Mr. WADE. Mr. President, I have heard nothing yet but rumor, and that of the weakest character; and the Senfrom Indiana tries to give point and weight to rumor in this matter because, he says, rumor was alluded to yesterday on the question of the reference ofcertain credentials, and he insinuates that I said somethingthen about rumor. Sir, I made no speech on that subject, and I did not cast my vote in that case upon any mere rumor; nor did I understand the Senfrom Maine, [Mr. Fes snxnnzv] who spoke on that subject, and who probably stated the views of a majority, to proceed upon the mere idea of rumor. So far from iIt, understood him to say distinctly that if there was only a rumor he would not proceed on it or ground any action upon it. e said that he was at one time prepared to vote against the reference of those credentials because the objection seemed to be based upon nothing but rumor; but he had been relieved of that by the fact that gentlemen who were the friends and advocates of the admission of that applicant, acting apparently as counsel by his side, admitted the fact that he had presided in a court hostile to the General Government and had, of course, taken an oath to support a hostile government. That stood admitted; itwas the basis of the nrgumeht of the friends of the gentleman applying for admission and that being the case, I understood the Senfrom Maine to insist that what was originally a mere rumor had become a part of the record by the admission of the advocate on the other side, and therefore he acted upon that admission. So, then, we did not act on rumors yesterday. We pay no more regard to them in our legislative proceedings than would a court in judicial proceedings. Does the Senator suppose that he is to impeach the integrity of the people of a Territory upon the bare breath of scandal that he has heard from the mouths of men or from party newspapers? Do we act upon that here in Congress? I take it no Senator’s mind is in fluenced by any such stuff. That is not the basis of our action. Now, what have we au thentic? We have the certificate of the authorized officers of the Territory whose business it is to certify the facts to us, and there is not a word or a breath to impeach it. Who shall rise here and by his more breath blow away these substantial, authentic documents by saying there are rumors of fraud? But, then, if there is not any fraud, it is said, the smallue of the majority is another great reason. Isup pesed that we were a Government of majorities; that when the majority had determined: question, that question was determined, whether it was important or otherwise. Sir, many of the most important questions that ever came before this nation; nay, sir, questions which have fixed the character of our institutions for ages, have been decided by one single vote. If we had only had one vote more on one occasion in the old Continental Congress we should have escaped entirely from this terrible controversy that we have had over the subject of black and white, slave or free. If NewJersey had been there, ifone member from NewJer sey had been there, who would have vote'diu the direction of freedom, we should have been saved much trouble. His bare absence, one vote, fixed the status of the Government and entailed upon us all the evils we have had. Will a Democrat rise here and tell me “You have got a majority of 100, but what is that on a greatqnestion?” v Sir, the standing of any of us on this floor would be determined by a much less vote than that. No question is so wh80 in this nation, no question is so on important in this nation, but what it must be settled by a majority of even one. Why, then, tell me upon a great question “ You must have a certain majority?” How great? It must be in proportion to the importance of the questionl