Mr. VOORHEE S. Undoubtedly. I think the President and GenlGrant have shown that fact: 6" "m But one step further in this congressional record. As if to forever settle the construction which should be placed upon the condlwn Of 1 y l 54. January 1!, the southern States, and their rightto representation, Congress enacted and the President aproved a law on the 4th of March, 1862, which; here read: CHAP. XXXVI. An act fixing the number of the HoRepfrom and after the 3rd March. 1863. [is it enacted by the Senate and HoRep of flu: U.S. That from and of Amrrira in conrrss ru nfter the 3rd day of March, 1863. the number of members of the HoRep of the Congressof the U.S shall be 241: and the 8 additional members shall be assigned one each to Pennslvnniu. Ohio. Kentucky. Illinois, Iowa. Minnesota, Vermont, and RhdIsland. In order to obtain the number of 241 Representatives as contemplated by this law, every southern State whose citizens were in revolt must have been represented according to her population. What. more can I do than to make this statement? What. argument could add to its binding force? If men will repudiate today what they did yesterday, if they refuse to be bound by their own principles declared in the solemn form of a law, if the highest precedents of their own otheial action full without force upon their ears, then, indeed, they are beyond the power of reason and callous to the reproach and derision of the world. Sir, the most melancholy phase of corrupted and fallen human nature is its selfish tenacity to the low purposes of the hour. In their head long pursuit it spurns the fixed principles and everlasting laws of the universe from its sordid pathway. It scoffs at wisdom that is "hoary and white with cld, ” and jcers the venerable experiences of ages if they arise as obstacles to itsimmediate ratification. constitution s, laws, and sacred or inanees are lighter than cobwebs in the way of itsconsuming desires. Even the 1 dread Jehovah, who made man and the code 1 of divinity which claims his obedience, is but dimly remembered when the prize of the hearts dearest passion lies close and tem ting to our hands. Our line of vision is on the level before us. We bow to the earth and worship its transient spoils, while the stars which sail over our heads and beckon us to celestial duties and betoken eternity, go unheeded in their. grand ear. We hear the siren voice of the moment, but fail to catch the loftier harmony of the eternal spheres. Who has fathomed the dark and mysterious depths of his own motives? The rules of right rise or sink as they can be made subservient to our interests, our hopes, our loves, and our hates. The merchant prince of today adopts a new principle of trade from yesterday, because his harvest of profit will be richer and his chambers of wealth enlarged. The rulers and legislators of nations do the same. Napoleon worshipped with the faith of a Moslem at the Pyramids, when he dreamed of reviving and reigning on the throne of the Pharaohs. He imprisoned the anointed successor of StPeter when the unappeasable rage of his ambition strove for the empire of Europe. He died with the consecrated wafer on his lips when he sought the salvation of his soul in the midst of the storm at Helena. Cromwell commenced his career in the name of the Lord, the champion of liberty, and the enemy of kings. His present purposes were gained by these fair and specious pretensions, ut. he passed from the earth as the 1st of an imperial dynasty, with every vestige of civil an religious toleration destroyed, and every evidence of free government swept from the British empire. David, the king, the statesman, the warrior, and the man of letters, yielded to the temptation of a beautiful but moment ary vision, darkened his fame with coward] and cruel murder, and corrupted his line with the offspring of a twofold crime. Even the primcva parents of the human race, who adeommuned face to face with the eternal Presence, and whose daily guests in the bowers of Eden were the angels and ministering spirits from heaven; looked no higher nor further than the branches of the tree where the forbidden fruit hanging in fatal splendor promised an immediate enjoyment and the fulfillment of immediate desires and are these mournful instances in the sad philosophy of human na ture to bring us no lesson of warning in the dischar o of our present duties? Shall We grasp the dime, approximate pleasure of power and revenge in ciiance o all the principles of the Republic, in violation of its constitution, and in contempt of all our own deliberate and solemn committals, with no thought or care for the future, which will be filled with misery, disaster, and shame? It may be so. The present is more powerful here than the past or the future. The majority in Congress as utterly ignores its own record of the last 4 years as if it was blotted from the memory of man; and to at tnin an unlawful result would launch the people of this Government on a future destitute of constitutional protection. Mr. Speaker, I shall here rest. the discussion of the relation which the southern States bear to the Federal Government, and their right to representation in these Halls. It was one of the very few great questions that arose during the war in which both the political parties of the North agreed. The principle that the Union was unbroken was declare in the platforms of all the conventions, from the smallest to the greatest; and now that its denial has become the cornerstone of a new and aggressive faith I have found but little difficulty in sliowin that the doctrines of the constitution and the highest otficial actions of every Dept of the Government alike invoke us to resist the bold advances of this baleful and destructive heresy. There are other points, however, on which I wish briefly to dwell in connection with my support of the principles enun ciated in the annual message of the President. 