Mr. SHELLABARGER. I would like to make the 1st thing I say on this occasion the most agreeable thing which I shall say; and with that design I shall say 1st that I am not about to make an hour's speech. [Laughter] Mr. Speaker, the man who is now the acting POTUS once said to me, in speaking of a bill like the one now before the House, that it was a measure to dissolve the Union. That proposition has been so often repeated by members upon the other side of this Hall during the debates upon the subject now under consideration that I have thought the House would probably pardon me if I should attempt to condense into a few sentences a suggestion or 2 in regard to that declaration, repeated so often and worn out so thor oughly as it i;s and with the purpose of making the shortest statement that I can, of condensing it into as few sentences as I can, I trust the House will pardon me for reading part of what I have to say about it. I say it now, not because it is either new or important important I mean as presenting anything novel for the consideration of the I.'"; present it only because the declaration has been repeated again and again with apparent earnestness by gentlemen on the opposite side of this Hall and as being worthy the attention of gentlemen on this side. Every argument and every view and ever method of presentation and statement which ever has been or which ever can be devised to enforce this doctrine, to wit, that the nation has no power to guaranty to these revolted districts loyal republican governments, condense themselves into but two. One of these methods runs thus: that as all loyal men confess that by no secession, rebellion, or other possible or conceivable act of its.Call any State, or the people thereof, withdraw from the Union, therefore these rebel States are in the Union. If in the Union then, as there can be no State in the Union which is not entitled to 2 Senators and at least one representative, therefore these revolted States are entitled to such Sens&Reps and to all the other powers and representations of States, and any legislation denying this is usurpation and unconstitutional. Now, it is absolutely self evident that if this view establishes anything, it establishes this also, namely: that during the entire war these rebel States were entitled to elect our rulers, because if you admit that during the war these States and their people ceased to have such powers to elect Senators, Representatives, and Presidents, then you admit that it is possible for a State and people to do that which in law either forfeits or suspends their power to elect the nation's rulers, and the whole argument so far as based on this point is abandoned. Now, notice here that they who make this argument deny that individuals who go into rebellion can decitizenize themselves so as that the U.S. may, as to any individual, accept his renunciation of any power appertaining to citizenship, and declare him to have ceased to have the powers of one of the people, an elector of a State. Note carefully, also, that these same persons all maintain that it is wrong, and most of them that it is illegal, to try and punish as traitors those who waged this rebellion, and in pursuance of this doctrine their Representatives vote nearly solid against punishing as a traitor Davis, the head of the rebellion. Now, this it is averred is the constitutional law of the Republic. Mr. Speaker, may I borrow from another (Mr. Greeley) a method of illustrating this kind of constitutional law” Whatever is a principle of our Constitution is capable of being written out into explicit and affirmative requirements of the Constitution. Let us write the above constitutional law out into language, not unjust or tortured, but fairly stating what this doctrine affirms. It reads thus when written out: Article 9, section one. Whenever here after a causeless rebellion shall arise, and war be waged against the U.S., so great and bloody that the rebellion shall in fact abolish and overthrow all the constitutions and laws of 11 States of this Union which recognize the supreme authority of such Union, and shall remove from office all officers who have taken an oath to support the Constitution of the U.S., and shall enact and enforce in the place of such constitutions and laws only such as recognized the supreme authority of usurped and rebel governments, and in the place of such loyal officers shall put such legislators and officers alone as shall swear to support such rebellion, and shall kill, imprison, or banish all such persons in such 11 States as will not aid in the said war to destro this Union, and shall continue to wage such war for 4 years, and therein shall kill 300,000 of the loyal people, and, by starving and other practices of barbarians, shall murder 60,000 more, and shall inflict upon the nation a debt of $4,000,000,000, and shall lay waste and desolate the entire land, and shall not cease such war until totally overthrown in overwhelming and crushing defeat, then, and in all such cases, the people so actu ally engaged in such rebellion, war, starvings, poisonings, and other barbarous practices for the overthrow of the Government as afore said, shall not be deemed to have done any act forfeiting or suspending any power or privilege of a citizen of the U.S., or of an elector in any State, nor be deemed to have put it in the power of the U.S. to declare for. feited or even oany power of such persons to elect the rulers of the Republic; but, on the contrary, all such people, while so engaged, and the States, as bodies politic, which they compose, shall, during all said 4 ears of war, be deemed and held to be true. loyal, and republican people and States of this Union; and as such shall, despite the prohibi.tion of the U.S., be entitled to elect 1/3rd of the Senators, Representatives, and presidential electors of the U.S., and shall thereby be enabled in the Senate and House to defeat any act necessary to the exist.ence of the Government of the U.S., and which requires the assent of 2/3rds of such Houses or of either House. And moreover, it shall be lawful for those who originate, lead in, and execute such war, rebellion, and mur ders, at all times to be elected to the offices of President, VEEP, Senators, and representatives of the U.S. And neither by test oaths or otherwise shall it be lawful to exclude such leaders while engaged in such rebellion or afterward from being elected to or