to country and hu manity, ifwe would escape the condemnation of future historyguide our footsteps by the light of those stars, and not by the fcti glamour of the deadlights that han delusive over the festerirubbish piles an cesspools of the wrecke ini uit 1 Sir, if wet in to the bottom of this business I am solemnly convinced that 4 general things will appear essential: 1st. that the measures adopted shall give real satisfaction to the loyal heart of the country; 2ndly, that these measures shall embody the nearest attainable approach to real justice and humanity, whether as applied to the North or the South, the white man or the black, the loyalist or the traitor; 3rdly, that these measures shall be such that they shall conspire in their future operation to remove the segregating difference between the North and the South, and thus help us to a Union of affection in place of a Union of force; and 4thly, that these measures shall be deposited in the highest and most stable forms which the nature of each will admit of. Any plan which does not give satisfaction to the loyal people will be a failure. Any plan which does not embody substantial justice and humanity to all will be a failure. Any plan which does not tend to remove differences, and to bring North and South together in better harmony of feeling, will be a failure; and above all, and emphatically, any plan which does not provide for its own coneretion through the expressed will of the nation, in the most permanent and enduring forms of law, will be, in my judgment, not only a failure, but, besides that, a short sighted and egregious blunder., Why, air, this cat must be so from the very nature of the case. Here has been an armed controversy between the Government and certain States seekin to overthrow it. The rebellion is suppressediy force, after fighting 100 bloody battles and loading the people with an immense debt. As a principle it is admitted on all hands, upon this side of the floor, that properarantees of security and justice may be required of the defeated party before admit ting t mm to power again. how I put the question to the unclouded reason ofany mind: who on earth should be the custodian of these guarantees the nation requiring them for its own security, or the defeated party of whom they are required? The nation of course; and to say the offending States should retain custody of them is, in my judgment, the merest mockery and nonsense. lleither is the matter helped by talking about a generous confidence. That, sir, is only a begging of the question since it is confidence we are seeking to create by taking gnar antees which will make us feel secure; and men do not usually attach much confidence to securities not in their own hands nor subject to their own control, but in the hands and under the control of the very parties sought to be bound! To call such athin asecurity is to speak in a sense too decidedly ickwickian to be:1together appropriate in the closin up of this most serious and tragic business. o, sir, the loyal nation should take these securities intoits own keeping by placing them in the Constitution, so tar as they will severally admit of it. I think the measures I have suggested will go far toward fulfilling the fundamental conditions I have named. Taken together they will give substantial satisfaction to the loyal people who have saved the count. Then they are all Just in themselves; just in their bearin on every class a on which they act and their Joint influence will be tostimulate the true democratic life of the country in all its parts, and thus to narrow the segregating difference between the North and the South and in addition to all thiskeeping in view the necessity of being prac resorted to and measures to be adopted. tical as Well as earnest I am unable to cull from the whole complex assemblage of clements before us any other efficient combination of measures which would be so certain to secure the triumphant sanction of the country. Let them be adopted. sir, before readmitting the exrebel States, or either of them, to political power in the Government, and in my opinion they will constitute abasis of pacificution upon which the whole country, North and South, will rapidly coalesceinto oneunbroken nationality offeeling, all loving the common flag of libert, all contributing to the culture, growth, an grandeur of the great Republic. and, sir, another advantage is that these measures present no point upon which a prac tical difference can arise between the executive and legislative branches of the Government, each acting within the limits plainly prescribed for it by the constitution. In the 1st place, the Executive will of course cheerfully approve all legislation which may be involved in the guarantee ofrepublican State governments, and needful and proper to make real the civil liberty which has icen pledged to the colored people of the South and then, as to the 4 suggested amendments of the constitution 1st, settling secession; 2nd, prohibiting payment of the rebel debt; 3rd, providing a more just basis of Representation; and 4th, excluding rebels from all