Mr. STILWELL. Mr. Chairman, from the 14th day ofApril, 1861, when the American flag was fired on at Fort Sumter, until the surren der of General Lee and his whole army to General Grunt, April 9, 1805, the people of 11 of the States of this Union were in armed rebellion against the national Government. It was the proclaimed object of these people to cut the threads of national life, and sever the bonds of political Union. It was the proclaimed object of the national Government to maintain its rightful authority over these States; to execute its laws and protect its flag over every foot of this widely extended territory; to mark and punish rebellion as a flagrant crime; and to bring back the deluded masses to a Union which for nearly 80 years had spread over them the mantle of peace and prosperity. THE ISSUE. That the public mind might be clearly in formed of the issue involved; that no one might enter the army on either side under misapprehension; that when the battle was ended, and peace again restored, there should be no doubt crew“ in regard to the objects of the war, Congress, speakin in the name of the nation, passed, on the 23 of July, 1861, by a nearly unanimous vote, the following resolution: “That this war is not prosecuted upon our part In any spirit of oppression, nor for on purpose of conqnest or subju ntioumor purpose ofoverthrowing or interfering with the rits or established institutions of those Statas, lmtto dofond and maintain the suprcinacy of the constitution and all laws madein pursuance thereof, iind to are serve the Union with all the dignity. equality. an rights of the several Stats nn impaired; that as soon as these objects are accomplished the war ought to cease.” 1T3 OBLIGATIONS. There is not in the whole history of legislation an act of greater solemnity or a contract, more binding. Am I wrong in calling it a contract? Did it not pledge the national faith to every one in arms, that when he should capit ulnte, the rights of his State and of selfgovern lment should be preserved to his children and kindred, even though he might suffer the pen alties of the law? mun Did it not pledge the national faith to every Union man in the southern States, that, if he would stand fast to the Government, all his rights should be rotccted, and when peace should come, he fglly restored to him? Did it not pledge the national faith to every man who enlisted in the service of his country, that no love of power, no lust of conquest, no military subjugation should enter into the purposes of the war, but that it was waged merelyto preserve, not to destroy Government? Have not those in the southern States who have been true to their allegiance amid the most bitter persecutions known in the annals of history, who have seen their dwellings burned and their fields desolated, and who have fled to their mountains for refuge, and raised the flag on their summits, no claim to the fulfillment of this pledge? Have those at the North, who rushed to the battlefield to preserve national unity and restore national fraternity, no right to insist on the fulfillment of this pledge, without which they would have remained at home? Has not the nation itself a right to demand on this floor, and everywhere, that its plighted faith and its sacred honor, which have survived the storm of revolution, shall not perish in the halls of its own Capitol? It is said, I know, that one Congress is not bound by the acts of a previous Congress, and that what was done in 1861 is not bindin in 1866. Can this be so? Is the pledve of the national faith to pay money more binding than when it was made to preserve Government and protect liberty? Is the millionaire who stays at home and lends his money, a more favored creditor of the nation than he who shoulders his musket and oes to the field under the solemn pled e that State institutions should survive the shoe of battle? National faith is essential to national life. it is the cementing bond of Union, the noblest attribute of government, and the virtue nearest allied to the great source of 0mniscient wisdom and justice. This resolution adopted in the 1st year of President Lincolns administration. sha edhis policy and was the guide of his public lite. All his acts had reference to it; an or it he declared that to save the Union, (that is, to preserve the States) was the 1st and great duty. To this everything was made subservient. If it could be done by protecting slavery, then slavery was to be protected. If it could best be done by destroying slavery, then slavery was to be destroyed. Hence, his administration was simple, straightforward, and consistent; and it is a matter of record that this policy received the unanimous support of his Cabinet. His address to the people of Washington on the 13th of April, 1865, the last public act of his life, was the most studied, comprehensive, and perfect of the many papers which he has left for the instruction of posterity. It re