CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



131 



win a tin- fourteenth amendment was ratified; 

 f them hud been expelled. Unlaw- 

 ful heemiM- there wore three or four men there 

 disqualiiied to be there, as it in said but not 

 proved ? There is no proof before the Senate 

 this day, and I defy a Senator to point me to 

 A scintilla of legal proof Unit any member of 

 tlnit Legislature was disqualified under tho 

 fourteenth amendment. We have Governor 

 I'.iilloek's opinion, and that is all; we have 

 nor Bullock's surmise, and that not 

 mi'ler oath, in the evidence which was taken 

 lu-1'oro tho House Reconstruction Committee ; 

 not a sworn statement, but his mere surmise, 

 his more belief, his mere suspicion, that three 

 or four or five of those members were disquali- 

 lied under the fourteenth amendment. 



" Such was the state of the case. That Le- 

 gislature met obedient to your will, even to 

 servility. It adopted your fourteenth amend- 

 ment, it elected its Senators, and after that and 

 upon the maturest consideration of this legal, 

 this constitutional question, it decided that 

 under the State constitution of Georgia colored 

 men were not eligible to hold office ; and that 

 is its great sin. And now if you turn her out 

 you turn her out not because she has disobeyed 

 any reconstruction act of Congress, not because 

 she has disregarded any act of Congress, not 

 because in any thing she has done she has 

 set the power of the General Government at 

 defiance, not because she has in any respect 

 infringed the Constitution of the United States, 

 not for any one of these reasons ; but because 

 her Legislature, in the exercise of an indubi- 

 table power, have made an error in the inter- 

 pretation of her own State constitution. Hide 

 it if you will, conceal it if you will, the pretext 

 for turning her out is nothing more than this, 

 nothing less than this, that her Legislature have 

 misinterpreted her own State constitution ; 

 that they have followed the guidance and legal 

 advice of the head and front of the Radical 

 party in Georgia; that they have followed that 

 legal opinion, which was promulgated from one 

 end of Georgia to the other before the consti- 

 tution was adopted, that under that constitu- 

 tion colored men would not be entitled to hold 

 office. 



" Why, sir, if you can now go into that State 

 and turn out the present members of the Le- 

 gislature and reinstate those negroes, I say you 

 can do the same thing with regard to any 

 State in this Union if you think its General 

 Assembly misinterprets its own State consti- 

 tution. It is only two years ago that we had 

 a case in Ohio. A member was elected to the 

 Senate of that State, received a certificate of 

 election as a member of that Senate, and his 

 election was contested on the ground that 

 colored persons voted for him and gave him 

 his majority. Upon the hearing of the con- 

 test the whole case turned upon this, whether 

 a person having more white than black blood 

 in his veins was an elector in the State of 

 Ohio under the constitution of that State. 



Tho Supremo Court of tho State had ! 

 that, he was, and if that decision was to be 

 followed by tho Senate of Ohio, it was con- 

 rlu.-i\e in favor of tho sitting member; but the 

 Senate of Ohio, precisely as both Houses of 

 Congress have again and again decided, held 

 that in regard to the qualifications and eligi- 

 bility of its own members it was the sole 

 judge ; it was not bound by any decision of the 

 Supreme Court. Tho decision of tho Supreme 

 Court was entitled to respect, but tho decision 

 of no tribunal is authority over any other tri- 

 bunal unless it can reverse tho decision of that 

 other tribunal. It is nothing but a precedent ; 

 it is only authority when the tribunal that 

 pronounces the decision has power to reverse 

 the decision of the inferior tribunal. Tho 

 Senate of Ohio therefore held that it was tho 

 judge of what was the constitution of Ohio, 

 and, judging for itself, it decided that mulattoes 

 were not entitled to vote in the State of Ohio, 

 although they had more white blood than 

 black blood in their veins, and ousted the sit- 

 ting member and put in the contestant." 



Several amendments were now offered to the 

 bill, which modified the oath to be taken by 

 striking out the words "involuntary aid," etc., 

 and the bill was passed by the following 

 vote: 



YEAS Messrs. Abbott, Anthony, Brownlow, 



McDonald. Morrill of Maine, Morrill of Vermont, 

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

 Ramsey. Rice, Robertson, Ross, Sawyer, Schurz, 

 Scott, Sherman, Spencer, Stewart. Suinner, Thayr, 

 Warner, Willey, Williams, and Wilson 5. 



NAYS Messrs. Bayard, Casserly, Davis, Fowler, 

 Hamilton, Saulsbury, Stockton, Thurman, and 

 Vickers 9. 



ABSENT Messrs. Boreman, Cameron, Ferry, 

 Howe, McCreery, Norton, Pool, Sprague, Tipton, 

 Trumbull, and Yates-11. 



The title of the bill was then amended so as 

 to read "A bill to promote the reconstruction 

 of the State of Georgia." 



In the House, on December 20th, the bill from 

 the Senate was considered and after a brief 

 debate was passed by the following vote: 



YEAS Messrs. Allison, Ambler, Armstrong, Ar- 

 nell, Asper, Bailey, Beaman, Bcattv, Benjamin, 

 Bennett, Benton, Boles, Bowen, Boyd, George M. 

 Brooks, Buck, Buckley, Bufflnton, Burchard, Bur- 

 dett, Benjamin F. Butler, Roderick R. Butler, 

 Cessna, AmasaCobb, Coburu, Cook, Conger, Cullom, 

 Dawes, Deweese, Dickey, Dixon, Donley, Duval, 

 Ela, Ferriss, Ferry, Finkelnburg, Fisher, Fitch, Gar- 

 field, Halo, Hamilton, Hawley, Hay, Heaton, Hill, 

 Hoar, Hoge, Hooper, Hotchkiss, Ingersoll, Jenckes, 

 Alexander II. Jones, Judd, Kelley. Kellogg, Kelsey, 

 Knapp. Lash, Lawrence, Logan, Loughridge, May- 

 naru, McCarthy, McCrary, McGrew/Mercur, Elia- 

 kinij II. Moore. Jesse II. Moore, \Villiam Moore, 

 Daniel J. Morrell, Samuel P. Morrill, Myers, Neg- 

 ley, O'Neill, Orth, Packard, Packer, Paine, Palmer, 

 Peters, Phelps, Poland, Pomeroy, Prosscr, Roots, 

 Sanford. Sargent, Sawyer, Schenck, Scofleld. Shanks, 

 Lionel A. Sheldon, Porter Sheldon, John A. Smith, 

 William J. Smith, Worthington C. Smith, William 

 Smyth, Starkweather, Stevens, Stevenson, Stokes, 

 Stoughton, Strickland, Strong, Taffe, Tanner, Town- 





