Mr. THORNTON. Mr. Speaker, the absorbing question since our assemblage here is, in one view of it. a question of union or disunion, and in another view it is a question of absolute power in the Federal Government, and the consequentextinguishment of the States, or a nationa Government, with dele ated power composed of States clothed with all powers 0, loca government. if the States which attempted to secede are “out of the Union, ” either in fact or in law, then the war has failed in its avowed object. If they are “dead and defunct” States, then the war was a fearful tragedy, resulting in the death of both the Union and the States. If they have “lost their powers of local government, " then we have a despotism, a consoli dated Government, instead of one with specifi and limited powers. If they have no right O representation in Congress, then the American Revolution was a moc very, and free represent: ative government is a fleeting shadow. The legal status of these States is the merest abstraction, separated from the denial of any right. But it liccomes of infinite importance to every man in this broad land, when, as consequence of such condition, it is declare that the people there have no rights in a government based upon the consent of the governed. Gentlemen upon the opposite side differ somewhat in the language used to designate the character of these States. Some call them dead, and with ghastly smile gloat and enjoy the picture imaged by adiseased mind. Some say that they are out of the Union; that they have wandered from the homes of their infancy and deserted the halls of their manhood; and yet, like a cruel and unnatural parent, they refuse to welcome them back, and shut the door against them, when repentant they return. Others assert that they do not sustain practical relations to the national Government; and yet no attempt at reconciliation is made; no word of kindness is spoken; no warm grasp of friendship is given; but. bitter invective and unmanly revilings are hurled at a defeated enemy. Each one, however, arrives at the same conclusion, that the Union is not and shall not be restored. It may be said that there is no intention to debar the States from a participation in the Government for any great length of time, and that the desire is to defer the admission of Representatives merely to ascertain the devotion of the people to the Constitution and laws, A Representative should be attached to the Constitution, and should sincerely pledge himself to so port, protect, and defend it. He should be loyal to the Government, and I hold, in the language of the President, that “ A manwho acknowledges allczinnee to the Government, and who swearsto support the Constitution must necessarilybe loyal A man cannot take that oath in good faith unless he is loyal." I also adopt and commend for consideration the language of the President in his veto message: “I hold it my duty to recommendto you in the interestsof peaceand in the interestsof the Union the admissionof every State to its sharein public legislation: when. however insubordinate. insurgent or rebellious its people may have been, it presents itself. not only in the attitude ofloyalty and inrmony. but in the persons of Representativeswhoseloyalty cannot bequestioned under any existin: constitutional or legs test." The assumed right to exclude Representatives until their loyalty is proved by witnesses to be called or until the Constitution is amended, or some favorite measures of policy are enacted into law, is revolutionary, and if persisted in must end in a complete change of the Government. such is the plan. This House has adopted a resolution, in the hour of passion land by the suppression of discussion, depriving 11 States of any share in the councils of the nation until Congress shall have declared such States entitled to representation. By the terms of this resolution, the Senate and House must concur as to the qualifications of Sens&Reps. This rule is in direct opposition to the Constitution, which provides 1. at “Each House shall be the judge of the elections, returns and qualifications of its own members." This action is in effect disnnion. Disguise it as you may by urging the anomalous condition of these States; palliate it. by the plea of necessity; insist upon it as a consequence of treason and rebellion, still this resolution will forever be upon record as a declaration of the American Congress severing the only ligament which bound these States to the Union. What is the tie which links these States together? What is the bond of Union? I answer. the Constitution of the U.S., which has to each State the right of representation. Vithout a guarantee of this right there never would have been a ratification of it. Before its adoptionthere was be “perfect Union.” In the anguage of the Articles of Confederation, “Each State retained its sovereignty, freedom, and independence." The Constitution made one harmonious whole out of 13 separate, independent States. Each new State has been admitted coequal with them, with well defined and amply secured rights written in the bond. By virtue of this instrument the States are members of the Union, and derive all their rights and powers in the Union from it. Their functions as States in the Union are regulated byit; therefore they cannot exist for a day or an hour as States of the Union without the sanction of the Constitution. In cases of contract, where certain rights are secured by stipulations in the bond, if either force or fraud should be used to divest such rights, every honestjudge in the land would enforce the contract, and punish the dishonest attempt to violate it. rights are not lost unless the instrument is canceled. Neither are the rights of States, contained in express provisions of the Constitution, “lost or forfeited, ” so long as the Constitution shall live. Has it been overthrown? Not by the rebellion. War was waged upon our part to maintain it. It has been trampled upon and disregarded by a portion of the cop O when frenzy raged. Armed hosts assailed it, secession attempted to undermine its firm foundations, men blind with fur spurned it. Yet, like a thing of life, endue with perpetual existence, it has withstood the shock of battle, and is still the supreme law of the land. The Constitution having been saved, the States are saved with it. The salvation of the one is the salvation of the