Mr. ROGERS. That is a nation of barbarians, of heathens, and cannibals, like the nations of Africa. Savages from the coast of Africa were brought here by Englishmen and sold to the colonists for mere speculation. I am sorry that the negro was ever enslaved: I am sorry that they are among us. But since they are here I am not in favor of extending to them more privileges than we are authorized to extend to such people under the Federal Constitution. Now, sir, there are other decrsxons to which I will call the attention of the House. In the ease of Gibbons cs. Ogdenfln the SCOTUS, (9 “heaton, page 208) in speaking of the powers ofo State, the co"urt says: They form a rtion of that immenso mas of legislation which embraces overything within thoterritory of a State not surrendered to tie General Government. all which can be most advantageouslyexercised by the States themselves. Ins aetioulawl, quarantine laws, health laws of every esenption.as well as laws for regulating the internal commerceof a State and those which rospectturnpike roads, fer ries. kc" are componentpartsof this mass. N odireet generalpowerover these subjectsis granted to congress and conse ucntly they remain subJect to State legislation. Itt c legislative power of the unioncan reach them it must be fornationa lpurposes; it must be where the power is lurposc or on ressly given for a special is clearly inci cuts] tosomepowerwhich is expressly given." Now, the 8th section of the 1st article of the Federal Constitution defines the powers that the States intended to delegate to the federal head. If the States had intended to dele gate to the Federal head unlimited ppwers they would not have made any specfications of the particular powers, and nowhere under the powers laid down can you find any authority in the Federal head to control or regulate the internal or domestic uffairs of any State. In the case of Albert cs. Baylcy, 6 Picker m, pages 92 and 98) Chief Justice arker, in de ivermg the opinion of the court, in spealr in of the clause in the Constitution of the U.S. which declares the citizens of each State shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities of citizens in the several States, says: “The constitutional provision referredto is ssrily neces limited and qualified. for it cannot be pretended that a citizen of RhdIsland coming into this State to live is. {poofade. entitled to the full privilegesof s citizen.1fan termof residence is prescribed as preliminary to the exercise of politicul or municipal rights. The several States then remain sovereign to some purposes and foreign to eachother, asbeforetheadoption of the Constitution of the U.S and especially in regard to the adminis tration of justicc and in the regulation of property and estates.the laws of mnrriazc and divorce and the protection of the personsof thosewho live under theirjurisiiction." Who will pretend that there is any authority under the organic law of this country to pass such a law as this in the face of the decision of Chief Justice Parker, of Massachusetts, one of the ablest judges that ever sat on the bench of that State. Sir, the supreme court of Maryland, in the case of Campbell or Morris (3 Harris d1 McHcnrys Reports, page 554) decide: “All powers jurisdiction and rights of sovereignty nline qt ugirsahnetde.dabrye the people that instrument or restill retainc by them in their several cSotardteinsg and in their respective State Legislatures. ac to their forms of government. aiformity of laws in the States is contemplated by the General Government only in two cases – on the suhject of ank and naturalization. The legislative power! of congress are particular] defined in the 8th scetion of the 1st article. hose powers do not interfere with or abridge the power of the States to make laws and regulations. the operation of which is confined to the State.” Sir, do not these decisions most clearly sustain the argument which I am making1 here, and will you not take as authority the law as administered by the sworn judges of the highest courts of the country when they are under the solemn obligations of an oath, and when part strifes had not risen to that high pitch to which they have now gone? I ask you to stand by the law of the country and to regulate these federal and State systems upon the grand principles ugon which they were intended to be regulate, that we may hand down to those who are to come after us this bright jewel of civil liberty unimpaired; and I say that the Congress or the men who will strip the people of these rights will be handed down to perdition for allowing this bright and beautiful heritage of civil liberty embodied in the powers and sovereign jurisdiction of the States to pass own from us. “h, sir, all the arrangements of life with regar to the protection of property and person and the interests of mankin are comete and safe without the inte position of the Federal Government. If the federal Government had never been established, if it never had been known that the stars were to be emblazoned together on the tie of this country as one common Union, ct the old 13 States, had they remaine as before entering into the conederation, would have secured to the people of those States and to their children and e scendants who were to come after them all those blessin s of liberty that the State authorities and the federal authorities are now authorized to extend to the citizens of any State or any Territory in this Union. he honorable chairman undertook to establish a theory for this action upon a clause in the amendment to the Constitution abolishing slavery which authorizes congress to pass appropriate legislation to carryt e foregoing c ause into effect. Now, did not Mr. Seward say to some persons in the rebel States, who made objection to indorsing the constitutional amendment because of the 2nd clause, which they feared would be claimed to authorize such legis y lotion