History of the Thirty-Ninth Congress of the United States

by William Horatio Barnes · English · Gutenberg #24596 · 1,634,500 chars · public domain (US)

The Project Gutenberg eBook of History of the Thirty-Ninth Congress of the United States

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online
at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States,
you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located
before using this eBook.

Title: History of the Thirty-Ninth Congress of the United States

Author: William Horatio Barnes

Release date: February 13, 2008 [eBook #24596]

Language: English

Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/24596

Credits: Produced by David Edwards, Christine P. Travers and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This book was produced from scanned images of public domain material from the Google Print project.)

*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-NINTH CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES ***

Produced by David Edwards, Christine P. Travers and the
Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
(This book was produced from scanned images of public
domain material from the Google Print project.)

[Transcriber's note: Obvious printer's errors have been corrected, all
other inconsistencies are as in the original. The author's spelling
has been maintained.

In some cases, part of the illustration's captions were illegible.]

[Illustration: Hon. Schuyler Colfax.]

HISTORY

OF THE

THIRTY-NINTH CONGRESS

OF THE

UNITED STATES.

By WILLIAM H. BARNES, A.M.,
AUTHOR OF "THE BODY POLITIC."

_WITH PORTRAITS._

NEW YORK:
HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS,
327 TO 335 PEARL STREET.
1868.

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1868, by
WILLIAM H. BARNES,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States
for the District of Columbia.

PREFACE.

The history of the Thirty-Ninth Congress is a sequel to that of the
Rebellion. This having been overthrown, it remained for Congress to
administer upon its effects. It depended upon the decisions of
Congress whether the expected results of our victories should be
realized or lost.

Now that the work of the Thirty-Ninth Congress stands forth complete,
people naturally desire to know something of the manner in which the
rough material was shaped into order, and the workmanship by which the
whole was "fitly joined together." It can not be said of this fabric
of legislation that it went up without "the sound of the hammer." The
rap of the gavel was often heard enforcing order or limiting the
length of speeches.

Discussion is the process by which legislation is achieved; hence no
history of legislation would be complete without presenting the
progress of debate preparatory to the adoption of important measures.
The explanation of what our legislators did is found in what they
said. Debates, as presented in the following pages, are by necessity
much abridged. No attempt has been made to give a summary or synopsis
of speeches. That which seemed to be the most striking or
characteristic passage in a speech is given, in the words of the
orator.

Many things said and done in the Thirty-Ninth Congress, of great
importance to the nation, are by necessity omitted. The reader, in
forming his opinion of Congressional character and ability, will bear
in mind that those who speak most frequently are not always the most
useful legislators. Men from whom no quotation is made, and to whom no
measure is attributed in the following pages, may be among the
foremost in watchfulness for their constituents, and faithfulness to
the country.

If it should seem that one subject -- the negro question -- occupied
too much of the time and attention of Congress, it must be borne in
mind that this subject was thrust upon Congress and the country by the
issue of the Rebellion, and must be definitely and finally settled
before the nation can be at rest. "Unsettled questions have no pity on
the repose of mankind."

No attempt has been made to present a journal of Congressional
proceedings, giving a detail of what was said and done from day to day
in the Senate and the House. There was always some great national
question under consideration in one or the other House, forming an
uninterrupted series of discussions and transactions. To present these
in review is to give a history of the Thirty-Ninth Congress, since
they distinguish it from all its predecessors, and make it historical.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.--Opening Scenes.

(Page 13-21.)

Momentous Events of the Vacation -- Opening of the Senate --
Mr. Wade -- Mr. Sumner -- Mr. Wilson -- Mr. Harris -- Edward
McPherson -- As Clerk of the preceding Congress, he calls
the House to order -- Interruption of Roll-call by Mr.
Maynard -- Remarks by Mr. Brooks -- His Colloquy with Mr.
Stevens -- Mr. Colfax elected Speaker -- His Inaugural
Address -- The Test Oath.

CHAPTER II.--Locations of the Members and Cast of the Committees.

(Page 22-32.)

Importance of surroundings -- Members sometimes referred to
by their seats -- Senator Andrew Johnson -- Seating of the
Senators -- Drawing in the House -- The Senate Chamber as
seen from the Gallery -- Distinguished Senators -- The House
of Representatives -- Some prominent characters --
Importance of Committees -- Difficulty in their appointment
-- Important Senate Committees -- Committees of the House.

CHAPTER III.--Formation of the Joint Committee on Reconstruction.

(Page 33-49.)

Lack of Excitement -- Cause -- The Resolution -- Dilatory
Motions -- Yeas and Nays -- Proposed Amendments in the
Senate -- Debate in the Senate -- Mr. Howard -- Mr. Anthony
-- Mr. Doolittle -- Mr. Fessenden -- Mr. Saulsbury -- Mr.
Hendricks -- Mr. Trumbull -- Mr. Guthrie -- Passage of the
Resolution in the Senate -- Yeas and Nays -- Remarks of Mr.
Stevens on the Amendment of the Senate -- Concurrence of the
House -- The Committee appointed.

CHAPTER IV.--Suffrage in the District of Columbia.

(Page 50-94.)

Duty of Congress to Legislate for the District of Columbia
-- Suffrage Bill introduced into the House -- Speech by Mr.
Wilson -- Mr. Boyer -- Mr. Schofield -- Mr. Kelly -- Mr.
Rogers -- Mr. Farnsworth -- Mr. Davis -- Mr. Chanler -- Mr.
Bingham -- Mr. Grinnell -- Mr. Kasson -- Mr. Julian -- Mr.
Thomas -- Mr. Darling -- Mr. Hale's Amendment -- Mr. Thayer
-- Mr. Van Horn -- Mr. Clarke -- Mr. Johnson -- Mr.
Boutwell.

CHAPTER V.--The Freedmen.

(Page 95-103.)

Necessities of the Freedmen -- Committee in the House --
Early Movement by the Senate in behalf of Freedmen --
Senator Wilson's Bill -- Occasion for it -- Mr. Cowan Moves
its reference -- Mr. Reverdy Johnson advises deliberation --
A Question of time With Mr. Sherman -- Mr. Trumbull promises
a more efficient Bill -- Mr. Sumner presents proof of the
bad condition of affairs in the South -- Mr. Cowan and Mr.
Stewart produce the President as a Witness for the Defense
-- Mr. Wilson on the Testimony -- "Conservatism" -- The Bill
absorbed in greater measures.

CHAPTER VI.--The Freedmen's Bureau Bill in the Senate.

(Page 104-137.)

The Bill introduced and referred to Judiciary Committee --
Its provisions -- Argument of Mr. Hendricks against it --
Reply of Mr. Trumbull -- Mr. Cowan's Amendment -- Mr.
Guthrie wishes to relieve Kentucky from the operation of the
bill -- Mr. Creswell desires that Maryland may enjoy the
benefits of the bill -- Mr. Cowan's Gratitude to God and
Friendship for the Negro -- Remarks by Mr. Wilson -- "The
short gentleman's long speech" -- Yeas and Nays -- Insulting
title.

CHAPTER VII.--The Freedmen's Bureau Bill in the House.

(Page 138-157.)

The Bill Reported To the House -- Mr. Eliot's Speech --
History -- Mr. Dawson Vs. the Negro -- Mr. Garfield -- The
Idol Broken -- Mr. Taylor Counts the Cost -- Mr. Donnelly's
Amendment -- Mr. Kerr -- Mr. Marshall On White Slavery --
Mr. Hubbard -- Mr. Moulton -- Opposition From Kentucky --
Mr. Ritter -- Mr. Rosseau's Threat -- Mr. Shanklin's Gloomy
Prospect -- Mr. Trimble's Appeal -- Mr. Mckee an Exceptional
Kentuckian -- Mr. Grinnell on Kentucky -- The Example of
Russia -- Mr. Phelps -- Mr. Shellabarger's Amendment -- Mr.
Chanler -- Mr. Stevens' Amendments -- Mr. Eliot Closes the
Discussion -- Passage of The Bill -- Yeas and Nays.

CHAPTER VIII.--The Senate and the Veto Message.

(Page 158-187.)

Mr. Trumbull on the Amendments of the House -- Mr. Guthrie
exhibits feeling -- Mr. Sherman's deliberate Conclusion --
Mr. Henderson's sovereign remedy -- Mr. Trumbull on patent
medicines -- Mr. Mcdougall a white Man -- Mr. Reverdy
Johnson on the power to pass the Bill -- Concurrence of the
House -- The Veto Message -- Mr. Lane, of Kansas -- His
efforts for delay -- Mr. Garrett Davis -- Mr. Trumbull's
reply to the President -- The Question taken -- Yeas and
Nays -- Failure of passage.

CHAPTER IX.--The Civil Rights Bill in the Senate.

(Page 188-219.)

Duty of Congress consequent upon the Abolition of Slavery --
Civil Rights Bill introduced -- Reference to Judiciary
Committee -- Before the Senate -- Speech By Mr. Trumbull --
Mr. Saulsbury -- Mr. van Winkle -- Mr. Cowan -- Mr. Howard
-- Mr. Johnson -- Mr. Davis -- Conversations with Mr.
Trumbull and Mr. Clark -- Reply of Mr. Johnson -- Remarks by
Mr. Morrill -- Mr. Davis "wound Up" -- Mr. Guthrie's Speech
-- Mr. Hendricks -- Reply of Mr. Lane -- Mr. Wilson -- Mr.
Trumbull's closing remarks -- Yeas And Nays on the passage
of the Bill.

CHAPTER X.--The Civil Rights Bill in the House of Representatives.

(Page 220-244.)

The Bill referred to the Judiciary Committee and reported
back -- Speech by the Chairman of the Committee -- Mr.
Rogers -- Mr. Cook -- Mr. Thayer -- Mr. Eldridge -- Mr.
Thornton -- Mr. Windom -- Mr. Shellabarger -- Mr. Broomall
-- Mr. Raymond -- Mr. Delano -- Mr. Kerr -- Amendment by Mr.
Bingham -- His Speech -- Reply by his Colleague --
Discussion closed by Mr. Wilson -- Yeas and Nays on the
passage of the Bill -- Mr. Le Blond's proposed title --
Amendments of the House accepted by the Senate.

CHAPTER XI.--The Civil Rights Bill and the Veto.

(Page 245-293.)

Doubts as to the President's Decision -- Suspense ended --
The Veto Message -- Mr. Trumbull's Answer -- Mr. Reverdy
Johnson defends the Message -- Rejoinder -- Remarks of Mr.
Yates -- Mr. Cowan appeals to the Country -- Mr. Stewart
shows how States may make the Law a Nullity -- Mr. Wade --
Mr. McDougall on Persian Mythology -- Mr. J. H. Lane defends
the President -- Mr. Wade -- The President's Collar -- Mr.
Brown -- Mr. Doolittle -- Mr. Garrett Davis -- Mr. Saulsbury
-- Yeas And Nays in the Senate -- Vote in the House -- The
Civil Rights Bill becomes a Law.

CHAPTER XII.--The Second Freedmen's Bureau Bill becomes a Law.

(Page 294-306.)

The Discovery of the Majority -- The Senate Bill -- The
House Bill -- Its Provisions -- Passage of the Bill --
Amendment and Passage in the Senate -- Committee of
Conference -- The Amendments as Accepted -- The Bill as
Passed -- The Veto -- The Proposition of a Democrat accepted
-- Confusion in Leadership -- Passage of the Bill over The
Veto -- It Becomes a Law.

CHAPTER XIII.--First Words on Reconstruction.

(Page 307-323.)

