Mr. HISE. Mr. Chairman, I propose to discuss that portion of the President's message which has relation to the question of depriving ten States that passed ordinances of secession of their right to representation in this House and in the Senate of the U.S. I propose, in the 1st place, to treat the subject as a constitutional question. I propose, next, to discuss the question as one of expediency; and in the last place, I desire to make an appeal to the justice and generosity of the House. This question necessarily involves a consideration of the nature and the powers of the Government created by the Constitution of the U.S. That the Government of the U.S. has no valid authority or existence except by virtue of the Constitution of the U.S. as ratified by therespective States is a proposition in reference to which, I believe, there is no difference of opinion. The Government in its legislative and every other dept acts solely under the authority of the Constitution, deriving from that instrument all the power which it can rightfully exercise. On this question, I imagine, there is no division of sentiment among the members of this House. The next inquiry, then, which arises is with reference to the nature of the Government thus constituted and the extent of its powers. Upon this question there have been from the very origin of the Government 2 political schools, one taking the ground that the Constitution was ordained by the people of the U.S. in their collective capacity as one sovereign political community; that thus was created a national Government with paramountand supreme authority in all cases in which it may assume jurisdiction, and that the States are mere subordinate sub divisions of one sovereign nation and have individually no attribute of sovereignty. The other school, to which I belong and have ever belonged, holds that the Union created by the Constitution is merely a commonwealth of independent sovereign States; that the Constitution is an emanation of State authority, having been ordained by sovereign and independent States, each acting in its sep: arate, sovereign capacity; that all governmental power resided with the original 13 States as independent sovereignties; that when the dominion of the British Crown had been thrown off each State became invested with the powers of an independent nation; that each State separately became endowed, in the language of the DeclarIndep, with “full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent States may of right do.” Those 13 States had all the characteristics of independent States. Each State was perfectly independent in its political organization. Each had its Governor, its Legislature, its judges, among whom were distributed all the necessary functions and powers of government. Between the period of the DeclarIndep and the adoption of the Articles of Confederation, an interval of 2 years, each State was not only sovereign and independent, but perfect in its distinct political organization and unrestricted in the exercise of governmental power. Those States were, even as colonies, independent each of the others. Each had its separate charter and exercised its separate juris diction. The acts of each of the colonial governments were limited in force and validity to the respective boundaries of each colony. I now remember no binding connection of any sort existing between those Colonies prior to the adoption of the Articles of Confederation, except that previous to the DeclarIndep they were under a common executive head, the Crown of GreatBritain. The 13 original States, as independent sovereign communities, entered into that treaty embodied in the Articles of Confederation, which, by its own language was denominated “a firm league of friendship with each other for their common defense, the security of their liberties, and their mutual and general welfare, binding themselves to assist each other against all force offered to, or attacks made upon them, or any of them, on account of religion, sovereignty, trade, or any other pretense whatever.” It was not the purpose of that compact or alliance to consolidate those States under one common government. Nor did the States in adopting those Articles of Confederation surrender any portion of their sovereignty or independing: It was expressly declared that “each State retains its sovereignty, freedom, and independence.” The war of the Revolution closed, and the States, the independent, sovereign States, upon the advice of wise and able men still continued their connection for the same grand purpose of protection and defense against foreign aggression; and they did adopt and make binding for all time to come the Constitution of the U.S. as it now appears, with some amendments adopted since. And the ground I now plant myself upon impregnably is that the Constitution creates merely a commonwealth of States which previously to that time were sovereign and independent to all intents and purposes. It is like wise manifestly true from an examination of the document itself, as well as from contem poraneous political history, that all these States 1 consented by that Constitution, if you call it such, or, in other words by a compact between sovereignties, consented to part with a number of the powers of government, to grant them with all the functionaries, legislative, executive, and judicial, provided for in the Constitution of the U.S. Now, in order to maintain the independence they had achieved, in order to provide for the common defense in the event of foreign aggression, in order that they should declare war and make peace as well as maintain peace in the States, they parted with certain powers for that protection and defense. They retained, of course, the balance. They became the grantors of certain powers to the Government, and they surrend ered none others. The very nature of the powers granted, as well as the very nature of the powers of government inhibited to the Government, shows the grand objects and purposes of the Constitution. One of these was to protect these States in their foreign affairs, as shown by the power to declare war and to make peace, and as shown by the power contained in that constitution to regulate foreign commerce and commerce between the States. Another object Was to the peace between the States, and hence the jurisdiction of the U.S. was extended to all suits pending between 2 or more of the States. It was therefore a commonwealth of States, every State retaining by express provision, though such express provision was not necessary for the purpose, all powers of government they did not grant away. Here, then, is the charter. They were sovereign and independent, with powers of government without limit except as limited by their own constitutions. Hence the Constitution of the U.S. is a charter; it is a grant in which the States were grantors, and the functions of government not provided for in that charter were reserved to themselves. When you look to understand the powers granted and the powers reserved you must consider and understand that the government of the U.S. is a State creation and its functionaries occupy the position of grantees; that they receive all the power they possess, all the jurisdiction they have by charter and grant in the Constitution of the U.S., accorded to them by the agreement of the 13 original States. That being the case, we must look into the Constitution to see the nature and character of these grants, and the character of the Government created by them. I pronounce it to be a commonwealth of States. Now, without any provision in the Constitution of the U.S. itself that all the powers not granted or necessary to those granted are reserved to the States and people respectively, that would have necessarily followed without any provision in the Constitution from the fact that the States created the Government, that the States granted all the powers which it possesses, and that necessarily all the other powers of government are reserved. In other words, I look upon the Constitution of the U.S. as a treaty between independent States by which every State became a contractor with all the other States that all the enumerated powers should be surrendered up to a Government to be constituted as provided for in that charter. Now, sir, if that is the view, and the reason able view, fortified by examination of the doc ument itself and fortified by the political history of the country, then it is necessarily a Government representative in its form. The functionaries created by that Government are legislative, executive, and judicial, according to that charter from these States. They are to be appointed in a given mode prescribed in that Constitution, and they cannot be appointed in any other. The legislative dept is to be made up of 2 representatives from each State to the U.S. Senate, and of a certain number of Representatives fixed in the Constitution from each one of the 13 States ratifying the Constitution. It also provides how the number shall afterward be fixed, and that no State shall ever have less than one Representative. This Government can be wielded and controlled, laws can be made by it for the purpose of carrying into execution the powers granted to the legislative branch only by and through the instrumentalities provided in the Constitution. Each State agreed that every other State should be represented in the lower branch of Congress in. manner prescribed by the Constitution, by a given number, until an apportionment should take place according to a census of the oand after that by a given ratio. This is a Government of States, to be conducted in its executive, legislative, and judicial branches in a given mode, and no State can be controlled or governed legitimately under the Constitution that has not its due representation upon the floor of this House and its equal representation upon the floor of the Senate of the U.S.