CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



141 



At last it lias awaked, novor again to 



..r -Imnlier. From this time forward tho 



duty of tho nation to guarantee a republican 



Miii'-nt to all its parts will bo constant and 



ivM-nt, and this duty is reCnforcod by all 

 il powers. The guarantee is continuing 



anil perpetual, and it must be executed at all 



i-;. In its execution, Congress must fix 



>tinition of a republican government. 



ll\v often have I said this; but I shall not 



repeat it so long as tho occasion re- 

 quires. To Congress belongs tho duty of de- 

 tcrminiii 1 .' what is a republican government, 

 .ni'l then it must see that such a government 

 prevails in every State. 



If in any State the existing government fails 

 according to the just standard, or if it is in 

 any way menaced, then must Congress inter- 



execute the sleepless guarantee. And 

 in this interference it may act according to its 

 discretion, determining tho occasion and tho 

 ' means ' to bo employed. It may act by re- 

 pivssion or by precaution, and it may select 

 any ' means ' proper for the purpose. To say 

 that it may not act by precaution as well as by 

 repression is contrary to reason, and I may say 

 to common-sense. Whatever may be done by 

 repression may be done by precaution also. 

 Such is the experience of life in other things, 

 and tbis obligation of guarantee is subject to 

 tho universal law. In the selection of ' means ' 

 the whole field and the whole arsenal are at its 

 command. Not an instrument, not a weapon 

 proper for the purpose, which it may not grasp. 

 Here the language of Chief-Justice Marshall, 

 so often quoted, harmonizes with the claim of 

 power which I now make : 



The Government which has a right to do any act, 

 and has imposed on it the duty of performing that 

 act, must, according to tho dictates of reason, be al- 

 lowed to select the means, and those who contend 

 that it may not select any appropriate means, that 

 one particular mode of effecting the object is exccpted, 

 take upon themselves the burden of establishing that 

 exception. 



" In our recent debates, able Senators have 

 denied every thing. They will not concede the 

 ' means,' and they even ignore this great 

 clause, which, as Cicero said of the ancient 

 senatus consultum, has rested so long, like a 

 sword in its scabbard. But there it is. Sena- 

 tors may ignore it ; they may not see it ; hut 

 there it is in the Constitution. In attempting 

 to belittle tbis clause, Senators only show how 

 little they appreciate the lofty unity of tho 

 republic. Other clauses are important in tho 

 machinery of government ; hut this guarantee 

 makes the republic one and indivisible, being 

 'One out of Many,' and places the rights of all 

 under the protecting power of the nation. 



"Before tho extinction of slavery, State 

 rights were successful against this guarantee. 

 To invoke this tyrannical pretension was 

 enough. How often was it heard on this floor ! 

 How completely did it dominate the Consti- 

 tution itself! But the habit still continues, 

 and wo are still compelled to hoar this same 



pretension, under which States played the 

 turtle, drawing head, legs, and tail, all within 

 an impenetrable shell. With the overthrow 

 of tho rebellion on tho bloody field, this pre- 

 tension should have boon abandoned and for- 

 gotten. A State is not a turtle, which can 

 shut itself within its shell, and enjoy its own 

 separate animal existence, but it is a com- 

 ponent part of this great republic, with which 

 it is interlaced and interlocked so as to share 

 with every other State a common life, subject 

 to one and the same prevailing law. To insist 

 that a State can play the turtle now as in tho 

 days when slavery ruled is to dishonor tho 

 Constitution and to abandon the crowning 

 victory over tho rebellion. 



" Do you ask for the power in the Constitu- 

 tion to enter into a State and establish repub- 

 lican government ? I give it to you in an im- 

 mortal text. To question it is to show an 

 ignorance of language, which in this case is 

 clear beyond criticism, and an ignorance also 

 of the true genius of American institutions, 

 where unity of rights is the alpha and the 

 omega. The national motto, ' E Pluribua 

 Unum? is another expression of that great 

 unity by which the States are lost in the 

 nation. And this guarantee I now invoke for 

 the protection of the good people of Georgia, 

 and for the protection hereafter of human 

 rights when imperilled anywhere within the 

 limits of the republic. 



"But there are other and exceptional 

 reasons why Georgia is still within the con- 

 trol of Congress. The process of reconstruc- 

 tion in this State is not yet completed ; so that 

 the government there is simply provisional 

 and nothing else. This is only according to 

 the Reconstruction Act of March 2, 1867, 

 where it is provided : 



That, until the people of the said rebel States shall 

 be BY LAW admitted to representation in the Congress 

 of the United States, any civil governments which may 

 exist therein shall be deemed provisional only, and in 

 all respects subject to the paramount authority of the 

 United States at anytime to abolish, modify, control, 

 or supersede the same. 



" Nothing can be more explicit. Until the 

 people of the rebel States are ' by law ' ad- 

 mitted to representation, they are under the 

 power of Congress. Every thing done is in- 

 choate only, and nothing more. But Georgia 

 is not yet ' by law ' admitted to representa- 

 tion, and we are now considering when and 

 how such admission shall take place. Mean- 

 while, according to express language of the act, 

 the government is ' provisional only ; ' nor is 

 this all, for the act proceeds to declare further 

 that this gavernment is ' in all respects subject 

 to the paramount authority of the United States 

 at any time to abolish, modify, or supersede the 

 same.' Words cannot be stronger. 'Abolish,' 

 'modify,' 'supersede.' To argue against their 

 plain meaning is simply ridiculous. To insist 

 that the existing government is beyond tho 

 reach of Congress, to be extended or abridged, 





