Mr. DODGE. I believe if this Congress shall abandon the idea of requiring the ratification of the constitutional amendment passed by the last session of Congress, and shall pass these bills and they become laws, the people of the country will not be satisfied. As they examine them they will see provision made for the military support of the new State organizations contemplated. They will see that by the amendment of the Gentfrom Ohio [Mr. SPALDing) in all these teq States martial law is to be declared, and we are to go, if not into actual war again, with the South, at least to put the South under martial rule; that the writ of habeascorpus is to be suspended, that writ so precious to us all as citizens. They will see that this is not likely in the nature of things to bring about an early reorganization of the South. The commercial, the manufacturing, and the agricultural interests of this country, as they look at this matter, will see in it a continuance of taxation necessary to support this military array sent to these ten States. Then, in connection with this, they will see the attempt which is now being made in this House to impeach the President. I speak of the impeachment, not because I would not be as ready as any man in the House to impeach the President if there can be specific charges brought against him which will enable the senate of the U.S. to find a true bill against Him. But looking at it in view of the present position of the party to which I belong, I it think a most unfortunate move. I hold that the POTUS has been impeached by the country; that he stands impeached today; and that this effort will simply tend to galvanize him again into life, to give him an amount of sympathy which he never would get otherwise. I think it a most unfor: tunate move in a party point of view; but of vastly more importance in its relations to the great interests of the country, which are being partlyzed in view of this unprecedented movement. Sir, if this bill should pass, and if we go on with the impeachment movement and carry it to the Senate, you will find that all the great interests of this country will measurably stand still, waiting the result of these movements. The manufacturing, commercial, and agricultural interests of the country are now looking to this House for that support which may be iven by an increased tariff, but they will look in vain for a resusitation of business and a return to a healthy state of things so long as the public mind shall be agitated by this unex: cted and unusual measure brought forward in this House. There are gentlemen from all parts of the country who are making their way to our great commercial centers, to obtain the means for carrying on the enterprises so necessary to the development of our country. But when they go to !. capitalists asking means or offering for sale their railroad bonds, when they present propositions for their varied enter prises, they will find that the men who control the money are waiting to see what shall be the result upon the interests of the country of the measures about to be acted upon in this House. Mr. Speaker, the fact is there will be a general hesitation. The man who has been contem plating the building of a ship will stand still and await the development of these measures. The merchant, about to send his vessel on a long eastern voyage, will hesitate before he loads his ship and sends her away on a 12 months' voyage. Sir, I received today, from one of our merchants, a letter stating that on Friday last he met with some gentlemen who are directors of a benevolent institution of which he is the treasurer, those gentlemen being among the wealthiest and most loyal men of our country; and at that meeting they decided that $150,000, placed in his hands for investment, and which they had at a previous meeting resolved to invest in U.S. securities, should be deposited in the Life and Trust Company, to await the action of this House on these important measures now pending. Sir, you will find that the man who has been waiting the decline of materials, to build will wait still longer. The result will be a partial paralysis of the great interests of the whole country, and especially if this bill shall pass, and if the other measure to which I have referred shall be pressed to a decision. Mr. Speaker, we have been living for 6 long years between hope and fear. I assure you, sir, that standing here today, looking at these measures, fraught, as I believe, with so much danger to the i. interests of the country, I feel very much as I did when I stood in the ea.ce conference before the war and saw the clouds that were gathering over our country. I feel that we are now in great peril, and ought not to look simply to the immediate enfranchisement of the negro race, overlooking all the other great interests of the country which are dependent upon the legislation we may adopt. No man on this floor is more strongly in favor than I am of protecting the best interests of the colored man. I voted with all my heart for their enfranchisement in this District; and I would go as far as any other man to elevate and advance the colored race, downtrodden as they have been so long. But pass this bill, and I cannot see that it will be productive of aught else than injury to the colored race. We need today measures which shall elevate their condition, which shall remder them most valuable as citizens. We want to place them in such a position that their labor will be sought after as a matter of interest, and that they may receive from the people with whom they have so long.". to that treatment to which they are entitled. But the very fact that the white population of the South by this bill are to be almost universally degraded while the colored men are elevated above them is not, in my opinion, calculated at all to promote the best interests of either. I do hope, Mr. Speaker, that neither the bill of the Gentfrom Pennsylvania nor the amendment of the Gentfrom Ohio will pass. I trust that some other plan will be devised by which the loyal men in the South and the freedmen shall be protected in their civil rights. I hope that we shall not attempt to reorganize the southern States by assuming they are nothing but Territories and their inhabitants aliens. Mr. Speaker, I trust these bills will be referred to the ComReconstruction, with the hope that they may be able to present to the House some constitutional plan by which the loyal men of the South, white and black, may be protected in all their rights of person and property, and which may put an effectual stop to the injustice, persecution, and murders which are now going on in all parts of the South apparently without restraint from the general or local governments.