CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



said constitution shall take effect, hold or exercise 

 the functions of any executive, administrative, or 

 judicial office in said State by the appointment or 

 authority of the district commander, shall continue 

 to discharge the duties of their respective offices 

 until their successors, or those upon whom such 

 duties shall under said constitution devolve, are 

 duly chosen or appointed and qualified. 



SECTION 2. And be it further enacted, That the elec- 

 tion of United States 'Senators by the General As- 

 sembly of said State on the 19th day of October, 

 1869, shall have the same validity as if made by 

 previous authority of law. 



Mr. Farnsworth said : " The bill now under 

 consideration, reported by the Committee on 

 Reconstruction, and which I presume the 

 members of this House have read, I will re- 

 mark and ought to remark, in justice to my- 

 self, was in some sort a compromise measure. 

 It is known to the members of this House 

 that on the first day of this session I introduced 

 a joint resolution for the immediate admission 

 of the State of Virginia, which contained no 

 condition. But I consented to report the bill 

 now imder consideration, reserving to myself, 

 however, and I so gave notice to the committee, 

 the right to oppose the oath which is provided 

 in this bill, and perhaps to ask that the bill in 

 some verbal particulars might be amended in 

 other respects. There has been a question with 

 regard to the test-oath in Virginia, and some 

 members of this House, I have no doubt, are 

 in favor of applying the test or iron-clad oath 

 to members of the Virginia Legislature. With 

 reference to that, allow me to say that after the 

 election in Virginia that question was referred 

 to the Attorney-General of the United States, 

 and his opinion I have no doubt the members 

 of this House have also read. That opinion 

 was endorsed and approved by the President 

 of the United States. The opinion was to this 

 effect without stopping to read it or to incor- 

 porate it in my remarks that the test-oath 

 could not be exacted, but that only the oath 

 provided by the constitution under which the 

 Legislature was elected should be imposed upon 

 its members ; and I am free to say that I con- 

 cur most decidedly in that opinion. 



" The Legislature of the State of Virginia is 

 elected under a constitution which this Con- 

 gress has approved and has authorized to be 

 ratified by the voters of that State. That Le- 

 gislature is in no sense a provisional Legisla- 

 ture, nor are the members of that Legislature 

 in any sense provisional officers. They are 

 members of a Legislature just as much as are 

 the members of the Legislature of the State of 

 'Illinois. If Congress fails to approve the con- 

 stitution and to ratify the election of these 

 members by the admission of the State, then 

 the whole constitution and the Legislature 

 elected under it fall to the ground. They are 

 not then members of a Legislature at all, and 

 are not officers of the State at all. If we do 

 approve, then that approval reverts back and 

 covers the election which Congress itself au- 

 thorized, and the members so elected to the 

 Legislature are the Legislature of the State of 



Virginia as much as is the Legislature of any 

 other State. To hold otherwise, it seems to 

 me, is to involve us in very absurd contradic- 

 tions. Suppose that to-day you exact the test- 

 oath of the members of the Legislature of Vir- 

 ginia ; to-morrow we admit the State to rep- 

 resentation in Congress; afterward a mem- 

 ber of that Legislature dies and a new elec- 

 tion is held for his successor, who appears in 

 due time to qualify and take his seat what 

 oath is to be put to him ? The State is now in 

 the Union. Manifestly the only oath to be 

 required is the oath provided by the consti- 

 tution under which the Legislature has assem- 

 bled. You then have the singular spectacle 

 presented of members of the same Legislature 

 taking different oaths. The members of the 

 same Legislature have different qualifications, 

 and are under different obligations. It seems 

 to me that the bare statement of the matter is 

 sufficient to satisfy any mind that the Attorney- 

 General was right in the opinion which he 

 gave. Besides, the test-oath has not been 

 exacted of any Legislature of any one of the 

 reconstructed States. We hava never required 

 of any Legislature of any one of those States 

 that they should take any oath except that 

 required by the constitution under which they 

 were elected, except in the case cf Georgia, 

 which bill was passed a few days since. So 

 much for the test-oath. The oath provided in 

 the bill under consideration is not the test- 

 oath. It is, I believe, substantially the oath 

 conforming to the fourteenth amendment with 

 reference to qualifications for office. 



" Now to the main question. Is the State of 

 Virginia entitled, under the circumstances, to 

 be represented in Congress ? I have detailed to 

 the House, I think with sufficient particularity, 

 the history of the formation and adoption of 

 the constitution of the State of Virginia. The 

 act of Congress contained this clause, 'that the 

 proceedings in any of said States shall not be 

 deemed final or operate as a complete restora- 

 tion thereof until their action respectively shall 

 be approved by Congress.' The act further 

 provided that at the time of the election on the 

 constitution the voters of the State should elect 

 a Legislature, members of Congress, and State 

 officers this they have done and that the 

 Legislature, when assembled, should ratify the 

 fifteenth article of amendments to the Constitu- 

 tion of the United States. This also has been 

 done. Therefore and I desire the members 

 of the House to bear it in mind the State of 

 Virginia has complied to the letter with every 

 requirement and condition of that act. And 

 of all the reconstructed States no one of them 

 has come up apparently with more alacrity and 

 cheerfulness in adopting a constitution and 

 conforming to the acts of Congress than has 

 the State of Virginia. 



" There are men who think that the State of 

 Virginia should be still kept out of Congress, 

 that we should be in no hurry to let that State 

 in; who fear that the State of Virginia will not 