Responsibility of the Republican Party -- Its Power and
Position -- Initiatory Step -- Mr. Stevens speaks for
himself -- Condition of the Rebel States -- Constitutional
Authority under which Congress should act -- Estoppel --
What Constitutes Congress -- The First Duty -- Basis of
Representation -- Duty on exports -- Two Important
Principles -- Mr. Raymond's Theory -- Rebel States still in
the Union -- Consequences of the Radical Theory --
Conditions to be required -- State Sovereignty -- Rebel Debt
-- Prohibition of Slavery -- Two Policies contrasted --
Reply of Mr. Jenckes -- Difference in Terms, not in
Substance -- Logic of the Conservatives leads to the Results
of the Radicals.

CHAPTER XIV.--The Basis of Representation in the House.

(Page 324-372.)

First work of the Joint Committee -- The Joint Resolution
proposing a Constitutional Amendment -- Mr. Stevens' reasons
for speedy action -- Protracted Discussion Commenced --
Objections to the Bill by Mr. Rogers -- Defense by Mr.
Conkling -- Two other Modes -- How States might Evade the
Law -- Not a Finality -- Wisconsin and South Carolina --
Amendment for Female Suffrage proposed -- Orth on Indiana
and Massachusetts -- Obscuration of the Sun -- More Radical
Remedy desired -- A Kentuckian gratified -- Citations from
the Census -- Premium for Treason -- White Slaves -- Power
to amend well-nigh exhausted -- Objections to the Suffrage
Basis -- "Race" and "Color" ambiguous -- Condition of the
Question -- Recommitted -- Final Passage.

CHAPTER XV.--The Basis of Representation in the Senate.

(Page 373-414.)

The Joint Resolution goes to the Senate --
Counter-proposition by Mr. Sumner -- He Speaks Five Hours --
Mr. Henderson's Amendment -- Mr. Fessenden -- Mr. Henry S.
Lane -- Mr. Johnson -- Mr. Henderson -- Mr. Clark's
Historical Statements -- Fred. Douglass' Memorial -- Mr.
Williams -- Mr. Hendricks -- Mr. Chandler's "blood-letting
Letter" -- Proposition of Mr. Yates -- His Speech -- Mr.
Buckalew against New England -- Mr. Pomeroy -- Mr. Sumner's
second Speech -- Mr. Doolittle -- Mr. Morrill -- Mr.
Fessenden meets Objections -- Final Vote -- The Amendment
defeated.

CHAPTER XVI.--Representation of the Southern States.

(Page 417-433.)

Concurrent Resolution -- A "Venomous Fight" -- Passage in
the House -- The Resolution in the Senate -- "A Political
Wrangle" deprecated -- Importance of the Question -- "A
Straw in a Storm" -- Policy of the President -- Conversation
between two Senators -- Mr. Nye's Advice to Rebels -- "A
Dangerous Power" -- "Was Mr. Wade once a Secessionist?" --
Garrett Davis' Programme for the President -- "Useless yet
Mischievous" -- The Great Question Settled.

CHAPTER XVII.--The Reconstruction Amendment in the House.

(Page 434-451.)

A Constitutional Amendment proposed and postponed --
Proposition by Mr. Stewart -- The Reconstruction Amendment
-- Death of its Predecessor lamented -- Opposition to the
Disfranchisement of Rebels -- "The Unrepentent Thirty-three"
-- Nine-tenths Reduced to One-twelfth -- Advice to Congress
-- The Committee denounced -- Democratic and Republican
Policy compared -- Authority without Power -- A Variety of
Opinions -- An Earthquake predicted -- The Joint Resolution
passes the House.

CHAPTER XVIII.--The Reconstruction Amendment in the Senate.

(Page 452-455.)

Difference between Discussions in the House and in the
Senate -- Mr. Sumner proposes to postpone -- Mr. Howard
takes Charge of the Amendment -- Substitutes proposed -- The
Republicans in Council -- The Disfranchising Clause stricken
out -- Humorous Account by Mr. Hendricks -- The Pain and
Penalties of not holding Office -- A Senator's Piety
appealed to -- Howe vs. Doolittle -- Marketable Principles
-- Praise of the President -- Mr. McDougall's Charity --
Vote of the Senate -- Concurrence in the House.

CHAPTER XIX.--Report of the Committee on Reconstruction.

(Page 466-472.)

An important State Paper -- Work of the Committee --
Difficulty of obtaining information -- Theory of the
President -- Taxation and Representation -- Disposition and
doings of the Southern People -- Conclusion of the Committee
-- Practical Recommendations.

CHAPTER XX.--Restoration of Tennessee.

(Page 473-482.)

Assembling of the Tennessee Legislature -- Ratification of
the Constitutional Amendment -- Restoration of Tennessee
proposed in Congress -- The Government of Tennessee not
Republican -- Protest against the Preamble -- Passage in the
House -- New Preamble proposed -- The President's Opinion
deprecated and disregarded -- Passage in the Senate -- The
President's Approval and Protest -- Admission of Tennessee
Members -- Mr. Patterson's Case.

CHAPTER XXI.--Negro Suffrage.

(Page 483-501.)

Review of the preceding action -- Efforts of Mr. Yates for
Unrestricted Suffrage -- Davis's Amendment to Cuvier -- The
"Propitious Hour" -- The Mayor's Remonstrance -- Mr.
Willey's Amendment -- Mr. Cowan's Amendment for Female
Suffrage -- Attempt to out-radical the Radicals -- Opinions
for and against Female Suffrage -- Reading and Writing as a
Qualification -- Passage of the Bill -- Objections of the
President -- Two Senators on the Opinions of the People --
The Suffrage Bill becomes a Law.

CHAPTER XXII.--The Military Reconstruction Act.

(Page 502-551.)

Proposition by Mr. Stevens -- "Piratical Governments" not to
be recognized -- The Military Feature introduced -- Mr.
Schofield's Dog -- The Only Hope of Mr. Hise -- Conversation
concerning the Reconstruction Committee -- Censure of a
Member -- A Military Bill Reported -- War Predicted -- The
"Blaine Amendment" -- Bill passes the House -- In the Senate
-- Proposition to Amend -- Mr. McDougall desires Liberty of
Speech -- Mr. Doolittle pleads for the Life of the Republic
-- Mr. Sherman's Amendment -- Passage in the Senate --
Discussion and Non-concurrence in the House -- The Senate
unyielding -- Qualified Concurrence of the House -- The Veto
-- "The Funeral of the Nation" -- The Act -- Supplementary
Legislation.

CHAPTER XXIII.--Other Important Acts.

(Page 552-560.)

Equalizing Bounties -- The Army -- The Department of
Education -- Southern Homesteads -- The Bankrupt Law -- The
Tariff -- Reduction of Taxes -- Contracting the Currency --
Issue of Three Per Cents. -- Nebraska and Colorado -- Tenure
of Office.

CHAPTER XXIV.--The President and Congress.

(Page 561-567.)

The President's treatment of the South -- First Annual
Message -- Mr. Sumner's Criticism -- The President
triumphant -- He damages his Cause -- Humor of Mr. Stevens
-- Vetoes Overridden -- The Question submitted to the People
-- Their Verdict -- Summary of Vetoes -- Impeachment --
Charges by Mr. Ashley -- Report of the Committee.

CHAPTER XXV.--Personal.

(Page 568-576.)

Contested Seats -- Mr. Stockton votes for Himself -- New
Jersey's Loss of two Senators -- Losses of Vermont --
Suicide of James H. Lane -- Death in the House -- General
Scott -- Lincoln's Eulogy and Statue -- Mr. Sumner on Fine
Arts in the Capitol -- Censure of Mr. Chanler -- Petition
for the Expulsion of Garret Davis -- Grinnell assaulted by
Rousseau -- The Action of the House -- Leader of the House.

Biographical Sketches 577

LIST OF PORTRAITS.

PAGE
1.--Hon. Schuyler Colfax, Frontispiece.

2.--Hon. Thaddeus Stevens, 29

3.--Hon. William D. Kelley, 59

4.--Hon. Sidney Clarke, 89

5.--Hon. Thomas A. Hendricks, 109

6.--Hon. Henry Wilson, 135

7.--Hon. Samuel C. Pomeroy, 171

8.--Hon. Reverdy Johnson, 203

9.--Hon. James F. Wilson, 239

10.--Hon. William M. Stewart, 275

11.--Hon. Ebon C. Ingersoll, 307

12.--Hon. Robert C. Schenck, 353

13.--Hon. Richard Yates, 399

14.--Hon. Edwin D. Morgan, 453

15.--Hon. William B. Stokes, 481

16.--Hon. George H. Williams, 517

17.--Hon. John Conness, 541

18.--Hon. James M. Ashley, 567

INTRODUCTORY.

By HON. SCHUYLER COLFAX,

SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.

The Congress that has just passed away has written a record that will
be long remembered by the poor and friendless, whom it did not forget.
Misrepresented or misunderstood by those who denounced it as enemies,
harshly and unjustly criticised by some who should have been its
friends, it proved itself more faithful to human progress and liberty
than any of its predecessors. The outraged and oppressed found in
these congressional halls champions and friends. Its key-note of
policy was protection to the downtrodden. It quailed not before the
mightiest, and neglected not the obscurest. It lifted the slave, whom
the nation had freed, to the full stature of manhood. It placed on our
statute-book the Civil Rights Bill as our nation's magna charta,
grander than all the enactments that honor the American code; and in
all the region whose civil governments had been destroyed by a
vanquished rebellion, it declared as a guarantee of defense to the
weakest that the freeman's hand should wield the freeman's ballot; and
that none but loyal men should govern a land which loyal sacrifices
had saved. Taught by inspiration that new wine could not be safely put
in old bottles, it proclaimed that there could be no safe or loyal
reconstruction on a foundation of unrepentant treason and disloyalty.

The first session of the Thirty-ninth Congress proposed, as their plan
of Reconstruction, a Constitutional Amendment. It was a bond of public
justice and public safety combined, to be embodied in our national
Constitution, to show to our posterity that patriotism is a virtue and
rebellion is a crime. These terms were more magnanimous than were ever
offered in any country under like circumstances. They were kind, they
were forbearing, they were less than we had a right to demand; but in
our anxiety, in our desire to close up this question, we made the
proposition. How was it received? They trampled upon it, they spat
upon it, they repudiated it, and said they would have nothing to do
with it. They were determined to have more power after the rebellion
than they had before.

When this proposition was repudiated, we came together again, at the
second session of the same Congress, to devise some other plan of
reconstruction in place of the proffer that had been spurned. We put
the basis of our reconstruction, first, upon every loyal man in the
South, and then we gave the ballot also to every man who had only been
a traitor. The persons we excluded, for the present, from suffrage in
the South, were not the thousands who struggled in the rebel army, not
the millions who had given their adhesion to it, but only those men
who had sworn allegiance to the Constitution and then added to treason
the crime of perjury.

Though we demand no indemnity for the past, no banishment, no
confiscations, no penalties for the offended law, there is one thing
we do demand, there is one thing we have the power to demand, and that
is security for the future, and that we intend to have, not only in
legislation, but imbedded in the imperishable bulwarks of our national
Constitution, against which the waves of secession may dash in future
but in vain. We intend to have those States reconstructed on such
enduring corner-stones that posterity shall realize that our fallen
heroes have not died in vain.

CHAPTER I.

OPENING SCENES.

The Thirty-ninth Congress of the United States, convened in the
Capitol at Washington on the fourth of December, 1865. Since the
adjournment of the Thirty-eighth Congress, events of the greatest
moment had transpired--events which invested its successor with
responsibilities unparalleled in the history of any preceding
legislative body.

