CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



259 



to alter the preamble somewhat. The object 

 of this alteration is to avoid as far as possible 

 any committal upon the subject which the 

 amendment of the Senator from New Jersey 

 brings up. The object of the amendment of the 

 committee is simply to put the preamble in such 

 form that if it is adopted and the resolution 

 passed, Congress will not have decided whether 

 Louisiana is in the Union or out of the Union, 

 whether she is a State or not a State. It will 

 be time enough to decide that question when 

 it is presented to us. If our amendment is 

 adopted, 'we place the resolution upon the 

 ground that the condition of things on the 8th 

 day of November last, the day of the Presiden- 

 tial election, was such in all these States that 

 no election was held according to the Constitu- 

 tion and laws of the United States. 



" I trust that the State of Louisiana will not 

 be stricken out. I think if we strike that out 

 and decide to receive the electoral vote cast in 

 that State on the 8th of November last, we do 

 decide directly that there was a State govern- 

 ment there, and that there was an election for 

 electors for President and Vice-President in 

 accordance with the Constitution and laws of 

 the United States. Now, I do not believe that. 

 .1 think such was not the fact. There could be 

 no election according to the laws and Constitu- 

 tion of the United States in the State of Lou- 

 isiana when a very considerable portion of that 

 State was overrun by the enemy, and the legal 

 voters had no opportunity to vote one way or 

 the other. I am not advised how many votes 

 were cast at the election on the 8th of Novem- 

 ber. No evidence has been submitted showing 

 how many were cast. 



"Again, sir, the President of the United States, 

 in pursuance of an act of Congress, declared the 

 inhabitants of the State of Louisiana to be in a 

 state of insurrection against the Government 

 of the United States. We passed a law axtthor- 

 izing him to issue the proclamation declaring 

 that fact. In pursuance of the law the proc- 

 lamation was issued. That proclamation has 

 never been recalled. According to the law of 

 the land, according to the proclamation of the 

 President, the inhabitants of the State of Lou- 

 isiana are to-day in a state of insurrection against 

 ' th_e Government of the United States. Can you 

 receive a vote cast by the inhabitants of a State 

 for Chief Magistrate of the Union, when your 

 own laws declare and your executive proclama- 

 tion declares that they are in a state of insur- 

 rection against the Government of the United 

 States? Sir, until there shall be some action 

 by Congress recognizing the organization which 

 has been set up in Louisiana, we ought not in 

 my judgment to count electoral votes from that 

 State. Whether we shall recognize that organ- 

 ization or not, I will not undertake to say. We 

 have not done so yet ; and until we do it we 

 ought not to count the electoral vote." 



Mr. Ten Eyck, of New Jersey, in reply, said : 

 " I hold to the doctrine that none of these 

 States can be out of the Union ; that having 



taken up their lot and part with their sister 

 States at the time they were admitted into the 

 Union, they are not now legally out of the 

 Union ; their governments have been in abey- 

 ance ; they have been overrun by the feet of 

 hostile armies, and many of their citizens have 

 by usurpation and in violation of their duty to 

 their fello\v-men and to their God attempted 

 to carry these States out of the Union. 



" That being my opinion, whenever the testi- 

 mony is furnished to my mind that these States 

 thus in the Union have, by the aid of the Gen- 

 eral Government, or by the efforts of their own 

 people, or by the act of both combined, rees- 

 tablished themselves, so to speak, or set their 

 State governments in action anew and have 

 commenced again to revolve in their old orbits, 

 I feel it shall be my duty, so far as I am con- 

 cerned, to extend to them all the privileges and 

 all the rights which the loyal people of a loyal 

 State are entitled to at the hands of their sister 

 States, whether upon this floor or anywhere 

 else. It was simply in that view and aspect of 

 the case that I made the motion to amend the 

 preamble of this joint resolution, for the pur- 

 pose of excluding from the operation and effect 

 of the resolution the State of Louisiana, judging 

 and believing from the testimony which is no- 

 torious throughout the country, and which has 

 come to the knowledge, I apprehend, of the 

 Senate through various channels, that the pres- 

 ent condition of the State of Louisiana is such 

 as I have just stated. I can well see that there 

 is a propriety in passing some such joint reso- 

 lution as this in relation to States that are man- 

 ifestly in the condition alluded to in its pream- 

 ble ; States that are in rebellion or such a con- 

 dition of rebellion as that no election could be 

 held or was held for the purposes that are re- 

 quisite to establish them as a State ; States that 

 are not in the exercise of the ordinary constitu- 

 tional powers of a State. 



" The chairman of the Committee on the Ju- 

 diciary states that it was the desire of a major- 

 ity of the committee to avoid a committal on 

 this subject. It would not perhaps be amiss to 

 insist that a committal 'shall not be had against 

 the interest of the State any more than in its 

 favor. The Senator says that the adoption of 

 the amendment proposed by myself will be a 

 declaration by Congress that the State of Lou- 

 isiana was in a condition to perform all the 

 functions of a State government and to appoint 

 State officers and Senators and members of the 

 national House of Representatives. I admit 

 that that question is involved in this amendment ; 

 but the same question is involved in the resolu- 

 tion, and it will be determined against the State 

 if this joint resolution passes as it stands, for 

 you will then decide that this State is now, this 

 day, in a state of rebellion such as to deprive it 

 of all the powers, rights, and privileges of the 

 State of Louisiana. I ana not prepared to go 

 to that extent." 



Mr. Harris, of New York, followed in op- 

 position to the resolution, saying : " I ana op- 