high Offices underthis GovernmentI should really suppose his Excellencys personal opinion would favorthem all; but, however this may be, nothing can be more certain than it is impossible for his Excellency to have any official opinion on these points, for the reason already stated, that the constitution takes no notice whatever of the President in providin for its own amendment, but leaves that wor wholly and exclusively to Congress and the States. So that, in the execution of the plan suggested, there is not the slightest legitimate room for any iarring between different Depts of the vernment. As to the 10al relation which the late rebel Stiites sustain an avesustained to the Government, I will next present such of my views as I think have a practical bearingupon power} to }lie nt e 1st place, I will say emphatically, this Republic has never been divided. Grotius, writing of the cases where nationa “jurisdiction and pr"operty cease, ” tells us It may so fall out that what was beforebut one State may be divided. either by mutual agreementor by force of arms, as the Persian empire was under Alexanders successors. When this happens there will be several sovereignties in the room a one, ” Ate. This is the exhaustive analysis, sir; a nibtion may only be divided by peaceable consent, or by force, internal or external and this is the criterion by which we may know the division has been effected; the emergence of several sovereignties in the room of one. This is so plain in itself that we should have known it quite as well, though Hugo Grotius had never lived or written. Now, has there in fact been, at any time, such an emergence of several sovereignties in the place of one within the confines of the U.S and its Territories? It is idle to pretend there has. The government defacto set up by the revolted States was a bd ligcrent but not a sovereign power. It was treated as a belligerent by this government, and by many if not all the great States of Euro e and it was indeed a gigantic belligerent. but neither this Government nor any State on earth ever recoized it as a sovereign power. Every branch of this Government, executive legislative, and judicial, persistently asserted the one and undivided sovereignty of the Republic. We must not confound the power exerted by the defacto confederate government with sovereign power. The 2 things are totally different in ow. The one cannot be seen as an existing entity in the fumily of nations, the other constitutes a member of that family; thus revealing a difference, when viewed from the standpoint of public law, as wide as the difference between that which is and that which is not. So the revolting States did not for a single moment succeed in segregating themselves as a sovereign power. The exact practical condition of the case, affirmatively stated, appears to me substantially as follows: the word " union” involves a coml ex, and nota simple idea. As applied to the Territories, this District, the forts arsenals and mayards of the Government, all ofwhich are sui to be in the Union, it includes, 1st the sovereign right of eminent domain in the U.S. overthe geographical surfaces of these several objects; and 2ndly, the right of sovereignty in the U.S. over all itscitizens living on these geographical surfaces. As a plied to the States, the term “union” in c udes not only the 2 ideas that the General Government has the sovereign right of eminent domain over their entire geogra ical surface and the sovereign right at juris iction over all its citizens residing on that surface, but also the 3rd idea, that the people of the States, properly constituted as such, have arightto participate in the government of the Union, by sending Representatives and Senators to Congress. Now, be it notedfor the point is vitally important, if we would really understand this vexed imbrogliobe it noted, that of these 3. cords of relation between the Government on the one hand, and the whole people and term firm of the Union on the ot er, the 1st 2 are cords ofobligation to the U.S., while the 3rd is a cord of privilege to the States re. actively. The right of eminent domain, and teright of jurisdiction being cords of oblition to the U.S., were not snappedy the rebellion. But the right to rticipate in the povernment of the Union, being a cord of privilege to the States respectively, was in isputably forfeited and snapped by into open, flagranswar against the Uniopnl. unging his conclusion cannot be denied without abandoning all reason and all principlewithout maintaining that at the very time rebel cannon were planted upon the banks of the Potomac, and rebel legions were thunderiat the gates of the capital it was the right o rebel emissarics, maske as legislators of the Union, to step in here and help finish the work of min! This no one has been hardy enough and foolish enough to assert. So that this 3rd cord of relation, this privilege of takingpart in the government of the Union, was demonstrably snapped by the rebellion. Yetit does not follow that it should remain always, oreven fora great while, severed, but only so long as may be nce cssary