264 



CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



qtience, to elect Senators to this body, or Rep- 

 resentatives to the Honse of Representatives. 



" I do not mean to weary the Senate by read- 

 ing at large the statute of 1861, but T may be 

 permitted perhaps to refer to it for the purpose 

 of showing the object, intent, and scope of that 

 enactment. It is entitled, not ' An act to de- 

 clare war against the States of South Carolina, 

 Virginia, and others,' but ' An act further to 

 provide for the collection of duties on imports, 

 and for other purposes.' The fifth section au- 

 thorizes the President in certain cases to declare 

 the inhabitants of certain States to be in a state 

 of insurrection by virtue of the power conferred 

 upon him by the act of February 28, 1795. It 

 goes -on to declare that it shall be lawful for 

 the President, whenever he shall call forth the 

 militia, in pursuance of the act to which I have 

 referred 



To suppress combinations against the laws of the 

 United States, and to cause the laws to be duly exe- 

 cuted, and the insurgents shall have failed to disperse 

 by the time directed by the President, and when said 

 insurgents claim to act under the authority of any 

 State or States, and such claim is not disclaimed or 

 repudiated by the persons exercising the functions 

 of government in such State or States, or in the part 

 or parts thereof in which said combination exists, nor 

 such insurrection suppressed by said State or States, 

 then, and in such case, it may and shall be lawful for 

 the President, by proclamation, to declare that the 

 inhabitants of such. State, or any section or part 

 thereof, where such insurrection exists 



" Not a state of actual war 



are in a state of insurrection against the United 

 States; and thereupon all commercial intercourse 

 by and between the same and the citizens- thereof, 

 and the citizens of the rest of the United States, shall 

 cease, and be unlawful so long as such condition of 

 hostility shall continue. 



" This is the object of the act. When these 

 people, in the opinion of the President of the 

 United States, are in the condition specified in 

 this act, he shall issue his proclamation declar- 

 ing that fact ; ' and thereupon all commercial 

 intercourse by and between the same and the 

 citizens thereof, and the citizens of the rest of 

 the United States, shall cease, and be unlawful 

 so long as such condition of hostility shall con- 

 tinue. 



" In pursuance of that act of Congress the 

 President issued his proclamation, and I shall 

 refer to a portion of it. The proclamation bears 

 the date of August 16, 1861. It recites the act 

 of 1861 to which I have just referred ; it also 

 recites the act of 1795, under which he derives 

 the authority, and then proceeds to declare : 



Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of 

 the United States, in pursuance of an act of Congress 

 approved July 13, 1861, do hereby declare that the 

 inhabitants of the said States of Georgia, South Caro- 

 lina, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama, 

 Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Florida 

 (except the inhabitants of that part of the State of 

 Virginia lying west of the Alleghany Mountains, and 

 of such other parts of that State and the other States 

 hereinbefore named as may maintain a loyal adhesion 

 to the Union and the Constitution, or may be, from 

 time to time, occupied and controlled by forces of the 

 United States engaged in the dispersion of said in- 



surgents), are in a state of insurrection against the 

 United States, and that all commercial intercourse 

 between the same and the inhabitants thereof, with 

 the exceptions aforesaid, and the citizens of other 

 States and other parts of the United States, is unlaw- 

 ful, and will remain unlawful until such insurrection 

 shall cease or has been suppressed. 



" The object, design, and intent of the act 

 was to prohibit trade with these insurgents, to 

 prevent persons in the loyal part of the Union 

 from carrying on commercial intercourse with 

 them, and from furnishing them with provisions 

 and munitions of war with which they might 

 continue to prosecute this rebellion ; and then 

 there was an exception from the scope and ef- 

 fect of the act in favor of the State of West Vir- 

 ginia and such other States or parts of States as 

 maintained a loyal adhesion to the Union and 

 the Constitution, or may be from time to time 

 occupied and controlled by forces of the United 

 States engaged in the dispersion of the insur- 

 gents. 



" Now, if it comes to the knowledge of the 

 joint convention to be assembled on Wednes- 

 day of next week that in either of these States 

 this insurrection has been suppressed, and that 

 the people of either one of those States have 

 assumed the suspended functions of their State 

 government, have reorganized a State constitu- 

 tion, have elected State officers, and have put 

 their civil government into full execution and 

 operation, and that fact comes before us attest- 

 ed and undisputed, I inquire whether, under the 

 provisions of this law and the proclamation of 

 the President, it is necessary that there should 

 be an act of Congress passed in order to estab- 

 lish the fact that these people have reorganized 

 and reassumed their ancient loyal functions? 

 Why, sir, I thought that this whole war, the 

 expenditure of thousands of millions of dollars 

 and of oceans of blood, was for the very pur- 

 pose of restoring this Union and bringing back 

 these shooting stars to their ancient orbits. 



"I differ with the Senator from Michigan, 

 who would make the return of these States to 

 the Union attendant with the utmost difficulty. 

 Whenever I was satisfied that there was a true, 

 genuine, loyal feeling among the inhabitants of 

 any of these States to repudiate their heresies 

 and return to their allegiance, and that there 

 was a sufficient body of them to justify the pro- 

 ceeding, and to carry on all the essential, neces- 

 sary operations of State governments, and to 

 perform their duties within the limits of the 

 Union, I should be disposed to extend the hand 

 of encouragement to the loyal people, always 

 saving and reserving not only terms of indig- 

 nation for the leaders, but the privilege and 

 firm determination of punishing in the most 

 condign manner the guilty authors and leaders 

 and instigators of the rebellion." 



Mr. Cowan, of Pennsylvania, followed, say- 

 ing: "The preamble states the fact of the re- 

 bellion prevailing in these States, and the reso- 

 lution declares that because of this fact stated 

 in the preamble these States ought not to vote. 

 That is the proposition from the committee. 



