254 



CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



the criminal laws of the State, and the qualifica- 

 tions of jurors. 



" 2. Confirmation of emancipation to all per- 

 aons and their posterity in all the States and 

 parts of States covered by the President's eman- 

 cipation proclamations, and the extension of the 

 writ of habeas corpus by United States courts 

 to discharge such persons when claimed and 

 held as slaves, and making it a crime to attempt 

 to enslave any person thus declared free, pun- 

 ishable by a fine not less than $1,500 and im- 

 prisonment for not less than five years. 



"For a slaveholder, therefore, to doubt the 

 infallibility of the President and Congress, and 

 to attempt to hold his slaves against their acts, 

 is a high crime by this proposed law. 



" 3. Disfranchisement as citizens of the United 

 States of all persons who, after this act, shall 

 hold military office under the confederacy from 

 the rank of colonel upward, or any civil office 

 not merely ministerial. 



"4. The formation of a new State constitution 

 and government ' so soon as the military resist- 

 ance to the United States shall have been sup- 

 pressed in any State, and the people thereof shall 

 have sufficiently returned to their obedience to 

 the Constitution and laws of the United States.' 

 The proceedings initiative of such government 

 are to be taken by the Federal governor, aided 

 by a State convention over which he shall pre- 

 side ; in the election of delegates to which con- 

 vention the right of suffrage is to be extended 

 to negro citizens who can read the Constitution 

 of the United States, as proposed by the amend- 

 ment of the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. 

 Kelley), and to white citizens, and to all citi- 

 zens of the United States, irrespective of color, 

 who are in the military or naval service of the 

 United States, all first having taken the oath of 

 allegiance under the act of July 2, 1862. All 

 persons who have held any office, State or Fed- 

 eral, under the rebel usurpation, or borne arms 

 voluntarily against the United States, are to be 

 excluded from voting for or being elected as 

 delegates, even if they offer to take the oath of 

 allegiance. 



" In regard to the right of suffrage, and the 

 right to be delegates to the constitutional con- 

 vention, the last amendment proposed by the 

 gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Ashley) in the nature 

 of a substitute for the whole bill and amend- 

 ments (but which I have not had time fully to 

 examine), goes beyond any previous proposition, 

 and virtually would give to the freed negroes 

 the right both to vote for and be delegates to 

 the constitutional convention. I refer to sec- 

 tions three and five of the last amendment or 

 substitute. In the phrases ' all male citizens of 

 the United States,' in section three, and 'all 

 citizens of the United States,' in section five, 

 are wrapped up the two cardinal ideas of the 

 party in power negro suffrage and negro 

 equality. 



" 5. The bill makes it the duty of the constitu- 

 tional convention not only to declare submis- 

 sion to the Constitution and laws of the United 



States, but to incorporate into the State consti- 

 tution these conditions: 



SEC. 12. And be it further enacted, That the con- 

 vention shall declare, on behalf of the people of the 

 State, their submission to the Constitution and laws 

 of the United States, and shall adopt the following 

 provisions, hereby prescribed by the United States 

 in the execution of the constitutional duty to guaiv 

 antee a republican form of government to everyState, 

 and incorporate them in the constitution of the State, 

 that is to say : 



First. No person who has held or exercised any 

 office, civil or military, except civil offices merely 

 ministerial and military offices below the grade of 

 colonel, State or confederate, under the usurping 

 power, shall vote for or be a member of the Legisla- 

 ture, or Governor. 



Second. Involuntary servitude is forever prohib- 

 ited, and freedom and equality of civil rights before 

 the law are guaranteed to all persons in said State. 



Third. No debt, State or confederate, created by 

 or under the sanction of the usurping power, or in 

 any manner in aid thereof, shall be recognized or 

 paid by the State ; and all acts, judical or legislative, 

 for the confiscation or forfeiture of any deot, prop- 

 erty, or franchise, of any loyal citizen of the United 

 States, are hereby declared null and void. 



"The constitution thus formed, to be sub- 

 mitted to a vote of the people of the State en- 

 titled to vote for delegates to the convention, 

 and, if approved, certified to the President, who, 

 after obtaining the consent of Congress, is by 

 proclamation to recognize the State government 

 thus established ; and thereafter, and not be- 

 fore, Senators, Eepresentatives, and presidential 

 electors may be chosen in such State. 



" 6. If the convention refuse to reestablish 

 the State government on the conditions pre- 

 scribed, the provisional governor is to dissolve 

 the convention, and the State remains in its 

 territorial or provincial condition, under mili- 

 tary durance, until the President shall see fit to 

 direct the provisional governor to order a new 

 election, when the same process shall be gone 

 through with until a government to suit the 

 prescribed terms shall be accepted by the people. 



" The effect of all this is 



"1. To take from the people of the State all 

 power to initiate proceedings to reorganize their 

 own State government in harmony with the 

 Constitution of the United States, or even to 

 prescribe the qualifications of suffrage. The 

 bill ignores the idea that there is any vital 

 power in the people to restore their State gov- 

 ernment not only taken from them by rebel- 

 lion but kept from them by Federal po wer 

 until the Federal authority awakens the latent 

 power of the people, puts it in motion, gives it 

 direction, prescribes its mode and instruments 

 of action, and defines and limits its results. 



"2. The effecjUs to exclude from the reor- 

 ganization th6 entire white population of the 

 State who shall have held office or voluntarily 

 borne arms against the United States, or who 

 shall not take the oath of July 2, 1862. 



" 3. To confine the right of suffrage and j>ower 

 of reorganization to enrolled men and Federal 

 soldiers taking the oath ; and the law affords no 

 guarantee that even the enrolment shall em- 

 brace a majority of males over twenty-one years 



