Mr. WADE. The offerin of this resolution is no new impulse of mine, or I have been an advocate of the principle contained in it for many years, and ) I have derived the strong impressions which I entertain on the subject from a very careful observation of the workings of our Government during the period that I have been an observer of them. believe it has been ver rare that we have been able to elect a presient of the U.S. who has not been tempted to use the vast powers in trusted to him according to his own opinions to advance his reelection and when I say this of the Presidents who have preceded us say it with no desire to depreciate their merits, but because the constitution places before them temptations which we can ardly expect human nature to resist, and in the long run it never will resist them. Early in the history of our Government Washington himself, who was exceedingly sagacious respecting its workings, informe the people that in his opinion here was aweakuess that ought to be remedied. He saw it early. He saw that a man intrusted with these more than regal powers during the period that he was President might be tempted to use them for his own advancement afterward. Almost all the Presidents who have come after him have in some way felt, and honestly felt, that some such check was needed upon the ambition of man. It is aninjunction of more than human wisdom to in to be relieved from temptation. If I in time I might trace it through all the preceding administrations and show that this consideration had weighed like ravitation upon the mind of almost every resident we have had. How is it in the present case? I have no doubt that when the Chief may stracy devolved upon the present incumbent e was perfectly single in his mind, sincere, truthful and honest in the opinions he entertained. What were some of these opinions? He said, and reiter ated it almost every day for nearly 2 months at the beginning of his administration, that treason was a great crime, that it ought to be punished that it must be rendered infamous, and that he was the man who would do this. He said it to every delegation that visited him, until the words became stereotyped in the minds of the whole people. How has he performed that pledge? Has he punished anybody? Why, sir, we have the unheardof spectacle of one of the greatest rebellions that ever cursed man kin, involving more people, more lives, more expense, more disasters than all the rebellious recorded in history, and yet no man has been punished in consequence of it. Something is wrong; or if it is all right, your whole system of punishments and penitentiaries throughout the Union ought to be abolished. Sir, the President was rightwhen he informed the people that treason was the greatest of crimes and ought to be made odious. Why did he not perform that promise? What has led him to change his position upon thesequestions? I will not say that the ambition which has tempted all that have gone before him weighed upon his mind to bring it to the conclusions to which he has come; but it is exceedingly singular that so far from renderin treason odious by punishment, he has foisted into the highest an most delicate trusts many of the worst traitors, the leading traitors in the Union. Who else at any period of the world ever thought of taking a rebel, red with the blood of his countrymen, and placing him in the position of a Governor ofaStateyes, sir placing as Governor of a State a man who had sought to overturn not only the government of the State, but of the Union, on had invoked foreign despotisms to aid and assist him in doing it? Is that the wayto make treason odious among mankind? Now, as to the policy about which we have heard so much, no ody has been able to tell us exactly what that policy was; but we all saw that there was a kind of policy in it that suited over rebel, every on perend, every enemy of the government of the U.S., both foreign and domestic. As the policy has become developed we all now see precisely what it is] and why it was so pleasing to the ears and to the hearts of all the enemies of the country. It is no less than this: that these States shallsuf fer nothing and forfeit nothing by the rebellion, but they shall be admitted, unwashed and red with the blood of their countrymen, in full communion with the honest and loyal men of the country in the councils of the nation. What has brought about this change? It all points to this fact, that it will not do to tempt men in this way.” Sir this policy of bringing these States into the Union with all their rebellion and treason in their hearts is no better than treason itself; for I lay down the rule here, and I defy contradiction that if there is any man, be he high or low, who is an advocate for bringing unwashed traitors into the councils of the nation, that man is a traitor in his heart; he is an enemy to the nation, to the Government, and nothing can wipe it out. He that invokes the aid of an unrepentant rebel to come into the councils of the nation and participate with us in its administration is no better than a rebel, and he is a rebel at heart. How does the policy that has now been an nounced differ from the policy that would be announced in thesame place by JeffersonDavis, were