Mr. BROMWELL. I think it is irrelevant to the present question to investigate the history of transactions in Virginia since the commencement of this war. The question which I was attemptin to discuss was whether the States that rebe led are entitled to demand, under the Constitution, the right to sit here and assist in making laws. that is a simple question, and cannot be affected by any not of Tirginia. The gentleman may perhaps find a case in which such a right has been granted. But I am speaking now of States that have manifestly violated the fundamental principles on which they held existence, that have repudiated the common bond and obligation of this Government, that have acted on the repudiation as long as their abilities and means would enable them to do so, and that now stand de manding equal rights in the Federal Governmentnt by virtue of the Constitution. I was asking whether they could make this demand on the ground that the acts of the conventions that passed the ordinances of secession were illega. I have answered that by saying that you may as well permit a man to come into court and repudiate or accept the acts of his agent, as may best suit his purposes. But, sir, the people ratied the acts of this convention. They did more: they hasteikd to turn over every State power and function to another and a foreign power, sought to be cre ated, and that for the purpose of wagin war on our Government and people. They did more: they arrayed themselves under a.foreign flag, as foreign to this soil as the flag of GreatBritain. They did more: the Legislature, which was the legislative arm of the State, no longer sat as a State of this Union. The Governor, who was the executive arm of the State, no longer held his office as Governor of a State of this Union. The udiciary, which were the judicial arm of the State, no longer sat to determine causes arising in a State of the Union. But one and all, civil and military, Legislature, convention, executive, judiciary, and people went hand in hand, by every emf ing power in the State capable of acting, and united themselves to a foreign confederacy for the express purpose of denying allegiance to this Constitution and weing war agaiiistthis Government and people. I ow, sir, can the gentleman point out an act of repudiation which they did not do? Can he point out an existing power or function in that State which was not called into exercise to commit treason ainst the Constitution of the U.S.? TOt one. So they stand today covered with violence, from the Executive at the capital of the State down to the voters at the country reciuct who by their bal lots voted that their State should be no longer part or parcel of the Federal Union and should have no share in its benefits and blessings. What answer shall that State present today when we demand by what right it seeks to come in and help govern us. Ita pealed to the sword and the sword has decided. It cast all upon the wager of battle; and though that mode of settling difficulties has long been dis used in the courts of law, yet in the forum of nations that terrible nrbitrament survives. It carries with it every consequence it has borne since it has been recognized as the last arment of kings. They appealed to the swordf— the sword has decided; from its determination there is and can be no appeal. It is invoked only when all other means fail. The thunder of its decision silences all disputation in other and powerless tribunals. Therefore the people of those States, like Alabama and others, when the ranged themselves in front of the arms of this nation and went down beneath its power, come back today clad with no more rights as States than the laws of war and the dis osing will of the people accord to them. hey have tried the wager of battle. It has failed. The victor comes in and is clothed co instanti with all the disposing power, limited alone by that principle of public law which requires the victor to proVide necessary and proper regulations for the vanquished country: subject further to that principle in the law of nations, owin out of public justice and public policy, that such existin laws as are not inimical to the conqueror an do not stand in his way shall be left for the common benefit. All their organizations, statutes constitutions,charters contracts which stand in the way of this go down. They are held to be shattered and crushed by the stroke of the conquest and lie mingled with the dust of their defending ram parts. This was the stern law which they in voked, and not the will of the peaceable, law abiding people of this Union. They come with their broken constitution and theirviolated vows, with the H of their country beneath their feet and the aifag of secession daunting its folds before heaven. Here they come, Legislature, judiciary, army, navy, pirates, guerrillas, every species of force which the can collect from the 4 quarters of this lnn, and present themselves in battle array; they stand until the force and power which they have invoked,whose vengeance and whose stren th they have chal len ed, has hurled them to edust and now, whi e writhing beneath the stroke of the victor, a voice comes forth saying that they have the same rights at law that they would have had had they been marshaled under the glorious stars and stri es, and fought for the Union iind for liberty— ought in the some cause for which our heroes bled and fell. They come here to I demand the right to legislate for the people of this country who have not yet all returned, from the mournfnl task of burying the mangled dead of the nation, over whose tombs these men must walk to take their places here. They seek to mingle with the loya defenders of the country, and scarcely deign to take their shoulder stra s from off their clothes when they ask to sit oWn here to legislate for the men of Fort DOnelson,Chickam auga,and Gettysbu. They come here to legislate. Win? Thin of it! Governors who are just from turning over to their successors galleries appropriated to old secession tings which they have gathered to place before the people, to remind them that the men whom they led beneath these flags have fought and gained their glory in a war against their country; thus to cep alive secession and all the diabolical principles which nourish and sustain it. Think of it! Governors cominghere, and men in high positions, fresh from laym g the corner stones of monuments in the public 5 uares of the southern cities, to commemoratet e deeds of the men they commanded during the rebellion, and who died smiting at the throat of the Government; and claiming here to give law to the brothers and fathers and mothers of the men through whose breasts they struck. Yes, air, in these new constructed governments which the Presidents wand has brought into being, we have Governors issuing their circular letters to their people that the sacred depositaries of their banners shall be handed over to their successors, to stand through all time in memoriam, to remind the people O Alabama and of Missis sippi that their fathers