Mr. JOHNSON. If the honorable member would make it operate equally and provide that no such person should be sued or imprisoned, there might be something like justice in the proposition. I do not think a provision of this sort is to be found anywhere in any of the statutes, so far as I have known, in England or elsewhere. It is true that the parties to whom the amendment applies have committed acts which may be treason or not treason as things actually stand now. They certainly were treason at one time; but whether they are now protected because of the acknowledg.ment of belligerent rights as between the U.S and the confederates is a question upon which IexPress no opinion. But, however that may be, we look to the time when they E to become citizens of the U.S. in all P. They are go now citizens. They NewYork or Boston or anywhere goodebts. Massachusetts a go down to the South, buy their property, sue them. I do not see any justice in denying" them the right to have the benefit of this act, unless it is for the purpose of punishing; and according to that view, if they are to be punished, the honorable member might propose, if he supposes we have the power, that they should be liable to suit, liable to execution, and liable to imprisonment as long as the creditor might think proper. Requiring a test oath, so far as we have heretofore gone, was only supposed to be necessary in relation to officers of the U.S or quasi officers. You would not permit anyone who had been engaged in the rebellion to be a member of this branch of Congress or the other, and hence you required the test oath; you would not permit a lawyer to o in the courts without taking a test oath. To say nothing of the authority of Congress to pass the latter branch of that law, supposing the power to exist, yet each provision was thought by Congress to be necessary in order to keep the offices of the Government in the hands of loyal men; and certainly that reason does not apply to the poor debtors who are crushed to the earth by and are unable to do anything for the support of themselves or for the benefit of their country.