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CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



is the position of the Government? What is 

 the sentiment already expressed, crystallized 

 into the form of law ? The constitutional 

 amendment, when it is adopted, becomes of 

 binding effect only upon States that have rep- 

 resentation in Congress. It applies to States 

 and States only. Then look at our recent legis- 

 lation. Only a few days ago loyal Nebraska 

 and Colorado came and asked to be received as 

 States into the Union. What was done in the 

 Senate? A section was annexed by way of 

 amendment, that impartial suffrage should be 

 the rule within each of those Territories when 

 they became States. When it came to the 

 House it was amended, the object being to 

 make it more secure, more certain, and more 

 valid; but the strong expression of this body 

 was that neither of those Territories could come 

 in as a State unless impartial suffrage were tol- 

 erated in each. That is the principle that was 

 promulgated in the Senate ; that is the princi- 

 ple that has been promulgated here ; and a few 

 days previous to taking that vote, it was voted 

 in this House that impartial suffrage should be 

 the rule in every one of the Territories within 

 the limits of the United States. 



" Well, sir, the insurgent States of which I 

 have been speaking are no better than Terri- 

 tories in their position. Are we to wait until 

 this amendment be ratified by them, or made a 

 part of the Constitution by the States repre- 

 sented in Congress, and then make that the 

 direct basis of reconstruction ? Shall South 

 Carolina, upon the terms that are required by 

 that amendment, come here and ask for admis- 

 sion as a State into this Union, and her Repre- 

 sentatives be allowed upon this floor? Shall 

 she be allowed to come here, and act as if she 

 were a State, while she excludes from suffrage 

 her colored population, which is equal to her 

 white population? Is she to be admitted to 

 representation simply upon conforming to the 

 terms of the amendment, exercising the right 

 herself to exclude colored suffrage ? Would 

 this House dare to vote to admit her as a State 

 into this Union under such circumstances? 

 Would it not be an absurdity in our action, that 

 would make this Congress a laughing-stock in 

 the eye of the whole country, if rebel South 

 Carolina should be placed upon a better or any 

 other footing than loyal Colorado and Nebraska 

 are placed ? Impartial suffrage is required of 

 each of those Territories as a- condition prece- 

 dent to their becoming States ; and shall South 

 Carolina, upon this basis of reconstruction, be- 

 come a part of this Union upon different terms 

 and principles entirely from those implied by 

 the votes we have just given ? 



" My own judgment is that neither this House 

 nor the Senate will ever support such a proposi- 

 tion as that. Sir, this nation has advanced in 

 one year's time, and will not now, I cannot be- 

 lieve, sustain the position assumed by the Com- 

 mittee on Reconstruction in the original bill to 

 which the one under consideration is a substi- 

 tute." 



Mr. Dodge, of New York, said : " Sir, if this 

 bill should pass, and if we go on with the im- 

 peachment movement and carry it to the Sen- 

 ate, you will find that all the great interests of 

 this country will measurably stand still, waiting 

 the result of these movements. The manufac- 

 turing, commercial, and agricultural interests of 

 the country are now looking to this House for 

 that support which may be given by an increased 

 tariff, but they will look in vain for a resuscita- 

 tion of business and a return to a healthy state 

 of things so long as the public mind shall be agi- 

 tated by this unexpected and unusual measure 

 brought forward in this House. There are gen- 

 tlemen from all parts of the country who are 

 making their way to our great commercial cen- 

 tres, to obtain the means for carrying on the 

 enterprises so necessary to the development of 

 our country. But when they go to the capitalists 

 asking means or offering for sale their railroad 

 bonds, when they present propositions for their 

 varied enterprises, they will find that the men 

 who control the money are waiting to see what 

 shall be the result upon the interests of the 

 country of the measures about to be acted upon 

 in this House. Mr. Speaker, the fact is, there 

 will be a general hesitation. The man who has 

 been contemplating the building of a ship will 

 stand still and await the development of these 

 measures. The merchant, about to send his ves- 

 sel on a long Eastern voyage, will hesitate before 

 he loads his ship and sends her away on a twelve 

 months' voyage. 



" Sir, I received to-day, from one of our mer- 

 chants, a letter stating that on Friday last he 

 met with some gentlemen who are directors of 

 a benevolent institution of which he is the treas- 

 urer, those gentlemen being among the wealthi- 

 est and most loyal men of our country ; and at 

 that meeting they decided that $150,000, placed 

 in his hands for investment, and which they had 

 at a previous meeting resolved to invest in 

 United States securities, should be deposited in 

 the Life and Trust Company, to await the action 

 of this House on these important measures now 

 pending. 



" Sir, you will find that the man who has 

 been waiting the decline of materials to build 

 will wait still longer. The result will be a par- 

 tial paralysis of the great interests of the whole 

 country, and especially if this bill shall pass, 

 and if the other measures to w r hich I have re- 

 ferred shall be pressed to a decision," 



Mr. Raymond, of New York, said : " As I do 

 not desire to follow the example of the attorney 

 who persisted in arguing his case after the jury 

 had brought in a verdict, I will take occasion to 

 say that in my judgment some aspects of this 

 great question of reconstruction have been vir- 

 tually settled, so far at least as to remove them 

 from the arena of profitable discussion at this 

 time. By various expressions of public senti- 

 ment, through the press, through this body, in 

 legislative assemblies all over the land, and es- 

 pecially through the verdict rendered last fall at 

 the polls, I think I am quite justified in saying 



