CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



231 



Mr. Sherman, of Ohio, said: u The principle 

 of th'H bill is contained in tin- lir-t t \\ o li: 

 tin- preamble. It i> founded upon tin- prorlama- 

 ti.m ,.1'lhe I'nsident ami Secretary ol'Slate made 

 .!';<! tin- assassination of j'rcMdent Lin- 

 coln, in which they declared specifically that the 

 <>n h:id os-crthrown all civil governments 

 in the insurrectionary States, and they pro- 

 ceoded by an executive mandate to create 



UN. They were provisional in their 

 rter, and dependent for their validity 

 solely npon the action of Congress. These are 

 propositions which it is not now necessary for 

 me to demonstrate. Those governments have 

 never been sanctioned by Congress nor by the 

 people of the States in which they exist ; that 

 is, all the people. 



Taking that proclamation and the acknowl- 

 edged fact that the people of the Southern 

 States, the loyal people, whites and blacks, are 

 not protected in their rights, but that an un- 

 usual and extraordinary number of cases occur 

 of violence and murder and wrong, I do think 

 it is the duty of the United States to protect 

 those people in the enjoyment of substantial 

 rights. 



"Now, the first four sections of this substi- 

 tute contain nothing but what is in the pres- 

 ent law. There is not a single thing in the first 

 four sections that does not now exist by law. 



" The first section authorizes the division of 

 the rebel States into military districts. That 

 is being done daily. 



" The second section acknowledges that the 

 President is the commanding officer of the 

 army, and it is made his duty to assign certain 

 officers to those districts. That is clearly ad- 

 mitted to be right. 



"The third section does no more than what 

 the Supreme Court in its recent decision 

 ha decided could bo done in a State in insur- 

 rection. The Supreme Court in its recent 

 decision, while denying that a military tribu- 

 nal could be organized in Indiana because it 

 never had been in a state of insurrection, ex- 

 pressly declared that these tribunals might 

 have been, and might now be, organized in 

 insurrectionary States. There is nothing in 

 this third section, in my judgment, that is not 

 now and has not been done every month within 

 the lst twelve months by the President of 

 the United States. The orders of General 

 Sickles, and many other orders that I might 

 quote, have gone further in punishment of 

 crimo than this section proposes. 



" Now, in regard to the fourth section, that 

 is a limitation upon the present law. Under the 

 present law many executions of military tri- 

 bunals are summarily carried out. This sec- 

 tion requires all sentences of military tribunals 

 which affect the liberty of the citizen to be 

 sent to the commanding officer of the district. 

 They must be approved by the commanding 

 officer of the district ; and so far as life is con- 

 cerned the President may issue his order at 

 any moment now, or after this bill passes, 



dim -ting that the military commander of the 



district, shall not cnton-.- a r-ent.-nro of death 



until it is submitted to him, b.-cati- 



tary officer is a nn-iv Mtboranfltfl of the I'reti- 



di nt. remaining there at the pleasure of the 



J're-idcnt 



" There is nothing, therefore, in these sections 

 that ought to alarm the nervea of my friend 

 from Pennsylvania or anybody else. I cannot 

 think that these gentlemen are alarmed about 

 the state of despotism that President Johnson 

 is to establish in the Southern States. I do 

 not feel alarmed ; nor do I see any thing hi 

 these sections as they now stand that need 

 endanger the rights of the mos: timid citizen 

 of the United States. They are intended to 

 protect a race of people who are now without 

 protection, and they are not intended to oppress 

 anybody who now can oppress. 



"Now, in regard to the fifth section, which 

 is the main and material feature of this bill, I 

 think it is right that the Congress of the Uni- 

 ted States, before its adjournment, should des- 

 ignate some way by which the Southern States 

 may reorganize loyal State governments in 

 harmony with the Constitution and laws of the 

 United States and the sentiment of the people, 

 and find their way back to these halls. My 

 own judgment is that that fifth section will 

 point out a clear, easy, and right way for these 

 States to be restored to their full power in the 

 Government. All that it demands of the peo- 

 ple of the Southern States is to extend to all 

 then: male citizens, without distinction of race 

 or color, the elective franchise. It is now too 

 late in the day to be frightened by this simple 

 proposition. Senators can make the most of 

 it as a political proposition. Upon that we 

 are prepared to meet them. But it does point 

 out a way by which the twenty absent Senators 

 and the fifty absent Representatives can get 

 back to these halls, and there is no other way 

 by which they can justly do it. 



" It seems to me that this is the whole sub- 

 stance of the bill. All there is material in the 

 bill is in the first two lines of the preamble 

 and the fifth section, in my judgment The 

 first two lines may lay the foundation by adopt- 

 ing the proclamation issued first to North Caro- 

 lina, that the rebellion had swept away all the 

 civil governments in the Southern States ; and 

 the fifth section points out the mode by which 

 the people of those States in their own man- 

 ner, without any limitations or restrictions by 

 Congress, may get back to full representation 

 in Congress. That is the view I take of this 

 amended bill ; and taking that view of it I see 

 no reason in the world why we should not all 

 go for it." 



Mr. Buckalew : " Mr. President, the Senator 

 from Ohio made a few remarks, which, in my 

 opinion, ought not to go upon the record of the 

 debates without a word in reply. He said that 

 at the end of the war the present President of 

 the United States, through the Secretary of 

 State, announced to the people of this country'. 



