The SPEAKER of the House be ieves it unconstitutional, he has the right to swear a member in the manner provided in our organic law. Repeal this odious, obnoxious, and unjust legislation, and let every one of the Representatives take their seats. hope that I may live to see the sun shine upon this Capitol when its rays shall strike down upon the Representatives of every State of this Union. Iwant to see here in these seats the Representatives of all the States. I pray God that I may be a member of Congress when I can go home and have the road satisfaction of saying to my constituents that the Union has been restored, with the rights and equalities of the several States unimpared, in pursuance of the Critteudeu resolution and the statesman likc utterances of President Johnson. I am no disunionist. ButI protest against the exercise of despotic power y any class of men. When the rebels undertook to violate the Constiivijon of the U.S., and to trample QM;., the Union, I protested against their acts. TI is House knows that all the time I voted necessary men and money to enable the C, “fitment to put down the rebellion. because 1. "unwilling to have this Union de stroyed m., y for the purpose of satisfying the fanatical selumes of enell Phillips, will iam Lloyd Garrison, and other disunion traitors in this country for the last 40 years. I say this was never, within the meaning of pubic or international law, a civilWar or a war between 2 nations so far as its results were concerned. It was an insurrection and an invasion of the States, which the people of the States, through the constitutional power at the Federal head, were bound to put down. The soldiers who athered around the tomb of the immortal Wasbington, and laid down their lives to preserve the glorious heritage be queathed to as by our fathers, went to quell an insurrection an to repel an invasion and to restore liberty to the people of the South who were unable to protect themselves against the powers of secession and despotism which at tfinipted to break down the safeguards of the mom The Constitution of vthe U.S. says that Congress shall have power to raise and support armies. It also says that it shall have power tolprovide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the Union, suppress insurrections, and repel invasions. “To raise and support armies. What does that mean I It means that Congress is authorized to raise and support a general army, called the regular Arm, or protection against foreign foes, and which was intended to be under the sole and exclusive control of the Federal Government. The other art of the section provides for the very diflicu ty which has arisen in this country; I mean the rebellion in the South against the Government of the U.S. Was it not an insurrection and an invasion of those States I Ade facto government invaded those States, and each one of them had an insurrection therein and the POTUS called u n Congress to call out the mi litia; and did e not, in the very 1st proclamation he ever issued, say that there was an insurrection in the South, and that he called upon the Governors of the several States to bring forth from the militia a sufficient. number to put down, under the Constitution of the U.S., that insurrection and repel that invasion? The armies were raised and the war carried on in pursuance of a solemn guarantee that each State gave to the other, that the U.S. should aranty to every State a RFG, and protect one of them against invasion, and on application of the Legislature, or of the Executive, (when the Legislature could not be convened against domestic violence. This guarantee is found in the 4th sectionof the filth article of the Federal Constitution. Now. sir, when we examine the legislation of Congress we find that since the commencement of the war that legislation has uniformly treated the movement of the southern States in their opposition to the laws as an insurrection. under the authority to suppress insurrection and rebelinvasion, the Presidiaut of the U.S. on led upon the militia of the several States to come forward to assist in the work of quelling the insurrection and repelling the invasion. The 1st act of Congress in reference to the rebellion declares, utter certain recitals, “ Then and in such case it may and shall belawful for the President by reclamation to declare that the inhabitants of such Stateor States, or any section or part thereof where such insurrection exists.are in a state of insurrection againstthe U.S., and thereuponall commercial intercourse by and between the sameand the citizensthereof and the citizens of the rest of the U.S shall cease and be unlawful. so long as such condition of hostility shall continue." The act of July, 1861, directs the President to reduce the standing Army to 25,000 within one year after the end of the “existing insurrection and rebellion.” Sir, there was another act of Congress sed on the 7th of June, 1862, and amened as late as February, 1863, which provided that the tax commissioners in insurrectionary districts, after bidding in for the U.S. lands sold for unpaid taxes, should, in the name of the U.S., enter upon and take possession of theme, and lease the same “until the said rebellion and insurrection in said State shall be put down, and the civil authority of the U.S. established, and until the people of said State shall elect a Legislature and State officers, who shall take an oath to support the Constitution of the U.S., to be announced by the proclamation of the President.” Sir, this law is still in force, and the people of the insurrectionary States have elected Ee gislatures and State officers and taken an oath to support the Constitution of the U.S. By the act of July 22, 1861, the President was authorized to accept 500,000 volunteers for the purpose of suppressing insurrection, “provided that the ervices of the volunteers shall be for such time as the President may direct, not exceeding 3 years, nor less than 6 months, and they shall be disbanded at the end of the war." Now, sir, that act says in so many words that these soldiers are called for under the act of July 22, 186], for the purpose of suppressing insurrection. n March. 1862, to take effect March, 1868, Congress apportioned the Representatives upon the basis that the insurgent States were in the Union. designating the number of each. That law is still in force. Under that law the present HoRep was chosen; under thntlaw the present House is organized; under that law those 11 States of the South have right to representation. The Constitution says: “Representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within thisUnion aocordingtotheir respective numbers." Under that authority, Congress, after the passage of the Collamer statute; did both apportioned both direct taxes and Representatives among the several States, including the southern as well as the northern and western States of this Union. It was under the power to suppress an insurrection and repel an invasion, that millions oi men were enlisted at the North, and it was under the proviso n of the Constitution which provides that e Governors of the different States shall, at e call of the President, furnish militiamen that the insurrection was suppressed and the invasion repelld. [Here the hammer fell.]