CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



1G1 



quisit>< ]>n>\i-io!n to connect it with the Union. 

 When. that governm ' roved, when the 



liiratmv i- l>n>keii, when Ul6T6 ate HO prorkkmi 

 what. \, r that connect it with the Unit.'d States, 



In- :i State of the Union from ; 

 sity. Ida not say that its people pass out from 

 under tlu- juri.-diction of the Government; it 

 I)I-!')IIL:S tt> the Union, nnd its people are under 

 the authority of tho Union; but as a State hav- 

 ing rights in tho Union rights, for instance, in 

 this ' \\ li'-n it lias ceased to connect 



itself with the Government by its own act or 

 in any way, it is at an end for the time being, 

 M something more is necessary than a 

 bare organized existence. That is tho position 

 that I assume, and I have not been able to see 

 but that it is correct. 



"Now, will the Senator deny, will any one 

 deny, that there has been a period and a long 

 period during which there was no connection 

 between these Confederate States and the Gov- 

 ernment of the United States ? Have not years 

 elapsed during which no snch connection ex- 

 .' Was not the form of government which 

 bound them to the Union entirely destroyed ? 

 Was not the connection obliterated? Were not 

 all their people in rebellion ? Was there any 

 thing by which any of those States could con- 

 nect itself with the Government with. which it 

 had been formerly connected, and if not, what 

 is necessary in order to bring it back ? Is it 

 not necessary that it should bo recognized by 

 this Government ? Is it not necessary that it 

 should have a constitution which does connect 

 it with this Government ? Is it not necessary 

 that it should place itself in a position to dis- 

 charge its duties toward this Government? 

 And when it has done that, must it not apply 

 to the Government for admission, for reinstate- 

 ment in the Union? 



" This question has been argued, and argued 

 by authority, as if we had nothing to say about 

 it ; as if theso people were back again simply 

 because they had made State constitutions. 

 How do we know it ? What proof have we ? I 

 want an answer. 



"Gentlemen have been talking here from 

 time to time and in the other House about the 

 great abuse that these States were not admitted 

 to representation while the Government was 

 going on to tax them. Sir, tho arms that were 

 raised against us were never laid down until 

 last April. From that time to December Con- 

 gress was not in session. They were under tho 

 control of the military power. Wo came to- 

 gether on the first Monday of December. There 

 had been an exhausting war, four years of 

 deadly struggle ; hundreds of thousands slain, 

 hundreds of millions spent ; a war more savage, 

 in my judgment, on the part of the enemy we 

 had to encounter, than has been known in mod- 

 ern times ; in which the most savage hate was 

 exhibited against every thing that was not of 

 the Confederates, which was distinguished, re- 

 markable, for its character, so distinct from all 

 those wars that have marked modern periods. 

 VOL. vi. 11 A 



We camo together in December, and certain 



men pre-entrd themselves claimiiiL' t< he udmit- 

 ..itors and as Representatives upon 

 these floors. Wo had not been together thirty 

 days before gentlemen contended hero that they 

 were entitled to admission upon an equality 

 with ourselves and as parts of the governing 

 power. It is not now ninety days since this 

 ('oiigiv-s mot; and before the expiration of 

 ninety days, after this war of four years of tho 

 character that existed and with denunciations 

 of the most bitter kind from all that people, we 

 are told that we are perpetrating the most gross 

 injustice because they are not already here in 

 these seats as Senators and Representatives in 

 Congress, and that our legislation is substan- 

 tially good for nothing because they are not 

 here. 



" It is a most remarkable fact in this con- 

 nection that not only haVe we not been together 

 ninety days when we are called upon to admit 

 these Senators and these Representatives, but 

 we are called on to decide that the condition 

 of that people is such as to render it safe, when 

 the President himself, who calls upon us to do 

 it, has not withdrawn his suspension of the writ 

 of habeas corpus throughout that territory, but 

 keeps his army in that territory, and when all 

 the generals and himself at the head of all the 

 generals tell us that it is unsafe to withdraw it, 

 that they cannot be left to themselves, and that 

 tho army must remain and they be kept under 

 military law. 



"Mr. President, this strikes me as somewhat 

 singular ; and I say this because I want the 

 country to understand it. Is no, time to be al- 

 lowed? Here, it is said, are eight million peo- 

 ple ; here is a territory embracing I do not 

 know how many million square miles; hero 

 have been eleven States in rebellion ; here has 

 been a war of four years. Congress meets; the 

 question is to be submitted to that Congress ; 

 and gentlemen talk here and denounce it, and 

 the President himself denounces it, and the 

 newspapers denounce it, and the Democracy 

 denounce it ; all raise their cry against us be- 

 cause within ninety days, when the President 

 himself, as Commander-in-chief of tho army, 

 does not choose to withdraw the army from 

 that territory, w have not put its Represent- 

 atives and Senators in these seats to govern for 

 themselves and to govern us. I allude to this 

 fact simply for the purpose of showing how 

 utterly false are the accusations made against 

 Congress, come from what quarter they may, 

 how utterly unreasonable it is to suppose that 

 a question of this kind is to be settled in such a 

 hurry. 



" Now, sir, I have been speaking simply of 

 the power of Congress; bdt it is a very diiforcnt 

 question when you come to consider what it is 

 best to do. I assert the power in its fullest 

 extent; I assert that by the civil war they lost 

 all the rights which I have enumerated, and wo 

 acquired those which I have specified. I assort 

 that they placed themselves in a position in 



