164 



CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



in these Halls. If she had not a legal State 

 government, how could she ratify that amend- 

 ment? 



" But that is not all. It is charged here that 

 the people have repudiated this action of the 

 President. Now, the gentlemen never dared 

 to let their constituents know, till after the late 

 elections in the northern States, that they in- 

 tended to take any such ground as they have 

 now taken. Why did not they pass the mili- 

 tary bill at the first session of the Thirty-ninth 

 Congress? They knew that these States had 

 not civil governments just as well then as they 

 know it now. The elections were coming on, 

 and had to be bridged over, and therefore all 

 this action was postponed until the last session 

 of the Thirty-ninth Congress, when all the 

 members, except from a few Democratic States, 

 had been elected to the Fortieth Congress, 

 and they had a two years' lease of power. 

 That, in my humble judgment, was the reason 

 that influenced many gentlemen, and perhaps 

 a majority, to hold it back until after that 

 time. I ask, then, in view of all these things, 

 whether the majority of the Eeconstruction 

 Committee are right in claiming that there are 

 no civil governments in these States, and there- 

 fore that they have a right to take them and 

 hold them as conquered provinces, to remove 

 the protection of the President and the protec- 

 tion of the Supreme Court from them, put the 

 negro above the white man, and place an offi- 

 cer of the Army over all, whose will shall be 

 law and who shall have the lives, liberties, and 

 property of the people at his absolute dis- 

 posal ? 



"Sir, lean understand how the gentleman 

 from Pennsylvania (Mr. Stevens) and those 

 who agree with him that the Constitution is 

 thrown aside, and that we are acting outside 

 of it, can take this ground ; but I cannot un- 

 derstand how a gentleman like the gentleman 

 from Ohio (Mr. Bingham), who claims to be 

 acting under and in accordance with the Con- 

 stitution, can do it. If there are no regularly 

 organized governments in these States, does 

 not the Constitution of the United States ex- 

 tend over these people ? Does not that Con- 

 stitution extend as far as the power of the 

 United States extends, and protect every human 

 being within- their limits, no matter where sit- 

 uated ? Beyond all question it does. 



The Constitution of the United States is a law for 

 rulers and people equally in war and in peace, and 

 covers with the shield of its protection all classes of 

 men at all times and under all circumstances. 



" So said the Supreme Court in the Milligan 

 case. 



"Where, then, I ask, are the powers, now 

 sought to be assumed, granted to this Congress ? 

 The gentleman from Ohio asserts that Con- 

 gress has a right to exercise every power not 

 expressly taken away from Congress by the 

 Constitution. Just the reverse is the fact. 

 This Constitution was made by thirteen free 

 equal, and independent States. They put lim- 



itations upon the Federal Government, and 

 they expressly declared that all powers not 

 specially granted to the Government or ne- 

 cessarily inferable therefrom were reserved to 

 the States and the people thereof; and when 

 the gentleman declares, as he did in his speech, 

 that all power is in the Congress of the United 

 States unless expressly prohibited, he commits 

 a fatal error, an error which I would not have 

 supposed a gentleman of his acumen would 

 have fallen into." 



Mr. Eldridge, of Wisconsin, followed, saying : 

 "I insist, Mr. Speaker, that that clause of the 

 Constitution does require by necessary im- 

 port a preexisting government to be guaran- 

 teed. I say that the United States are bound 

 to guarantee in each of those States a repub- 

 lican form of government, and that the re- 

 publican form of government which they are 

 to guarantee is the government existing before 

 or at the time when these States went into the 

 rebellion. But even if the term guarantee im- 

 ports an original independent power to make 

 or create, if that position could by any pos- 

 sibility be correct, ' guarantee ' does not, cannot 

 mean to destroy or overthrow ; it does not 

 mean to subvert or tear down ; it cannot mean 

 to take away from the people* republican gov- 

 ernments and give them military governments 

 in their stead. It cannot authorize Congress 

 to take from them all civil governments and 

 subject them to rule of the sword. And by 

 what logic or reasoning it can be claimed that 

 this bill is an execution of the power to guar- 

 antee to those States a republican form of gov- 

 ernment, by declaring that all the civil govern- 

 ments existing in those States shall' be over- 

 thrown, destroyed, subverted, and thl people 

 put under the control of the military power of 

 a military despot, is beyond my comprehen- 

 sion, beyond my ability to understand. Is it 

 guaranteeing republican form of government 

 to those States to prohibit the Executive and 

 the judiciary from recognizing any of their 

 civil rights, from protecting them in the right 

 to their State governments, in the rights of 

 life, liberty, and property? Is military gov- 

 ernment, is the government \)j the bayonet, 

 the republican government to be guaranteed to 

 the States ? 



"But, sir, when I drove the gentleman by 

 the question which I put to him when he was 

 making his speech from this clause of the 

 Constitution, he attempted to take refuge under 

 another, and that one where all men who would 

 exercise ungranted power, who are not con- 

 tent with the powers granted by the Constitu- 

 tion, flee when driven from more solid ground ; 

 he took refuge under that clause of the Con- 

 stitution which provides that the Congress shall 

 have power ' to make all laws which shall be 

 necessary and proper for carrying into execu- 

 tion the foregoing powers.' 



" But, sir, I insist that he cannot find power 

 for this bill under that clause of the Constitu- 

 tion. That provision must of necessity be con- 