Abraham Lincoln, sixteenth President of the United States, had been
slain by the hand of the assassin. The crime had filled the land with
horror. The loss of its illustrious victim had veiled the nation in
unaffected grief.

By this great national calamity, Andrew Johnson, who on the fourth of
March preceding had taken his seat simply to preside over the
deliberations of the Senate, became President of the United States.

Meanwhile the civil war, which had been waged with such terrible
violence and bloodshed for four years preceding, came to a sudden
termination. The rebel armies, under Generals Lee and Johnston, had
surrendered to the victorious soldiers of the United States, who in
their generosity had granted to the vanquished terms so mild and easy
as to excite universal surprise.

Jefferson Davis, Alexander H. Stephens, and some other leaders in the
rebellion, had been captured and held for a time as State prisoners;
but, at length, all save the "President of the Confederate States"
were released on parole, and finally pardoned by the President.

The President had issued a proclamation granting amnesty and pardon to
"all who directly or indirectly participated in the rebellion, with
restoration of all rights of property, except as to slaves," on
condition of their subscribing to a prescribed oath. By the provisions
of this proclamation, fourteen classes of persons were excepted from
the benefits of the amnesty offered therein, and yet "any person
belonging to the excepted classes" was encouraged to make special
application to the President for pardon, to whom clemency, it was
declared, would "be liberally extended." In compliance with this
invitation, multitudes had obtained certificates of pardon from the
President, some of whom were at once elected by the Southern people,
to represent them, as Senators and Representatives, in the
Thirty-ninth Congress.

The President had further carried on the work of reconstruction by
appointing Provisional Governors for many of the States lately in
rebellion. He had recognized and entered into communication with the
Legislatures of these States, prescribing certain terms on which they
might secure representation in Congress, and recognition of "all their
rights under the Constitution."

By these and many other events which had transpired since the
expiration of the preceding Congress, the legislation pertaining to
reconstruction had become a work of vast complexity, involving
principles more profound, and questions more difficult, than ever
before presented for the consideration and solution of men assembled
in a legislative capacity.

At twelve o'clock on the day designated in the Constitution for the
meeting of Congress, the Senate assembled, and was called to order by
Hon. Lafayette S. Foster, President pro tempore. Senators from
twenty-five States were in their seats, and answered to their names.
Rev. E. H. Gray, Chaplain of the Senate, invoked the blessing of
Almighty God upon Congress, and prayed "that all their deliberations
and enactments might be such as to secure the Divine approval, and
insure the unanimous acquiescence of the people, and command the
respect of the nations of the earth."

Soon after the preliminary formalities of opening the Senate had
transpired, Benjamin F. Wade, Senator from Ohio, inaugurated the
labors of the Thirty-ninth Congress, and significantly foreshadowed
one of its most memorable acts by introducing "a bill to regulate the
elective franchise in the District of Columbia."

The Senate signified its willingness to enter at once upon active duty
by giving unanimous consent to Mr. Sumner, Senator from Massachusetts,
to introduce a number of important bills. The measures thus brought
before the Senate were clearly indicative of the line of policy which
Congress would pursue. The bills introduced were designed "to carry
out the principles of a republican form of government in the District
of Columbia;" "to present an oath to maintain a republican form of
government in the rebel States;" "to enforce the amendment to the
Constitution abolishing slavery;" "to enforce the guarantee of a
republican form of government in certain States where governments have
been usurped or overthrown."

Senator Wilson, of Massachusetts, was not behind his distinguished
colleague in his readiness to enter upon the most laborious
legislation of the session. He introduced "a bill to maintain the
freedom of the inhabitants in the States declared in insurrection by
the proclamation of the President on the first of July, 1862."

Senator Harris, of New York, long known as one of the ablest jurists
of his State, and recently an eminent member of the Senate's Judiciary
Committee, directed attention to his favorite field of legislative
labor by introducing "a bill to reörganize the Judiciary of the United
States."

While the Senate was thus actively entering upon the labors of the
session, a somewhat different scene was transpiring in the other end
of the Capitol.

Long before the hour for the assembling of Congress, the halls, the
galleries, and corridors of the House of Representatives were thronged
with such crowds as had never before been seen at the opening of a
session. The absorbing interest felt throughout the entire country in
the great questions to be decided by Congress had drawn great numbers
to the Capitol from every quarter of the Union. Eligible positions,
usually held in reserve for certain privileged or official persons,
and rarely occupied by a spectator, were now filled to their utmost
capacity. The Diplomatic Gallery was occupied by many unskilled in the
mysteries of diplomacy; the Reporters' Gallery held many listeners and
lookers on who had no connection with newspapers, save as readers. The
"floor" was held not only by the "members," who made the hall vocal
with their greetings and congratulations, but by a great crowd of
pages, office-seekers, office-holders, and unambitious citizens, who
thronged over the new carpet and among the desks.

The hour having arrived for the assembling of Congress, Edward
McPherson, Clerk of the last House of Representatives, brought down
the gavel on the Speaker's desk, and called the House to order. The
members found their seats, and the crowd surged back up the aisles,
and stood in a compact mass in the rear of the last row of desks.

Edward McPherson, who at that moment occupied the most prominent and
responsible place in the nation, had come to his position through a
series of steps, which afforded the country an opportunity of knowing
his material and capacity. A graduate of Pennsylvania College in 1848,
editor, author, twice a Congressman, and Clerk of the House of
Representatives in the Thirty-eighth Congress, he had given evidence
that he was reliable. Having shown himself a thoroughly conscientious
man in the performance of all his public duties, the great interests
of the nation were safe in his hands.

The country had been greatly concerned to know how the Clerk would
make up the Roll of the House, and whether the names of members elect
from the late rebellious States would be called at the opening of the
session. If this should be done, the first step would be gained by the
Representatives of those States toward holding seats in Congress to
which the majority at the North considered them not entitled. It had
even been intimated that the color of constitutionality which they
would gain from recognition by the Clerk would be used to justify an
assertion of their claims by force. What the Clerk would do, as master
of the rolls and presiding officer of the House, was not long in
doubt.

The Clerk proceeded to call the roll of Representatives elect, while
the subordinates at the desk took note of the responses. He called the
names of Congressmen from the States of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont,
Massachusetts, and so forth, in a certain order which had been
customary time immemorial in naming the States. In this order
Tennessee had place after Kentucky and before Indiana. When the name
of the last Representative from Kentucky had been called, the decisive
moment arrived. The delegation from Tennessee were on the floor, ready
to answer to their names. The Clerk passed over Tennessee and went
direct to Indiana. As soon as the first member from Indiana had
responded, there arose a tall, black-haired, dark-faced figure, that
every body recognized as Horace Maynard, of Tennessee. He shook his
certificate of election at the Clerk, and began to speak, but the
gavel came down with a sharp rap, and a firm, decided voice was heard
from the desk, "The Clerk declines to have any interruption during the
call of the roll." The roll-call then proceeded without further
interference to the end. When, at last, the Clerk had finished his
list of Representatives and Territorial Delegates, Mr. Maynard once
more arose. "The Clerk can not be interrupted while ascertaining
whether a quorum is present," says the presiding officer. The count of
the assistants having been completed, the Clerk announced, "One
hundred and seventy-six members having answered to their names, a
quorum is present." Mr. Morrill immediately moved that the House
proceed to the election of Speaker. "Before that motion is put," said
Mr. Maynard, again arising. The Clerk was ready for the emergency, and
before Mr. Maynard could complete his sentence, he uttered the
imperative and conclusive words, "The Clerk can not recognize as
entitled to the floor any gentleman whose name is not on this roll." A
buzz of approbation greeted the discreet ruling of the Clerk. The
difficult point was passed, and the whole subject of the admission of
Southern Representatives was handed over intact, to be deliberately
considered after the House should be fully organized for business.

Mr. Morrill, in moving to proceed to the election of a Speaker, had
forgotten or neglected to demand the previous question, and thus cut
off debate. Mr. James Brooks, most plausible in address, and most
ready in talk on the side of the minority, saw the point left
unguarded by his opponents, and resolved to enter. Born in Maine, now
a citizen of New York, and editor of the "Express," Mr. Brooks was in
Congress for the fourth time a champion of what he deemed the rights
of the South, and not in accordance with the prevailing sentiments in
his native and adopted States.

Mr. Brooks obtained the floor, and desired to amend the motion. He
thought the roll should be completed before proceeding to the election
of Speaker. "I trust," said he, "that we shall not proceed to any
revolutionary, any step like that, without at least hearing from the
honorable gentleman from Tennessee. If Tennessee is not in the Union,
by what right does the President of the United States usurp his place
in the White House when an alien and a foreigner, and not from a State
in the Union?"

At this stage, a man of mark--five times a Representative in Congress,
but now twelve years away from the capital and a new member--John
Wentworth, of Chicago--elevated his tall and massive form, and with a
stentorian voice called Mr. Brooks to order. The Clerk having fairly
decided that gentleman entitled to the floor on the question of
proceeding to the election of a Speaker, Mr. Wentworth sat down, and
Mr. Brooks in resuming his remarks improved his chance to administer
rebuke in a manner which provoked some mirth. "When the honorable
gentleman from Illinois is better acquainted with me in this House,"
said Mr. Brooks, "he will learn that I always proceed in order, and
never deviate from the rules." Mr. Brooks then returned to his
championship of Mr. Maynard: "If he is not a loyal man, and is not
from a State in this Union, what man, then, is loyal? In the darkest
and most doubtful period of the war, when an exile from his own State,
I heard his eloquent voice on the banks of the St. Lawrence arousing
the people of my own State to discharge their duties to the country."

Mr. Brooks joined Virginia with Tennessee, and asked the Clerk to give
his reasons for excluding the names of Representatives from these
States from the roll. The Clerk replied that he had acted in
accordance with his views of duty, and was willing to let the record
stand; if it was the desire of the House to have his reasons, he would
give them.

"It is not necessary," said Thaddeus Stevens; "we know all."

"I know," replied Mr. Brooks, "that it is known to all in one quarter,
but that it is not known to many in other quarters in this House, why
this exclusion has been made. I should know but little, if I had not
the record before me of the resolution adopted by the Republican
majority of this House, that Tennessee, Louisiana, and Virginia were
to be excluded, and excluded without debate. Why without debate? Are
gentlemen afraid to face debate? Are their reasons of such a character
that they dare not present them to the country, and have to resort to
the extraordinary step of sideway legislation, in a private caucus, to
enact a joint resolution to be forced upon this House without debate,
confirming that there are no reasons whatever to support this position
except their absolute power, and authority, and control over this
House? If the gentleman from Pennsylvania would but inform me at what
period he intends to press this resolution, I would be happy to be
informed."

"I propose to present it at the proper time," was the response of Mr.
Stevens, provoking laughter and applause.

Mr. Brooks replied: "Talleyrand said that language was given to man to
conceal ideas, and we all know the gentleman's ingenuity in the use of
language. The proper time! When will that be?" Mr. Brooks then
proceeded at some length to answer this question. He supposed the
proper time would be as soon as the House was organized, and before
the President's message could be heard and considered, that the action
of the House might silence the Executive, and nullify the exposition
which he might make, and become a _quasi_ condemnation of the action
of the President of the United States.

Mr. Brooks was at length ready to close, and sought to yield the floor
to a Democratic member. The Republicans, however, were ready to meet
the emergency, and objected to the floor being yielded in such a way
as would cause delay without furthering the business of organizing the
House. Points of order were raised, and efforts made to entangle the
Clerk, but in vain. His rulings were prompt, decisive, and effectual.
The moment a Republican fairly held the floor, the previous question
was moved, the initial contest was over, and the House proceeded to
elect a Speaker.

