Mr. BINGHAM. I am glad the gentleman has made his explanation, for it only makes clearer the position he assumes in regard to that question. The gentleman in his speech has notified the House and the country assuming the position which he attributes to himself, in the rst place, “once a State, always a State” for all purposes; that the rebel States, had always, an haVe now, the right of representation, and on have no right to exclude them. Now, the resident has never asserted any such thing, either by direction or indirection. In the very passage which the gentleman has read from the message the prei cat has said that “the functions of the reel States were suspended.” Of course if the functions of aState are suspended the powers of the State cannot be exercised. That is the Presidents position; the very converse of it is the position of the gentleman who comes here to introduce general resolutions of commendation of the Presidents m essagel But I am not to be diverted at this stage from the line of remark I had entered upon. have said that the position assumed generally by the gentleman in the spleech which he has justmade, is a position whic, if acted upon by the Representatives of the people, will prove as disastrous to the future of t, e nation, as alike as sumption, made by his part, has proved disastrous to the nation duringt e ast 4 years. r There is no question about it. the Gentlemaqls i, sumption is, that after havin}7 surren ered to legit)“ of the Union and laid dowrrtheir arms, the rebel States ofright are entitled, without challenge; let, or bindersace, to representation on this floor. 1 I undertake to say that the President has not advanced flgyWop on. Their right of representation depends exactly upon the actual condition of things in those rebel States, and chiefly upon such conditions as these: that they have not only laid down their arms, but have confermed their constitutions and laws to the constitution and laws of the U.S., and givensuch evidence to the people of the U.S., and their representatives in Congress as satisfies them that cooperating in this genera movement of reorganization is a sufficient body of now loyal citizens to constitute a State. Will the gentleman undertake by his mere platitudes to assert here that if by chance 5,000 men in SCarolina, lately in insurrection, chooseto be represented in convention, and in all things manifest a willingness to return to their allegiance to the constitution and Government of the U.S. in good faith, it follows of necessity that the residue of unre pentant insurgents in that State, whose hands are red with the blood of their countrymen have a right to representation on this floor, and that, too, as provrded by the act of 1862, to which the gentleman referred, giving them 6 Representatives and 2 Senators? I want an answer. Who undertakes to assert any such thing, and who is to judge in this matterthe Congress or the presiest?