COXGEESS, U. S. 



305 



those who have conducted the military power 

 of this country in this war. But, sir, the Sen- 

 ator from Ohio says the Union is to be pre- 

 served. So say I. Upon what principle are 

 these States to come back into the Union? 

 The people, says the Senator from Ohio, will 

 meet you with that inquiry. Sir, when was 

 ever such an inquiry suggested to the brain of 

 any loyal man in this Union ? "When was such 

 an inquiry ever put? Xever until after a 

 policy different from that which characterized 

 the commencement of this struggle was entered 

 upon by the party in power. All said the 

 Union was to be restored; all accepted the 

 struggle as the use of the military power of the 

 Government in the restoration of the Union. 

 What Union ? The Union of the Constitution. 

 The Union into which new States are to be 

 admitted. It is not into " a Union," but into 

 "this Union" that the States are admitted. 

 "What Union ? The Union of the Constitution, 

 none other ; and he who seeks to preserve the 

 Union, can only do it by an observance of the 

 Constitution and the use of the constitutional 

 means to restore it, not reconstruct it. 



Where do you derive the power to recon- 

 struct this Union ? What Union are you the 

 representatives of? What is the Union which 

 has given to you your seats ? It is the Union 

 as it has existed from 1789 ; it is the Union of 

 which the Constitution of the United States is 

 the only bond; it is a Union of limited and 

 delegated powers, bounded, as Mr. Adams said, 

 on one hand by the right of the States to in- 

 ternal legislation, and on the other by the laws 

 and usages of nations. In this Union, created 

 by this Constitution, of limited and delegated 

 powers, all prescribed and written in the in- 

 strument, you propose to exercise your legisla- 

 tive power by usurping the rights and liberties 

 of the people, a power which all the people 

 you represent could not use or could not exert 

 without the destruction of the Union which 

 the Constitution formed. There is no power 

 in this Government, there is no power in the 

 parties to this Government, there is no power 

 in all the "States of this Union to prescribe a 

 constitution for the little State of Ehode Island. 

 If every other State in the Union, the adhering 

 as well as the rebellious States, if every man, 

 woman, and child in them were to meet and 

 prescribe a constitution for the people of Ehode 

 Island, they would have no power or authority 

 to do so under the Union ; and tell me where 

 the people's representatives derive the power 

 to do that which all the people in their collect- 

 ive capacity, save the small minority that con- 

 stitutes that State, cannot do ? 



" When I heard the learned Senator from Wis- 

 consin, now occupying the chair (Mr. Doolit- 

 tle), a few days ago on this floor say that after 

 this war we were to have a better Union than 

 we have ever had, the expression of the senti- 

 ment not only astonished me, but it sunk into 

 my heart and impressed itself upon my memory 

 never to be effaced. Where do you derive the 

 vr,t. rr. 20 A 



power or the authority to give us any other 

 Union than that which the Constitution created ? 

 Who is willing to intrust, even to Senators of 

 this day, the right of forming a Union which 

 it is to be supposed will be superior and above 

 the Union that the patriots of the Eevolution 

 formed ? 



" The Senator from Ohio, in the remark? 

 which he has submitted upon this bill, has said 

 that he did not wish to subjugate these people, 

 and he denied our right to subjugate them. 

 He was not for subjugating them, and not for 

 letting them into the Union upon equal terms 

 with the other States. I put it to the Senator 

 from Ohio, if this bill itself is not a subjugation 

 of the people upon whom it is proposed to 

 operate. You provide that after the suppres- 

 sion of this rebellion, this provisional governor 

 may summon a convention to form a constitu- 

 tion, not to amend the existing constitution, 

 but to form a constitution and to prescribe " 



Mr. Wade : "I presume they can take the 

 one they have if they like it better in that 

 shape." 



Mr. Carlile : " Let the Senator wait a bit 

 and I will get his attention to this section of 

 the bill. That convention is to meet a con- 

 vention composed of delegates alone, who have 

 sworn allegiance to the Constitution of the 

 United States, who have taken upon themselves 

 the solemn obligation which the last Congress 

 provided should be taken by all holding office 

 under the Government of the United States in 

 the act of July 2, 1862; I believe, that con- 

 vention to be selected alone, by electors who 

 have taken the oath of allegiance to the United 

 States ; and yet if that convention does not 

 impose the restrictions which this bill seeks to 

 impose upon these States, it is to be dissolved. 

 That convention is not to be allowed, under this 

 bill to adopt if it chooses, a constitution, repub- 

 lican in form, but it must adopt certain pro- 

 visions prescribed in this bill ; and if they, ic 

 the exercise of the rights that belong to an 

 uusubjugated people, refuse to adopt these 

 provisions, they are to be dissolved and dis- 

 persed, and the privilege of erecting a govern- 

 ment for themselves denied to them, and they 

 are to go out into the country, after military 

 resistance has ceased, after there is no obstruc- 

 tion to the execution of the laws, after all the 

 various machinery of this Government is work- 

 ing smoothly and quietly, and remain until the 

 President shall become satisfied that another 

 convention composed of subjugated delegates,, 

 will do what this bill declares they shall do- 

 before they can ever resume the right of self- 

 government and have the benefit of the civil 

 administration of the laws under that govern- 

 ment which they have formed for themselves. 

 If I understand the word 'subjugate,' no exer- 

 tion of power that can be conceived of by the 

 autocrat of Eussia, or by any tyrant that ever 

 sat upon a throne, more completely subjugates 

 a free people than this provision of this bill. 



"There is another feature in connection witb 



