CONGRESS, U. S. 



309 



gentleman from Maryland assert, in his opinion, 

 that the State government is. destroyed in Ar- 

 kansas; that she is obliterated as a State ; that 

 she is no longer one of the States of the Union ; 



by the constitution, to determine what is the established 

 government in a State, and in its own nature and by the 

 hiirhest judicial authority binding on all other departments 

 of the Government 



The Supreme Court has formally declared that, nnder the 

 4th section of the IVth article of the Constitution, requiring 

 the United States to guarantee to every State a republican 

 form of government, "it rests with Congress to decide what 

 government is the established one in a State;" and ''when 

 senators and representatives of a State are admitted into the 

 councils of the Union, the authority of the Government under 

 which they are appointed, as well" as its republican charac- 

 ter, is recognized by the proper constitutional authority, 

 and its decision is binding on every other department of the 

 Government, and could not be questioned in a judicial tribu- 

 nal. It is true that the contest in this case did not last long 

 enough to bring the matter to this issue : and as no senators 

 or representatives were elected under the authority of the 

 Government of which Mr. Dorr was the head. Congress was 

 not called npon to decide the controversy. Yet the right to 

 decide is placed there."' 



Even the President's proclamation of the Sth of December 

 formally declares that " whether members sent to Congress 

 from any State shall be admitted to seats constitutionally 

 rests exclusively with the respective houses, and not to any 

 extent with the" Executive." 



And that is not the less true because wholly inconsistent 

 with the President's assumption in that proclamation of a 

 risht to institute and recognize state governments in the 

 -rates, nor because the President is unable to perceive 

 that his recognition is a nullity if it be not conclusive on 

 Congr 



Under the Constitution, the right to senators and repre- 

 sentatives is inseparable from a State Government. 



If there be a State Government the right is absolute. 



If there be no State Government there can be no senators 

 or representatives chosen. 



The two Houses of Congress are expressly declared to be 

 the sole judges of their own members. 



When, therefore, senators and representatives are admitted, 

 the State Government under whose authority they were 

 chosen is conclusively established ; when they are rejected, 

 its existence is as conclusively rejected and denied; and to 

 this judgment the President is" bound to submit. 



The President proceeds to express his unwillingness u to 

 declare a constitutional competency in Congress to abolish 

 slavery in States " as another reason for not signing the bill. 



But the bill nowhere proposes to abolish slavery i:i 



The bill did provide that all slates in the rebel 

 should be manumitted. 



But as the President had already signed three bills manu- 

 mitting several classes of slaves in States, it is not conceived 

 possible that he entertained any scruples touching that pro- 

 vision of the bill respecting which he is silent 



He had already himself assumed a right by proclamation 

 to free much the larger number of slaves in the reU\ - 

 under the authority given him by Congress to use military 



Eower to suppress the rebellion ; and it is quite inconceiva- 

 le that the President should think Congress could veit in 

 him a discretion it could not exercise i; 



It is the more unintelligible from the fao. "hat except in re- 

 spect to a small part of 'N irgiaia and Louisiana, the bill cov- 

 ered only what the proclamation covered added a ( 

 sional title and judicial remedies by law to the disput 

 under the proclamation, and perfected the work the President 

 professed to be so anxious to accomplish. 



Slavery as an institution can be abolished only by a change 

 of the Constitution of the United States, or of the 'law of the 

 States; and thisis the principle of the bill. 



It required the new constitution of the State to provide 

 for that prohibition ; and the President, in the face of his 

 own proclamation, does not venture to object to insisting on 

 that condition. Xor will the country tolerate its abandon- 

 mentyet he defeated the only provision imposing it. 



But when he describes himself, in spite of this great blow 

 at emancipation, as u sincerely hoping and expecting that a 

 constitutional amendment abolishing slavery throughout the 

 nation may be adopted," we curiously inquire on what his 

 expectation rests, after the vote of the House of Representa- 

 tives at the recent session, and in the face of the political 

 complexion of more than enough of the States to prevent 

 the possibility of its adoption within any reasonable time ; 

 and why he did not indulge his sincere hopes with so large 

 an instalment of the blessing as his approval of the bill would 

 have secured? 



