CONGRESS, U. S. 



293 



of the English heart, working through acts of 

 Parliament, was constantly ameliorating that, 

 and introducing provisions tending to restrain 

 the ferocity of such judges as Jeffries. 



" This doctrine that we cannot take the es- 

 tates of rebels, that we cannot confiscate them, 

 would result in this absurdity : take for instance 

 these handsome estates in Newport, R. I.; 

 their owners are fighting against us, taking their 

 rents to arm armies to destroy the nation, over- 

 throw our liberties, and ruin the country ; and 

 according to this doctrine we must preserve 

 their estates, see that the tenants do not com- 

 mit waste upon them, hold them safe, not touch 

 them, and if by and by the rebellion should 

 happen to be over and the country should be 

 saved, we must institute a commission to roam 

 anywhere and everywhere to find out where 

 are the descendants'of these traitors, that they 

 may come and take this property and hold and 

 enjoy it, and we must not exercise this power 

 because there is no such case as this exactly 

 put down in the Constitution. That is what 

 this doctrine would lead to. 



"Mr. President, the Constitution never con- 

 templated such a time, such an occasion, such 

 circumstances as we are now living in. Instead 

 of consulting the precedents of a dead past for 

 wisdom to guide us in contingencies which they 

 never thought of, we ought to be making pre- 

 cedents to guide our children in coming gener- 

 ations for just such a time as this if it should 

 ever come again. "We ought to see, to meet, 

 to understand and appreciate our condition, 

 and when an emergency occurs consult com- 

 mon sense clear and plain, instead of hunting 

 in the musty folios of the dead past to gather 

 wisdom for a state of things that the dead past 

 never dreamed of." 



The amendment was then agreed to, as fol- 

 lows : 



TEAS Messrs. Anthony, Brown, Chandler, Con- 

 ness, Foot, Grimes, Hale, Harlan, Harris, Howe, Lane 

 of Indiana, Lane of Kansas, Morgan, Morrill, Pome- 

 rov, Sherman, Sprague, Sumner, Trumbull, Van 

 Winkle, Wade, Wilkinson, and Wilson -23. 



XAYS Messrs. Carlile, Clark, Collamer, Cowan, 

 Davis, Doolittle, Henderson, Hendricks, Hicks, Me- 

 Dougall, Powell, Riddle, Saulsbury, Ten Eyck, and 

 Willey 15. 



ABSENT Messrs. Buckalew, Dixon, Fessenden, 

 Foster, Harding, Howard, Johnson, Xesmith, Ram- 

 sey, Richardson, and Wright 11. 



Subsequently, on the same day, Mr. Hen- 

 dricks, of Indiana, moved to strike out this 

 section ; which was disagreed to by the follow- 

 ing vote : 



YEAS Messrs. Buckalew, Carlile, Clark, Cowan, 

 Davis, Doolittle, Hendricks, McDougall, Powell, Rid- 

 dle, Ten Eyck, Van Winkle, and Willey 13. 



XATS Messrs. Anthony, Chandler, Conness, Foot 

 Harlan, Howe, Lane of Indiana, Morgan, Morrill, 

 Pomeroy, Ramsev, Sprague, Sumner, Trumbull, 

 V? ilkinson, and Wilson 16. 



ABSENT Messrs. Brown, Collamer, Dixon, Fessen- 

 den, Foster, Grimes, Hale, Harding, Harris, Hender- 

 son, Hicks, Howard, Johnson, Lane of Kansas, 

 Xesmith, Richardson, Saulsbury, Sherman, Wat'e, 

 and Wright 20. 



The bill to establish a Bureau ci Freedmen 

 then passed yeas, 21 ; nays, 9. 



In the House, on July 2d, the bill was con- 

 sidered with this amendment of the Senate, and 

 postponed to Dec. 20th. By this postponement 

 the proposition to repeal the joint resolution 

 amendatory of the confiscation act failed to 

 pass. Each House passed a repealing section, 

 but neither passed the other's. 



In the House, on Feb. loth, Mr. Davis, of 

 Maryland, from the Committee on Rebellious 

 States, reported a bill to guarantee to certain 

 States a Republican form of Government. It 

 was read a first and second time, ordered to be 

 printed, and recommitted to the committee. 



On March 22d the motion to recommit the 

 bill was reconsidered, and the bill came before 

 the House, and the question was on ordering 

 it to be engrossed and read a third time. 



The bill authorized the President to appoint 

 in each of the States declared in rebellion a 

 Provisional Governor, with the pay and emolu- 

 ments of a Brigadier, to be charged with the 

 civil administration until a State government 

 therein shall be recognized. As soon as the 

 military resistance to the United States shall 

 have been suppressed, and the people suffi- 

 ciently returned to their obedience to the Con- 

 stitution and laws, the Governor shall direct 

 the Marshal of the United States to enroll all 

 the white male citizens of the United States 

 resident in the State, in their respective coun- 

 ties ; and wherever a majority of them take the 

 oath of allegiance, the loyal people of the State 

 shall be entitled to elect delegates to a conven- 

 tion to act upon the reestablishment of a State 

 Government the proclamation to contain de- 

 tails prescribed. Qualified voters in the army 

 may vote in their camps. No person who has 

 held or exercised any civil, military, State, or 

 Confederate office, under the rebel occupation, 

 and who has voluntarily borne arms against the 

 United States, shall vote or be eligible as a 

 delegate. The convention is required to insert 

 in the Constitution provisions 



1. Xo person who has held or exercised any civil or 

 military office (except offices merely ministerial and 

 military offices below a colonel), State or Confeder- 

 ate, under the usurping power, shall vote for, or be 

 a member of the legislature or governor. 



2. Involuntary servitude is forever prohibited, 

 and the freedom of all persons guaranteed in said 

 State. 



3. Xo debt, State or Confederate, created by or 

 under the sanction of the usurping power, shall be 

 recognized or paid by the State. 



Upon the adoption of the Constitution by the 

 convention and its ratification by the electors 

 of the State, the Provisional Government shall 

 so certify to the President, who, after obtaining 

 the assent of Congress, shall, by proclamation, 

 recognize the government as established and 

 none other, as the constitutional government of 

 the State ; and from the date of such recog- 

 nition, and not before, Senators and Represent- 

 atives and electors for President and Vice- 



