if not in terms, universal amnesty and the restoration to political power, as far as the franchise is concerned, of every man in the ten States. The pending constitutional amendment deprives certain persons of the right to hold office; but the power of this government and the power of the States is not in the right of individuals to hold office, but it is in the immensely superior power of the people to elect to office, and in the assurance that those elected to office will represent the men by whom they are elected. By the bill as now amended, you transfer the re-organization of these ten States to the rebels; you give to rebels the chief places in the work of reconstruction, possessing, as they do for the time being, the means of influence, of trust, of power; and, submitting all authority to them, you expect them to reconstruct loyal State govern

ments.

Now is the time when we ought to cherish and nourish the loyal sentiment of the people. We ought to take security that the men under whose guidance these States are to be reconstructed shall be loyal men. We ought to exclude from the business of reconstructing South Carolina, for example, the Orrs, the Pickens, the Magraths, and all those who participated in the rebellion. We ought to seek out the loyal men, and confide to them the great work. Let them be the standard-bearers of the republic; let them rally the loyal people, black and white, to the support of the Union. On the other hand, this bill leaves the whole matter of reconstruction open to anybody and everybody in the Southern country who may choose to engage

in the business. The result will be, that, in these several States, the ancient rebel party will resist reconstruction for a time; but, when in a particular State they see that it is inevitable, they will take the business into their own hands, and reconstruct governments according to their own ideas, with their representative men in places of power and trust. They will then come here with every condition precedent fully satisfied. Every black man will be secured in the right to vote. The controlling rebel party will organize the States, soon or late, in their own interest. They will organize the militia; they will control the polls; they will manage the elections; and do you expect that the negroes, unaccustomed to political struggles, timid, careworn, broken down in spirit to some degree by the institution of slavery, can in five or even ten years overthrow the rebels, and deprive them of power, although the negroes and the loyal whites should be a majority in those States?

Hence, by this bill in its present form, we exchange power to reconstruct these governments in the interest of loyalty, and accept in its place mere declarations upon paper; we exchange authority for promises; we neglect to do our own duty in the work of reconstruction, in the vain hope that men who have been rebels will do, in the interest of loyalty and the government, that which we ourselves, intrusted with vast powers for the public good, are either afraid to do or are incapable of doing.

These, in brief, are my objections to the passage of the substitute. So great, so enormous, do the objections appear, that by no process of reasoning

can I overcome them. I see the three million newly emancipated slaves of the South surrendered over again to the control of their former masters, when we have the power, by following in some form of language the bill which we passed here with reference to Louisiana, to reconstruct these States through the agency of loyal men, in the interest of loyalty, and thus make this government compact and firm as one great republican State with many members, in which everywhere loyalty shall be in the ascendant, and treason shall be odious.

APPENDIX.

I.

Joint Resolution proposing an Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.

Be it resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled (two-thirds of both houses concurring), That the following article be proposed to the legislatures of the several States as an amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which, when ratified by three-fourths of said legislatures, shall be valid as part of the Constitution; namely:

ARTICLE XIV.

SECTION 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law, nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

SEC. 2. Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States according to their respective numbers,

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counting the whole number of persons in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice-President of the United States, representatives in Congress, the executive and judicial officers of a State, or the members of the legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation in rebellion or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State.

SEC. 3. No person shall be a senator or representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who having previously taken an oath as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may, by a vote of two-thirds of each house, remove such disability.

SEC. 4. The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such debts, obligations, and claims shall be held illegal and void.