CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



140 



J, aii.I wo have tlio opinion of the Attor- 



.1 that that oath need not be admin- 



! i . 1 1 lio members of the Legislature. They 



MTV careful uml particular in following 



statutes and all the requirements. 



:io commanding general says the election 



a fair one. I believe that the people of 



Virginia have complied as nearly as possible 



with every condition of the law, and I cannot 



. hat excuse Congress has for refusing to 



, o them now. We have declared that we 



would admit them." 



Mr. Morton, of Indiana, said : "Mr. Presi- 

 I think the only question that can prop- 

 i T! y ho raised in reference to the admission of 

 Virginia is, whether the members of that LO- 

 LL Mature were required by the reconstruction 

 laws to take the test-oath, as it is called. If 

 thry were required by the reconstruction acts 

 to take that oath, then that Legislature was not 

 properly organized ; if they were not, it has 



properly organized. 



" I wish for myself that the law had required 

 that they should take the test-oath. I have 

 in favor from the first of requiring these 

 reconstructions to be made by loyal men, and, 

 after they had been effectually made, of provid- 

 ing for a general admission to the enjoyment 

 of political rights of all persons who were con- 

 corned in the late rebellion, excepting, perhaps, 

 those embraced by the fourteenth amendment. 

 "But, sir, it is not now a question of desire; 

 it is a question of law ; and, if there be any 

 provision of the reconstruction acts requiring 

 the members of the Legislatures of these organ- 

 ized States to take the test-oath, that provision 

 can be pointed out." 



Mr. Drake, of Missouri, moved the following 

 amendment : 



Provided, That, should the Legislature of said State 

 at any tune hereafter pass any act or resolution re- 

 scinding or annulling its ratification of the fifteenth 

 article of amendment to the Constitution of the Uni- 

 ted States, the passage of such act or resolution shall 

 operate to exclude the said State from representation 

 ia CongresSj and to remand said State to its condi- 

 tion immediately prior to the passage of this resolu- 

 tion. 



Mr. Trumbull, of Illinois, said : " I do not know 

 that there is any probability that such an amend- 

 ment as that can obtain ; but it would be so man- 

 ifestly improper that it should, that I think it is 

 only necessary to call the attention of the Sen- 

 ate for one moment to it. If this Congress has a 

 right to pass such a proposition as that, another 

 Congress would have a right to repeal it ; and 

 what would it amount to ? Suppose that the 

 Senate were to adopt this proposition, does the 

 Senator from Missouri, by offering such an 

 amendment as that, recognize the authority of 

 the State of Virginia afterward to take back 

 its ratification of a constitutional amendment ? 

 Why. it is an admission, a confession on the 

 part of the Senator who offers it, that the State 

 of Virginia, after it has ratified a constitutional 

 amendment, may rescind and repeal it. Why, 

 sir, the act of Virginia rescinding and repeal- 



ing its ratification of a constitutional amend- 

 ment would be so much worthies* paper ; and 

 doon the Senator from Missouri propose to pun- 

 ish the people of Virginia or the State of Vir- 

 ginia for doing a void act ? Why put in such 

 a clause as that, except that the Senator from 

 Missouri distrusts the action of the Legislature 

 of Virginia in ratifying the constitutional 

 amendment? Tou might as well put such a 

 clause as this in a law with reference to any 

 other State as with reference to the State of 

 Virginia after it shall have become one of the 

 recognized States." 



Mr. Drake : " Mr. President, I am not sur- 

 prised at the opposition manifested by the 

 chairman of the Judiciary Committee to this 

 amendment. I think it has been very appar- 

 ent from the beginning of the work of recon- 

 struction until this time that the Senator 

 from Illinois has had a great aversion to any 

 thing in those laws that had a grip in it. 

 If reconstruction acts were to be passed that 

 would seem to do the thing, and yet come a 

 little short of doing it, they were such acts as 

 the Senator from Illinois was willing to pass; 

 and we have had from time to time to patch up 

 our reconstruction acts, and provide for the 

 things that were omitted by the Senator from 

 Illinois in the drafting of those that were passed. 

 And now, sir, when a proposition is made to 

 put into this bill a provision which is to have 

 a distinct and substantive effect in producing a 

 given result, the Senator from Illinois is op- 

 posed to it, as he always has been opposed, since 

 I have been in the Senate, to every thing in 

 connection with reconstruction that really did 

 go right to the heart of the thing, leaving noth- 

 ing at all to be done thereafter." 



Mr. Trumbull : " But the Senator from Mis- 

 souri tells us that he wants to put this in now, 

 and that putting it upon Virginia is very dif- 

 ferent from what it would be to put it upon 

 any other State, because Virginia has been in 

 rebellion. Well, we are proposing to restore 

 Virginia in our imperfect way to her practical 

 relations with the Union; and when that is 

 done wo supposed, in our imperfections, that 

 she would be a State in the Union like any 

 other State. I know of no authority under 

 the Constitution because I am not able to 

 discern as far as some Senators for unequal 

 States. I supposed that when the State of 

 Virginia becomes a State of this Union with 

 all her practical relations restored, like the 

 State of South Carolina or of Alabama to-day, 

 she will stand here as a State with all the 

 rights of a State as perfectly even as the State 

 of Missouri. I suppose the rights of the State 

 of Alabama in this body and in this Union are 

 equal to the rights of the State of Missouri, 

 or the State of Illinois, or any other State ; 

 and I suppose the rights of the State of Vir- 

 ginia will be the same when she shall have 

 been, like Alabama, restored to her relations 

 with the Union. 



"And then, I suppose, if you can put such 