to take safe securities for the future, or, as I have said, to put the national house in properorder, before we comin back those offending communities to the big privilege of again helping to rule a country, which, after doing their very best, they have been unable to destroy. The Gentfrom Indiana [Mr. Voonusns] wishes to know what clause of the constitution can be cited us tifying this postponement for guarantees. by, sir, you can scarcely go amiss for them. The clause guarantying a republican government is one. he revolting States, as I have stated and proved, having voluntarily severed the cord of their goveruin connection with the Union, congress can, unor this clause, look at their existing organizations, and require them to be republicaninform; in other words, requirethem to conform to the constitution of the nion, before permitting them to resume their casto6 governing relation in the Union: What can possibly be plaiuer than this? Again, the power which authorizes the suppression of an insurrection carries with it, by necessary implication, the power to restore and to require a safe civil order after the insurrection is suppressed. Is not this intuitively seen to be true? Again, the constitution authorizes Congress to provide for “the veneral welfare of the U.S.;" and what can be more fatally necessary to that welfare than the taking of all properprecautions before again admitting to power those who have so nearly destroyed the verylifc of the nation? This is not all, but it is enough to show conclusively, that the requirement of these prelim inary securities has as strong a foundation in legal right as in common sense and true patriot)Bm.” So far, then, it is entirely certain that by rebellinga instthe U.S. the rebel States became etached from their governing position in the Union, and maynowbeheldsountil) proper measures of future safety can be provide. but did they cease. to be States in every sense? In my opinion they clearly did not; and I think we only incumber ourselves with useless dead weight by assuming the did. An argument has been derived from the law of nations, and from other sources, by which it is undertaken to be shown that, inasmuch as these States cast 06 the superior authority of the U.S., they thereby lost a vital requisite of State existence, and hence ceased to be States; not in properrelation to the Union, mark you, but cease to be States absolutely. I will ask whether those 13 communities, called in our Declaration “the U.S.A., ”ceased to be States by the act of throwing off the superior authority of the mother country? and did the States of Holland cease to be States by the act of ropudiating the superior authority of Spain? and did the 7 cantons of the Sonderbund cease to be cantons by their reactionary revolt against the Swiss confederacy, similar in so many respects to the late reactionary revolt against this Republic? I will venture to af firm that no historian and no publicist has ever thought so and I will venture to allirm that the proposition that anystate whatever, whether in this Union or elsewhere on earth, ceases totally to be a State by the act of forcibly asserting its allegiance to a new superior authority, has no foundation in public law. Here again, as with the term “Union, ” it is only necessary to define accurately in order to wal with sure footing. Mr. Justice Story says: “Tho word state is usedin various senses. In its mostenlarged senseit means theIpeoplecomposinga particular nation or CQmmunlty. But there is a more limited sensein which the word is often used. where it expresses the positive actual OYRIHHIBUODof the legislative, executive. oriudicial DOWQID. Now, it is alpable the revolting States did not cease to be States in the 1st and larger sense of the word. Their people did not become extinct. Neither did they, by the act of revolting and making war, cease substantively to be States in the more limited sense of the word; for each of them retained a powerful and ellicient organization defacto or itself, constituting each of the m a State defacto for the time and that there is such a being as a State defucto known to the language of the law anyone may learn by consulting Story. The decision of the Supreme Court in the prize cases, so often cited, gives no countenance to the notion that the whole idea of State was expunged by the rebellion, but expressly recognizes that that idea in some sense must be retained. The court says that “in organizing this rebellion they have acted as Staterff that “several of these States have combined to form a confederacy;” that “the ports and territories of each of these States are held in hostility to the General Government.” How could the ports and territories of a State be held in hostility when there was not so much as the ghost of aState in the case? But there is a 3rd definition of a State. It is that complex political beingwhicb constitutes a member in properrelations to this Union and here the integrity of the idea is invaded in the case of the revolted States. The fullness of the idea of a State in this sense involves. fir t, the performance of all