assuming such offices. Mr. Speaker, the man who affirms that this is not a substantially just affirmance in the terms of express law, of the exact effect of the doctrine that the people of a State can do no act which deprives even temporarily such people and their States of the power to elect our rulers is either a false man or an imbecile; and with him I hold no debate. And he who, seeing the consequences of such a doctrine thus fairly written out into the terms of law, does not turn away from them with loathing and utter disgust is worse than either false or lookie. He is a traitorf And here I leave that. Mr. Speaker, that 2nd and only other method to which I have alluded, of enforcing the position that the U.S. have no power to assume the organization of loyal republican governments in these revolted States can be accurately stated thus: it says that, admitting that during the force and usurpations of the war of rebellion, the rebels and their States ceased to have the power to elect our rulers, yet the rebellion being crushed, the violent overthrow of the old constitution and laws of these States ended, and the people having submitted after crushing defeat to the authority they failed to overthrow, then and thereupon these old State governments and such new ones as those so defeated may choose to form.become at once republican and loyal States, and the U.S. have no control over the matter, either as to who shall be electors and take part in reviving these States, or as to when and upon what terms these States and their people shall resume the high power of States.the Union Now, Mr. Speaker, if this be indeed the state of our constitutional law, then this too may be written out fully into the forms of express law. So written out in all its leading requirements and consequences, it reads as follows: Article 9, section two. Whenever here after such a rebellion against this Union as is described in the 1st section of this article shall arise and be overthrown by the U.S., then and in all such cases they who engaged in such rebellion, war, murders, starvings, poisonings, and other practices of barba rians, to the end that they might destroy the Government of the U.S., shall, imme: diately upon their having their arms wrested from them, and while yet prisoners of war, have the right both as individuals and as the people and electors of their States to elect, and also to become the President, the VEEP, Sens&Reps of the U.S. And such traitors shall, moreover, have the power to so frame their State constitution and laws that none shall be entitled to vote for the offices aforesaid except those who engaged in said rebellion; and the said traitors jthe States which they compose shall be entitled thus to at once assume said control of the Government of the U.S., although in fact none of them shall have either felt or professed any regret for such treason, and although they may remain as traitorous as ever toward the Government of the U.S., and may in fact assume such powers for the overthrow of the Government of the U.S., and this although those so taking said offices for traitorous purposes may compose a majority of both Houses of Congress. And it shall be unconstitutional and illegal for the U.S., by JtCommee of Congress or otherwise, to even inquire into the matter of the return to loyalty or into the other acts or purposes of the traitors aforesaid, or into the republican character or purposes of the governments of their said States. But, on the contrary, such rebels, and if they so order they alone, shall be, immediately upon their defeat as aforesaid, and while yet prisoners of war, entitled to assume and take control of the Government of the U.S. without inquiry, conditions, let, hinderance, or delay. And it shall, moreover, be unlawful to exclude such traitors from any of said offices either by requiring test oaths or otherwise, except only that each House of Congress may judge of the election and qualification of its own members, expel if and 2/3rds so order. ow, Mr. Speaker, in this section I do not caricature or exaggerate, but on the contrary I far understate the appalling results of this position, which I consider a position which teaches that, in demance of the sovereignty of this victor nation, and in the veryteeth of its prohibitions, its rebel prisoners of war, at the very instant of their defeat, have the right ay, sir, the right as electors and rulers of sovereign States, to resume the control of their conqueror; and the right to vote out that awful life of the nation which their 500,000 murders done did not extinguish, but augmented into mightier being. No, sir; no. This is not the law of your nation's existence; and your injured country what one ever so wronged before? has the right and power in these revolted districts to see to it that there shall be returned and guarantied to them governments right loyal and right republican, the U.S. being judges. ow, I have said all that I propose to say upon the general question of the power of Congress to pass the bill now before the House, or any other bill which shall provide for the organization of loyal republican governments in the revolted States; and to provide also for the government of the people of those States provisionally until such loyal State governments can be organized therein. Mr. Speaker, I wish to make a suggestion about the 6th section of this bill, which declares rebellion to have wrought a forfeiture of 2 privileges of citizenship, to wit: the right to vote and hold office. Some gentlemen here of learning see in that section a declaration that Congress can vote the Territories and people, loyal and disloyal, of our Union out.]