136 



CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



(Mr. Edmunds). I now call upon the Senate to 

 notice the theory upon which the chairman of 

 the committee has placed his defence of this 

 amendment. He has placed it upon the ground, 

 iirst, that Georgia was fully reconstructed in 

 1868 ; that she then became entitled to repre- 

 sentation in the Senate of the United States ; 

 that she has heen entitled to it ever since, and 

 that she has heen improperly denied a seat to 

 her Senators upon this floor, and that now no 

 legislation is required for the purpose of placing 

 her Senators npon this floor. In other words, 

 according to the theory of the Senator from 

 Illinois, Georgia is now and has heen since 1868 

 as much a State in the Union and as much 

 entitled to representation as any other State. 

 This is shown, first, by the report of the Sena- 

 tor as a minority of the Judiciary Committee 

 to this body in 1869, more than a year ago, in 

 which he reported that Georgia was restored, 

 and that Mr. Hill was entitled to be immediate- 

 ly sworn in as a member of the Senate. But 

 the Senator the day before yesterday, in his 

 speech, reiterated this position in the following 

 language : 



In my own opinion no legislation whatever is 

 necessary iu reference to Georgia. I think she is 

 just as clearly entitled to-day to have her Senators 

 admitted to their seats here as was the State of Ar- 

 kansas or the State of North Carolina or South Caro- 

 lina, or any other of the late rebel States at the time 

 their Senators were admitted. 



" According, then, to the Senator from Illi- 

 nois, Georgia has been improperly and wick- 

 edly dealt with by Congress in the passage of 

 the act of December 22, 1869 ; Georgia was 

 most cruelly and wickedly outraged when Con- 

 gress refused to count her electoral vote for 

 President and Yice-President in February, 

 1869, and has been improperly denied repre- 

 sentation on this floor continually. But when 

 the Senator places himself broadly upon this 

 position, how can he, consistently with the 

 views that he has expressed in regard to the 

 fundamental conditions put in the bills for the 

 admission of Virginia and Mississippi, defend a 

 provision that goes further to interfere with 

 the rights of the States than any claim which 

 was made by those bills, or which was made 

 by myself or the Senator from Michigan (Mr. 

 Howard) in the course of that discussion? 

 For, while we assumed the power of Congress 

 to supervise the States for the purpose of main- 

 taining a republican form of government, we 

 did not assume, what is contained in this bill, 

 that Congress had a right in advance to give a 

 construction to a State constitution, and to 

 legislate against the possibility of that consti- 

 tution being violated by the Legislature; so 

 that it seems to me the Senator's support of 

 this Bingham amendment, so called, is in direct 

 conflict with the position he has so earnestly 

 and so ably advocated all the time. 



" Now, Mr. President, I come to the position 

 taken by the Senator from Vermont, who has 

 delivered an able argument on this subject. He 



takes the position in his speech that the gov- 

 ernment of Georgia is not provisional, but that 

 it is a State government in full force and oper- 

 ation, and that as such the term of office of its 

 officers must be counted from the time the 

 State was restored to its normal position in 

 the Union. Now, I would say to my friend 

 from Vermont that his position, as contained 

 in the speech of yesterday, I regard as utterly 

 at variance with his report as a member of the 

 Judiciary Committee and with the position he 

 took in this body on the 26th of January, 

 1870. 



"I beg leave now most respectfully to call 

 his attention to his own resolution offered in 

 this Senate on the 28th of January, the resolu- 

 tion that gave rise to the report made by the 

 Judiciary Committee, and upon which so much 

 reliance is placed. That resolution reads thus : 



fiesolved, That the Committee on the Judiciary be, 

 and they are hereby, instructed to inquire and report 

 whether any further legislation is necessary upon the 

 subject of the organization of the provisional Legis- 

 lature in Georgia. 



" If that Legislature was provisional on the 

 26th of January, 1870, it is provisional to-day. 

 My friend from Vermont clearly recognized it 

 as provisional then, and. wanted to inquire 

 what further legislation might be necessary to 

 organize this provisional Legislature. 



" Now, Mr. President, is the State of Geor- 

 gia at present, and has it been regarded as still 

 being, subject to the reconstruction acts of 

 1867 ? According to the theory of my friend, 

 Georgia was entirely emancipated from the re- 

 construction acts in 1868 ; and it was accord- 

 ing to the theory of the Senator from Illinois ; 

 but my proposition is that Georgia is to-day 

 under the reconstruction acts of 1867, and has 

 been continuously so, and that Congress, in 

 the act of December, 1869, so regarded it; and 

 that the act of 1869 is not in conflict with the 

 reconstruction acts of 1867, but is simply in 

 aid of them. Now, I will refer to the under- 

 standing the executive department has on the 

 subject, and show upon what principle Georgia 

 is now governed and upon what principle 

 action has been taken. I have here an order, 

 issued by the President of the United States 

 on the 4th of January, 1870. 



"From this order it appears that General 

 Terry is now exercising the authority of mili- 

 tary commander under the acts of 1867, and 

 that the Executive regards Georgia as much an 

 unreconstructed State as any over which mili- 

 tary commanders have presided. 



"Now, Mr. President, at what time does a 

 State government in a new State go into op- 

 eration ? I will take the case of a Territory 

 just formed into a new State, before its admis- 

 sion into the Union. It must adopt a consti- 

 tution in pursuance of an act authorizing it to 

 do it. It must elect officers of the State gov- 

 ernment. Now, when does that State gov- 

 ernment become effective ? From what period 

 does it date ? Why, sir, it dates from the time 



