CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



285 



preexisting republican form of government. It 

 is, sir, in my view, a broad and beneficial power 

 given to Congress for the safety not merely of 

 each of the States, but of the nation ; the great 

 mass of Americans, who each and all, at home 

 or abroad, have the deepest interest in the faith- 

 ful exercise of this guardian power." 



Mr. Johnson, of Maryland, followed, saying: 

 "Mr. President, I propose in as few words as I 

 can to state the reasons which will influence 

 the vote I propose to give on the resolution 

 now under discussion ; but before I proceed to 

 that duty- 1 will state what I believe to be the 

 facts out of which the question arises. 



" The State of Louisiana was said to be in. 

 rebellion by the President's proclamation issued 

 under the authority of the act of Congress of 

 July 13, 1861, but a portion of the State was 

 afterwards recovered to the United States, and 

 the authority of the United States over that 

 portion of the State was reinstated. From the 

 time when the city of New Orleans and the 

 surrounding country were taken possession of 

 and subjected to the authority of the United 

 States up to the present time, that possession 

 has never been disturbed or that authority 

 practically denied. Until the 22d of February, 

 1864, the United States authority existed only 

 as a military authority. On that day an elec- 

 tion was held of officers under the constitution 

 existing at the time, that is to say, the consti- 

 tution of Louisiana as it existed at the time of 

 the rebellion, and as it theoretically existed on 

 the 22d of February, 1864. An election was 

 held of officers whose offices were created by 

 that constitution, and for whose election it 

 provided. At that election there were polled 

 11,414 votes. Of those 11,414 voters 808 were 

 in the military service of the United States. 

 By the then constitution of Louisiana citizens 

 of Louisiana entitled otherwise to vote who 

 were in the military service of the United States, 

 were not authorized during the period of their 

 continuance in that military service to exercise 

 the right of suffrage. These 808 soldiers and 

 sailors, for there were some sailors among them, 

 would have been entitled to vote, and were en- 

 titled to vote if any citizen of Louisiana was so 

 entitled, except for the fact that they were in 

 the military service. They had all the qualifi- 

 cations required by the constitution of the State 

 to give the right of suffrage except that. 



" After that election a convention was pro- 

 vided for on the 28th of March, 1864. That 

 convention met on . the 6th of the succeeding 

 month, and remained deliberating upon the 

 business which brought them together until the 

 23d of July, 1864, I think, when what is now 

 called the constitution of the State was adopted. 

 It was submitted to the people and by the peo- 

 ple was ratified in September, 1864, by a vote 

 of 6,836 in the affirmative, and 1,566 in the neg- 

 ative, and the government for which that con- 

 stitution provides was organized on the 3d of 

 October, 1864. 



"These, sir, are the facts. The Committee 



on the Judiciary and hi the conclusion to 

 which they came I concurred were of opinion 

 that under the circumstances in which the State 

 was at the period when these proceedings were 

 had, she could not be recognized as a State 

 of the United States under that constitution 

 adopted in 1864, except by an act of Congress. 

 The committee were of opinion that it was not 

 in the power of the Executive under the circum- 

 stances to bring the State back under that con- 

 stitution. They were of opinion, however, that 

 it was competent for Congress to do so, and 

 the only question before the committee was, 

 whether, under the circumstances in which the 

 State was at the time, it was not the duty of 

 Congress to bring the State back so as to have 

 her represented in the Union. 



" The objection to the conclusion of the com- 

 mittee an objection which had great weight 

 with me in the beginning was that the pro- 

 ceedings which led to the adoption of the con- 

 stitution were instituted at the instance and 

 under the power of the military authorities of 

 the United States. The precedent was appar- 

 ently a bad one, it was really a bad one; and 

 the proposition upon which we were called to 

 decide was whether, if we were satisfied that 

 the number of votes said to have been cast were 

 in fact cast, and the persons voting were loyal 

 citizens, we should deny to them the privilege 

 of being represented in the councils of the na- 

 tion, and on the contrary should subject them 

 to a continuance of the military power. My 

 impression is that, no matter how the proceed- 

 ings were instituted, whether it was by the 

 military authority, or by the coming together 

 of the people of the State, if in point of fact 

 the people of the State did act voluntarily and 

 were competent to act under the original con- 

 stitution, and were authorized to act by being 

 loyal at the time they did act, it is the duty of 

 the Government of the United States to receive 

 them back. 



"Another objection was that, however true 

 it might be that it would be in the power of all 

 the voters of the State to adopt a constitution for 

 themselves, or to claim the right of coming bac* 

 to the Union under the constitution existing at 

 the time of the rebellion, it was not true that 

 it was in the power of eleven thousand four 

 hundred and fourteen voters, when the entire 

 voting population of the State was fifty-one 

 thousand, to take that course. At it seemed to 

 me then, and seems now, there is no evidence 

 to show that a single citizen of Louisiana was 

 excluded from the right of voting. It by no 

 means follows that there was an exclusion either 

 in point of fact, or if in point of fact, that the 

 exclusion was a legal one, because the vote of 

 eleven thousand is much less than the vote that 

 could have been cast before the rebellion com- 

 menced. First, as to the fact, where are the 

 fifty-one thousand voters less the eleven thou- 

 sand? This war commenced in 1861, and these 

 proceedings were had in 1864. Do we not know 

 that the greater proportion of the fighting, and 



