230 



CONGKESS, UNITED STATES. 



loyal and republican State governments can be le- 

 gally established : Therefore, 



Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 

 tives of the United States of America in (fonqress assem- 

 bled, That said rebel States shall be divided into mili- 

 tary districts and made subject to the military authori- 

 ty of the United States, as hereinafter prescribed, 

 and for that purpose Virginia shall constitute the first 

 district ; North Carolina and South Carolina the sec- 

 ond district ; Georgia, Alabama, and Florida, the 

 third district; Mississippi and Arkansas the fourth 

 district ; and Louisiana and Texas the fifth district. 



SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That it shall be 

 the duty of the President to assign to the command 

 of each of said districts an officer of the Army, not 

 below the rank of brigadier-general, and to detail a 

 sufficient military force to enable such officer to per- 

 form his duties and enforce his authority within the 

 district to which he is assigned. 



SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That it shall be 

 the duty of each officer assigned as aforesaid to protect 

 all persons in their rights of person and property, to 

 suppress insurrection, disorder, and violence, and to 

 punish, or cause to be punished, all disturbers of the 

 public peace and criminals, and to this end he may 

 allow local civil tribunals to take jurisdiction of and 

 to try offenders, or, when in his judgment it may be 

 necessary for the trial of offenders, he shall have 

 power to organize military commissions or tribunals 

 for that purpose ; and all interference under color of 

 State authority with the exercise of military authority 

 under this act shall be null and void. 



SEC. 4. And be it further enacted, That all persons 

 put under military arrest by virtue of this act shall 

 be tried without unnecessary delay, and no cruel or 

 unusual punishment shall be inflicted ; and no sen- 

 tence of any military commission or tribunal hereby 

 authorized, affecting the life or liberty of any person, 

 shall be executed until it is approved by the officer 

 in command of the district, and the laws and regula- 

 tions for the government of the Army shall not be af- 

 fected by this act, except in so far as they conflict 

 with its provisions. 



SEC. 5. And be it further enacted, That when the 

 people of any one of said rebel States shall have 

 formed a constitution of government in conformity 

 with the Constitution of the United States in all re- 

 spects, framed by a convention of delegates elected 

 by the male citizens of said State twenty-one years 

 old and upward, of whatever race, color, or previous 

 condition of servitude, who have been resident in 

 said State for one year previous to the day of such 

 election, except such as maybe disfranchised for par- 

 ticipation in the rebellion, or for felony at common 

 law, and when such constitution shall provide that 

 the elective franchise shall be enjoyed by all such 

 persons as have the qualifications herein stated for 

 electors of delegates, and when such constitution 

 shall be ratified by a majority of the persons voting 

 on the question of ratification who are qualified as 

 electors of delegates, and when such constitution 

 shall have been submitted to Congress for examina- 

 tion and approval, and Congress shall have approved 

 the same, and when said State by a vote of its Legis- 

 lature elected under said constitution shall have 

 adopted the amendment to the Constitution of the 

 United States proposed by the Thirty-ninth Congress, 

 and known as article fourteen, and when said article 

 shall have become a part of the Constitution of the 

 United States, said State shall be declared entitled 

 to representation in Congress, and Senators and Eep- 

 resentatives shall be admitted therefrom on their tak- 

 ing the oath prescribed by law, and then and there- 

 after the preceding sections of this act shall be inop- 

 erative in said State. 



Mr. Buckalew, of Pennsylvania, said : "I beg 

 you to be assured, sir, that I do not rise to make 

 a speech. In the fourth section of this measure 

 appears the following clause : 



And no sentence of any military commission or 

 tribunal hereby authorized, affecting the life or lib- 

 erty of any person, shall be executed until it is ap- 

 proved by the officer in command of the district. 



" I spoke on a similar provision in the origi- 

 nal bill last evening, and stated the insuperable 

 and I think -well-founded objection which exists 

 to depositing this power of life and of death in 

 the hands of these subordinate military officials 

 in the several districts established by the bill or 

 amendment. I propose after the word ' district ' 

 in the seventh line to add these words : 



And when it affects life, the approval also of the 

 President of the United States. 



" By irresistible inference the section as it 

 stands makes the decision of the officer in com- 

 mand of the district adequate for the purpose 

 of the execution of the sentence. The conclu- 

 sion cannot be denied successfully or resisted by 

 argument, if there be any sense or meaning to 

 be attached to the words.' 1 



Mr. "Williams, of Oregon, said : " I think this 

 amendment is quite unnecessary. This identi- 

 cal question was considered by the Committee 

 on Eeconstruction, and there was supposed to 

 be no occasion for putting the word ' President ' 

 in the section." 



Mr. Doolittle, of Wisconsin, said : " I should 

 like to ask the Senator from Oregon: do not 

 the rules and regulations of the Army as they 

 now stand declare that the sentence of death, 

 on a conviction by a military commission, shall 

 not be inflicted until it is approved by the Presi- 

 dent? Is not that the way the law now 

 reads ? " 



Mr. Williams : " That is my understanding." 



Mr. Doolittle : " Very well. Then if the ex- 

 isting law reads that the sentence of death by a 

 military commission shall not be inflicted but' 

 by the approval of the President, and you now 

 enact in this section that the sentence of death 

 passed by a military commission shall not be in- 

 flicted except by the approval of the brigadier- 

 general, you change the regulation. That is the 

 difficulty in the case. By the very terms of the 

 statute itself your regulations are modified by 

 this very bill. That is just as clear as that two 

 and two make four." 



The President pro tempore : " The question is 

 on the amendment to the amendment." 



The yeas and nays were ordered : and being 

 taken, resulted yeas 14, nays 26. 



Mr. Hendricks : "I move to amend the amend- 

 ment by inserting at the end of the fourth sec- 

 tion the following :" 



And no punishment shall be inflicted which is not 

 prescribed by law. 



The yeas and nays were ordered ; and being 

 taken, resulted yeas 8, nays 29. 



So the amendment to the amendment was 

 rejected. 



The Presiding Officer (Mr. Pomeroy in the 

 chair) : '' The question now is on the amendment 

 offered by the Senator from Ohio as a substi 

 tute for the original bill." 