After this assignment of his reasons for preventing the bill 



and that she must come back into the family of 

 States upon application, just as a State comes 

 in from a Territory ? " 

 Mr. Davis replied: "A State should exist 



from becoming a law, the President proceeds to declare his 

 purpose to execute it as a law by his plenary dictatorial 

 power. 



He says : " Nevertheless, I am fully satisfied with the sys- 

 tem for restoration contained in the bill as one very proper 

 plan for the loyal people of any State choosing to adopt it ; 

 and that I am, and at all times shall be, prepared to give the 

 Executive aid and assistance to any such people as soon as 

 the military resistance to the United States shall have been 

 suppressed" in any such State, and the -people thereof shall 

 have sufficiently returned to their obedience to the Consti- 

 tution and the laws of the United States in which cases 

 military governors will be appointed, with directions to pro- 

 ceed according to the bill." 



A more studied ontrage on the legislative authority of the 

 people has never been perpetrated. 



Congress passed a bill ; the President refused to approve it, 

 and then by proclamation puts as much of it in force as he 

 . and proposes to execute those parts by officers un- 

 known to the laws of the United States, and not subject to 

 the confirmation of the Senate. 



The bill directed the appointment of provisional govern- 

 ors by and with the advice and consent of the Senate. 



The President, after defeating the law, proposes to appoint, 

 without law and without the advice and consent of the Sen- 

 ate, military governors for the rebel States! 



He has already exercised this dictatorial usurpation in 

 Louisiana, and defeated the bill to prevent its limitation. 



Henceforth we must regard the lollowing precedent as the 

 Presidential law of the rebel States: 



" EXECUTIVE MANSION. J 

 WASHINGTON-, March 15, 1864. ( 

 "ITi't Eoeoettmoy Jfichatl Ifahn, Governor of Louisiana : 



u Until further orders you are hereby invested with the 

 powers exercised hitherto by the military governor of Lou- 

 isiana. Tours, ABRAHAM LENCOLX." 



This Michael Hahn is no officer of the United States ; the 

 President, without law, without the advice and consent of 

 the Senate, by a private note not even countersigned by tho 

 Secretary of State, makes him dictator of Louisiana ! 



The bi'll provided for the civil administration of the laws 

 of the State but it should be in a fit temper to govern itself 

 repealing all laws recognizing slavery, and making all men 

 equal before the law. 



These beneficent provisions the President has annulled. 

 People will die, and marry and transfer property, and buy 

 and sell ; and to these acts of civil lile courts and officers of 

 the law are necessary. Congress legislated for these neces- 

 sary things, and the President deprives them of the protec- 

 tion of the law ! 



The President's purpose to instruct his military governors 

 u to proceed according to the bill " a makeshift "to calm the 

 disappointment its defeat has occasioned is not merely a 

 grave usurpation but a transparent delusion. 



He cannot " proceed according to the bill " after preventing 

 it from becoming a law. 



Whatever is done will be at his will and pleasure, by per- 

 sons responsible to no law, and more interested to secure the 

 interests and execute the will of the President than of the 

 people ; and the will of Congress is to be u held for naught," 

 ' unless the loyal people of the rebel States choose to adopt it." 



If they should graciously prefer the stringent bill to the 

 easy proclamation, still the registration will be made under 

 no legal sanction ; it will give" no assurance that a majority 

 of the people of the States have taken the oath ; if adminis- 

 tered, it will be without legal authority and void ; no indict- 

 ment will lie for false swearing at the election, or for admit- 

 ting bad or rejecting good votes; it will be the farce of Lou- 

 isiana and Arkansas acted over again, under the forms of this 

 bill, but not by authority of la * 



But when we come to" the guaranties of future peace which 

 Congress meant to enact, the forms, as well as the substance 

 of the bill, must yield to the President's will that none 

 should be imposed." 



It was the solemn resolve of Congress to protect the loyal 

 men of the nation against three great dangers : (1) the "re- 

 turn to power of the guilty leaders of the rebellion ; (2) the 

 continuance of slavery, and (3) the burden of the rebel debt. 



Congress required assent to those provisions by the con- 

 vention of the State ; and if refused, it was to be dissolved. 



The President li holds for naught " that resolve of Con- 

 gress, because he is unwilling ' to be inflexibly committed to 

 any one plan of restoration,' and the people of the United 

 Suites are not to be allowed to protect themselves unless 

 their enemies agree to it. 



