658 



PUBLIC DOCUMENTS. 



excluded from the privilege of holding office by said 

 proposed amendment to the Constitution of the 

 United States, shall be eligibl#to election as a mem- 

 ber of the convention to frame a constitution for 

 any of said rebel States, nor shall any such person 

 vote for members of such convention. 



SEC. 6. And lie it further enacted', That until the 

 people of said rebel States shall be by law admitted 

 to representation in the Congress of the United 

 States, any civil government which may exist there- 

 in shall be deemed provisional only, and in all re- 

 spects subject to the paramount authority of the 

 United States at any time to abolish, modify, con- 

 trol, or supersede the same ; and in all elections to 

 any office under such provisional governments all 

 persons shall be entitled to vote, and none others, 

 who are entitled to vote under the provisions of the 

 fifth section of this act ; and no person shall be 

 eligible to any office under any such provisional gov- 

 ernments who would be disqualified from holding 

 office under the provisions of the third article of 

 said constitutional amendment. 



SCHUYLEE COLFAX, 

 Speaker of the House of Kepresentatives. 



LAFAYETTE S. FOSTER, 

 President of the Senate pro tempore. 



Veto of the Supplementary Reconstruction Mil. 



To the House of Representatives : 



I have considered the bill entitled "An act supple- 

 mentarv to an act entitled ' An act to provide for the 

 more efficient government of the rebel States,' passed 

 March 2, 18(37, and to facilitate restoration," and now 

 return it to the House of Representatives, with my 

 objections. 



This bill provides for elections in the ten States 

 brought under the operation of the original act to 

 which it is supplementary. Its details are prin- 

 cipally directed to the, elections for the formation, 

 of the State constitutions, but by the sixth section 

 of the bill "all elections" in these States occurring 

 while the original act remains in force are brought 

 within its purview. Referring to the details, it will 

 be found that, first of all, there is to be a registration 

 of the voters. No one whose name has not been ad- 

 mitted on the list is to be allowed to vote at any of 

 these elections. To ascertain who is entitled to 

 registration, reference is made necessary, by the ex- 

 press language of the supplement, to the original 

 act and to the pending bill. The fifth section of the 

 original act provides, as to voters, that they shall be 

 "male citizens of the State, twenty-one years old 

 and upward, of whatever race, color, or previous 

 condition, who have been resident of said State for 

 one year." This is the general qualification, fol- 

 lowed, however, by many exceptions.. No one can 

 be registered, according to the original act, "who 

 may be disfranchised for participation in the rebel- 

 lion," a provision which left undetermined the ques- 

 tion as to what amounted to disfranchisement, and 

 whether, without a judicial sentence, the act itself 

 produced that effect. This supplemental bill super- 

 adds an oath, to be taken by ev.ery person before his 

 name can be admitted upon the registration, that he 

 has "not been disfranchised for participation in any 

 rebellion or civil war against the United States." It 

 thus imposes upon every person the necessity and 

 responsibility of deciding for himself, under the 

 peril of punishment by a military commission, if he 

 makes a mistake, what works disfranchisement by 

 participation in rebellion, and what amounts to such 

 participation. Almost every man the negro as well 

 as the white above twenty-one years of age, who 

 was resident in these ten States during the rebellion, 

 voluntarily or involuntarily, at some time and in 

 some way did participate in resistance to the lawful 

 authority of the General Government. The question 

 with the citizen to whom this oath is to be proposed 



must be a fearful one ; for while the bill does not de- 

 clare that perjury may be assigned for such false 

 swearing, nor fix any penalty for the offence, we 

 must not forget that martial law prevails ; that 

 every person is answerable to a military commis- 

 sion, without previous presentment by a grand jury 

 for any charge that may be made against him ; and 

 that the supreme authority of the military com- 

 mander determines the question as to what is an 

 offence, and what is to be the measure of punish- 

 ment. 



The fourth section of the bill provides "that the 

 commanding general of each district shall appoint as 

 many boards of registration as may be necessary, 

 consisting of three loyal officers or persons." The 

 only qualification stated for these officers is that 

 they must be "loyal." They may be persons in the 

 military service or civilians, residents of the State 

 or strangers. Yet these persons are to exercise 

 most important duties, and are vested with unlimited 

 discretion. They are to decide what names shall be 

 placed upon the register; and from their decision 

 .there is to be no appeal. They are to superintend 

 the elections, and to decide all questions which mav 

 arise. They are to have the custody of the ballots, 

 and to make returns of the persons elected. What- 

 ever frauds or errors they may commit must pass 

 without redress. All that is left for the command- 

 ing general is to receive the returns of the elections, 

 open the same, and ascertain who are chosen "ac- 

 cording to the returns of the officers who conducted 

 said elections." By such means, and with this sort 

 o.f agency, are the conventions of delegates to be 

 constituted. 



As the delegates are to speak for the people, com- 

 mon justice would seem to require that they should 

 have authority from the people themselves. No con- 

 vention so constituted will in any sense represent 

 the wishes of the inhabitants of these States ; for, 

 under the all-embracing exceptions of these laws, by 

 a construction which the uncertainty of the clause 

 as to disfranchisement leaves open to the board of 

 officers, the great body of the people may be ex- 

 cluded from the polls, and from all opportunity of 

 expressing their own wishes, or voting for delegates 

 who will faithfully reflect their sentiments. 



I do not deem it necessary further to investigate 

 the details of this bill. No consideration could in- 

 duce me to give my approval to such an election law 

 for any purpose, and especially for the great purpose 

 of framing the constitution of a State. If ever the 

 American citizen should be left to the free exercise 

 of his own judgment, it is when be is engaged in the 

 work of forming the fundamental law under which 

 he is to live. That is his work, and it cannot proper- 

 ly be taken out of his hands. All this legislation 

 proceeds upon the contrary assumption, that the 

 people of each of these States shall have no consti- 

 tution except such as may be arbitrarily dictated by 

 Congress and formed under the restraint of military 

 rule. A plain statement of facts makes this evi- 

 dent. 



In all these States there are existing constitutions 

 formed in the accustomed way by the people. Con- 

 gress, however, declares that these constitutions are 

 not "loyal and republican," and requires the people 

 to form them anew. "VVliat, then, in the opinion of 

 Congress, is necessary to make the constitution of a 

 State "loyal and republican?" The original act 

 answers the question. It is universal negro suffrage, 

 a question which the Federal Constitution leaves to 

 the States themselves. All this legislative ma- 

 chinery of martial law, military coercion, and po- 

 litical disfranchisement, is avowedly for that pur- 

 pose and none other. The existing constitutions of 

 the ten States conform to the acknowledged stand- 

 ards of loyalty and republicanism. Indeed, if there 

 are degrees in republican forms of government, their 

 constitutions' are more republican now than when 

 these States four of which were members of the 