other. You cannot separate the one from the other, and preserve either in their integrity. Secession has failed, armed rebellion has failed seriously to impair the vi tality of the great charter of American freedom. Shall the future historian record the fact that the wild dreams of the theorist and the base passion of party defaced the sacred instrument which had survived the most violent civil commotion which ever convulsed the world? Sir, the Constitution stilllives, an enduring monument to the wisdom of our fathers. which will rise higher and higher until it shall shadow all the land. It may be set aside here; attempts to amend it may succeed here; yet the people will open their hearts to receive it, and will guard it from injury and overthrow. They will love it and cherish it; for all the grand glories of the past gather round it, and a bright and hopeful future awaits it. The States are vital to the Union. They are united together by a Federal compact, and thus form a supreme national Government, acting not only upon the States as members of the Union, but upon all the people in their individual and corporate capacities. Though subor dinate to tesovereignty of the nation, they are necessary to its eXIstence. They may live without the Federal Government; but it cannot live without their sustaining power. The continuance of each Dept of the Government depends upon the action of the States. Abolish them, and the corner stone of the build in is removed. If a part of the States can be reduced to Territories as a punishment Tm rebellion. where is the limitation? As well may any refractory member be reduced to a territorial condition for slighter offense, if the nu merical and physical power exists. Any act of legislation declaring the States Territories or conquered provinces violates the Constitution, because it recognizes all which have been admitted into the Union as States with equality of rights. such an act would make a centralized despotism, as odious and oppressive and dangerous to the liberties of the people as successful secession. 1 The States and the Union must stand together, or the Union will vanish and become “A school boys tale. The wonder of an hdnr.” Let no unholy hand seek to disrobe the States of their powers, and cast them, naked and shiverin, out of the Union. Rather let us admit their rights and reclasp them to our hearts. Chief Justice Marshall, in speaking of the States, said: These Statesare constituent parts of the U.S. They are membersof one great empire." 6 Wheaten, 264. I assume, therefore, that they are elemental parts of the Union, as necessary to its life and vigor and power as the soul is to the body. Sever the ties that bind the one to the other, and the Union will become a.ghastly corpse, for “soul is wanting there.” You cannot make them “defunct States or States with “lost powers.” Their proper habitation is in the nion. The States an the Union Sgexist. You cannot and dare not drive them out or shut the door againstthem unless on blot out.the brightest page in the history O man, and darken forever the light of hope which is dawning upon us. When the people of these States yield a willing obedience to the Constitution and laws of the Union they have a right, through their representatives in Congress, to say to you, in the language of the noble Clay: “I am in the Union and I am for stayin within the Union, and defyingany portion of the confederacy to expel me or drive me from the Union." The States are not only refused representation, but they are to he denied the right of local government. The Gentfrom Ohio [Mrv SHELLABARGER] sai: "Such States [the seceded States]and their people ceasedto have any of the rights or powers of government, as States in the Union: and, this loss of the rights and powers of governmentwas such that the U.S. may and ought to assumeand exercise the local powersof the lost Stategovernments." This is only clothing in different language the dogma that the States derive their local powers of government from the Union. In an opinion of the SCOTUS, Chief Justice Marshall said: "The several Stateswhich composed the Union. so far at least as regardedtheir municipal regulations, became entitled. from the time when they declared themselvesindependent to all therights and powers of sovereign States: and they did not derive them from concessions made by the British king. The treaty of peacecontains a recognition of their inde pondence, not a grant of it." This independence, this right to make their own municipal regulations, they have never surrendered. It is a right. higher and more sacred than any which lungs and parliaments and congresses can grant. It is a.right given by God to man, sanctified by the blood O our fathers, and handed down to us for preservation. Any infringement upon it is an act of stern despotism, which will meet with the rebuke of tree men everywhere. Have these States “lost their constitutional relations to the Union, ” or are they “out of the Union, ” or are they “outside and defunct States, ” in the language of the Gentfrom Pennsylvania, [Mr. SrsvsrvsP] 1f the rebellion had been successful they would not form a part of the Union. It did not succeed. Gigan, never been out, either in fact or in law. i tic as it was, it has been crushed. We kept them in the Union, and therefore they e.iahvee levied armies to resist laws to which they werh alike subject with us. They contemued the authority of the common Government, and did not, for a time, conperate with us in the enactment and administration of the laws. Wecompelled the fulfillment of their duties, enforced the law and obedience to the Constitution. Their acts could never take them out of the Union without our consent, unless success crowned their efforts. Only a part of the people forfeited their rights by rebellion and crime if the law was enforced. If there are forfeitures by operation of law, and without trial, the clemency of the Executive, by General amnesty and special pardon, has remitted them. Before the rebellion these States had rights in the Union. During the war the failed, and refused to exercise them. Suc failure and refusal did not make them “defunct States.” or take from them their constitutional rights. Upon no principle oflaw or reason does the neglect or refusal to enjoy or use a right necessarily deprive you of it. Unless barred blapse oftime, or changed circumstances