A stoop-shouldered, studious-looking gentleman, now for the sixth
successive term a member of Congress--Justin S. Morrill, of
Vermont--arose and nominated Schuyler Colfax, of Indiana. On the other
side of the house, a gentleman from New York portly in his person, now
entering on his second Congressional term--Charles H. Winfield--nominated
James Brooks, of New York. Four members took their seats behind the
Clerk to act as tellers. The responses were at length all given, and
the numbers noted. Mr. Morrill, one of the tellers, announced the
result--"Mr. Colfax, one hundred and thirty-nine; Mr. Brooks,
thirty-six." The Clerk formally announced the result, and stepped
aside; his work as presiding officer of the Thirty-ninth Congress was
at an end.

In the place thus made vacant appeared the man but a moment before
elected to the position by the largest political majority ever given
to a Speaker of the House. A well-proportioned figure of medium size,
a pleasing countenance often radiant with smiles, a style of movement
quick and restless, yet calm and self-possessed, were characteristic
of him upon whom all eyes were turned. In the past a printer and
editor in Indiana, now in Congress for the sixth term and elected
Speaker the second time, SCHUYLER COLFAX stood to take the oath of
office, and enter upon the discharge of most difficult and responsible
duties. He said:

"Gentlemen of the House of Representatives: The reässembling of
Congress, marking as it does the procession of our national history,
is always regarded with interest by the people for whom it is to
legislate. But it is not unsafe to say that millions more than ever
before, North, South, East, and West, are looking to the Congress
which opens its session to-day with an earnestness and solicitude
unequaled on similar occasions in the past. The Thirty-eighth Congress
closed its constitutional existence with the storm-cloud of war still
lowering over us, and after nine months' absence, Congress resumes its
legislative authority in these council halls, rejoicing that from
shore to shore in our land there is peace.

"Its duties are as obvious as the sun's pathway in the heavens.
Representing in its two branches the States and the people, its first
and highest obligation is to guarantee to every State a republican
form of government. The rebellion having overthrown constitutional
State governments in many States, it is yours to mature and enact
legislation which, with the concurrence of the Executive, shall
establish them anew on such a basis of enduring justice as will
guarantee all necessary safeguards to the people, and afford what our
Magna Charta, the Declaration of Independence, proclaims is the chief
object of government--protection to all men in their inalienable
rights. The world should witness, in this great work, the most
inflexible fidelity, the most earnest devotion to the principles of
liberty and humanity, the truest patriotism and the wisest
statesmanship.

"Heroic men, by hundreds of thousands, have died that the Republic
might live. The emblems of mourning have darkened White House and
cabin alike; but the fires of civil war have melted every fetter in
the land, and proved the funeral pyre of slavery. It is for you,
Representatives, to do your work as faithfully and as well as did the
fearless saviors of the Union in their more dangerous arena of duty.
Then we may hope to see the vacant and once abandoned seats around us
gradually filling up, until this hall shall contain Representatives
from every State and district; their hearts devoted to the Union for
which they are to legislate, jealous of its honor, proud of its glory,
watchful of its rights, and hostile to its enemies. And the stars on
our banner, that paled when the States they represented arrayed
themselves in arms against the nation, will shine with a more
brilliant light of loyalty than ever before."

Mr. Colfax having finished his address, took the following oath, which
stood as the most serious obstacle in the way of many elected to
Congress from the Southern States:

"I do solemnly swear that I have never voluntarily borne
arms against the United States since I have been a citizen
thereof; that I have voluntarily given no aid, countenance,
counsel, or encouragement to persons engaged in armed
hostility thereto; that I have neither sought nor accepted
nor attempted to exercise the functions of any office
whatever, under any authority or pretended authority in
hostility to the United States; that I have not yielded a
voluntary support to any pretended government, authority,
power, or constitution within the United States, hostile or
inimical thereto. And I do further swear that, to the best
of my knowledge and ability, I will support and defend the
Constitution of the United States against all enemies,
foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and
allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely,
without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and
that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the
office on which I am about to enter. So help me God!"

The subordinate officers were then elected by resolution, and the
House of Representatives being organized, was ready to enter upon its
work.

CHAPTER II.

LOCATIONS OF THE MEMBERS AND CAST OF THE COMMITTEES.

Importance of surroundings -- Members sometimes referred to
by their seats -- Senator Andrew Johnson -- Seating of the
Senators -- Drawing in the House -- The Senate-chamber as
seen from the Gallery -- Distinguished Senators -- The House
of Representatives -- Some prominent characters --
Importance of Committees -- Difficulty in their appointment
-- Important Senate Committees -- Committees of the House.

The localities and surroundings of men have an influence on their
actions and opinions. A matter which, to the casual observer, seems so
unimportant as the selection and arrangement of the seats of Senators
and Representatives, has its influence upon the legislation of the
country. Ever since parties have had an existence, it has been
considered of vital moment that those of one political faith in a
deliberative body should occupy, as nearly as possible, the same
locality.

It is sometimes of service to a reader, in attempting to understand
the reported proceedings of Congress, to know the localities of the
members. Each seat has a sort of history of its own, and becomes in
some way identified with its occupant. Members are frequently alluded
to in connection with the seats they occupy. Sometimes it happens
that, years after a man has gone from Congress, it is convenient and
suggestive to refer to him by his old place in the chamber. As an
illustration, Mr. Trumbull, in his speech on the veto of the Civil
Rights Bill, desiring to quote Andrew Johnson, Senator, against Andrew
Johnson, President, referred to "a speech delivered in this body by a
Senator occupying, I think, the seat now occupied across the chamber
by my friend from Oregon (Mr. Williams)."

A necessary and important part of the adjustment of the machinery, at
the opening of each Congress, is the selection of seats. As the
Senators serve for six years, and many of them have been reëlected
more than once, there are comparatively few changes made at the
opening of any Congress. The old members generally choose to retain
their accustomed seats, and the small number that come in as new
Senators choose among the vacant seats, as convenience or caprice may
dictate.

In the House of Representatives the formality of drawing for seats is
necessary. That this may be conveniently and fairly done, at the
appointed time all the members retire to the antechambers, leaving the
seats all unoccupied. The Clerk draws at random from a receptacle
containing the names of all the members. As the members are called,
one by one, they go in and occupy such seats as they may choose. The
unlucky member whose name last turns up has little room for choice,
and must be content to spend his Congressional days far from the
Speaker, on the remote circumference, or to the right or left extreme.

There are in the Senate-chamber seventy seats, in three tiers of
semi-circular arrangement. If all the old Southern States were
represented by Senators on the floor, the seats would be more than
full. As it was in the Thirty-ninth Congress, there were a number of
vacant desks, all of them situated to the right and left of the
presiding officer.

In a division of political parties nearly equal, the main aisle from
the southern entrance would be the separating line. As it was, the
Republican Senators occupied not only the eastern half of the chamber,
but many of them were seated on the other side, the comparatively few
Democratic Senators sitting still further to the west.

Seated in the gallery, the spectator has a favorable position to
survey the grand historic scene which passes below. His eye is
naturally first attracted to the chair which is constitutionally the
seat of the second dignitary in the land--the Vice-President of the
United States. That office, however, has no incumbent, since he who
took oath a few months before to perform its duties was called to
occupy a higher place, made vacant by a most atrocious crime. The
event, however, cost the Senate little loss of dignity, since the
chair is filled by a President _pro tempore_ of great ability and
excellence--Lafayette S. Foster, Senator from Connecticut.

The eye of the spectator naturally seeks out Charles Sumner, who sits
away on the outer tier of seats, toward the south-east corner of the
chamber; and near him, on the left, are seen the late Governors, now
Senators, Morgan and Yates, of New York and Illinois. Immediately in
front of them, on the middle tier of seats, is an assemblage of old
and distinguished Senators--Trumbull, Wilson, Wade, and Fessenden. To
the right of the Vice-President's chair, and in the row of seats
neares this desk, sits the venerable and learned lawyer, Reverdy
Johnson, of Maryland. Just in his rear sits the youthful Sprague, of
Rhode Island, to whose right is seen Sherman, of Ohio. To the rear of
these Senators, in the outer segment of seats, sits, or perhaps
stands, Garrett Davis, of Kentucky, the most garrulous of old men,
continually out of temper with the majority, yet all the time marked
by what he calls his "usual courtesy." To the left of Davis, beyond
Nesmith, of Oregon, and the other and more silent Senator from
Kentucky, sits Saulsbury, of Delaware, unless he should be traversing
the carpeted space in the rear of his seat, like a sentinel of the
Senate.

Far different is the sight presented to the spectator who looks down
from the galleries of the House of Representatives. The immense area
below is supplied with two hundred and fifty-three seats, with desks
arranged in semi-circular rows, having a point in front of the
Speaker's desk as a focus. On the right of the spectator, as he looks
from the gallery in front of the Speaker, is the Republican side of
the House. But this prosperous organization has grown so rapidly since
its birth, ten years ago, that it has overstepped all old and
traditional party limitations. One-half of the House is not sufficient
to afford its representatives adequate accommodations. Republican
members have passed over the main aisle, and occupy half of the
Democratic side, having pressed the thin ranks of their opponents to
the extreme left.

As the spectator scans the House, his eye will rest on Thaddeus
Stevens, whose brown wig and Roman cast of countenance mark the
veteran of the House. He sits in the right place for a leader of the
Republicans, about half-way back from the Speaker's desk, on the
diagonal line which divides the western side of the House, where he
can readily catch the Speaker's eye, and be easily heard by all his
friends. Immediately in his rear is his successor in the chairmanship
of the Committee of Ways and Means--Mr. Morrill, of Vermont. To the
right, across the aisle, is Elihu B. Washburn, of Illinois, the oldest
member in continuous service in the House; and to his rear is Henry J.
Raymond, of the Times. To the right, and partly in the rear of Mr.
Stevens, are a number of noteworthy men: among them are General
Schenck, General Garfield, and "Long John" Wentworth, of Chicago. Far
around to the right, and much nearer, the Speaker's desk, is seen a
man distinguished in civil and military history, who once occupied the
Speaker's chair--General Banks, of Massachusetts. In physical contrast
with him, sits--in the adjoining desk, a tall, dark, bearded
Californian--General John Bidwell, a new member of the House. On the
opposite side of the House, among the Democrats, is the seat of John
A. Bingham, who now returns to Congress after an absence of one term,
whom his friends describe as the "best-natured and crossest-looking
man in the House." James Brooks, most plausible and best-natured of
Democrats, notwithstanding the inroads of the Republicans, sturdily
keeps his seat near the main aisle. His seat, however, he is destined
to lose before many months in favor of a contestant, who will occupy
the other side of the chamber.

In looking down upon so large an assemblage, a large part of which is
so distant, the eye of the spectator will weary in the attempt to
discover and recognize individuals, however familiar, amidst the busy
throng.

In preparing for the work of legislation, a matter of more importance
than the arrangement of the seats is the cast of the committees. Most
of the labor of legislative bodies is done by committees. As it is
impossible for any one Congressman to give that minute and particular
attention to all the numerous interests demanding legislation,
essential to a wise determination as to what bills should be
presented, and how they should be drawn in every case, the various
subjects are parceled out among those whose opportunities, interests,
or inclinations have led them to give particular attention to the
matters committed to their charge. The perfection of legislation on
particular subjects depends not more on the wisdom of the entire body
of legislators than on the good sense of the committees that
deliberate upon them. Much of the efficiency and success of the
legislative acts of Congress will depend upon the structure of the
committees that do the laborious work of preparing business for the
body. Tracing the stream of legislative enactment still nearer to its
source, it will be found that the work of a committee takes a decided
tinge from the character of its chairman.

