Mr. BINGHAM.Mr. Speaker, it is a matter of regret to 1‘ that any gentleman hitherto supposed to intend well for his country, hitherto supposed to stand with those who have maintained intact the Constitution, the Union, and the laws against the rebellion, the like of which the children of men had never before seen, should on the morning of this day, which is the dawn of that better day that will restore in all its unity and strength the Republic, shattered but not destroyed by the rebellion, should stand here in his place and repudiate the right of the law abiding majority of the poople to govern, the very principle out of which the Constitution itsel and the Union originally sprung, and by the enforcement of which the Constitution and the Union have been maintained through these 5 years of war, and ask us in this hour of our triumph to surrender this sacred and essential right of the loyal majority, and say that the destiny of the Republic at last is to be in the hands of the minority or of a disloyal and treasouable majority. I repeat it the gentleman asks us to deny the right of the loyal majority, either in the Republic or in the State, to rule. It ought to be a sufficient answer to such a demand to say traitors and rebels by their crime forfeited all political rights, and those who saved the Republic have the right to perpetuate it. the Gentfrom Massachusetts has urged that Tennessee is withoutarepublican government. Why? 1st, because the people, the loyal people of Tennessee, the men who stood by the Constitution and the Union in the dark est h ours of this revolt, have, by the amendment of their fundamental and statute law, declared that rebels should not exercise voice or power in the State. They have so declared, and further, they have declared by their amended constitution that the ordinance of secession, passed May 6, 1861, “was an act of treason an usur pation, unconstitutional, null, and void, ” that the league of the rebel confederation with Tennessee was also “an act of treason and usur pation; that slavery is forever abolished and prohibited throughout the State;” and what is still more signilicaut, that “the Legislature shall make no law recognizing the right of property yin man, ” and may determine the qualification of voters, without regard to race or color. Because of all this the gentleman declares that the government of Tennessee is not a republican government]Mr. Speaker, I thought it was understood, I thought it was agreed upon by the defenders of the Republic, from the day that treason 1st fired on Sumter till this hour, that traitors forfeited their political rights, privileges, and powers under the governments, oth State and national. I remember well, and I remember with pride, the hour when, in the midst of this great conflict, your lc ions were being mustered upon a100 fiel s for the trial by battle, on which hung the nation’s life, there was not a man of any party upon this floor who, upon bein challenged, was willing to admit that the peopqe in any State engaged in thatmad revolt, and holding for the time by force of arms the flower of the State, had the right to a single cpresentative here or to a single Senator in the other branch of the national Legislature. But now that rebellion has been conquered, and conquered by the aid of loyal men in Tennessee as well as elsewhere, the Gentfrom Massachusetts stands here today to denounce loyal Tennessee for what? For having disfranchised men who struck at the nation’s life, for having disfrauchised men who by their great crime disfranchised themselves. {Io might as well denounce the loyal men of Tennessee for not having given aid by arms to the traitors and.their treason.