Mr. BOYER. Therefore it is that the committee of 15, organized nearly 2 years ago for the purpose of restoring this Union, have sat upon their basket of eggs without producing a single well developed living fowl; and we have at last the authentic announcement of the chairman, the Gentfrom Pennsylvania, [Mr. STEvens, ] made fo. to the House, that the eggs were all addled. [Laughter.] I do not say that the government of Louisi ana is perfect in its operation or that no injus tice is ever suffered there. I do not say that in every court in that State eve jo is in fallible and every jury j. I know of no States and I know of no courts anywhere within the limits of this broad land to which we can impute absolute perfection and infalli bility. But I do say, that as a general and in the aggregate the State government o Louisiana as it now exists, and as it is now administered, under the constitution of 1864, is a government in and regular operation, under which, in general, the laws are faithfully administered and the rights and interests of the people of that State of all classes respected and preserved. I do not say that at this very moment there ought to be withdrawn from the State of Louisi ana every Federal soldier, nor that it may not still be useful to exercise some supervisory power over the police regulations of the city of NewOrleans or elsewhere in the State of Louisiana. But I do say that the laws which. we now have will enable us to do that, so far as it may be necessary, and that there is no occasion for passing other laws for that purpose. Whatever in that direction needs to be done can be done hereafter as it has been done here tofore. The peace of the city of NewOrleans and of the State of Louisiana can be preserved now and hereafter as I maintain that it has been heretofore preserved, as a general rule, during the whole 2 years of the existence of the present State government. Since that government came into existence there has been but one riot that we know of anywhere within the limits of the State of Louisiana, and that was a riot confined to a small portion of the city of NewOrleans, and in which compara tively few of the inhabitants of that city can in any way be shown to have been engaged. And even if we put the very worst interpretation upon the acts of the rioters, how can we, with any show of justice, hold 700,000 inhabitants of the State accountable for a local disturbance? I have discussed this measure thus far as a question of justice and policy more than as a question of constitutional right. I do not propose to enlarge upon the latter aspect of the case upon this occasion; nor should I feel in clined to do so even if I had time. The principle involved has been often discussed in this House. But I do say that there has never been a measure proposed, even in this congress, which presents to my judgment a clearer usurpation of constitutional power or a more flagrant and tyrannical subversion of popular rights than the bill now before this House, which seeks to set up against the will of 9 10ths of the white people of Louisiana a negro government in that State, supported by military force. This bill, in effect, establishes a military dictatorship; because in all things the civil government which it pretends to establish is subordinated by its provisions to military supervision and control. how does this bill accord with the pledge which was given by an almost unanimous vote by this Congress to the people at the outset of the war, and during the progress of the war repeatedly renewed, that the war should be prosecuted only for the purpose of restoring the Union “and maintaining the dignity, equality, and rights of the several States unim paired o' It was by that pledge that you recruited your armies; it was by that pledge that you were enabled to man your Navy; it was by that pledge that you were enabled to rally the whole people of the North, of all political parties, as one man in defense of our nationality. By that pledge, and in that sign, you triumphed over the rebellion; and now, when you feel yourselves secure, instead of redeeming that pledge which you gave to the loyal people of the North, and to o the loyal of the South as well, you introduce ills here which provide, in express terms, for the dismemberment of this Union, and which regard neither the dignity nor the equality nor the rights of the several States. Borne upon the wave which the war storm rolled over the nation you floated into power. I admit that you are intrenched everywhere throughout the country in possession of State Legislatures and the Governors of States, and you feel your. selves strong because you assume that at the recent elections you were indorsed by the Ho. But have a care lest you tempt too r the credulous confidence of your country Inen. There have been measures, of which this is one, introduced and passed in this Congress which tend to revolution; such a measure as this is revolution itself. And if gentlemen persist in their vain attempt to radicalize the South, if they are not content with southern allegiance but insist upon southern support for their party measures; if they are not content with the absolute abandonment of the right of secession, which, as all here well know, has been surrendered by the citizens of the South in good faith; if they are not willing to receive back these States as States when their people in good faith are willing to renewed allegiance to the General Government; if they protract these unhappy dissensions too long; if they falsify their pledges too grossly and too persistently, the country will some day awaken to the full knowledge of the fact. Gentlemen should remember that although rebellion such as we have had is a crime it is possible to make even rebellion respectable. The red handed rebel striking for a freeman's rights against the oppressor's wrongs is ap Fo by mankind and glorified in history. et this Government beware, so that its acts may breed no such rebels here as did George HI and his British Parliament. Magnanimity is the crowning grace of the conqueror. When Caesar burned without reading them the letters by which some officious spy sought to reveal to him the offenses of his enemies and the treachery of his pretended friends, he became in the estimation of posterity a greater man than if, like the majority in this Congress, he had instituted mousing committees to go all over the country for the purpose of making out cases to justify punishment. The Roman Senate, when it made citizens of its alien and conquered enemies, was engaged in a nobler and a wiser work than the members of an American Congress plotting for the disfranchisement of millions of their own countrymen. I do not suppose anything I can say will alter the predetermination of a single member of this House. I know that the passage of this bill cannot be prevented if it has already been resolved upon by the majority, and I would not have deemed it of any utility for me to say one word in opposition were it not for the fact that as a member of the committee who have reported this bill, I owe it as a duty to myself and to my constituency to clear my skirts of all responsibility in the matter. I have not thought fit to repeat here the par ticulars upon which I have commented in the minority report to which I have referred. If, however, the riot which happened in NewOrleans on the 30th of July is to weigh with members in their action upon this bill, it would be a source of some satisfaction to me if I could imagine that the report had been read. Of that satisfaction, however, I am deprived, as it was only presented yesterday, and not as yet in print. It is, however, so far as the action of the majority is concerned, a matter of little practical importance if, as it seems, when the select committee was appointed the decree had already beenothat the State government of Louisiana was to be subverted and a new government established by Congress more in accordance with the designs of the Republican party. Still it would have been a more discreet policy on the part of gentlemen on the other side if they had paused until the country might at least be supposed to think that the subject had been fairly examined. To pass this bill at this time must appear not only to this House but to the entire people of the country as if the case had been prejudged, and as if this committee was sent forth, not for the purpose of eliciting information, but merely for the purpose of making out an excuse for an act of tyranny the perpetration of which had even then already been resolved. Reconstruction.