capitulated all the principles laid down in the resolution, and gave to it a practical and tangible form. The system was perfect in all its parts, and complelein all its details. The time for practical application had come, and that a p ication was about to be made by him, when the hand of the assassin deprivet the notion of its head, the constitution of its wisest defender, and the State governments of their truest friend. By the action of our institutions the responsible duty of carrying out these measures devolved on the VEEP, AndrewJohnson. Here a wide field of ambition was opened to the new President. Armies were to be employed or disbanded; old States proscribed or new ones brought into existence; the policy of the old Administration was to be continued, or a new policy adopted; and we all remember how the nation held its breath while these questions were under advisement. At length the decree come forth that the policyofAbrnham Lincoln was to be continued. lhat the resolution ofJuly 23, 186], which had formed the platform of the war. was also in be the platform of peace; and that the who had 669 pinned their faith on the solemn declaration of Congress. were not to be disappointed. The South immediately showed signs of national life. Industry. upparentlv dead, began i to revive; confidence. which had been lost. returned with a bold step; and hope. which was about to expire, was again lighted n in the hearts of the people. The North fcltt at their labors had not been in vain; that they were again to have a whole country, a unitei country, and that the blood which had been shed on many battlefields would but cement and preserve our Union. Congress had laid down the rule. President Lincoln had interpreted it, and President John son acccpted the interpretation and followed it. How eariiestly he has labored to carry forward this great work; how many great difficulties have been interposed both North and South. to its final accomp ishment; how party strife has at last come in unbidden, even in the honr of the nations greatest peril, to thwart the holy purposes of union an fraternity, I need not stop to say. That the matured plans of president Lincoln, faithfully carried out by President Johnson, will finally be accepted by the American people, is my firm belief and earnest hope. CONGRESS. Since the opening of the session of Congress many new theories of reconstruction have been put forward. For the past 4 years the in genuity of the legal profession has employed itself in demonstrating that the Union of the States is indissoluble; that the constitution has conferred no power either on the Supreme Court, on Congress, on the several States, or on the people of the States to break the bonds of its authority and release the people from their allegiance. We had supposed this to be a political axiom. After 4 ears of bitter strife we had hoped that the bout of our Union, after it. had been bathed in the blood of a half million of patriots, would never again be called in question. But, Mr. Chairman, in this we are mistaken. The argument of the gifted and eloquent Gentfrom Ohio, [Mr. SHELLABARGEN] deliv ered in this Hall on the 8th of January, goes to prove that there is a power within the Government which can destroy it, and that that power has been successfully exerted. He has labored to prove that a noble Union of 36 States has been shattered in pieces, and that 11 of those States, broken and dismembered, are now drifting on the billows of revolution like the hulks of a fleet disabled and scattered by the storm. and, sir, by what train of argument has he reached a conclusion so opposed to the national instinct and the convictions of the publicjudgment. c has searched the law of nations to find the definition of a State, asit lives in the family of nationsan independent sovereignty, co-equal, existing under certain conditions, and possessing certain attributes, and then, sir, has applied that deiinition to the States of our Union the States of a constitutional GOvernmeut, in which each derives its characteristics and its attributes not from the law of nations, but from a written constitution defining and limiting the powers of each and all, and marking with accu racy their joint and several duties and their mutual relations. His whole arment, based on hisdefinition ofaState, therefore falls to the ground, for the argument can apply only to what is covered by the definition, and hence is entirely mopplicable to States as they exist under our form of government. mlission or scrarxs and rnmsoiv. The Gentfrom Ohio has bestowed much learning and labor on the question of admitting States into the Union, audilins pointed out. very l clearlytho antecedent conditionsof such admission. But, sir, does all this show that the rights which are conferred by admission can be forfeited afterward? Does it show that a State can go out of the Union as well as into it? “Treason miust the U.S shall consist in lOYYiHKWiH ainsttbem, orin adhering to their ouo aesgmrw hem aid and comfort. "0bnditudion. d Does this apply to individuals or to States? 