things enjoined by the constitution: 2ndly, the abstinence from all things forbidden by the constitution; and 3rdly, the right to participate in the Government of the Union under the constitution. These States having angrily thrust from them the privilege of helping to govern the Union; havmg refused to do everything enjoined by the constitution; and having done everything for bidden by it, even to the waging of a 4 years war for the subversion of the Republic, it not only results with crushing conclusiveness, as already stated, that they should not resume governing power until such resumption shall be safe for the country, but it also follows, with equal certainty, that inasmuch as their hostile organizations de ado, State and confederate, have been overt rown by the successful arms of the republic, this righteous catastrophe left them in the condition of disorganized States. I say, emphatically, disorganized States in the Union and ) not out of it. This is the position which the common sense of the nation has as signeito these States, and that common sense is ofinfinitely more worth as a criterion oftruth than the unsubstantial subtlety of the meta physical politicians. Let no one take alarm. hese disorganized States, though in the Union, can of course have no political power in the GOvernment until they are properly organized as republican States, with properguarantees of u lic safety and that the common sense of the people is at one with the very law of the case is not only aparent from what has already been said, but resn ts with powerful conclusiveness from that great clause of the Consttution upon which so much reliance is placed: The U.S shall guaranty to every this U.S. in a RFG.” This guarantee goes to a “ State, ” not to a territory. It goes to a State “ in this Union, ” not out of it. It contemplates the contin ency of a State in the Union being deprived o a republican government, either by the imposition of some other form or by being forcib y disor ganized, which last was the case with the 11 revolted States. It then becomes the duty of Congress as we have seen, to secure to the people of such usurped or disorganized State a RFG. The execution of this guarantee, in combination with the amendments I have insisted on, will make the nation secure; and the whole scheme involves nothing which is not just before God and man. In my judgment, all the revolted States Tennessee, in common with the restshould be kept out of the governing power, which they thrust from them in exchange for treason and the sword, until the guarantees I have named shall be ratified by the voice of the nation and conformed to by each of the secedin States. I tbeg the honorable gentlemen from ennessec, who are claiming seats here to accept my frank ord when I say that, without meaning the lightest disrespect to them, Icannot surrender personal considerations my conviction of ty to country and duty to the 10 nlists of Tennessee herself. I must look to tOfuture as well as to the present. I must look at tennessee as well as at the honorable gentlemen who claim to represent her and from all the lights I now have, my opinion is that if the account should now be closed up with that State, her loyal population would pass under the cruel and grinding yoke of rebel rule. Sir, on the 23d of last month I addressed certain questions in regard to the status of tennessee to Hon. W. Browulow, Governor of that State. I will say that I believe Governor Browulow in view of their loyal character, de sires the admission of the Tennessee delegation. The following, however, is that portion of his answerin full which discloses the internal condition of Tennessee, and which is responsive to my questions: KsoxviLLs, Tsxssssss. January 1. 1866. Hon. 1. Bursa: As regards the state of things in the South. theyare bad enough in all conscience and most of the loyalty professed is with a vie wto obtain riardon. got property back. iind again get into office. hereisabetter stuteoffeoling in Tennesseothan in any other southern State, Kentucky not excepted and we have great room for improvement in both i Iiddle and WestTennessee. East ennessec is iillriht and has been from the outset of this rebellion. give it as my candid opinion that if the military forceswere all withdrawn from tennesseethe Legislature would at once be dispersedby a rebel mob. Out of 6 daily papers in Nashville. 