Year: 1868

for Congress alone to determine the sta
CUs and condition OF those States, and
that the President has no power to pro-
claim peace, or declare the poliIlcal
condition of those Statesj until ne shall
first have been thereuntO authorized by
an act of Congress.


1, therefore, Mr.. President, take the
PROPOSITION as cOncIusively established,
both by reason and authority, that this
clause of the Constitution can be execu-
ted only by Congress; and taking that
as estab blished, Il now proceed TO consld-
er what are the powers Of Congress IN
the execution of the guarantee, how
il shall be executed, and what means
may be employed for that purpose. The
Constitution does not define the means.
It does not say how the guarantee shall
be executed. All that is left to the de-
termination of Congress. as to the par
tiCular character of the means that must
be employed, that, I take il, viii de-
pend apou the peculiar circumstances or
each caSe;- and the extent of the power.
viii depend upon the other question as to
what may be required for the purpose
of maintaining or guaranteeing q loyal
repub bIican form of government IN eacn
State. i use the word t1oyal," j" although
is not used in the Constitution, because
LOYALTY is an inhering qualification not





public offices, but IN regard 10 state
Governments, and we have no right to
recognize a State Government that is
not lOyal to the Government of the Uni
ted States. Now, sir, as to the use OF
means that are not prescribed in the
Constitution, call the attention of the
Senate to the eighteenth clause of sec
580II eight -ef the first article of the Con-
stitutiOn of the United States, which de-
clares that


tThe Congress shall have power to
make all laws which shall be necessary
and. proper for carrying into execution
the foregoing powers and all other pow
ers vested BY this Constitution in the
Government of the United States or any
department or officer thereOf.R


Here is a declaration of what would
otherwise be a general principle any
how, that Congress shall have the pow
er to pass all laws necessary to carry
into execution all powers that are Ves-
ted in the Government under the Con-
stituti0n. As Congress has the power
to guarantee or maintain loyal repub-
lican government in each State, it has
the right to use whatever means may
be necessary for that purpose. AS 1 be-
fore remarked, the character of the
means VIII depend upon the character
Of the case. In one case it may be the
use Ofan army; in anOthercase, perhaps,
lt may be simply presenting a question
W EA5 COuEE8s ana having II BHSDeA III
that way in another case it may go the
very foundation Of the Government it.
self. And I now PROFOUND this PROPOSE
lion; that Congress, after deliberation, af-
ter long and bloody experience, shall
come to the conclusion that loyal Irepub-
hcan State Governments can not be erec-
tedand maintained in the rebel States
apOn the basis Of the white population,
II has a right TO raise up and make vO-
ters of class OF men who had no right
to vote under the state laws. This is
simply the use of the necessary means
in the execution OF the guarantee. If
we have found after repeated trials that
l0yal republican State Governments,
Governments that shall answer the pur-
pose that such governments are inten-
ded TO answer, can not be successfully
founded upon the basis Of the whitepOp-
ulation, because the majority of that
population are dislOYal, then Congress
has right to raise up new loyal voting
population for the purpose of establish
ing these Governments in the execution
ofthe guarantee. I think, sir, this propo-
sition is so clear that it is not necessary
to elaborate it. We are required to find
in the Constitution a particular grant
of power, and we ind also another
grant Of power authorizing Us TO use
whatever means may be necessary to
execute the first; and we find that the
Supreme Court of the United States has
said that the Judgment Of Congress up-
on this question shall be conclusive,
that is a purely political matter and
therefore the determination of Congress,
that raising up cO1ored men to the right
of suffrage is a means necessary to the
execution Of that power, is adetermina-
ton which can not be reviewed by the
courts, and is conclusive upon the -peO-
pie of this country.


.


WORK.


The President of the United States,
assuming that he had the power to ex-
cute the guarantee, and bas1ng his proc
lamation upon it, went toward in the
work of reconstruction. 1t was under
stood at that time-it was so announced,
if not by himself, at least formally by
the Secretary of State, Mr.. Seward
that the Governments which he would
erect during the vacation of Congress
were to be erected as provisional only,
that his plan of reconstruction, and the
work that was to be done under it,
would be submitted to Congress for its
approval or disapprOVal at the next ses-
siOns If the President had adhered to
that determination, I believe that all
would have been well, and that the
present state of things would not exist.
But, sir, the Executive undertook final
lY to execute the guarantee himself
without the cooperation Of Congress.
He appointed provisional Governors,
giving to them unlimited power until
such time as the new State Govern
uents shall be erected. He prescri bed,
in his proclamation, who should eXer-
else she right Of suffrage in the election
of delegates. And allow me, for one
moment, to refer to that. He says in
his proclamation:


"ETo person shall be qualified as an
L.
Der of such Convention, unless he shall
have previously taken and subcribed
the oath of amnesty, as set forth in the
Presidents proclamation of May 20, A.
D. 1867


which was issued on the day, and was
a part Of the same transaction


"And is a voter qualified as prescribe
ed by the Constitution and laws of the
State Of North Carolina in force inn
mediately before the Goth day Of May.
A. d. 1861"


The persons having the right to vote
must have the right to vote by the laws
of the State, and must, in addition to
that, have taken the oath of amnesty.
The President disfranchised, in voting
for delegates to the Conventions, from
two hundred and fifty thousand to three
hundred thousand men. In the proc
lamatiOn of amnesty he says


"The following classes of persons are
excepted from the benefits Of this proc
lamatiOn''-


He then announced fourteen classes of
persons


~. All who are or shall have been
pretended civil or diplomatic officers, or
otherwise domestic or foreign agents,
of the pretended confederate govern
10 ent."





''I3. All persons who have vOluntari-
ly participated in said rebellion, and
the estimated value of whose taxable
property is over twenty thousand dol
Iars''


And twelve other classes, estimated
to number at the least two hundred and
fifty thousand or three hundred tbous-
and men, while the disfranchisement
that has been created by Congress does
not extend perhaps to more than forty
five Thousand or fifty thousand persons
atthe furthest. These provisional Cover
nors, under the authority of the Presi-
dent, were 10 call Conventions; they
were to hold the elections, and they
we're to count the votes; they were to
I exercise all the powers that are being
D = n . a.