108 



CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



Constitution of the United States, by reason of par- 

 ticipation in the late rebellion, be, and they are 

 hereby, removed from all persons, except such per- 

 sons us were Senators and ^Representatives in Con- 

 gress in the year 1860 or 1861, or were in either of 

 .said years officers in the Army or Navy of the Uni- 

 ted States, heads of any Department of the Govern- 

 ment of the United States, or judges of any of the 

 courts thereof, or foreign ministers of the United 

 States ; and except also all persons who, in violation 

 ot' said amendment, have held office since the 1st 

 day of June, A. D. 1870. 



Mr. Bincrham : " I move to strike out all 

 but the enacting clause, and to insert this in 

 its stead." 



Mr. Beck : " I can say in a very short time 

 what I desire to say in opposition to this 

 bill, and in support of the substitute I offered, 

 and especially in support of the amendment 

 to the substitute offered by the gentleman 

 from Illinois (Mr. Farnsworth). That amend- 

 ment embodies what I desire, what I pre- 

 ferred. That is what I would have offered 

 myself a general removal of all political 

 disabilities from all classes of men but for 

 the fact that I feared that this House might 

 not be prepared to grant, now, a general re- 

 moval of disabilities, but might agree to remove 

 disabilities from all persons, with the exception 

 of certain classes, whom I therefore excepted 

 in order to accomplish the best I could, de- 

 siring at the same time the success of an amend- 

 ment similar to that offered by the gentleman 

 from Illinois, which I hope the House will 

 adopt ; and I desire it to be presented as an 

 amendment to my substitute, so it can be voted 

 on first. 



" If the House does not adopt that amend- 

 ment, if it is not prepared to grant a general 

 removal of disabilities from all men, then I 

 think the substitute offered by me, with the 

 exceptions therein contained, ought to be 

 adopted, if this House intends to do what the 

 country expects of it ; or, I may say, what all 

 men of all political parties in the country, if 

 we are to judge by the expressions of public 

 opinion given through the press, desire and 

 deem to be right and proper. I offered that 

 substitute because I considered that there were 

 many things in the bill offered by the chairman 

 of the committee that were not proper subjects 

 for the consideration of the Committee on Re- 

 construction, which belonged especially to the 

 Committee on the Judiciary, and which by 

 that committee should have been carefully 

 considered and reported upon to this House. 

 I contended before the Committee on Recon- 

 struction, and contend now, that the Commit- 

 tee on Reconstruction went beyond its rights 

 and its duties in presenting such a bill as this. 

 " You will observe this bill grants general 

 amnesty and pardon to each and every person, 

 and all bodies, politic, corporate, and muni- 

 cipal, for all acts done in or concerning the 

 rebellion, and condones all misdemeanors and 

 offences connected with the rebellion. What 

 will be the effect and extent of these sweeping 

 provisions, perhaps no member of this House 



knows or understands ; and if the bill is passed 

 it may, and I believe will, produce results 

 which very few members would be willing to 

 admit were intended to be brought about by 

 them when they voted for it. 



" This bill, as I understand it, grants to all 

 men, who, in violation of the proclamation by 

 Mr. Lincoln, or of the acts of Congress, saw 

 fit to carry on illicit intercourse with the 

 South by sending them arms, munitions of 

 war, provisions, and supplies, whether by the 

 Ohio and Mississippi or by the seaboard, par- 

 don, amnesty, oblivion, forgetfulness, so that 

 they may sue for the contract-price of these 

 contraband goods and collect it in lawful mon- 

 ey. That is one of the purposes of this bill. 

 At present they cannot collect what would be 

 due them for such supplies; but this bill is in- 

 tended to allow them to do it. It will no 

 longer be a defence that the contract was in 

 violation of law. All is forgiven and forgot- 

 ten, so far as the persons not within the excep- 

 tions of this bill are concerned. 



" Surely this House does not intend to per- 

 mit those who, while residing in adhering 

 States and professing to be true to the union 

 of these States and to the rights of the Fed- 

 eral Government, sent supplies of arms and 

 provisions of all sorts, which were contraband 

 of war, through the lines to the rebels, to re- 

 cover now in United States money that which 

 was then agreed to be paid them, perhaps in 

 Confederate money, when ten dollars of it was 

 not worth one gold or greenback dollar. Take 

 the case of General Pillow, which has been 

 cited by the chairman of the committee, and 

 how does he stand ? He comes within the ex- 

 ceptions. The men who sold any thing to 

 him can go and sue him and collect all that 

 he agreed to pay them, and collect it in lawful 

 money of the United States to-day. He, and 

 all other men who are in the excepted classes, 

 are placed at the mercy of every man who saw 

 fit to deal with them during the rebellion and 

 who pretended to be loyal; and as the law 

 now stands they can defend themselves by 

 showing that the plaintiffs were wrong-doers, 

 and, while they may be also culpable, their 

 maxim, 'in pari delicto,"* is a good defence. 

 But if this bill passes they are barred from 

 using the defence they now have, as well as 

 from setting up similar claims themselves, be- 

 cause they are stricken out of this bill. All 

 their rights, titles, and causes of action, are by 

 the third section of this bill left as they now 

 stand under existing laws. 



" Instead of a bill granting amnesty, this is a 

 bill making odious discriminations which the 

 Constitution of the United States never con- 

 templated. You have no right thus to relieve 

 one man and not another, unless you can show 

 some constitutional provision authorizing such 

 an act. If I have to pay a part of what another 

 man is relieved from, then I am worse off. If 

 you untie the hands of one wrong-doer, while 

 you keep my hands tied so that I cannot plead 



