COXGRESS, U. S. 



299 



William B. Washburn, Williams, Wilder, Wilson, 

 Windom, and Woodbridge 73. 



NAYS Messrs. Wllliam'J. Allen, Ancona, Augustus 

 C. Baldwin, Blair, Brooks, James S. Brown, William 

 G. Brown, Chanler, Clay, Cox, Dawson, Dennison, 

 Eden, Eldridge, Finck, Ganson, Grider, Hale, Hall, 

 Harding, Benjamin G. Harris, Charles M. Harris, 

 Herrick, Holrnan, Philip Johnson, William John- 

 son, Kernan, Knapp, Law, Lnzear, Le Blond, Long, 

 Marcy, McAllister, Middleton, Morrison, Noble, 

 Odell, John O'Neill. Pendleton, Perry, Radford, 

 Samuel J. Randall, William H. Randall, James S. 

 Rollins, Ross, Scott, Smith, John B. Steele, William 

 G. Steele, Stiles, Strouse, Stuart, Ward, Webster, 

 Whaley, Wheeler, Chilton, A. White, and Yeaman 

 59. 



In the Senate on July 1st, this bill was called 

 up by Mr. "Wade, of Ohio, -when Mr. Brown, 

 of Missouri, moved the following amendment : 



That when the inhabitants of any State hare been 

 declared in a state of insurrection against the United 

 States by proclamation of the President, by force 

 and virtue of the act entitled " An act further to 

 provide for the collection of duties on imports, and 

 for other purposes," approved July 13, 1861, they 

 shall be, and are hereby declared to be incapable of 

 casting any vote for electors of President or Yice- 

 President of the United States, or of electing Sen- 

 ators or Representatives in .Congress, until said in- 

 surrection in said State is suppressed or abandoned, 

 and said inhabitants have returned to their obedience 

 to the Government of the United States, nor until 

 such return to obedience shall be declared by procla- 

 mation of the President, issued by virtue of an act 

 of Congress hereafter to be passed, authorizing the 

 same. 



"I desire to state that in offering this amend- 

 ment I have been prompted chiefly by the fact 

 that the session is drawing so near its close 

 that we have not time to discuss a measure of 

 this importance as it should be discussed. I, 

 for one, am not sufficiently familiar with the 

 details of this bill, and there are certain features 

 of it that do not meet my approbation which I 

 would like to amend, to alter, and to change ; 

 but it is very apparent as matters now stand it 

 will be impossible to do so. The present amend- 

 ment provides all the security which can be 

 asked in regard to the exercise of electoral 

 privileges in these districts. That is the ne- 

 cessity of the hour. I propose to provide for 

 that necessity, and to leave the matter of re- 

 construction to a later day when events shall 

 have perhaps altered some of the relations in 

 which these districts now stand to us. I do 

 not think, furthermore, that the attitude of the 

 country to which this bill is proposed to apply, 

 is sufficiently distinct and sufficiently developed 

 to justify us at this hour in passing upon the 

 work of reconstruction. I therefore move the 

 amendment, which is to strike out all after the 

 enacting clause and make the provision there 

 recited." 



Mr. Wade, of Ohio, followed, saying: "This 

 great question is pending before the country ; it 

 will not lie still; the Administration will force 

 it on our consideration frequently, and it will 

 arise in a thousand ways before us as long as 

 this war shall continue, and afterwards. The 

 question will be asked of every man who goes 

 out to canvass during the coming election, 



'What do you propose to do with these seceded 

 States in regard to their coming back ? ' Every 

 one says that the Union must be reestablished 

 in some form ; but how ? That question is in 

 the mind of every man, woman, and child in 

 the country. The Union is to be preserved; 

 but upon what principle will yon permit these 

 people to come back into the Union? It ia 

 a very natural question ; it arises every day to 

 everybody that considers the subject at all, and 

 we must be prepared to give an answer to it. 

 Here Congress has been in session seven months ; 

 we are about to leave and go back among the 

 people, and they will say, ' You have talked 

 very much and very long and very loud about 

 reconstruction ; some of these States have sent 

 their agents and demanded readmission into 

 the Union; you have voted them out; you 

 have refused to receive them; but have you 

 declared on what principle you will permit 

 them to come in ? ' Our political opponents 

 will say to us, ' It is your deliberate purpose 

 to subdue these people, to subjugate them, to 

 tyrannize over them, and never to let them 

 come back into the Union on equal terms with 

 the other States ; when they have in form made 

 a free constitution and elected Senators accord- 

 ing to the forms of law, and who as they be- 

 lieved were entitled to seats here, you have 

 thrust them out, but you do not declare any 

 principle on which you will admit them.' That 

 would be wrong. We ought to be able to an- 

 swer authoritatively everybody that demands 

 to know upon what principle they shall be ad- 

 mitted. 



" The amendment that is now offered to this 

 bill will give the people no information upon 

 that subject. It is a bare negative. It de- 

 clares that they shall not come in until Con- 

 gress shall provide some principle for their 

 admission, and of course it leaves it entirely a 

 blank how that shall be. This bill goes on to 

 prescribe precisely on what principle we are 

 willing to admit these people into the Union 

 acrain. and that pressing question it seems to me 

 should now be decided. I hold that there is 

 nothing tyrannical or oppressive in this bill, but 

 that it proceeds upon the most liberal grounds 

 of equality. On the one hand it guards the 

 Federal Government against the admission of 

 dangerous persons who still adhere to the con- 

 federate notions, and it prescribes the principle 

 on which all the loyal people of the States can 

 come back, and it provides for them a just and 

 equitable government during the period of 

 their transition state while they remain outside 

 of the Union as States. It guards their rights 

 most sedulously ; and it undertakes to deal 

 most equitably with those that are not in a 

 condition safely to be admitted into the Union 

 again. It prescribes deliberately and plainly 

 the principle of organization and when they 

 can be permitted to come back, and the bill 

 escapes many of those questions that have been 

 agitated in debate both in this and the other 

 House. 



