Litchfield enquirer., 1868-02-06
ted in sai,l rabollton ani the estimated value of whose t&Aah!e. .ilroperty is over s20 000,

 And twelve other classes estimated tc number at the least 250, ,0OO OF 3OO GOO men while the disfranchisement that has been created by Congress does not extend per. hal9s to moro than 45, GOO OF 50, GOO persons at the fnrthest. These provisional govern ors: under the authority of the President were to call conventions; they were to hold the elections and they were to count the votes; they were to exercise all the powers that are being exercised by the military commanders under the Reconstruction acts of Congress.
 Senator Morton proceeds to show that not only wers these state conventions cleo ted by less than one third of the white votes III the revoltod states, but that, after the constitutions wero formed. they were never submitted to the people for ratifca- tion-tI'at they stand 'simply by force of executive power" He proceeds:-
 Now, Sir, so far from those State Govern ments, having heen organized by tue loyal 1 people, they were organized by the disloy- al; every office passed into the hands of 8 Rebel; tue Union men had no part or lot in those governments, and, so far from an- sWerlng the purpose for which govern ments are intended, they failed to extend protection to the loyal men, either white or black. The loyal men were murdered with impunity, and will thank any Sena- tor upon this floor to point to 8 single case in any of the Rebel States where a Rebel has been tried and brought to punishment by the civil authority for the murder of a Union man. Not one case, I am told, can be found. Those governments utterly failed ln answering the purpose of civil governments, 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 various forms of yagrant laws they depriy- ed them of the rights of freemen, and plac
 ed them under the power and control of their Rebel masters, who were filled with hatred and revenge. But, Mr. President, time passed on. Congress assembled in December 1865. For time 1t paused It did not at once annul those governments
 1t hesitated At last in 1866, the Constitu- tional Amendment, the 14th Article, was brought forward as @ basis of settlement and reconstruction, and there was ta- cit understanding, though it was not en- braced in any law of resolution, that if the Southern people should ratify and agree to that amendment, then their state govern ments would be accepted. But that amendment was rejected, contemptuously rejected. The Southern people counseled and inspired by the Democracy of the North, rejected that amendment. They were told that they were not bound to sub init to any conditions whatever, that they had forfeited no rights by rebellion. Why sil, what did we propose by this amend ment? By the first section we declared that all men born upon our soil were citi- zens of the United StaEes-a thing that had long been recognized by every depart ment of this government until the Dred Scott decision was made in 1857. The sec ond section provided that where class or race of men were excluded from the right of suffrage, they should not be counted in the base of representation-an obvious jus tice that no reasonable man for moment could deny; that if 4,000, 900 people down South were to have no suffrage. the men living in their midst and surrounding them and depIiving them of all political rights, should not have members of Congress on their account. I say the justice of the sec ond clause has never been successfully int pugned by any argument, I care not how ingenious it may be-. What was the third clause? I was that the leaders of the South, those men who had once taken an official oath to support the Constitution of the United States and had afterward committed periu- ry by going into the rebellion, should be made ineligible to any office under tho Government of the United States or of a state. It wasa very small disfranchise- ment. It was intended to withhold power from those leaders by whose instrumentality We had lost nearly half a million lives and untold treasure. The justice of that dis franchisement could not be disproved
 And what was the fourth clause of the amendment? That this Government should never assume and pay any part of the Rebel debt; that 1t should never pay the Rebels for their slaves. This was bit terly opposed in the North as we'll as in the South. How could any man oppose that amendment unless he was ill favor of this Government assuming a portion of all the Rebel debt and in favor of paying the Reb
 els for their slaves? When the Democrat most important and perhaps hereafter to be regarded as vital amendment, they were committing themselves in principle, as they had been before by declaration, to the doctrine that this Government was bound to pay for the slaves, and that it was just and right that we should assume and pay theRebel debt. This amendment, as I have before said, was rejected; every half way measure had been spurned by the reb- els themselves, and they had nothing left to do but to begin the work of reconstruc- tion themselves; and February, 1867, Con- gress for the first time. entered upon the execution of the guarantee provided for in the Constitution by the passage of the 1st reconstruction law. A supplementary bill was found necessary in March, anoth- CT one in July, and I believe anoth- CT 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-what- ever Congress shall deem necessary in the execution of this guaran- tee is conclusive upon the courts, upon every state, and upon the people of this nation. Sir, when Congress entered upon this work 1t had become apparent to all men that loyal republican State govern ments could not be erected and main tain- ed upon the basis of the white population. We had tried them. Congress had at tempted the work of reconstruction through the constitutional amendment by leaving the suffrage with the white men. and hv leaviDcr with xrb;to ,,oo,,la oe l1. .