1 when the storm had passed it would again be The next paragraph answers the question: “No person shall be convicted of treason union on the testimony of IlIO witnessesto the samewort not, or on CODluSiUOiDn open court.” Now, sir, the constitution gives no definition of treason as up ilied to a State. It is the treason of the individual which the constitution de fiues and for which it prescribes a punishment. This, air, is both the letter and the spirit of the instrument. la neither a paragrap or a line of that instrument is there any allusion to the expulsion or punishment of a State. the person or individual is alone referred to, and the State, as such, is in nowise held responsible. The Government has retained, in its own hands, the power and right to punish treason. Having done this, would it be just to hold a State resonsible when its citizens coinmit treason. Can Congress impose such responsibility? WHAT THE CONSTITUTION GUARAmBS. "The U.S shall guaranty to every State in this Union a RFG, and shall protect cub of them wavinst invasion, and on (application of the Legislature, or of the Executive, on the Lcrislature cannot be convened) against domestic notunco. ”(. milmmon, an. 4. sec. 4. Now, sir, what does this article of the constitution guaranty? A RFG. To whom does it guaranty it? To every State in this Union. Does itguarnnt it to statesout of the Union? Certainly not. his power, therefore, can only be exercised by congress over States in the Union, and not over Sum out of it. in fact, sir, the constitution never contemplated the case ofaState going out, or being out, of the Union. Gentlemen on this floor have labored. with much astuteness and learning, to show how a State may go out of the Union; and that, under their way, 11 of the States have actuull gone out. I beg leave to mmind those gentlemen, with great respect, that although the mode is some what novel, the principle itself is not new. It is thesame principle which 1st appeared in the celebrate resolutions of 1798, which was revived under the name of niillification by John C. Calhoun in 1830, and culminated in secession in 1861. It is the same vicious principle which has seduced the hearts of a portion of our people from their allegiance to government, which 18. 8tram led on our flag, which has bathed our land in by goodand filled our liomsswith mourning. I had hoped, sir, that 4 years of war, and such a war, had wiped out forever from the public mind every thought of nullification secession, and disunion, and that we had emerged from the bloody contest. with but one national pulsation, that the States “are one and inseparable, now and forever.” The Gentfrom Ohio has been at great pains to show that the Government has a right to treat every individual of a State that has boen in rebellion as a public enemy; that is, adjudge him guilty of treason and deprive him of citizonship, while the constitution expressly provides that " no person shall be convicte of treason unlcss on the testimony of 2 witnesses to the same oveit act, or on confession in o n court.” but, Mr. Chairman, would be the practical operation of this new doctrine of constructive treason; of declaring that whenever by fraud or violence a State government. should be interrupted or overthrown the whole people within its borders, as a body, should be treated as public enemies and beyond the protection of the General Government. Would it not at once transfer the allegiance of every citizen from the national to the State government, and effeetually destroy our entire system? When the storms of tumult and civil discord should rage, would the affrighted citizen fly to the flag ofhis country only to be told that his State had rebelled and that he himself was a traitor? What nerved the arms and ins wired the hearts of so many truc patriots in toSouth during the recent struggle? it was the conviction that citizenship could only be lost by individual acts and not forfeited by the acts of others. it was the conviction that the air they. breathed was the atmosphere of the whole notion, and tbat. i pare, invigorating, and in peaceful. i know of no people, in any age or country, who adhered to their allegiance with greater fidelity, met danger with more (leterniiiiod brn very, who offered up their lives more cheer & fully, and boretbe flag of their country throu li fiereer storms than the Union men of the Sour. AndrewJohnson, in a speech to the people of Knoxvrlle, thus describes their condition: "My countrymen! my heartyearns toward you, and I. amout;at you I have climbed yonder moun taoirng sc. sr, ockribbed and KlOWHHin sunshine, in WhOIQ in whosccaverns your sons, huntedlikc beasts, have fallen to rise no more. I do not speak of these things wdrnw your tears. It is not the time for tours, but for blows. I speak of them