Mr. THAYER. I must decline in view of the engagements I have made in regard to my time. Mr. Speaker, it is not my intention to enter into any labored discussion of the particular details of this bill. Neither do I intend to debate the legal questions involved in its consideration. They have been already fully discussed on this and on other occasions. I wish to indicate, however, in as brief and concise a manner as I may, the views which operate upon my own mind in bringing me to. the conat which I have arrived, that it is my duty to vote for the measure now before the House. Mr. Speaker, when the ship is among shoals and shall ows a brisk breeze is preferable to a calm. I fear very much that in the Present situation of public affairs we are drifting we know not whither upon that lifeless calm which has been created by the unfortunate dead lock between the President and Conress. g Sir, I hail this measure as interrupting this baleful calm which, if not disturbed by a proper exercise of legislative i.upon this subject, may be succeeded by disaster and collision. It furnishes at least an initial point from which we can start in the consideration and adjustment of the great question of reconstruction. I regard this as a measure which lays the grasp of Congress upon this great question, a grasp which is to hold on to it until it shall be finally settled. I regard it as a measure which is to take that great question out of that sea of embarrassment and sluggish inactivity in which, through the course which the President has thought proper to pursue, it now rests. Sir, the terms and conditions upon which this question is to be settled, belong, in my judgment, as I have had occasion to say on this floor, to the people who triumphed in the great struggle through which we have passed, and the only organ of the people in the making of that settlement, and in the enunciation of these terms and conditions, is the body composed of their Sens&Reps in Congress as sembled. I deny that it is just or expedient that the attitude which is now maintained on the part of the several parties to that recent struggle should continue any longer. I deny that it is either politic or just that the attitude of the U.S. toward the revolted communities which were lately engaged in the rebellion should any longer remain of that doubt ful character which now and for some months past it has worn. Sir, the people of the U.S. who were triumphant in this great struggle will not submit to be placed upon terms of equality with their late enemies in negotiating and set thng the terms upon which rebel States may be restored to power and authority in the Union. They will in some way or other vin dicate and establish their own right to settle those terms and conditions in spite of the hostility of those who were lately in organized rebellion against the Government, and in spite also of the machinations and conspiracies of the public agents who have betrayed them. It was conceded everywhere at the termination of the armed struggle between the rebel ious states and the U U.S. that the settlement of the terms and conditions upon which the people of those States should be restored to power and participation in the Government must of o necessity rest with the of the loyal States who had stood faithfully and resolutely by the Government of the U.S., and who had carried it triumph: antly to victory through seas of blood and under mountains of debt. The POTUS himself, it is a matter of public notoriety, conceded this position. He publicly announced in his proc amations and his official communications upon this subject that whatever might be done by executive authority, under the Pressure of existing necessity, for the restoration of order in the rebellious States, must be subject to the revision and ratification of Congress. He did not then pretend to arrogate to himself the exclusive control of this great question, or the power which belongs, under the Constitution of this country, to the rePresentatives of the people. He had not then the temerity to set up any such claim of power. The subject was remitted by him to Congress to approve or to disapprove the temporary governments which he had undertaken to establish in the rebellious States. But the attitude of the POTUS has undergone a most tre mendous and starth ng change. The President now denies that power to Congress which he once distinctly and specifically conceded. The President now claims, it would seem, the power to enter into negotiations with the Governors of those States, and to settle with them the terms upon which the people of those States are to be restored to their political relations. Sir, a most extraordinary spectacle is now Presented to the country; it is the spectacle of the POTUS, who has by the Constitution no authority whatever on this question, undertaking, in conference with persons from the rebel States, who lately were active participants in the rebellion itself, to arrange terms of accommodation between the people of those States and the people of the loyal States. He is, if we are to credit public statements which are not contradicted now, engaged in consultations with leading men from the revolted section who influence the public mind and control the political movements of that region; not for the purpose of carrying out the demands of the people, which were made through their rePresentatives in Congress at its last session, and which were ratified by overwhelming majorities in the loyal States at the recent elections; but in order to frame some new plan, to contrive some new scheme not in accordance with the scheme Presented by Congress and indorsed by the people, but such as will square with his own wishes, his own prejudices, his own intentions I will not say his own pledges. The POTUS in his annual message recommends that “Congress should hasten to. legislation within the boundaries Prescribed by the Constitution.” He grossly dothe Congress of the U.S. with unconstitutional legislation. The people of this country have passed upon that slandered legislation; they have given it their sanction, and have announced at the ballot box their determination to abide by and enforce it. That is the answer, the sufficient and conclusive answer by Congress to the charge of unconstitutional legislation. But how does the matter stand with regard to the accuser? How does the matter stand with regard to the President himself, who makes against Congress this charge of unconstitutional legislation? Let him show where he gets the authority to enter into conferences, secret or public, with the late leaders of the rebellion, to arrange terms for the settlement of this question, Let him put his finger upon that part of the Constitution which authorizes his intermeddling with it at all, except merely to exPress his approval or disapproval of the acts which may be passed by Congress. Yet, sir, the extraordinary condition of affairs to which I have alluded exists, in which, notwithstanding the people have decided upon and ratified the plan of Congress, namely, the adoption of the constitutional amendment proposed at the last session as a prerequisite to restoration, the President persists in his negotiations with those who were lately the public and armed enemies of the country.