Mr. BINGHAM. The question of being a rebel or a non-rebel State is not involved, because the forfeiture was the forfeiture of personal political rights and not. the forfeiture of the equal rights of the State upon restoration. I would like to know upon what principle the gentleman would apply one rule of apportionment to Tennessee and another to ennsylvauia. I suppose the gentleman means by the suggestion, that although Pennsylvania may have had about 175,000 as arrnnt rebels in it as ever followed the standard of Jeff. Davis, they ought to be allowed to have seats in this Congress. I do not say she had that many, but if she had. I am told and believe we had a large number in our western States calling themselves Knights of the Golden Circle, who organized for the purpose of overthrowin the fabric of our government. I understan that there were some 90,000 in Ohio, a 100,000 in the State of Indiana, and a like number in Illinois. If this be so it becomes pertinent to inquire by what logic gentlemen arrive at the conclusion that treason in Tennessee changes the basis of representation, while in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois it does not. There is neither reason nor logic in such a position, with all respect to the gentleman. I say, again, these States must be equal before the law. They must each have equal representation in the Senate, and they must each be represented according to their whole representative population in this House. It cannot be otherwise until your Constitution be changed. It matters not whether the State may have been hitherto in rebellion or may have been strug gling to maintain the Constitution, the rule is the same, and I trust ever will remain, that the States, like the people, are to be equal before the law. That is the position occupied by the friends of this bill. hen, sir, did the Amer ican Congress ever occupy a prouder or nobler position than in reasserting this day in its length and breadth that grand principle out of which your Constitution and Government sprung, namely, the right of the people, faithful to their own great cause, to take the Government into their own keeing and dictate the terms on which it. should hereafter go on? When the clouds hung heavy above us in the 1st great struggle for American independence, after the foot of the British invader had profaned our soil, and Lexington was red with the blood of our people, and Bunker Ilill bad shook beneath the s ock of the conflict, means were taken, and a confederation was entered into to maintain, by perpetual union and by laws, what was fonght for and about to be won by the virtue and valor of the people in arms. By the Articles of Confederation thus entered into it was expressly declared as follows: “And the Articles of this Confederationshall be inviolnbly observedby every State and the Union shall beperpetual: nor shall any alteration at any time hereafterbe made in any of them.unlesssuch alteration beagreedto in 0.Congressof the U.S and be afterward confirmed by the Legislaturesof everyStuto.” Xrlicle13. Ten years passed; these articles were found, other the peace, insufficient; the fruits achieved by the Revolution were likely to be lost, when Washin ton, the peerless, and Hamilton, and Jay, publicly declared for a change, an alteration, whether the same should be confirmed by all the States or not. What was the result? Those giant men, the framers of our match less Constitution, swept away, as though it were a cobweb, the written covenant of the Articles of Confederation, which declared that every one of the 13 States should be and abide a State of the U.S. within the Confederation, and that those articles should not be changed without the consent of each State. When asked, “Whcnce your authority?" the answer of Mr. Madison was, “It is derived from the transcendent law of nature and nature’s God, the right of the people to reserve their own nationality and their own ibertics.” The right of the majority of the whole people to prescribe the new Government essential to their safety they embodied in the Constitution. That provision stands in your Constitution this day “to witness if I lie.” This is the provision: “The ratification of the conventionsOfnine States shall be sufficient for the establishment of this Constitution between the States so ratifying the same.” Arlicle7. By such ratification the 9 States made the Constitution their supreme law, to the utter exclusion of the Articles of Confederation, and notwithstanding the protest of the 4 remaining States. The Articles of Confederation went by the board. The Union was 0 nized. OurAmer icaii nationality was established. Washington took the oath of office in 1789, in NewYork. The Congress also took the oath and proceeded to lo 'slate. But where were NCarolina and bdIsland 7 Out of the Union by their own act, because they refused to assent to the declared will of the majority. It was not for several months after that that RhdIsland and NCarolina were admitted into the Union. What, then, are we doing now? We have passed through a like struggle. We but follow the example of the fathers of the Republic. It has become apparent that the nation must perish unless the people who saved it put into the fundamental law of the Union aperpetual guar autos for future safety and security, Through their representativesin Congress they have ro claimedpthese guarantees and sent them fiirth to the people for ratification by the State Legislatures. These recusant States must ratify them in good faith and conform