It consequently becomes a matter of great interest to the country, at
the opening of each Congress, to know who constitute the committees.
One of the most arduous and responsible duties of the Speaker of the
House of Representatives is the selection of committees and filling
their chairmanships. Fitness and special adaptation are supposed to
constitute the rule by which choice is made. Many elements, however,
enter into the work which are not a part of this philosophy. It is
impossible that the presiding officer should know unerringly who is
absolutely the fittest man for any position, and if he possessed such
superhuman knowledge he would still be trammeled by long-established
rules of precedence and promotion. There is often a regular gradation
by which men arrive at positions which is not in direct ratio to their
fitness for their places.

Notwithstanding all the errors which were unavoidable elements in the
work, committees were never better constituted than those of the
Thirty-ninth Congress.

The Senate being comparatively small in numbers, and, moreover, by
usage, doing most of the details of this business in caucus, the
announcement of the committees in this body was made on Wednesday, the
third day of the session. On the other hand, the size of the House,
the large proportion of new and unknown members appearing every term,
the number and magnitude of the committees, and the fact that the duty
of appointment devolved upon the Speaker, combined to render the
reading out of committeemen in the latter body impossible before the
following Monday, one week after the assembling of Congress.

Of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, Charles Sumner was
appointed chairman. This is a very important committee, being the
direct channel of communication between the State Department and the
Senate. It being the constitutional duty of the Senate to pass upon
all treaties, and to decide upon qualifications of all persons
nominated by the Executive to represent the United States in foreign
countries, the labors of this committee are arduous and responsible.
The chairmanship of this committee was filled by a Senator of most
eminent fitness and ability. His literary culture, and attainments as
a scholar, his general legal ability and familiarity with the laws of
nations, his residence abroad for several years, and his long
membership in the Senate, now of fourteen years' duration, all marked
him as wisely chosen for his important position.

On account of the immense National debt accumulated in the war, and
the complication of the financial affairs of the nation, the Committee
on Finance has an important bearing upon the interests of the country,
unknown until recent years. William P. Fessenden was the Senator
chosen chairman of this committee. His success in his private
business, his appointment, in 1864, as the head of the Treasury
Department, and his service in the Senate since 1853 as member of the
Finance Committee, and since 1859 as its chairman, all indicated the
propriety of his continuance in this position. Second on the list of
this committee stood Senator Sherman, of Ohio, who has been described
as "_au fait_ on National Banks, fond of figures, and in love with
finances."

The Committee on Commerce was constituted with Senator Chandler, of
Michigan, as its chairman. Himself most successful in commercial life,
in which he had attained distinction before coming to the Senate, and
representing a State having a greater extent of coast and better
facilities for commerce than any other inland community in the world,
Senator Chandler was eminently suitable as head of the Committee on
Commerce. His associates being selected from Maine, New York, Vermont,
Wisconsin, Kansas, and Oregon, left unrepresented no important
commercial interest in the nation.

The Committee on Manufactures was headed by William Sprague, Senator
from Rhode Island, a State having the largest capital invested, and
most persons employed in manufactures, in proportion to population, of
any in the Union. Senator Sprague himself having been educated in the
counting-room of a manufacturing establishment, and having control of
one of the largest manufacturing interests in the country, was the
appropriate person for such a position.

The agricultural States of Ohio, Kansas, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and
Kentucky furnished the members of the Committee on Agriculture, with
Senator Sherman at its head.

Of the Committee on the Judiciary, a Senator has given a description.
In a speech delivered in the Senate, December 12, 1865, Mr. Doolittle,
of Wisconsin, said: "From its very organization the Senate designs to
make that committee its constitutional adviser--not that its opinions
are to be conclusive or controlling on the vote of any member of this
body, like the opinion of the bench of Judges in the House of Lords;
but its members are chosen in consideration of their high professional
ability, their long experience, and well-known standing as jurists, in
order that their report upon constitutional questions may be entitled
to the highest consideration. And, sir, if you look into the
organization of the Judiciary Committee appointed by the Senate at the
present session, what is it? There is the Senator from Illinois, [Mr.
Trumbull], for years Judge of the Supreme Court of that State before
he entered this body, who, for ten years and more, has been a
faithful, laborious, distinguished member of that committee, and for
the last four years its chairman. And there sits my honorable friend
from New York [Mr. Harris], for twenty years before he came here known
and distinguished among the able jurists and judges of that great
State. And there is the honorable Senator from Vermont [Mr. Poland].
He has, it is true, just entered this body, but his reputation as a
jurist preceded his coming, and he comes here to fill the place in
this chamber, and is put upon this Judiciary Committee to fill the
place of him of whom I will say, without disparagement to any, that he
was the ablest jurist of us all--the late distinguished Senator from
Vermont [Mr. Collamer]. And there is the Senator from New Hampshire
[Mr. Clark], from the far East, and the Senator from Nevada [Mr.
Stewart], from the Pacific coast, and the Senator from Indiana [Mr.
Hendricks], from the central region, each of whom stands eminent in
the profession in the State which he represents, and all of whom are
recognized here among the ablest jurists of this body."

Some of the great political questions destined to engage the attention
of the Thirty-ninth Congress invested the _Committee on the District
of Columbia_ with a national interest, although its duties pertained
chiefly to the local concerns of the immediate neighborhood of the
capital. Its chairman, Mr. Morrill, of Maine, as well as its members,
among whom were Wade, Sumner, and Yates, gave it character and
ability, and afforded assurance that the great questions involved
would be calmly met and honestly answered.

[Illustration: Thaddeus Stevens, representative from Pennsylvania.]

In the House of Representatives, the _Committee of Ways and Means_ has
ever been regarded of first importance, and its chairman has been
considered leader of the House. Its duties, though of a somewhat
miscellaneous character, relate chiefly to devising the ways and means
of raising revenue. The fact that the Constitution provides that "all
bills for raising revenue shall originate in the House of
Representatives," gives the Committee of Ways and Means a sort of
preeminence over all other committees, whether of the Senate or the
House.

The work of the Committee of Ways and Means, as it had existed before
the Thirty-ninth Congress, was, at the opening of this session,
divided among three committees; one retaining the old name and still
remaining the leading committee, a second on _Appropriations_, and a
third on _Banking and Currency_.

Of the new Committee of Ways and Means, Justin S. Morrill, of Vermont,
was appointed chairman--a Representative of ten years' experience in
the House, who had seen several years of service on the same
committee. While his abilities and habits, as a student and a thinker,
well adapted him for the work of conducting his committee by wise
deliberation to useful measures, yet they were not characteristics
fitting him with readiest tact and most resolute will to "handle the
House."

Thaddeus Stevens, the old chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means,
was appointed the head of the new Committee on Appropriations. His
vigilance and integrity admirably fitted him for this position, while
his age made it desirable that he should be relieved of the arduous
labors of the Committee of Ways and Means. Of this committee he had
been chairman in the two preceding Congresses, and had filled a large
space in the public eye as leader of the House. His age--over seventy
years--gave him the respect of members the majority of whom were born
after he graduated at college--the more especially as these advanced
years were not attended with any perceptible abatement of the
intellectual vivacity or fire of youth. The evident honesty and
patriotism with which he advanced over prostrate theories and policies
toward the great ends at which he aimed, secured him multitudes of
friends, while these same qualities contributed to make him many
enemies. The timid became bold and the resolute were made stronger in
seeing the bravery with which he maintained his principles. He had a
habit of going straight to the issue, and a rugged manner of
presenting his opinions, coupled with a cool assurance, which, one of
his unfriendly critics once declared, "sometimes rose almost to the
sublime." He alone, of all the members of the Pennsylvania Convention,
in 1836, refused to sign the new State Constitution, because it robbed
the negro of his vote. It was a fitting reward that he, in 1866,
should stand in the United States House of Representatives, at the
head of a majority of more than one hundred, declaring that the
oppressed race should enjoy rights so long denied.

The Committee on Banking and Currency had as chairman Theodore M.
Pomeroy, of New York, who had served four years in Congress. Perhaps
its most important member was Samuel Hooper, a Boston merchant and
financier, who, from the outset of his Congressional career, now
entering upon the third term, had been on the Committee of Ways and
Means, of which he still remained a member, the only Representative
retaining connection with the old committee and holding a place in one
of the new offshoots from it.

Hiram Price, of Iowa, was appointed chairman of the Committee on the
Pacific Railroad. The Speaker of the House, in his recent visit to the
Pacific coast, had been impressed with the importance of this work,
and wisely chose as members of this committee Representatives from
Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Massachusetts, New York, Missouri, Kansas,
California, and Oregon.

A committee of much importance to Congress and the country--that of
Commerce--had for its chairman Elihu B. Washburn, of Illinois, who had
been in the previous Congress the oldest member in continuous service,
and hence was styled "Father of the House."

The Committee on Elections subsequently lost some of its importance in
the public estimation by the creation of a special committee to
consider subjects of reconstruction and the admission of Southern
members; yet the interests confided to it demanded ability, which it
had in its chairman, Henry L. Dawes, of Massachusetts, as well as in
the Representatives that constituted its membership.

The legislation relative to our vast unoccupied domain, having to pass
through the Committee on Public Lands, renders this committee one of
much importance. The honesty and ability of its chairman, George W.
Julian, of Indiana, together with his long experience in Congress,
gave to the recommendations of this committee great character and
weight.

Of the Committee on the Judiciary, James F. Wilson, of Iowa, was
appointed for the second time as chairman. George S. Boutwell, of
Massachusetts, and other Representatives of ability, were appointed as
members of this committee. Since the duty devolved upon it of taking
testimony in regard to the impeachment of the President, this
committee attracted public attention to a degree never known before.

The interests of manufactures were not likely to suffer in the hands
of a committee in which the first place was held by James K. Moorhead,
tanner's apprentice, and pioneer of cotton manufactures in
Pennsylvania, and the second by Oakes Ames, a leading manufacturer of
Massachusetts.

Agriculture--the most gigantic material interest in America--was
intrusted to a committee having John Bidwell, of California, as its
chairman, and members chosen from Iowa, Indiana, Vermont, Ohio,
Kentucky, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and New York.

The chairmanship of the Committee on Military Affairs was bestowed
upon a major-general of volunteers from Ohio, Robert C. Schenck; while
membership on the committee was given to a Connecticut colonel, Henry
C. Deming; a New Hampshire brigadier-general, Gilman Marston; a
Kentucky major-general, Lovell H. Rousseau; a New York Colonel, John
H. Ketchum, and four civilians.

Nathaniel P. Banks, Henry J. Raymond, and other men of much ability,
were appointed on the Committee on Foreign Affairs.

Special committees were appointed on the important subjects of
Bankruptcy and the Freedmen. Of the committee on the former, Thomas A.
Jenckes was appointed chairman. Thomas D. Eliot, of Massachusetts, was
made chairman of the Committee on the Freedmen.

Many other committees were appointed whose labors were arduous and
necessary to our legislation, yet, as they had to do with subjects of
no great general interest, they need not be named.

There was another committee, however, of great importance whose
members were not yet designated. The resolution by which it should be
created, was yet to pass through the ordeal of discussion. The process
by which this committee was created will be described in the following
chapter.

CHAPTER III.

FORMATION OF THE JOINT COMMITTEE ON RECONSTRUCTION.

