CONGRESS, U. 8. 



235 



Senate and deliberate and donbt whether we 

 shall turn out of this Senate the very men who 

 are ready to explode those guns against your 

 capital ? No, Mr. President ; let the judgment 

 of the Senate be as summary, as decisive, and 

 as signal, as their revolution has been rapid ; 

 and let them be ejected from the councils of the 

 nation." 



Mr. Latham, of California, continued the de- 

 bate by saying : " I shall not vote for this res- 

 olution* as it stands. I will vote to strike the 

 names of these gentlemen from the roll, and to 

 declare their seats vacant. I will not vote to 

 expel them, because I think, as to some Senators 

 named, that that would be unjust and improper. 

 Expulsion implies turpitude. It is a reflection 

 upon the personal character of the individual; 

 it is a stain. Now I know myself that some 

 Senators two in particular named in that 

 resolution, did not indorse the right of seces- 

 sion. They disapproved of it; they never sanc- 

 tioned it; and they did not think they could 

 occupy a seat on this floor after their State had 

 seceded." 



Mr. MacDougal, of California, on the contrary, 

 wished to say that he did not vote for the ex- 

 pulsion of these members upon the ground that 

 their States have declared themselves out of the 

 Union. The expulsion is for personal cause. 

 It is, that they have espoused the controversy 

 made against the Republic, evidenced by one 

 circumstance perhaps sufficient, independent 

 of what history has already reported of them 

 that they are not here. Now, there may be no 

 turpitude in this act of theirs, or in their es- 

 pousing the adversary cause. Treason was 

 always a gentlemanly crime, and in ancient 

 times a man who committed it was entitled to 

 the axe instead of the halter. 



The resolution was agreed to. Ayes, 32 ; noes, 

 10. 



' On the 13th of July Mr. Johnson, of Ten- 

 nessee, presented the credentials of W. T. Willey 

 and J. S. Carlisle, elected Senators by the Leg- 

 islature of Western Virginia, acting as the Leg- 

 islature of the entire State. 



Mr. Bayard, of Delaware, protested against 

 administering the oath to them, saying: "I 

 think these credentials ought to be referred to 

 the Committee on the Judiciary. They involve 

 very grave questions. You are undertaking to 

 recognize a government of the State of Virginia, 

 which is not the regular State government, even 

 though that State government may be in what 

 you call a state of rebellion. You are bound to 

 take notice of the fact that Mr. Letcher is Gov- 

 ernor of Virginia, and that his term of office, 

 under the constitution and laws of Virginia, 

 has not yet expired. If you say he is in rebel- 

 lion, that does not authorize a portion of the 

 people of Virginia to form a Legislature for the 

 purpose of electing Senators to take seats in 

 this body. You have no authority to create a 

 ne\v State out of a part of an existing State. I 

 think the questions are very grave." 



Mr. Johnson replied : "I hope the motion of 



the Senator from Delaware will not prevail. 

 These certificates from the Commonwealth of 

 Virginia afford prima facie evidence that the 

 election has taken place regularly, and that 

 these gentlemen have been regularly certified 

 here as the Senators from that Commonwealth. 

 Is there any proof before this body, presented 

 in any way, that the election has not taken 

 place regularly, according to the Constitution of 

 the United States and of the State of Virginia ? 

 The certificates themselves furnish prima /ado 

 evidence that these gentlemen are the Sena- 

 tors elect from the Commonwealth of Virginia. 

 The other great fact is equally clear, without 

 regard to what the Senate did yesterday, that 

 these vacancies did exist on the 9th of the 

 month, when this election took place. That fact 

 is known to this body ; it is known to the coun- 

 try. The late Senators from Virginia were not 

 here. The vacancies did in fact exist when this 

 election took place. 



" These are facts within the cognizance of 

 this body. They are known to every member 

 here. Here are the certificates of election of 

 these gentlemen, and there is not a single scin- 

 tilla of proof from any quarter that they are 

 not the Senators, and have not been properly 

 and regularly elected. There is no one else 

 claiming the seats, no one making a contest for 

 them. There is not a particle of evidence from 

 any quarter that these gentlemen are not the 

 Senators elect according to the forms of law 

 and the Constitution." 



Mr. Bayard replied : " In my judgment, it is 

 an utter abandonment of the whole form of 

 your Government ; it is, by the action of the 

 Senate, recognizing insurrection in a State, for 

 the purpose of overthrowing the government 

 of the State, by a very small minority of its 

 people." 



Mr. Hale, of New Hampshire, replied to Mr. 

 Bayard by saying : " He says that the recogni- 

 tion of these gentlemen under the commission 

 that they bear, will be recognizing insurrection 

 in a State. I deny it, sir ; I deny it utterly. I 

 say that a greater perversion of terms never 

 could be used. It is because we will not recog- 

 nize insurrection in a State, that we admit these 

 gentlemen. The part of the State to which 

 the Senator alludes are themselves in a state of 

 insurrection, and it becomes this Government 

 to recognize the loyal and the true men that 

 still cling to the Union and support the Consti- 

 tution, and call upon this Government to main- 

 tain its constitutional obligations and put down 

 insurrection. Talk about precedents, sir ! "Why, 

 the whole thing is new. These States have 

 parted so far as they could, or the men under 

 whose control they are, have parted from their 

 constitutional obligations. There is no prece- 

 dent, because the world never saw such a state 

 of things. 



"I hope that the Senate will not hesitate. 

 Sir, this is no question of form, no question of 

 ceremony ; it is a question of life or death with 

 this Republic, and with this Government. The 