that I may fit. your arms for unconquernble ll2hi and I speak of them because the mountain seemsto talk to inc. My house is among the mimntnins and, though it is away. not far i. cannot o to it. this the place“llUfe I met and loved her wo is the motherof my children. Do I not love the mountains? and if liberty is to exiire, if freedom is to be destroyed, if my country in a its length and breadth is to trciuble beneath the oppressors tread, let the flag, the dearolil flag. thelust flag, be planted on you rocky hcights, and upon it lot there be this inscription: } ore is the end of all that is dear to the heart and sacredto thememoryof man ” The doctrine of the Gentfrom Ohio treats these men as public enemies, and deems them to have forfeited their political rights and indeed, str, his doctrine has received some sanction from the action of the House itself. The time, however, must come, and that soon, when we shall be brought face to face on all these great questions. We must decide whether those who were members of Congress during the most: critical period of the rebellion, (including the Prestdent himself) who went. home and encount ered all its furieshand have come back with certificates of electwn, are to be admitted, or are to be shot down, as rebels, at the door of the Capitol, not by the bullets of the enemy, but by the votes of Congress. WHEN REPRESENTATIVES SHOULD BE ADMITTED. Immediately after the military surrender of the rebel armies, the President had to accept the civil surrender of the people. The session of Congress had just terminated, and they would not reassemble until December. The Cabinet the legal advisers of Mr. Lincoln, were at their posts, and the President solicited their counsel and aid. All that Congress had asked, as conditions precedent to reconstruction, was the adOptionof the constitution alamendment suhich they had passed. I think it: must be admitted that after these had been accepted, in good faith, no subsequent conditions could justly be imposed. The President. however, acting in the true spirit that had governed his predeces sors, went even beyond what he or Congress had asked, and suggested to the southern people that they would best promote the common interests of all by adding to the conditions which Congress had prescribed the utter repudiation of the confederate debt in all its forms, and a full guarantee to the African race of entire equality with the whites in all matters affecting personal liberty and civil rights. y sentiments on these matters are fully stated in the following resolution which I had the honor of presenting to this House on the 19th day of December: “Resolved. That when the pimple who linvehcen in rebellion against the Government have submitted to the laws of the U.S. adopted a RFG, repealid the ordinance of secession, wood the constitutional amendment forever abolishing slavery, repudiated the rebel wnr debt mnd passed laws protecting the freedman in his liberty; the representativm of those people elected to congress, and having recoived their ccrtilicutes of election from their respective Governors, should be reccived as members of the “" inth (, onzr –ss when they shall take the oath prescribed by the last Congress, known as the test oath, without clay.” Under such conditions, when they are complied with in. good faith, Mr. Chairman, i am ready to vote for the admission immediately of all loyal men who come here and take the prescribed oath that “they have never voluntarily assisted in therebellion.” What power. 811, has a right to exclude such PBKOSBHSBQIVGS? If the rights of one man cannot. taken away by not of msofllit, dwioyal atwsnad a 2:: every State of this Union have an equal right to be represented here and when, sir, the subject has been fully considered, I feel that that right Will)8 cheerfully and speedily accorded. oun FOREIGN RELATIONS. Are there not, Mr. Chairman, strong motives arising out of our foreign relations, that should urge us to harmony, fraternity, and union 1 Without these we can never be eat, we can never be strong. No sooner ha the echo of the 1st an fired at Sumter reached the British isle, than the oldlion shook the dewdro s from his mane and began to growl. Dnring the entire struggle, a ruinblin the entire British empire, indicating a wish to strike us if the hap y moment should arrive. Privateers were fitte out under the very eye of the Government to prey upon our commerce; insulting paragraphs appearedin all their public journals; retention and sympathy were extended to rels by public meetin s and on all public occasions, and we were indebted for the preservation ofence to our great stren th and the bravery o cu; troops in the fie d. France, our ancient all, and who went with us, side by side, throng the Revolution, also sought to profit by our misfortunes, and sent an army to Mexico to overturn a sister republic and establish there a monarchy, in direct hostilit to the policy of our