Lack of Excitement -- Cause -- The Resolution -- Dilatory
Motions -- Yeas and Nays -- Proposed Amendments in the
Senate -- Debate in the Senate -- Mr. Howard -- Mr. Anthony
-- Mr. Doolittle -- Mr. Fessenden -- Mr. Saulsbury -- Mr.
Hendricks -- Mr. Trumbull -- Mr. Guthrie -- Passage of the
Resolution in the Senate -- Yeas and Nays -- Remarks of Mr.
Stevens on the Amendments of the Senate -- Concurrence of
the House -- The Committee appointed.

Since it was known throughout the country that members-elect from
Tennessee and other States recently in rebellion would appear at
Washington on the opening of the Thirty-ninth Congress, and demand
recognition of their right to represent their constituents, all eyes
were turned to observe the action which would be taken on the subject.
It was anticipated that the question would be sprung at once, and that
a season of storm and excitement would ensue, unparalleled in the
political history of the nation. Since the American people are
exceedingly fond of excitements and sensations, the expectation of
trouble in Congress drew immense numbers to its galleries on the first
day of the session. Lovers of sensation were doomed to disappointment.
Correspondents and reporters for the press, who were prepared to
furnish for the newspapers descriptions of an opening of Congress
"dangerously boisterous," were compelled to describe it as
"exceptionally quiet."

The cause of this unexpected state of things was the fact that the
majority had previously come to the wise conclusion that it would not
be well to pass upon the admission of Southern members in open session
and amid the confusion of organization. As there was so much
difference of opinion concerning the _status_ of the communities
recently in rebellion, and such a variety of considerations must be
regarded in reaching wise conclusions, it was deemed advisable that
the whole subject should be calmly and deliberately investigated by a
select number of able and patriotic men from both Houses of Congress.

Accordingly, on the first day of the session, soon after the House was
organized, Mr. Thaddeus Stevens offered the following important
RESOLUTION:

"_Resolved_, by the Senate and House of Representatives in
Congress assembled, that a joint committee of fifteen
members shall be appointed, nine of whom shall be members of
the House, and six members of the Senate, who shall inquire
into the condition of the States which formed the so-called
Confederate States of America, and report whether they or
any of them are entitled to be represented in either House
of Congress, with leave to report at any time by bill or
otherwise; and until such report shall have been made, and
finally acted upon by Congress, no member shall be received
into either House from any of the said so-called Confederate
States; and all papers relating to the representation of the
said States shall be referred to the said committee without
debate."

To avoid the delay occasioned by a protracted debate, Mr. Stevens
called the previous question. The minority perceived the impossibility
of preventing the final passage of the resolution, yet deemed it their
duty to put it off as far as possible by their only available
means--"dilatory motions." They first objected to the introduction of
the resolution, under the rule that unanimous consent must be given to
permit a resolution to come before the House without notice given on a
previous day. To meet this difficulty, Mr. Stevens moved to suspend
the rules to enable him to introduce the resolution. On this motion
the yeas and nays were demanded. To suspend the rules under such
circumstances required a two-thirds' vote, which was given--one
hundred and twenty-nine voting for, and thirty-five against the
motion. The rules having been suspended, the resolution was regularly
before the House. A motion was then made to lay the resolution on the
table, and the yeas and nays demanded. Thirty-seven were in favor of
the motion, and one hundred and thirty-three against it. Before a call
for the previous question is available to cut off debate, it must, by
the rules of the House, be seconded by one-fifth of the members
present. This having been done, the vote was taken by yeas and nays on
the concurrent resolution submitted by Mr. Stevens. One hundred and
thirty-three voted in favor of the resolution, and thirty-six against
it, while thirteen were reported as "not voting." As this vote was on
an important measure, and is significant as marking with considerable
accuracy the political complexion of the House of Representatives, it
should be given in detail.

The following are the names of those who voted "Yea:"

Messrs. Alley, Allison, Ames, Anderson, Baker, Baldwin,
Banks, Barker, Baxter, Beaman, Benjamin, Bidwell, Bingham,
Blow, Boutwell, Brandegee, Bromwell, Broomall, Buckland,
Bundy, Reader W. Clark, Sidney Clark, Cobb, Conkling, Cook,
Cullom, Culver, Darling, Davis, Dawes, Defrees, Delano,
Deming, Dixon, Donnelly, Driggs, Dumont, Eckley, Eggleston,
Eliot, Farnsworth, Ferry, Garfield, Grinnell, Griswold,
Hale, Abner C. Harding, Hart, Hayes, Henderson, Higby, Hill,
Holmes, Hooper, Hotchkiss, Asahel W. Hubbard, John H.
Hubbard, Chester D. Hubbard, Demas Hubbard, James R.
Hubbell, Hulburd, James Humphrey, Ingersoll, Jenckes,
Julian, Kasson, Kelley, Kelso, Ketchum, Kuykendall, Laflin,
Latham, George V. Lawrence, William Lawrence, Loan,
Longyear, Lynch, Marston, Marvin, McClurg, McIndoe, McKee,
McRuer, Mercur, Miller, Moorhead, Morrill, Morris, Moulton,
Myers, Newell, O'Neill, Orthe, Paine, Patterson, Perham,
Phelps, Pike, Pomeroy, Price, William H. Randall, Raymond,
Alexander H. Rice, John H. Rice, Rollins, Sawyer, Schenck,
Scofield, Shellabarger, Smith, Spaulding, Starr, Stevens,
Stilwell, Thayer, John L. Thomas, Trowbridge, Upson, Van
Aernam, Burt Van Horn, Robert Van Horn, Ward, Warner, Elihu
B. Washburne, Welker, Wentworth, Whaley, Williams, James F.
Wilson, Windom, and Woodbridge.

The following members voted "Nay:"

Messrs. Ancona, Bergen, Boyer, Brooks, Chanler, Dawson,
Denison, Eldridge, Finck, Glossbrenner, Goodyear, Grider,
Aaron Harding, Hogan, James M. Humphrey, Johnson, Kerr, Le
Blond, McCullough, Niblack, Nicholson, Noell, Radford,
Samuel J. Randall, Ritter, Rogers, Ross, Shanklin,
Sitgreaves, Strouse, Tabor, Taylor, Thornton, Trimble,
Winfield, and Wright.

The following are reported as "not voting:"

Messrs. Delos R. Ashley, James M. Ashley, Blaine, Farquhar,
Harris, Edwin N. Hubbell, Jones, Marshall, Plants, Rousseau,
Sloan, Francis Thomas, Voorhees, and William B. Washburn.

Thus the resolution passed the House. The immense size of this body
required that, by stringent rule, debate should have limitation, and
even sometimes be cut off altogether by the operation of previous
question. This arrangement enabled skillful and resolute leaders to
carry through this measure within an hour's time, whereas, in the
Senate, a body of less than one-third the size, it passed after a
delay of several days, and at the end of a discussion of considerable
length.

On the day following the passage of the resolution in the House of
Representatives, it was read in the Senate. Mr. Johnson, of Maryland,
objecting to its being considered on the day of its reception, under a
regulation of the Senate it was postponed.

After the lapse of a week, on Tuesday, December 12, the resolution was
taken up for consideration in the Senate. Mr. Anthony moved to amend
the enacting clause so as to change it from a joint resolution to a
concurrent resolution, since, under its original shape, it would
require the President's approval.

This amendment having been made, Mr. Anthony moved to further amend
the resolution by striking out all after the word "otherwise." The
following are the words proposed to be stricken out:

"And until such report shall have been made and finally
acted on by Congress, no member shall be received into
either house from any of the said so-called Confederate
States; and all papers relating to the representation of
said States shall be referred to the said committee without
debate."

Mr. Howard, of Michigan, preferred the resolution as it came from the
House of Representatives. "It contains within itself a pledge on the
part of the two houses, that until the report of this important
committee shall have been presented, we will not reädmit any of the
rebel States, either by the recognition of their Senators or their
Representatives. I think the country expects nothing less than this at
our hands. I think that portion of the loyal people of the United
States who have sacrificed so much of blood and treasure in the
prosecution of the war, and who secured to us the signal victory which
we have achieved over the rebellion, have a right to at least this
assurance at our hands, that neither house of Congress will recognize
as States any one of the rebel States until the event to which I have
alluded.

"Sir, what is the present position and _status_ of the rebel States?
In my judgment they are simply conquered communities, subjugated by
the arms of the United States; communities in which the right of
self-government does not now exist. Why? Because they have been for
the last four years hostile, to the most surprising unanimity hostile,
to the authority of the United States, and have, during that period,
been waging a bloody war against that authority. They are simply
conquered communities, and we hold them, as we know well, as the world
knows to-day, not by their own free will and consent as members of the
Union, but solely by virtue of our military power, which is executed
to that effect throughout the length and breadth of the rebel States.
There is in those States no rightful authority, according to my view,
at this time, but that of the United States; and every political act,
every governmental act exercised within their limits, must necessarily
be exercised and performed under the sanction and by the will of the
conqueror.

"In short, sir, they are not to-day loyal States; their population are
not willing to-day, if we are rightly informed, to perform peaceably,
quietly, and efficiently the duties which pertain to the population of
a State in the Union and of the Union; and for one I can not consent
to recognize them, even indirectly, as entitled to be represented in
either house of Congress at this time. The time has not yet come, in
my judgment, to do this. I think that, under present circumstances, it
is due to the country that we should give them the assurance that we
will not thus hastily reädmit to seats in the legislative bodies here
the representatives of constituencies who are still hostile to the
authority of the United States. I think that such constituencies are
not entitled to be represented here."

Mr. Anthony, of Rhode Island, said: "The amendment was proposed from
no opposition to what I understand to be the purpose of the words
stricken out. That purpose I understand to be that both houses shall
act in concert in any measures which they may take for the
reconstruction of the States lately in rebellion. I think that that
object is eminently desirable, and not only that the two houses shall
act in concert, but that Congress shall act in concert with the
Executive; that all branches of the Government shall approach this
great question in a spirit of comprehensive patriotism, with
confidence in each other, with a conciliatory temper toward each
other, and that each branch of the Government will be ready, if
necessary, to concede something of their own views in order to meet
the views of those who are equally charged with the responsibility of
public affairs.

"The words proposed to be stricken out refer to the joint committee of
the two houses of Congress matters which the Constitution confides to
each house separately. Each house is made, by the Constitution, the
judge of the elections, returns, and qualifications of its own
members.

"There is one other reason why I move this amendment, and that is,
that the resolution provides that papers shall be referred to this
committee without debate. This is contrary to the practice of the
Senate. The House of Representatives has found it necessary, for the
orderly transaction of its business, to put limitations upon debate,
hence the previous question and the hour rule; but the Senate has
always resisted every proposition of this kind, and submitted to any
inconvenience rather than check free discussion. Senators around me,
who were here in the minority, felt that the right of debate was a
very precious one to them at that time, and, as it was not taken from
them, they are not disposed to take it from the minority now.

"The purpose of all that is stricken out can be effected by the
separate action of the two houses, if they shall so elect. The House
of Representatives, having passed this resolution by a great vote,
will undoubtedly adopt, in a separate resolution, what is here
stricken out; and, except so far as relates to the restriction upon
debate, I shall, if this amendment be adopted and the resolution
passed, offer a resolution substantially declaring it to be the
opinion of the Senate that, until this committee reports--presuming
that it will report in a reasonable time--no action should be taken
upon the representation of the States lately in rebellion."

Mr. Doolittle, of Wisconsin, said: "All of these great questions,
concerning reconstruction, pacification, and restoration of civil
government in the Southern States, representation in this body, or any
thing which concerns of Federal relations with the several States,
ought to be referred to the Committee on the Judiciary. Such has been
the practice of this Government from the beginning. Great questions of
constitutional law, questions concerning the relations of the Union to
the States and the States to the Union, and above all, and without any
exception, all questions relating to representation in this body, to
its membership, have always been referred to the Judiciary Committee.

