Mr. Speaker, that demands the change which this bill calls for? I am answered that the necessity grows out of the war, that the South is vanquished, the negroes are liberated, and that therefore the organic law must be so amended that the emancipated slave shall in all respects be the equal of the white man. Well, I have listened patiently during this week to the many heavy and light speecies made here on the subject in hand by the friends and advocates of amend men and negroequality, from the chief eigi neer down to my dramatically tragic colleague who reads anonymous rebel letters for the instruction of this House, and yet I am not enlightened on the subject under discussion. Instead of debating this grave and seriousquestion as becomes statesmen and jurists, we iear some 6 or 8 stump speeches every day, and in truth, not very courteous or good at that. Gentlemen on the loyal side, as it is called, in place of arguing the point of difference among themselves, that is, whether the southern States are in or out of the Union, or whether they reconquered provinces and the people aliens, or States an the people citizens, indulge in political slang, a using and vilifyin the Democratic part by charges and accusations as groundless as t icy are discourt cone. I honestly believed that the time had one by for the utterance of such foul and also attacks and aspersions, and especially in this place. The Democratic party of the country and the Democratic members of this congress require no defender here or elsewhere. he history of the U.S. is the history of the Democratic party; its creed is the const itution, and its principles have been for 75 years tie operative cause of our countrys rise, progress, strength, and great ness. When I see members here so intensely loyal, who owe their present bombastic reatness to the kindness and generosity of the democratic party, and who now traduce and malign their democratic colleagues, I cannot help thinking thatingratitude is a crime and ought to be made odious. I am inclined to think that there are some furiously loyal gentlemen here, who, when they shall give an account of their stewardship to their constituents, may be politely informed, by virtue of the power vested in the people, that the private station is henceforth their 0st of honor, and sic transit gloria mumli for hypocritical loyalty, niggers, universal suffrage, bureaus, southern plantations, office, power, glory, bag, and baggage. Mr. Speaker. my 1st inquiry is, are the southern States still States and integral parts of the Union, or have they, by the act of secession and war, brought themselves to a territorial condition, or the condition of a conquered foreign country, now reduced to provinces? The chairman of the reconstruction committee Srnvuss] answers affirmatiVely, and doubtless many others here hold the same opinion. If this be so, if that is the status of the southern States, then all your constitutional amendments, acts, conditions, prohibitions, and directions are in order and must be submitted to by the conquered and vanquished foreignersinhab iting Virginia, the Carolinas, Georgia, Louisiana, &0. It cannot be that this monstrous doctrine is seriously entertained by a majority of this House. This point has been so thoroughly discussed that it were a waste of time to enlarge upon it. A short time ago, when I had the honor to address the House on a subject akin to this, I stated that our case. the date rebellion, is suigeneris, which cannot be claSsed under any ordinary description of war, civil or foreign. The law of nations, as construed by these old and eminent authors in monarchical Governments in a past age, ought not and cannot be fairly applied at this day in our dealing with a portion of our own people, inhabiting a part and parcel of our own territory. A war with a foreign Power, or with a sovereign nation, would place the legal question involved in a very different light. We quelled the rebellion among our own citizens and in our own country. We conquered nothing. We have not more territory, people, or property than we had before. This, in my judgment, is the rational and natural deduction from the prem ises, in law and in fact and this is my opinion now, that the States are and never ceased to be, in law and in fact. constituent parts of our Union. lf 1 am correct in this opinion, and it is the view taken by the most eminent lawyers and publicists of the country, then what necessity exists for these amendments of the Constitution? Let the States be represented in the Senate and House by men who can conse ientiously qualify as members, and after that, when we have a full congress, with the whole country represented, let any amendment that may be required be proposed, and let those most interested have an opportunity to participate in the debates and deliberations of matters of so much moment to every citizen. If it were not for the malignant party spirit, the overweening desire to perpetuate radicalism, roscription, and the centralization of power instead of enlightened statesmanship acting in a spirit of justice and equity, the States would now be in their proper positions quo ante bellnm, contributing and adding to the general welfare and prosperity of the country, North and South. Whi c discussing the report of the committee with a learned friend (if mine, he informed me that the subject was most ably treated in an editorial in the NewYork Times. The Times is acknowledged to be one of the ablest and most leading Republican papers in the U.S. Fully concurring in the views therein expressed, I beg to read the article for the benefit of this House. It is sound, patriotic, statesmanlike, and just, and well deserves the serious consideration of every truly patriotic man who loves his country, its history, and glory: "As a plan of pacification and reconstruction. the whole thing is worsethan a burlesque. It might be styled nvfarco.were the country not in the midst of a very serious drama. Its properdesignation Wouldbe A plan