260 



CONGRESS, U. S. 



for private prosecutions and personal collisions, 

 in the State of Delaware? Does he not see (if 



I apprehend the state of public sentiment in 

 Delaware) that such must be the case, if it be 

 true that armed men were sent into the State 

 of Delaware upon the advice and recommenda- 

 tion of some of the citizens of Delaware ? I am 

 perfectly content to ask the Secretary of War 

 whether or not he did send men into the State 

 of Delaware to attend the polls ; but I am not 

 going into any such private inquisition as is 

 proposed by the resolution, and ask the Secre- 

 tary to inform me upon whose instance it was 

 done, whether upon the recommendation of 

 this senator or that senator. If we establish a 

 rule that we shall do this, and go on and in- 

 quire of each head of a department upon whose 

 recommendation he does this act and that act, 

 we shall have no end to these inquiries." 



Mr. Bayard, in reply, said : " We do not want 

 to inquire into the fact of whether the army 

 was sent there and whether they were dis- 

 tributed at the polls that is notorious ; but we 

 want the reasons which justify an act which 

 certainly is an infraction of the rights of the 

 people of Delaware, and an infraction which, 

 carried out in other States I am not speaking 

 of what the design was, for I do not know what 

 the grounds were; I want to know would 

 enable any existing Administration to keep it- 

 self in power and control the Government of 

 this country just as long as it had the military 

 force to do so. That would be the effect of 

 submitting to such action. I want to know 

 the grounds and the reasons, to see whether 

 there was any justification for this action. It 

 is not, as the honorable senator from Iowa 

 supposes, with any desire for judicial inquiry 

 against individuals there ; nothing of the kind. 

 It would not be evidence for the purpose of sub- 

 jecting them to judicial inquiry." 



In the House, on the 8th of January, the 

 appropriation bill being under consideration, 

 an amendment was offered to add to the clause 



II for compensation of thirty-three commission- 

 ers, at $3,000 each, and eleven clerks, at $1,200 

 each, $112,200," the following proviso : 



Provided, A sufficient sum shall be collected in the 

 insurrectionary States to pay said salaries : And pro- 

 didedfurtTier, That no greater sum shall at any time 

 be paid to said commissioners, or to any of them, than 

 shall have been collected from the taxes in the insur- 

 rectionary States, and paid into the Treasury of the 

 United States. 



The discussion which followed brought out 

 an expression of views relative to the position 

 of the seceded States under the Federal Gov- 

 ernment. Mr. Stevens, of Pennsylvania, in the 

 course of his remarks said : " I did say, sir, 

 that I find no warrant in the Constitution for 

 the admission, under the Constitution, of West 

 Virginia. I do not know whether the gentle- 

 man from Kentucky voted for that bill or not." 



Mr. Dunlap: " I will say to the gentleman 

 from Pennsylvania that I voted against the 

 bill, because I deemed it unconstitutional." 



Mr. Stevens: "Then the gentleman voted 

 against it upon the same opinion I expressed, 

 that it was unconstitutional. But I went far- 

 ther, and voted for it because I did not believe 

 that the Constitution embraced a State now in 

 arms against the Government of this Union, 

 and I hold that doctrine now. It was not said 

 upon the spur of the occasion. It is a deliber- 

 ate opinion, formed upon a careful examination 

 of the law of the United States and the laws 

 of nations. 



"Though it may be out of place just now, I 

 will give one or two reasons for my opinion. The 

 establishment of our blockade admitted the 

 Southern States, the Confederates, to be a bel- 

 ligerent power. Foreign nations have all ad- 

 mitted them as a belligerent power. Whenever 

 that came to be admitted by us and by foreign 

 nations, it placed the rebellious States precise- 

 ly in the position of an alien enemy with regard 

 to duties and obligations. Now, I think there 

 is nothing more plainly written in the law of 

 nations than that whenever a war, which is 

 admitted to be a national war, springs up be- 

 tween nation and nation, ally and ally, confed- 

 erate and confederate, every obligation which 

 previously existed between them, whether 

 treaty, compact, contract, or any thing else, is 

 wholly abrogated, and from that moment the 

 belligerents act toward each other, not accord- 

 ing to any municipal obligations, not according 

 to any compacts or treaties, but simply accord- 

 ing to the laws of war. And I hold and main- 

 tain that with regard to all the Southern States 

 in rebellion, the Constitution has no binding 

 influence and no application." 



Mr. Dunlap : " Are not those seceded States 

 still members of this Union, and under the 

 laws of the Government ? " 



Mr. Stevens : " In my opinion they are not." 



Mr. Dunlap: " Then I would ask the further 

 question, did the ordinances of secession take 

 them out of the Union ? " 



Mr. Stevens: "The ordinances of secession, 

 backed by the armed power which made them 

 a belligerent nation, did take them, so far as 

 present operations are concerned, from under 

 the laws of the nation." 



Mr. Dnnlap: "Are they then members of 

 the Union ? " 



Mr. Stevens : " They are not, in my judg- 

 ment." 



Mr. Dunlap : " And the ordinances of seces- 

 sion took them out ? " 



Mr. Stevens : " I have my own views of this 

 subject, and if erroneous the gentleman will 

 not act upon them." 



Mr. Dunlap : " Then if these States are not 

 within the Union, how, as chairman of the 

 Committee of Ways and Means, do you propose 

 to pass an appropriation to pay officers to col- 

 lect revenue in States which do not belong to 

 the Union 1 " 



Mr. Stevens : " I propose to levy that tax 

 and collect it as a war measure. I would levy 

 a tax wherever I can upon these conquered 



