158 



CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



sentatives to settle preliminarily the question 

 whether the States that sent them here were 

 entitled to have Senators and Representatives 

 or not. 



"Sir, we should he yielding every thing, we 

 should have no power left, we should be less 

 than children, we should hardly be entitled to 

 call ourselves slaves, if a question upon which 

 the very existence of these bodies, the Senate 

 and House of Representatives may depend, the 

 question of whether a State, or a body of men, 

 or an organization anywhere is entitled to rep- 

 resentation here, is not for us to settle and us 

 alone, so far as those proposed members are 

 concerned, without any dictation from anybody, 

 ay, without any advice from anybody. The 

 President is by the Constitution authorized and 

 required to give information to Congress from 

 time to time on the state of public affairs ; but 

 upon a question affecting the representation in 

 the Senate or in the House of Representatives, 

 he is not competent even to advise us, from his 

 position and from the necessity that exists that 

 all these different branches of the Government 

 should be entirely independent of each other 

 I am free to say I should consider myself as sit- 

 ting in a body, bound hand and foot, having no 

 power, no rights, no independence, no char- 

 acter, if I thought I was compelled to ask the 

 opinion of any one with regard to the right of 

 a Senator to sit upon this floor and the right of 

 the State which sent him here to be represented 

 upon this floor. It is a question for us, and 

 only for us. 



"Looking, therefore, upon these two argu- 

 ments in this part of the veto message as I did, 

 one distinctly indicating that no legislation af- 

 fecting the States which have recently been in 

 rebellion would meet with the approval of the 

 President while those States were not repre- 

 sented here, the other that all the considera- 

 tion that we as members of the Senate had a 

 right to give to this subject was to look at the 

 papers presented and say whether men coming 

 here had the proper credentials .from some- 

 body, leaving the question to be settled at the 

 other end of the avenue whether or not the 

 States themselves had a right to be represented 

 on this floor while I considered those two 

 things as not only shadowed forth, but distinctly 

 stated in the veto message, I could not hesitate 

 for a single instant to say that where such rea- 

 sons were given for the veto of a bill, I could 

 not, without sacrificing all my self-respect, and 

 what is of more consequence as far as I am 

 concerned, sacrificing all the rights and honors 

 of the body of which I am a member, vote to 

 sustain that message, whatever good reasons 

 might be given in other parts of it. Under 

 those circumstances, and, I will confess, influ- 

 enced by that particular message, influenced 

 by those views and statements of the President, 

 the committee of fifteen, which is so denounced, 

 saw fit to propose distinctly the proposition to 

 both Houses of Congress which is now upon 

 your table ; and it is this 



That in order to close agitation 

 To have no more dispute about it among oar. 

 selves as to our own action 



upon a question which seems likely to disturb the 

 action of the Government, as well as to quiet the un- 

 certainty which is agitating the minds of the people 

 of the eleven States which have been declared to be 

 in insurrection, no Senator or Representative shall 

 be admitted into either branch of Congress from any 

 of said States until Congress shall nave declared 

 such State entitled to such representation. 



" That, sir, is resuming the original proposi- 

 tion, substantially. Having been instructed to 

 inquire into the condition of these States, and 

 to report whether they, or any of them, were 

 entitled to representation, and not being pre- 

 pared to report on that question, we propose to 

 the House and the Senate this resolution, pro- 

 viding that 



No Senator or Representative shall be admitted 

 into either branch of Congress from any of said 

 States until Congress shall have declared such State 

 entitled to such representation. 



" Originally, I did not think that resolution 

 was necessary ; but now I do. Why? In order 

 that Congress may assert distinctly its own 

 rights and its own powers ; in order that there 

 may be no mistake anywhere, in the mind of 

 the Executive or in the m';nds of the people of 

 this country; that Congress, under the circum- 

 stances of this case, with this attempted limi- 

 tation of its powers with regard to its own or- 

 ganization, is prepared to say to the Executive 

 and to the country, respectfully but firmly, over 

 this subject they have, and they mean to exer- 

 cise, the most full and plenary jurisdiction ; they 

 will bo limited with regard to it by no con- 

 siderations arising from the views of others 

 than themselves, except so far as those consid- 

 erations may affect the minds of individuals ; 

 we will judge for ourselves, not only upon cre- 

 dentials and the character of men and the posi- 

 tion of men, but upon the position of the States 

 which sent those men here. In other words, 

 to use the language of the President again, 

 when the question is to be decided whether 

 they obey the Constitution, whether they have 

 a fitting constitution of their own, whether 

 they are loyal, whether they are prepared to 

 obey the laws as a preliminary, as the President 

 says it is, to their admission, we will say wheth- 

 er those preliminary requirements have been 

 complied with, and not he, and nobody but 

 ourselves. 



" It was my very strong opinion and impres- 

 sion with reference to this matter that induced 

 me to ask the Senate to take up this question 

 now. I deem it as transcending in importance 

 the question of the amendment of the Consti- 

 tution which has been under discussion for sev- 

 eral days. I deem that, in the present condition 

 of the country, situated as we are, it transcends 

 in importance every question. Where are we, 

 sir ? Let us allow ourselves to consider for a 

 moment. If we are not to inquire into and bo 

 satisfied of the condition of these States, if we 

 are not to inquire and ascertain whether they 



