296 



CONGRESS, D. S. 



the vast authority of State Governments to 

 the doubtful loyalty of the rehel States, until 

 armed rebellion shall have been trampled into 

 the dust, until every armed rebel shall have 

 vanished from the State, until there shall be in 

 the South no hope of independence and no 

 fear of subjection, until the United States is 

 bearded by no military power and the laws can 

 l>e executed by courts and sheriff's without the 

 ever-present menace of military authority. 

 Until we have reached that point, this bill pro- 

 poses that the President shall appoint a civil 

 Governor to administer the Government under 

 the laws of the United States, and the laws in 

 force in the States respectively at the outbreak 

 of the rebellion, subject, of course, to the ne- 

 cessities of military occupation. 



"When military opposition shall have been 

 suppressed, not merely paralyzed, driven into 

 a corner, pushed back, but gone, the horrid 

 vision of civil war vanished from the South, 

 then call upon the people to reorganize in their 

 own way, subject to the conditions that we 

 think essential to our permanent peace, and to 

 prevent the revival hereafter of the rebellion ; 

 a republican government in the form that the 

 people of the United States can agree to. 



"Now, for that purpose there are three 

 modes indicated. One is to remove the cause 

 of the war, by an alteration of the Constitution 

 of the United States, prohibiting slavery every- 

 where within its limits. That, sir, goes to the 

 root of the matter, and should consecrate the 

 nation's triumph. But there are thirty-four 

 States three-fourths of them would be twenty- 

 six. I believe there are twenty-five States rep- 

 resented in this Congress; so that we on that 

 basis cannot change the Constitution. It is 

 therefore a condition precedent in that view of 

 the case that more States shall have govern- 

 ments organized within them. If it be as- 

 sumed that the basis of calculation shall be 

 three-fourths of the States now represented in 

 Congress, I agree to that construction of the 

 Constitution, which I understand to be that of 

 the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, the 

 gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Stevens), 

 and not without countenance in high judicial 

 quarters. I think it was never contemplated 

 that the supreme political power should pass 

 away from the Government of the United 

 States. But that view will probably encoun- 

 ter as much doubt as the bill before the House, 

 besides involving serious delay ; and under any 

 circumstances, even upon that basis, it will be 

 difficult to find three-fourths of the States, 

 with New Jersey, or Kentucky, or Maryland, 

 Delaware, or other States that might be men- 

 tioned, opposed to it under existing auspices, to 

 adopt such a clause of the Constitution after we 

 shall have agreed to it. If adopted, it still leaves 

 the whole field of the civil administration of 

 the States, prior to the recognition of State 

 governments, all laws necessary to the ascer- 

 tainment of the will of the people, and all re- 

 strictions on the return to power of the lead- 



ers of the rebellion, wholly unprovided for. 

 The amendment of the Constitution meets my 

 hearty approval ; but it is not a remedy for the 

 evils Ave must deal with. 



"The next plan is that inaugurated by the 

 President of the United States in the procla- 

 mation of the 8th December, called the am- 

 nesty proclamation. That proposes no guard 

 ianship of the United States over the reorgan- 

 ization of the governments, no law to prescribe 

 who shall vote, no civil functionaries to see 

 that the law is faithfully executed, no super- 

 vising authority to control and judge of the 

 election. But if, in any manner, by the tolera- 

 tion of martial law, lately proclaimed the fun- 

 damental law, under the dictation of any mili- 

 tary authority, or under the prescriptions of a 

 provost marshal, something in the form of a 

 government shall be presented, represented to 

 rest on the votes of one-tenth of the popula- 

 tion, the President will recognize that, pro- 

 vided it does not contravene the proclamation 

 of freedom and the laws of Congress ; and, to 

 secure that, an oath is exacted. 



"Xow you will observe that there is no 

 guarantee of law to watch over the organ- 

 ization of that government. It may combine 

 all the population of a State ; it may combine 

 one-tenth only ; or ten governments may come 

 competing for recognition at the door of the 

 Executive mansion. The executive authority 

 is pledged ; Congress is not pledged. It may 

 be recognized by the military power, and may 

 not be recognized by the civil power, so that it 

 would have a doubtful existence, half civil and 

 half military, neither a temporary government 

 by law of Congress, nor a State government ; 

 something as unknown to the Constitution as 

 the rebel government that refuses to recog- 

 nize it. 



"But, Mr. Speaker, let us regard its opera- 

 tion on a great fundamental measure the ex- 

 istence of slavery, the condition of future peace. 

 How does it accomplish the final removal of 

 slavery ? How does it accomplish the reorgan- 

 ization of the government on the basis of uni- 

 versal freedom ? The only prescription is, that 

 the government shall not contravene the pro- 

 visions of that proclamation. Sir, if that proc- 

 lamation be valid, then we are relieved from all 

 trouble on that score. But, if that proclama- 

 tion be not valid, then the oath to support it is 

 without legal sanction, for the President can 

 ask no man to bind himself by an oath to sup- 

 port an unfounded proclamation, or an uncon- 

 stitutional law, even for a moment, still less 

 till it shall have been declared void by the Su- 

 preme Court of the United States. It is the 

 paramount right of every American citizen to 

 judge for himself, on his own responsibility, 

 of his constitutional rights ; and an oath does 

 not bind him to submit to that which is illegal. 

 If, therefore, he shall have taken the oath, he 

 can, in good conscience as well as in good law 

 disregard it the next moment. So that, in 

 point of fact, the law leaves us where the 



