The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1866-04-29

i
port the following Constitutional amend.
ments:
lst. the Bingham proposition, securing
the rights Call citizens in every State, and
| forbidding State legislation to the contrary.
I'd. Basng representation uppn members,
excluding all who are excluded from the polls.
Sd. Repudiating the rebel debt.
4th. Giving Congress power to enact such
laws as are necessary to enforceEthese amend
ments.
In addition, two bills will be reported, one
admitting Congressional delegations from
States ratifying tlese amendments, and the
other declaring as ineligable to dffice the lead
ing rebel officials.
XXX CONGREss---FIRsT SESSION.
WAsn1xoro$, April %.
HOUSE.
The House met to day for general debate
Of the Presidents annual message.
Mr.. Sco6eld, of Pennsylvania, addressed
the House on the subject Of the Constitution
The promise which he assumed was that
the disloyal population Of the South
would not exceed five million; shat this pop
nlation was 50 distributed, that If the late
secededAStates were admitted with conditions
that they would be able to elect. 26 Senators
and 81 Representatives, thus permitting one
seventh Of the whole population of the Uni
ted States to control more than one third Of
its legislation. and that this contsol would be
used for the destruction Of the Government.
He urged that tie seeded States come
back to the Union by coercion; taat it was
forced bridal. and the original house Of seces.
sion, hatred of ahe North. and it, anti slavery
majorities. are much stronger now than in
INV ID nOt thnv tCa
to be in favor Of the Union. though un-
truthful men from the North prevaricated
for them. If they could they weuld ruin the
confederacy at once. and they've use their
power to provoke war with Greet Britain or
France, hoping thereby to secure their own
independence for this state Of things. Three
remedies have been propose1; first TO
disfranchlsc the leading rebelsE second to
neutralize their votes and enftanchise the
blacks, and third to make the population
minus the disfranchised classes, the basis
Of representation. He advocated the third
proposition. claiming that it was fhe Repub.
Iican plan Of reconstruction. The delay IN
reconstruction he attributed TO the opposition
of Democrats. They fought against all re.
construction that did not allow the return OF
their long mourned friends, more numerous
and malevolent now then before hut there vas
for four years out upon plague infected seas,
and could they not now tarry at Quarantine
for single session
The Presidents policy as exhibited in his
correspondence with the Provisional Cover.
nors was not inconsistent with their plans.
His breath was even now the Law of the land
in those States. The Democrats Hers purru-
ing him With unrelenting frendthip, and If
they finally seduced him, his friends in the
past is ~ least secure, and the Presidents
patriotic thoughts Of the last Eve years would
still live, although only TO reprove him. The
proposition to admit loyal Representatives
from the South, he (Scotield) regarded as a
snare, just ~ Semmes had hung out the
Union dag - decoy to unsrmed merchant
vessels, replacing it with the pir4te emblem
when his boat secured his victim.
Mr.. Scofeld replied at length DO the lead
ing objections TO the Republican plan of re-
constructions, contrasting it with the policy
advocated by the opposition. LII the latter
were to succeed the Con9ederates would have
sixty-seven votes in the next electoral college
and wonld need only seventy seven more to
elect President. OF course they claimed
thirty one from some Confederate States and
expected the Democrats of New York, New
Jersey. and Connecticut to make their re-
manning forty six, the Government would
then be more entirely in the interests Of the
rebels. and then would be realized what the
opposition, in different phraseoLogy, con.
stantly asserted was the object Of the war,
namely, TO compel the rebels to become the
rulers Of the nation.
Mr.. Highly was the next speaker referring
to the appointment Of the Joint Committee
on Reconstruction, and to its action in report.
ing some Constitutional amendments. and the
large mass Of testimony. He said he pro-
posed now to direct his attention TO she report
made by that committee on the 9th Of March
last, and the joint resolution then reported
for the admission Of the State of Tennessee
1t must not be considered captDus if he
differed with fifteen Of the wiseet men in
Congress in regard to some matters intro
duced in the report. Two things we're to be
observed IN the joint resolution reported by
the committee; one was that the committee
endorsed the new Constitution Of Tennessee
as Republican in form, and that there was
declaration that the only means BY which
the State could have any representation in
the power of the United States Consultation
of the State of Tennessee, provided wel
should be eQtitled to the elective franchise.
and it wouldbe found that the word white
was used. Almost every section in the elec
tive franchise was limited TO the white
loyal citizens of the State, those who had
been engaged in rebellion being dis
franchised. The colored population
of Tennessee were more than one fourth OIL
the whole population, and taking the relative
contribution of Tennessee to the federal and
rebel armies as data, the loyal white pOpula
tion did not exceed one fourth of the whole
of that; If one fourth we're to have exclusive
political control Of the State, there would be
no Repnblicanism in it. He held however,
that the Civil Rights Bill, giving Civil Rights
to coi0red people, gave them also political
rights. There could be nothing effected by
giving them their Civil Rights, unless they
possessed the political power to protect those
rights. Ifthese people were citizens Of the
United States, where did the power come
from to take away theelective franchise from
them; that citizen had . right to vote.
and that there was no power under the
Government to deprive him of that right, but
this joint resolution would only permit very
small portion Of the white population Of Ten.
nessee to vote, and wsuld exclude the cOlored
population altogether. There was no ele-
ment Of republicanism in its Congress had
control Of the matter. II was its duty to
declare that no constitution Of government,
republican in form, could exclude any nor
ton OF its citizens condtiOnally from the
elective franchise.
Mr.. Moorhead next addressed the Honse]
on the FINANCIAL condition Of the country.
Ample guarantee ior the future should 6e|
required. The South should abandon the
principle Of slavery. should secure TIN right41
lof freedmen. should repadiste the rebel deht.
reu0anoe the clslmed fisht 81 secessiou.
should cultivate spirit of loyalty. and prove