CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



103 





.>f Mississippi to the liberality of her 



MS in rejecting those proscriptions which 



..uveiititui had sought to put upon the 



an 1 iijMin tho right to hold office iu that 



l'!i.- IIouso of Representatives has passed 

 a hill which is a copy in so many words of tho 

 liill recognizing the State of Virginia as enti- 

 tle. 1 to representation, except that it applies 

 State of Mississippi, and except also that 

 it provides that tho oaths required by it may 

 IK- ailirmations where persons are conscien- 

 ii.>n>ly scrupulous about taking oaths. It will 

 be remembered by the Senate that we passed 

 a supplemental bill in the case of Virginia to 

 correct the omission in tho original bill, so 

 that this is precisely tho bill that was passed in 

 reference to the State of Virginia, now sought 

 to be applied to the State of Mississippi. The 

 House of Representatives, it will be remem- 

 bered, passed a bill for the recognition of the 

 State of Virginia in the simplest form, simply 

 declaring that the State of Virginia was en- 

 titled to representation in Congress, but the 

 Senate thought proper to attach conditions. 

 The Committee on the Judiciary reported a 

 resolution for the admission of the State of 

 Virginia, also in its simplest form, and the 

 opinion of the Judiciary Committee now is 

 that these conditions ought not to be attached 

 to any State. 



" It is believed by that committee that Con- 

 gress has no authority to impose such condi- 

 tions ; that they have no binding efficacy ; that 

 their effect is evil, and evil only ; and that it is 

 keeping up a distinction in regard to the States 

 which can do no good, and may do much harm. 

 It is totally inconsistent with the action in the 

 State of Mississippi, the voters of that State 

 having acted liberally. They have struck out 

 the prescriptive provisions in their constitu- 

 tion ; they have organized their State peace- 

 fully. The condition of affairs in the State of 

 Mississippi, so far as I know-~and I have taken 

 some pains to inquire is as favorable to peace 

 and good order as in any of the late rebel 

 States, perhaps more so, and it is owing, in 

 iny judgment, to the liberal policy which has 

 beenpursued there. 



"Why, then, it may bo asked, should condi- 

 tions be imposed upon the State of Mississippi 

 when she is recognized as entitled to represen- 

 tation in this body? Does anybody suppose 

 that the State of Mississippi is going back? 

 Does anybody suppose that a State organized 

 as the State of Mississippi is, and under the 

 influences that she has been organized under, 

 is going back and going to change her consti- 

 tution and make it oppressive upon any por- 

 tion of her people? Is there any thing in tho 

 character of the delegation which Mississippi 

 has elected and sent to the two Houses of 

 Congress, is there any thing in the character of 

 her Legislature, is there any thing in the char- 

 acter of tho officials of that State in any re- 

 spect, to warrant tho belief or the suggestion 



that she may not bo trusted with the powers 

 of u full-grown State as well as the State of 

 Illinois or any other State in the Union? 



" I do not propose to argue thin question. I 

 believe that when a State is entitled to repre- 

 sentation in this Union, and becomes one of 

 the States of the Union, it is a full and com- 

 plete State, with all the rights in all respects 

 of every other State. I want the State of 

 Mississippi here as a full-grown State. I want 

 its representatives to stand up in tho Congress 

 of the United States as the representatives of 

 a coequal State of the Union, and not of an 

 inferior and subordinate State, or a State with 

 conditions imposed upon it not imposed upon 

 the other States of the Union. 



" This is the opinion of the Committee on the 

 Judiciary, and hence they have reported back 

 the House bill with a recommendation to strike 

 out the whole of these conditions, and every 

 thing except the single provision declaring the 

 State of Mississippi entitled to representation 

 in the Congress of the United States." 



Mr. Edmunds, of Vermont, said : " I do not 

 want to open the question now as to what our 

 powers are in imposing conditions. It has 

 been fairly demonstrated, I think, on this floor, 

 that wo have the power to impose these con- 

 ditions, as they are called, and I do not cavil 

 about, names ; that the thing we have put 

 into the statute with regard to Virginia, she 

 having chosen to come in under it, binds her, 

 I think that may be demonstrated. I think it 

 has been demonstrated. I know some Senators 

 do not think so. Very well. We have applied 

 it to her, not in order to make her unequal, as 

 she is not ; not in order to make her subordi- 

 nate, as she is not ; but in order to make per- 

 petual within her territory that clause of the 

 Constitution which declares that she shall have 

 a republican form of government all the time, 

 and that she shall not turn her back upon us 

 this year or next year or fifty years hence, and 

 undertake to make progress in a retrogressive 

 direction. 



" This is only one of the means which the 

 nation has, which the founders of the nation 

 intended it should have, of securing liberty 

 and equal rights and public progress in every 

 one of the States ; and I fail to see the force 

 of the argument which goes to maintain that 

 to do that by appropriate and legitimate means 

 of legislation, in making a compact with a 

 State when she comes in, or imposing a consti- 

 tution on her when she comes in, is making her 

 unequal. She is equally bound by the express 

 letter of the law and by the Constitution to 

 maintain republican institutions. She has no 

 right at any time to disfranchise any portion of 

 her people who are voters. We should have 

 a right without such conditions, I agree and 

 maintain, to interfere, and it would be our 

 highest duty to execute and exercise that rignt. 



" But these States are in a peculiar condi- 

 tion. They have cost the nation innumerable 

 lives, a great waste of blood and treasure, and 