4 of the m arerebel: while the people are morethan has 3rds on the rebel side. reel grand juries are indicting Federal soldiers and offioers in Middle tennessee, and either binding themover tocourt in heavy bonds or casting them into prison for executing or ders given them by our generals. as far back as the days of Rosecransand Stone riverl and manyof the rebelsnow speak out openly and say Union men and Yankees shall not live in the count. As regards the nesroes. theywoul havehard times ifthe military werewithdrawn. When they aretried in our courts they are. if convicted. sent to the peni tenhary for the longest terms the law allows. In someinstancesthey are sent for several years. when one months conlineiiient in aroiintyjail would beequal to the offense. I havehad occasiontopardonout several such cases. Nor are white loyalists treated any bette. but the hands of rebel iurics. Our judgesure loyal men, but rebel Juries run over their charges and the law. I am speaking of Middle and WestTennessee. whoserebelpoulation with here and there exceptions. are as is loyal astheywere in 1881. Qtharlen nesseenns. loyal and into ligent. would HVQ you a smart: favorable account of things. I cannot conscientiously do so. I believe the whole South is full ofrebellion, and that the rebels nreaeeking to mom. plish by legislation and through Congresswhat they ailed to do upon the field of carnaged utrov the Governmenl and should this Legislature of ours adjourn without giving us the right sort of franchise law, the next General Assembly will be rebel and will repeal all the laws this one has enacted. The next congressional delegation will be rebel and our Senators will be instructedtoresign and somesuchman as General Forrest will be electedGovernor. Assuming the restraintsof the General Government are all to be removed from Tennessee. you ask me if northern school teachers would be allowed to educate negroesl Ianswer. uo. not in Middle and West Ten, nessee. In 2 casesout of every 3 the school housfs would be burned and the teachersrodo upon a ran. I believe I havereplied to all the points you make. You ask me. ifI should think proper to reply to your letter. to allow you to makeuscof the answer. I have nothinglto disguisein regard to this rebellion or the men who brought it about and I have s oken out from the bBIlDBlH, at homeandabroad. y hopefor the country is in the good sense. loyalty, and firmness of the loyal majorities in the 2 cases. Let them settle the whole matter while they have the power and put traitors and treasonon the backgroundin all time to come. I have the honor to he very truly. &c., w. o. Baowivaow, Governorof Tennessee. The letter I addressed to Governor Brown low happened to pass 1st into the hands of Hon. A. J. Fletcher, SecyState of tennessee, and he voluntarily sent. me the following response to my questions, which I have from him express authority to use as I please: Sscasnars Orrics. Nassvimis. Tryssssss. December 29. 1865. SIR: Your letter to Governor Browulow. of the m instant. cameto my handsasSecyState acting for the Governor in his absence. 1 haveforwarded it to his Excellency at Knoxville. The questions subinitted by you toGovernor Brown low are of such vital importance to every southern loyalist that I feel warranted involunteering ii statement. of my own impression. seeingthat you desirein formation from all sources. I was elected to the othee of SecyState in April lasts I have been constantly at my postsince. During the absenceof the Governurihave performed his duties. Ile has been absent or ill a areat. portion of the time. At all times his heavy corresponduico has passed through my hands. official intervicivs with personsof all classes from all one of the State concerning the reorganizin of toState and counties thereo have beenof dai y and almost hourly occurrence. I have tried to understand themental status of the peopleof Tennessee and have had every possiblefacility. Being unative of Tennessco. for 20 ycars a practicing lawyer, occasionallyin politics and extensively acquainted. if I do not comprehend the situation in Tennessee. it is for the want of capacity, and not for want of a proper standpoint. If a desire for peacebecause of inability to make war. a willingness to submit been uscofinability to resrcise to ancic empgting results because they cannot bercJected. the situation because Withthe eyesopen, it must besoon and supporting the President because they are at his mercy. constituthe loyalty. then. indeed, are ourpeople thoroughly loyal. But if patriotism is an ingredient of loyalty; if love of country. respect for its flag. pride in its prosperity and a desiro to see its authority prevail. are necessary. then there are as many disloyal personsin Tennessee today as at any time since the eginning of 1861. What. then. are to be the practicslconscquencesof this condition of the public mind when the pressure of the conquest is removed and conciliating the administration ceasesto be amatter of policy? What will be our social condition, and what cgislationwill we have? These are your questions condensed. There are about 40,000 Union votersin the Stateagainst 100 llloublt nclWllOSetYlllllallllGS are with “a just butlost cause.” These liitterwill form a comnet party in the State. held together by hatred for thosewhom they have branded as Tories for descrting the South in her extremity, by a determination to kccp the negro in a conditmdns near to slavrryns possible, and probably by a desire to keep the South united with a view to ulterior designs. The luyul people having seen the great object of saving the Union accomplished, will not contestscriously or the mnsteryin the State. Thoy will remain 10y)“to the re atUnion (partyof the nation. but in a subdued an discourage temper. Many Wlll yield and go with the vast majority. The attempt to disfranchise