utterly prevent its exercise, a right is continuing. he rights of the States are not barred by time. No altered condition of things can prevent or ran der unnecessary the exercise of them, except a complete change of Government. The war has ceased; the people are willing to obey the laws, and adapt themselves to the new state of things. The Constitution resumes its swav, and the States resume their functiousin the nion. Unless this be so the southern people are mere serfs; and while you claim the honor of having freed 4 million slaves, history will award to you the infamy of having enslaved 6 million free men. Subjugation is claimed as a result of the war. The Gentfrom Pennsylvania [Mr. STI vsss] has informed us “Thnt the late confederate States are out of the Union to all intents and purposesfor which the conqneror may chooseso to consider them." The war was commenced to preserve the Union and the equality and rights of the States unimpaired. Now it is over, you insist upon a destruction of these rights and the confiscation of private property. Even in the midst of war the rights of war are to be measured by the object of the war. Since the example of William of Normandyin the connest of England. no such rights of connest lave been demanded among the civilize nations of Christendom. During a warit is not onlya right, it is humane and a necessity, to resort to stringent measures, and sometimes to desolate the enemys country; but when the battle has ended, private rights and private property should always be respected. The southern States insisted upon t 10right of secession. We denied it by the authority of the Constitution, which prohibits them from keeping troops or ships of war in time of peace, entering into any compact with a foreign Power, or engaging in war unless in vaded or in imminent danger of invasion. By virtue of the same Constitution we raised armies to prevent a separation; and it protects the citizen in his property, of which he cannot be deprived without due course of legal proceedings, and as a punishment for crime. In vindication of this monstrous doctrine of confiscation the void ordinances of secession are presented. This lea of estoppel is a m“ ost unfortunate one. ord Kenyon said: Estoppels are not to be favored, because the tendency of them is to prevent the investigrrtion of truth.” Is the plea made to smother investigation, to cover up the past, and thus conceal the mad fanaticism WhlCll atlorded a pretext for the rebellion? This is its general design and office. But there were twoparticl to the record. The seceded States were one, and the U.S. the other. It is laid down in the books that an “estoppel is reciprocal and binds both parties and their privies.” If: therefore, the record bars the late “confed erate States, ” it is equally obligatory upon the U.S. If they have no rights in the Union, then by the same record we are estopped from any interference with them. The truepositionis, that the record was made before atribunal having no jurisdiction, and that all ordinancesof secession are null and void be causein conflict with the supreme law. Thestatus of the States lately in rebellion, in a legaland constitutional sense and not in fact, is the question. During the late war the legislativeand executive Depts of the government recoguized these StatesasStates. Mr. Lincoln, in his1st inau ral address, declared that“The right of each Lateto order and control its own domestic institutions according to its own judgment exclusively is essential to the balanceof power on which the perfection and enduranceof our political fabric depends." In his 1st message, on the 4th of Ju y, 1861. he said thatafter the suppression of the rebellion he would “probably have no different understandingof the powers and duties of the federal Government relatively to the rights of the States and the people under the Constitution than that expressed in the inaugural address." lo a debate on the Army bill in the Senate on the 18th of July, Senator Susanna said that the war was “not to be waged for the purpose of subjugating any State or to interfere with the social or domestic institutions of any State; it was to preserve this Union, to maintain the Constitution as it is in all its clauses, in all its guarantees without change or limitation." In that dark hour after the battle of Bull Run, when the fate of the nation and its capital hung suspended by athread, and when impending danger made men sincere and honest, the following resolution was offered, on the 22dofJuly, 1861, in the HoRep, by the venerable and lamented John J. Crittenden: “Evolved, That the present do lorable civilWar has beenforced upon the country y the disunionists of the southern States.now in arms against the constitutional government and in arms around the cupiistahling that in this national emergency Congress ban all feelingsof mere passionor resentment will recollect only its duty to the wholecountry; that this war is not wagedon their artiii nnyspirit of oppression or for any purpose oPeonqnost or subjugation or urpose of overthrowing or interferin with the rights or established institutions of those l Stater but to defcnd and maintain the supremacyof the Constitution and to preserve the Union with all the dignit, equalityJmd rightaof the several smtos unim airc; and that as soon asthesa objects arono complialied tho war ought to cease." The resolution was adopted with only 2 dissentin votes. This was a solemn promise made in the hour of trial and of gloom. The country relied upon it and acted upon it. Our honor and our manhood and our triumph de mand its fulfillment. The time has come when this resolution says “the war on lit to cease.” Then, in the name of liberty an of Union, let it cease. On the 8th of August, 1861, the SecyWar wrote toGenlButler as follows: “ It is the desire of the President that all existing rights in all the States be fully respectedand maintained. The war now prosecutedon the part of the Federal Government is a war for the Union and for the preservationofall constitutional rightsofStotea." In December 1862, after nearly 2 years of war, and after the establishment of a defacto government in the late “ confederate States, ” when urging n on the attention of conrcss an amendment. of the Constitution provi in for the gradual emancipation of slavery, Mr. in co"ln said: law.The plan is proposedupormanent constitutional