CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



-.-iblished l,y ;i written 



'ii defining its powers, a (lovcrnmeiit 



simply of delegated power-, nt.\v assumes in the 



pic of this country, and in the 



f flu- world, to undertake to reconstruct 



: '. IIo\v<lid tin- I'Yderal Government 



1 -u-nce? It wad because the people 



of tlu- thirteen original States, acting separately 

 tor themselves, ohose to establish this l-Vder.-d 

 :-nment, with certain specified and limited 

 power-. And I cannot bring myself to the 

 conclusion that, in the lines of the history of 

 the formation of the Constitution, in defiance 

 of all the teachings of the fathers, and in con- 

 travention of every principle of adjudicated con- 

 stitutional l;i\v, any court will ever hold this bill 

 to be constitutional, or worth the paper that it is 

 written on ; and let it not be supposed that out- 

 raged rights will not seek the peaceable redress 

 of the courts of law to test the constitutionality 

 of this measure. In my judgment I know able 

 men, for whose judgment I have respect, differ 

 from me this bill is wholly unwarranted by 

 the Constitution of the country, and for that 

 reason I do not feel that awful dread of its pas- 

 sage which, under other circumstances, I should. 

 But, sir, I do not wish to touch it, as I said 

 before; I will have nothing to do with it." 



Mr. Doolittle, of Wisconsin, said : "I sincere- 

 ly hope that amendment will be adopted, and 

 if the bill is to pass I attach very great im- 

 portance to it, so far as the effect which it is 

 likely to produce in the States of the South is 

 concerned. My opinion is, from all the infor- 

 mation which 1 have been able to obtain, that 

 if the reconstruction of the States of the South 

 could take place upon the basis of what is 

 called impartial suffrage, that is to say, upon 

 such qualifications as should apply alike to all 

 cla-ses and colors, the people of the South 

 would in good faith undertake the work with 

 a view to change their constitutions and laws in 

 such a way as to produce that result. But if 

 it be insisted as a condition precedent that they 

 shall adopt universal, suffrage, I believe the peo- 

 ple of the South will refuse to do any thing 

 under the provision, and would prefer to live 

 under a military government. 



" Mr. President, it is hardly possible for gen- 

 tlemen who reside in the free States of the 

 North, to conceive the great difference which 

 exists between the mass of the colored people 

 of the South and the colored people of the 

 Northern States. We all know it is the more 

 enterprising of the colored men who have gone 

 from the South to the North, generally those 

 who have been educated in hotels, in steam- 

 boats, and in families, who have mingled with 

 freemen, and have been freemen themselves for 

 along time, have families, support themselves,- 

 provide for themselves, and are educated in the 

 habits and thoughts and feelings and responsi- 

 bilities of freemen. The colored men of Mas- 

 , saclmsetts, Xew York, and Wisconsin are of a 

 class, as compared with the mass of the colored 

 men of the South, very greatly their superiors. 

 VOL. vu. 15 



The proposition from any statesman that the 

 I tho colored people of the South, who 

 have just been released r, ( ,m liondage on the 

 plantations should hold the elective franchise, 

 and determine the interests of the States and 

 the nation, is to me unaccountable. 



'' I believe that if an amendment is put upon 

 the bill, which requires, as a condition precedent 

 to getting rid of military governments, that tho 

 people of the South shall accept universal suf- 

 frage, in (he lower States where the majority 

 of the population are negroes, as is the case in 

 some of them, they will refuse it altogether, 

 and prefer living under the government of 

 those who carry the sword. Sir, it is a danger- 

 ous experiment to undertake to govern any 

 people for any length of time by the sword. 

 Yon accustom them, in all their habits, to 

 look not to civil law for their rights, but to 

 look to the word of a man who is an abso- 

 lute despot, who hears and decides without 

 trial, upon impulse, from caprice, from whose 

 decision there is no appeal. To educate a peo- 

 ple for years under such a system is absolutely 

 to destroy republican government, and the 

 very foundations of republican government, 

 for they cannot exist where a people is edu- 

 cated to despotism." 



Mr. Johnson, of Maryland, said : " The Sen- 

 ate are not to be informed, nor are my own 

 constituents, who have taken any interest in 

 my public course in this body during the rebel- 

 lion or since its termination, that I differ from* 

 the majority of the Senate entirely as to the 

 condition in which the States are placed in con- 

 sequence of the rebellion. I have held from 

 the first to the last, and maintain the opinion 

 still, that the States are now States of the 

 Union, entitled to all the rights and bound by 

 all the obligations which the Constitution con- 

 fers and imposes upon States and citizens. I 

 have believed from the first, and still believe, 

 consequently, that the citizens of these States 

 are entitled to all the guarantees of personal 

 liberty which the Constitution secures; that 

 they are entitled to the trial by jury ; that they 

 are not under any circumstances to be sub- 

 jected to any authority which Congress may 

 exercise in the exertion of its war power, ex- 

 cept if that exception exist during the exist- 

 ence of a war. In my judgment, the whole 

 authority of the United States in carrying on 

 the late civil war was because of its obligation 

 to suppress insurrections, and, consequently, 

 that the moment the insurrections were sup- 

 pressed the p >wer terminated, and the States 

 where it prevailed were restored to the condi- 

 tion in which they stood antecedent to such in- 

 surrection. I have seen no reason to change 

 that opinion, and I think the opinion stands con- 

 firmed by every thing which fell from our 

 fathers during the deliberations of the Conven- 

 tion which framed and submitted the Constitu- 

 tion of the United States to the ratification of 

 the people. 



" But, Mr. President, I have seen with BUT- 



