188 



CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



on the 8th of December last, to repeal that sec- 

 tion of the Revised Statutes ? The Judiciary 

 Committee has considered that subject, and by 

 a majority, of which I was not one, has re- 

 ported to the Senate a recommendation to re- 

 peal section 1218 of the Revised Statutes en- 

 tirely, so as to readmit into the Army of the 

 United States every person who is now obnox- 

 ious to the prohibition of that section by rea- 

 son of having been engaged in making war 

 upon the United States." 



Mr. Bayard, of Delaware : " Mr. President, 

 I was instructed by the Committee on the Ju- 

 diciary to report this bill, because we thought 

 that, independent of the policy of entire repeal 

 of section 1218 of the Revised Statutes, the 

 case now presented was one of individual exi- 

 gency. The individual in question, at the age 

 of sixteen, went into Virginia, and was under 

 age when the war ended. He had taken no 

 oath of allegiance, and held no office, but, nev- 

 ertheless, would be ineligible, by reason of mili- 

 tary service in the South, to be nominated for 

 any position in the Army of ths United States 

 under existing law. He has petitioned for the 

 removal of this disability, and the committee 

 thought proper under the circumstances to rec- 

 ommend to the Senate the passage of the bill 

 removing that disability. 



" I can not see why an individual case, so en- 

 tirely unobjectionable, on the contrary, so far 

 as I can see, advisable in every way, should not 

 be favorably acted on by the Senate. It is not 

 a denial of the principle, it is simply an affirm- 

 ance of the principle in the instance in question. 



" I can only say for my own part that I do 

 desire to speed the day when the men, the 

 young men all over this country, and their rel- 

 atives and friends, may be enabled to testify 

 their devotion to the Government by serving 

 in every branch of its service. We have them 

 in^the Legislature; we have them in the exec- 

 utive branch ; we have them in the Navy, and 

 I say it is in all respects to be desired that they 

 may be allowed as soon as possible to be en- 

 listed in the Army and follow the flag of their 

 country. It is for that reason that I think we 

 should take every opportunity to encourage the 

 youth of the country, in every section and of 

 every shade of political opinion, by every act 

 of Congress, whether general or special, to help 

 make this what we all should wish it to be, a 

 government strong in the hearts of the people." 



Mr. Edmunds : " We are not able apparently 

 to get any very clear statement of the special 

 and separate ground on which this individual 

 suspension of the statute is to rest, still pre- 

 serving its principle, so far as I can understand 

 the Senator from Delaware, except that in this 

 special instance, instead of doing as General 

 Lee did in Virginia, after great pain, as I am 

 told, go with his State, and as many others felt 

 it to be their duty, conscientiously I have no 

 doubt, to go with their State, the particular 

 object of the grace and favor of this bill felt it 

 to be his duty to go against his State and away 



from it to fight the cause which his State was 

 engaged in supporting. 



"I am not criticising the conscientiousness 

 of the particular conviction of the young man. 

 They say he was only sixteen. What figure 

 does that bear ? He was old enough apparently 

 to have a will of his own, and to be able to 

 render service to the enemies of the United 

 States and to the enemies of his own State, by 

 leaving his own State and the loyal side of the 

 line (if it is proper to use the word 'loyal,' it 

 has now got so unfashionable), and to go on the 

 other side of the line and fight his own flag and 

 the flag of his own State, borne gallantly, Mr. 

 President, by many a regiment from that State 

 itself. 



" This is the special case that the Senator 

 from Delaware says is to affirm the principle 

 of the law as it stands, or recognize it, and on 

 account of special equities to suspend it for the 

 time being. I am not able to see how that 

 strengthens the case of this young gentleman 

 at all. 



"If there is anything in what the Senator 

 from Delaware says of hastening the day when 

 nothing that existed on the statute-books and in 

 the course of history during the four years from 

 1861 to 1865 shall remain, it does not appear 

 to me that this is the best possible occasion and 

 the best possible way to hasten that day. I 

 understand perfectly well we all do that that 

 day has been apparently hastening for some 

 time, for I think it may be safely affirmed that 

 there is no single statute that has been passed 

 either to support the war for the preservation 

 of the Union or to protect the liberties and the 

 rights of the people preserved by the Union as 

 a part of this nation, that has not been assailed 

 within the last two or three years, and of which 

 it can not be truthfully said that there has not 

 been presented and pressed a measure to repeal 

 and set aside. Every safeguard of liberty and 

 equal rights (not hostile to the States in rebel- 

 lion, but having the same force and scope in 

 every State of the Union only the liberty and 

 equal rights that Magna Cliarta defended in 

 England) has been assailed, and it is proposed 

 to wipe it from the statute-book. That is true ; 

 the day has been apparently hastening when 

 every bulwark of liberty under law and secured 

 by law in every State, so far as the Constitu- 

 tion of the United States would permit it to be 

 secured, is to be swept away. Nobody can 

 question that. Even the security of judicial 

 rights under plain provisions of the ancient 

 Constitution (if we are dissatisfied with the 

 new amendments, as a good many of us are) it 

 is proposed to wipe out, and to leave to what 

 is called State sovereignty the lives, and the 

 fortunes, and the safety of citizens of the United 

 States who are endeavoring to execute the au- 

 thority of the United States in those States, 

 entirely to the State courts, and to declare that 

 the supremacy of the State, not under the Con- 

 stitution of the United States, but against the 

 Constitution of the United States, shall go so 



