OONGKESS, U. 8. 



311 



To-day, as the law stands in this country, and 

 by the uniform construction of the powers of 

 this Government, there is no law by which the 

 midnight assassin of a mere private citizen can 

 be brought to judicial trial, to conviction, and 

 to judgment, within any State of this Union, 

 save the law of the State. Your Federal tribu- 

 nals under existing laws have no cognizance of 

 the crime if committed within a State on a pri- 

 vate citizen, and can do nothing in the punish- 

 ment of it judicially. 



" Now, sir, I beg leave to ask, can the minor- 

 ity of the people of the State, by the act of 

 the majority committing treason, and taking up 

 arms against the Federal Government, be strip- 

 ped of their right within the State of protec- 

 tion, under State laws, in their homes and in 

 their persons, even against the hand of the as- 

 sassin ? Am I to stand here to argue such a 

 question as that with intelligent representa- 

 tives ? I say, that if the majority of the people 

 of Virginia have turned rebels, as I believe 

 they have, the State is in the loyal minority, 

 and I am not alone in that opinion. I repeat, 

 where the majority become rebels in arms, the 

 minority are the State ; that the minority, in 

 that event, have a right to administer the laws, 

 and maintain the authority of the State govern- 

 ment, and to that end to elect a State Legisla- 

 ture and executive, by which they may call 

 upon the Federal Government for protection 

 'against domestic violence,' according to the 

 express guarantee of the Constitution. To 

 deny this proposition is to say that when the 

 majority in any State revolt against the laws, 

 both State and Federal, and deny and violate 

 all rights of the minority that however nu- 

 merous the minority may be, the State govern- 

 ment can never be reorganized, nor the rights 

 of the minority protected thereby, so long as a 

 majority are in the revolt. In such an event, 

 the majority, being rebels, must submit to the 

 law of the minority, if enforced by the whole 

 power of the National Government. That is 

 no new idea, even. It is as old as the Consti- 

 tution. I ask gentlemen to refer to that re- 

 markable letter of the Federalist, addressed by 

 Mr. Madison to the American people, wherein he 

 discusses the fourth section of the fourth article 

 of the Constitution of the United States, to wit: 



The United States shall guarantee to every State in 

 the Union a republican form of government, and shall 

 protect each of them against invasion ; and on appli- 

 cation of the Legislature (or of the executive, when 

 the Legislature cannot be convened), against domestic 

 violence. 



" As if that great man had been gifted with 

 the vision of a seer, standing amidst his own na- 

 tive hills of Virginia, he foretold that it might 

 come to pass that a majority of the people of a 

 State might conspire together to -sweep away 

 the rights of the minority, and break down 

 their privileges as citizens of the United States. 

 In that paper Mr. Madison says : 



_Why may not illicit combinations, for purposes of 

 violence, he formed as well by a majority of a State as 

 by a majority of a county or a district of the same 



State ? And if the authority of the State ought, in the 

 latter case, to protect the local magistracy, ought not 

 the Federal authority, in the former, to support the 

 State authority ? 



" That is precisely the question here to-day. 

 That is precisely the condition of things in 

 Virginia. The majority have become traitors. 

 When the Representatives wEom they had 

 elected, who were required by the existing 

 constitution of Virginia, as well as by the Fed- 

 eral Constitution, to take an oath to support 

 the Constitution of the United States, went to 

 Richmond, joined in this conspiracy, lifted up 

 the hand of treason and rebellion against the 

 Government, forswore themselves, and, in 

 short, entered into a deliberate article of bar- 

 gain and sale with Alexander H. Stephens, 

 vice-president of the Southern confederacy, 

 transferring the State of Virginia to that con- 

 federacy, they surrendered all right to repre- 

 sent any part of the people of Virginia ; as a 

 Legislature they utterly disqualified themselves 

 to execute that trust. But, sir, what are we 

 told ? According to the logic of some gentle- 

 men, it would seem that because the Legisla- 

 ture at Richmond turned traitors, because every 

 man of them, except those ffcv who escaped for 

 their lives from that doomed city as I trust 

 it is a doomed city joined in this red-handed 

 rebellion, therefore the people could have no 

 legislation. I appeal to the immortal words 

 of the Declaration in refutation of that con- 

 clusion. * The legislative powers, incapable of 

 annihilation, have returned to the people at 

 large for their exercise.' No matter, sir, who 

 "turns traitor, the legislative powers are incapa- 

 ble of annihilation. Now, what but this power 

 remained to the people of Virginia ? Their 

 Governor and Legislature had turned traitor. 

 You say that no special election could be had 

 under the constitution of Virginia without a 

 proclamation from the Governor, in vacation, 

 or without a writ of election issued by the Le- 

 gislature. "What was to be done ? I say that 

 the power remained with the loyal people of 

 that State to call a convention and create a 

 provisional government, which they did. On 

 the 23d day of May, 1861, the people of the 

 State of Virginia, invited by an original con- 

 vention of the people themselves, met at the 

 time and place specified in the existing law of 

 that commonwealth, and elected a Legislature. 



" Is it said that a majority of those chosen 

 on that day, including those chosen by the 

 rebels, took the road to Richmond, and took 

 the oath of treason against the Government of 

 the country ? Then I tell gentlemen who make 

 that remark that these members elect never 

 became part of the Legislature at all. The 

 original convention of the people declared, in 

 1861, that only those who were elected, and 

 were qualified, should be the Legislature of the 

 State. I might go somewhat farther with this 

 argument. I say that the ultimate power to 

 decide that question, ' Which of these bodies is 

 the Legislature of Virginia?' is in the Con- 



