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CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



cised in passing upon a proposed amendment 

 of the Constitution by certain States of the 

 Union. There is no freedom allowed to Geor- 

 gia in this matter of passing upon this fifteenth 

 amendment. There was none allowed to Vir- 

 ginia, to Mississippi, and to Texas. The same 

 liberty was allowed to them, and not an iota 

 more, as is allowed by the highwayman when 

 he arrests the traveller on the highway, and 

 presents his pistol to his breast, and demands 

 of him ' Your money or your life.' That is the 

 freedom of choice and the freedom of action 

 in this grave matter of amending the Constitu- 

 tion of the United States upon the proposition 

 of the fifteenth amendment which the party in 

 power in Congress have allowed to these South- 

 ern States. The time will come when the 

 matter in that form will be presented to the 

 American people." 



Mr. Norton, of Minnesota, said: "Mr. Presi- 

 dent, yesterday the discussion seemed to take 

 a sort of drift on the other side toward an at- 

 tempt to justify under the Constitution, or in 

 some other way, the enactment of this bill. 

 The Senator from Oregon (Mr. "Williams) found 

 .his justification for the passage of this bill in 

 the fact that the people of Georgia had not 

 been true to the pledges or the representations 

 they had made to Congress, and from that we 

 all inferred that they had not done what the 

 Republican party had a right to expect they 

 would do. The Senator from Vermont (Mr. 

 Edmunds) found his justification for voting for 

 this bill in the fact that it was consistent witli 

 the reconstruction laws heretofore passed, and 

 he gave us a long history, a detailed statement 

 of what those laws were. The Senator from 

 Michigan (Mr. Howard) found a justification 

 for his vote in favor of the bill in the fact that 

 the people of Georgia were not loyal, and he 

 said that we should teach this people that they 

 should be true, as he understood it, to the Gov- 

 ernment. But the Senator from Indiana (Mr. 

 Morton) has given the true reason why the 

 majority here should pass this bill if it is to be 

 passed, and of course I suppose it is to be, and 

 that is that it is necessary to insure the adop- 

 tion of the fifteenth amendment. 



" The Senator from Wisconsin and the Sena- 

 tor from New York, who addressed us this af- 

 ternoon, while they do not see the same neces- 

 sity that the Senator from Indiana does for 

 putting this amendment upon the bill, are yet 

 willing to agree with the Senator from Indiana 

 that their purpose and their intent are the same 

 'with him, and that this whole bill is intended 

 to secure the adoption of the fifteenth amend- 

 ment; 'for,' says the Senator from "Wisconsin, 

 ' never so long as I hold a seat in this body 

 will I admit a Senator from the State of Geor- 

 gia till she adopts the fifteenth amendment.' 

 The Senator from New York said nearly the 

 same. The Senator from Vermont, yesterday, 

 when I asked him what would become of the 

 ratification of Georgia if under his proposition 

 Congress should still not admit Georgia to rep- 



resentation, declined to answer. Who ques- 

 tions but that, if Georgia should ratify the 

 amendment under the bill proposed by the 

 committee, and still the Representatives and 

 Senators of the State should not be admitted 

 under the general discretion of Congress, yet 

 the vote of Georgia would be counted as a 

 ratification ? So that, from what has been said 

 thus far in the discussion of this bill, I take it 

 that the whole object and purpose of the bill 

 are nothing more and nothing less than to se- 

 cure the adoption of the fifteenth amendment, 

 and I think I am not wrong in assuming that 

 as established by this discussion. 



"Now, what I shall have to say is chiefly in 

 regard to the pending amendment ; but, before 

 I come to that, I will say a word or two in re- 

 gard to the provisions of the bill itself. And 

 what I shall say on that is suggested by what 

 was said this afternoon by the Senator from 

 Connecticut (Mr. Ferry) and the Senator from 

 New York (Mr. Conkling). The Senator from 

 Connecticut was apprehensive that, if in the 

 amendment proposed by the Senator from In- 

 diana the requirement of a ratification of the 

 fourteenth amendment of the Constitution was 

 retained, there might be a question as to the 

 validity of the ratification of that amendment, 

 and whether it was now a part of the Consti- 

 tution. I find, on looking at the record, that 

 on the 25th day of June, 1868, the Congress of 

 the United States passed an act reciting that, 

 whereas among other States the State of Geor- 

 gia had adopted the fourteenth aniendment 

 and had conformed to the reconstruction laws, 

 she was entitled to representation in Congress, 

 and upon the passage of that act Representa- 

 tives were admitted m the other House. Sena- 

 tors were not admitted here, because of the 

 objection, perhaps my friend from Missouri 

 (Mr. Drake) would say, that he made to their 

 admission. On the 28th of June, 1868, the Sec- 

 retary of State, in pursuance of this act of 

 Congress, issued his proclamation declaring 

 the fourteenth amendment ratified. 



" I call the attention of the Senate and the 

 country to this point, that, if Georgia, on the 

 25th day of June last, was a State in this Union 

 to ratify an amendment to the Constitution, it 

 is to-day a State in this Union. If on the 25th 

 day of June last the Congress of the United 

 States declared .by solemn enactment that 

 Georgia was a State in this Union sufficient to 

 ratify an amendment to the Constitution, 

 Georgia is to-day a State in this Union ; and 

 by what power, what right, what authority, do 

 you sit here to-night legislating for the pur- 

 pose of perfecting the reconstruction of the 

 State of Georgia ? It does not lie in the mouth 

 of Congress to say that Georgia is not now a 

 State in this Union just as much as the State 

 of Ohio or Indiana, or any other State. You 

 might just as well say that, because the State 

 of Ohio rejected the fifteenth amendment last 

 winter by its Legislature, that State needs re- 

 constructing, and you will call together the 



