174 



CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



lowing amendment to strike out all after the 

 enacting clause, and insert the following : 



That the State of Arkansas is entitled and ad- 

 mitted to representation in Congress as one of the 

 States of the Union. 



It was rejected, by the following vote : 



TEAS Messrs. Bayard, Buckalew, Conkling, Cor- 

 bett, Doolittle, Ferry, Fessenden. Hendncks, Mc- 

 Creery, Patterson of New Hampshire, Patterson of 

 Tennessee. Boss, Saulsbury, Trumbull, Van Winkle, 

 Vickers, Willey, and Williams 18. 



NAYS Messrs. Cameron, Cattell, Chandler, Cole, 

 Cragin, Drake, Frelinghuysen, Harlan, Henderson, 

 Howe, Morrill of Vermont, Nye, Pomeroy, Kamsey, 

 Sherman, Stewart, Sumner, Thayer, Tipton, Wade, 

 Wilson, and Yates 22. 



ABSENT Messrs. Anthony, Conness, Davis, Dixon, 

 Edmunds, Fowler. Grimes, Howard, Johnson, Mor- 

 gan, Morrill of Maine, Morton, Norton, and Sprague 

 14. 



The bill was then passed, by the following 

 vote: 



YEAS Messrs. Anthony, Cameron, Cattell, Chan- 

 dler, Cole, Conkling, Corbett, Cragin, Drake, Ed- 

 munds, Fessenden, Frelinghuysen, Harlan, Hender- 

 son, Howe, Morrill of Maine, Morrill of Vermont, Nye, 

 Patterson of New Hampshire, Porneroy, Bamsey, 

 Boss, Sherman, Stewart, Sumner.T hay er, Tipton, 

 Trumbull, Van Winkle, Wade, Willey, Williams, 

 Wilson, and Yates 34. 



NAYS Messrs. Bayard, Buckalew, Doolittle, Hen- 

 drickSj McCreery, Patterson of Tennessee, Saulsbury, 

 and Vickers 8. 



ABSENT Messrs. Conness, Davis, Dixon, Ferry, 

 Fowler, Grimes, Howard, Johnson, Morgan, Morton, 

 Norton, and Sprague 12. 



The bill was returned, without the Presi- 

 dent's signature, accompanied with the follow- 

 ing message : 

 To the House of Representatives : 



I return without my signature a bill entitled " An 

 Act to admit the State of Arkansas to representation 

 in Congress." 



The approval of this bill would be an admission on 

 the part of the Executive that the act for the more 

 efficient government of the rebel States, passed 

 March 2, 1867, and the act supplementary thereto, 

 were proper and constitutional. My opinion, how- 

 ever, in reference to these measures has undergone 

 no change, but, on the contrary, has been strength- 

 ened by the results which have attended their exe- 

 cution. 



Even were this not the case, I could not consent to 

 a bill which is based upon the assumption either that 

 by an act of rebellion of a portion of its people the 

 State of Arkansas seceded from the Union, or that 

 Congress may, at its pleasure, expel or exclude a 

 State from the Union, or interrupt its relations 

 with the Government by arbitrarily depriving it of 

 representation in the Senate and House of Bepresent- 

 atives. If Arkansas is a State not in the Union, this 

 bill does not admit it as a State into the Union. If, 

 on the other hand, Arkansas is a State in the Union, 

 no legislation is necessary to declare it entitled " to 

 representation in Congress as one of the States of the 

 Union." The Constitution already declares that 

 " each State shall have at least one Bepresentative ; " 



that the Senate shah" be composed of two Senators 

 from each State ;" and "that no State without its 

 consent shall be deprived of its suffrage in the Sen- 

 ate." 



That instrument also makes each House "the 

 pudges of the elections, returns, and qualifications of 

 its own members," and therefore all that is now ne- 

 cessary to restore Arkansas in all its constitutional 

 relations to the Government is the decision by each 



House upon the eligibility of those who, presenting 

 their credentials, claim seats in the respective Houses 

 of Congress. This is the plain and simple plan of 

 the Constitution ; and, believing that had it been pur- 

 sued when Congress assembled in the month of De- 

 cember, 1865, the restoration of the States would long 

 since have been completed, I once again recommend 

 that it be adopted by each House in preference to 

 legislation which I respectfully submit is not only of 

 at least doubtful constitutionality, and therefore un- 

 wise and dangerous as a precedent, but is unneces- 

 sary, not so effective in its operations as the mode 

 prescribed by the Constitution, involves the addi- 

 tional delay, and from its terms may be taken rather 

 as applicable to a Territory about to be admitted as 

 one of the United States than to a State which has 

 occupied a place in the Union for upward of a quarter 

 of a century. 



The bill declares the State of Arkansas entitled 

 and admitted to representation in Congress as one of 

 the States of the Union upon the following funda- 

 mental condition : 



That the Constitution of Arkansas shall never be so 

 amended or changed as to deprive any citizen or class of 

 citizens of the United States of the right to vote who are 

 entitled to vote by the Constitution herein recognized, ex- 

 cept as a punishment for such crimes as are now felonies 

 at common law, whereof they shall be duly convicted 

 under laws equally applicable to all the inhabitants of 

 said State : Provided, That any alteration of said Consti- 

 tution, prospective in its effect, may be made in regard to 

 the time and place of residence of voters. 



I have been unable to find in the Constitution of 

 the United States any warrant for the exercise of the 

 authority thus claimed by Congress. In assuming 

 the power to impose a " fundamental condition " 

 upon a State which has been duly admitted into the 

 Union on an equal footing with the original States, in 

 all respects whatever, Congress asserts a right to en- 

 ter a State as it may a Territory, and to regulate the 

 highest prerogative of a free people the elective 

 franchise. This question is reserved by the Consti- 

 tution to the States themselves, and to concede to 

 Congress the power to regulate this subject would be 

 to reverse the fundamental principle of the Bepublic, 

 and to place in the hands of the Federal Govern- 

 ment (which is the creature of the States) the sov- 

 ereignty which justly belongs to the States or the 

 people, to the true source of all political power by 

 whom our Federal system was created, and to whose 

 will all is subordinate. 



The bill fails to provide in what manner the State 

 of Arkansas is to signify its acceptance of the " fun- 

 damental condition" which Congress endeavors to 

 make unalterable and irrevocable. Nor does it pre- 

 scribe the penalty to be imposed should the people 

 of the State amend or change the particular portions 

 of the Constitution which it is one of the purposes 

 of the bill to perpetuate, but leaves them in uncer- 

 tainty and doubt as to the consequences of such 

 action, when the circumstances under which this Con- 

 stitution has been brought to the attention of Con- 

 gress are considered. It is not unreasonable to sup- 

 pose that efforts will be made to modify its provi- 

 sions, and especially those in respect to which this 

 measure prohibits any alteration. It is seriously 

 questioned whether the Constitution has been rati- 

 fied by a majority of the persons who, under the act 

 of March 2, 1867, and the acts suppl ementary thereto, 

 were entitled to registration and to Vote upon that 

 issue. Section ten of the schedule provides that 



No person disqualified from voting or registering under 

 this constitution shall vote for candidates for any office, 

 nor shall be permitted to vote for the ratification or re- 

 jection of the constitution at the polls herein author- 

 ized. 



Assumed to be in force before its adoption, in dis- 

 regard to the law of Congress, the constitution un- 

 dertakes to impose upon the elector other and further 

 conditions. The fifth section of the eighth article 

 provides, that " all persons, before registering or 



