262 



CONGKESS, U. S. 



legislative, executive, and judicial ? I will 

 ask the gentleman a further question, because 

 this is a matter in which my constituents 

 will feel great interest. The gentleman's re- 

 marks will go out to the country as those of 

 a representative of his party, the party which 

 is now in power, and they will be repeated all 

 over the country as those of a representative 

 man, not expressing his own opinion only, but 

 the opinions of a large party, the opinions of 

 the executive." 



Mr. Stevens : " I speak for myself only." 



Mr. Maynard : " I am very glad to hear the 

 gentleman say that, for I am personally well 

 aware he does speak for himself alone ; but I 

 know that it will not be so understood and so 

 represented in certain portions of the country. 



"I would ask the gentleman how it can 

 happen that people situated as those in my 

 own particular district are, for instance, who 

 have resisted the action of the majority of the 

 State and of the State Government from the 

 beginning have resisted it by arms and are 

 now resisting it how it happens that they can, 

 by any possibility, have lost their rights under 

 the Constitution, although they happen to be 

 within the limits of one of the so-called seced- 

 ed States ? " 



Mr. Stevens: " I hope I may be able now to 

 finish the few remarks I proposed to make, be- 

 cause I wish to get through with this bill if I 

 can, I have seen no act, either done by the 

 executive or proposed by the Congress, which 

 would take away any rights or sacrifice any 

 interests of the loyal men in the rebellious 

 States. I have seen, on the other hand, that 

 they have been carefully protected from all the 

 consequences even of a war measure which 

 was supposed to be necessary, and which did, 

 in the first instance, take some of their prop- 

 erty. There has been great care taken to sep- 

 arate them from the original sin of those who 

 went into the rebellion, and to guard all their 

 property. 



"Now, sir, as I said before, I speak only for 

 myself. These views of mine are not now for 

 the first time put forth, and I am sorry that I 

 have been provoked into the expression of them 

 on this occasion, for I wanted to go on with 

 the bill. But I do not see how the executive 

 can view these questions any other way than I 

 do. He appoints in places which we conquer 

 military governors, and I was told yesterday 

 that he had created a court in New Orleans. 

 Now, if the Constitution still operates in those 

 portions of the country, if it is not a question 

 of military power, I want to know by what 

 authority he does that. I see also that by the 

 proclamations of military governors he orders 

 men to be elected to take their seats in this 

 Congress. To be sure, he has seen fit to direct 

 what kind of men shall be elected, which, per- 

 haps, was right enough, or we might have 

 been overrun by secessionists. Only to-day, 

 evidence has been presented of what purports 

 to have been an election held in Accomao 



county, or in some of the adjacent counties in 

 Virginia. "Will any of these gentlemen here 

 who are such sticklers for ' the Constitution as 

 it is, and the Union as it was,' tell me by what 

 authority that election took pjace, unless it 

 was by that military authority the existence 

 of which I have been asserting ? "Why, I saw 

 from some reports when that election was 

 going on, that at one of the precincts they had 

 to send a squadron of cavalry to protect the 

 ballot box and those voting, and that the se- 

 cessionists attacked them and drove them otf. 

 Now, I ask again, under what part of the Con- 

 stitution are these proceedings; and if they 

 are not under the Constitution, how is it that 

 the Constitution is in full force in all these 

 States ? I would ask my friend from Tennes- 

 see (Mr. Maynard), under what clause of the 

 Constitution does his excellent friend, Andrew 

 Johnson, hold his office as Governor of Ten- 

 nessee?" 



Mr. Maynard: "I will answer the gentle- 

 man with a great deal of pleasure. Under that 

 part of the Constitution which requires the 

 United States Government not the people of 

 the United States, but the Government as a 

 Government to guarantee to the people of 

 every State a republican form of government. 

 Whenever the authorities of a State have ab- 

 dicated, or have been driven away by usurpa- 

 tion or invasion, the United States Government 

 must see that the machinery already there is 

 vitalized and set to work." 



Mr. Stevens: "I hold that the Governor of 

 Virginia to-day is John Letcher, so far as the 

 Constitution is concerned. No other man has 

 ever been elected according to the provisions 

 of the Constitution. I hold, too, that there is 

 no necessity for the exercise of the provisions 

 of the Constitution in order to effectuate these 

 objects, for that these rebellious States are all 

 now under military law and military rule, and 

 that this Government has a right to do all those 

 things which are necessary to repress this re- 

 bellion, and to conquer these people, and then 

 we shall come to 'the question of the Union 

 afterward. I say that you cannot justify nine 

 out of ten of the acts of the Government, or of 

 our own acts here, if you consider the Consti- 

 tution a valid and binding instrument with 

 reference to those in arms in the rebellious 

 States." 



Mr. Olin : " The only theory that can justify 

 the prosecution of tliis war is, that it is a war 

 waged in obedience to the Constitution and the 

 laws ; that no law or ordinance of secession re- 

 lieves any citizen from a single obligation that 

 he was under to the country, nor from his 

 allegiance to the General Government. 



"Now, sir, if there be but a single man re- 

 maining loyal to the Constitution in any one of 

 the seceded States, he is entitled to all the 

 rights, all the privileges, and all the immuni- 

 ties granted to any citizen in any loyal State. 

 It is the duty of this Government to protect 

 such loyal citizen in the enjoyment of those 