It cannot become such without tbeconcurrencoof vTthwoe trheiqrduissite of Congress and htshorefethfoen Srttahts of the states. sarily include 7 of the neces slave Suites.” During the 38th Congress a jointesolution was adopted, proposing an amend nent to the Constitution abolishing slavery. )n the 18th of December, 1865, Secretary Seward officially announced the ratification of the uicndmerit by the requisite number of States inn(iIa, included in the number the States of Virginia, Louisiana, Tennesee, Arkansas, South change I. e supreme law, and yet are representation here to aid in ordinary legislation. In 1868 Mr. Lincoln proposed a plan for the establishment of loyal State governments in the States then in rebellion, and used the following language: “And it is suggested as not improper that. in constructing loyal State governments in any State, the name of the State. the boundary. the subdivisions. the constitutions and the general codeof the laws. asbeforethe rebellion, be maintainedsubJecto nl tyo the modifications made necessaryby the conditions berciu before stated.” These were the abolition of slavery and taking an oath to support, protect, and defend the Constitution and abide y all laws and proclamations with reference to slaves, so far as not modified or declared void by the Supreme Court. He adhered to this lan to the day of his death. In his last public utterance, only 3 days before his assassination, in reference to it, he said: “ Thiaplon was submitted to the then Cabinet and approv by every memberof it." At the same time he declared the question as to whether the States were in or out of the Union to be a “pernicious abstraction.” From the commencement to the close of the war, the executive Dept of the Government committed itsel and the country against this idea of “defunct States." Loyal men South, as well as North, were thus encouraged, and their s mpathies enlisted against the rebellion. venhanded justice, if no higher in atlantive, commends this policy now as well as on. The legislative as well as the executive Dept of the Government presents an impassable barrier against this intended inroud upon the rights of the States. On the fit of August, 1861, after the organization of a government in the “confederate States " and in the midst of the war, Congress asse an act to provide for raising revenue. in that.act a direct tax of $20,000,000 was imposed upon the U.S. In the apportionment of this tax, the law uses the following language as to the acceded States: To the State of Viririnil $93"55066 NCarolina. 576194 A Every provision of law for raising a revenue is eiilorce in a es ay. duties and income duties are imposed upon the people. The tax gatherers of the Federal government are there exacting taxes from an unrepresented people. Section 2nd of article on"e of the Constitution provides that Representativesand direct taxes shall be apportioned among the several Stateswhich may lie includod within this Union. according to their respective numbers." and that “each State shall have at least one Representative." I grant that a State refusing to send Representatives may be taxed by the majority of the States. But when Representatives have been chosen and ask admission into our councils and it is denied, there is no right of taxation. To impose burdens in such case is in violation of the constitution and ofevery principle of free government. It is a usurpation and a crime. The action of Congress during the war in the recognition of these States as members of the Union has been uniform. A law was passed on the 4th of March, 1862. declaring that the number of members of the HoRep of Congress should be 241 after the 3d of March, 1863. Of this number 57 member; were assigned to the seceded States. We have here only 184. Where are the 57? They are knocking at the door, and on refuse them not only admission as mem larolina, Alabama, NCarolina, and Geor ers, but the common courtesy of seats in this ia. They have exercised the highest function Hall to listen to your deliberations. belongin to a State in the Union. They can 5 During the war Senators from the State of Virginia and representatives from the States of Louisiana endplennessoe were admitted as n art of the legislative body of the country. orts of entry were established in some of these States, and judges, marshals, and district attorneys were appointed, with the consent of the Senate, while the war was raging. I will quote in this connection from a letter of a man tried and true and who uobly bat tled in his countrys cause. GenlSherman, in a letter dated Savannah, January 8, 1865, said: “Georgia is not out of the Union and thereforethe talk of reconstruction appears to mo inapplicable. My opinion is that no negotiations are necessary. nor commissions, nor conventions, nor anything of the kind. Whenever the peopleof Georgia quit rebelllng against their Government.then the State of Georgia will have resumed her functions in the Union." The record, therefore, is against the position that the seceded States were or are out of the Union, in any sense or for any pnr pose. Executive message and proclamation an legislative enactment all concur in irououucing it false in theory and in fact. e are precluded by the record, and a denial now of representation is an attack upon the opinion of, the late President, stultifies the action of the Republican party, and involves it in a dark labyrinth of inconsistency from which there is no escape but in base dishonor. Let me recur to the assumption that these States are “conquered territory.” 