CONGRESS, d. S. 



303 



know the meaning of the word 'guarantee.' 

 What is it ? Does the authority to ' guarantee 

 to each State in this Union a republican form 

 of Government ' authorize this Union to set up 

 a government, to create a government, or to 

 make a government ? Is the maker of a note the 

 man who guarantees its payment ? There is no 

 man in the Senate who knows better the defi- 

 nition and legal significance of the word ' guar- 

 antee ' than the Senator from Ohio, and none, 

 I am sure, is more familiar, too, with the power 

 that was intended to he conferred by this pro- 

 vision of the Constitution." 



Mr. Wade: " I want an argument square. I 

 do not like this dodging." 



Mr. Carlile : " There is no dodging with me. 

 I am going to meet it squarely.'' 



Mr. Wade: "Suppose a State of this Union 

 undertakes to set up a monarchy, suppose it 

 has elected its monarch, suppose he is on the 

 throne, and sets up a government hostile to 

 the United States, how shall the United States 

 guarantee a republican government to the peo- 

 ple of that State? They have got to do it. 

 The Constitution says it shall be done. How ? 

 By keeping out of the boundary of the State ? 

 By this letting alone principle that we hear of? 

 Is that it?" 



Mr. Carlile : " The Senator is wandering en- 

 tirely from the question. I answered the Sen- 

 ator awhile ago how he was to get rid of the 

 monarchy. I told him it was his duty, made 

 so by this provision of the Constitution, to 

 bring to bear the power of this Government 

 to relieve the people of the State from that 

 monarchy, and maintain them in the possession 

 and enjoyment of their State government, or- 

 ganized by themselves, and which existed be- 

 fore the attempted monarchy was forced upon 

 them." 



Mr. Wade : " Let us stop right there. Sup- 

 pose now that we have conquered them and 

 the people are still bent on their monarchy, 

 shall we not guarantee a republican govern- 

 ment to them by putting one over them ? " 



Mr. Carlile : ' Xo, sir. If the Senator be 

 right, Mr. Madison, the author of the Consti- 

 tution, was wrong. I supposed that the Sen- 

 ator was familiar with the 'Federalist,' and the 

 Senator ought to be familiar with the discus- 

 sions of this very same provision when the 

 Constitution came before the people of the sev- 

 eral States to be ratified or rejected. The ' Fed- 

 eralist ' is looked upon as a correct exposition 

 of these very powers, and one of the objec- 

 tions by the many objectors at that day was, 

 not that the provision conferred power to do 

 what is proposed to be done by this bill, but 

 that an unscrupulous Congress, unmindful of 

 their constitutional obligations, unmindful of 

 their duty as representatives, regardless of the 

 rights and liberties of the people, and of the 

 rights of their States that they were created 

 for the purpose of protecting, might use as a 

 pretext this provision to assert the very power 

 the Senator proposes in this bill, and what is 



the reply ? I read from the forty-third num- 

 ber of the ' Federalist : ' 



6. " To guarantee to every State in the Union a 

 republican form of government ; to protect each of 

 them against invasion ; and on application of the 

 Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legisla- 

 ture cannot be convened), against domestic vio- 

 lence." 



In a confederacy founded on republican principles, 

 and composed of "republican members, the superin- 

 tending government ought clearly to possess author- 

 ity to defend the system against aristocratic or mon- 

 archical innovations. 



" The very case put by the Senator ; and how 

 it is to be done is stated : 



The more intimate the nature of such an Union 

 may be, the greater interest have the members in the 

 political institutions of each other; and the greater 

 right to insist that the forms of government under 

 which the compact was entered into should be sub- 

 stantially maintained. 



It may possibly be asked, what need there could 

 be of such a precaution, and whether it may not 

 become a pretext for alterations in the State govern- 

 ments without the concurrence of the States them- 

 selves. These questions admit of ready answers. 

 If the interposition of the General Government should 

 not be needed, the provision for such an event will 

 be a harmless superfluity only in the Constitution. 

 But who can say what experiments may be produced 

 by the caprice of particular States, by the ambition 

 of enterprising leaders, or bv the intrigues and in- 

 fluence of foreign Powers ? To the second question 

 it may be answered that if the General Government 

 should interpose by virtue of this constitutional 

 authority, it will be of course bound to pursue the 

 authority. But the authority extends no further 

 than to a guarantee of a republican form of govern- 

 ment, which supposes & preexisting government of the 

 form which is to be guaranteed. 



"Xow. sir. is the Senator answered? The 

 people of the State, whether there is an attempt 

 to overthrow the State government, or whether 

 it has been a successful attempt as against the 

 State itself, are to be relieved by the action of 

 this Government in pursuance of the authority 

 therein granted. It is not claimed or pretended, 

 I suppose, by the Senator from Ohio or by any 

 advocate of this bill, that under any other pro- 

 vision of the Constitution can a pretext be 

 afforded for the assertion of such a power as 

 this bill proposes to assert." 



Mr. Wilkinson : " Suppose the people of 

 the State of South Carolina have determined 

 that they will not have a republican form of 

 government in that State, what would the 

 Senator have the Government of the United 

 States do xinder such circumstances ? " 



Mr. Carlile : ' I would have the Govern- 

 ment of the United States do nothing that it 

 has not the power under the Constitution to 

 do, because I believe that the Government of 

 the United States is a Government of limited 

 powers. I believe it to be its duty under the 

 grant of power in the Constitution, to guarantee 

 the existence of a preexisting republican gov- 

 ernment. That government existed in South 

 Carolina ; the people have not determined, at 

 least before this war they had not determined, 

 to have any other than a republican form of 

 government. We had recognized that 