"There is nothing in the history of the Senate, there is nothing in
the constitution of this committee, which would send these great
constitutional questions for advisement and consideration to any other
committee than the Committee on the Judiciary. To place their
consideration in the hands of a committee which is beyond the control
of the Senate, is to distrust ourselves; and to vote to send their
consideration to any other committee, is equivalent to a vote of want
of confidence in the Judiciary Committee.

"I object to this resolution, because, upon these great questions
which are to go to the joint committee, the Senate does not stand upon
an equality with the House. This resolution provides that, of the
joint committee of fifteen, nine shall be appointed by the House of
Representatives, six only by the Senate, giving to the House portion
of the committee a majority of three. We all know that in joint
committees the members vote, not as the representatives of the two
houses, but _per capita_. The vote of a member of the committee from
the House weighs precisely the same as the vote of a member of the
committee from the Senate; so that, to all intents and purposes, if we
pass this concurrent resolution, which we can not repeal but by the
concurrence of the other house, we place the consideration of these
grave questions in the hands of a committee which we can not control,
and in which we have no equal voice.

"Under the Constitution, upon all subjects of legislation but one, the
two houses are equal and coördinate branches of Congress. That one
relates to their representation in the bodies, to their membership,
that which constitutes their existence, which is essential to their
life and their independence. That is confided to each house, and to
each house alone, to act for itself. It judges for itself upon the
elections, returns, and qualifications of its members. It judges, it
admits, it punishes, it expels. It can not share that responsibility
with any other department of the Government. It can no more share it
with the other house than it can share it with the Supreme Court or
with the President. It is a matter over which its jurisdiction is
exclusive of every other jurisdiction. It is a matter in which its
decisions, right or wrong, are absolute and without appeal. In my
opinion the Senate of the United States can not give to a committee
beyond its control this question of the representation in this body,
without a loss of its self-respect, its dignity, its independence;
without an abandonment of its constitutional duty and a surrender of
its constitutional powers.

"There is another provision in this resolution, as it stands, that we
shall refer every paper to the committee without debate. Yes, sir, the
Senate of the United States is to be led like a lamb to the slaughter,
bound hand and foot, shorn of its constitutional power, and gagged,
dumb; like the sheep brought to the block! Is this the condition to
which the Senator from Michigan proposes to reduce the Senate of the
United States by insisting upon such a provision as that contained in
the resolution as it comes from the House of Representatives?

"There is a still graver objection to this resolution as it stands.
The provision that 'until such report shall have been made and finally
acted on by Congress, no member shall be received into either house
from any of the so-called Confederate States,' is a provision which,
by law, excludes those eleven States from their representation in the
Union. Sir, pass that resolution as it stands, and let it receive the
signature of the President, and you have accomplished what the
rebellion could not accomplish, what the sacrifice of half a million
men could not accomplish in warring against this Government--you have
dissolved the Union by act of Congress. Sir, are we prepared to
sanction that? I trust never.

"The Senator from Michigan talks about the _status_ of these States.
He may very properly raise the question whether they have any
Legislatures that are capable of electing Senators to this body. That
is a question of fact to be considered; but as to whether they are
States, and States still within the Union, notwithstanding their civil
form of government has been overturned by the rebellion, and their
Legislatures have been disorganized, that they are still States in
this Union is the most sacred truth and the dearest truth to every
American heart, and it will be maintained by the American people
against all opposition, come from what quarter it may. Sir, the flag
that now floats on the top of this Capitol bears thirty-six stars.
Every star represents a State in this Union. I ask the Senator from
Michigan, does that flag, as it floats there, speak the nation's truth
to our people and to the world, or is it a hypocritical, flaunting
lie? That flag has been borne at the head of our conquering legions
through the whole South, planted at Vicksburg, planted at Columbia,
Savannah, Charleston, Sumter; the same old flag which came down before
the rebellion at Sumter was raised up again, and it still bore the
same glorious stars; 'not a star obscured,' not one.

"These people have been disorganized in their civil governments in
consequence of the war; the rebels overturned civil government in the
first place, and we entered with our armies and captured the
rebellion; but did that destroy the States? Not at all. We entered the
States to save them, not to destroy them. The guarantee of the
Constitution is a guarantee to the States, and to every one of the
States, and the obligation that rests upon us is to guarantee to South
Carolina a republican form of government as a State in this Union, and
not as a Territory. No State nor the people of any State had any power
to withdraw from the Union. They could not do it peacefully; they
undertook to do it by arms. We crushed the attempt; we trampled their
armies under our feet; we captured the rebellion; the States are ours;
and we entered them to save, and not to destroy.

"The Constitution of the United States requires the President, from
time to time, to give to Congress information of the state of the
Union. Who has any right to presume that the President will not
furnish the information which his constitutional duty requires? He has
at his control all the agencies which are necessary. There is the able
Cabinet who surround him, with all the officers appointed under them:
the post-masters under the Post-office Department, the treasury agents
under the Treasury Department, and almost two hundred thousand men
under the control of the War Department, in every part of this
'disaffected' region, who can bring to the President information from
every quarter of all the transactions that exist there. That the
President of the United States will be sustained, in the views which
he takes in his message, by the people of this country, is as certain
as the revolutions of the earth; and it is our duty to act
harmoniously with him, to sustain him, to hold up his hands, to
strengthen his heart, to speak to him words of faith, friendship, and
courage.

"I know that in all these Southern States there are a thousand things
to give us pain, sometimes alarm, but notwithstanding the bad
appearance which from time to time presents itself in the midst of
that boiling caldron of passion and excitement which the war has left
still raging there, the real progress which we have made has been most
wonderful. I am one of those who look forward with hope, for I believe
God reigns and rules in the affairs of mankind. I look beyond the
excitement of the hour and all the outbreaking passion which sometimes
shows itself in the South, which leads them to make enactments in
their Legislatures which are disgraceful to themselves, and can never
be sanctioned by the people of this country, and also in spite of all
the excitement of the North, I behold the future full of confidence
and hope. We have only to come up like men, and stand as the real
friends of the country and the Administration, and give to the policy
of the President a fair and substantial trial, and all will be well."

Mr. Fessenden, of Maine, then remarked: "When this resolution was
first promulgated in the newspapers as having been agreed upon, I
approved it because I sympathized with its object and purpose. I did
not examine it particularly; but, looking simply at what it was
designed for, it met my approbation simply for this reason: that this
question of the reädmission of these Confederate States, so called,
and all the questions connected with that subject, I conceived to be
of infinite importance, requiring calm and serious consideration, and
I believe that the appointment of a committee, carefully selected by
the two houses, to take that subject into consideration, was not only
wise in itself, but an imperative duty resting upon the
representatives of the people in the two branches of Congress. For
myself, I was not prepared to act upon that question at once. I am not
one of those who pin their faith upon any body, however eminent in
position, or conceive themselves obliged, on a question of great
national importance, to follow out any body's opinions simply because
he is in a position to make those opinions, perhaps, somewhat more
imperative than any other citizen of the republic. Talk about the
Administration! Sir, we are a part of the Administration, and a very
important part of it. I have no idea of abandoning the prerogatives,
the rights, and the duties of my position in favor of any body,
however that person or any number of persons may desire it. In saying
this, I am not about to express an opinion upon the subject any
further than I have expressed it, and that is, that in questions of
such infinite importance as this, involving the integrity and welfare
of the republic in all future time, we are solemnly bound, and our
constituents will demand of us that we examine them with care and
fidelity, and act on our own convictions and not upon the convictions
of others.

"I do not agree with the honorable Senator from Wisconsin, that by
passing a simple resolution raising a committee of our own body, and
referring to it certain papers, if we conclude to do so, we are
infringing upon the rights of any body or making an intimation with
regard to any policy that the President may have seen fit to adopt and
recommend to the country. Sir, I trust there are no such things as
exclusive friends of the President among us, or gentlemen who desire
to be so considered. I have as much respect for the President of the
United States probably as any man. I acted with him long, and I might
express the favorable opinions which I entertain of him here, if they
would not be out of place and in bad taste in this body. That I am
disposed and ready to support him to the best of my ability, as every
gentleman around me is, in good faith and with kind feeling in all
that he may desire that is consistent with my views of duty to the
country, giving him credit for intentions as good as mine, and with
ability far greater, I am ready to asseverate.

"But, sir, I do not agree with the doctrine, and I desire to enter my
dissent to it now and here, that, because a certain line of policy has
been adopted by one branch of the Government, or certain views are
entertained by one branch of the Government, therefore, for that
reason alone and none other, that is to be tried, even if it is
against my judgment; and I do not say that it is or is not. That is a
question to be considered. I have a great respect, not for myself,
perhaps, but for the position which I hold as a Senator of the United
States; and no measure of Government, no policy of the President, or
of the head of a department, shall pass me while I am a Senator, if I
know it, until I have examined it and given my assent to it; not on
account of the source from which it emanates, but on account of its
own intrinsic merits, and because I believe it will result in the good
of my country. That is my duty as a Senator, and I fear no
misconstruction at home on this subject or any other.

"Now, therefore, sir, I hope that, laying aside all these matters,
which are entirely foreign, we shall act upon this resolution simply
as a matter of business. No one has a right to complain of it that we
raise a committee for certain purposes of our own when we judge it to
be necessary. It is an imputation upon nobody; it is an insult to
nobody; it is not any thing which any sensible man could ever find
fault with, or be disposed to do so. It is our judgment, our
deliberate judgment, our friendly judgment--a course of action adopted
from regard to the good of the community, and that good of the
community comprehends the good of every individual in it."

Mr. Saulsbury, of Delaware, said: "This resolution is very
objectionable to my mind. It is for the appointment of a committee of
the two houses to determine and to report upon what? The right of
representation of eleven States in this body. What determines the
rights of those States to representation here? Is it the views of the
members of the House of Representatives? Do we stand in need of any
light, however bright it may be, that may come from that distinguished
quarter? Are we going to ask them to illuminate us by wisdom, and
report the fact to us whether those States are entitled to
representation on this floor?

"Mr. President, on the first day of your assemblage after the battle
of Manassas, you and they declared, by joint resolution, that the
object for which the war was waged was for no purpose of conquest or
subjugation, but it was to preserve the union of the States, and to
maintain the rights, dignity, and equality of the several States
unimpaired. While that war was being waged there was no action, either
of this house or of the House of Representatives, declaring that, when
it was over, the existence of those States should be ignored, or their
right to representation in Congress denied. Throughout the whole
contest the battle-cry was 'the preservation of the Union' and 'the
Union of the States.' If there was a voice then raised that those
States had ceased to have an existence in this body, it was so feeble
as to be passed by and totally disregarded.

"Sir, suppose this committee should report that those States are not
entitled to representation in this body, are you bound by their
action? Is there not a higher law, the supreme law of the land, which
says if they be States that they shall each be entitled to two
Senators on this floor? And shall a report of a joint committee of the
two houses override and overrule the fundamental law of the land? Sir,
it is dangerous as a precedent, and I protest against it as an humble
member of this body. If they be not States, then the object avowed for
which the war was waged was false."

