122 



CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



conquered province. We have seen too many 

 acts of this kind in the last few years directed 

 toward States which, in my opinion, never were 

 out of the Union, but which, nevertheless, for 

 purposes of party and party domination, were 

 to be treated as either in or out as the emer- 

 gency of party might dictate ; we have seen 

 such acts too often to stand surprised. 



" But there is within the present measure a 

 doctrine and a principle -which, as it is now 

 sought to be applied to the lips of Georgia, 

 may yet be returned, like another poisoned 

 chalice, to those who have invented it for her 

 destruction. When shall Georgia be a State? 

 Has any gentleman of this body yet given a 

 definition on that point ? Has that question yet 

 been answered ? Can any man see with moral 

 certainty when that may be, and what acts 

 upon her part will suit the pleasure of the 

 dominant majority of Congress? for that 

 seems to me to be the only law that controls 

 her fate. 



"On the 25th of June, 1868, the Congress 

 of the United States passed an act to admit 

 the States of North Carolina, South Carolina, 

 Louisiana, Georgia, Alabama, and Florida, to 

 representation in Congress, in which it was 

 recited that 



Whereas the people of North. Carolina, South 

 Carolina, Louisiana, Georgia, Alabama, and Florida, 

 have, in pursuance of the provisions of an act enti- 

 tled " An act for the more efficient government of 

 the rebel States," passed March 2, 1867, and the acts 

 supplementary thereto, framed constitutions of State 

 government which are republiiJan, and have adopted 

 said constitutions by large majorities of the votes 

 cast at the elections held for the ratification or rejec- 

 tion of the same. 



"And then comes the enactment: 



Therefore, 



e it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 

 tives of the United States of America in Congress as- 

 sembled, That each of the 'States of North Carolina, 

 South Carolina, Louisiana, Georgia, Alabama, and 

 Florida, shall be entitled and admitted to representa- 

 tion in Congress as a State of the Union when the 

 Legislature of such State shall have duly ratified the 

 amendment to the Constitution of the United States 

 proposed by the Thirty-ninth Congress and known 

 as article fourteen, upon the following fundamental 

 conditions : that the constitutions of neither of said 

 States shall ever be so amended or changed as to de- 



Erive any citizen or class of citizens of the United 

 tates of the right to vote in said State who are entitled 

 to vote by the constitution thereof herein recognized, 

 except as a punishment for such crimes as are now 

 felonies at common law, whereof they shall have 

 been duly convicted under laws equally applicable 

 to all the inhabitants of said State : Provided, That 

 any alteration of sa;d constitution may be made with 

 regard to the time and place of residence of voters ; 

 and the State of Georgia shall only be entitled and 

 admitted to representation upon this further funda- 

 mental condition : that the first and third subdivi- 

 sions of section seventeen of the fifth article of the 

 constitution of said State, except the proviso to the 

 first subdivision, shall be null and void, and that the 

 General Assembly of said State by solemn public act 

 shall declare the assent of the State to the foregoing 

 fundamental condition. 



" Now, sir, it seems that, on the 22d day of 

 July, 1868, the ratification of that amendment, 



which is made the fundamental condition for 

 the admission of Georgia, was formally made 

 and certified by a Mr. Bullock, of Georgia, 

 who now seeks the strong arm of Federal 

 power to place him where the will of his peo- 

 ple never would have permitted him to sit. 

 Georgia did ratify the fourteenth amendment 

 in the form required by Congress ; Georgia did 

 void those clauses of her constitution that the 

 Congress of the United States required her to 

 void. The clauses of her constitution which 

 were objected to by Congress were those that 

 enforced the qualification of ' white ' upon the 

 voter. That qualification was stricken out, 

 and the vote that elected the Legislature of 

 Georgia that met in pursuance of this procla- 

 mation and of this act and elected Senators to 

 sit upon this floor, and the vote of the people 

 of the State that sent her Representatives to 

 the other House of Congress, were in precise 

 accordance with the letter of this law here 

 made the condition for her admission to Con- 

 gress and into the Union as a State. 



" But, sir, the fact was that the right to hold 

 office was not included under the same qualifi- 

 cation as the right to vote; and, when the peo- 

 ple of Georgia found negro legislators sitting 

 there as part of their State government, they 

 took the constitution of Georgia according to 

 the judgment of those bodies who, by the de- 

 cisions of this body and by the doctrines of all 

 parliamentary law, were the sole judges of the 

 qualifications of their members, and they de- 

 cided, whether rightly or wrongly, that under 

 the constitution of the State of Georgia negroes 

 were ineligible to office, although they had the 

 legal right to vote. Exercising the inherent 

 power of every parliamentary body it not 

 only is inherent here, but it is given expressly 

 by the Constitution of our government the 

 Legislature of Georgia sat in judgment upon 

 the qualifications of its members. It excluded 

 the negro members from its midst. Since that 

 time it is well known to every member of this 

 body that that action of the Legislature has 

 been before the judicial branch of the State 

 government of Georgia and has been disap- 

 proved. It was declared to be illegal ; to be 

 an unconstitutional exercise of authority. This 

 is the judgment of the proper branch of the 

 government of Georgia as recorded against the 

 act excluding negroes from her offices, or cer- 

 tainly from her Legislature. 



" Now, sir, what is the result? The honor- 

 able Senator from Indiana laid down a propo- 

 sition which I most entirely concur in, and 

 that is, that, after you have passed an act for 

 the admission of these States to their proper 

 places in the Federal Government, it is dis- 

 honest and dishonorable to impose conditions 

 of which you gave them no notice. Sir, if that 

 be true now, it was true one year ago. It is 

 just as dishonest, in my opinion, to mislead a 

 community by saying, 'Do this thing required 

 of you and you shall have your place,' and then 

 upon the completion of the requirement to start 



