Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1866-01-06
HOUSE.

Various resolutions of inquiry were pass
ed, including one offered by Mr.. Ingersol
of Illinois, instructing the Judiciary COM
mittee to inquire whether any further Leg
islation is necessary for the suppression OF
pOlygamy in Utah.
On motion of Mr.. Pike, of Maine, the
committee on Ways and Means were in
structed to inquire into the expediency of
proving for drawbacks of duties paid or
material entering into the construction OF
American ships in order to compete with
the foreign construction on equal terms.
The Speaker laid before the House a com.
mnnicatiOn from the Secretary of War in
reply to resolution, transmitting a COPY
of the record and testimony of the court
martial in the case of Benjamin G.. Harris
The papers were referred to the committee
on Elections and ordered printed; also, a
reply to a resolution giving statement OF
the number of troops furnished by each
State since the 1st ofApril, 1861, which wrs
referred to the select committee on the War
Department of the loyal States.
The House resolved into a committee OF
the Whole on the state of the Union, Mr..
Washburne, of ILL.,, in the chair, and re-
sumed the consideration of the President s
Annual Message.
Mr.. Spaulding, of o., proceeded to ex-
anime the dogma of John G. Calhoun, that
this Government was a community of
States. This cry OF nullifiers and seces-
sionists had plagued our country for more
than thirty years, and resulted in the most
devastating civil war known to the history
OF mankind. The sovereignty of the States
is the language of the Confederacy, and not
of the Constitution of the United States,
because the trainers of this instrument con-
templated the creation of q National Gov
ernment, the supreme power residing in the
people and not in confederacy of nations.
The rebels having failed in their efforts
to overthrow the Government, now un-
blushingly ask again to be received back in
order to participate in the affairs of Gov
ernment. Now State may be in the Union
as subject of the Government, but NAV,
by misconduct, forfeit its right as a part
of the governing power. He knew not
but the President meant the same thing
when he said that the States which seeded
impaired their vitality, but did not extin-
guish their Statehood; that their functions
were suspended, but not DESTROYED. The
President was correct when he took this
ground. In time OF war, when the country
was in danger, the President was clothed
with dictatorial powers, but in time of
peace he can righfully exercise no power
unless it is vested in him by the Constitution
or BY Congress. 1t is high time that the
people should insist that the Ship of State
should be overhauled and put into Constl-
tutional trim. She had been exposed to
tempestous gales, but having weathered the
storm of secession and strife, and been
brought into peaceful haven by skillful
pilot and gallant crew, we should exam
tnn in nrHar n xuhothar hos ~.
sound. He had great confidence i'm the
President Of the United States, and he en-
tered his humble protest against the attempt
Of any man, in or out of Congress, to place
the majority of the House in an attitude of
hostility to the long as the latter
confined himself to the exercise of his own
just prerogative shall we, for slight causes,
distrust him who, among Southern Sena-
tors, was faithful among the faithless, and
while enforcing his loyalty kept alive his
zeal? He believed that the President had
followed In the footsteps Of his predecessor.
Although he thought that the President
should have urged suffrage to all with
out respect to color, in the recommen-
datiOn to the Southern States to abolish
slavery and to repudiate the rebel debt,
he found no cause of complaint.
AS to the ratification Of the anti-slavery
amendment to the Constitution of the
United States by Southern Legislatures, it
did neither good nor harm. The amend
ment was validly ratified by three-quarters
of the States already, and no additional
sanction was wanted by assemblages of
men having no share in the governing
power of the nation. He regretted the
President did not wait for the action of
Congress before he dismissed the Provis-
ional Governors and turned over the
government Of States to those whose
hands were dyed in the blood of
Rebellion; but this was no great
danger so long as an army remained to pro-
tect Union men. It was noto only the priv
ilege, but the constitutional duty of the
President to give information to Congress,
from time to time, as to the state Of the
Union, and to recommend such measures
as he might Judge necessary and expedient;
that the power to admit new States. to mako