Mr. ROUSSEAU. Mr. Speaker, it matters very little to me what may be the intrinsic mer its of these measures proposed for our ado.ition if they in fact are an impediment to the admission of the States lately in insurrection to representation on this floor. Sir, the majority in this House have held and now hold in the iilui of their hands the power to restore the non-and give peace and harmony to the country that time the majority could in half an hour have given the country this peace and liar mony, we find ourselves today further 08' than we were at the beginning. Before Congress met, Mr. Speaker COLFAX laid down the rule by which this Congress should be governed on that subject. From that day to this the radical wing of the Republican party has been departing from the lincoln gohnson policy. e came to Washington before congress assembled and made a speech in which ie declared that the Representatives of the States lately in rebellion were not to be recognized upon this floor until Congress should decide to admit them. That, sir, was the beginnin of our trouble, and it has been augmenting from that day to this, and now we are here with the results of the war frittered away and the Union declared dissolved, At the 1st caucus on the Saturday night preceding the meeting of Congress, acting on the programme of Speaker Conrxx, the radical wing of the Republican party, was quietly prepared for burial. The resolution adopted by that caucus and passed by this House buried that wing of the party so deep that nobody will ever be able to find it. It was in pursuance of the law announced by Speaker COLFAX that the nion was dissolved by the majority of this House. A great deal has been said about the failure of the President to call Congress together, and he has been much denounced for not doing so. Why, sir. if Congress had staid away from these Halls, and the nation had had its appropriations made so as to carry on the Government 2 years, the Union would have restored itself. I think Mr. Speaker Conrax himself wasthe 1st to make the complaint against the President for not calling Congress together. I propose now to see how just these gentlemen are in regard to their accusations against the President. I have the letter of Mr. COLFAX, pub‘lished a few days ago, and I desire to call the attention of the House to this matter. It was charged in the newspapers that he had been 03' on some pleasure trip to the Pacific when he oughtto have been here to urge upon the Presieat the necessity of an extra session of Congn'essif he really believed such a necessity existed. Speaker Cou‘sx, in reply to that matter, says among other things: “ l. I was not Speakerat all when I mademy 'in terestinl transcontinentaljourney.’ in term havin expired with the termination of the 38th Congress, March 4.1865 2. I had some expectation of are‘e'leotionwhenthe 39th Congress should convene, and cameto washinlton on the 14th of April, the morningof the ver day President Lincoln was murdered, tuconsult with him asto an extra session." Mark you, Mr. Corrxx does not say he came on here with a view to get the President to call Congress together, but he says, “I had some expectation of a re'e'lection when the 30 Ninth Congress should convene, and came to Washin ton.” FAX, if it was of so much importance to have congress convene, he being a leading member and ikely to be reelected Speaker, if it would not have been just as well for him to have sug ested, ay, and insisted upon the convening of congress; and if he could not just as well have done that as to have gone off on that pleasant and delightful trip to visit Brigham Young and his wives. Was itnot the duty of Mr. COLFA to remain here and suggest to the President, i‘fit existed, the necessity of calling congress together? But he did not do it. He oes not say in this letter that he was of opinion congress ought to have met, but states that having some notion of bein Speaker of the House, he came on here to loo c after that matter. And so, when he had seen about that, finding that Congress would not meet, he then made the delightful trip to visit Brigham Young and his wives, and gather the materials for that splen did lecture by which he interested all the men, Women, and children of this country. Now, sir, I object to this as unjust. I say Now, I wish to ask Mr. COLAnd yet after 7 months, though during all that if Mr. Speaker COLFAX wished President Johnson to call Congress together it was his duty as a leadin Union man to have called upon him and asked him to do it. I object to the radical wing of the Union party in this House making that complaint against President Johnson. If they desired President John son to call Coneress together, then, in good faith, they shouldehnve come forward and asked him to do it. I ask, where is the man in this House who ever su gested such a thing to President Johnson ‘I Speaker Conrsx says that he mentioned it to the President. He called upon him a day or 2 after the murder of Mr. Lincoln, not a very proper time to discuss such a matter. But he says he alluded to it; that he asked President Johnson if he intended to call Congress together. The President told him that so suddenly had the responsibilities of the presidential office been thrown upon him that he had not thought upon the matter. And Mr. Speaker COLFAX goes on to say that he did not argue the matter then. That is the 1st and the last that has been heard of a desire on the part of Mr. Speaker con‘sx or anybody else to have Congress assembled, except what Mr. CoLfax said to Mr. Lincoln. “ He did not or ue it;” no, be exressed no wish even to him that Congress shou (I meet. And when President Johnson told Mr. Speaker COLFAX that the responsibilities of his new position had been so suddenly thrown upon him that he had not thought about it, Mr. Speaker COLFAI did not exress any desire about it. go the only purpose of the Speaker in calling upon the President was to fin out when congress would meet, so that he might be the peaker of this House; not for the purpose at all of having Congress called together, because he did not ask that it should be done. And when he says in this letter, for Buncombe, that he did not or tie that matter with the President, I do not thin t he gave a fair impression ofhis wishes in the premises. I do not think the public should be misled b that intimation of Mr. Speaker con‘ax that e desired Congress to meet, when he did not say so, when he did not urge it. He had not exressed the mildest and most modest desire tot e President for it; but went off for months to the for West. Yet the 1st thing when he came back here was to comlain that Congress was not called together. Vhose duty was it to urge the as sembling of Congress? More than of all others the Union men on this floor should have acted together in that matter, if they really felt that the interests of the country required that congress should meet. And a few days ago the Gentfrom Hline is [Ma IxosnsoLL] made the same comlaint. And he also indulged in a great deal of enunciation on that occasion; a denunciation wholly unbecoming a member of this House; a denunciation, I am free to say, thatis unworthy to be uttered on this floor. 0 denounced the President as a demago no in so many words, and every man who is or his policy as a lick spittle, a sycophant, a man crouching at the feet of power to obtain office. Now, I say these are unworthy terms to be uttered by one gentleman of another. And so far as I am concerned I hurl them back in the teeth of those who utter them. Now, I wish to know what the Gentfrom Illinois [Ma Isenasou] has done to entitle him to so lecture the friends of AndrewJohnson. What has he done, or what have those done who are the bitterest in their denun ciations of the President and of his friends? They have staid at home, filled oliices, denounced treason, and aided to crush the rebellion in that way. The Gentfrom Illinois, if he is remaikable for anything, is remarkable for his physical strength. He is in the prime of manhood, stouter than one in 10,000, and yet he expands his wrath against the rebels and rebellion in denunciation of those who fought. for the Government and who are in favor of the restoration of peace, of harmony, and good will.