Mr. STEVENS accordingly modified his substitute by striking out the 2nd section. I am also compelled, sir, to take exception to the 3rd section of the bill, which is as follows: SEc. 3. Abife:, That each of the ten States which were lately in rebellion, and have not been admitted to representation in Congress, shall hold elections on the of May, 1867, to 76 To– choosedelegatesto a convention to form a State government. The convention shall consist of the same number of membersas the most numerous branch of the Legislature of said State before the rebellion. It shall meet at the former capital of said State on the sneocoonn, dwMitohndpaoyweorf Jtuonaedjoofursnaidfryoemart, iamtetwteolvtiemoe'c, laoncdk shall proceed to form a State constitution, which shall be submitted to the people at such time as the convention shall direct, and if ratified by a majority of legal votes shall be declared the constitution of the State. Congress shall electacommissionfor each of said States, to consist of 3 persons, who shall select, or direct the mode of selecting, the election officers for the several election districts, which districts shall be the same as before the rebellion, unless altered by said commission, The officers shall consist of onejudge and 2 inspectors of elections, and 2 clerks: the said officers, together with all the cz of the election, shalf be paid by the U.S., and saido be repaid bysaid State or Territory. Each of said officers shall receive 5 dollars per day for the time actually employed. Each of the membersof said commissionshall receive$3,000 per annum, and their clerk $2,000. The commission shall procure all the necessary books, stationery, and boxes, and make all regulations to effect the objects of this act. the of the U.S and the military commander of the district shall furnish so much military aid as the said commissioners shall deem necessaryto protect the polls and keep the peace at eachof said election districts. If, by any means, no election should be held in any of said late States on the day herein fixed, then the election shall beheld on the 3rd Monday of May, 1867, in the manner herein prescribed. Returns of all such elections shall be made to the said commissioners, whosecer floorslestion shall be primafacie evidence of e fac I raise, sir, upon that section the question of its constitutionality. I do not assert posi tively, much less ofol; that it is not constitutional; but I say I cannot see that it is constitutional; and I direct the attention of the House to a clause which I read from the Constitution of the U.S.: “He [the President]shall have power, by and with the adviceand conscntof the Senate, to maketreaties, provided 2/3rds of the Senators present concur: and he shall nominate, and by and with the advice and consent of the Senateshall appoint, embassadors, other public ministers and consuls, judges of the Su. premeCourt, andall other officers of the U.S., whose appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall becstablishedby law; but the Congress may by law vest the appointment of such inferior officers as they think proper in the President alone, in the courts of law, or in the heads of Depts.” Now, sir, the foregoing section of the bill provides that Congress shall elect a commission for each of said States, to consist of 3 persons, whose functions—large and important ones it will be admitted—are provided for in the 86Ction. It will not be pretended, I presume, that the appointment of this class of Government agents is “otherwise provided for” in the Constitution; and it results.with entire clear ness from the above quoted clause of that instru ment, that if they are to be regarded as officers of the U.S.—as indeed what else can they be—they must be appointed in conformity with this section of the Constitution; that is, sir, if we are acting under the Constitution. If not, then we are out upon a shoreless sea, without sextant, without o: without uiding stars to lighten our pathway over the eep. I, for one, do not propose to navigate under any such conditions. I next draw the attention of the House to the 4th section of the bill, which is in these words: Sec. 4. Abife:, That the persons who shall beentitled to vote at both of said elections shall be as follows: all male citizens, above the age of 21 years who have resided six months in said State and ten days in the election district; and no person shall be deprived of the right to vote, or otherwise disfranchised, by reason of conviction and punishment for any crime other than for insurrection or treason or misprision of treason. Confining my remarks on this section to the concluding part of Iit, will say that I am advised of the object had in view by the gentleman, who put this extraordinary provision in his bill. It was to guard against disfranchisement, by certain iniquitous procedures, which I am told are being instituted and car. ried on wholesale in these States, or in some of them. It is well, indeed, to guard against that kind of alleged procedure on the part of those who are now controlling the destinies of these States. The object is a good one, certainly; but why shall we provide that all the common criminals in ten States may be voters? Sir, the penitentiaries of these States might disgorge their inmates, upon the polls under the operation of this bill. Why, in our dread of Scylla should we drive sheer upon Charybdis?