184 



CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



lay, as stated by the Senator from Ohio (Mr. 

 Thurman), to the assumptions of law and of 

 fact contained in the preamble ; to assumptions 

 of facts which were unfounded as well as in- 

 jurious to the States in question ; to assump- 

 tions of law as to power in Congress for which 

 there was no warrant. Yet was the Demo- 

 cratic minority here willing by its votes to 

 unite with the majority and refer the whole 

 subject generally to the Judiciary Committee 

 here, made up largely of Senators of the ma- 

 jority. 



u That offer was made under special circum- 

 stances. You professed to believe that the 

 Democrats were not willing to unite with you 

 in condemning and putting down at the South 

 whatever disorders there were there and what- 

 ever lawless bands there were that caused 

 them. You professed to call on us to unite 

 with you in the good work in good faith and 

 good feeling. We took you at your word. 

 We made you the offer to join with you in your 

 resolution to set your Judiciary Committee in 

 motion. "We asked you only to leave out the 

 needless and irritating language and assump- 

 tions of the preamble. You refused our request. 

 You rejected our offer to join with you. 



" The resolution of the Senator from Ohio 

 (Mr. Sherman) was passed in its most offensive 

 form. You, the majority, said then and there, 

 as distinctly as though you had said it in words, 

 that you did not desire the cooperation of the 

 Democratic party in the great work of pacifi- 

 cation of the South; that you spurned such 

 cooperation ; that, though you had over and 

 over declared here that, with the concurrent 

 action of the Democratic party, peace in the 

 South could be promptly and thoroughly re- 

 stored, you preferred to reject that coopera- 

 tion and imperil that result rather than yield 

 up one word of the bitter assaults and asper- 

 sions upon eleven States of this Union with 

 which the preamble to that resolution was 

 filled, one tittle of your startling recitals of 

 power over local crimes in the States. This 

 was not all. In sending to the House your 

 resolution for a joint committee of inquiry, you 

 solemnly avowed that further inquiry was 

 needed before further action. In passing the 

 resolution of the Senator from Ohio (Mr. Sher- 

 man), you deliberately declared that you would 

 legislate without further information. 



"I shall not descant upon other circum- 

 stances which corroborate the opinions I have 

 been obliged heretofore to express on this whole 

 business. I rose simply to justify the change 

 in my vote. 



" You have already condemned nine or ten 

 States of the South. You have passed judg- 

 ment upon the people there, innocent and 

 guilty alike. You have declared, so far as this 

 Senate can, to the world, that by act or con- 

 nivance the majority of the people of one State, 

 and of many parts of the other States, are 

 worse than savages, unfit to live, or fit to live 

 only as the inmates of prisons ; that not only 



have they defied all civil authority, but by or- 

 ganized perjury they have rendered the courts 

 powerless to punisli such crimes. Sir, it is the 

 most tremendous accusation that was ever de- 

 liberately made against a whole people by its 

 own Senate. It is such an accusation as no- 

 where in the annals of the most insolent and 

 cruel oppressor defaces and defiles the page of 

 history." 



The yeas and nays were ordered on the 

 question of concurring in the amendment of 

 the House of Representatives, and the result 

 was announced as follows : 



YEAS Messrs. Ames, Anthony, Boreman, Buck- 

 ingham, Caldwell, Cameron, Clayton, Conkling, Cor- 

 bett, Edmunds, Fenton, Ferry of Michigan, Freling- 

 huysen, Hamilton of Texas, llamlin, Harlan, Howe, 

 Lewis, Logan, Morrill of Vermont, Osborn, Patter- 

 son, Pomeroy, Pool, Pratt, Ramsey, Rice, Robert- 

 son, Scott, Spencer, Stewart, Sumner, Tipton, Trum- 

 bull, West, Wilson, and Windom 37. 



NAYS Messrs. Blair, Casserly, Cooper, Davis of 

 Kentucky, Davis of West Virginia, Hamilton of 

 Maryland, Johnston, Kelly, Saulsbury, Stevenson, 

 Stockton, and Thurman 12. 



ABSENT Messrs. Bayard, Brownlow, Carpenter, 

 Chandler, Cole, Cragin, Ferry of Connecticut, Flan- 

 agan, Gilbert, Hill, Hitchcock, Kellogg, Morrill of 

 Maine, Morton, Nye, Sawyer, Schurz, Sherman, 

 Sprague, Vickers, and Wright 21. 



So the amendment of the House of Repre- 

 sentatives was concurred in. 



The Vice-President : "This joint committee 

 now authorized is to consist of seven Senators 

 on the part of the Senate. How shall they be 

 appointed ? " (" By the Chair.") " If there is 

 no objection, the Chair appoints as those Sena- 

 tors, Mr. Scott (chairman), Mr. Wilson, Mr. 

 Chandler, Mr. Rice, Mr. Nye, Mr. Bayard, and 

 Mr. Blair." 



In the House, on March 23d, the following 

 message was received from the President : 

 To the Senate and House of Representatives : 



A condition of affairs now exists in some of tho 

 States of the Union rendering life and property inse- 

 cure, and the carrying of the mails and the collection 

 of the revenue dangerous. The proof that such a 

 condition of affairs exists in some localities is now 

 before the Senate. That the power to correct these 

 evils is beyond the control of the State authorities I 

 do not doubt ; that the power of the Executive of 

 the United States, acting within the limits of existing 

 laws, is sufficient for present emergencies is not clear. 

 Therefore, I urgently recommend such legislation as 

 in the judgment of Congress shall effectually secure 

 life, liberty, and property, and the enforcement of 

 law in all parts of the United States. It may be ex- 

 pedient to provide that such law as shall be passed 

 in pursuance of this recommendation shall expire at 

 the end of the next session of Congress. There if 

 no other subject on which I would recommend legis- 

 lation during the present session. 



U. S. GRANT. 



WASHINGTON, D. 0., March 23, 1871. 



On March 28th, Mr. Shellabarger, of Ohio, 

 from the select committee on this message of 

 the President, reported a bill to enforce the 

 provisions of the fourteenth amendment to tho 

 Constitution of the United States, etc. The 

 bill was read tho first and second time, and 



