The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1868-01-16
The New Reconstruction BilI-Mfno-
yfty Report,

K1ty A1pOrG,
The following is the minority report upon
the reconstruction bill pending in Con.
gress:
The undersigned, a minority Of the Com.
mittee of Reconstruction, so called, sub
init, among others, the following as some
of their reasons in opposition to the bill
LIST. That Congress erparte is asked
first section) to abrogate and destroy all
civil and State governments in ten States,
| four Of thcm--as follows: Virginia, North
Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia
being Of the original thirteen that started
the Government and created the Constitu-
ton, while four others of that thirteen
(making eight in ally have, past, been
demonstrating through their popular cleo
tons that they recognize these civil State
governments, and guarantee, as far as the
popular voice, their preservation as legal
State governments. SelEgovernment aud
representation are cardinal principles of o
republic, and ordained in our Federal Con-
stitution, but the section ignores both, and
robs ten States Of this Union and twelve
millions Of inhabitants of all protection
from the Judiciary or Executive branches
to military despotism.
I'd. That Congress thus representing
but part of the people, and that part
now in a minority, even if full Congress,
in parliamentary sense Of that word,
would be but one Of the three great
branches of this Government, with no right
and no power to invalidate or to deny the
recognition Of the Executive or Judicial
power, as assented in the bill. The Execu-
tive or Judiciary has as much right to pro-
claim or predicate that Congress shall not be
recognized as Congress has to enact for the
the Executive and the Judiciary; both are
as much the Government and the creation
Of the Constitution as the House or Senate
and the Executive, elected by the whole
people, better represents the principles of
popular government than Senate-a mere
arbiter-the creation of the States.
3. That the invaldation or notification
Of the Executive and Judicial power in
ten States is not only an abolition of the
Federal Constitution, but in direct conflict
with the great military acts of 1892 and
1895, and of March 3, 1907, putting the
army and navy and militia of the United
States in certain cases at the disposal OF
the President; also in conflict with the
fundamental judiciary act of 1889, and also
in conflict with act 4, section 5, of the
Constitution, which, while guaranteeing to
every State a republican form of govern
ment, also guarantees, on application of
The civil authorities of the States, protec-
ton against domestic violence, such as con-
templated in this bill.
4. That the second and third sections
are in utter violation of the Constitution,
article 2, section 2, which declares the
President to be Commander-in-C Chief of
the armies Of the United States, inasmuch
rs the General of the army is authorized
10 be commander chief, and to remove
by his orders alone any or all officers of
the army of the United States, independ-
ent of the Constitution and peoples
elected COMMUNICATIVE chief, and thus in
vesting a General Of the army with this
supreme dictatorship, is as if in solemn
! mockery set forth to recognize civil 60
vernments in form.
5. That the whole act is revolutionary
and incendiary in arraying Congress, but
one branch Of the Government, against the
coordinate branches, in all respects the
| constitutional equals of Congress, and IN
some respects the constitutional superiors
of Congress, and thereby calculated, if not
| intended, to involve the whole country in
commotion and civil strife the end Of
which no human eye can foreSee.
[Signed]
| JAMES Brooks, of New York.
JAMES B. BECK, of Kentucky.