194 



CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



harsh and sweeping measure will include many 

 excellent men whose services now in the work 

 of reconciliation would be of the greatest value 

 to the country men who displayed heroic 

 courage in standing out against the secession 

 movement, but who afterward yielded obe- 

 dience to and served the established govern- 

 ment de facto. This measure is in the spirit 

 that pursued the supporters of Cromwell and 

 the Parliament after the ^Restoration. It is in 

 the spirit of vengeance after men are beaten 

 and have surrendered, and cannot bring a 

 blessing to our country. Senators say that the 

 measure is not penal in its character. Why 

 not ? "When pardoned, are not these men 

 eligible to State and Federal offices ? And do 

 you not propose to strip them of their eligibility 

 because of their crime ? 



" The fourth section provides that the public 

 debt shall remain inviolate. Who has asked us 

 to change the Constitution for the benefit of 

 the bondholders? Are they so much more 

 meritorious than all other classes that they 

 must be specially provided for in the Consti- 

 tution ? Or, indeed, do we distrust ourselves, 

 and fear that we will all become repudiators ? 

 A provision like this, I should think, would 

 excite distrust, and cast a shade on public 

 credit. But perhaps the real purpose is so to 

 hedge in the bondholders by constitutional pro- 

 vision as that they never may be taxed ; that 

 Congress can never assent to their taxation, and 

 so that three billions of capital may bear no 

 portion of the public burdens. Such would be 

 the effect of this amendment. Who has at- 

 tacked public credit, or questions the obligation 

 to pay the public debt ? Are the bondholders 

 not receiving their interest, even in advance, 

 and in gold ? Why, then, do they ask this ex- 

 traordinary guaranty ? They trusted the good 

 faith of the people, and there is no breach of 

 that faith. When things entirely unusual are 

 asked, it is well for the people to inquire, why 

 it is, what is the purpose, and how far will it 

 carry us ? 



"The fifth section declares the debts con- 

 tracted in aid of the rebellion illegal, and pro- 

 hibits their payment. Mr. President, who is so 

 stupid as to have supposed these debts legal, or 

 that they had any valid existence for one hour 

 after the de facto government of the Confeder- 

 ate States ceased to exist? Who is so silly as 

 to fear their payment ? The least that may be 

 said of this section is that it would be harmless, 

 but I would regret to see the face of the Con- 

 stitution marred by a provision so unnecessary 

 and trifling. 



" The sixth and last section provides that 

 Congress shall have power to enforce, by ap- 

 propriate legislation, the provisions of the 

 article. When these words were used in 

 the amendment abolishing slavery, they were 

 thought to be harmless ; but during this session 

 there has been claimed for them such force and 

 scope of meaning as that Congress might invade 

 the jurisdiction of the States, rob them of their 



reserved rights, and crown the Federal Govern- 

 ment with absolute and despotic power. As 

 construed, this provision is most dangerous. 

 Without it the Constitution possesses the vital- 

 ity and vigor for its own enforcement through 

 the appropriate departments. 



" Mr. President, I have now briefly examined 

 the provisions of this article, and cannot resist 

 the conviction that some, of them are useless, 

 while others are vicious and dangerous. Nor 

 can I resist the conviction that this measure 

 is pressed, not because of an exigency in our 

 affairs, but to carry out a party programme. 

 The President has his policy. You oppose him. 

 You charge him with usurpation, while at the 

 same time you are straining every brace and 

 timber in the Constitution to secure to your- 

 selves absolute control ; indeed, you reach, out 

 beyond the Constitution, and by amendment 

 a proceeding to be resorted to only upon rare 

 and solemn occasions you grasp after, and, 

 with the avidity of hunger, clutch power." 



The amendments proposed by Mr. Howard 

 were adopted. Numerous amendments were 

 then offered to the second section, relative to 

 the basis of representation, which were largely 

 debated and rejected, and the action of tho 

 Committee of the Whole reported and approved 

 by the Senate by two-thirds vote. The joint 

 resolution, as amended by the Senate, was as 

 follows : 



Joint resolution proposing an amendment to the Constitu- 

 tion of the United States. 



JZesolved "by the Senate and House of l&presentatives 

 of the United States of America in Congress assembled 

 (two-thirds of both Houses concurring), That the 

 following article be proposed to the Legislatures of 

 the several States as an amendment to the Constitu- 

 tion of the United States, which, when ratified by 

 three-fourths of said Legislatures, shall be valid as 

 part of the Constitution, namely : 



ARTICLE . Sec, 1. All persons born or naturalized 

 in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction 

 thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the 

 State wherein they reside. No State shall make or 

 enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or 

 immunities of citizens of the United States; nor 

 shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, 

 or property, without due process of law, nor deny 

 to any person within its jurisdiction the equal pro- 

 tection of the laws. 



Sec. 2. Representatives shall be apportioned among 

 the several States according to their respective num- 

 bers, counting the whole number of persons in each 

 State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the 

 right to vote at any election for the choice of elec- 

 tors for President and Vice-President of the United 

 States, Eepresentatives in Congress, the executive 

 and judicial officers of a State, or the members of the 

 Legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male 

 inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years 

 of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any 

 way abridged, except for participation in rebellion 

 or other crime, the basis of representation therein 

 shall be reduced in the proportion which the number 

 of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number 

 of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such 

 State. 



Sec. 3. No person shall be a Senator or Represent- 

 ative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice- 

 President, or hold any office, civil or military, under 

 the United States or under any State, who, having 

 previously taken an oath as a msmber of Congress, 