4 of them aided in the formation of the Constitution; then ratified it and became members of the Union. All the others had been admitted as coequal States. We had purchased the territory of a number of them. The Constitution was and is the shield to protect them. Every assault upon them is a covert assault upon the Constitution. In what sense are we conquerors with the rights of conquest? We have conquered the rebellion. but our conquest goes not one step beyond. Before the war the territory was our territory; it is our territory now. lhc people were and are now a part of this great nation. But gentlemen say, “We treated them as belligerents during the war, and therefore they have become to us as a foreign people, as alien enemies.” The late president and his Administration, moved by the noblest promptings of mercy and humanity, recognized the people in arms against the government as belligerents, as an enemy carrying on nwar. This reco nition did not make them a foreign people. he legitimate purpose of the war, the suppression of the rebellion and the preservation of the Union and the States, was not thereby defeated. The only object was to mitigate the evils of the war. Even if the rebellion could properly be called a revolution, it was only an internalrevolution. Wheaton says: “ A State, aatothoindividualmombers of which it is copoaed is a fluctuating body. of which the existence is perpetually kept up by a constant succession of new members. This existencecontinuesuntil it is interrupted bysomochangeaffecting the licimroftho State. ftbisohangobo aninternalrevolution. inercly altering thomunicipal constitution. theStateremains the same. I]. neitiier losesany of its rights. nor is discharged from any of its obligations." The rebellion did not rise to the dignity of a revolution. Success alone could have stained it a revolution. T he insurrection having fai ed, the States remain the same. Even if the rights of conquest existed, that spirit of manhood and of true courage which ever prompts mercy to a fallen foe bids passion and hatred stay their work. But in easel of conquest the SCOTUS as said: “It is very unusual. even in casesof conquest for the conqueror todomore than displace the sovereign and assumedominion over the country. The modern usage of nations. Wllllll has becomelaw. would be violated; that senseof Justice and of right which ll acknowledged and folt by the whole civilized world would beoutraged if private property should becon fiscatedand private rights annul od." 7Pdal. Notwithstanding this opinion of the highest tribunal in the country, the Gentfrom Pennsylvania [Mr. Sravsxs] proposes a most nefarious scheme of confiscation, Which would outrage our sense of justice and of right, bring dishonor upon the character of the nation; madden on make desperate the people of the South, utterly prevent any Union of the sections and in time would make us detest our own baseness. Sir, there are now no belligerents. The soldiers of the army lately in hostile array against us have gone to theirliomes in accordance With the manly and merciful terms of grantaud Sher man. The prominent leaders have either fled or are in prison or have sued for pardon. Our own gallant Army has been disbai ided. In the case of Am Warwick, in admiralty, Judge Sprague, of i assachusetts, said: “ It has been supposed that if the Governmenthave the rights of a belligerent. then. afterthe rebellion is suppressed.it will have the rights ofeon uest: that a State and its inhabitants may edivpste of all political privileges and treated as foreign territory acquhed by arms. This is a grave and dangerouserror. elliizerciil rights cannot be exercised wherethereare no brlligcrents. Conquest of a foreigncountry gives absolute.unlimited sovereign rights; but no nation ever"m akessu“cha conquest of its own territory.” When the U.S. take possession of a rebol district they merely vindicate their preexisting title. Undordespotic Governments the right of confiscation may be unlimited; but under ourGovernment the rightof sovercivnty over any portion of a State is given and limitedliy the Constitution, and will be the nameafter the war as before.” I think that I have shown, both by reason and by authority. that the law of conquest does not apply; and if it did, to attempt its enforcement would violate the modern usages of civilized States, shock the moral sense of the Christian world, and make arecord of oppression and infamy that would defy the tooth of time. It would fix a stain upon our national character upon which no recording angel would drop a tear and blot it out forever. What is a State in the American Union? It is a fundamental error to give the same definition to a State in the Union as is given to the term State in the law of nations. Wheaten saiyt.s: a sovereign State is generally definedto be any nation or people, whatever may be the form of its internal constitution. which aovernsitselfindependently of foreign Powers." and that “the subjectsof international law are separate political societies of man, living independentlyof each other." such a State may have its form of government completely changed, either by the act of its own citizens or by foreivn conquest. It may be deprived of its independence, as have been Poland and Hungary, and no parent Government rescues it from disaster or relieves its downfall. A State in the family of nations is one thing, and a State in the American Union a different thing. Both have territory, definite boundary, people, and a system of laws. The one is sovereign, the other subordinate. The one is independent, the other dependent. The one can regulate commerce with other nations, coin money, declare war, make peace and ratify treaties. raise and support armies, and provide and maintain ships of) war in time ofence; the other is expressly prohibited from the exercise of these high acts of sovereignty. To “the o nethe law O nationsa plies; to the other it does not. Therefore, tedefinition of a State in the law of nations has no appropriate application. In this country absolute sovereignty is in the people. The national Government represents this sovereignty. The powers delegated to it, and the restrictions imposed upon the States, both impair the sovereignty of the States. The Constitution says: “Each State shall have at least one Represent ntive." “The Senate shall be composed of 2 Senators [IQUIQSOSHtate." Legislatuh States rheaolflmaapypodiinretcint such manner as the a equal number of electors to the whole number of Sens&Reps.” In reference to these provisions Chief Justice Marshall said: “Those clausesshowthat the term Stalc is in used the Constitution as desi hating a memberof the Union and excludesfrom the term the signification attached to llnb)tho wnters on the law of nations.” A State, as a member of the Union, is established for perpetuity as the Union is established for perpetuity. {is such. therefore, it can never die. It may modify its government at pleasure, always preserving a republican form, but it cannot takc itself, and no earthly power can take it, out of the Union without the consent of all the States. Treason and rebellion may rage, the storm and tempest of war may come, but if the Union is