Mr. RAYMOND. I am quite ineredulous of the gentlemans statement that he wishes for information. He seldom needs information on this or any other subject. I am quite sure he has as much of it as have, thoughe may not take precisely the same view of telegal hearing of the information in his possession as I should take. However, I will endeavor, in due course of time, to give him what little information I have upon that particular point. As I have said it was the duty of the president to execute the existing laws. When congress shall make new laws for him to execute, e will undoubtedly execute them; but these laws were there, in all the plenitude of their sovereign authority; they stood upon the statute boo, and it was for him to executo them. He thought it his duty so to do. There were a variety o ways open to him by which to revide or their execution, of which he has to d us in his annual message. He might have done it by the direct exercise of military power, but that would have involved various evi s which he has pointed out, and which are acknowledged to be sufficient. He chose to execute them by virtue of his combined and conjoint authority as CommanderinChief of the Army and Navy, and also as the chief Executive of the U.S. He followed the precedent set by his redecessor and commenced by himwithout obJection to its fundamental principle on the part of Congress. The 1st thing hedidnce essarily was to relieve the great body of the people from 4their disabilities, so that they could act as loyal and qualified electors of those States; and there is no doubt that he had the power to do this for it is expressly conferred upon him by the onstitution. there is no doubt, moreover, that it was absolutely necessary as the 1st step toward the execution of the laws. His predecessor had done the same thing by issuing a proclamation extending amnesty to the people of the southern States upon certain conditions. He thus had a basis or a reorganization of the machinery of Government. He then appointed provisional governors by virtue of his authority as CommanderinChief of the Army and Navy, under whose direction and uidance, as representatives of the national authority, this process of restoration might proceed. Now, I know the question has been raised all the Depts of the government. “it h and perhaps it is not quite c in doubtas to the precise legal take this specific step; but Ible well established in law th o not necessarily cease wheitions of the war shall have out powers of the Commanderint, m we yond the time when the host. e armies in the field are diSabled and destroyed. It is ii period when war is not raging. but is not yet ended a period known to lawyers and courts as nonflagranie sed nandum ccssante brHo and it has been held in the highest English courts and in all the courts where the question has come u, that the CommanderinChief may exercise the authority properly beloing to imas commanderinChief even a or the actual war is over. President Johnson appointed provisional governors of these States as his a cute, not in the form or under the name of military governors, though that would not have changed the nature of theirdutics, because he himself had the same duties confided to him when made military governor of Tennessee by President Lincoln. Buthe appointed them as his agents to set in motion the machinery of Government; and a part of that machinery was the calling of conventions and of Legislatures which should act for the States, and aid by necessary legislation in ree stablishin the relations of the States with the Fedora Government. Hc prescribed the terms on which citizens should e allowed to vote for members of the legislature and for delegates to the convention. o did that because he had an undoubted right to see that power was no longer usur ed, and that there should be no voting but loyal and legal voting there. So he went on, by one step after another, advising the Legislatures, counseling them to abolish slave, not only by their own laws, but by adopting the constitutional amendm ent, recommending them to repudiate the rebel debt, and also to put upon their own constitutional records a solemn abandonment of the doctrine of secession. Withmit going further into the details of the ste)8 taken by the President, I will merely say that beproceeded steadily and successfully to restore authority in those States, to put in motion the machine of their governments, and through that mac inery to take care as he was solemnly sworn to do, that the awe of Congress were “faithfully executed.” I do not know that there was any special call for the interposition of Congress upon that subject. In my Judgment the proper function of congress does not come in until a later stage of the proceedings. The decision of the Supreme ourt, in the case of the Don rebellion in the State of RhdIsland, has been noted here to show that it was for Congress to ccide when a RFG, which they are bound to guaranty, does exist in a State. I have not that decision by me at this time. But I think if utlemen will read it with special regard for its language and especially for the unlifying clausesinit, theywill iscoverthat the decision was to this effect: that it was for congress to decide what was a RFG by deciding ppon the admission of members coming from at government, or elected under it. This is the mode and scope of the action of Congress upon this point, and having decided it the members thus admitted are members of Congress, and laws in the enactment of which they take art are binding upgn s I understand it, that is the extent to which upon that point that decision went. Now, what is the condition of those States today? They are in the full exercise of their functions of selfgovernment. Our laws relating to them exist upon our statutebooks and theyareduly executedwithintheirlimits. axes are collected from the people of those States. The vessels that o into their ports pay duties according to our aws. Not only has selfgovernment been established throughout those States, but they are today, whatever may have been the case during the War, now in the won, and they can only got out of the Union by 489 January 29, expulsion. It is possible that this congress may attempt to expel them, but I do not tiink it will. It can declare them not to be in the Union, but it must be by a positive act of derivation if it actually gets them out from the Jurisdiction and protection of the constitution; and Congress is not empowered to perform any such act. Now, all that remains to complete the resto ration of their prabtical relations with the national Government is the admission of representatives from those States into the 2 Houses of Congress: and that is for Congress to do. That is purely, solely, and exclusively confided to the power of Congress. The President has nothing to do with that question and allthat we have now to decide is, upon what principles shall that question be settled? I say with regard to that matter, as I have said in regard to every other question connected with our relations to those States, that we must decide it on the principles of the constitution. We have no right to go beyond that. The 5th section of the 1st article of the constitution says: “Each House shall be the judge of the elections, returns, and qualifications of its own members.” It is for this House to decide upon the unlifications of members who may present themselves here for admission, and it has the right to select its own test to determine that question of qualification in its own way and by its own forms. It has a right to declare that dislo alty. evinced by active hostility against the nite States, shall be a disqualification for a seat on this floor, and it has already done so. There is another point. As Representatives are chosen by districts and not by States, I maintainthat this House is bound to consider the case of each separate district by itself, asa district; by which I mean that if a member presents himself here from a particular district of the State of Georgia we can inquire into his qualifications for occupying a seat upon this oor without regard to the character of other rercsentatives from that State, or of the State itse f. If he is a disloval man we can exclude him, and decide that his district, having sent here a disqualified man as a Representative, is not entitled to representation until it sends one who is qualified: and if the adjoining district sends a man who is qualified, we may and should admit him, thus deciding the matterby districts and not by States. The Senate, of course, will act for itself on the question of admitting senators, and must, of necessity, act by States.