Baltimore daily commercial. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1865-1867, 1866-03-03
XXxIxTH CONGRESS.
MIR. DOOlittle and MIR. Summer
8 SPEECH OF MIR. C0WAN.
Resolution Against the Admission of
Southern Representatives,
A BILL TO PROTECT CIVIL RIGHTS
WASHINGTON, March 2, 1866.
SENATE.
PETITIONS AND RESOLUTIONS PRESENTED.

WASHINGTON, March ., 1866
SENATE.
| PETITIONS AND RESOLUTIONS PRESENTED.
Mr.. Nesmith presented the petition of officers of
| the Pacific Squadron. asking an increase of pay Re-
| lerred TO the Committee on Naval Affairs.
Mr.. sherman presented the resolutions of the Ohio
Legislature, in favor of increase in the regular
| army, and the appointment of competent volunteer
| ofhcers to MI vacancies therein Referred to Com
| mittee on Military Affairs.
On motion of Mr.. Chandler, it was resolved that
leave of asence be granted to his colleague r How
ard account of domestic Affections for two weeks
Mr. Sumner presented the memorial of authors
poets and editors, asking the adoption of such meas
ures will secure international Copyright law be-
| tween Great Britain and the United States. Among
the signerS are Wm o. Bryant Benson LOSING Oliver
| Wendell Holmes and others.
| Also similarSettiOn, signed by Henry W. Long
| fellow and others.
similar petition from Washington Irving and J. Fen
| nimore Cooper. Those ilustrious men had passed
away before their prayer granted but he honed
| 1t would not be the case with these.
- The petitions were referred to the Committee on
| Foreign Relations.
| Mr.. Doolitte rose to personal EXPLANATION con-
| cernng the relations between him and the Senator
from from so Massachusetts,: de bad since his entrance
| Senator Mr. D. then read despatch addressed TO
| the Hon; Charles Sumner, and which, Mr.. D. said
| by tho Secretary of the Senate. The dispatch is
| dated from New Haven, and says that "DoolittIe
was hissed, &c. There were three things in that
| dispatch which are wrong-one that he disparaged
| Mr., Sumner; that he was hissed down, and one
mat he was compelled to cease his remarks. Mr., D.
then read from the Boston Journal account of the
| meeting at which he spoke and which stated that
the few hisses were drowned by renewed applause.
| Mr.. sumner presented the petition of John A. An
drewand others, asking that the elections for Presi
| dent and Vice President be made directly by the
peGpie fhat no distinction shall be made in civil and
p9ntlcal rights ana no one now exercising the right
of franchise shall be deprived of it. Referred to the
| Committee on Reconstruction.
MIR. Wilson, from the Committee on Military Af-
fairs reported joint resolution to pay Mrs. Susan
Barton 81 800 for searching for missing bodies of SOL
| diers of the United States.
Mr.. Lane of Kansas offered a resolution, that the
Committee on the Judiciary be instructed to inquire
into the expedieney of calling convention Of the
people OF the United States, to consider proposed
| amendments to the Constitution. Ordered to be
| printed and laid on the table.
On motion OF Mr.. Brown, the bill to grant lands to
| the Atlantic and Paci1c Railroad was taken up and
| Mr.. Wilson. from the Committee on Military
Affairs reported the House joint resolution author
Izng the Secretary of War to give to the National
Home for Soldiers and Sailors Orphans of Washing
ton city certain stores not needed for the use of the
| Government, which read three times and passed
| = ADMISSION OF SOUTHERN REPRESENTATIVES.
| On motion Of Mr. Grimes the Senate then proceed
ed to the consideration of the joint resolution provi-
ding against the admission of Southern representa-
| tives, upon which Mr.. Cowan, of PENNSYLVANIA was
entitled to the floor.
Mr.. Cowan giving way
Mr.. johnson presented the credentials of Hon
Henry Boyer, elected as Senator from Louisiana for
| the short term.
reviewing
the provisions of the Constitution and the obga-
tons and privileges of the States he took a rapid
glance at the progress of the secession movement in
1861, and read from Greeley's American C0nfcs tn
prove that long after all hopes of concession on the
part OF the North were gOne Virginia and Tennes-
see were 10th to go out of the Union and Maryland
! and Kentucky had not even thought about it, The
votes given in Tennessee and Virginia quoted,
out OF the Union was read at length.
Mr. Z: said at no time had there been a majority
OF the Southern people in favor of secession but it
m1Gp kv la Iaol n
rise to that idea. There had been the greatest dere
LECTION on the part of the Government The Presi-
these people have been rescued from the grasp of the
conspiracy, they are held to public odium trail
| Now. when the rebellion is over, not one of the
loud-mouthed patriots here have made the first move
to punish the really guilty traitors but day after day
and month after month, an effort is made to punish
whole people who cannot come into court and
plead for themselves. Mr.. President, I cannot find
terms strong enough to express the cruelty with
which We are treating this rescued people Are not
their desolated and orphaned homes enough punish
ment! SO for as the admission of their stained
leaders Is concerned he wOuldnotappeal to Congress
or to the President to prevent it. but to the law,
which is higher than any of them He said that he
thought it established beyond question that when
the rebellion broke out, there was no considerable
number OF people IN any Of the States who could not
be charged with treason to the Government if We
admit the law to be as hold it, that if the legitimate
Government OF any country suffers itself to be dspos
Sessed, and hostile Government to be established and
hold possession that it is unable TO protect its ct
zens in their resistance to such hostile Government
1f
by authority and IN obedience to the hostile Govern
ment.
