CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



147 



Constitution, and being made the companion 

 l' its oilier dan- -. tlu-ivby construes ana gives 

 new meanings to those, other clauses; and it 

 thus lets down and spoils the free spirit and 

 sense of the Constitution. Associated with that 

 clans,- ivlating to tho States being 'republi- 

 can/ it maLi-s it read thus: 'The United Static 

 shall giiunmtoo to every State in this Union a 

 republican form of government ' provided, how- 

 ever, that a government shall be deemed to 

 bo republican when whole races of its people 

 are wholly disfranchised, unrepresented, and 

 ignored." 



Numerous amendments to the report of tho 

 committee were offered, without being adopted, 

 and tho debate continued. 



Mr. iJiiigham, of Ohio, said: "Mr. Speaker, 

 I am for the pending amendment to the Con- 

 stitution of my country, and tho other amend- 

 ments to which I have already referred. I am 

 lor this and for the other essential amendments 

 indicated, for the sake of the Union, and for the 

 sake of the Constitution of the Union. Beyond 

 that, if I know my own mind or my own heart, 

 1 have no feeling on this question. It towers 

 above all party consideration ; it touches the 

 life of the Republic, and not the miserable in- 

 quiry whether this or that party shall be suc- 

 cessful in the coming contest. It is for this 

 House to decide whether amendments are 

 necessary to the safety of the country and the 

 protection of the people. I am for the pro- 

 posed amendment from a sense of right that 

 absolute, eternal verity which underlies your 

 Constitution. The right is the law of the Re- 

 public. So it was proclaimed in your imperish- 

 able Declaration by the words, * All men are 

 created equal ; they are endowed by their Crea- 

 tor with the rights of life and liberty : to secure 

 these rights Governments are instituted among 

 men, deriving their just powers from the con- 

 sent of the governed; ' and by those other words, 

 4 These States may do what free and independ- 

 ent States may of right (not of wrong, but of 

 right, do.' " 



.Mr. Raymond, of New York, in opposition 

 to the resolution, said : " Now, sir, I cannot 

 help believing it is an inference merely that 

 this proposition is reported from that commit- 

 tee as part of a scheme for reconstructing tho 

 Government and the Constitution of the United 

 States for reconstructing both on the basis of 

 a distinct principle which has been over and 

 over again announced in this House. That 

 principle is simply this : that by the war which 

 has been raging, and as a consequence of that 

 war, the States which were in rebellion have 

 ceased to have any existence as States; that 

 they have ceased to bo States of this Union; 

 that they exist only as so much waste, unor- 

 pani/A'd, ungoverned territory; that the people 

 who live upon that territory aro simply ' van- 

 quished enemies,' to bo governed and disposed 

 of by us at our sovereign will, and subject to no 

 law but our own discretion. It is on that prin- 

 riple, sir, that the action proposed at this time 



is to be bacd, if it has any basis at all. That 

 has been tho tone of the debates on the subject 



" I deny in toto tho fact of such subjugation. 

 I do not believe that the war has given n any 

 Mich power. On the contrary, I hold that these 

 States have never ceased to be States in and 

 States of tho Union. And they arc to-day States 

 <>t' the Union, and therefore entitled to all the 

 rights conferred upon them as such bythe Con- 

 stitution. And we have no right and no power 

 to exercise any authority over them which tho 

 Constitution does not confer upon us, any more 

 than we have over the States of New England 

 or tho West." 



Mr. Raymond then proceeded to examine 

 somewhat at length this principle upon which 

 it was proposed to rest the question. Admit- 

 ting a statement advanced by Mr. Shellabarger 

 "that a State to be such in this Union must be 

 characterized by habitual obedience to the Con- 

 stitution and laws of the United States," he 

 urged in opposition that " habitual obedience 

 to law may be suspended without impairing the 

 existence of the State in the sense of public 

 law, or as a State of the Union tinder the Con- 

 stitution of the United States." He then main- 

 tained that the Southern States did not cease 

 to be States in the sense of international law. 

 Their internal political organization was never 

 suspended. Conquest of one of the States by a 

 foreign power, causing a suspension of habitual 

 obedience, would not affect the existence of tho 

 State, either in the sense of public law or in the 

 contemplation of the Constitution of the United 

 States. Neither does an attempted usurpation 

 necessarily of itself take a State out of tho 

 Union. There is no specific time when these 

 States ceased to belong to the Union. "We have 

 not conquered them in any sense of subjugation 

 to any thing else than the Constitution of tho 

 United States. There is not in the Constitution 

 a provision for tho forfeiture of State rights. The 

 action of the executive, legislative, and judicial 

 departments has been such as to deal with the 

 States in no other manner than they might have 

 been dealt withbefore the war began. He then 

 reviewed the action of the President, and insist- 

 ed that nothing was necessary or required for 

 complete restoration of the practical relations 

 of the States with the national Government 

 but tho admission of their representatives in 

 both Houses of Congress. 



A vote was taken on a motion to refer the 

 report to the Committee of tho Whole on the 

 State of the Union, and lost yeas 37, nays 133. 



The House then ordered the report to bo re- 

 committed to the Committee on Reconstruction, 

 without instructions. 



On January 81st Mr. Stevens, from the 

 committee, reported back the joint resolution, 

 amended as follows : 



Resolved by the Senate and House of Iteprttentativet 

 of the United StaU* of America in Congrett attembled 

 (twiuthirds of both Houses concurring), That the 

 following article be proposed to the Legislatures of 



