250 



CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



the United States, and within which the authority of 

 the Constitution and laws of the United States has 

 been overthrown, shall not be permitted to resume 

 their political relations with the Government of the 

 United States until, by action of the loyal citizens 

 within such States respectively, a State constitution 

 shall be ordai/ied and established, republican in form, 

 forever prohibiting involuntary servitude within such 

 State, and guaranteeing to all persons freedom and 

 equality of rights before the law. 



SEC. 2. Ana be it further enacted, That the State of 

 Louisiana is hereby permitted to resume its political 

 relations with the Government of the United States 

 under the constitution adopted by the convention 

 which assembled on the 6th day of April, A.D. 1864, 

 at New Orleans. 



To this substitute Mr. Arnold, of Illinois, 

 offered the following amendment, which was 

 accepted by Mr. Eliot : 



SEC. . And be it further enacted, That in all that 

 portion of the United States heretofore declared to be 

 in rebellion against the United States, and enumerated 

 in the President's proclamation of January 1, 1863, 

 slavery and involuntary servitude, otherwise than in 

 the punishment of crime whereof the accused shall 

 have been duly convicted, shall be, and the same 

 hereby is, abolished and prohibited forever, and the 

 reenslavement, or holding, or attempting to hold in 

 slavery or involuntary servitude, any person within 

 such State made free by this act, or declared to be 

 free by the proclamation of the President of the 

 United States, dated Jan. 1, 1863, or of any of their 

 descendants, otherwise than in the punishment of 

 crime, whereof the accused shall have been duly con- 

 victed, is and shall be forever prohibited, any law or 

 regulation of either of said States to the contrary 

 notwithstanding. 



Mr. Wilson, of Iowa, offered the following 

 amendment to the substitute of Mr. Eliot : 



Senators and Representatives shall not be received 

 from any State heretofore declared in rebellion against 

 the United States until by an act or joint resolution 

 of Congress, approved by the President, or passed 

 notwithstanding his objections, such State shall have 

 been first declared to have organized a just local gov- 

 ernment, republican in form, and to be entitled to 

 representation in the respective Houses of Congress. 



Mr. Eliot, in support of his substitute, said : 

 " What is the need of any general bill ? We 

 passed one last session, I know, containing pro- 

 visions, many of them like the provisions of this 

 bill. There appeared to be reason to act then. 

 But can we undertake in one bill to state what 

 shall be applicable in detail in all these rebel 

 States? Why is it not more wise to take the 

 States as they shall present themselves for ad- 

 mission ? We may, to be sure, agree upon cer- 

 tain principles. We ought to agree upon cer- 

 tain provisions which must be contained within 

 the constitutions of the States before those 

 States shall be recognized and permitted to act 

 under the Government of the United States. 



" Mr. Speaker, there is no work imposed upon 

 us by the people of the nation more full of con- 

 sequences that reach into the far future than 

 that of bringing back into the Union the States 

 whose governments have been overthrown by 

 traitors in arms against their country. As we 

 discharge that duty rightfully and without fear, 

 grounding our action on principle, or wrong- 

 ft*Uy, by enactments which compromise with 

 principle, endeavor to evade the great and fun- 



damental doctrines of freedom and equal rights 

 before the law, so shall we be judged as true or 

 as false in the years that are to come. We may 

 not be able to construct at this time a plan by 

 which, and by which alone, all the States in 

 rebellion shall be admitted again to their politi- 

 cal rights under our Government ; but we can 

 declare, and we ought by solemn enactment to 

 declare, that no rebel State shall be received 

 until it shall come with a free constitution, pro- 

 hibiting slavery forever within her borders, and 

 containing provisions under which equal rights 

 before the law may be secured." 



Mr. Dawes, of Massachusetts, in opposition 

 to the bill, said : " The bill is divided into two 

 distinct parts: first, that which endeavors to 

 provide a present, temporary municipal govern- 

 ment ; and, second, that which seeks to prescribe 

 the rule and method to which all efforts at any 

 future period for the adoption of a constitution 

 must conform. And, first, let us look at its 

 provisions for a local government. What are 

 the principles upon which this part of the bill 

 is based ? Not on the old theory of a colonial 

 government, treating and subjecting them, ac- 

 cording to that old policy of the colonies, to tho 

 will, the ownership, and the proprietorship, as 

 well of the soil as the franchise; nor indeed on 

 that later and more modern policy of treating 

 each State in the condition of a Territory hav- 

 ing power to form and frame their own govern- 

 ment with a supervisory power still residing 

 here and retained by this Government ; but, sir, 

 the bill proceeds upon the supposition not only 

 that there are States still existing, but that their 

 old constitutions and laws are still in full force 

 and operation ; for, sir, the first duty imposed 

 upon the provisional governor in these several 

 administrations of government is this : ' That 

 until the United States shall have recognized a 

 republican form of State government the pro- 

 visional government of said States shall see 

 that this act, and the laws of the United States, 

 and the laws of the State in force when the 

 State government was overthrown by the rebel- 

 lion, are faithfully executed,' saving and except- 

 ing the single provision touching the enforce- 

 ment of the laws against slavery and the mode 

 of trial and punishment of colored people. In 

 all other matters and things this bill takes up 

 the condition of those States, and declares it to 

 be this : that they still exist within the Union, 

 with their old boundaries, and constitutions, and 

 laws still in force, but without officers to enforce 

 them. And the proposition of the bill is to fill 

 those offices by executive appointment here. 

 This, sir, is the first attempt of the bill. It is 

 for the Executive~in Washington to supply that 

 deficiency, namely, to fill the State offices in 

 every one of those States, by the advice and 

 with the consent, it may be, of the Senate of 

 the United States. 



" Although the provisions of the State con- 

 stitution and of the laws recognized by this bill 

 to be in full force may provide for another 

 method of appointment or election for these 



