CONGRESS, UNITKD >TATE8. 



Ill 



I 



that tin- pe., pi,, have QMnuelvea already d< 



ll points of t!li fJIVal ColltroViT.-y. < >|IC 



lit' tlu- point-, cmhracvd in that decision I think 

 U thi>: th:it. they arc not willing to arc, 



of adjustment and restoration what lias 



[lit tin-ward as the policy of the President, 

 of tin.- I'nit-.'d Statc<. In other words, they are 

 not williiiL' that the States lately in insurrection 

 shall resume their former portion of political 



: as memlicrs of this I'nion, nor to give 

 admission to their representatives in the two 

 Houses of Congress without some provision for 

 tho future or without specific authority of law. 

 The President had put this forward as his view 

 of what was just and proper to be done in this 



providing only that the representatives 

 they illicit send should he loyal men. I con- 

 curred in that opinion; and I say frankly that I 

 am still of the opinion that if this had been done 

 at an early stage of the controversy, promptly, 

 cheerfully, generously by the party which ruled 

 the destinies of this country at that time, it 

 would have restored peace and healed to a great 

 extent all the troubles of the body-politic. Bat 

 because I believed and still believe that to 

 have been the best policy then, I do not feel 

 bound to maintain that it id the best policy 

 now. A physician may prescribe a gargle for 

 a sore throat ; and, if his prescription is thrown 

 out of tho window, the sore throat may develop 

 into an inflammation or into a raging and con- 

 suming fever ; but he would be regarded as 

 wanting in sound judgment and in common- 

 sense if for the sake of consistency he should 

 feel bound to prescribe nothing but gargles dur- 

 ing the whole progress of the disease. I shall 

 therefore dismiss from consideration as imprac- 

 ticable and out of the question this mode of set- 

 tling the controversy which divides and distracts 

 the nation. And in the next place, although 

 they have not pronounced decisively upon any 

 specific plan of adjustment, I think the people 

 have decided more nearly than they have de- 

 cided upon any thing else that the constitutional 

 amendment adopted by Congress at its last ses- 

 sion and submitted to the several States for 

 ratification affords, on the whole, the wisest and 

 tho most satisfactory basis of adjustment of 

 which this question in its present attitude is 

 susceptible. And finally, I think the people 

 have decided that they would rather trust to 

 Congress to devise some mode of settling this 

 question, some mode of restoring those States 

 which were lately in rebellion to the Union, 

 than trust to the executive department of the 

 Government. They regard it as a matter for the 

 legislative power rather than for the President 

 alone. 



" But in saying this I do not mean to imply 

 that they have committed themselves in advance 

 to any thing and every thing which Congress may 

 see fit to do. While they have expressed a gen- 

 eral preference for the constitutional amend- 

 ment, and a general confidence in Congress 

 t rather than tho Executive, I think they have 

 trusted not so much to any particular plan of 



adjustment an to the presumed wisdom and pa- 

 triotism and justice and ^..,.,1 HODM which the 

 men whom they have deputed [,, ;i , ; |,,. re M 

 their Representatives will lii-iii:- 

 ation and .settlement of the question. 'I hey will 

 t herd'. r<- require that whatever wo may do 

 iiall he characteri/ed |,y wisdom, by pa- 

 triotism, and by that practical good sense which 

 .should mark every thing wo attempt for the pub- 

 lic good ; and if we are to throw aside the amend- 

 ment as a ba-is of adjustment, an the ver. 

 who proposed and pressed it seem disposed now 

 to do, they will require at our hands something: 

 much wiser, more effectual, and more practical 

 in its place. The distinguished gentleman from 

 Pennsylvania (Mr. Stevens) has submitted a bill 

 by which he proposes to settle the question now 

 at issue before the country. That bill is before 

 us for consideration, and it contains three lead- 

 ing cardinal principles. The first is that the 

 States I speak of the bill as it stands now after 

 modification and amendment that the State 

 governments now existing in the South, in those 

 States which had been previously in rebellion, 

 are to be deprived of all legal authority ; their 

 acts are to bo pronounced null and void ; and it 

 is proposed that in place of tho governments 

 which exist in those States to-day, we shall, sus- 

 pending the privilege of the writ offiobeas corpus, 

 extend martial law over all that territory. 



" In the next place tho bill proposes that this 

 Congress shall authorize the election pf dele- 

 gates to conventions in each of those States, 

 first prescribing universal suffrage as the basis 

 on which they shall be elected ; that those con- 

 ventions shall form constitutions, Congress pre- 

 scribing certain principles and provisions which 

 shall.be incorporated into any constitution which 

 those conventions may frame ; these constitu- 

 tions thus formed shall then be submitted to the 

 people of those States for ratification, and if 

 ratified, to be then brought here and submitted 

 to the approval of Congress, which they must 

 receive before the governments thus formed are 

 to have validity and practical authority to enact 

 laws for the government of those States. And 

 in the third place, the bill provides that if the 

 Legislatures of those States, after their consti- 

 tutions shall have been thus formed, adopted, 

 and approved, shall at any time disregard, abro- 

 gate, or annul any of the principles which the 

 bill prescribes for adoption in those constitu- 

 tions, then the State so acting shall forfeit its 

 representation in Congress. 



" There is pending here a substitute, offered 

 by the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Ashley), to the 

 bill of the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. 

 Stevens), which differs from it in only one re- 

 spect ; I mean in matter of general principle. 

 That substitute declares that all the acts and laws 

 of the existing State governments shall be null 

 and void; but it provides for them no substitute 

 whatever during the interim which must elapse 

 before the provisions of the law we propose to 

 enact for the formation of new governments 

 shall have been carried into effect. 