Government, proclaime to the world 40 years ago and followed implicitly by every A ministration to the present time. Now, sir, with a knowledge of these facts, indicating a settled purpOse abroad to profit by our divisions at home, is it wise to foment civil discord and divide in interest and sentiment this great nation, which should be bound together by all the ties which can unite a people 1 conFINANCES. The finances of a nation are alike the evidences, of its reatness and the foundations of its power. No subject engages so earnestly the attention of a statesman as how to make labor most useful and productive. The southern States are capable of producing at the present moment, by a rightly adjusted system of labor, 4 million bales of cotton perannum, which at present prices would be worth $800,000,000; add to this $100,000,000 for rice and tobacco, and we have an annual amount at present prices, for 3 articles alone, of 1/3rd of our entire national debt. Now, Mr. Chairman, in stead of bringing these people back into the Union, encouraging and developing their industry, making them again a part of the Government and obliging them to contribute their full share in the payment of the national debt, there are gentlemen on this floor who would expend $50,000,000 annually for the oor grat ification of keeping them out of the vnion for 4 years longer. We have been fighting for 4 years to bring them back into the Union and how sir, is this $50,000,000 to be furnished? It is to be collected by the taxgath erer from the honest laborer of the North. Is it worth while to sacrifice so much for assion and resentment? vIs it not better to cu in sectional strife, to heal the wounds of the nation, to absorb in the current of a healthy public sentiment the disloyalty which yet bursts from a few hearts as the mighty river carries the little rills which issue from the mountain side? ELECTIVE FRANCHISE. In regard to the subject of the elective franchise, I agree with the President in his message, which says: "When at the 1st movement toward independence, the Congress of the U. S. instructed the several States the institute governments of their own, they left eachState to decide for itselfthe conditions for the enioymont of the elective franchise.” I heartily concur in the above, and believe that the regulation of the elective franchise in all the States and the qualifieations of electors belong to the States cue for itself, and are subjects in which Congress, under the constitution, as no right to interfere; the policy of the president on this, as well as on many other subjects, was to preserve the Government as he found it, sound ran through and not to make a new one. the constitution of the U.S. having referred the matter of suffrage to the States, and invested them with the exclusive power over it, and it was not competent for the President to interfere with a prerogative so eXpressly conferred upon them, and so long exercised by. them. I will not, Mr. Chairman, pursue this subject further. I rejoice in the great good which the recent contest has produced. hope we may reap all its legitimate fruits. I hope it will make us a eat and united people, with one language, one eart, one destiny. I rejoice, sir, that the African race has risen to the condition of freedom. In the dispensations of Providence the nation laid its hands on the bowed captives and the sprang to the dignity of freedom. It touche their sightless eyes and they opened to the morning light of perpetual liberty. At the beginning of the contest they appeared to be the orphans of Providence; at its close they are the wards of the Republic. Under Providence, the guiding legislation of Congress, ahd the wisdom and justice of those whom they live among, they are now to go forward to their final destiny. Starting as men, with perfect equality before the law, they will soon become an important part of the body politic. Time will wear away prejudice and soon reconcile all parties to the new condition of thin s. Mr. Chairman, Tam hopeful of the future. The constitution, as it stands, is the bond of perfect union and the guarantee of innumerable blessings to this people. Under it we have grown to be a great and poWerful nation. It seems to me to embrace within its ample folds every State and every individual of each State, whether he be rebel or loyal; and that it has full power to punish the one and protect the other. I hope, sir, that in settling the grave question before us we shall keep ourselves within the bounds of this great charter of our liberties, and that no considerations of party advantage or political power will swerve us from the line of utv at a moment so critical. If this be so the uture presents no difficulties. The 11 eclipsed stars will pass from under the shadows which now obscure tihcm, and return to the pure light of a restored and happy Union and then, on motion of Mr. VOORHEES, (at ten oclock p. m.) the House adjourned.