236 



CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



constitution, and then it is required that that 

 Legislature shall adopt the amendment to the 

 Constitution proposed by Congress at its last 

 session and give its assent to it in a valid and 

 legal and binding form. 



" And what is next to be done ? Thereupon 

 Arkansas is to elect Senators and Representa- 

 tives. And whom may they elect ? Can they 

 send rebels here ? Not so ; they must send 

 those here who can take the oaths prescribed 

 by law ; to take ' the iron-clad oath,' as it is 

 called. Therefore, I submit in all candor, that 

 by passing this bill Congress will not take one 

 step toward placing the government of those 

 ten States in the hands of the rebels. Congress 

 is still to hold the entire subject in its control 

 for subsequent inquest, examination, and ap- 

 proval. And for Congress to be afraid to do 

 this much is not to distrust the rebels but to 

 distrust itself, and the objection of the gentle- 

 man from Pennsylvania and the gentleman 

 from Massachusetts is nothing but a distrust of 

 Congress itself; and when the gentleman from 

 Pennsylvania talks about Congress disgracing 

 itself by passing this bill, I would call his atten- 

 tion to the fact that the action of the Senate 

 does not justify his assertion. If it is proper to 

 refer to the action of the Senate upon this sub- 

 ject, I would say that there was not one Sen- 

 ator there in any way connected with the 

 Eadical or Republican party who voted against 

 it. It at all events met the approval of every 

 member of our party in that body who voted. 

 If there were any who entertained similar views 

 to those of the gentlemen from Pennsylvania 

 and Massachusetts, they did not stand up and 

 express them, or record their votes against this 

 amendment." 



Mr. Bingham, of Ohio, said: "Mr. Speaker, 

 my object in rising now is not so much to vin- 

 dicate the bill as it comes to us from the Sen- 

 ate as it is to expose the animus with which 

 gentlemen assail the bill here, coming. as they 

 do from the Reconstruction Committee. 



u There is not one word in this bill that has 

 not at one time or another received the sanction 

 of that committee, save the provision for gen- 

 eral and equal suffrage; and yet gentlemen 

 stand here now and undertake to eat up their 

 own words and ask the House to eat up theirs. 

 What is there in the bill except general suffrage 

 that has not received the sanction of that com- 

 mittee? I ask the gentlemen to answer that 

 question to their constituents-." 



Mr. Garfield, of Ohio, said : " Mr. Speaker, 

 this bill starts out by laying its hands on the 

 rebel governments and taking the very breath 

 of life out of them. In the next place it puts 

 the bayonet at the breast of every rebel in the 

 South. In the next place, it leaves in the hands 

 of Congress, utterly and absolutely, the work 

 of reconstruction. Gentlemen here, when they 

 have the power of a thunderbolt in their hands, 

 are afraid of themselves and propose to stagger 

 like idiots under the weight of a power they 

 know not how to use. If I were afraid of this 



Congress, afraid of my shadow, afraid of myself, 

 I would declaim against this bill, and I would 

 do it just as distinguished gentlemen around 

 me have done and do declaim against it. They 

 have spoken vehemently, they have spoken se- 

 pulchrally against it, but they have not done xis 

 the favor to quote a line or the proof of a single 

 word from the bill itself that it does any one of 

 the horrible things they tell us of. They tell 

 us it is universal amnesty, and there is not a 

 line in the bill that will maintain the charge. 

 They have told us it puts the government into 

 the hands of rebels. I deny it, unless you are a 

 rebel and I am a rebel. If we are rebels, then 

 it does put it into the hands of rebels, but not 

 otherwise." 



The motion to lay the substitute on the table 

 was lost yeas 40, nays 119. The main question 

 was then ordered yeas 103, nays 60. 



Mr. Eldridge, of Wisconsin, said : " I never 

 understood fully the value of a minute until I 

 was taught it by this Congress. The practice 

 seems to have been established here that the 

 most important measures that come before this 

 House are to be discussed in the least time. 

 Some gentleman upon the other side of the 

 House is assigned the floor, and, as upon this oc- 

 casion, partitions out ten minutes to one, eight 

 minutes to another, four minutes to another, 

 and I believe as low as two minutes to another, 

 for the discussion of a measure which is to abro- 

 gate the Constitution in ten of the States of this 

 Union. Ten minutes are allotted to me. I 

 shall not stultify myself by pretending to make 

 an argument in these ten minutes. 



" I shall content myself with denouncing this 

 measure as most wicked and abominable. It 

 contains all that is vicious, all that is mischiev- 

 ous in any and all of the propositions which 

 have come either from the Committee on Recon- 

 struction or from any gentleman upon the other 

 side of the House. I am not quite so certain as 

 my friend from Ohio (Mr. Le Blond) that when 

 this bill shall have become a law, should it ever 

 become the law, a state of war will not exist. 

 In my judgment, this bill is of itself a declaration 

 of war against the Southern people ; it is at least 

 a revival and continuation of the war, which we 

 had hoped was forever ended. If it is bello ces- 

 sante now, from the time this bill shall pass and 

 become a law, it will be a war actual and fla- 

 grant, which will, I fear, involve that whole peo- 

 ple, white and black, in one common ruin. 



" Now, what is this measure ? I do not won- 

 der that there is some difference of opinion 

 upon the other side of the House. I should 

 wonder if there were not. For as you approach 

 the final consummation of the purpose which 

 you have had in view, of virtually declaring the 

 Government of our fathers a failure, I wonder 

 not that you differ ; that you have some contro- 

 versy among yourselves, some misgivings. The 

 gentleman from Connecticut (Mr. Brandagee) 

 told us the other day that the measure then be- 

 fore the House similar to this was commencing 

 at the right point ; that it was to perform ex- 



