Mr. FESSENDEN. Then the Senate has aright to examine into the condition of the States. Is not that a preliminary inqui? The Senator may answer or not, just asrhe chooses. I say that if the condition of the States is to be inquired into by the Senate, it is a reliminary inquiry. The Senate has de cided that that inquiry shall be made by a JtCommee, a committee of the Senate and of the HoRep. It is not a question referring to the credentials of members, or whether a man has or has not proper credentials. The condition of the States is a question which may well be in fiiired into and better inquire into by both Houses. Then we come to this point, that the only ound of complaint is, that instead of the Senate raising its own particular committee to make an examination it. has raised a JtCommee, in connection with the HoRep, to examine into the condition of the confederate States. How small a matter is that upon which to raise the great question of taxation without representation! “Are we to omit to tax these people while this inquiry is going on? Have we no right to govern the people of these States and make them contribute their share of the public burdens while this inquiry is being pursued? Are we bound to let them go scotree, and say we have no authority over them, because we have not yet settled the question whether the Sens&Reps they have chosen to send here aha l he admitted to seats or not 7 In all such cases there must necessarily be a time when people are taxed without being represented. this their own fault; they have brought it upon themselves. We cannot relax the reins of government because they have tried to shake off our authority and yet it is a favorite cry of the honorable Senfrom Pennsylvania, and it has been repeated here over and over again, “What gross injustice you are committing by taxing these people while you are in hiring into their condition and seeing whether they are entitled to representation on the floor of Congress; because that is all that has been done.” Suppose it were a year after a war of 4 years; suppose it were even a longer time; would they have any reason to complain of injustice? Would they have a tight to turn around upon us and say, “ What right have you to govern us a day, an hour, while we are not represented on the floor of Congress?” The answer is, “ You have been in rebellion; you have made war a inst the U.S.; you are now crushe and overcome; and we have now to ascertain whether you are fit to come back and have placed yourself in a position to re turn;” an that, says the Senfrom Penn. sylvania is a gross outrage on the rights of the people, because it is taxation without repre sentation. Now, sir, I have been speaking simply of the power of Congress; but it is a very difierent question when you come to consider what it is best to do. I assert the power in its fullest extent; I assert that by the civilWar they lost all the rights which I have enumerated, and we acquired those which I have specified. Iassert that they placed themselves in a position in which they were not connected with this Union as States. I assert that they have many things to do in order to regain that position. I assert that in the mean time we have a right to govern them, govern them as Christian men and as statesmen, but to govern them because they placed themselves in a position to render it absolutely necessary that we should do so; and I assert, moreover, that they cannot come back here to occupy these seats or seats in the other House until we—no matter whether it is done by joint or several authority, so that it is conferred by Congress—be satisfied ourselves and decide that they are entitled to occupy these seats again; and that we have a right to take all the time necessary in orderto give ourselves I am speaking of this entire satisfaction on that subject, and they have no right to complain tllat in the meanwhile they are taxed without being represented, because they brought it upon their own heads. I say, moreover, that the interests and safety of this country require that we should be entirely convinced of what is due to ourselves and our constituents, and to the safety of all, before we proceed to the examination of the question of credentials and qualifications. But having said that, it is another question about what we should do; I have been talking about the right. Now, I hold that the good of this count requires that these States should be admitte; that we should have from them Senators here in these seats; that we should have Representatives in the seats in the other House just as soon as it can be done consist ently with the safety of the people of this country, and of the States now in existence, and of their own; not that I hold that we should be doing them any great injustice if we kept them out; but it is my doctrine that the exercise of power is always dangerous. It is for our own good as well as theirs, and our own good in preference to theirs, that I would hasten that day and admit them in the shortest possible time; and why? Simply because if we continue to exercise this power; if we continue to hold them in subjection, we perhaps create, and certainly intensify, the feelin of bitter ness that already exists; and not on y that, but we intensify our own feeling. We are teaching ourselves to exercise a power which the Constitution did not contemplate; which the good of this country on ht not to rmit and cannot permit. I should