Mr. WILSON. I think the dispute whether those States are in the Union or out of the Union is lost time. I do not choose to discuss that question, or to raise it; I believe our powers are full, am le, complete, to bring back those States, an restore them, and preserve, also, the rights and the liberties there of all that breathe Gods air. I do not want to degrade a single man in the rebel States. I do not want them to degrade others, and I do not mean that they shall do it. I do not believe the Senator is opposed to this bill, I do not think he can oppose it. I do not believe the Senator is in favor of that kind of freedom that turns the emancipated working man out into the high way, then takes him up as a vagrant and unifies asave of him because he cannot get a home when they do not allow him to lease land or buy a humble home. They have enacted a law in the State of Mississippi that will notal low the black man to lease lands or to buy lands outside of the cities. Where in Gods name is he to go? Into the public highway? Then he is a vagrant; then i0 is taken u under the vagrant laws and sold into bon a e. They have enacted a law in the State of ouisiana that he must at a home in 20 days and they will not so him land or allow m to lease n. We must annul this; we must see to it that the man made free by the constitution of the U.S., sanctioned by the voice of the American people, is a free man indeed; that he Can go where e pleases, work when and for whom he pleases; that he can sue and be sued; that he can lease and buy and sell and own property, real and personal; that he can go into the schools and educate himself and his children; that the rights and iarantees of the good old common law are is, and that he walks the earth, proud and erect in the conscious dignity of a free man, who, knows that his cabin, however humble, is protected by the just and equal laws of his country. I am sure the Senfrom Nevada is in favor of that policy of emancipation that carries with it equality of civil rights and immunities, rather th that other polic that makes the enfranchise bondman a se or con, the slave of society, its soulless laws and customs. Having read 100s of pages of and of testimony, enough to make the heraerctoardns the soul sick, I proposed this bill as a measure of humanity. desired, before we entered on the at questions of public policy, that wh should pass a simple bil annulling these cru laws; that we should do it early, and then proceed calmly with our legislation. That was my motive for bringing this bill into the Senate so early in the session. Many of the difficultiesoccurring in the rebel States between white men and black men, between the old masters and the freedmen, ow out of these laws. They are executed in various parts of the States; the military arrest their execution frequently, and the agents of the Freedmens Bureau set them aside; and this keeps up a continual conflict. If these obnoxious State laws were promptly unnulled it would contribute much to the restoration o good feeling and harmon, relieve the public officers from immense la ers, and the freedmen from suffering and sorrow; and this is the opinion of the most experienced men engaged in the Freedmens Bureau. I have he an opportunityto consult with and to communicate with many of the agents of the bureau, with teachers, officers, and persons who understand the state of affairs in those States. But, sir, it is apparent now that the bill if not to pass at present, that it must go over for the holidays at any rate. The constitutional amendment has been adopted and I have introdiiced abill this morning based upon that amendment, which has been referre to the committee of which the Senfrom Illinois [Mr. TRUMBULL] is chairman. This bill will go over; possibly it will not be acted upon at all. We shall probably enter on the discussion of the broader question of annulliii all the black laws in the country and putting t cse peole under the protection of humane, equal, and Just laws. We were told yesterday by the Senfrom Delaware [Mr. SAULSBURY] that there was an apireliension on this side of the Chamber that the democratic party was soon to come back into power throng the agency of the POTUS Sir, I thinkthe Senfrom Delaware altogether mistaken in regard to any such apprehension. I entertain no such apprehension. I do not apprelieud that the Dem ocratic party is soon tocome into power through the agenc of the POTUS or throng i the agency of anybod else. A party that has maintained the attitu e assumed by the Democratic party during this great rebelion, that has allied itself with a sinking and lost cause, is not likcly hereafter to take or to control the reenerated Government of the U.S. t needs reconstruction and reorganization quite as much as do the rebel Sta, and it must have reconstruction and reorganization before it can govern this now free country through anybody s agency. I know there has been is studied and system atic attcm 1; during the last few months to separate the POTUS from the great party that elected him. Inm anion those who have never entertained any such fears, and if there are any persons who do entertain them I advise them to dismiss such fears at once. The President is bound to the men who elected him, by honor, by principlo, and by interest. His fame is to rest upon the great 7 fact that he shall complete the work Abraham Lincoln commenced the work of restoring a broken Union, enfranchising a race, and preserving the cause of human liberty in America. I am sure that the POTUS is as conscious as any man living that his strength now and his fame with posterity depend upon his moving right straight for ward an onward to the restoration of the Union, and to the security of