232 



CONGKESS, UNITED STATES. 



and to the world that the then existing govern- 

 ments in the South were unlawful, and com- 

 menced a proceeding for reestablishing valid 

 governments in that section of the country; 

 and as I understand him, he places this amend- 

 ment of his, that he proposes to make a law, 

 upon the ground, at least to some extent, of 

 that official declaration of the Chief Magistrate 

 of the United States. In other words, the 

 country is to understand and accept the po- 

 sition of the member who offers this "proposi- 

 tion that this bill is based upon that executive 

 action ; that it is a natural, or at least a proper 

 sequence from it. 



'"The Senator, in speaking, forgot that the 

 State of Virginia reorganized had been set up 

 long before, and that that organization yet con- 

 tinues. He forgot that Louisiana had been 

 reorganized, and that that reorganization yet 

 continues modified in form. He forgot that 

 the same state of things existed with reference 

 to the State of Arkansas, the reorganization 

 of which was instigated by a communication 

 from President Lincoln to General Steele, in 

 command in that State. He forgot that Ten- 

 nessee herself was in the same category. So 

 that, as to a large part of the States of the 

 South which had been concerned in the rebel- 

 lion, they had been organized under new State 

 authorities before the time which he mention- 

 ed ; that is, before the close of the war ; and as 

 to those States, constituting a large part of the 

 whole number, there was no executive declara- 

 tion, no executive proceeding for their reor- 

 ganization; but, on the contrary, they were 

 then held, as they have since been held by the 

 President of the United States, to be lawful 

 State governments, and as such entitled to the 

 respect, to the amity, or rather to the protec- 

 tion, of the Government of the United States. 

 The Senator's argument therefore fails, for the 

 enactment of this bill is applicable to all the 

 States which I have enumerated save Ten- 

 nessee. 



" Why, sir, let us go a step further. Not 

 only was that the position of the present Presi- 

 dent with regard to these States, but in point 

 of fact it was the position of his predecessor ; 

 for the State government in each one of the 

 States which I have mentioned was organized 

 under his administration at his instance, and 

 under proclamations and messages which are 

 known to the whole world. Mr. Lincoln an- 

 nounced to the inhabitants of all the States in 

 insurrection that wherever in any State a num- 

 ber of legal voters, according to the qualifica- 

 tions which existed before the rebellion, not 

 less than one-tenth in number, should organize 

 a State government in conformity with the 

 views which he stated, the government so or- 

 ganized should be recognized by the Gov- 

 ernment of the United States ; and the Con- 

 gress of the United States, by its silence, 

 by its acquiescence, concurred in that public 

 proclamation and declaration of his. I say, 

 therefore, that at the conclusion of the war, 



the time mentioned by the Senator from Ohio, 

 and upon considerations connected with which 

 he puts the measure now before the Senate, a 

 large part of these States were acknowledged 

 in the full sense by the executive department 

 as the governments of those States, as they 

 had been previously recognized by Mr. Lin- 

 coln when he exercised the duties of that high 

 office. 



"I say, then, that the Senator from Ohio, 

 standing here as the organ of those who intro- 

 duce this measure and ask for our votes for it, is 

 not justified by the facts in putting the enact- 

 ment of this bill upon the ground which he has 

 stated to the Senate in its justification. I go 

 further. I say that the second or other ground 

 which he stated is equally incorrect. He says 

 that the Supreme Court has expressed an opin- 

 ion which justifies this bill. Pray, when did 

 it announce any such opinion or express any 

 such sentiment ! Certainly it was not in any 

 of those recent cases which have attracted pub- 

 lic attention and been the subject of vituperative 

 denunciation in the country. It determined 

 that military commissions in the State of Indi- 

 ana were illegal because that State was not 

 within the theatre of military operations. That 

 conceded, impliedly at least, perhaps the court 

 said so expressly, that such military commissions 

 or military courts might be organized in States 

 in rebellion, might be organized within the 

 theatre of active hostilities, that they were an 

 incident of military operations when warranted 

 by the Kules and Articles of War or by the 

 legislation of Congress. But, sir, that court in 

 no part of either of the opinions delivered by 

 it laid down the doctrine that military commis- 

 sions might now be organized, as stated by the 

 Senator from Ohio, in the States of the South. 

 It did not enter upon that field of inquiry 

 which has been entered upon by members of 

 Congress at all. It did not cover it by its 

 investigations. It did not explore it. It did 

 not attempt to determine whether the war 

 yet continued, as some gentlemen seem to think. 

 It did not attempt to determine what was the 

 present condition of those States in a politi- 

 cal point of view, and very properly it re- 

 frained from that investigation, and that for 

 two reasons : in the first place, because it is a 

 political question, and therefore not appropriate 

 to its examination unless brought before it di- 

 rectly and in such manner that it cannot 

 evade it in a judicial investigation ; in the next 

 place, the case before it invited no such in- 

 quiry, and it made no such inquiry. I say 

 the Senator from Ohio will search in vain in 

 any of those opinions for any such doctrine as 

 that which he has suggested, I presume without 

 reflection, on the spur of the moment, in the 

 heat of debate. So much in reply to the Sen- 

 ator from Ohio. His speech has led to these 

 remarks, which I should not otherwise have 

 made. 



" There is, however, a question which I would 

 desire to ask him. I perceive he is present. It 