and brothers won their glory in the war of treason! This is the way m which they present themselves here. You say the loyal people ought to be allowed to come here. Why did they not come? Was ittheloyal people who elected this kind of men? True, some of the States have sent some loyal men here, but, as has been stated upon this floor today, they owe their existence as Rep Representatives of these people, simply to the fact that Federal bayonets kept back the men who would otherwise have sent the commanders of their confederate armies here, and who will send as their successors that class of men be yond cradventure. They are to come here with tieir fellow laborers in the cause of the rebellion to give law to the people they could not conquer in arms, reversing the character of all conquests and making the victorious Republic of America the subjugated victim of the successful traitors power, carried over her head under the forms of law: and all in obedience to the merest notion of law—for it can hardly be called an opinion—that these States never violated and therefore never lost their rights. When they shall succeed, it will be when some unsearchable judgment of Heaven shall have stricken blind the defenders of the freedom and welfare of this nation. [Applause in the galleries] It may be that our Judgments are not all upon us. It may be that the unishment for the sins of the North and of the South are not yet visited on the devoted people of this country. There are 3 shafts in the uiver of divine retribution with which nations have been smitten. One has already pierced us and one is trembling on the string. War, pestilence, and famine are the lessons with whichthe Almighty has taughtthe nations from the beginning until now. Let us beware lest in going forward in the course which these men advise, and committing the interests of 4 million human beings, whose welfare is in our hands, back to the merciless hands from which we wrested them—let us beware lest in giving over the temple of freedom and humanit to these hands red with blood, these souls black wrth treason. these hearts foul with cruelty, we prOvoke another visitation of the divine wrath; and the er shall be raised, “ One woe is past and beholrfa 2nd cometh quickly!” I say, Mr. Speaker, that the trust committed to our hands is too important to betray; it is more than Representatives dare to do at this day, in this age, and in this country. It is no time now to look for popularity; it is no time to stand here and chalfer and bargain with hu man intercsts and vulgar passions and base prejudices. That which is required of us is the stern, unbending front which looks to God as the Vindicator of the truth; and which looks to humanity as that to which our duty must be dischar d. We have not had the greatest share in bringing this work upon our hands. But it is here; we cannot avoid it; we cannot fall back from it. How can we stand here and an nounce to the world that this Union is restored that these States are in full competency and force, and that we consign to the tender mer cies of these States the miserable creatures whom they dragged across the seas, with our help, too; that we consign to them the fugi tives, white and black, who come to us for help; that we hand over to the taskmaster the victim who is lookin to us for the freedom which God will yet accor to him, and that, too, unless we do justice, throughQhe blood and punishment of the oppressor? No, sir, we cannot take that responsibilit. Should we do so, every nation that sits under the shadow of the power of the Mufti and the Sultan would cry out against us. Fez, Morocco, and Algiers would rise in judgment against ua, It cannot be done in free America, in the country of constitutions, the country of orderly government, the land in which so many noble men have hved and died. It cannot be done in the land of Washington and Lincoln. It cannot be done beneath the stars and stripes. It cannot be done here where the empire of freedom is to be founded by our people, who are commissioned, empowere, and intrusted with its high destiny. Sir, as I said in the bevinning of my remarks, the question of the loyal status of those States stan s 1st in the questions before us for consideration. If they are States in this Union in full force and competency, then are we doomed. The fate of humanity on this continent is sealed: because to their treacherous and cruel hands are to be committed its care and keeping. But if, on the other hand, they have violated their obligations and thereby lost their rights by forfeiture, then we are at liberty to come in, not as the conqueror would come, to punish and outrage his victim; but to come in in the name of humanity and truth and the Constitution, and say to the vanquished, “You shall accord to humanity its rights; you shall now assist in laying the foundations of this Governmentnt firmly upon the granite base of justice.” and when that is done, when we shall have founded our liberty upon justice, we shall have taken full and proper care of it. It is because liberty lives in its securities and not in its promulgation, that we must do this. It is because there is butonesecurity for liberty, and that is justice, that we must do this. When justice is done, liberty will take care of herself. Sir, I wish it to be distinctly understood that I do not argue this for the purpose of asking that we shall emand every penalty which this violation so fully deserves. On the contrary, I only ask that we shall do our duty as states men in deciding these great questions. For one I cannot vote for a State to come in or go out because it has done this or that, because this or that manlwas born in it. I cannot vote for Tennessee to come in because President John son came from there, or for SCarolina to stay out because John C. Calhoun came from there. But I stand here to hold up the hands of humanity, and to say that these great ends must now be secured. I want nothing more, I shall be content with nothing less. God knows I speak here today, as I believe, for the benefit of the entire people, “ for the greatest good to the Greatest number,” from the forests of Maine to the waters of the Rio Grande. I do not desire to keep alive the bitterness and hate of war, to quicken the sharppangs which gnaw the hearts of he loyal people; but we cannot, to please men in power or to pleasoA hemultitude, violate the solemn trust committed to this Congress and to the people at this hour, to stand to the truth as it is and maintain our Union, not in any spirit of pride, or arrogance, or cruelty, but in tespirit of patriotism, of philanthropy, of truth, and justice. Justice, without which a nation is naught but anincumbrauce upon the earth, must be vindicated and secured t rough out this land. When this shall have been done I shall expect to see our people mingle again, for etfulof the past with all its faullsand follies an: cruelties, and join together as a band of brothers to carry on the glorious work of hu manity and freedom throughout this continent entire.