themajority hasfailed. Another attempt will be madeand will fail and this. too. with the military presentand a loyal State government. Withdraw the pressureof the General Govornment and a 100,000 rebels. talented and wealthy. will laugh at. any restraint 1!!!Wed b less than half their number of citizens. T o)" Wll find no dificulty in snow men notdwflwchiwd who will serve their purposesin repealing nll reatraium upon them. The moral powero! a vastmfljtllllf over nsniall minority is illustrated in the present iggis laturc. The entire body was sclected by:i loyal State convention and elected under a military proilaniation, by general ticket. without opposition. Most of them had been exiles and sntferers during the war. All of them wereof the most determinedeharacter of original Union men. They were tried and true, yqt they have yielded to the approaches and bland is iments of the wealthy rebels and the dread o! Of freeisidigiinil. constituents. One by one they go over 91 until there is a bare minority lift, There Will always be a firm and resolute majoriy in host tennessec; but they will be bound hand and footby the other 2 divisions of the State. bile it is impossible thatlo alistsshould feelkindly toward a people who hunu. sfiet and imprisoned themor their friends robbed them and burned their houses and hnpted them like wild beastsin themountains as conscripts. the late rebelshate the Unionists with a most bitter and implacablehatred. They brand them with such Tehpeityhetsas“Tory, "“Lincolnite, "and“Abolitiopist.” charge them with desertinizthe South in its strugglefor libertyI This hatred is inteusiliedbyset ting up a Statelgovernmentby the minority; by the attempt to disranchiso them; by appointing the judiciary and all the other officersof the State from the minority and by the presence, like Mordecai, of the despised negro. In all the county and district. electionsit a loyalist dares to be a candidatc, heis beaten and worst of all. in many localities this intense. mortal hatred finds its way into the jury box, and in spite of loyal Judges and attorneys General. the miserable“ Lincolnitc" fails to obtain justice. a negro is put upon his trial in many localities it amounts to a conviction, and the maximum penalty allowed bylaw. The pardoning power in the loyal Governor lB lllS 0nlp yrotection. In the churches. too, this malixnity is displayed. The rebel chaplain has his overllowing congregation, and to have been a Eierrilla is no disaragement to the minister of Christ. Even Masonry as not been able to preserve its boasted harmony, but is thrown into dincmif. There are live rebel duily papers at Memphis and 4 at Nashville. all well sustained. Repeated ef tortshave been made to start a Unionpa orat Mem lllS, but in vain. There are 2 LtA318 lVlll6. Uo ives by having in part the public printing and the other iy trimming. These rebel papers a use and denounce in the most. violent. manner every officer in the State governmentwho dares to oppose them. whlien an otllcer is appointed. sometimesthey try to wui him, but generally they open. their batteries at once. This picture is not exnggcrated; and yetthoshrewdest man might assthrough the State over and over again and see at little of it unless he made it his stu y. In view of what I have said it is notdifficult to an swer your questions. he next Legislature Will be two3rds rebel in each House. They Wlll op row: the Union men in every way they dare and hast Tennessee will make an clTorttor a separate organization. 2 Union men and 6 rebelswill beelectedto the next Congress. The presentloyal delegationowesits successto the “ execution oft c suifragelawand to policy. block codewill be adopted: the objeetwill be to give the negro as little liberl as possible. They Will go as fgiras they dare. Tcac ersfrom the North am gaged in teaching negroes would not be admitted into society and in many plaees be driven away. A rebeljudiciary Wlll be electedand much that has been done by the presentloyal stategoVemincntwill be declared void. Violence to Union men during the war will go unpunished. the government of the confederacy setup asa defucra government and its laws of conscrition. confiscation, impressmeut. kc, held valid for t a time. These are consequences almost certain to follow the abandonment of the loyal peopleby the Gen cral Government. Indeed, ifthe military waswithdrawn now, the Legislature could not reassemble, nor would the Governor, or any loyal Governor, besafe for a single day They would have to retire into East Tennessee. hope you Wlll pardon the lengthof this paper. but I could not well say anything and sayless. I know not how thoGoyornorwill answer your questions, but what I have said is the result often: and painful re floction upon the facts I have observed. I am, sir. mostrespectfully, your obedient servant, A. J. FLETCHER. Hon. J. BAKER, M. (1., Washington. Sir, I place these documents before this House and before the country. Aside from the high and responsible sources from which they come, they bear upon their face every mark of being inherently true and well considered. These able and