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CONGKESS, UNITED STATES. 



them demanding stronger guarantees and equal 

 justice, and declaring that it is time to act. 

 The constitutional amendment being rejected 

 by the rebel States, let Congress now go to work 

 and frame governments for those now defiant 

 and rebellions. Let there be justice meted out 

 and safety for the loyal millions. Yet the gen- 

 tleman from Ohio thinks that we had better 

 wait; that we had better' refer the subject to 

 his committee. I do not disagree with him in 

 his patriotic utterances, but in his methods by 

 which it is proposed to consolidate and bless a 

 people now to be moulded by our will and law. 



"Allow me to say, in conclusion, that it rests 

 upon us to decide at an early day whether we 

 are to allow rebels to come and take their seats 

 here unwashed, unrepentant, unpunished, un- 

 hung, or whether we will heed the voice of our 

 friends, fleeing from the South for their lives ; 

 whether we will listen to the supplication of 

 four million black people, all true to the great 

 principles which we here seek to establish. For 

 one I urge the earliest action. I desire we should 

 place those States in a position where a home 

 may be possible, where education may be estab- 

 lished, where the ballot may be secured to all 

 those who are loyal to this Government. Yes, 

 sir, education and the ballot, as I have read his- 

 tory, they will be as the urim and thummim, 

 the polished stones to be placed in this great 

 temple of national liberty now being reared by 

 the American Congress. Let us have no delay, 

 no recommitment ; rather the earliest action 

 upon this bill, as the requirement of the people 

 who have saved the country; what the suffer- 

 ing implore, what justice demands, and what I 

 believe God will approve." 



Mr. Eldridge, of Wisconsin, said : " It is, then, 

 clearly admitted by the gentleman that the pur- 

 pose of this bill is to correct or remove certain 

 supposed 'incongruities' in the Constitution, 

 by adopting and carrying forward the revolu- 

 tion inaugurated by secessionists, culminating 

 in most bloody war, and which he says 'pos- 

 sibly ' without their beginning might not have 

 been begun. 



"There can be no mistaking the object of 

 this bill, as declared by the gentleman from 

 Pennsylvania. It is to avoid or get rid of the 

 Constitution, or some provision of it. Its revo- 

 lutionary purpose is as clear as the sunlight. 

 He says, in the same speech, advocating this 

 bill (and, be it remembered, that speech was no 

 extemporaneous one, but carefully prepared, 

 written, and reserved several days after de- 

 livery for revision) : 



Think not I would slander my native land ; I 

 would reform it. Twenty years ago I denounced it 

 as a despotism. Then twenty million white men en- 

 chained four million black men. I pronounce it no 

 nearer to a true Kepublic now, when twenty-five mil- 

 lion of a privileged class exclude five millio'n from all 

 participation in the rights of government. 



" Twenty years ago he ' denounced ' his ' na- 

 tive land as a despotism,' and he ' pronounces 

 it no nearer to a true Republic now.' 1 There 



were traitorous, bad men in 1860 and 1861, who 

 did the same thing, who as honestly believed 

 as he did, that it was a 'despotism.' Their 

 convictions carried them into rebellion. The 

 gentleman, by this bill, proposes not to let that 

 rebellion and revolution end, without ' full par- 

 ticipation and concurrence.' If traitors insti- 

 gated that revolution, I need not characterize 

 those who fully 'participate and concur in it.' 



" Sir, immediate passage of this bill is urged 

 by the gentleman, because of the late decision 

 of the Supreme Court, in the case of Milligan. 

 That decision he denounces as 'infamous,' ' dan- 

 gerous to the lives and liberties of the loyal 

 men of the country.' What is there in this 

 decision that calls for revolutionary measures? 

 In what way is this bill to interfere with, or 

 affect it? What is there in it to call for male- 

 diction and denunciation ? The gentleman does 

 not complain that it does not truly declare the 

 law. Is the court itself to be stricken down ; 

 to be revolutionized ? Are the provisions of ' 

 the bill as sweeping and extensive as that? 



" But the passage of this bill is a necessity 

 also, according to the gentleman's construction 

 of it, because the presidential office is in his 

 way. It is not only to deprive the Supreme 

 Court in some manner of its lawful jurisdic- 

 tion, but the Executive of the nation, ' the Com- 

 mander-in-chief of the Army and Navy,' is to 

 be made to bow in meek submission, and obey 

 the behests of the gentleman and his party in 

 Congress. Listen, again, to his speech in sup- 

 port of this bill : 



Though the President is Commander-in-chief, Con- 

 gress is'his commander ; and, God willing, he shall 

 obey. He and his minions shall learn that this is not 

 a Government of kings and satraps, but a Govern- 

 ment of the people, and that Congress is the people. 



" The President refuses to go, with the gentle- 

 man and his followers, into a ' full participa- 

 tion and concurrence ' in the revolution inau- 

 gurated by the rebellion, and this measure is to 

 reduce him to obedience ; to bring him into 

 accord with the will of the majority of this 

 Congress ; to simplify the Government by strik- 

 ing down or usurping the powers of the co- 

 ordinate departments. 



" There seem to be, then, three leading ob- 

 jects in this measure, to be carried into prac- 

 tical effect by a full ' participation and concur- 

 rence ' in 'the revolution:' to get rid of the 

 Supreme Court or its decision ; to depose the 

 President, or compel him to ' obey ' the majority 

 of Congress; and thereby, or as an additional 

 object, correct ' palpable incongruities and des- 

 potic provisions of the Constitution,' and turn 

 ten of the sovereign States of the Union into 

 Territories, or hold them without governments 

 as conquered provinces. These are some of the 

 avowed, bold, wicked, revolutionary purposes 

 of this scheme. No wonder at the implied 

 doubt of the gentleman : ' Will Congress have 

 the courage ' to come down to the requirement ? 

 No wonder he finds it necessary to storm,bluster, 

 threaten, and scold his weak-kneed followers. 