carried safely through to a haven ofrest, each State will find secure shelter in the same haven. The President, with true discernment, has perceived and in forcible language has expressed the correct theory as to the rights of the seceded States. In his message he said: " selvTehsein States n.adtittieomnpwtihnegrteotsheeciredVeit, aplliatycewdathseimm paired. not extinguished, their functions suspended. not destroyed.” All who entertain this doctrine are called by the Gentfrom Pennsylvania [Mr. STEVENS] “dreaming theorists.” Sarcasm and bitterness will never change a truth. The President will be sustained in this view by the people of the country who desire peace and thiion, with equality of rights to all the States, degradation to none. His plan will commend itself to the judgment of all men uninfluenced by hate and fanaticism. His course for the restoration of peace and confidence and Union will be welcomed and approved by the American people. Did the fact of rebellion destroy the rights of the States; subject them to your will; give you power to govern them by olhcers of your appointment, by laws of your enactment; to tax the peopiia and allow them no representation; mafia thein abject slaves? If you had declared these as the objects of the war, the brave and gallant men who rushed to the rescue of their Government would have laughed at your calamity. They suffered and toiled and battled and died to secure liberty and Union, to hold the States from madly rushing from their spheres. The grand purpose was accomplishe, and now on would 1 change the fruit of their labors into itteruess. This idea of “ defunct States” is a most cruel mockery, not only to the people of the southern States but to the hopes and aspirations of millions everywhere, whose hearts throbbed with jo and ride and exultation over peace returne, the nion restored, and the States still shining in their original luster. The right to exercise certain functions in the administration of the General Government, to be represented in the Senate and HoRep, is asfully secured as the right of local government. These functions for a time may be abandoned, and you have no power to compel a resumption of them. The exercise of them may be given up and again resumed at the pleasure of the State. It has often happened that there has been only a partial representation in the Senate and House from some of the States. Does the refusal to exercise these functions occasion a loss, a destruction, or a suspension of them? The existence of the General government depends upon the action of a majority of the States. If non-action in time of rebellion destroys the rights of the States, then non-action in time of peace would effect the same result. Gentlemen on the other side reason that the cause of the assumed legal death of the States is their failure to act as members of the Union. The States constitute the Union. If such is the consequence to the State, then a failure of a majority of them to act would cause the death of the Union. That there is onlya suspension, and not adestruction of legislative powers in such a case, is evident from the opinion of the Supreme Court. In the case of Cohen rs. Virginia, (6 Wheaton) Chief Justice Marshall said: “The people make the Constitution, and the people can unmake it. It is the creature of their will, and cancnlylive by their will. But.this supremeand irresistible powerto make and to unmakc residesonly in the whole body of the people, not in any subdivision of them. It is truo that if all the States or a majority of them. refuse to elect Sonatois. the legislative powers of the Union are mapeniled." During the war of 1812, a place called Cas tiiie was captured by the enemy, and remained for a time in his exclusive possession. After the cessation of hostilities and the evacuation by the enemy, in a case which arose, the Supreme Court use the following language: “The sovereignty of the U.S. over the country wastlllflpflllfed.By the surrenderthe inhab itants passed under a I/mpnroryallegiance to the British Government.”4Crunch, 39L I refer to adopt the choice language of marshall), rather than the wild theory of destruction. In such cases the legislative powers oi the Union are suspended, not lost 0r( destroyed. Diiring the late war the sovereignty of the U.S. over a portion of the States was suspended. They were for years under a tempo rary allegiance to the usurped overruiieut Of the late " confederate States." The war which caused this suspension and temporary allegiance has ceased, the law has triumphed, and they are clothed with all the attributes of government as before the war. They are like "Spirits that live throughout, Vital in every part.” Their vitality may be impaired, but. cannot be annihilated except by the supreme and irre sistible power of the whole people. The constitutions and laws of the southern States, as they have always existed, are their constitutions and laws today, except as modified by them or by the constitutional action of the Federal Government. No one will deny that before the war the southern States possessed all the powers of local government, and had the right of representation in this House, as fully as NewYork or Illinois. These local powers must live as long as liberty survives. This right of representation must endure as long as the Union endures. The 1st inheres in the States; the latter can only be disturbed by the act of the States or by despotic power. In all of the northern States, uring the war, the privilege of the writ of habeascorpus was suspended; freedom of speech was denied; the freedom of the press was abridged; the right to bear arms was infringed; the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects, against unreasonable searches and seiz ures, was violated; the courts were restrained; personal liberty was crushed; the citizen was genied the benefit of counsel, the right of trial by jury, and imprisoned without legal accusation. Our rights were not thereby destroyed. They are inherent. Upon a revocation of the proclamation, and a cessation of the state of things which prompted these arbitrary measures, the Constitution and laws woke from their lethargy, and again became our shield and sufeguar. American free men inhabit the southern States. The right of self government inlicres in them. Deprive them of it, and you chill the warm hopes of freemeu everywhere, and obscure, it