patriotic gentlemen, long resident of Tennessee, filling 2 of her highest offices, and largely acquainted with her people, ought to know something of her real condition today and the condition they disclose is, in m opinion, totally incompatible with any vali claim to present resumption of representation in this Government. GOvernor Brownlow gives it as his opinion, “that if the military forces were all Withdrawn from Tennessee the Legislature would be dispersed by a rebel mob;" and Mr. Fletcher says, " it the military was withdrawn now, the Legislature could not reassemble, nor would the Governor, or any loyal Governor, bo presenceof the military and the purtial I earth! I safe for a single day; they wouldhave to retire into East Tennessee.” What reliable present bottom is there in Each a state of things? “In 2 cases out of every 3 the schoolhouses would be burned and the teachers rode on arail.” We do not want to sit down again on that sort of liberty, air! We have had quite enough ofitin the past. f There are about 40,000 Union voters in the State against 100,000 whose sympathies are with ajnst but lost cause. These latter will form a compact party in the State; held together by hatred for those whom they have branded as Tories for deserting the South in her extremity; by a determination to keep the negro in a condition as near to slavery as possible, and probably by a desire to kcc the SoutliUnited withaview to ulteriordesigns. “ The next Legislature will be 2/3rds rebel in each House. They will oppress Union men in every wa they dare.” “ A black code will be adopted; tcobject will be to give the negro as ittle liberty as possible.” “The present loyal delegation owes its success to the presence of the military and to the partial execution of the suffrage law.” “Two Union men and 6 rebels will be elected to the next Congress;” “some such man as General Forrest will be elected Governor, ” and so forth and so forth, summing up in the whole a state of things which shows, in myjudgmcat, the want of propernn derpinning to safely rest present representation on. “And yet, ” says Mr. Fletcher, “the shrewdest man might pass through the State over and overagain and see but little ofit;” and still less, I suppose, if he went through by rail, making short calls, and wearing upon each shouldera triplet of stars putting everybody on their good behavior! Sir, let us act from no personal considerations and be governed by no surface views. Let us rise to the height of this great argument, both by intellectual conception and by practical execution. We do not want a reconstruction, “deformed, unfinished, ” “scarce half made up, ” and “sent before its time" to curse instead o blessing the country! After the close of our 7 years Revolution, it. took 8 years to span the chasm to the new order and udoptthe present constitution. Why shall we not. now have a little hiatus of 18 or 24 months between the suppression of this tre mendous rebellion and that definite Civil Order upon which the Republic is to be launched for the long future? Ihat great amendment abolishing slavery has traversed inten months time 3/4ths of the Legislatures and constituted bodies of the States. In like time, it may be, the additional constitutional guarantees we need can receive a like sanction. Then, sir, we shall have built our house 11 on a rock, and not upon moving quicksaud. then the blood that has flowed and the hearts that have broken and died in this terrible war for liberty and nationality shall come forth from the ground and the grave and bless the hand of the builder! Oh, I warn you, sir, I warn you, that when conservatives make haste liberty is in danger! It is for a purpose, and to the cost of humanity, that they seek to violate the fixed maxims of their conduct and theingrained principles of their life. When fighting against the birth of new libertiesas they so strangely love to fight; when holding back the hand that would lift a burden from the uivering heart of the downtrodden poorsus t 0y so cruel! love to holdthey are fond of telling us after innzens, “There are no loops in nature;" and after Bacon, “Time is the rent innovator, but he innovateth slowly.. but now, when a very little time is needed to conerete the fruits of this great struggleto ripen the blood of the martyred dead into a sure and everlasting heritage of liberty to all the peoplethe eagle hast. encth not more swiftly to his rey, than do these same conservatives to dash this fairest prospect that Heaven has ever vouclisafed to man on Ah, God! if we do but let them do it! Men of the North! men of the North! stand firm till this sacred finishing duty shall be performed! Shoulder to shoulder, and shicl to 1 shield, let the whole grand column of Liberty and l Union march on, until the results of this War. so dearly earned by the mighty agony of the Nations bleeding heart, shall be gathered up and made secure forever! and he that falters nowthough his plume may have shown in the forefront of the fight, and his voice rallied the clans of liberty in other daysfor him let the portion be, “Ichabod! Ichabod! thy glory is (cartedl”