Mr. BINGHAM. Having said this much, Mr. Speaker, upon the general subject, I desire to examine a little more closed the remarks of the Gentfrom Indiana Hair.] in regard to the position of the resident touching the States. I have under stood all my life that a difference only in words, if there is an agreement in the substance, is not a material difference. I undertake to say here, and to demonstrate it, if my time and strength will allow me, that the position of the POTUS is in exact accord with the position of this House. He says in his message that the functions of these several insurrectionary States are suspended. This House has said the functions of those States are suspended by their own act of insurrection and treason, and they cannot of right assert their claim to representation upon this court until the representatives of the whole people of the U.S shall become satisfied that they have put themselves in, and that all safeguards essential to future safety of the Republic have been provided. That is all there is of it. Where is the conflict? The President declares the functions of those States suspended. That is only another way of saying that when a State engages in insurrection as my learned and exceiient colleague Mr. Snsnmaaaoau] said yesterday in is a lo and exhaustive argument i when its people have disorganized the whole machine oft eir State; when they have blotted out, so r as they can, the written re. requirement embodied in the constitution of your contt, that all legislative, all executive, all judicial officers of every State shall be bound by an oath to support that constitution; when they have utterly blotted it out from their statute books and inserted in its place the blasphcmous, oath that they will resist unto death the Constitution, the laws, and the authority of the U.S.; in that condition of things, sir, I care not whether the President says that their functions are suspended, or whether he says that they have ceased to be States for municipal purposes, it is one and the same thing in law, and I have very little respect for the logical acumen of the man who cannot see it. Why, sir, I recollect well the occasion, in 1862 in the midst of this struggle, when I ven tured to ask upon this floor the question whether SCarolina having repudiated the oath prescribed by the constitution, having sworn eve legislative, every executive, and every judic otheerwithiu her territory t in that insurgent State. made at that time the further inquiry whether SCarolina had the right to elect Representatives or by her forsworn Legislature choose Senatorsto the on gress of the U.S. I received from this side of the House, and from that, nothing but the reply which silence gives. Wherein has the case been altered? The great body of the people of that State did destroy her organic law and adopt a statute of treason, and rom. that moment she ceased to be a State for municipal purposes But, says the President, the continuance of the Stateis assumed. Soit is; but not for municipal purposes. The continuance of the State is “ assumed for Federal purposes. Once a State, always a State” for federal purposes, until that sa day comes which I ray od, may never come when treason shall triumph over the arms of the Republic. But, sir, let eve State do precisely what SCarolina did and persist in it, and they cease to be States of the Union, for in that event there will be no Union and no Governmeutcf the U.S. SCarolina by her statutes of treason and her acts of treason could not and did not carry the territory of SCarolina out of the jurisdiction of the U.S. SCarolina, by her ordinance of secession and her stat utes of treason could not blot out the State lines of SCarolina for Federal purposes. SCarolina, in short, could not, by hertrea son, blot out. the provision of the constitution of the U.S. which declares that “ In all criminal prosecutions the accused shall enjoy the right to nseedy and public trial by an impartial cry of the tote and district wherein the crime shal have beencommitted. which district shall have been previously ascertained by law.”A meats. art. Treason is a crime; SCarolina by her secession could not destroy the State and district of SCarolina even for the purpose of holding therein a Federal court an try and condemning traitors for the treason aliid other crimes which they therein committed against the U.S. The judicial district of the U.S., therefore, remained in SCarolina intact, despite her treason; and the moment our armies captured Hilton Head, that moment, by the authority of the people of the U.S., despite the trea son of SCarolina, despite the fact, which. no man can successfully gainsay, that SCarolina had ceased to be a State for all municipal purposes and could exercise none of “the functions of a State” whatevercould. neither legislate, adjudicate, nor execute as a Stateyet, that ver moment the American people might rightfuliy have there opened their courts of justice under the protection of their guns, and proceeded to execute judment according to law upon every crimin offender against the authority of the U.S. on a I ", 1, I 186, 61 A" wh, 4.” u. +lrrI I "l “rii I59 whom they might lay their hands, and whose crime was committed within that State. I would like to see the man who is bold enough to deny this. They are States, says the President but only for Federal purposes; theyhave, all thiswhile, during rebellion, been States, but only for Federal purposes; they were during their rebellion not States for municipal purposes, and can never be till they reorganize their constitutions of governmentto the satisfaction of the American people. There are 2 parties to the reorganization of these rebel States. The President cannot constitute a State; Congress alone cannot constitute a State; nobody upon earth can constitute an organized, constitutional State of the Union but the people of the U.S., and the people of the proposed State coo erating. If the people of SCarolina do their part rightly an well, to which end no enabling act is needed, as it is but the exercise of the right of petition, which is guarantied by the Constitution, and which ou can neither confer nor take away by law, it will only then remain for Congress, upon her presenting a complete organization, to admit her to her equalposition as a State within the Union, with full power to exercise her restored functions and with full right to her equal representation in the Senate and House. The speedy restoration of every State to its, equal position, as soon as it can be done safely for the Republic, is, I am sure, She purpose of this House and of the President.