maybe forever, the gleam of light which is brightening our pathway into the uncertain future. The right to control these States is claimed to exist by virtue of the 4th section of the 4th article of the Constitution, which says: “The U.S shall guaranty to every State in this Union a RFG." and the Gentfrom Pennsylvania [Mr. Stevens] exclaims, in triumphant and mocking language: “They [the southern States]have torn thpirconstitutiona Statesinto atoms and built on their foundations fabrics of a totally different character. Dead men cannot raise theinsclves. Dead States cannot restoretheir own existence as it was." Sir, if they are dead, no new life will ever be infused into them by this Congress. You are but tolling the death bell, attending upon the funeral rites without sorrow and without a tear; sitting at the “sad funeral feast, " and stimu lating a desire for the more sumptuous banquet craved by a morbid apetite. But, sir, these States are restored, an have republican governments. A republican government is one administered by representatives chosen by the people, or one which derives its power from the people. In reference to the guarantee of such a government, Mr. Madison, in the federalist, said: “In a confederacy founded on republican principles the superintendiaiz Government ought. clearly, to possessauthority to defend the system aaaiustane. too rutoier monarchical innovations."“ I "Ilthe Federal Government should intorpose by virtue of this constitutional authority it will of course bound to pursue the authority. But the authority oxtoudsuofurthethran to a guarantee of a republican government which supposos a recxistrng govern mont of the torm to beguarnnh. As long, therefore, as the existing republican forms are continued by the States they are guurnntjed by the Federal Constitution. Whenever the States may choose to substitute other republican forms they have a right. to do so and to claim the Federal guarantee fortho latter. The only restriction imposed on them is that they shall not oxshung republican for antirepublican constitutious.” the duty of guarantee does not devolve upon the General Government unless there is an attemptin the States to establish aristocratic or monarchical governments. I know that the opinion has been expressed, in this House and elsewhere, that no government is republican in form unless all men are allowed the right of suffrage. Then there is no such government in America. In all the States a portion of the citizens are denied this right, either on account of age or intelligence or caste or crime. Madison and Hamilton and Jefferson, in their simplicit, never comprehended the new theory of republican government. They assumed that the governments which existed in the States in 1787 were republican in form. Now, as then, Representatives and Governors are elected by the people. I would trust the wisdom of the fithers rather than the superficial knowledge of the children. " Knowledgeis proud that he has learned so much; Wisdomis humble that he knows no more.” Sir, these States need not your guarantee. What is the plan proposed for the government of these States? this said that disloyalty, per fidy, and treason still lurk there. Therefore they shall not have representation, and provisional governors, with military powers, must be a pointed. For this there is not even the tyrant s plea of necessity. The whole machinery of civil government, executive, legislative, and judicial, is in successful operation there. The governments are recognized by the President. The clemency and wisdom of the executive Dept attract them to the central Government. The President, by the centripetal force of kindness and coirfidence, is drawing them to the Union; you, by the centrifugal force of hate and suspicion, are repelling them from the Union. Consummnte thisplan, and what are the consequences? A conflict is created between the Governors of the States and the provisional governors, between the Legislatures of the States and the Territorial Legislatures, between the judges of the State an the judges ofyour apgointment, and the action of the executive Dept of this Government, to reinstate themm their condition before the war, is ig nored. This will beget a state of feeling and originate a state of conflict, which will last for years, bring on another bloody revolution, and may finally end inthe downfall of liberty here; for having enslaved these people you make them fit. instruments to aid in the cuslavement of the free men of the North. What are the conditions recedent to the admission of these States? he investiture of the negroeswith civic righis and the extension to them of the rightof suffrage, either by amendment of the Constitution or by legislation of Congress. The recent amendment of the constitution has emancipated 4 million slaves. The late slave is now a free man. He should be protected in this freedom by just and reason able legislation. Justice and humanity require that we should giVe the shelter and defense of beneficent law to this class of our population, yesterday slaves, today free men, an in consequence of their late degraded condition on titled to our sympath and protection. But the extension to them O on a would be danger ous in every view. It would be cheapening this inestimable right. such action on our part would be usuration. It is one of the reserved rights of the States to determine the political status O f their citizens, and to regulate the number and qualifications of voters. Alexander I Ianiilton, who, more than any of the fathers, eral Government, in commenting on its right to regulate elections in the States, said: “ The truth is, that there is no methodof securing to the rich the preference apprehended but by re scribing q nlifications of property, either for ose who may O ector be elected. But this formsno art of the power to be conferredu on the national government. Its authority would eexpressly restricted to the times, the places, and the manner of the elections. The qualifications of the persons who may chooseor be chosenare definedon fixed in the constitution, and are nnalterable by the Legislature." such has been the construction of the constitution by those who made it, and uniform usage for more than 80 years has established it as correct. I prefer to stand by the ancient landmarks. “ Cursed is he that removeth his neighbors landmarks.” Though “the