the liberties of all men, and the securit of equal, universal, and impartial liberty. e found the rebel States On the 16th of April, when he assumed executive power, broken, shivered, conquered, subjugated. No people since the morning of creation ever foug t a braver battle than our rebel count en, and no men were ever so defeated, 80 subjugated, so conquered conquered in the field, their ideas annihilated forever their power broken, and their fortunes lost. No men have been so conquered and so punished; and, sir, I have itnot in my heart to seek their lives or their blood. I believe it to be the sentiment and will of the country that we should demand the amplest guarantees for the future; that in demanding those guarantees we should say nothing and do nothing to humiliate or degrade anybody. I believe that it is in our power by a firm and in flexible adherence to principle to secure all the guarantees that the patriotic and liberty loving men of the country require. I believe the POTUS has labored accord in to his sense of public duty to prepare the rebel States for restoration, and to secure the liberties of the enslaved people of the country. I would have acted different y in somethings, but he has done nothing to prevent the Congress of the U.S. from moving right straight forward and onward in the adoption of the necessary legislation to complete the great work of unity and liberty. He has made no issue with Congress, and Congress has made no issue with him. He does not undertake to dictate to us; he has pursued his own line of policy and we ought to follow the convictions of duty if we believe that we should go further than he has one let us pass the needed legislation; if then he liresident shall take issue with us, an issue will be made. I do not believe that any issue will be made by the President. I have an undoubting faith that if we enact the needful legislation to secure the great liberties of all men and bring back the rebel States into Congress, it will receive the sanction and approval of the ExeIcutive. know, sir, that it has been and is the pol icy of the Democratic party to represent that a eat and inevitable conflict is to come between e President and Congress. It was so represented before the couutr last autumn. We met it then; met it in the west; met it in NewJersey; met it in Pennsylvania; met it in the great State of NewYork and today, of the 25 loyal States of the country, 23 hre in harmony with us of the Republican party upon this floor; our sentiments and our opinions are more strongly sustained todayt an they have been on any other day that the sun ever shone upon, and will be stronger tomorrow, There are some men who profess to be more devoted to the President tgan the great, mass of the men who elected him. It is our to give the President a manly, generous, a earnest support; 1 am sure he wants none other. Let us ook with hope and confidence, let usbeprudent in speech. but let us be as in iflexible as destiny itself in the maintenance of the cause of equal, universal, and impartial liberty throughout the whole countra sacred cause, for which 325,000 Union soldiers sleep in their by goody fiaves today; a holy cause, for which more t. an 400,000 scarred and maimed heroes tread the soil of the renblic. The gal lant heroes of 2600 actions have done their duty, their whole duty; they have Itrrampled the rebellion down under the iron heel o war.” it is committed not to the President aloae, not to Congress alone, but to an Administration and, a Congress placed in power by the American "people when the land was convulsed with civilWar, to restorethe Union, and so to restore it;that there shall be no slave, no black law, no. ruIe, no lregnlation, nothing whatever to oppress the men, we have may 2 free. They are our words, to use the words of the POTUS Abraham Lincoln lodged himself to his country and his God r their emancipation and themaintenonce of the ir liberties; and that ledge, I believe, every depart i;nent of this vernuieht, executive, legisla ave, bud judi Win intently Mittslil Mcasured by the state of things that existed last April we have made progress in many recotsin some sections of the country a great ealofprogress, in other slcss. perhapsin some localities we have gone backwards. but there hasbeen general pross in the country dur in the last 9 men s. comparin the condition of things that existed whcut c president entered upon his duties, and looking at the rebel section as a whole, we have made proessnot so much as I wish we had made an as I think we could have made; but if in the past we have made less proess than we desired, we must make more int c future, and that progress is to be made only by fidelity to the great cause by which wehave stood during the past 4 years of bloody war. For 20 flve years we had a conflict of ideas, of words, of thoughtswords and thoughts stronger than cannon ails. We have had 4 years of bloody conflict. Slavery, everything that belongs or Pertains to it, lies prostrate before us today, and the foot of a regenerated nation is upon it. There let it lie forever. I hope no words or thoughts of a reactionary character are to be uttered in either House of Congress. I hope nothing is to be uttered here in the name of “conservatism, ” the worst word in the English language. If there is a word in the English language that means treachery, servility, and cowardice, it is that word “conservative. It ought never hereafter to be on the lips of an American statesman. For 20 years it has stood in America the synonym of meanness and baseness. I hope, too, that we are not to make apolo gies here for our action. It does not fit our lips or our ears. The way to settle the estion, owing out of this great