Mr. SMITH said: Mr. CHAIRMAN: On the occasion when I last addressed the House on this subject, I was, when the hammer fell, undertaking to sustain the position which I had assumed in the outsetof my remarks, that the COctrinewhich had been enunciated and maintained during the war by the Union party1 of the U.S. was that secession is a eresy; that it violates all the principles of the Constitution and the law upon which our Government had been established. In maintenance of that position, I recited the authority which became a part of the record of the Congress of the U.S., running through the last 4 years. I noted from distinguished members of this I House, and from not critics outside of the House, to show that we, as a Union party, had sustained and prosecuted the war just closed for the express purpose of keeping the rebellious States in the IUnion as they were when the war began, and where they are as I claim today. In taking this position, and in maintaining it earnestly as I do, I do not (compromise in the slightest degree any position heretofore assumod by the great Union party of America. If we admit by our legislation now that anyone of the 11 States oig the South whose people waged the war against the Government for its destruction has at any time been out of this Union. we, at this late day, and after the suppression of the rebellion, come up to and adopt the very doctrine which led to the rebellion. It was main btained in the Congress of the U.S. for 30 years, the GreatSCarolina champion taking the load, that prior to the adoption of the constitution the 13 original States were indendent sovereigiities, outside of and independeut of the Union; that the Union was made up of independent States, and that they had a right. whenever they chose, to withdraw their allegiance from the Government and resume their original sovereignty as independent States. That doctrine we denied. We resisted it by argument for 30 years in Congress and out of it. We maintained that the allegiance of every citizen throughout the country to his State was subordinate to his allegiance to the national Government. When the controvers became one of arms our people, by thousan s rallied for the maintenance OI the greatprinciplo which they had before asserted, and reSiste dtoils overthrow that pernicious doctrinc which brought on the most calamitous war that the world ever witnessed. I was proceeding to show, when I last bad the floor on this subject, that the action of congress in the admission of the State of West "rginia clearly proved, be and the shadow of a doubt, that secession an rebellion, in their most formidable strength. could not destroy the State government of Virginia. The Legislature of that State, which was assembled, uotin Rich mond, the capital of the State, but in Wheeling, was recognized as the legitimate authority of the State of Virginia and gave its consent to the withdrawal of those western counties and the formation of a new State: and thus WestVirginia was admitted into the Union by.the action of the Congress of the U.S. Congress admitted, ipsofacio, that neither Virginia nor any other State had ever been out of the Union., In addition to that, this House, by the vote of a large number of its Union members, a niitted as a Representative from Virginia a gentleman who had received only 25 votes from a district embracing 25,000 voters and the Gentfrom Ohio, BiNrinAM] from whcm [315. I have already quote, declares that the men who sent these men here to represent them are the authorized power of the district and State to send this Representative, and should be recognized and are recognized as such. Mr. Lincoln asserted the same doctrine. He said: “ The peopleofVirginiahave thus allowed the giant insurrection to make its nest within her borders and this Governmenthas no choice left but to deal with it whereit findsit and it has the lessregret.as the loyal citizens have, in due form claimed its protection. Those loyal cilizens this Government is bound to recognize and protect as being Virginia." There was the Chief Executive of the Union nominated and elected by us; the great head of our party; not only elected by the Union art in 1860, but, on the doctrine enunciated n this proclamation and this message, went before e people again in 1864, and notwithstandin a combination of politicians to destroy him an put others inhis place, the eat American people rallied around him. he people stood by him because they were opposed to secession in every form and he was more triumphantly elected to the presidential chair than an man since the days of Washington. Mr. Lincoln went further on that subject. He said:. " Our States have neither morenor lesspowerthan that reservedto them in the Union by the Constitution "no one ever having been a State out of the men. Now, I submit, by what process of reasoning can gentlemen come to the conclusion that when war is waging, and while a vast majority of the people of a State are in insurrection against the Government: its Legislature in session: its Congress in session; its army in the field, and we having jurisdiction over a small portion of the territory I ask how can we, with all that resistance, all that force trampling down the Constitution, the laws, and the authority of the Government, claim that the State was in t Union and could not go out; and yet, when the war is over; when there is not an armed rebel in the field anywhere in the broad land; when there is not a hand a lifted against the enforcement of the laws an the Constitution, it shall be claimed that those States are not within the Union, and not entitled to representation in Congress? Now, on that point I shall call the attention of the House to the remarks of the distinguished Gentfrom Ohio [Mr. SHELLAHARGER] in regard to the constitutional power of