time is out of joint, ” yet time, the great avenger, is marching on with silent but rapid step, and the day will come when thrice accnrsed Will be the part and the men who are removing nllthe land mar s of the Constitution; and, wise in their own conceit and with unskilllul hands, are marring the symmetry and fair proportions of the beautiful edifice erected by the great and good men of the Revolution. The enfranchisement of the negro is neither for his good nor the good of the country. The avowed object is disclosed by the leader of the party, Mr. Srsvsss. He said: “If they the southern States] should grant the right of so ago to personsof color, I think there would nlwn s be Union white men enough in the South, nide by the blacks, to divide the representation, and (huesecuretheRepublicanascendancy." This is a bold but impious avowal. Will you legislate for party purposes, and tinker. with the Constitution tor party ends? According to the plan proposed, the neuroes must be clothed with political rights and the Constitution amended no, sir, not amended, but blurred and scarred all over; ay, more, the Union, the Union of our love and ride, the Union that has cost us tears and by good, and millions of treasure, must be severed, if need be, forever, to fasten upon the country a party that will, if it has not a ready, worked its ruin. Our fathers designed the Union to be perpIctual; not a more Union of territory, but a nion of States and of the people of the States. You may by arbitrary power govern these States, insult the people, and drive them to desperation. You may sn press the governments which the wisdom of the Executive has called into bein, and send provisional ov crnors, and instul and protect them, if neerfbe, bmilitary power, arrest and imprison the citizen without trial, institute star chambers, and levyfines and confiscate property; but the Union will exist only in name, a thing to be feared and abhorred, but never loved. such measures will never revive the mutual respect, the obedience to low, the kindly feeling, so necessary to a real Union. The outward form, the whitened scpulcher, may be preserved; but the inward beauty, the strength, the soul, will be gone. It will then be as “An emptycasket whencethe jewel, life, By somedamnedhand, wasrobbedand tacnaway.” The war which a palled the sense with her ror, blanched the c cek, dimmed the eye with tears, brought mourning into every household, and sorrow to every heart, has ceased, and we a sin breathe freely. The chieftain at the head of our armies is disbanding the military forces, and sending to their homes the scarred veterans of 100 battle fields. The people rejoice that peace has smiled upon us. The checrin cry has been echoed and reechoed over hill an valley, “The Union is saved, the Constitution is supreme.” Shall this joy be changed to sad ness Look upon another picture. The South madly and wickedly rushed into rebellion. Shc mur shaled her armies and fought long and nllantly in a bad cause. We have crushed her, humbled her pride, burned her towns and cities, impov erished her people, and compelled her sons to sue for pardo“, almost to Prostrate fall, and thereconfess Humhly their faults, and pardon be: with tears." This beautiful and sunny land with genial favored the concentration of power in the Fed. ohms, where nature ever smiled, and which only a few short years ago nbounded in wealth and comfort, is now in many parts a mass of charred and sickly ruin. Many of those she o loved and trusted most and who were false to her truest interests are wanderer s in other lands or linger in prison wnlls Why degrade this people more and longer? They proffer the on y test you have the right to require obedience to the Constitution and laws of the land. Wh indulge in abuse and suspicion? This will on y inflame. Lord Bacon sai “ Suspicious among thoughts are like bats among birds; they ever fly by twilight.” No generous thought, no noble emotion, can ever come from the dark caverns of a mind filled with hate and suspicion. Love and confidence can never be forced; they must be won by soil. words and gentle acts. If these States are ever to be bound together in an equal and enduring Union by us, we must rise to the high dignit of true manhood and Christian charit and bury forever the feelings of distrust which now haunt the mind. The charge is constantly made that the sonth. ern people are perfidious; that they will keep no pledges; that no oath will bind them. Can they ever accept your conditions precedent tendered in such a spirit? Never. They will never agree to make the slave of yesterday the social and political equal of today. They would deserve and receive even your scorn if the would accept of so degrading a condition. [In ess they can come in as coequal States the will never come. You may call, “ but will they come when you do call for them?" What then? Force will govern, and history will rewrite itself, and the tyranny over llun gary and Poland and Ireland will be reenacted in once free America. This tyranny cannot continue. Your brief day will soon be spent. The people, in whom I have an abidin faith, will take car of this Government on this Union, and will rise in majestic strength and hurl from power those who have been faithless to their trust. The noble words of the President, “ The people must be trusted with their government, ” are a truism for our guidance. Discard distrust and jealousy and hatred; win confidence by extending confidence. The sword and bayonet in the hands of the true men of the land have subdued the armies of the southern cople; now let kindness, which is ever nobler than revenge, melt their hearts and calm theirpassions. Draw an impenetrable ved between the present and the frightful past which shall never be lifted by mortal hands. In the beautiful language of the late president, beautiful in its simplicity and inits ten derness: "With malice toward none. with charity for all, with firmnessin the right asGod gives us to see the right, let us finish the war we are in, to bind up the nations wounds.” Renew the sources of prosperity of the South; reinvigorate the sleeping energies of her people by a restoration to these States of their functions in the Union, and humanity and liberty will consccrote the deed, and “ hereafter ages will cherish the memory of the men who gave peace and harmon and law to a divided country.