CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



129 



latiiro that was elected a year or two 

 . In- 1 ore, and ivquiiv thrin to ratify this 

 nth amendment, else their Senators shall 

 n.it fu'lil tlu-ir seats in this body. 



;r, Mr. President, I ara not citing this for 

 tlu- purpose of showing the inconsistency of 

 reconstruction measures, nor to show the 

 inroiiM-tniry of Congress in its action in re- 

 gard to the Southern States. I am only citing 

 -taMish tlie fact that by all the political 

 depart nn-nts of the Government, executive and 

 K-gialative, Georgia has been recognized as a 

 of the Union recognized to the extent 

 that she can participate in amending, changing, 

 nail modifying the fundamental law, the su- 

 preme law of the land. When she can do that, 

 when she is enough of a State of this Union 

 to do that, by what right, by what authority, 

 by what power, and wherein do you find your 

 justification for reconstructing and reorganiz- 

 ing Georgia? 



44 I care nothing, so far as this bill or the 

 amendment of the Senator from Indiana is con- 

 cerned, about Georgia. It is not Georgia alone 

 that is interested. Georgia is but a very small 

 portion of the territory of this country, and its 

 people are but very insignificant in numbers, 

 compared with the whole population. It is 

 the principle that, after the State of Georgia 

 has been recognized and readmitted, if you 

 please, into this Union so far as to act upon a 

 constitutional amendment, Congress can no 

 more reconstruct and reorganize her than it 

 can reconstruct or reorganize any other State. 

 If you can thus reconstruct and reorganize 

 Georgia, why may you not reconstruct and re- 

 organize any other State in the Union? If this 

 measure may be justified because of the con- 

 dition of affairs in Georgia, because of the 

 disturbed state of society there, because of the 

 lawlessness and disorder there, why may yon 

 not take the State of Minnesota, and because 

 of its lawlessness and its social disorder re- 

 construct it ? The Senator from Oregon says 

 he believes that, when the people of Georgia 

 showed themselves so wanting in all the pro- 

 prieties of political and civil life I do not 

 quote his words, of course, but the idea when 

 society was so disorganized that person and 

 property were not safe, the General Govern- 

 ment ought to stretch out its arm and restore 

 order. Sir, I have seen the time in the State 

 of Minnesota when lawlessness and disorder 

 prevailed there to a greater extent than I be- 

 lieve they now exist in Georgia, and yet no 

 one came to Congress and asked them to reach 

 out their arms to repress it; and, if they had, 

 they would have been laughed at. 



44 So much, sir, for the general provisions of 

 the bill, and its general effect and tenor. 



44 1 admit that in consistency, and to follow 

 out and carry out to its legitimate results the 

 reconstruction policy of Congress, as it is 

 called, this bill is legitimate; but I agree with 

 the Senator from Vermont that you do not in 

 this bill go far enough to preserve to the fullest 

 VOL. x. 9 A 



extent your consistency. You go upon the i-l.-a 

 that the Constitution of the United States and 

 its guarantees for the protection of life and lib- 

 erty, person and property, are not operative in 

 ( rt.iiii States, and that you may, by force of 

 enactments of Congress, establish there mili- 

 tary or any other governments you please. Now, 

 I say that in pursuance of the theory I would 

 go with the Senator from Vermont, and I 

 would depose your Governor Bullock; I would 

 depose your Legislature and your judges and 

 your courts, and I would make it a military 

 despotism in truth and in fact. That is the 

 legitimate and the consistent result or course 

 of your reconstruction measures. The times, 

 perhaps, may not justify or warrant it. That 

 is not for me to consider. But, when gentle-- 

 men talk about consistency, and reproach each 

 other about the theories of these reconstruction 

 acts, and the desire to be consistent with them, 

 I suggest to them that they should go the full 

 length, because, if the theory and the idea upon 

 which you started out was a true and a sound 

 one, you may go with the utmost propriety to 

 the extent of deposing all civil authority in 

 Georgia, and establishing there your military 

 courts and your military tribunals. 



" What a spectacle to present to the nations 

 of the world, that in this Government, claim- 

 ing to be the freest on earth, deriving all its 

 just powers from the consent of the governed, 

 limited, restrained, and restricted in all its de- 

 partments by a written law, the fundamental 

 and supreme law shall be permitted to be 

 changed without the consent of the people, 

 and by the action of one of the departments 

 of the Government I Nay, sir, not only that, 

 but this fundamental supreme law that under- 

 lies and overrides all the others, and to which 

 the people themselves must give obedience,, 

 because the Constitution is a restraint upon 

 the people as well as upon their servants, may- 

 be changed by force, or, if not by force, by 

 inducements held out to particular sections or 

 particular localities and the people of particu- 

 lar States. Is not that a singular spectacle for 

 us to present to the nations of the world? ** 



The Vice-President : "The question is on 

 the amendment of the Senator from Indiana." 



The. Chief Clerk: "The amendment is, to 

 strike out the eighth section of the bill after 

 the enacting clause, and to insert : 



That the Legislature shall ratify the fifteenth 

 amendment proposed to the Constitution of the 

 United States before Senators and Representatives 

 from Georgia are admitted to scats in Congress. " 



The question being taken, resulted as fol- 

 lows: 



TEAS Messrs. Abbott, Brownlo\v_ Buckingham, 

 Cattell, Chandler, Colo, Cragin, Drake,.Fenton, Gil- 

 bert, Hamlin. Harlan, Harris, Howard. Kellogg, 

 McDonald, Morrill of Maine, Morrill of Vermont, 

 Morton, Nye, Osborn, Patterson, Pomeroy, Pratt, 

 Ramsey, Robertson, Ross, Sawyer, Sfhurz,. Scott,. 

 Sherman j Spencer, Stewart, Sumner, Thayer, War- 

 ner, Williams, and Wilson -88. 



NAYS Messrs. Bayard, Carpejiter,,Casserly, Conk- 