the government over the States. c claims that these States are not States in the Union for governmental purposes; but let us see. This very day, while I am addressing you, your Constitution is the supreme law of the land overall of them; it fis regulating commerce among them; it requires e Representatives and Senators (if they were here to reside in their respective States; it is prohibiting the States from entering into treaties, alliances, or confederations, coining money, emitting bills of credit, making anything but gold and silver coin a tender for debt; passing any bill of attainder or a: ostfaclo law, or law impairing the obligation o contracts; from taxing imports or exports without consent of Congress; from laying tonnage duty; from keeping troops or ships of war in time of peace; from entering into any compact with another State or foreign Power; from engaging in war unless invaded, or inimminent danger thereof; from refusing to give full faith to records, &c., of other States; from refusing to surrender fugi tives from justice or labor in requiring States to be tried in the courts of the U.S.; requiringl all their officers to take an oath to supportt e Constitution; requiringthem to pay States proportion of direct taxes; in prohibiting either State from conferring any other emol ument upon the President than his salary; in requiring them to furnish at command of the President their militia; and in subordinating theiriudges, constitutions, and laws, to the constitution, laws, and treaties of the U.S. as “the supreme law of the land.” I have repeated almost word for word from the speech of the Gentfrom Ohio, [Mr. Snmamnancnnd and I ask, overwhom or what do these provisions of the Constitution operate? Certainly, sir, over States, and the people thereof, for the Constitution in the casesmentioned deals alone with States. There was a time, it was short, however in the life of a nation, or even a man, thatt ese powers of the national Constitution were suspended and in operative. In many of the States but for a few months, a few weeks, in some of them nearly 4 years; but now perfect, complete, unobstructed, and unquestioned authority is granted {.0 {(lillff instrument “ as the supreme law of the an. Na Y, more; they have gone further, and comp ied with the policies of the Government adopted since the rebellion begun. Nearly all the States have remodeled their constitutions and abolished slavery; they have repudiated the rebel debt; the loyal men are rejoicing and clapping their hands in gratitude for their deliverance, while 100s and 1,000s of those who were in the rebellion are seeking pardon and a restoration to citizenship under the tim7 and Constitution of the Union. Mr. Lincoln went further, and in the proclamation of December 8, 1863, be specified the means on which restoration to peace might be had, and enumerating the States in rebellion, he asserted the power he had over these people to grant them pardons under certain conditions. If they are not States and have not violated the lawa or Constitution of the U.S., what authority has the executive Dept to issue proclamations of pardon to the various members of those communities? What power has be under the Constitution, or what.authority has Cmigressunder the Constitution of the U.S., to compel them as States, by the appointment and confirmation of officers, to execute the judicial rights of the Government in those States and to collect from them taxes and revenue fin the defense of the Government? Now, air, in r to the position of the rebels, I say that is a ifferent and separate proposition. If you come to me and me what I would do with Qhe rebels, I have an answer to give you. When you ask me whethera State has been out of the Union I answer as I have always answered, and as every gentleman on this floor has answered, with the exception of one or two. that they never have and never can get out of the Union except in 2 ways. ne is by the consent of 3/4ths of the States of the Union; the other is by successful rebellion. When they have accomplished the one or the other of these then they are out otherwise not and we spent $3,000,000,000 to keep them in. We gave 500,000 men to keep them in. We have lost avast deal. We have spread the habiliments of mournin all over this land, and there is scarcely a hearthstone in the land that is not mourning today because of the departureof some loved one, all to maintain the integrity of the Constitution, and to keep those States in the Union and are we now to admit as members of congress those who have dyed their hands in the blood of theirloyal countrymen? I answerno, emphatically no. I maintain that the rule for us to lay down as the just, the consistent, the true one the rule by whiclr we can stand, and by which the American people stand, and around which they will rally by 1,000s and millions, is, that no State has been out of this Union, but they are all in it; that the people whom you tax according to the Constitution are entitled to representation in Congress; but if they do not send the right kind of men. good men, loyal men, men who can do as we have donestand before the altar of this House, and with uplifted hand swear before God and man that they have never doneanything to overthrow and destroy this Government, send them back and let their people send another, and if he cannot take the cat, let them keep on sending men until they give us one who can be properly qualified to sit in the great legislature of the nation. Do you suppose that any Union man in this country by taking the position Lhave taken now, and that I have assumed allthrough the warproving my faith by my works taking. the position that no State is out of the Union, that it ought not to go out, that the States that attempted to do so engaged in an unjust and unholy war 1