as this, that their objection was a mere myth and a mere subterfuge B As slavery was abolished, if any State undertook again to put the bonds of slavery upon those who had been made free, it would t on be in the power of the Federal Government to put a veto upon the exercise of any such power, and to say that the shackles and chains of slavery shall not again be placed upon the black race in this land. Now, the constitutional amendment abolish i“ng slavery provides in the 2nd section that Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.” “ Appropriate legislationH for what? What is the subect matter to which the legislation of Congress is to apply? Slavery or involuntary servitude is forever abolished, and this is to enable congress to compel a State that undertakes, by its legislative power, to inflict the stigma of slavery again upon the escutcheon of this country, to forbear from so doing. It is to enable Congress to lay the hand of Federal power, delegated by the States to the General Government, upon the States to prevent them from reenslaving the blacks which it could not do before the adoption of this amendment to the Constituttion., Slavery is dead, and I have no desire to revive it. I believe that in this Christian age of enlightenment and wisdom, the experience of mankind and the laws of God themselves have implanted the systems of freedom in this country, and that it. will be extended to all countries and while we are extending this principle of freedom to the colored people, do not forget the millions of our brave soldiers, their widows and orphans, the children whose faces bear the impress of destitution and we t, whose wails of sorrow pierce the very clou s. Do not forget our wasted fields, our mined cities, the annihilation of our industry, the countless myriads of freeinen from whose bodies limbs have been torn in the great storm of battle, or trampled under the lhoofs of cavalry and artillery. Let us remember that we are to legislate for them; for those who achieved the independence of our country; for the brave men who buckled on their armor and left their little families behind them, while the aristocrats remained at home. Many of those men laid down their lives around the sacred precincts of the tomb of Washington and their bodies have been laid in the soil of Virginia, so as to perpetuate the liberty whi:h our fathers designed should be extended to the white men and the white women of this country forever and ever. I wait for an argument based upon constitutional grounds, showing our right to give congress this awful power to enter into the jurisdiction of the States of this country, and to prostrate and destroy and break down those grand symbols and principles of liberty which lie at the foundation of our Government, and, under which we have enjoyed eace and prosperity for more than 75 years, in the all protection of life, liberty, and property. I am willing to trust brave men, men who have shown as much bravery as those who were engaged on battle fields against the arme legions of the North; becausel believe that even when they were fighting against the flag of their country, the great mass of those people were moved by hivh and conscientious convictions of duty and in the spirit of Christianity, in, the spirit which Jesus Christ exercised when He gave up His own life as a propitiation fora fallen world, I would say to those southern men, come here in the Halls of Congress and participate with us in passing laws which, if constitutionally carried into effect, will control the interests and destinies of 4 million people, mostly living within the limits of your States. I remember that our forefathers rebelled against the power of GreatBritain. 3 millions of the downtrodden people buckled on their arms against all the power that the King of England could summon, because the British Parliament attempted to pass laws affecting vital interests of the colonists, while the latter were not allowed representation in that Parliament. Shall we now, in this era of civilization and enlightenment, and as I hope of civil liberty, when the groundworks of our Union have been reestablished on a firm fopndation which I trust shall never be shaken or disturbed, enact a law as despotic and tyrannical as was the legislation of tcBritish Parliament when it attempted to enforce upon the American colonies “ taxation without representation 2” I believe that the 11 States of this Union whose Representatives are at present denied admission to these Halls oug it to be represented on this floor; and even if this measure was altogether right and properin its provisions,yet as it is to affect mainly 8 million peoplewho are not allowed to in our legislation, participate I should still be unwi ling to give it my sanction, because I claim to be here, not only as a Representative of my own State, but as a guardian of the interests of the downtrodden millions of the whole count, whether they be within the liifiits of the sourhern States, or within the boundaries of the northern States that have always been loyal to the Union. I want to see this a great and glorious Union, spreading itself over the whole continent. I desire that our legislation shall be animated by the spirit of charity and Christianity which will induce southern men to low our country and love the Union, so that when war shall again invade our borders we may be able to march in solid phalanx as one united people to the halls of the Montczumas, to proclaim ourselves the champion of the rights of downtrodden Ireland and of all the oppressed millions, either of the western or the eastern continent. I am as much in favor of progress as any man; I am as much in favor of the extension of civil liberty as anybody. I am ready to join in such legislation as will place us before the world as a united people, and thus strike terror to they monarciiies and despotisms of the Old World.,