CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



127 



State, when wo have come within just 

 of securing this amendment, and to 

 re tlmt we have got to do just what wo 

 done before, now to halt, now to fall back 

 would be regarded by the world as cowardice, 

 would |K> regarded as a confession, would be 

 an iil>an<li>iunent of this amendment." 

 Tlu Vii'i-- President: "The question is on 

 "iKMidmont of the Senator from Indiana." 

 Mr. Williams : " I propose this as a substi- 

 tute tor that amendmentit is simply a change 

 in phraseology to strike out all after the word 

 that,' and insert: 



Tho Legislature shall ratify the fifteenth amend- 

 ment proposed to the Constitution of the United 

 States before Senators and Representatives from 

 Georgia are admitted to seats in Congress." 



Mr. Morton: "As it contains precisely the 

 substance of ray amendment, and as it has a 

 rlumge of phraseology which will obviate 

 some verbal arguments that have been offered 

 here, I am willing to accept it as a substitute." 



The Vice-President : "The question is on 

 the amendment as modified." 



Mr. Davis, of Kentucky, said : " Mr. Presi- 

 dent, the main matter that is before this body 

 :md before the country for consideration, ac- 

 cording to my apprehension, is the ratification 

 of the constitution of Georgia, or, in other 

 words, the power that is legitimate to organize 

 a government for the State of Georgia. Now, 

 I would ask the honorable Senator who re- 

 ported this bill, the able chairman of the Com- 

 mittee on the Judiciary, whose business is it 

 to make a State government ? What power in 

 our country and under our system of mixed 

 State and Federal Governments is the appro- 

 priate power to make A State government? 

 Well, Mr. President, to my mind there can be 

 but one answer, and that answer is that the 

 people of the State itself are the only legitimate 

 and constitutional power upon earth that can 

 make a government for the State of Georgia 

 or for any other State. 



" Now, what is the question before this body, 

 and what is the power which the Senate is try- 

 ing to assume? It is that the Congress of the 

 United States shall divest the people of Georgia 

 of the power to make their own State govern- 

 ment, and assume and usurp that power it- 

 self. Sir, I say that it is not competent for 

 Congress to take upon itself the exercise of such 

 a power at all. All the legislation of Congress 

 upon this subject of the States whose people 

 were in rebellion seems to concede the propo- 

 sition that those States are still members of 

 the Uniou ; that is, they are States of the 

 United States. If that proposition is conceded, 

 with what show of logic or constitutional law 

 can any man contend that Congress has the 

 power to make a constitution for those States ? 



" Mr. President, here seems to be the pith 

 of the question : If Georgia will come into the 

 Union, and by her Legislature and State gov- 

 ernment range herself under the Radical ban- 

 ner, and elect Radical Senators of the proper 



stamp to the Senate of the United States, then 

 Georgia is a State in the Union; but, on the 

 contrary, if Georgia will exorcise her own in- 

 dependence, and her Legislature will elwit mem- 

 bers to the Senate, and her people Representa- 

 tives to Congress, who are opposed to Radical- 

 i-ni or to Republicanism, then Georgia is n 

 State in the Union I The question comes to 

 that issue. If Georgia is Radical, and in lu-r 

 elections and legislation will act in conformity 

 to the Radical policy, then Georgia is a State 

 in the Union; but, if Georgia is Democratic or 

 anti-Radical, and will elect members of the 

 Senate opposed to Radicalism, then Georgia is 

 no State in the Union ! That, I think, is a fair 

 statement of the proposition which now divides 

 the Senate upon this evening. Georgia is a 

 State of the Union if she will adopt the Rad- 

 ical policy ; Georgia is a State in the Union if 

 she will send Radical members to the IIouso of 

 Representatives and to the Senate; but, if 

 Georgia acts in opposition to Radicalism and 

 to the Radical party in those aspects, then 

 Georgia is no State of the Union at all. Well, 

 Mr. President, that is about equivalent to the 

 proposition we have all so often heard stated 

 between the gamblers, 'Heads, I win; tails, 

 you lose.' There is no chance for the inde- 

 pendence of Georgia, there is no chance for 

 her action in relation to this subject of reha- 

 bilitating her State government, unless she 

 declares herself Radrcal ; and, unless she takes 

 that position, she is not a State in the Union 

 at all ! 



" Well, sir, the objections of the honorable 

 Senator from Wisconsin to the amendment of 

 the Senator from Indiana I think would avail 

 nothing, because I think the question in that 

 form was distinctly made up at the last session 

 of Congress when the three States of Missis- 

 sippi, Virginia, and Texas, were required abso- 

 lutely by the action of Congress to adopt the 

 fifteenth amendment before they could be re- 

 ceived and treated as States in the Union; 

 but it is only a difference of form and not in 

 essence between the two modes ; both of them 

 are equally coercive of Georgia and destructive 

 of her independence. She has as much right 

 to vote upon the proposition of the fifteenth 

 amendment to the Constitution independently 

 and of her own free will as has any State of 

 the United States. Says the Senator from Wis- 

 consin : ' If the amendment of the Senator 

 from Indiana is adopted, it will present upon 

 the record a case of coercion of Georgia in this 

 ratification of the fifteenth amendment, and, to 

 avoid that case of coercion upon the record, I 

 want to dodge that point, but make her adopt 

 it just as imperatively as a matter of fact though 

 it is evaded upon the record.' That is his po- 

 sition plainly expressed. 



" Well, Mr. President, in either form it would 

 avail nothing. Gentlemen delude themselves 

 when they believe or affect to believe that by 

 such shallow devices as that they can avoid the 

 grave question whether there is coercion exer- 