their constitutions and laws thereto before being recognized by Congress. As in 1789 the Constitution authorized 9 States to exclude from the Union any or all of the remaining 4 States which should refuse to ratify the Constitution, so to da, in 1866, the Constitution authorizes that great ody of free men who cover the continent, organized into 25 loyal States, now represented in this Congress, and represented during the past 5 years, and who during that long night of peril were under God the saviors of the republic as they are now the sovereignty of the iepllbllfl, to declare that the ratification of this amendment, so essential to the peace and safety of every citizen, shall be 1st made by a State lately in insurrection before such State shall be admitted to representation and shall have a voice and a power in the councils of the Republic. It only remains, if the insurrectionary States ratify this just amendment, for the loyal States to ratify it. If the loyal States vote down this amendment it is at an end, and the future of the republic is enveloped in clouds and darkness, beyond which no human eye can penetrate. If they pass it it will become the supreme law of the land, and in that event no State ought to be represented upon this floor that does not assent to it. That is the principle upon which this JtResolution stands. Inasmuch as Tennessee has conformed to all our requirements; inasmuch as she has, by a majority of her whole Legislatifie in each House, ratified the amendment in good faith; inasmuch as she has of her own voluntary will conformed her constitution and laws to the Constitution and laws of f the U.S.; inasmuch as she has by her fundamental law forever prohibited the assumption or payment of the rebel debt, or the enslavement of men; inasmuch as she has by her own constitution declared that rebels shall not exercise any of the political power of the State or vote at elections; and thereby given the American people assurance of her determination to stand by this great measureof security for the future of the Republic Tennessee is as much entitled to be represented here as any State in the Union. But, sir, what I have said is not all; Tennessee has further entitled herself to be represented by the adherence of her people through good report and evil report to the varying fortunes of the Republic. There is no man upon this floor that has any right to assume for himself a higher or greater measure of patriotism than ought to be accorded to every loyal man in Tennessee. Why not, then, trust Tennessee on the final issue of justice to all, as you must inevitably abide upon that issue the judgment of the people under our Constitution? Let us trust the people of all the States lately in insurrection subject t the condition that in good faith they ratify th constitutional amendment and conform their laws thereto, knowing that if that amend ‘ment be made part of the Constitution of the U.S. the abuse by an State of itsl reserved powers by a denial o the inherent: rights of any portion of the people or of the‘ privileges of any citizen, may be corrected at once by the law of the whole people of the! U.S.Mr. Speaker. I think I have now said enough to satist' the House that if Tennessee is not entitled o representation in the House neither is NewYork or Ohio; if Tennessee is not entitled to representation neither is Massachusetts 0r Indiana. What then remains to be done but to declare what is recited in this res olution, in the simplest terms, that, whereas the State of Tennessee has ratified in good faith the constitutional amendment and given evidence to the satisfaction of Congress of the return of her people to their allegiance to the Constitution and Government of the U.S., therefore said State is hereby declared entitled to representation in Congress by Sens&Reps, duly elected and qualified, upon their taking the oath required by'existin law? By passing this JtResolution you a rogate no principle; no rebel is permitted under this resolution to take a seat in Z this House; the test oath stands intact. Nov man is permitted to enter upon the duties of hisl office here as a representative from Tennessee who cannot, belore God and his country, I with a clear conscience, swear that he has nol voluntarily aided this unnatural rebellion; thisi unmatched crime against the life of the republic. Is it not clear that it is simply a question whether the loyal men of Tennessee shall be now represented by loyal men, or whether they shall be comelle to wait until the Constitution of the U.S. is in other respects so changed and modified that Tennessee may be subjected to certain rules of administration which are not imposed upon Massachusetts or Ohio? For myself, while I demand justice for all men, I demand equal rights for all the States. I ask, in behalf of the State of Tennessee, and every other State, that this rule shall be applied: that a majority of the loyal free men, citizens of the U.S., within her limits, shall be permitted, to control the destiny and political power of that State, provided they control it in justice and equity. I know not what more gentlemen may ask. My task is done; itisforthe members of the House to perform their duty. In much weakness, but in words as earnest as ever issued from human lips, I have called upon the Representatives of the U.S.A., here in congress assembled, to restore to the people of Tennessee those rights which are incapable of annihilation until they are forfeited by crime or the power of the Republic itself is destroy by arms.