CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



123 



I say that tho time of such 

 :iii ... i In- nutliing to do with its character; it 

 i- ,!Mi.in.iral'l.- mulor any circumstances. 

 if this iloctriiie <!' examining into the ac- 

 ifthe Legislatures of the different States, 

 virtually depriving them of their power to sit 

 in jml^iiK nt upon tho qualification of their 



Iiiii-iiil'crs, is to ho carried out in tlio case of the 

 >t' < leorgia, how long will it ho before it 

 vi-M-d against States of the more northern 

 Motion of the Union? Tho honorable Senator 

 I'roiu Wisconsin suggests that which I fancy 

 has occurred to every man's mind before, that 

 the consent of a State or of an individual to 

 any bargain, wrung from him by duress of coer- 

 cion, is worthless in morals as it is in law. Do 

 Senators suppose, because they can by military 

 rule compel these Southern provinces for' I 

 will not call them States to adopt amend- 

 ments to tho Constitution of the United States, 

 that other States who are equally grievously 

 affected by this absurd misnomer of adoption 

 or consent will not question it? Why, sir, it 

 the spirit of constitutional liberty exists in our 

 people, that question will yet arise. Tho domi- 

 nant party, who, having no other power under 

 the Constitution than to propose an amend- 

 ment to the Constitution for the acceptance or 

 rejection of the States, have yet held them by 

 force and thrust amendments down their 

 throats, will hereafter find in this country, not 

 perhaps from the States which have been the 

 victims of that illegality directly, but from 

 other States, the question raised as to whether 

 an amendment so obtained has any legal, bind- 

 ing force upon a free and a brave people. 



u Therefore it is, feeling that this bill and the 

 doctrine involved in it are not only sought now 

 to be applied to Georgia, but may with equal 

 validity, with equal justice, be applied to the 

 State which I in part represent and to any other 

 State of this Union whose people may differ in 

 opinion from the present dominant majority ot 

 Congress, that I do protest against the passage 

 of any such act." 



Mr. "Williams, of Oregon, said: "A word as 

 to the coercion imposed upon the State of Geor- 

 gia by this proposed amendment. It may be 

 called coercion or not, as you please. Georgia 

 saw proper, for reasons best known to herself, 

 to engage in a conspiracy for the dissolution of 

 the Union; she withdrew her representation 

 from Congress and undertook to destroy the 

 Government of the United States ; and Con- 

 gress undertakes to say that before she shall 

 resume her representation in these halls she 

 shall comply with certain terras and conditions 

 which, in the judgment of Congress, are neces- 

 sary for the peace and welfare of the coun- 

 try. That Congress has the power to impose 

 these terms and conditions upon the rebel 

 States is a question that I regard settled for- 

 ever in this country. It is now too late to dis- 

 cuss or controvert the right of Congress upon 

 that subject. Sir, it has been determined, not 

 only by repeated decisions of the legislative 





department of the Government, but it has been 

 submitted to, reviewed by, and affirmed by the 

 American people time and again, and the doc- 

 trine has been recognized, too, by the Supreme 

 Court of the United States in affirming that it 

 belongs to tho political department of the Gov- 

 ernment to say when a State government does 

 or not exist within a StaU . 



" Who is to determine when an amendment 

 to the Constitution is ratified ? Congress pro- 

 poses the amendment, and the States are to 

 take action in reference to it, and then some 

 department of the Government must neces- 

 sarily decide whether it has or has not been 

 ratified by the requisite number of States. 

 Congress beyond question has that power, 

 for it is a political power to decide as to what 

 is or is not the Constitution of the United 

 States; but it is the province of the judicial 

 department of the Government to construe that 

 Constitution and determine its meaning. More 

 than once the Supreme Court of the United 

 States have determined that it was the prov- 

 ince of Congress to decide as to whether a 

 State government did or did not exist, and so 

 it is the province of Congress to decide as to 

 what is or is not the Constitution of the Uni- 

 ted States. I maintain that that is exclusively 

 a political question and belongs to the politi- 

 cal Department of the Government ; but when 

 Congress affirm that an amendment has been 

 adopted by the requisite number of States, 

 then, of course, the judiciary can decide as to 

 the meaning and effect of that constitutional 

 amendment." 



Mr. Casserly, of California, said : " The 

 Senator from Oregon has been eminent as a 

 judge, and certainly would not bo less so as 

 an expositor of the Constitution. I desire to 

 ask him if I understand him now in his place 

 to lay down the proposition that it is never a 

 judicial question, but always a political ques- 

 tion, what articles are or are not portions of 

 the Constitution of the United States ; in other 

 words, whether a constitutional law has been 

 validly passed or not ? " 



Mr. Williams : " I maintain the doctrine 

 that when Congress proposes to the several 

 States an amendment to the Constitution of 

 the United States, it is exclusively within tho 

 province of Congress to determine as to whether 

 or not that amendment has been adopted, and 

 that the decision of Congress upon that ques- 

 tion concludes the executive and judicial de- 

 partments of the Government. This is the 

 doctrine which I affirm, and I believe it to be 

 a correct construction of the Constitution." 



Mr. Casserly: "Suppose before the war, 

 and before there could be any question as to 

 whether a State was in the Union or not, an 

 amendment to the Constitution had been pro- 

 posed, and upon the record there must be a 

 record somewhere, I take it it appeared as a 

 matter of arithmetical calculation that less than 

 the requisite number of three-fourths had rati- 

 fied it ; suppose upon that state of the record 



