302 



CONGRESS, U. S. 



as the whole of Congress, I challenge the Sen- 

 ator from Ohio to show me the authority in 

 Congress to exercise this power. The truth 

 is that the title of this bill is an insult to the 

 understanding of every intelligent man in the 

 nation, and the bill itself is one of the most 

 revolutionary that ever was proposed in a de- 

 liberative body claiming to be the representa- 

 tives of a free people. Unwilling as I am to 

 trespass on the time of the Senate, anxious as 

 I am for an early adjournment, refraining as I 

 have done for the last six months from occupy- 

 ing fifteen minutes even of the time of this 

 body, I am unwilling to allow such a measure 

 as this to pass without giving to it such con- 

 sideration and such discussion as I may be able 

 to do. 



"Mr. President, years back in our history, 

 forty odd years ago, a question far beneath this 

 in importance and significance was mooted in 

 the Congress of the United States that gave 

 such alarm to the author of the Declaration of 

 Independence, that he said it fell upon his ear 

 like the fire-bell at midnight; and what was 

 that question compared to this ? It was insig- 

 nificant ; it was but a grain of sand upon the 

 sea-shore compared to the mountain. That was 

 a proposition on the part of the United States 

 to impose upon the then inhabitants of the Ter- 

 ritories seeking admission into the Union, a re- 

 striction upon their right of self-government 

 when they became a State ; and after one of the 

 most exhaustive and learned debates that is con- 

 nected with our history or that ever graced the 

 Capitol of the nation, that assumption for Con- 

 gress was abandoned. It remained for the last 

 Congress to revive it and to do what its prede- 

 cessors would not do. It was permitted to rest 

 as the settled law of the land that the Congress 

 of the United States had no power to impose 

 by law limitations affecting the right of the peo- 

 ple of a Stat/a to regulate their own domestic 

 affairs, even when sought to be applied to the 

 inhabitants of a Territory seeking admission 

 into the Union ; and such was the settled action 

 of Congress until reversed at its last session, 

 when Congress assumed to create a State out 

 of a portion of the territory of the State which 

 I represent. I say ' assumed,' for it was but an 

 assumption. The debate to which I have re- 

 ferred established the want of power in Con- 

 gress, and so plain was it made that the advo- 

 cates of the power sought to be exercised, 

 abandoned the discussion and abandoned the 

 assumption. 



"No State can have a republican form of gov- 

 ernment, no State has a republican government, 

 when that government, no matter what are its 

 provisions, is prescribed to them by another 

 outside of their limits. A republican form of 

 government must emanate and emanate alone 

 from the people that are to be governed. It 

 belongs not to the Congress of the United 

 States ; it belongs not to thirty-three States of 

 this TJnion to prescribe for the smallest State 

 within its folds a constitution or form of gov- 



ernment. If you have a right to impose a limi 

 tation upon this power as to one subject of do- 

 mestic legislation, you have a right to impose it 

 upon every subject. If you have the right to 

 make one provision of a constitution for a peo- 

 ple, you have the right to make the entire in- 

 strument itself." 



Mr. Wade : "I should like to ask the Senator 

 this question : Suppose a State should undertake 

 to set up a monarchy in defiance of the General 

 Government, what would be its duty ? " 



Mr. Carlile: "Its duty is as plain as the 

 noonday sun in a clear and cloudless sky; its 

 duty is prescribed in the instrument which we 

 have sworn to support ; and that is to guarantee 

 to the people there a republican form of gov- 

 ernment which they had adopted for them- 

 selves, and which was in existence at the time 

 the attempted monarchy was sought to be sub- 

 stituted for it. There is the answer to the Sen- 

 ator. The Senator would claim for the Con- 

 gress of the United States sovereign powers, 

 powers exercised alone by a despot and a ty- 

 rant, by governing through appointees of their 

 own the sovereign States of this Union. 



" Mr. President, the Senator from Ohio re- 

 gards these States as States still, States in the 

 Union. He regards an attempt at the over- 

 throw of their governments, I take it from his 

 argument, to be treason. He regards it his con- 

 stitutional duty to prevent by all the means 

 within the power of the Government that at- 

 tempted overthrow. Now, I put this question to 

 the Senator, and I hope he will answer it : Where 

 does he as a member of the Congress of the Uni- 

 ted States derive the constitutional power to 

 govern a State by a Federal appointee ? Where 

 does the Senator derive the power to appoint 

 a Governor for a State, a State which he ac- 

 knowledges to be in existence, a State govern- 

 ment that he acknowedges to be in existence, 

 a State government that he acknowledges it to 

 be his duty to protect and maintain ? By what 

 provision of the Constitution does the Senator 

 derive the authority to appoint for such a State 

 an executive head ? " 



Mr. Wade : " Does the Senator want an an- 

 swer now ? " 



Mr. Carlile: "Certainly." 



Mr. Wade: -"As I have frequently said, the 

 Constitution of the United States provides that 

 Congress shall guarantee to every State in the 

 Union a republican form of government. When 

 any State undertakes to set up a government 

 in defiance of the Government of the United 

 States, to establish an aristocracy or a mon- 

 archy, or any thing but a republican govern- 

 ment, the Constitution gives the power to the 

 General Government to guarantee a republican 

 government, and when it has given the power 

 to it, it has given the means necessary to per- 

 form it. Is not that good law ? " 



Mr. Carlile : " No, sir. Now, Mr. President, 

 I will satisfy the Senator himself, I think ; and 

 really it is not necessary for me to attempt to 

 satisfy him, for he is too good a lawyer not to 



