The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1866-02-25

announcement 70 Dc made by the President
and by Congress, or by either of them. To-
morrow In that case the Freedmen's Bu-
reau is continued, by virtue Of the limitation
prescribed in the act Of March 8, 1866, one
year after such proclamation shall have been
issued. Thus the Freedmen's Bureau would
continue, by the original limitat:on, untilthe
22d day Of February, lS67-A very proper
day on which to bring it to an end II Con-
gress should find il necessary to prolong its
existence, it can st once take the necessary
steps, for it viii At that date have been in
session nearly tbree months.
The speaker thought that Territorial Gov
ernmenfs for ssceded States were perfectly
impracticable. This was also rejected bv
Mr.. Lincoln. Say what you viii, the States
are already organised in perfeed harmony
with an amended national Constitution, asd
are in earnest CO. operation with tie Federal
Government. Its impossible to reduce these
States to territorial condition. Congress has
had a Reconstruction Comuittee, composed
OF fifteen members, who have stopped the
wheels of legislation three months TO enable
them TO submit plan different from that
which is now on the eve of a happy consum
nation. and what have they given us? One
proposed amendment to the Constitution TO
compel the excluded States TO eq ualize suf
frage, upon penalty of abridgement of repre-
sentation. This was no plan of reconstrur-
ton, but merely an abstraction. The resolu.
ton which passed the House on Tuesday las,
directly declares that loyal Representatives
shall net be admitted from loyal States until
Congress pass q law for that purpose, which
law can not be enacted without the Presi-
dents approval. and which can not be con
sistently given, in view of the opinions he is
known to entertain. This resolution, then, is
not a plan for reconstruction. but for the in
definite postponement and delay. When the
rebellion began we determined to humble the
rebels. We have humbled them and brought
them back with humiliation and repentance,
suing for restoration. The popular voice was
that all members of the family however
prodigal they had been would be received at
the family board. These efforts at obstruc.
ton, then, are rs impracticnble ss | think
they are vicious. No State can keep itself
out Of the Union. or keep itselfin a territorial
condition under the Union.
The States. while in the Union. cannot be
taken or kept out of it. The laws OF States
that are in the Union cannot keep hny States
that are outside from coming in. Congress
is habitually inclined to this experiment. 1t
hesiiated about Michigan and Missouri; reel
ed and staggered over Texas and California,
and convulsed the nation about Kansas; vet
they are all in the Union, all happy, all loyal.
how many committees of conference did we
have-how many joint resolutions denying
that Congress ever would consent to the ad-
mission of such unwelcome intruders? how
many compromises securing guarantees for
freedom and for slavery were broken and
scattered. when, one after another these
States came in as if bv headlong thrust, and
l3uP cd hv Al,,,sr oh ho 4
termined that the people of this continent
shall not be many discordant nations, but one
united nation. The Joint Committee of Fif
teen, in lS49, succeeded in excluding Cali
fornia for eight months, until majority of
the nation should compromise and silence
forever the debate upon slavery. The com
promise Was by its.terms to be perpetual. The
compromise Of 1850 fingered Just five wears
and then perished. giving place to the now
happily constituted adjustment Of the slavery
question by the complete abrogation of that
institution. When | left Congress in 1861.
committees and conventions demanded stipu-
lations that the fetters be pu, on New Mexico.
Nevada and Colorado.
You can never keep States out of this Union.
II ever this thing Of keeping out States by
joint resolution of Congress could have had a
chance OF permanent success that time has
passed away. No State has ever been hin
dered IN coming into the Union except on
questions of African bondage, which is now
gone TO the dogs, and surely finished No State
Will ever hereafter be hindered with the knowl
edge of coming into the Union on the ground
OF slavery. II rs grave error to suppose the
tendency have described has ANYTHING
alarming in it. A territory wants to be a
State because it is pleasant and good thing
n nf tAtn /
not keep States in territorial condition any
longer than compelled to. In the beginning,
every State has slavery. We
il in some States without disorder
and when slavery raised itself in opposition 10
the Government we destroyed il altogether
We have done all this in ninety years without
AN imperial government or pro consular ter
ritorial system, but in the Executive without
imperial legions