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CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



" Mr. President, let me speak frankly of this 

 measure, which has in it so much of good and 

 so much of evil. Barely have good and evil 

 been mixed on such a scale. Look at the good, 

 and you are full of grateful admiration. Look 

 at the evil, and you are impatient at such an 

 abandonment of duty. Much is gained, but 

 much is abandoned. You have done much ; 

 but you have not done enough. You have left 

 undone things which ought to be done. The 

 Senator from Maine (Mr. Fessenden) was right 

 in asking more. I agree with him. I ask for 

 more. All the good of the bill cannot make 

 me forget its evil. It is very defective. It is 

 horridly defective. You cannot use too strong 

 language in characterizing a measure with such 

 fatal defects. But nobody recognizes more 

 cordially than myself the good it has. Pardon 

 me if I do my best to make it better. 



"This bill is the original House bill for the 

 military government of the rebel States, revised 

 and amended by the Senate in several essential 

 particulars. As it came from the House it was 

 excellent in its general purpose, but was very 

 imperfect. It was nothing but a military bill, pro- 

 viding protection for our fellow-citizens in the 

 rebel States. Unquestionably it was much im- 

 proved in the Senate. It is easy to mention 

 its good points, for these are conspicuous, and 

 seem like so many monuments. 



" Throughout the bill, in its title, in its pre- 

 amble, and then again in its body, the States 

 in question are designated as ' rebel States.' I 

 like this designation. It is brief and just. It 

 seems to justify on the face any measure of 

 precaution or security. It teaches the country 

 how these States are to be regarded at least for 

 tli present. It teaches these States how they 

 are regarded by Congress. ' Rebel States ! ' 

 I like the term, aud I am glad it is repeated. 

 God grant that the time may c6me when 

 this term may be forgotten ; but until then we 

 must not hesitate to call things by their right 

 name. 



"More important still is the declaration in 

 the preamble that ' no legal State governments ' 

 now exist in the enumerated rebel States. 

 This is a declaration of incalculable value. For 

 a long time, too long, you have hesitated ; but 

 at last this point is reached, destined to be 

 ' the initial point ' of a just reconstruction. For 

 a long time, again and again, I have insisted 

 that those governments are illegal. Strangely, 

 you would not say so. But this biU fixes this 

 point, which is the starting-point of a true 

 policy. If the existing governments in the 

 rebel States are 'illegal," you have duties with 

 regard to them -which cannot be postponed. 

 You cannot stop with this declaration. You 

 must see that it is carried out in a practical way. 

 In other words, you must brush away these 

 illegal governments, the spawn of presidential 

 usurpation, and supply their places. The ille- 

 gal must give way to the legal ; and Congress 

 must supervise and control the transition. This 

 bill has a special value in the obligations which 



it imposes upon you. Let it find a place in the 

 statute-book, and your duties will be fixed be- 

 yond recall. 



" But there is another point established 

 which is in itself a prodigious triumph. As I 

 mention it I cannot conceal my joy. It is the 

 direct requirement of universal suffrage, with- 

 out distinction of race or color, in all the con- 

 stitutions of the rebel States. This is done by 

 act of Congress, without constitutional amend- 

 ment. It is a grand and beneficent exercise 

 of existing powers, for a long time invoked, but 

 now at last grasped. No rebel State can enjoy 

 representation in Congress, until it has con- 

 ferred the suffrage upon all its citizens, and 

 fixed this right in its constitution. This is the 

 Magna Charta which you are about to enact. 

 Since Runnymede, there has been nothing of 

 greater value to human rights. 



"Add to this enumeration that the bill is in 

 its general purposes a measure of protection for 

 loyal fellow-citizens now trodden down by 

 rebels. The military power is set in motion to 

 this end, and the whole rebel region is divided 

 into districts where the strong arm of the sol- 

 dier is to supply that protection which is asked 

 in vain from the illegal governments which 

 have been constituted there. 



" Look now at the other side, ami you will 

 see the defects of this bill. By an amendment 

 of the Senate, the House bill, which was merely 

 a military bill for protection, has been con- 

 verted into a measure of ' reconstruction.' But 

 it is reconstruction without any machinery or 

 motive power. There is no provision for the 

 initiation of the new governments. There is 

 no helping hand extended to the loyal people 

 who may seek to lay anew the foundations of 

 civil order. They are left to grope in the dark. 

 This is not right. It is a failure of duty on the 

 part of Congress, which ought to preside over 

 the work of reconstruction, and lend its helping 

 hand, by securing education and equal rights' to 

 begin at once, and by appointing the way and 

 the season in which good citizens should pro- 

 ceed in creating the new governments. I cannot 

 forget, also, that there is no provision by which 

 the freedmen can be secured a piece of land 

 for them and their families, which has always 

 seemed to me important in the work of recon- 

 struction. But all this, though of the gravest 

 character, is dwarfed by that other objection 

 which springs from the toleration of rebels in 

 the copartnership of government. Here has 

 been a strange oblivion, showing a great insen- 

 sibility." 



Mr. Sherman, of Ohio, said: "The Senator 

 has characterized this bill as a horrid bill, and 

 the reason assigned is that it turns the loyal 

 people over to the care and custody of the dis- 

 loyal. Now, sir, this proposition, for the 

 first time, places the ballot in the hands of the 

 whole negro population of the Southern States. 

 It gives them the power to go to the polls and 

 exercise the elective franchise for their own 

 protection. Now, for the first time, there is 



