Year: 1867

clusion that the minority la the State q


South Carolina must hereafter and indefi


nitely control and govern the overwhelm
ing majority of its natural-born freedmen
without giving them vote or voice in tn


enactment of their own laws.


Sir. i remember how, eleven wears ago


when rose in my place within your hear
ing, when we were both entering upon tb


the discharge Of our duties here as the rep


resentatives Ofthe people. and asked wheth
er government which denied To the ma


iiority of its own citizens a voice in its af


fairs was republican within the meaning o
that term as embodied in the Constitution


of the country, explaining more fully my


meaning by saving, ''Is il republican for


minority in State, to take away from al


overwhelming majority, of like age, seA


and residence, resident in such State. any


vote or voice in the government and yot


doubtless remember the audible response
which came back from the Democratic


ranks that day from gallant Representa-
tive from Kentucky, who said. by the


living God, no such State rs that should
be epermtted TO he any where on the earth. y
/ | stand with that Kentuckian 10 dav
think the majority ought to rule, subject tc


the equal right Of the minority TO the same


rights rs themselves, without regard TO


color. That constitutes a republican State


and that is the whole question involved in
all this legislation. Gentlemen who op-


pose such a rule of equity and Justice can


hardly lay claim to the once proud title of
, Democrats. That is strange democracy


which asserts the exclusive right of the mi


nOrity TO rule.


But say gentlemen "you arc eyercis-


ing tyranny over those States.' What was


just said by the gentleman Mr. Wood


who also opposes this bill? That the Pres
ident Of the United States appointed civil
governors over those States, The gentle
man ought to have gone further TO make
he record perfect. and said that the Pres
dent bad not only appointed governors
over those States. but prescribed the terms
and conditions upon which the whole pco-
pie of those States should reconstruct the
shattered fabric of their State institutions.
do not now stop to discuss the question
of the Presidents power thus to govern
any part of this country. did say once
in my- place here that the President has
not any more authority To do thai than the
Gar Of Russia when the rebellion was
overthrown. But, sir. there was occasion
for doing something within the limits of
those States for the establishment of law
and order Ifany gentleman doubts this.
| will bc obliged 10 him if he will express
the grounds of his doubt.


| repeat it. there was necessity for some
thing being done, and the question is by
whom should it he done? The legal Gov
ernmenls oi those ten States had been to-
tally disorganized and destroyed through
the insirumenialitv of the traitOrOus con-
spiracy. There is not a man. sir, within
the hearing of my voice. who has any re-
spect for the oath under which he is bound
here as a representative or the people but
will say that from the waters of the Poto-
mac to the waters of the Rio Grandc. with
in the limits OF those ten inSurgent States,
there was not existing at the time when
Lee surrendered to Grant. single State
organization that had the right 10 legislate
on any subject whatever. And why. sir?
Because the constitution of your country
on its face absolutely forbadeit. Why =
Because the Constitution declares as con-
diiion precedent to- any legislation in any
State Of this Union that every legislative.
executive and judiciai officer therein shall
he bound by oath to support the Consti;u
tion Of The United States. and that every
State shall have a government in form and
not inconsistent with the Constitution OF
the United States and the laws and treaties
made in pursuance thereof


There was not ON the day of the surren-
der in one of those States single State Of
ficer bound Ivy an oath to support the Con
stitution of the United States; on the con
irary every officer therein had taken an
oath TO overthrow that Constitution. do
not stop to talk about the rights of disor-
Canized States, and disorganizcd TOO by
reason of their own treason. The simple
fact was and is. ard no sensible man in
America can deny ii, the people of those
States by their treason had succeeded in
overturning and annihilating their pre- eN
isting State governments and were simply
communities within the gene
raj jurisdiction of the United States and
subject 10 the laws of i!e United States
had 10 be done TO restore them.


In this work of restoration the nation
had first to be consulted Before rcstora-
tion and preparatory thereto. security. ir-
security, for the future was TO be
taken by the naiou-the frecmcn ofOrgan-
lied constitutional States who had crushed
rebellion and maintained through their or
ganiZcd loyal States American nationality
American nationality never existed other
wise. ami while your Constitution stands
never can exist otherwise than through or
ganized republican constitutional States of
the Union.


Every Representative upon every side
of this House has thus declared, under the
obligation of his oath, that the MtiOnal will
is exclusively declared by the Representa-

assembled. Who is there here to say that
any but loyal organized States within this
Union can rightfully elect a Congress and
legislatc under the Constitution for the
people of every State and Territory
There is no other power that can make ma
tional laws under the Constitution, either
for the organized or disorganiZed States,
for all legislative power granted by the
Constitution is invested in Congress. This
Congress of the Constitution submitted TO
the people of the rorganized States an
to the Constitution as the basis
and future security. The loyal
people have acted upon The amendment so
submitted, have ratified it. AID demanded
its acceptance by the several disorganized
States as a condition of their restoration to
political power. B..


BY this action the people have decided,
in fact and i'm law, that the provisions of
the pending bill, and of the acts TO which
it is supplementary, which but provide the
means for the acceptance of the cOnstitu-
tional amendment and the reoi ganization
of republican governments in conformity
Herewith In the late insurgent States. shall
be carried into effect. Let it be remem-
bcred that the people of twenty one of the
States represented here have
solemnly ratified the fourteenth article of
the amendment to your constitution, which
declares upon its very fore front that all
persons born in this country, irrespective
of color, ''are citizens of the Republic, and
that no State of this Union shall make or
enforce any law which shall abridge the
privileges or immunlties of citizens of the
United States; nor shall any State deprive
any person of life, liberty, or property
without due process oflaw; nor deny to any
person within its jurisdiction the equal pro-
lection Of the laws; and Congress shall
have power, by appropriate legislation, to
,fc