162 



CONGEESS, UNITED STATES. 



which they -were not connected with this Union 

 as States. I assert that they have many things 

 to do in order to regain that position. I assert 

 that in the mean time we have a right to govern 

 them, govern them as Christian men and as 

 statesmen, hut to govern them hecause they 

 placed themselves in a position to render it ab- 

 solutely necessary that we should do so ; and I 

 assert, moreover, that they cannot come back 

 here to occupy these seats or seats-in the other 

 House until we no matter whether it is done 

 by join tor several authority, so that it is con- 

 ferred by Congress be satisfied ourselves and 

 decide that they are entitled to occupy these 

 seats again ; and that we have a right to take 

 all the time necessary in order to give ourselves 

 entire satisfaction on that subject, and they have 

 no right to complain that in the mean while they 

 are taxed without being represented, because 

 they brought it upon their own heads. I say, 

 moreover, that the interests and safety of this 

 country require that we should be entirely con- 

 vinced of what is due to ourselves and our con- 

 stituents, and to the safety of all, before we 

 proceed to the examination of the question of 

 credentials and qualifications. But having said 

 that, it is another question about what we 

 should do ; I have been talking about the right. 



" I hold, then, sir, that it is best for all that 

 as soon as possible, as soon as it can bo done 

 with any reasonable show of safety to ourselves 

 and to the Government of this country, these 

 States should be established in their original 

 positions, that Senators should sit here in this 

 branch and Representatives in the other, and 

 that we should proceed as best we may to govern 

 the whole country, a Government with the as- 

 sent of all, all being represented. But what I 

 wish to enter my dissent to is the doctrine that 

 we cannot and ought not to deliberate on the 

 subject, in our own way, in our own time, and 

 that while we are doing it we should be de- 

 nounced and the committee of which I am a 

 member be denounced as an irresponsible tri- 

 bunal, a central power ; some power created to 

 take legislation out of its proper channels, and 

 that the majority of the Congress should be 

 held up to the country, as it has been by gentle- 

 men on the other side of the House, to say the 

 least of it, and I think also impliedly by my 

 honorable friend from "Wisconsin himself, as 

 perpetrating injustice day by day every day 

 that passed without seeing men back in these 

 vacant seats, or the simple question of their 

 credentials under consideration ; that this was 

 an outrage upon States, States lately at war, 

 States which up to this day have never sent us 

 their constitutions or made any request what- 

 ever in proper form to be admitted or readmit- 

 ted to their original condition." 



Mr. Sherman, of Ohio, followed, saying : " If 

 the meaning of the resolution is that, as a mat- 

 ter of convenience in the discharge of our duties, 

 the Senators and Eepresentatives ought to act 

 in concert with each other in legislating upon 

 and in discussing all propositions affecting the 



right of States to representation, surely it is a 

 reasonable proposition. "We have already acted 

 in concert at the beginning of this session by 

 creating a joint committee as an organ of both 

 bodies to confer with each other and to com- 

 municate to each House separately their delib- 

 erations. We have often before recognized the 

 propriety of acting through joint committees on 

 questions of great importance, when the con- 

 currence of both Houses is needed, and when a 

 free conference will probably tend to produce 

 an agreement. Therefore, if this is the purpose 

 of this resolution, it is a very simple and plain 

 one, and obviously defensible. 



" But, Mr. President, this resolution goes fur- 

 ther. It asserts, and it was intended to assert, 

 that with Congress, and with Congress alone, 

 rests the duty of defining when a State once 

 declared to be in insurrection shall be admitted 

 to representation, in this and the other House 

 of Congress. This is a proposition of consti- 

 tutional law ; and on this point I am glad to say 

 that there has been no difference of opinion 

 among us until this session of Congress. This 

 question has been three times decided in the 

 Senate. It has been decided by the unanimous 

 report of our Judiciary Committee. It has not 

 been controverted in this body until within a 

 very few. days, or until during the present ses- 

 sion of Congress. At the last session a unani- 

 mous report was made from the Judiciary Com- 

 mittee, composed of some of the ablest lawyers 

 in the Senate, in which this doctrine is, in my 

 judgment, more clearly and distinctly expressed 

 than in the resolution now before us. I can- 

 not see why any one who gave his deliberate 

 judgment to that proposition can oppose this. 

 The honorable Senator from Maine read a por- 

 tion of this report on Friday, but it will bear 

 repetition, and I will now read it : 



The persons in possession of the local authorities 

 in Louisiana having rebelled against the authority of 

 the United States, and her inhabitants having been 

 declared to be in a state of insurrection in pursuance 

 of a law passed by the two Houses of Congress, your 

 committee deem it improper for this body to admit 

 to seats Senators from Louisiana, till by some joint 

 action of both Houses there shall be s_ome recognition 

 of an existing State government acting in harmony 

 with the Government of the United States and recog- 

 nizing its authority. 



"If this is law, how can any Senator vote 

 against the pending proposition, unless it is for 

 reasons not involving the merits of that propo- 

 sition ? 



" It will be remembered that a bill came to 

 the Senate, passed by the House of Eepresent- 

 atives guaranteeing to the seceded States a re- 

 publican form of government, commonly known 

 as the Wade and Davis bill. It was antagonized 

 here by various propositions, and among the 

 rest by a proposition offered by the honorable 

 Senator from Missouri (Mr. Brown). That bill 

 contained many sections intended to provide a 

 mode by which these eleven States might, when 

 the rebellion was suppressed within their limits, 

 be restored to their old places in the Union. 