. national jurisdiction and into foreign Governments, and can attach new and unknown penalties to past disloyalty by mere act of law without conviction. Sir, this seems to me a most strange and obvious error, and arises out of forgetting that all the rights and obligations of citizenship arise, not at all out of any criminal enactments, but out of that contract and bond which connects the citizen with his country, and which binds both to certain correlative duties. This mistake comes from forgetting what is self evident without being stated at all, but which is stated by Wattel in these words: “If the body of society or he who, represents it [the Government] absolutely fail to discharge their obligations toward the citizen, the latter may with draw himsekf; for, if one of the contracting parties does not observe his engagements, the other is no longer bound to fulfill his, as the contract is reciprocal between society and its members. It is on the same principle also that society mayexpel a who violates its laws.” member This right of Governments to withhold from them who discard all the obligations pertaining to their citizenship the powers and rights which come alone from performing these obligations is one which, by necessity, attaches to and inheres in the very nature and structure of all civil society, and has been acted upon and enforced as a self evident right of all govern "ment in every stable Government that has existed since the world began. This identical principle was asserted at the origin of your government in the legislation of every one of the States of the confederation; was repeated and recnacted by 3, at least, of the 1st congresses under the Constitution, and has been virtually reenacted by being kept, in force by every subsequent Congress which ever met under the Constitution. But, sir, I am not about to enter upon an argument which I submitted to this House upon a former day; and only allude to it now to submit to the House a single suggestion about it. It is this which is submitted as an illustration and a proof: There is a child before you. He moves about in the simplicity of his young nature, unconscious of the dignity which is upon him. He goes under your flag to another country. There another Government injures his life, his property, or even a hair of his head. For that injury, sir, what ought to happen? Nay, sir, by the very law of your nation’s life and honor what must happen? Now, nothing has occurred except that a foreign Government has put its hand in insult or injury upon a little boy, and he upon the other side of the globe, where mid night is when we have high noon. But then the boy was our country's and was under its flag. When the tidings come to us that that child was hurt, if needs be for his redress every sword in the land and every gun, every arm in the land and every heart, every drop of blood in the land and every dollar of money pass eagerly under requisition to the work of that child's redress; and for that redress your armies and navies start off in a procession which girdles the globe with the light of your banners. And, sir, why all this? It is because that child bore with him what, thank God and the armies of America, is today the highest of earthly dignities; higher than that which made the person of him of Tarsus sacred in the presenee of a Hebrew mob. The boy was an American citizen. But, Mr. Speaker, others are in foreign lands from our country; Mason, Slidell, Breckin ridge are abroad. Should one of these be hurt as the boy was, who in this House will arise and say that his avenging belongs, by any law of the Constitution or of honor, law of men or of God, to his outraged country? I will yield to any gentleman on the other side who will rise in his place and say that this Government should present any insult or injury to such men. [After a pause] There is no response; no voice ine the loyal section of the country will be heard"to assert it. I therefore assume that their avenging belongs not to my country. Now, wh did have the right to demand your protection, and he is unconvicted today. Why has he not the right to make the demand now? Why did your Government refuse to consider Thresher, unconvicted of any offense against your laws, as not entitled to the rights of an American citizen? Why did that man, (Mr. Webster) who then administered your Dept of State, and who is to stand forever in your country's history unmatched and solitary as the master of your constitutional and your public law, refuse to accord the protection of this Government to one who engaged in the Lopez expedition, but who was unconvicted of any crime? Sir, in the light of history, of law, and of reason, there can be but one answer: that along with the repudiation of the obligations of citizenship the right to claim its privileges perishes in so far as the Government may choose to forfeit them. And it is upon this principle that we may rightly enact this section into law. Now, I shall say nothing more about this not? Mason once 6th section than I have already said. My own objection to it is, that it fails to assert the right to life which my Government has; it is oor and impoverished in the extent to which it goes. I say here, in the name of the loyal people of this country, South and North, that if we fail to put its stamp of detestation upon the treason of these men, by prohibiting them from any rule and authority in that country, in so far as that prohibition shall be found by the U.S. to be requisite to retain the governments of the States and of the nation in truly loyal hands, we will stab to the heart that government which we on all sides of the Hall love so well. One illustrious in another age said what has passed into the proverbs of a foreign tongue. Dulce et decorumest propatria mori. A distinguished Senator translated that to read, “It is sweet and decent to die for one's country.” But, sir, let me once for all say now perhaps the last time that I shall ever speak upon the subject in the American HoRep that if my Government shall, in any policies of reconstruction that may be adopted, abandon to their fate the men of the South who stood by their country when their country so much needed friends there; the men who proved their love of country when to prove it meant to die; and who proved it by receiving upon their own and their wives' and children's defenseless heads the storm of a huge and merciless treason, and shall, now in the day of the nation's triumph, consign them and their little ones, and the power of their States, to the dominion of those who made the rebellion, and whose almost tenderest mercies and best loyalty the nation, appalled with horror, has just read in the fire and blood of Memphis and NewOrleans massacres, and shall refuse to withhold from these authors and architects of our ruin such powers as the southern patriot's and the nation's safety demand to be withheld, then will indeed the day have come when for our country it will have ceased to be even decent to die, and when our country will itself be dead. Mr. Speaker, I return to the House my thanks for the singular attention and kindness with which I have been listened to, and here quit the theme.