CONGRESS, UNITED STATES (1871). 



135 



menced, 168; in the House, a bill to repeal 

 the duties on salt considered, 169 ; bill passed, 

 169 ; a joint resolution to repeal the duties on 

 coal considered, 169 ; do., passed, 170 ; bill to 

 place tea and coffee on the free list of imports 

 considered, 170 ; passed, 170 ; resolutions rela- 

 tive to a financial policy considered, 171 ; re- 

 ferred to Committee of Ways and Means, 

 171. 



In the Senate, a resolution offered to limit 

 the business of the session, 171 ; adoption, 

 171 ; another resolution, instructing the Com- 

 mittee on the Judiciary to report a bill to en- 

 able the President to execute the laws relative 

 to organized bands of armed men in the South- 

 ern States, offered, 171 ; the condition of affairs 

 in the South is of an extraordinary character, 

 171 ; I^u-klux Klan exists in eleven States, 

 171 ; the statement is the phantom of a dis- 

 tempered imagination, 171 ; statements of the 

 resolution utterly untrue, 172; these armed 

 bands do exist, 172 ; what the witnesses show, 

 172 ; thugs of India, 172 ; extent of the Ku- 

 klux organization, 172 ; extends through every 

 county of North Carolina, 173 ; dates of out- 

 rages, 173 ; peculiarities of the crimes com- 

 mitted, 173 ; no man has ever been convicted, 

 174; report of the minority, 174; what proof 

 of their existence in Kentucky? 174; no occa- 

 sional acts of violence have been committed in 

 Kentucky, 174 ; there is no proof against Con- 

 federate soldiers, 175 ; the exclusion of good 

 men from office one cause of existence of these 

 outrages, 175 ; Dial-administration has occurred 

 in many States, 175 ; necessity of putting a 

 stop to the outrages spoken of, 175 ; kind of 

 bills introduced here, 175 ; assert absolute ju- 

 risdiction for Congress, 176 ; a constitutional 

 question involved, 176 ; state of the case, 176 ; 

 provision in the Constitution in regard to put- 

 ting down insurrection, 176 ; two or three ob- 

 jections to the resolution, 177; one encroach- 

 ment follows close upon the heels of its prede- 

 cessor, 177; everybody who maintains that 

 this Congress has not the power to sweep 

 away the Constitution when it pleases, is de- 

 nounced as revolutionary, 177; rights which 

 belong to the people, 177; the legal question 

 considered, 178; the fourteenth amendment, 

 178 ; the Government can act only on individ- 

 uals, 178 ; intention of the fourteenth amend- 

 ment, 178 ; more than nine-tenths of the testi- 

 mony is mere hearsay, 179 ; resolution agreed 



to, 179 ; concurrent resolution relative to in- 

 vestigation offered, and adopted, 179. 



In the House, the above-mentioned resolu- 

 tion considered, 179 ; amendment offered, 180 ; 

 what will happen if we appoint this commit- 

 tee and send it down South? 180 ; amendment 

 agreed to, 180. 



In the Senate, the amended resolution con- 

 sidered, 181 ; amendment moved to grant 

 power to print, 181;- not willing to trust the 

 committee with any such power ; 181 ; why has 

 this investigation been opposed at every step ? 

 181 ; if the investigation shows us that there 

 are peace and security in any one State at the 

 South, let us know it ; 182 ; let us have it, 182 ; 

 we should legislate now, 182 ; read the reports 

 of your officers, 182 ; if any organization exists 

 in Georgia, it has been kept wonderfully se- 

 cret, 183 ; a change that came over Congress, 

 183 ; you already condemned nine or ten States 

 at the South, 184; amendment concurred in, 

 184. 



In the House, a bill reported to enforce the 

 provisions of the fourteenth amendment to the 

 Constitution, 184 ; this measure affects the 

 foundations of the Government, 185 ; what 

 warrant have we for enacting it ? 185 ; decisions 

 of courts, 185 ; their legal effect, 185 ; consti- 

 tutionality of the first section, 185 ; the second 

 section, 186 ; where is the constitutional power 

 to enact it ? 186 ; on what it rests, 187 ; gen- 

 eral aspects of the question of power to defend 

 by Federal legislation the essential franchises 

 of national citizenship, 187 ; reply to the charge 

 that the second section invades the reserved 

 powers of the States, 188 ; the United States 

 always has assumed to enforce as against the 

 States, and also persons, every one of the pro- 

 visions of the Constitution, 188 ; provisions of 

 the Constitution, 188 ; judgment of the Supreme 

 Court, 189 ; the third section, 189 ; its provi- 

 sions, 189 ; the fourth section, 189 ; decision of 

 the Supreme Court sustains it, 190. 



Some of these assumptions of law are quite 

 as extraordinary as are the provisions of the 

 bill, 190 ; apology for the propositions of the 

 bill, 190; the Constitution guarantees to the 

 people certain personal rights, 190; the bases 

 alleged for the enactment of this bill, 191; 

 thirteenth amendment, 191 ; fourteenth amend- 

 ment, 191 ; declaratory in first paragraph, 192 ; 

 Dred Scott case, 192; the words "privileges 

 and immunities," 192 ; no Constitution, State 



