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CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



the constitution and laws of the State. And 

 then 



Third, that the constitution of Georgia shall never 

 be so amended or changed as to deprive any citizen 

 or class of citizens of the school rights and privileges 

 secured by the constitution of said State. 



"'The school rights and privileges,' the 

 precise rights and privileges. In other words, 

 you strike down the power of Georgia to 

 change, to amend the present provisions of the 

 constitution on that subject as it now stands. 



"I come, then, to the exact pending ques- 

 tion, whether Congress may deny to a State, 

 in the form of a condition contained in the 

 act of admission, a power secured to the State 

 by the Constitution of the United States. 



"There are certain fundamental principles 

 to be borne in mind in every constitutional 

 discussion ; one of which is, that the Govern- 

 ment of the United States is one of delegated 

 powers, and that all sovereign powers not dele- 

 gated to the Union are reserved to the States 

 respectively, or to the people. The powers of 

 the Union are either conferred in express 

 language or by reasonable intendment as an 

 incident to or a means of executing some power 

 expressly granted. All else belongs to the 

 States. The tenth amendment to the Consti- 

 tution is in full force, and declares : 



The powers not delegated to the United States by 

 the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, 

 are reserved to the States respectively, or to the 

 people. 



" Now, if it be claimed that Congress has 

 the power to enact this bill, the burden is upon 

 those who make such claim to point out the 

 provision in the Constitution which grants 

 such power, or specify the power to which this 

 power is an incident or a means of execution. 

 Of course at this point in the discussion I take 

 leave of the Senator from Massachusetts. I 

 do not intend to skirmish with him in the twi- 

 light of the Declaration of Independence, nor 

 contend with him as to his translation of EPlu- 

 ribus Unum. I dismiss all that part of the 

 debate for the purpose of calling your atten- 

 tion to a little instrument you have sworn to 

 support, called the Constitution of the United 

 States. 



" Ordinarily, when the Constitution does 

 grant a power to the Union, ingenious and 

 learned men, like the Senator from Michigan 

 (Mr, Howard), the Senator from Vermont 

 (Mr. Edmunds), and the Senator from Indiana 

 (Mr. Morton), will be able to concur in point- 

 ing out the provision which confers the power. 

 But how is it in this case ? Perhaps the most 

 generally approved popular ground upon which 

 to rest the power to impose these fundamental 

 conditions is this : that inasmuch as the power 

 to admit new States is with Congress, and 

 Congress may, in its discretion, admit or re- 

 fuse to admit a particular State, it may admit 

 a State upon such terms and conditions as it 

 pleases. But the Senator from Michigan (Mr. 

 Howard) exploded this heresy at one dash. 



"He said, and, being one of the best law- 

 yers in this body, his opinion is entitled to con- 

 sideration : 



The first provision in this bill, not a condition, 

 but a positive enactment and in that light I also 

 view the other clauses of the bill which purport to 

 be conditions ; they are not legally and technically 

 speaking, in my judgment, conditions ; they are posi- 

 tive, imperative enactments, and take effect as such 

 as much as if they had declared that such and such 

 should be the case in reference to the State of Mis- 

 sissippi the first clause requires every member of 

 the Legislature of Mississippi to take an oath, sub- 

 stantially, that he does not fall within the third arti- 

 cle of the fourteenth amendment of the Constitution 

 of the United States. 



" The idea, then, that a State could be ad- 

 mitted upon conditions, in any lawyer-like 

 sense of the term condition, finds no favor with 

 the Senator from Michigan. He rests the right 

 to pass this bill upon the power of Congress 

 to guarantee a republican form of government 

 to the States, and maintains that what are 

 called conditions are positive legislative enact- 

 ments. 



"Then came the Senator from Vermont 

 (Mr. Edmunds), and if there be a better law- 

 yer in this Chamber than the Senator from 

 Michigan, which I do not assert, it is the Sen- 

 ator from Vermont. He says : 



Some gentlemen imagine that this authority is 

 found in what is called the republican guarantee 

 clause of the Constitution. 



"Thus, referring to his friend from Michi- 

 gan: 



I do not think so, I confess, as it stands upon this 

 particular bill, because I think that we might change 

 not entirely abrogate, it may be, but we might 

 change either one of these provisions in the consti- 

 tution of Mississippi, and the constitution would be 

 republican still ; it might be as efficient still possibly 

 by some change. So that, in order to secure a repub- 

 lican form of government in Mississippi, it does not 

 occur to me that it is essential that the precise form 

 of security for suffrage and for education, that that 

 constitution now has, should be held to and observed. 



" He goes on further to repudiate the ground 

 upon which the Senator from Michigan rested 

 the power, and placed it finally upon the power 

 of the Government of the United States to 

 make a treaty with a State, which I shall con- 

 sider presently. 



" Thus we see the popular idea, that Congress 

 may impose conditions repudiated by the Sena- 

 tor from Michigan, who rests the power upon 

 the guarantee clause in the Constitution, and 

 that, in its turn, the theory of the Senator 

 from Michigan is repudiated by the Senator 

 from Vermont, who rests this power upon the 

 ground of a treaty between the Union and the 

 State ; although he did not condescend to point 

 out what provision of the Constitution author- 

 izes Congress to enter into treaty relations 

 with a State either to restrict or enlarge the 

 powers of such State. 



" I now cite a high authority upon all legal 

 questions, the Senator from Indiana (Mr. Mor- 

 ton), and the Senate will see how completely 