2nd only in importance to the mighty question of Union and constitutional government is the financial polic which, through the approaching generationso sweat, toil, an pain, 5 all govern the taxpayers of this deeply indebted nation. Our public debt has assumed proportions so vast and threatening that thinking men shudder in its contemplation. There would be no profit now in inquiring whether it might have been less and yet the Union preserved. It is a fixed reality and fastened upon us beyond the power at least of present rescue. I have decided opinions which up ily to the past, and which I have expressed, an which I shall never recall. I now approach the future in connection with results over which I had no control, but which none the less impose duties incident to the position which I he d. These duties I shall discharge with not one partisan or selfish motive, in the interest of every tax payer and every son of labor in the whole land. Sir, how long can the inequalities of our present revenue system be borne? How long will the 00land the laborious pay tribute to the rich and, the idle? We have 2 great interests in this country, one of which has prostrated the other. The past 4 years of suffering and war has been the opportune harvest of the man nfacturer. The looms and machine shops of New enland and the iron furnaces of Pennsylvania have been more prolific of wealth to their owners than the most dazzling old mines of the earth. I might here stop an dwell on statistics and figures, but the public mind is already familiar with their starth ng import. They are the result of class legislation, of a monopoly of trade established by law. It. may be said that they indicate prosperity. who obtains the property of his neighbor without any equivalent in return. The present law of tariff is being rapidly understoo. It is no longer a deception, but rather a welldefined and clearly recognized outragc. The agricultural labor of the land is driven to the counters of the most gigantic monopoly ever before sanctioned by law. From its exorbitant demands there is no escape. The European manufacturer is forbidden our ports of trade for fear he might sell his goods at cheaperrates and thus relieve the bur ens of the consumer. We have declared by law that there is but one market, the market to fix their own prices. doctrine. Most. certainly they do; but it is the prosperity of one into which our citizens shall go to make their purchases, and we have left it to the owners of The b: restatement of such a principle foreshadows at once the consequences which flow from it. O no class of citizens and by far the largest and in st useful, is placed at the mercy, for the necessaries as we 1 as luxuries of life, of the fostert d, favored, and protected class to whose aid the whole power of the Government is given. ill not such a privilege be abused? Can avaricic us human nature withstand such atemptation? Is it any wonder or mystery that the farmer and the mechanic are paying more than fourfrld the actual value of every article which supplies their daily wants and necessities? But it is claimed that this system is a means of revenue to assist in the payment of the pay by lic debt. Even if this be true, its iniquity would be infinitely aggravated. I would rather be directly robbed than forced to assume, in the name of justice and right, the burdens arid obligations of others more able to meet the in than I am. Must the western people, because they are consumers and not manufacturers, be compelled by indirection to meet a large proportion of the debts of their fellowcitizens in other sections? Sir, this question must be met. It is in the minds and mouths of all our laboring classes in the West; and they will hail with general oy the fact that the President has declared int eir favor and against the polic of their bloated and plethoric oppressors. I quote from his message: "New. in their turn. the property and income of the country should bear their just proportion of the burden o taxation. while in our impost system, throu by meansof which increased vitality is incidentally imparted to all the industrial interests of the nation. the duties should he s adjustedas to fall most heavily on articles of luxury tileaving the noctu saries of life as free from taxation as the absolute wantsof the Government, economically administered, will justify.” It is true that had I the power I would go further than this position of, the Executive. Free trade with all the markets of the world is the true theory of government. No nation should prevent its citizens from buying where over their hard earnings will buy most and go furthest. If n. Hottentot can make and sell a bolt of cloth or of muslin, or calico, cheaper than a NewEngland Senator, who a few days since asked foriiicreased protection to his manufactories, HdMr. Seasoned it is the right of“ laborer in tiis broad land to pass by the civiized but rapacious Senator and obtain from the barbarian a better return for. the sweat of his brow. For revenue I would look to the actual wealth of the country, and make it contribute accordingl. But this just and philosophic system of tra e and government is not now within our reach, and I am content to accept the recommendation of the President to adjust the present impost system to the basis of revenue alone and not of protection. It is a step in the direction of true and practical reforma reform in favor of that mighty branch of industry on which all nations depend for their wealth and power. It is a manly and honest blow aimed at a monopoly as arrogant, avaricious, and deaf to justice as the British East India corporation under Hastings or Clive. Nor is it any new The people will hail it as a familiar friend of their former and happier days, and indorse it as they did then. In close and immediate connection. however, with this branch of the message, the President has uttered another sentence on which the eye of the toiling, sunbuint taxpayer will linger long and gratefully. At the close of the weary day, as he counts up his feeble gains, looks. into the heavy expenses of his family and his farming under high protective tariff prices, and shudders at the thought of the apreaching taxgathercr, knowing that for him an his hard earned substance there is no escape, he will in his heart thank the man who as President wrote the following lines: "No favored class should demand freedom from assessment, and the taxesshould beso distributed as not to fall unduly on the poor. but rather on the accnmulated wealth of the country.” Sir, is there a favored class in our midst that demands freedom from assessment? Are there those who, at such a time as this, demand that their property shall be exempted from the bur dens of taxation? Are there American citizens, who boast loudest of their love of country, who will pay nothing to relieve it from debt? Is there an honest man in America who wishes his neighbor to pay his taxes as well as his Own? Where is the “ accumulated wealth of the country, ” which shirks its just responsibility and suffers the taxes to “fall unduly on the poor?" Where is this criminal delinquent which grinds the face of overty and a sorbs the widows mite, in order that it may escape its own just dues and increase its boarded gains? Here the hammer fcll.] Mr. SMITH. I mpve that the Gentfrom Indiana [MrAIoonnsss] have his time extended to enable him to conclude his remarks. No objection was made.