Bedford inquirer. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1857-1884, 1867-07-19

WASHINGTON, July Is, lSG7.-At l:30 a
message was received from the President,
and the Senate went into executive session,
and at I:50 took a recess for half an hour.
On Teassembling a message was received
from the House, announcing the action of
that body or the conference report on the
Reconstruction Bill and the Senate proceed
ed to the consideration Of the report, and
after some remark by Messrs Trumbull,
Sumner, Wilson, BuckalCw, Cameron, and
Davis, It was finally agreed to at $50 p. m.
by a vote Of yeas, 81; nays 10; absent l6,
In the House, after tTansacting variety
OF miscellaneous business, Mr.. Stevens, at
, p, IN. presented the report Of the confer
ence committee on the the Reconstruction
Bill. In explaining the report he said
that most Of the amendments of the House
had been agreed to, with some slight modi-
hcations, one of which he thought quite an
Improvement; that was in characterizing
the authority of Congress as paramount
over the whole subject. The House had
made one concession in abandoning the PENAL
section, adopted on the motion OF Mr.. VIII
sou, Of Iowa. The Senate could not agree
70 that on account Of some peculiar reasons,
and the conterees on the part Of the House
ui't iliiA tllllh II WDAiI Nlilt 10 Slllt dlUuE
that The provision which he had most at
heart was that which said that district COM
manders should not be removed without the
consent Of the Senate. The conferees we're
about to split on that having agreed upon
everything else After conceding the pow
er Of Congress over the whole matter to be
paramount he could not very we'll see the
logic Of that reasoning which held that Con-
had a constitutional 70,
say that those officers should not be remov-
ed without the consent of the Senate. But
he begged the House to consider that the
Senarn vaa several furlo0gs behind the
House IN the march of reform-perhaps he
ought TO say radicalism. Senators we're
oJming up sidelong, but had not yet got
quite square up. What he had just men
toned was an Illustration Of thae. Some
fragments of the old shattered Constitution
had stuck, perhaps, in the kidneys Of some
Senators laughter, and troubled them at
night When they tried to progress, the
ghost Of the past Constitution was found in
their way, and obstructed them, Perhaps
that was natural enough. He did not find
any fault with it.
The report was finally adopted by the
House by a vote of yeas ll0; nays %.
The following is the reconstruction bill as
finally passed aud sent to the President
SECTION /. That it Is hereby declared to
have been the true intent and meaning of
the act Of the second day of March, 1867,
entitled On act to provide for the more eff
Gent government Of the rebel States, and
the act supplementary thereto, passed the
twenty-third Of March, 1867, that the gov
ernments then existing in the rebel
States Of Virginia, North Carolina,
South Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi,
Alabama. Louisiana, Florida, Texas, and
Arkansas, were not legal State govern
ments, and that thereafter said govern
ments, if continued, were to be continued
subject in all respects to the military COM
manders of the respective districts, and to
the paramount authority of congress.
SEC. ,. That the commander Of any dis
trict named is said act shall have power, sub
ject to the disapproval of the General of the
army Of the United States, and to have ef-
feet till disapproVed, whenever, in the
opinion of such commander, the proper
Of said act shall require it, to