300 



CONGEESS, U. S. 



""What is the relation that these seceded 

 States hold to the General Government now ? 

 Gentlemen differ widely on that subject. It is 

 a most important question, however, to be as- 

 certained and declared by Congress, for the 

 Executive ought not to be permitted to handle 

 this great question to his own liking. It does 

 not belong, under the Constitution, to the 

 President to prescribe the rule, and it is a base 

 abandonment of our own powers and our own 

 duties to cast this great principle upon the de- 

 cision of the executive branch of the Govern- 

 ment. It belongs to us ; and the House of 

 Eepresentatives, in the performance of their 

 duty, have in my judgment wisely performed 

 this great function. I know very well that the 

 President from the best motives undertook to 

 fix a rule upon which he would admit these 

 States back into the Union. It was not upon 

 any principle of republicanism ; it would not 

 have guaranteed to the States a republican form 

 of government, because he prescribed the rule 

 to be that when one-tenth of the population 

 would take a certain oath and agree to come 

 back into the Union they might come in as 

 States. "When we consider that in the light of 

 American principle, to say the least of it, it was 

 absurd. The idea that a State shall take upon 

 itself the great privilege of self-government 

 when there are only one-tenth of the people 

 that can stand by the principle, is most anti- 

 republican, anomalous, and entirely subversive 

 of the great principles that underlie all our 

 State governments and the General Govern- 

 ment. Majorities must rule, and until majori- 

 ties can be found loyal and trustworthy for 

 State government, they must be governed by a 

 stronger hand. It is a necessity imposed upon 

 the General Government by the Constitution 

 itself. 



" I have said that it is the duty of the Federal 

 Government to guarantee to every State a re- 

 publican form of government, and here, Sen- 

 ators, remember that the bill moving upon this 

 great principle moves under the broad segis of 

 the Constitution of the United States. It sets 

 up no fanciful principle of government outside 

 of that instrument. It disposes of that grave 

 question, what is the condition of these States 

 and what is their relation to the General Gov- 

 vernment? It does not go outside of the Con- 

 stitution of the United States itself. I say 

 again, it leaves nothing to gentlemen's judg- 

 ment or the different fancies that may spring 

 up among different individuals. 



"It has been contended in the House of 

 Eepresentatives, it has been contended upon this 

 floor, that the States may lose their organiza- 

 tion, may lose their rights as States, may lose 

 their corporate capacity by rebellion. I utterly 

 deny that doctrine. I hold that once a State 

 of this Union, always a State ; that you cannot 

 by wrong and Violence displace the rights of 

 anybody or disorganize the State. It would be 

 a most hazardous principle to assert that. No, 

 sir : the Earners of your Constitution intended 



no such thing. They did not leave this great 

 question untouched ; and when we study that 

 great instrument I can hardly help but stop 

 and contemplate the all-embracing wisdom that 

 seemed to actuate them, for you can find hardly 

 an exigency that may arise in the complicated 

 affairs of government that they did not antici- 

 pate and provide for. They did foresee that in 

 the progress of the Government some of the 

 States might go into rebellion, that they might 

 undertake themselves to absolve their connec- 

 tion with the General Government and set up 

 some hostile government of their own; and 

 they expressly provided for just such a case, 

 and how gentlemen with this principle of the 

 Constitution staring them in the face can fancy 

 that States can lose their rights because more 

 or less of the people have gone off into rebel- 

 lion, is marvellous to me. The principal of law 

 everywhere is that no honest man shall lose a 

 right by wrong or usurpation. The act of re- 

 bellion is void. It may have physical force for 

 the moment to displace rights; but the law 

 never yields to any such power as that. The 

 law never anywhere acknowledges that right 

 can be overthrown by wrongful action. They, 

 then, who contend that the State governments 

 are lost, obliterated, blotted out, are contending 

 against the face and eyes of the Constitution, 

 lias that said any such thing? No, sir. It 

 has said that the Federal Government shall 

 guarantee to every State a republican form of 

 government ; and if a portion of the people un- 

 dertake to overthrow their Government and 

 set up another, it is the manifest duty of the 

 General Government immediately to interfere, 

 and, if necessary, to interpose the strong arm 

 of its power to prevent such a state of things. 

 Precisely that state of things is upon us, and 

 this bill proceeds upon that idea and discards 

 absolutely the notion that States may lose their 

 rights and that they may be abrogated and may 

 be reduced to the condition of Territories. It 

 denies any such thing as that. No sound prin- 

 ciple can be adopted that warrants any such 

 thing. 



"Mr. President, the question is so large that 

 when one gets into it he is tempted into details 

 that I feel there is no time now to indulge in. 

 The bill prescribes, as I have said, that there 

 shall be a military governor in each of these 

 States until he can ascertain that a majority are 

 willing to return to it ; and he is to ascertain just 

 as soon as it can be done by the appointment 

 of certain commissioners who are to go out and 

 take a census of the people, and ascertain their 

 Avishes and desires on this subject, and ascer- 

 tain whether there are really a majority of the 

 people in the State that propose to come back, 

 who are truly loyal and could maintain a gov- 

 ernment. The bill provides that the military 

 governor shall do this ; and the very moment it 

 becomes certain that there are a majority able 

 to do this, the military governor's power is to 

 cease, and it is to be resigned into civil bands 

 who are to go on and organize the State. Who 