He claimed also to have shown that the moment
the rebels surrendered, they are in the custody of
men ns ay a il hapa s " BE- BE- phSfftfd to 81 %gGh punish
according to due process OF law He had shown that
after the suiferngs endured by the people in the
war, their sutierlngs were sufficient. ana they should
be readmited at once to their constitutional rights
It is due to the dignity of the United States as
great nation to punish the actual traitors who in
cited the rebellion, but it should he done solemnly
in open court, and according to the strctest form of
law, that they may make their Defence if they have
| any. That according to the Constitution and the
laws, all the States still in the Union that Sc
cession ordinances cannot repeal the one nor set
aside @ @ "ther: that they are neither dead by for
teiture felo de Sc, but are now in full ana perfect
existence, with all their municipal machinery in full
play that the proposition of the Committee of Fif-
teen to amend the Constitution is fundamental and
revolutionary and destructive of the freedom of the
States and the liberties of the people; that it is
threat to deprive them of their rights by compelling
them either to admit negroes to the right of suffrage
give up share of their representation, which
theirs by law that the resolution before us from
the same committee is also revolutionary and de-
structve being an attempt to suspend the Constitu-
tion and law in regard to the representation in Con-
gress of eleven States of the Union until Congress
shall fit to restore them. 1t is a declaration on
the part OF the present Congress that, having the
means OF keeping these States out they going to
do so as long as they please; that of these
| measures can be Justified as punishment for the
rebellion.
| will endeavor to answer question that has often
been put with an air. OF braggart triumph, if
answer was impossible. They ask would you bring
back into the Senate rebels and traitors, the authors
of ali our troubles, whose hands yet red with the
blood of your slaughtered people? and if not how
do you propose to avoid it unless you deny these
States representation fer time at least To all this
answer no, as emphatically any Senator, but i
| that proposed | would keep them out by Seeking
the remedy afforded by the Constitution and the law
instead of adopting course forbidden by both and
unjust in itself would keep out traitors not States
| would punish criminals. not enslave communities
would single out the guilty, and not confound the
innocent with them. Is not this easy? When the
traitor asks admission here you commit him for
trial and the oense is bailabe. suppose every
body would argue that would keep him out at least
1t has another advantage too it is lawful and none
complain of it. After the trial, if acquitted he is
not traitor and his case presents difficulty. If
| he is convicted and hanged, suppose that would
aay all fears of his return. Now, Mr.. President,
when | think how obvious and effectual this plan
would be, am amazed that it should ever have
tered into the human mind to contrive any other.
Why is it not adopted7 Sir, am afraid to answer.
am afead there are patriots who would prefer to
let them go unwhipped rather than they should risk
their own hold in power. 1t looks to me much like
that, and if so, arm sorry that any man can be so
shOrtsighed as not to see the fatal consequences of
such exchange this Does it not say your trea-
| son may go. if you will let US rule the country2
| The country is alarmed, the people anxious,
| and the political atmosphere BODIES the coming of no
| common storm. What can do to prevent it and
bring back peace to the country and harmony the
/ party? Is there no common ground which we
can rally? think there is, sir. Surely we may go
back to the Constitution, which have all sworn to
/ support: We can go back to the laws and enforce
| them without discussion among ourselves. We may
avoid new measures upon which we cannot agree
and which only serve wedges to split us farther
and farther asunder. If, however, refuse moder-
ate counsel the only remedy will be to take the
sequences, and they seldom linger long behind the
act.
| Mr. Davis said the Senators who now condemned
the exercise of Executive power, and sought by
checks such the proposed measure to limit it, were
the same Senators who for four years uttered not
word of protest against Executive acts of usurpation
glaring in the extreme The of complaint now
was that these acts did tend strengthen their
1 party. Ifthe Executive had given to negroes the
| right of suffrage in yeconstructng the rebellous
| States, he presumed that no remOnStrances would
| have been made. He did not doubt that negro suf-
fage in the Constitutions of those States would have
| been the open sesame that the portals of the two
| Houses would have been thrown wide open to the
| Senators and Representatives from those States.
| In the discussion or this question he tMr. D.
| brought partzan feeling to bear, but contended
for great constitutional principle. If the party to
which he formerly belonged had advocated the doc
trines Of the majority here he would have left it. He
| regarded it as virtually dissolution Of the Union,
and he should oppose strenuously now the efforts
to keep those States out of the Union as he did the
| efforts of the secessionists to go out.
He declared his adherence to the principle that the
| General Government had no right to exercise any
| powers granted by the Constitution and tho at
| tempt to do so was usurpation. After stating the
reserved rights of the States and their status towards
each other and the General Government he contend
ed that the rebel States had never been Constitution
ally out of the Union, The States were not in re-
| beon against the Union, but the people we're JEFF
i v;c pof ko+ i