he tomorrow placed in the same position? Would he ask any more, and would he ask any less, than that his coconspirators should all be restored to precisely the same position of predominance that they had when they left these Halls? We all know the history of that period when those men in these Halls rebelled. How was it? When they went off they had the Government all in their own hands; and to the eternal infam of the Democratic party be it said, that, with all their treason on their skirts, in this Senate Chamber there was but one man that I recollect on that side of the Chamber who protested against their treason. They stood faithfully by them during all that period of events that le to the open rupture of war. You may search the Journals of the Senate and of the other House and you will not find a single Democratic vote recorded against the will and measures enjoined upon them by the southern rebels just before they went out of Congress. They had it all their own way. Mr. President you and I felt more relieved than we ever did on any other occasion when we saw them volunteer to leave these Halls. It was the greatest blunder that treason ever committed. They were infinitely more formidable here than they were in the field. There we could crush them by our superior forces and resources, but here they held us by the help of their serfs, the Democratic party, in perfect subjection. No man of the democratic party undertook to gainsay whatever measure they proposed, or to notest against what they did.ion cannot nd it an where recorded in the Journals of this body. ow, sir, suppose they had kept on herejust as they are invited to come in now; suppose they had kept right along and had not committed that blunder, but held predominance in Congress and prevented any provision being made by the (government for resisting their treason; you could not have voted a dollar to carr on the war, you could not have enlisted a soldier, you could not have done the 1st act by which we could defend ourselves, had they not committed that blunder, for the Democratic party here would have stood by them and voted an every measure, as they undertook to vote them down after their masters had gone. Some gentlemen are very much astonished at the number of“ constitutional amendments that are offered from time to time. I do not wonder at it at all. This great Government, now floundering through a crisis that never Government encountered before, is tried in all its parts; and ifthere be any weakness in it, it is revealed by the very difficulties that we encounter and overcome. As a great ship over taken by a hurricane shows you all the weak spotsin it, and shows where the carpenter ought to commence his work, so it is with this great Government. Men see, as it flounder: through these difficulties, where the weak s ts are, and this one that I seek to mend now is among the most weakening of the deficiencies that exist in the constitution of our fathers. It is no disparagement to them that we find a century afterward that their work was not complete and adapted to all time to come. It would have been more than a miracle of human wisdom if they had been able to accomplish such anevent. It is absurd to suppose that a constitution that worked well among a people spread overasmall extent of country an not more than 3 millions in number should be in all particulars perfect when the nation had grown up to contain more than 30 millions and had spread over an entire continent. You might just as well expect that cloth cut for an infant would be the pattern for him in all time to come when he had arrived at manhood. There are defects in the constitution, and this is amom7 the most glaring. All men have seen it; and now let us have the nerve, let us have the resolution come up and a ly the remedy. It is singu r that we proba y have now an Opportunity to do it. It is very rare in the hislory of nations that an opportunity like this arises. I hope everybody will join with me in this proposition, and the President among the rest; and he will, ifhe hasa spark of patriotism, enjoin it upon us, as General Jac son did, as Washington did, as all the great statesmen that preceded us have done. Therefore I shall move at a very earl period to take up this resolution, and I inten to have the sense of Congress upon it. It is no new preposition emanating with me, but it has had the sanction of the most sagacious and eminent statesmen that ever graced the Halls of Congress or the executive chair. Of all the amendments that have been proposed to the constitution I have no doubt this is the most conservative however, I do not like to giveit that bad name. It is the great remedy for the evils under which we now labor. I have no doubt about it. This is all I wish to say aboutthis proposition now. I repeatthat I shall call it up at anearly day, and I shall enjoin it upon this Senate to carry it through with me; and here I have the satisfaction of believing that I shall have the aid and assistance of all arties, because it is a measure that has hereto ore met the appro bation of everybody. I move that this JtResolution be printed and laid upon the table. The presDENT protempore. That order will be entered if there be no objection. BILLS INTRODUCED.