172 



CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



rules of the House, no decision upon it there 

 has yet been reached- I shall take the form 

 of the bill which is now pending in the other 

 House, which, in substance and almost precise- 

 ly in language, is that on which the Senate 

 acted. There are one or two verbal changes, 

 but not important in principle or in any way 

 affecting any principle of the bill. 



" I do this, sir, intending to follow it up by 

 a second motion to strike out the enacting 

 clause, which requires a two-thirds vote, and 

 insert the ordinary enacting clause ; and then, 

 in the third place, to strike out the title and 

 to insert the title of the civil rights bill. 



" I do this as a practical way of giving to 

 our friends in the other House an opportunity 

 of acting on the civil rights bill when they 

 shall be on an equality with those in this 

 Chamber who are in favor of amnesty. 



"As is well known, the amnesty bill has 

 already passed the other House, and only 

 waits a vote in this Chamber, with the signa- 

 ture of the President, to be a law. My anxiety 

 is that the civil rights bill shall, so far as pos- 

 sible, be in the same situation, that it should 

 pass the Senate, and I hope then that it will 

 pass the other House, and I cannot doubt that 

 it will receive the signature of the President." 



The Chief Clerk read the amendment of 

 Mr. Sumner, which was to strike out all after 

 the enacting clause of the bill, and in lieu 

 thereof to insert the bill hitherto offered by 

 him as an amendment to the amnesty bill, 

 which may be found on another page. 



Mr. Ferry, of Connecticut: "I send up an 

 amendment, to come in as an additional sec- 

 tion, section six." 



The Chief Clerk read the proposed amend- 

 ment as follows : 



SEO. . That all legal and political disabilities 

 imposed by the third section of the fourteenth arti- 

 cle of amendments 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, re- 

 moved : 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 rebel- 

 lion ; 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 re- 

 bellion. 



The Presiding Officer : " The question is on 

 the amendment of the Senator from Connect- 

 icut to the amendment of tbe Senator from 

 Massachusetts." 



Mr. Scott, of Pennsylvania, said : " My at- 

 tention was directed otherwise, and I simply 

 wish to make an inquiry whether the amend- 

 in ent now pending is the amnesty bill offered 

 as an amendment to the civil rights bill. Is 

 that the form of the amendment ? " 



Mr. Conkling : " Let me answer the Senator. 

 The amendment is just that, except that the 

 amendment consists not of the whole amnesty 



bill, but only of the first section of the amnes- 

 ty bill precisely as it came from the House." 



Mr. Scott : ' Then it is an offer to add to 

 the civil rights bill, which can be passed by 

 a majority, the amnesty bill which will require 

 two-thirds." 



The question being taken, resulted as fol- 

 lows: 



YEAS Messrs. Alcorn, Ames, Bayard. Blair, Bore- 

 man, Buckingham, Caldwell, Cameron, Carpenter, 

 Casserly, Clayton, Cooper, Corbett, Davis of West 

 Virginia, Edmunds, Ferry of Connecticut, Ferry of 

 Michigan, Flanagan, Goldthwaite, Hamilton of Mary- 

 land, Hamilton of Texas, Harlan, Hitchcock, John- 

 ston, Kellogg, Kelly, Norwood, Osborn, Pomeroy, 

 Pratt, Sauls bury, Sprague, Stevenson, Stewart, Tip- 

 ton, Trumbull, Vickers, and West 38. 



NATS Messrs. Cragin, Fenton, Gilbert, Hamlin, 

 Morrill of Vermont, Morton, Pool, Eice, Scott, Sher- 

 man, Spencer, Sumner, Wilson, and Windom 14. 



ABSENT Messrs. Anthony, JBrownlow, Chandler, 

 Cole, Conkling, Davis of Kentucky, Frelinghuysen, 

 Hill, Howe, Lewis, Logan, Morrill of Maine, Nye, 

 Patterson, Bamsey, Eansom, Eobertson, Sawyer, 

 Schurz, Stockton, Thurman, and Wright 22. 



So the amendment to the amendment was 

 agreed to. 



The Vice-President : u The question recurs 

 on the amendment of the Senator from Massa- 

 chusetts as amended." 



Mr. Boreman : " I offer this as an addition- 

 al section to the amendment, to come in after 

 the section just inserted : " 



SEC. . That, before any person shall be entitled 

 to the benefit of the preceding section of this act, he 

 shall, within the district where lie 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 affirmation shall be forwarded 

 by said officer to the Secretary of State of the United 

 States, who shall cause a list of all persons comply- 

 ing with the provisions of this act to be laid before 

 Congress at the opening of each session thereof; and 

 the officer before 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. 



The Yice-President : " Tlie question is on 

 the amendment offered by the Senator from 

 West Virginia to the amendment of tbe Sen- 

 ator from Massachusetts, which is the second 

 section of the original House bill." 



Mr. Trumbull called for the yeas and nays, 

 and they were ordered ; and resulted as fol- 

 lows: 



YEAS Messrs. Alcorn, Ames, Anthony, Boreman, 

 Buckingham, Caldwell, Cameron, Clayton, Conkling, 

 Corbett, Cragin, Edmunds, Fenton, Ferry of Michi- 

 gan, Flanagan, Gilbert, Hamlin, Harlan, Hitchcock, 

 Morton, Osborn, Pomeroy,Pool, Pratt, Scott, Sher- 

 man, Spencer, Sumner, West, Wilson, and Wiri- 

 dom 31. 



Hill, Johnston, Kellogg, Kelly. Logan, Morrill of 

 Vermont, Norwood, Eice, Saulsbury, Sprague, Ste- 

 venson, Stewart, Tipton, Trumbull, and Vickers 

 24. 



ABSENT Messrs. Brownlow, Carpenter, Chandler, 

 Cole, Davis of Kentucky, Frelinghuysen, Howe, 



