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PCJBL10 DOCUMENTS. 



legislative department, whose laws bind them in per- 

 son and in property. This, it is submitted, is a state 

 of things without example in representative repub- 

 lican government, and Congress, as long as it denies 

 this right, is a mere despotism. Citizens may be 

 made to submit to it by force or dread of force, but 

 a fraternal spirit of good feeling toward those who 

 impose it, so important to the peace and prosperity 

 of the country, are not to be hoped for, but rather 

 unhappiness, dissatisfaction, and enmity. There is 

 but one ground on which such conduct can find any 

 excuse the supposed public necessity, the peril of 

 destruction to which the Government would be sub- 

 jected if the right were allowed. But for such a sup- 

 position there is not, in the opinion of the under- 

 signed, even a shadow of foundation. 



The representatives of the States in which there 

 was no insurrection, if the others were represented, 

 would, in the House, under the present apportion- 

 ment, exceed the latter by a majority of seventy-two 

 votes, and have a decided preponderance in the Sen- 

 ate. What danger to the Government, then, can 

 possibly arise from Southern representation? Are 

 the present Senators and Representatives fearful of 

 themselves ? Are they apprehensive that they might 

 be led to the destruction of our institutions by the 

 persuasion or any other influence of Southern mem- 

 bers ? How disparaging to themselves is such an ap- 

 prehension ! Are they apprehensive that those who 

 may succeed them from their respective States may 

 be so fatally led astray? How disparaging is that 

 supposition to the patriotism and wisdom of their 

 constituents! Whatever effect on mere party suc- 

 cess in the future such a representation may have we 

 shall not stop to inquire. The idea that the country 

 is to be kept in turmoil, States to be reduced to bond*- 

 age, and their rights under the Constitution denied, 

 and their citizens degraded, with & view to the con- 

 tinuance in power of a mere political party, cannot 

 for a moment be entertained, without imputing grave 

 dishonesty of purpose and gross dereliction of duty 

 to those who may entertain it. Nor do we deem it 

 necessary to refer particularly to the evidence taken 

 by the committee, to show that there is nothing in 

 the present condition of the people of the Southern 

 States that even excuses, on that ground, a denial 

 of representation to them. We content ourselves with 

 saying that, in our opinion, the evidence most to be 

 relied upon, whether regarding the character of the 

 witnesses or their means of information, shows that 

 representatives from the Southern States would prove 

 perfectly loyal. We especially refer for this only to 

 the testimony of Lieut. General Grant his loyalty and 

 investigations no one can doubt. In his letter to the 

 President, of the 18th December, 18(55, after he had 

 recently visited South Carolina, North Carolina, and 

 Georgia, he says : 



Both In travelling and whilst stopping, I saw much and 

 conversed freely with the citizens of those States, as well as 

 with officers of the army who have been among them. The 

 following are the conclusions come to by me : I am satisfied 

 that the mass of the thinking men of the South accept the 

 present situation of affairs in good faith. The questions 

 which have heretofore divided the sentiments of the people 

 of the two sections, slavery and State rights, or the right 

 of a Stato to secede from the Union, they regard as having 

 been settled forever by the highest tribunal (arms) that man 

 can resort to. I was pleased to learn from the leading 

 men whom I met that they not only accepted the decision 

 wrived at as final, but now that the smoke of battle had 

 cleared away and time had been given for reflection, that this 

 decision had been a fortunate one for the whole country, 

 they receiving the like benefits from it with those who op- 

 posed them in the field and in the cause. My observations 

 lead me to the conclusion that the citizens of the Southern 

 States are anxious to return to self-government within the 

 Union as soon as possible; that whilst reconstructing, they 

 want and require protection from the Government ; that they 

 li-e in earnest in wishing to do what they think is required 

 Dy the Government not humiliating to them as citizens 

 and that if such a course were pointed out, they would pursue 

 it in good faith. It is to be regretted that there cannot be a 

 greater commingling at this time between the citizens ot the 



two sections, and particularly of those Intrusted with the 

 law-making power. 



Secession, as a practical doctrine ever hereafter to 

 be resorted to, is almost utterly abandoned. It was 

 submitted to and failed before the ordeal of battle. 

 Nor can the undersigned imagine why, if its revival 

 is anticipated as possible, the committee have not 

 recommended an amendment to the Constitution, 

 guarding against it in terms. Such an amendment, 

 it cannot be doubted, the Southern as well as the 

 Northern States would cheerfully adopt. The omis- 

 sion, of such a recommendation is pregnant evidence 

 that secession, as a constitutional right, is thought 

 by the majority of the committee to be practically a 

 mere thing of the past, as all the proof taken by them 

 show it to be in the opinion of all the leading South- 

 ern men who hitherto entertained it. The desolation 

 around them, the hecatombs of their own slain, the 

 stern patriotism of the men of the other States, ex- 

 hibited by unlimited expenditure of treasure and of 

 blood, and their love of the Union ; so sincere and 

 deep-seated that it is sure they will hazard all to 

 maintain it, have convinced the South that as a prac- 

 tical doctrine secession is extinguished forever. 

 State secession then abandoned and slavery abol- 

 ished by the Southern States themselves, or with 

 their consent, upon what statesmanlike ground can 

 such States be denied all the rights which the Con- 

 stitution secures to the States of the Union ? All ad- 

 mit that to do so at the earliest period is demanded 

 by every consideration of duty and policy, and none 

 deny that the actual interest of the country is, to a 

 great extent, involved in such admission. The staple 

 productions of the Southern States are as important 

 to the other States as to themselves. Those staples 

 largely enter into the wants of all alike, and they are 

 also most important to the financial credit of the'Gov- 

 ernment. Those staples will never be produced as 

 in the past until real peace, resting, as it can alone 

 rest, on the equal and uniform operation of the Con- 

 stitution and laws on all, is attained. 



To suppose that a brave and sensitive people will 

 give an undivided attention to the increase of mere 

 material wealth, whilst retained in a state of political 

 inferiority and degradation, is mere folly. They de- 

 sire to be again in the Union, to enjoy the benefits 

 of the Constitution, and they invoke you to receive 

 them. They have adopted constitutions free from 

 any- intrinsic objection, and have agreed to every 

 stipulation thought by the President to be necessary 

 for the protection and benefit of all, and, in the opin- 

 ion of the undersigned, they are amply sufficient. 

 Why exact, as a preliminary condition to representa- 

 tion, more ? What more are supposed to be neces- 

 sary ? First, the repudiation of the rebel debt ; sec- 

 ond, the denial of all obligations to pay for manu- 

 mitted slaves ; third, the inviolability of our own 

 debt. If these provisions are deemed necessary they 

 cannot be defeated, if the South were disposed to 

 defeat them, by the admission into Congress of their 

 representatives. Nothing is more probable, in the 

 opinion of the undersigned, than that many of the 

 Southern States would adopt them all ; but those 

 measures the committee connect with others, which, 

 we think, the people of the South will never adopt. 

 They are asked to disfranchise a numerous class of 

 their citizens, and also to agree to diminish their 

 representation in Congress, and, of course, in the 

 electoral college, or to admit to the right of suffrage 

 their colored males of twenty-one years of age and 

 upward (a class now in a condition of almost utter 

 ignorance), thus placing them on the same political 

 footing with white citizens of that age. For reasons 

 so obvious that the dullest may discover them, the 

 right is not directly asserted of granting suffrage to 

 the negro. That would be obnoxious to most of 

 the Northern and Western States so much so that 

 their consent was not to be anticipated. But as the 

 plan adopted, because of the limited number of ne- 

 groes in such States, will have n? effect on their 