civilWar, is. say to the rebels, “We do not want to degrade you, We resisted for 20 years your aggressive policy for slavery an your barbarian ideas; we bore the dishonor and disgrace of your policy; you plunged us into the fire and blood of civilWar to perpetuate slavery and make the ideas of slave dominant in Christian and republican America; we resisted your aggressions before the people; we shrank not from a civilWar; We met the contest; you fought bravely, with a bravery worth of a better cause, but on were defeated, crus ed, annihilated groun to pow der; not a flag of yours waves between the capital and the Rio Grande; not a soldier bears a rebel bayonet on the continent; we do not seek our lives or your blood, and you have got but ittle property left for us to seek if we ivould. All we as and this we will ask and this we will have as sure as God rules the world is that the men emancipated by war emancipated by legislation, emancipnte by the proclamation of the martyr President, emancipated by that great crowning act, the censtitutional amendment, shall be as free as we who proiidl tread our native hills.” I want every rebel and every rebel syin athizer, every repentant and unrepentant rebel in the country, to understand that the loyal men of this nation who voted their treasure and offered up their blood, who gave their sons to the preservation of the menaced Union and the imperiled cause of liberty, hare sworn it, they have written it on the lids of their Bibles, they have engraved it on their door posts, that these enfranchised men shall be free indeed, not serfs, not slaves, and that no black laWs nor unfriendly legislation shall linger on the statutebook of any Commonwealth in America. The are sure to triumph, and all aronnd may astve I understand it at once. The men in this ecuntry who committed themselves to the cause of liberty, justice humanity, and Chris tian civilization are baflied sometimes, but defeated never. They have put men up and put men down. They have grappled with ideas and With organisations, and they have come 08 vie tors. With the attributes of Almidhty God, everything we and holy on cart and in heaven inspiring to action they are sure to trium ii in the future as in the past. If anybody don ts this, let him look back over the last 25 ears of conflict in our coon, and see on cyst; rodof our march the p as graves of at and able men who hesitated, wavered, bored, and went down under the stern condemnation of a Christian and liberty loving cople. Sir, l) hope that we, the men who carried the country through the war, who gave the Government men on money and everything it asked, who stood by it, who reclect d Abraham Lincoln, and took AndrewJohnson from his tennessee home and made him VEEP because he had been brave and true to the cause of the country, will be as bold, as firm, ay, and as prudent now as we were when the land was bap tizetl in the blood ofour sons. We should look hopefully to the future; but to do that we must not close our eyes to the facts that are about us. We must take nobodys fair, soft words; we must not trust to anything but irreversible guarantees of liberty. I will not trust repentant rebels with the liberties of the meanest man that treads the soil of the Republic; I will not trust ourselves, nor will I trust others. I hold that there is not a freedman treading the soil of a rebel State today who is not entitled to the protection of just, humane, and equal laws as much as I am or any man that sits about me. We may differ and we do differ in regard to some mo cs ofaction, but I trust there are no differences among us in regard to the great purpose to be attained. That purpose is to make this count a united country and a free country; to may c it the great North American republic, the admiration of all the nations and all the We differ in regard to modes of action. “$111 sir let us differ; we can afford it. The friends of liberty and the country have differed for 25 years, and they grew and strengthened and prospered by a free and manly discussion of great public questions. I say to my friendfrom Delaware [Mr. SAULS star] that he does not know the men who have fought this battle for the country and for liberty if he supposes that those men accustomed to speak their thoughts upon all questions with the freedom that becomes American citizens, are to sever, disunite, and be disrupted for the benefit of men who have linked their names forever with the cause of human slavery on this continent, and some of them with the cause of the defeated rebellion. Sir, this measure will not pass at resentns I ho edit Would; but the ideas embodied in this bill are to go upon the statutebook of the nation; they are to be enforcedenforced by the President, enforced by the udiciary, enforced by the Armg, and enforce by the voice of the regenerate nation. The committee we have appointed, and to whom we have referred these great measures will, I am sure, act wisely. Every source of testimony will be open to them; theywill see to it that theyfully an or stand the exact condition of every rebel State; they will report proper measures what the needs of the count demand; Congress will pass them; the President will sign them; and at no distant day these vacant seats will be filled, and filled by men who, whatever may have been their errors in the past, will support the cause of our united country and the cause of liberty in America. These freedmen, ground and degraded by 2 centuries of slavery, will in all respects be free; they will go on with us and of us in the career of elevation and improvement; and we of the North and they of the south, of every race, will contribute to develop and elevate and make immortal our great continental lte nblic.