CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



185 



oppressive laws. Unless tho Constitution should 

 .in them, those States will all, I fear, keep 

 up this discrimination, and crush to death tho 

 hated fivodmcii. Some answer, ' Your civil 

 rights bill secures tho same things.' That is 

 partly true, hut a law is n-pcalablo by a majority. 

 And I need hardly say that the first time that 

 the South with their copperhead allies obtain 

 the command of Congress it will bo repealed. 

 The veto of the President and their votes on 

 the bill are conclusive evidence of that. And 

 yet I am amazed and alarmed at the impatience 

 of certain well-meaning Republicans at tho 

 exclusion of the rebel States until the Constitu- 

 tion shall be so amended as to restrain their 

 despotic desires. This amendment once adopted 

 cannot bo annulled without two-thirds of Con- 

 gress. That they will hardly get. And yet 

 certain of our distinguished friends propose to 

 admit State after State before this becomes a 

 part of the Constitution. What madness! Is 

 their judgment misled by their kindness; or 

 uro they unconsciously drifting into' the haven 

 of power at tho other end of the avenue ? I do 

 not suspect it, but others will. 



" The second section I consider the most im- 

 portant in the article. It fixes the basis of rep- 

 resentation in Congress. If any State shall 

 exclude any of her adult male citizens from the 

 elective franchise, or abridge that right, she 

 shall forfeit her right to representation in the 

 same proportion. The effect of this provision 

 will he either to compel the States to grant 

 universal suffrage or so to shear them of their 

 power as to keep them forever in a hopeless 

 minority in the national Government, both 

 legislative and executive. If they do not en- 

 franchise the freedmen, it would give to the 

 rebel States but thirty-seven Representatives. 

 Thus shorn of their power, they would soon 

 become restive. Southern pride would not 

 long brook a hopeless minority. True it will 

 take two, three, possibly five years before they 

 conquer their prejudices sufficiently to allow 

 their late slaves to become their equals at the 

 polls. That short delay would not be injurious. 

 In the mean time the freedmen would become 

 more enlightened, and more fit to discharge 

 the high duties of their new condition. In that 

 time, too, the loyal Congress could mature 

 their laws and so amend the Constitution as to 

 secure the rights of every human being, and 

 render disunion impossible. Heaven forbid 

 that the Southern States, or any one of them, 

 should be represented on this floor until such 

 muniments of freedom are built high and firm 1 

 Against our will they have been absent for four 

 bloody years; against our will they must not 

 come back until we are ready to receive them. 

 Do not tell mo that there are loyal representa- 

 tives waiting for admission until their States 

 are loyal they can have no standing here. They 

 would merely misrepresent their constituents. 



44 I admit that this article is not as good as the 

 one we sent to death in tho Senate. In my 

 judgment, we shall not approach the measure 



of justice until we have given every ad alt freed- 

 man a homestead on the land where ho was 

 born and toiled and suffered. Forty arrcs of 

 land and a hut would be more valual.l- to him 

 than the. immediate right to vote. Unless we 

 give them this wo shall receive the censure of 

 mankind and the curse of Heaven. That article 

 referred to provided that if one of the injured 

 race was excluded the State should forfeit the 

 right to have any of them represented. That 

 would have hastened their full enfranchisement. 

 This section allows the States to discriminate 

 among tho same class, and receive proportion- 

 ate credit in representation. This I dislike. 

 But it is a short step forward, liie large stride 

 which we in vain proposed, is dead ; the mur- 

 derers must answer to the suffering race. I 

 would not have been the perpetrator. A load 

 of misery must sit heavy on their souls. 



44 The third section may encounter more dif- 

 ference of opinion here. Among the people 

 I believe it will be the most popular of all the 

 provisions ; it prohibits rebels from voting for 

 members of Congress and electors of Presi- 

 dent until 1870. My only objection to it is 

 that it is too lenient. I know that there is 

 a morbid sensibility, sometimes called mercy, 

 which affects a few of all classes, from the priest 

 to the clown, which has more sympathy for the 

 murderer on the gallows than for his victim. I 

 hope I have a heart as capable of feeling for 

 human woe as others. I have long since wished 

 that capital punishment were abolished. But 

 I never dreamed that all punishment could be 

 dispensed with in human society. Anarchy, 

 treason, and violence would reign triumphant. 

 Here is the mildest of all punishments ever 

 inflicted on traitors. I might not consent to 

 the extreme severity denounced upon them by 

 a provisional governor of Tennessee I mean 

 the late lamented Andrew Johnson of blessed 

 memory but I would have increased the sever- 

 ity of this section. I would be glad to see it 

 extended to 1876, and to include all State and 

 municipal as well as national elections. In my 

 judgment we do not sufficiently protect the loyal 

 men of the rebel States from the vindictive per- 

 secutions of their victorious rebel neighbors. 

 Still I will move no amendment, nor vote for 

 any, lest the whole fabric should tumble to 

 pieces. 



44 1 need say nothing of the fourth section, for 

 none dare object to it who is not himself a 

 rebel. To tho friend of justice, the friend of 

 the Union, of the perpetuity of liberty, and 

 the final triumph of the rights of man and their 

 extension to every human being, let me say, 

 sacrifice as we have done your peculiar views, 

 and instead of vainly insisting upon the instan- 

 taneous operation of all that is right accept 

 what is possible, and 4 all these things shall be 

 added unto you.' 



44 1 move to recommit the joint resolution to 

 the Committee on Reconstruction." 



Mr. Blaine, of Maine, arose to inquire if those 

 to whom pardons had been granted by the 