csorry,Is ould deem it a blow, I should consider the country in danger, if for any considerable length of time the present state of things should exist. No wise or good statesman would wish it to exist for a single moment longer than it was absolutely necessary, because the inevitable result is that weshall become demoralized ourselves. FThold, then, sir, that it is best for all that as soon as possible, as soon as it can be done with any reasonable show of safety to ourselves and to the Government of this country, these States should be established in their ori inal positions that Senators should sit here in this branch an Representatives in the other, and that we should proceed as best we may to govern the whole country, a Government with the assent of all, all being represented. But whatI wish to enter my dissent to is the doctrine that we cannot and ought not to deliberate on the subject, in our own way, in our own time and that while we are doing it we should be denounced and the committee of which I am a member be de nounced as an irresponsible tribunal, a central power; some power created to take legislation out of its proper channels, and that the majority of the Congress should beheld up to the country as it has been by gentlemen on the other side of the House, to say the least ofit, and I think also impliedly by my honorable friendfrom Wisconsin himself, as perpetrating injustice dayb day every day that passed without seeing men ack in these vacant seats, or the simple question of their credentials under consideration; that this was an outrage upon States, States lately at war, States which up to this do have never sent us their constitutions or m e any request whatever in proper form to he admitted or readmitted to their ori innl condition. When such complaints e made of the congress, they are utterly without foundation. ime enough has not elapsed yet to give reasonable ground for dissatisfaction anywhere. Time enough has not elapsed yet to mg, as was said by a gentleman on the other si e of the House teother da, that we were keeping these States out of their places for party purposes, with no evidence whatever to substan tiate the charge, except that we had not et closed our investiation of their condition. D Senators knoww at we have been doing? Do Senators know what evidence we have been taking? Do Senators know what evidence we have received“! Do Senators know anything except that the President has expressed the opinion that these States are in fit condition to be received here, and their Sens&Reps admitted to seats upon this floor Lgnd the floor of the other House? Before doing so, before placing ourselves in a position where we can exercise all the powers necessary under the existing state of things, in my judgment we must provide for the safety of this people. If we think that constitutional amendments are necessary arising from the condition in which we have been, it is our duty to propose them. If we think that additional laws are necessary, it is our duty to pass those laws. If we think that it is proper to impose conditionsnot conditions that would degrade or disgrace any State, for when they come back they must come on terms of equality—but if we think it is necessary to impose some conditions even upon these States on their return, it is our duty to do that before we admit their members to seats on this floor or the floor of the other House. That was the Presidents opinion. He under took to tell them that he would have nothing to do with their governments unless they made a ecific provisions in their new constitutions. 1he PreSident undertook to say, I will not leave you to your own action, I will not recognize your governments until you abolish slavery, until you provide against the payment of the rebel debt, and some other things of like de scription. If he had the right to do it, have we not? If he could impose conditions with reference to what he would do, have we not the power to impose conditions with reference to what we are called upon to do? But, sir, while I say this, I say I would not consent that a condition should be imposed on one of these States that would in any way degrade it, or of which there could be just ground of complaint that it was not left on an equality with all the other States, because that would be a matter of complaint forever and always. Mr. President, I have thus stated the notions that I entertain on the subject of reconstruction, as it is called. As I said before, it was my intention to say something on that subject long ago, but I found no fitting opportunity hitherto. Perhaps Ihad better not have under taken to express these views today in connection with the resolution which I rose to discuss; but with the question, whether or not the Senate has power over this subject, and whether or not the HoRep has power over this subject, the question of the condition of these States and the relations which they ow hold to the Union is intimately connected. yjudgment is, that we hold the power over that whole subject in our own hands, that it is Our duty to hold it in our own hands, and to regard it as a matter of the most intense interest to the whole people, involving the good of the whole people, calling for our most careful consideration, and to be adjudged without assion, without temper, without any of that eeling which may be supposed to have arisen out of the unexampled state of things through which we have passed.