CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



171 



day after day, and charged with being false 

 to human rights, when, in fact, if he had 

 adopted the course suggested by ordinary pru- 

 dence, both bills might have become laws by 

 this time, or certainly by tbe end of the pres- 

 ent month. I say such lecturing is not war- 

 ranted by the position even of that distin- 

 guished Senator. He has no right to come up 

 here and tell Senators that they have made 

 mistakes of this kind, in view of the fact that 

 his tactics have defeated both of these bills 

 for the present, and perhaps for the session." 



Mr. Sumner: "Mr. President, the Senator 

 says the two subjects have no sort of natural 

 relation. There is his mistake. They have a 

 natural relation which the Senator is so un- 

 happy as not to see. ' Natural relation ' is 

 very simple. Do not be generous to your 

 rebels until you are just to your fellow-citizens. 

 The Senator does not see it. He is swift " 



Mr. Sawyer : " With the permission of the 

 Senator I should like to ask if I did not say 

 to him to-day that, if he would bring up his 

 bill to-morrow as an independent measure, I 

 would vote for it and let amnesty go over ; 

 but no, he did not want that." 



Mr. Sumner : " I know the Senator said that, 

 but I asked the -Senator to vote for equal rights 

 when he had an opportunity. He has had 

 the opportunity now for six weeks, and he has 

 not been willing to employ it ; but he rises 

 here and says that the measure of equal rights 

 could pass in a day. The Senator is not old 

 in this Chamber, but he is old enough to know 

 that he ought not to make any such assertion. 

 "Why, sir, that bill of mine has been before the 

 Senate now for nearly two years; I am not 

 inattentive or inactive in the discharge of my 

 duties ; and never until the amnesty bill was 

 before the Senate did I find any opportunity 

 of calling the attention of the Senate to it." 



The Vice-President: "The question is on 

 the passage of this bill, which requires a two- 

 thirds vote. The Secretary will call the roll." 



The yeas and nays were then taken, with 

 the following result : 



YEAS Messrs. Ames, Anthony, Brownlow, Cald- 

 well, Cameron, Clayton, Conkling, Cragin, Fenton, 

 Ferry of Michigan, Flanagan, Frelinghuysen, Gil- 

 bert, Hamilton of Texas, Hamlin, Harlan, Kellogg, 

 Morrill of Vermont, Morton, Osborn, Patterson, 

 Pomeroy, Pool, Ramsey, Kice, Eobertson, Sawyer, 

 Sherman, Spencer, Sumner, West, Wilson, and Win - 

 dom 33. 



NAYS Messrs. Blair, Boreman, Davis of West 

 Virginia, Goldthwaite, Hill, Johnston, Kelly, Logan, 

 Morrill of Maine, Norwood, Saulsbury, Scott, Ste- 

 venson, Stockton, Thurman, Tipton, Trumbull, 

 Vickers, and Wright 19. 



ABSENT Messrs. Alcorn, Bayard, Buckingham, 

 Carpenter, Casserly, Chandler, Cole, Cooper, Corbett, 

 Davis of Kentucky, Edmunds, Ferry of Connecticut, 

 Hamilton of Maryland, Hitchcock, Howe, Lewis, 

 Nye, Pratt, Schurz, Sprague, and Stewart 21. 



The Vice-President: "Upon the passage of 

 this bill the yeas are 33, and the nays 1 9. Two- 

 thirds not voting in the affirmative, the bill is 

 rejected." 



In the Senate, on May 8th, Mr. Boreman, 

 of West Virginia, said : " Mr. President, in 

 the absence of the chairman of the Commit- 

 tee on the Kemoval of Political Disabilities, 

 the duty is devolved on me of moving to take 

 up the House bill for the removal of political 

 disabilities, ordinarily called the amnesty bill." 



The motion was agreed to. 



The Vice-President: "The Secretary will 

 read the amnesty bill, which has been taken 

 up by vote of the Senate." 



The Chief Clerk read the bill, as follows : 



Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 

 tives of the United States of America in Congress assem- 

 bled (two-thirds of each House concurring therein), 

 That all legal and political disabilities imposed by 

 the third section of the^fourteenth article oi amend- 

 ments to the Constitution of the United States on 

 persons therein mentioned, because of their having 

 engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the 

 United States, or given aid or comfort to the enemies 

 thereof, be, and the same are hereby, removed : 

 Provided, That this act shall not apply to, or in any 

 way affect or remove, the disability of any person 

 included in either of the following classes, namely : 

 first, members of the Congress of the United States 

 who withdrew therefrom and aided the rebellion: 

 second, officers of the Army or Navy of the United 

 States who, being above the age of twenty-one years, 

 left said Army or Navy and aided the rebellion. 



SEC. 2. That, before any person shall be entitled 

 to the benefit of this act, he shall, within the district 

 where he resides, before a clerk of some court of the 

 United States, or a United States commissioner, take 

 and subscribe an oath or affirmation to support the 

 Constitution of the United States, and to bear true 

 faith and allegiance to the same ; which oath or affir- 

 mation shall be forwarded by said officer to the 

 Secretary _ of State of the United States, who shall 

 cause a list of all persons complying with the pro- 

 visions of this act to be laid before Congress at the 

 opening of each session thereof; and the officer be- 

 fore whom such oath or affirmation is made shall 

 give to the person taking it a certificate of the fact, 

 under such forms and regulations as the Secretary of 

 State shall prescribe. 



Mr. Boreman said: "Mr. President, I have 

 no disposition to discuss at any considerable 

 length the subject of amnesty, or the removal 

 of political disabilities from those who are 

 laboring under such disabilities by reason of 

 the provisions of the fourteenth amendment 

 to the Constitution of the United States. I 

 have charge of this bill simply as the organ of 

 the committee on this subject, in the absence 

 of the chairman. I expect, however, to vote 

 for the bill if it shall be put upon its passage 

 in its present form, or without any marked 

 amendments to the provisions as they now 

 exist in the bill." 



Mr. Sumner : " Mr. President, I have no de- 

 sire to discuss the general question of amnesty, 

 nor to discuss any other question ; but, as I 

 am about to make a motion, I shall state in 

 one word why I do it. 



" I propose to move to strike out all after 

 the enacting clause and insert what is gener- 

 ally known as the civil rights bill, being the 

 bill on which the Senate has already voted 

 several times, and which, as is known, is now 

 pending in the other House, but, owing to the 



