Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1868-02-07
NO 46

ratification. How can it be preten-
ded for a moment, even admitting that
the President had the power to start
forward in the work of reconstruction
l that those State Governments are legal
/ lv formed by a small minority, never
ratified by the peole never having had
q chance to vote for them. They stand
1 as mere srbitrarYr constitutions, eEbaD-
/ lished not by the people Of the several
! States, but simply by force Of executive
j power. -a- i--a-a
And, sir,aitaswe- shall admit those
4 States to representation on this floor
/ and in the other House under those COM
tsbitutions, when the thing shall have
4 got beyond our keeping and they are full
4 lY restored to their political rights, they
/ viii then rise up and declare that those
/ constitutions are not binding upon them
4 that they never made them and they
I win throw them off, and with them viii
4 60 those PROVISIONS which were 1ncor-
i porated therein, declaring that slavery
/ should never be restored and that their
/ war debt was repudiated. Those pro-
/ visions were put into those ennstitu-
1 tions but they have never been sane
toned by the people of those States, and
I they Will cast them out as not being
their act and deed as 50 IN as they shall
have been restored to political power
in this Government. Therefore i say
/ that even if he comedies that the Presi-
! dent had the power, which he had not.
1 guarantee, there can still be no PretenBe
that those Governments are legal and
| authorized, and that we are sound to re-
4 cognize them.
The President of the Uuited States, In
/ his proclamation, declared that those
/ Governments were to be formed only by
the loyal people Of those States and
/ beg leave to call the attention Of the
ISenate to that clause in his proclama-
tiOn OF reconstruction. He sayss
= u nraaa fuw EHa HHnrnHa
within the limits of said State, all the
L powers necessary and proper TO enable
/ such loVai people of the State of North
i Carolina to restore said State to its con-
I stitutional relations with the Federal
/ Government"
"And they are enjoyed to abstain
I from in any way hindering, impeding
1 or discOuraging the loyal people from
1.-THE organization Of a State Government
1 as herein authorized"
( Now, sir, so far from those State Gov
/ ernments having been organized by the
I loyal people, they were organized by
4 the disloyal every Office passed into
the hands of a rebel the Union men
had no part nor lot in those Govern
ments and SO far from answering the
/ purpose for which governments are in-
I tended, they failed to extend protection
/ to the IOVal men, either white or black.
/ The loyal men were murdered with im-
/ punity and I will thank any Senator
upon this floor to point to a single case
in any of the rebel States where a rebel
has been tried and brought TO punish
ment by the civil authority for the muir
Eder of a Union man. Not one case, I
am told, can be found. Those Govern
ments utterly failed in answering the
purpose Of civil governing ents and not
only that, but they returned the colored
people to a condition Of quasi slavery
they made them the slaves of society,
instead of being, as they were before,
the slaves Of individuals. Under VAR
ious forms of vagrant laws, they de-
prived them of the rights of freemeu,
and placed them under the power and
control of their rebel masters, who were
fned with hatred and revenge.
COURSE OF CoNGREss TOWARD 1T.
But, Mr.. President, time passed on
I Congress assembled in December, 1866.
For time it paused. It did not at once
annul those governments. It besitated.
AT last, in 1866 the cOnstibu ti0nal
amendment, the fourteenth article, fs
brought forward as a basis of settle
ment and reconstruction and there was
q taeit understanding though 1t was
/ not EN- braced In any law or resolution,
I that if the Southern people should rRti-
! fy and agree to that amendmeuts then
I their State Governments would be ac-
| cepted. But that amendment was re-
4 jected, scOntemptuOusly rejected. The
/ Southern people cOunseled and inspired
I by the Democracy Of the North, reject
J ed hat amendment. They were told
/ that they were not bound to submit to
any conditions whatever; that they had
| forfeited no rights by rebellion. Why,
/ sir, what did We propose by this amend
ment? BY the first section we declared
that all men born upon our soil were
! citizens of the United States-a thing
that had long been recognized by every
I department of this Government until
the Dred Scott decision was made in
/ 1857. The second section provided that
where a class or race Of men were e1l-
cluded from the right of suffrage they
should not be counted in the basis Of
epresentation-au obvious justice that
no reasonable man for moment could
deny that four million people down
South were to have no suffrage, the men
living in their midst and surrounding
them, and depriving them Of all pOlit-
ical rights, should not have members
of Congress on their account. / say the
Justice of the second clause had never
been successfully impugned by any ar
gument, care not how ingenious 10
may be. What was the third clause ?
It was that the leaders of the South,
those men who had once taken an Off
Cial oath to support the Constitution Of
the United States and had RfberwHrd
committed perjury by going into the
any Office under the Government Of She
United States or OF a State. It was in-
tended to withhold power from those
leaders by whose instrumentality we
had lost nearly half million of lives
and untold treasure. The justice OF
that disfranchisment could not be dis
proved. And what was the fourth
clause of the amendment? That this
Government should never assume and
pay any part of the rebel debt; that ii
IL N~rrHaH #NusnHas
slaves. This was bitterly opposed in
the North as well as in the South. How
can any man oppose that taunendmentun
less he was in favor OF this Government
assuming a portion or all Of the rebel
debt and in favor Of paying the rebels
party North and South opposed that
most i'm portant and perhaps hereafter I
to be regarded as vital amendment,
they were committing themselves in |
priciple, as they had been before by de- |
claration, to the doctrine that this Gov |
ernmene was bound TO pay for the /
slaves, and that it was just and right |
that we should assume and pay the reb- |
el debt.
This amendment, as have before !
said, was rejected, and when Congress
assembled in December, 1866, they were
confronted by the fact that every prOpo- !
sitiou OF compromise had been rejected, /
every halfway measure had been spurn- |
ed BY the rebels themselves, and they |
had nothing to do but to begin the /
work of reconstruction themselves and /
in February, 1867, Congress for the first /
time entered upon the execution Of the /
guarantee provided for in the Constitu- |
ton by the passage Of the first Recon- /
struction law. A supplementary bill /
was found necessary in March, another \
in July. and believe another is found |
necessary at this time but the power 4
is with Congress. Whatever 10 shall \
deem necessary, whether it be In the 4
way of Colored suffrage, whether it be 1
In the way of military power-what- 4
ever Congress shall deem necessary in \
the execution of this guarantee is con-
elusive upon the courts, upon every 1
State, and upon the people of this ma
ton.
Sir, when Congress entered upon this i
work &c had become apparent TO all men 4
that loyal republican State Govern 1
nents could not be erected and main 4
tanned upon the basis Of the white pop- /