to prolong indetiuitcly the exclusion of the South fromCongressbyimposinirconditions to which the southern people Will never submit. This being the obvious scopeand tendenc of the proposition, we are bound to assumethat ite early reflects the settled purpose of the committee. So that the JtCommee. appointed nearly 5 months ago to take exclusive chargeof the question of reconstruction now offeras the result of all their labors what would in fact render reconstruction forever impossible. “There is an anomalousfeature in the affair as it stands.which of itse lf reveals the monstrous nature of the pretensions set up by the committee. All the provisions of the proposed amendment imply the adoption of the extreme view in regard to the relationof the South to the Union. We must begin by assumingthat what were States before the war are mereTerritories now; or this attempt to dictate terms as the condition of recognition becomes undue usurpation. We must assume, in fact. that the South is at this moment neither more nor less than an aggregateof Territories. waitin for admission as States, and from whose people congress may thereforerequire compliance with certain proposals and yet the amendment. on its face. declares the existence.as States.of all the States recentlyin rebellion, and presup uses the exercise by their sov crul Legislatures c the highestconstitutional attribute of State sovereignty. They have no right to representationin Congress.forsopth. Theymay not say you or pay on the most triViaI questions that come before congress. They are not permitted to enjoy a particle o influencein matters affecting the finance. the trade. the industry, the foreignrelations of the country or any of its concerns.great or small. These privileges they are deniedon the pretensethat they are not within the Union, and therefore have no right to recognition as parts of the Union.nevertheless. under the contemplated amendment. they are treated as sovereign States, whoseratification of the amendmentis essential to its constitutional validity. They are to vote for or ainstachaniro in the Constitution of the Union of which, on the radical hypothesis. they are not present members! Could absurdity go further? Could the folly of this fanaticism be made more manifest? “From the dilcmma into which the committee have thus lunged thereis no logical ese ape. If thesouthern States are in a condition by their Legislatures to ratify or reiccta constitutional amendment.the must of necessity be qualified to send Sens&Reps to Coiigress, subjectonl to the judgment of either Houseastothe eligibility o thga persons sent. A State which mayassistin the sovereigntask of molding the Constitution under which Congress acts may surelydeinandavoicein what the Constitution erentec. The greater right covers the lesser rurht in this or in other cases. 0n theother hand.iftha southern States are not entitled to admission toCongress if th peoint he established, N the radical doctors say it is. that these are States no longer. but Territories only, subject to the will of the conqueror thouit follcws that they are not entitled to any lot or art in the business of amending the Constitution. on which horn Shall the ceutrnl directory be impa ed? Shall we take it that this prodigious amendment, this mighty mouse brought forth by amountain after 5 months parturition. does not mean what it says when it speaks of the States lately in rebellion us Statesstill. with their sovereign functions unimpaired. though for a time uninterrupted? Orshall we conclude that the doctrine of State suicide is abandoned. the doctrine of subjugation given up and the criminal blunder of which the radicals have been Ellllty in excluding the South from Congressat length confessed? Let there be explicit answers upon these heads of the subject. As it at present apoars the position of the committeeis utterly untenable. "Aside from these points the worthlessness of the committees proposition is obvwus. It cannot by any possibility c act anything. We may confidently take it for grantedthat the peopleof the South will never under any circumstances acquiese e in their own disfranchisement for 4 years in referenceto all that relates to the Federal Government. There is room for difference of opinion on the general merits of the reconstruction problem: on this paint there can benone. The South has taken itsstand on the ground of a common citizenship and it will never acceptas the price of congressionalro presentation that which would beequivalent to an tic nowl edgment of 4 yearss crfdomor inferiorit as the penalty of rebellion. Nor should it be aske to M cedeto terms of this nature. Punish the rebel lead ers, if necessary.by banishment or otherwise. But to proposeto punish a whole people to suit the partisan conveniencesof thosew o dictate the penalty is an outrage upon justice and common humanit. With all their errors and faults. the southern poop O have shown that they are no t cowards. They Will not belie their nature by writing themselvesdown slaves at the bidding of a committee appointed to consider the questionof reconstructin. we would do aught to has10the result which all moderate men admit to be exceedincly desirable it is necessary without more ado.to uipeard the ides of constitutional changes as the condition precedent of the readmissionof teSouth to Copuress. That I. the primary step toward reconstruction practwllli considered, and we should prepare to take it on the ground of existing rights. subJect only to the lawtul test ofindividnal fitness. To talkof wholesale and almost indiscriminate punishment as a preliminary measure.tocall for coneession simplying the relation of supplicants petitioning tor favors insteadof citiZens insisting upon their rights, to demand a confession of inferiority with one breath, while with another admitting the existence of constitutional equality, is to aggrayato fccliiinul already much too bitter and to multiply difficulties which the JtComhave thus far viiiuly endeavored to over come.