CONCIIKSS, I'XITKIi STA'll-X 



save it by fundamental law law emanating from 

 the pe 'pie, la -A resting upon tin- sovereign will 

 of tli uii', law beyond lli" power of 



thi-^ ( Or "I" any subsequent Congress hy- 



men- legislative enactments to repeal or in any 

 manner limit, or restrict. Standing upon this 

 ition of tin.- right, and duty of tho people 

 tie I'M- themselves t his great question which 

 iuvohe-; tin- t'u tun 1 of the nation, the life and 

 stability of American institutions, I ask the 

 lions,- to consider what has been done thus far 

 upon tin' subject of restoration and tho public 

 by tho Committee on Reconstruction, by 

 BM by which that committee was ap- 

 pointed, and, after them, by the people them- 

 selves: 1 First, sir, that committee, reflecting, 

 lieve, the will of the House and the Sen- 

 well as the judgment of the people of the 

 organi/ed States of this Union, came to the con- 

 clusion that there was no future safety for the 

 Republic, no security against a future rebellion 

 similar to that which has recently rocked tho 

 continent and filled all good men in this land 

 ind in other lands with fears of the failure of 

 this great experiment of republican government, 

 bat by incorporating in the Constitution itself 

 such a provision as would protect in all the 

 hereafter the rights of every citizen and every 

 State by the combined power of the whole peo- 

 ple. 



" To that end that committee prepared an ar- 

 ticle of amendment to the Constitution of the 

 United States, and submitted it to the consider- 

 ation of this House and of the Senate. That 

 article of amendment is substantially that all 

 persons born in this land, within the jurisdiction 

 of the United State?, without regard to com- 

 plexion or previous condition, are citizens of the 

 Hi-public; that no State shall make or enforce 

 any law which shall abridge the privileges and 

 immunities of citizens of the United States ; that 

 no State shall deprive any person of life or lib- 

 erty or property, without due process of law; 

 that no State shall deny to any person within 

 its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws ; 

 that representation hereafter among these States 

 shall be apportioned according to the whole 

 number of representative population in each ; 

 that those who have violated official oaths to 

 support the Constitution of the United States 

 shall be ineligible to any office, civil or military, 

 State or national, nntil such disability shall be 

 removed by act of Congress ; that neither the 

 United States nor any State of this Union shall 

 ever assume or pay any debt contracted in aid 

 of the late rebellion or make compensation for 

 slaves ; and that the debt contracted in defence 

 of the nation's life shall be forever inviolable ; 

 and crowning all with the grand comprehensive 

 grant of power, that the Congress of the United 

 States shall be authorized by appropriate legisla- 

 tion to enforce this provision. 



" It will not do for the gentleman to say that 

 that bill ceased to operate as a declaration of 

 the judgment of the joint Committee on Recon- 

 struction, when the fact is on record that every 

 VOL. vn. 14 



member of that committee in thi* House nod in 

 the Senate voted to strike out tho third > 

 of the ameiidiih-nt and ine,,rpor;it.- i : . j - nUjad 

 what was b.-l'orc ivp..rti-d by the Mmtnittee, M 

 I have already said, in the form of a bill irapoft- 

 ing the disability to hold oflie.e, military or civil, 

 or national, upon those who had broken 

 oliicial oaths to the 1'nited States to engn 

 rebellion. I stand upon the propo-itioii il, a t 

 the Congre-s by thut vote did give out thi- 

 iiniendmciit to the people of the United States 

 as the future basis of reconstruction; and fur- 

 ther, that every member re presenting the ! 

 party upon the joint Committee on Reconstruc- 

 tion, by recording his vote in the Senate and in 

 the House of Representatives in favor of the 

 substitution of the third section of the amend- 

 ment as it now is for the third section as it wat 

 origin ally reported, thereby declared the amend- 

 ment, as it now is, the basis of reconstruction as 

 provided in the bill reported by that committee, 

 and is bound to stand by his record so made, if 

 he would be consistent. Mr. Speaker, the peo- 

 ple of the United States so understood and ac- 

 cepted it. There are gentlemen here, not&few 

 I undertake to say, who owe their reelection to 

 the Fortieth Congress to the fact that the Union 

 State conventions in the States which they rep- 

 resent upon this floor declared their acceptance 

 of this constitutional amendment, in manner 

 and form as it now stands, as a condition of 

 future restoration. 



" Sir, the gentleman's bill, while it conflicts 

 with the constitutional amendment, totally ig- 

 nores the first duty of the Congress of the United 

 States, to give the protection of law to life and 

 property in disorganized States. I listened, sir, 

 with due attention to the gentleman's carefully 

 prepared remarks. I weighed his words. I 

 know that his heart was right when he said 

 that it was fit and proper that those who are 

 without tho protection of law in disorganized 

 States should have protection of law, and 

 that right speedily. But I challenge the gen- 

 tleman, and I challenge any advocate of his bill, 

 to the issue that I make to-day : that his bill 

 gives no protection of law or color of protection 

 which those people have not now. It gives no 

 protection to anybody, loyal or disloyal, in any 

 State." 



Mr. Stevens modified his substitute by strik- 

 ing out the following : 



SKC. 2. And be iifwther enacted. That the State 

 governments now existing de facto, though illegally 

 formed in the midst of martial law, and in many in- 

 stances the constitutions were adopted under duress 

 and not submitted to the ratification of the people, 

 and therefore are not to be treated as free republics, 

 yi-t tliev are hereby acknowleged as valid govern- 

 ments for muncipal purposes until tho same shall be 

 duly altered, and their legislative and executive offi- 

 cers shall be reaognized aa such. 



Mr. Grinnell, of Massachusetts, said : " The 

 Legislatures of the loyal States have assembled ; 

 their Governors have spoken. What do they 

 say ? Examine the executive messages and tho 

 resolutions of the Legislatures, and you will find 



