Delaware tribune. [volume] (Wilmington, Del.) 1867-1877, 1868-02-06

| .hSfS ibfthy tSluDllSIlcu DI
by the people of the several States, but sin
| ply by force of Executive power.
And, sir, II we shall admit those States t
representation on this floor and in the othe
House under those constitutions, when til
thing shall have got beyond our keeping an
they are fully restored to their politics
rights, they will then rise up and declar
that those constitutions are not binding ur
on them; that they never made them, an
they will throw them off, and with ther
will go those provisions which were incor
porated therein, declaring that SLAYER
should never be restored and that their wa
debt was repudiated. Those provision
were put into those constitutions, but the
never have been sanctioned by the people a
those States, and they will cast them out a
not being their act and deed as soon as the,
shall have been restored to political powc
| in this Government. Therefore say tina
even If he comedies that the President ha,
the power, which he had not, to start for
| ward in the execution of this guarantee
there can still be no pretence that thos
governments are legal and authorized an,
that we are bound TO recognize them.
The President of the United States in hi
proclamation, declared that those govern
ments were to be formed only by the loya
people of those States; and beg leave t
call the attention of the Senate to that claus,
In his proclamation of reconstruction. HI
says:
"And with authority to exercise, within
the limits of said States, all the powers ne
cessarY and proper to enable such loyal peO
pie Of the State of North Carolina, to restore
said State to its constitutional relations will
the Federal Government
Again, speaking of the army:
''And they are eDjoined to abstain from il
any way hindering, impending, or discour-
aging the loyal people from the organization
of a State government rs herein authorized
Now, sir, so far from those State govern.
ments having been organized by the Loyal
people, they were organized by the disloyal
every office passed into the hands of rebel;
the Union men had no part or lot in those
governments; and so far from answering
the purpose for which governments are in
tended they failed to extend protection to
the loyal men, either white or black. The
loyal men were murdered with impunity
and will thank any Senator upon this flooi
to point to a single case in any of the rebel
States where a rebel has been tried and
brought to punishment by the civil authori-
ty for the murder of Union man No one
case, am told, can he found. Those gov
ernilents utterly failed in answering the
purpose of civil governments; and not only
that, but they returned the colored people to
condition of quasi slavery they made
them the slaves OF society instead Of being,
as they were before, the slaves of indlvidu-
ais. Under various forms of vagrant laws
they deprived them of the rights Of freemen,
and placed them under the power and con
troll Of their rebel masters, who were filled
with hatred and revenge.
But, Mr. President, time passed on. Con-
gress assembled in December, 1865 For a
time it paused. 1t did not at once annul
those governments. 1t hesitated. AT last,
in 1866, the constitutional amendment, the
fourteenth article, was brought forward as a
basis of settlement and reconstruction and
there was tacit understanding, though it
was not embraced in any law or resolution,
that If the Southern people should ratify
and agree to that amendment, then their
State governments would be accepted But
that amendment was rejected, contemptli-
ously rejected. The Southern people, coun-
seled and inspired by the Democracy of the
North, rejected that 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 amendment
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 department of this
Government until the bred Scott decision
was made in 1851 The second section pro-
vided that where class or race OF men
were excluded from the right of suffrage
they should not he counted in the basis of
representation--an obvious justice that no
reasonable man for moment could deny !;
that if four million people down South were
to have no suffrage, the men living in their
midst and surrounding them, and depriving
them Of all political rights, should not have
members of Congress On their account.
say the justice of the second clause has
never been successfully impugned by any
argument, care not how ingenious it may
be. What was the third clause? 1t was
that the leaders of the South, those men who
had once taken an official oath to support
the Constitution ofthe United States, and had
aftcrward committed perjury by going into
the rebellion, should be made ineligible
to any office under the Government OF
the United States or of State. 1t was Il
very small distranchiscment. 1t was intend
ed TO withhold power from those leaders by
whose instrumcntality we had lost nearly
half Il million lives and untold treasure.
The Justice of that distranchisement could
not be disproved. And whit was the fourth
clause of the amendment? That this Coy
ernment should never assume or pay any
part of the rebel debt; that it should never
pay the rebels for their slaves. This was
bitterly opposed in the North as well as in
the South. How could any man oppose
that amendment unless he was in favor of
this Government assuming portion or all
of the rebel debt, and In favor of paying
Al. .t.-.I. -. .l.. ~
Democratic party North and South opposed
that most important, and, perhaps, hereafter
to be regarded AS vital amendment, they were
committing themselves in principle, as they
had been .etore by declaration, to the doc
trine that this Government was bound to
pay for the slaves. and that it was just and
right that we should assume and pay the
rebel debt.
This amendment as have before said, was
rejected, and when Congress assembled in
December, 1866, they were confronted by
the fact that every proposition of COM
promise had been rejected every halfway
measure had been spurned by the rebels
themselves, and they had nothing left to do
but to begin the work Of reconstruction
themselves; and in February, 1861, Congress
for the first time entered upon the execution
of the guarantee provided for in the Consti-
tuition ny the passage ot tne llrst recOnslrnc-
tion law. A supplementary bill was found
necessary in March, another one in July and
believe another is found necessary at this
time; but the power is with Congress-
Whatever it shall deem necessary. whether
it be in the way of colored suffrage, whether
1t be in the way of military power--whatever
Congress shall deem necessary in the eXecu-
ton of this guarantee is conclusive upon the
courts, upon every State, and upon the peo-
pie of this nation.
Sir, when Congress entered upon this
work it had become apparent TO all men
that loyal republican State governments
could not be erected and maintained upon
the basis ofthe white population. We had
tried them. Congress had attempted the
work of reconstruction through the consti-
tutional amendment by leaving the suffrage
with the white men, and by leaving with
the white people of the South the question
as to when the colorcd people should exer-
else the right of suffrage, if ever; but when
it was found that those white men were as
rebellious us ever, that they hated this Gov
ernment more bitterly than ever; when it
was found that they prosecuted the loyal
men, both white and black, in their midst !;
when 1t was found that Northern men who
had gone down there were driven out by
social tyrrany, by a thousand annoyances,