Mr. Hendricks, of Indiana, said: "I shall vote against this resolution
because it refers to a joint committee a subject which, according to
my judgment, belongs exclusively to the Senate. I know that the
resolution no longer provides in express terms that the Senate,
pending the continuance of the investigation of this committee, will
not consider the question of credentials from these States, but in
effect it amounts to that. The question is to be referred to the
committee, and according to usage, and it would seem to be the very
purpose of reference that the body shall not consider the subject
while the question is before them. I could not vote for a resolution
that refers to a joint committee a subject that this body alone can
decide. If there are credentials presented here, this body must decide
the question whether the person presenting the credentials is entitled
to a seat; and how can this body be influenced by any committee other
than a committee that it shall raise itself?"

Mr. Trumbull, of Illinois, then followed: "If I understood the
resolution as the Senator from Indiana does, I should certainly vote
with him; but I do not so understand it. It is simply a resolution
that a joint committee be raised to inquire into the condition of the
States which formed the so-called Confederate States of America, and
to report whether they or any of them are entitled to be represented
in either House of Congress, with leave to report at any time by bill
or otherwise. It is true, as the Senator says, that after having
raised this committee, the Senate will not be likely to take action in
regard to the admission of the Senators from any of these States until
the committee shall have had a reasonable time at least to act and
report; but it is very desirable that we should have joint action upon
this subject. It would produce a very awkward and undesirable state of
things if the House of Representatives were to admit members from one
of the lately rebellious States, and the Senate were to refuse to
receive Senators from the same State.

"We all know that the State organizations in certain States of the
Union have been usurped and overthrown. This is a fact of which we
must officially take notice. There was a time when the Senator from
Indiana, as well as myself, would not have thought of receiving a
Senator from the Legislature, or what purported to be the Legislature,
of South Carolina. When the people of that State, by their
Representatives, undertook to withdraw from the Union and set up an
independent government in that State, in hostility to the Union, when
the body acting as a Legislature there was avowedly acting against
this Government, neither he nor I would have received Representatives
from it. That was a usurpation which, by force of arms, we have put
down. Now the question arises, Has a State government since been
inaugurated there entitled to representation? Is not that a fair
subject of inquiry? Ought we not to be satisfied upon that point? We
do not make such an inquiry in reference to members that come from
States which have never undertaken to deny their allegiance to the
Government of the United States. Having once been admitted as States,
they continue so until by some positive act they throw off their
allegiance, and assume an attitude of hostility to the Government, and
make war upon it; and while in that condition, I know we should all
object that they, of course, could not be represented in the Congress
of the United States. Now, is it not a proper subject for inquiry to
ascertain whether they have assumed a position in harmony with the
Government? and is it not proper that that inquiry should be made the
subject of joint action?"

Mr. Guthrie, of Kentucky, wished to ask the friends of this resolution
if it was contemplated that this committee should take evidence, and
report that evidence to the two houses. "If," said he, "they are only
to take what is open to every member of the Senate, the fact that the
rebellion has been suppressed; the fact that the President of the
United States has appointed officers to collect the taxes, and, in
some instances, judges and other officers; that he has sent the
post-office into all the States; that there have been found enough
individuals loyal to the country to accept the offices; the fact that
the President has issued his proclamation to all these States,
appointing Provisional Governors; that they have all elected
conventions; that the conventions have rescinded the ordinances of
secession; that most of them have amended their constitutions and
abolished slavery, and the Legislatures of some of them have passed
the amendment to the Constitution on the subject of slavery--if they
are only to take these facts, which are open and clear to us all, I
can see no necessity for such a committee. My principal objection to
the resolution is, that this committee can give us no information
which we do not now possess, coupled with the fact that the loyal
conservative men of the United States, North, South, East, and West,
do most earnestly desire that we shall so act that there shall be no
longer a doubt that we are the United States of America, in full
accord and harmony with each other.

"I know it has been said that the President had no authority to do
these things. I read the Constitution and the laws of this country
differently. He is to 'take care that the laws be faithfully
executed;' he is to suppress insurrection and rebellion. The power is
put in his hands, and I do not see why, when he marches into a rebel
State, he has not authority to put down a rebel government and put up
a government that is friendly to the United States, and in accordance
with it. I do not see why he can not do that while the war goes on,
and I do not see why he may not do it after the war is over. The
people in those States lie at the mercy of the nation. I see no
usurpation in what he has done, and if the work is well done, I, for
one, am ready to accept it. Are we to send out a commission to see
what the men whom he has appointed have done? It is said that they are
not to be relied on; that they have been guilty of treason, and we
will not trust them. I hope that no such ideas will prevail here. I
think this will be a cold shock to the warm feelings of the nation for
restoration, for equal privileges and equal rights. They were in
insurrection. We have suppressed that insurrection. They are now
States of the Union; and if they come here according to the laws of
the States, they are entitled, in my judgment, to representation, and
we have no right to refuse it. They are in a minority, and they would
be in a minority even if they meant now what they felt when they
raised their arms against the Government; but they do not, and of
those whom they will send here to represent them, nineteen out of
twenty will be just as loyal as any of us--even some of those who took
up arms against us.

"I really hope to see some one move a modification of the test oath,
so that those who have repented of their disloyalty may not be
excluded, for I really believe that a great many of those who took up
arms honestly and wished to carry out the doctrines of secession, and
who have succumbed under the force of our arms and the great force of
public opinion, can be trusted a great deal more than those who did
not fight at all.

"To conclude, gentlemen, I see no great harm in this resolution except
the procrastination that will result from it, and that will give us
nothing but what we have before us."

The question being taken, the resolution, as amended, passed the
Senate, thirty-three voting in the affirmative and eleven in the
negative. The following are the names of those who voted for the
resolution:

Messrs. Anthony, Brown, Chandler, Clark, Conness, Creswell,
Fessenden, Foot, Foster, Grimes, Harris, Howard, Howe, Lane
of Indiana, Lane of Kansas, Morgan, Morrill, Norton, Nye,
Poland, Pomeroy, Ramsey, Sherman, Sprague, Stewart, Sumner,
Trumbull, Van Winkle, Wade, Willey, Williams, Wilson, and
Yates.

The following Senators voted against the resolution:

Messrs. Buckalew, Cowan, Dixon, Doolittle, Guthrie,
Hendricks, Johnson, Riddle, Saulsbury, Stockton, and Wright.

Five Senators were absent: Messrs. Cragin, Davis, Henderson,
McDougall, and Nesmith.

On the day succeeding the adoption of the concurrent resolution by the
Senate, the amendments of that body came before the House of
Representatives. Mr. Thaddeus Stevens moved that the House concur in
the amendments of the Senate. He said: "The Senate took what to them
appeared to be the proper view of their prerogatives, and, though they
did not seem to differ with us as to the main object, the mode of
getting at it with them was essential, and they very properly put the
resolution in the shape they considered right. They have changed the
form of the resolution so as not to require the assent of the
President; and they have also considered that each house should
determine for itself as to the reference of papers, by its own action
at the time. To this I see no objection, and, while moving to concur,
I will say now, that when it is in order I shall move, or some other
gentleman will move when his State is called, a resolution precisely
similar, or very nearly similar, to the provision which the Senate has
stricken out, only applicable to the House alone."

The House then concurred in the amendments of the Senate, so the
resolution passed in the following form:

"_Resolved_, by the House of Representatives (the Senate
concurring), That a joint committee of fifteen members shall
be appointed, nine of whom shall be members of the House,
and six members of the Senate, who shall inquire into the
condition of the States which formed the so-called
Confederate States of America, and report whether they, or
any of them, are entitled to be represented in either house
of Congress, with leave to report at any time, by bill or
otherwise."

A resolution subsequently passed the House, "That all papers offered
relative to the representation of the late so-called Confederate
States of America, shall be referred to the joint committee of fifteen
without debate, and no members shall be admitted from either of said
so-called States until Congress shall declare such States entitled to
representation."

On the fourteenth of December the Speaker announced the names of the
committee on the part of the House. They were: Thaddeus Stevens, Elihu
B. Washburn, Justin S. Morrill, Henry Grider, John A. Bingham, Roscoe
Conkling, George S. Boutwell, Henry T. Blow, and Andrew J. Rogers.

On the twenty-first of December the following gentlemen were announced
as members of the committee on the part of the Senate: William Pitt
Fessenden, James W. Grimes, Ira Harris, Jacob M. Howard, Reverdy
Johnson, and George H. Williams.

Thus, before the adjournment of Congress for the holidays, the Joint
Committee of Fifteen on Reconstruction had been appointed and
empowered to proceed with investigations of the utmost importance to
the country. Hated by the late insurgents of the South, who expected
little leniency at its hands; opposed by politicians at the North, who
viewed it as an obstacle in the way of their designs, and even
misrepresented by the President himself, who stigmatized it as a
"Central Directory," this committee went forward in the discharge of
its important duties, without fear or favor, having a marked influence
upon the doings of Congress and the destinies of the country.

Meanwhile other important measures were enlisting the attention of
Congress, and were proceeding, by the slow but steady steps of
parliamentary progress, to their final consummation.

CHAPTER IV.

SUFFRAGE IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.

Duty of Congress to legislate for the District of Columbia
-- Suffrage Bill introduced into the House -- Speech by Mr.
Wilson -- Mr. Boyer -- Mr. Schofield -- Mr. Kelley -- Mr.
Rogers -- Mr. Farnsworth -- Mr. Davis -- Mr. Chanler -- Mr.
Bingham -- Mr. Grinnell -- Mr. Kasson -- Mr. Julian -- Mr.
Thomas -- Mr. Darling -- Mr. Hale's amendment -- Mr. Thayer
-- Mr. Van Horn -- Mr. Clarke -- Mr. Johnson -- Mr.
Boutwell.

Whatever differences of opinion may exist as to the authority of
Congress to legislate for States loyal or disloyal, or for
Territories, there is entire unanimity as to the power and duty of
Congress to enact laws for the District of Columbia. Here there is no
countercurrent of "reserved rights" or "State sovereignty" opposed to
the authority of Congress.

Congress being responsible for the legislation of the District of
Columbia, we naturally look in that direction for an exhibition in
miniature of the policy of the national legislature on questions
relating to the interests of the nation at large. If slavery
flourished and the slave-market existed in the capital, it was because
a majority of the people of the United States were willing. So soon as
the nation became anti-slavery, the "peculiar institution" could no
longer exist in the District of Columbia, although it might still
survive in other localities.

The General Government having become completely disenthralled from the
dominion of slavery, and a wide-spread opinion prevailing at the North
that all loyal men should enjoy the right of suffrage, the members of
the Thirty-ninth Congress convened with a sense of duty impelling them
to begin the great work of political reform at the capital itself.
Hence Mr. Wade, as we have seen, on the first day of the session,
introduced "Senate bill Number One," designed, as its title declared,
"to regulate the elective franchise in the District of Columbia." In
the House of Representatives, on the second day of the session, Mr.
Kelley introduced "a bill extending the right of suffrage in the
District of Columbia." This bill was referred to the Judiciary
Committee.

In the House of Representatives, on the 18th of December, Mr. Wilson,
chairman of the Committee on the Judiciary, reported a bill extending
the right of suffrage in the District of Columbia. The bill provided
that from all laws and parts of laws prescribing the qualification of
electors for any office in the District of Columbia, the word "white"
should be stricken out; also, that from and after the passage of the
bill, no person should be disqualified from voting at any election
held in the District of Columbia on account of color; also, that all
acts of Congress, and all laws of the State of Maryland in force in
the District of Columbia, and all ordinances of the cities of
Washington and Georgetown inconsistent with the provisions of the
bill, should be repealed and annulled.

This bill was made the special order for Wednesday the 10th of
January.

Mr. Wilson, of Iowa, whose duty it was, as chairman of the Judiciary
Committee, to report the bill, opened the discussion by speaking as
follows in favor of the measure:

"Can we excuse ourselves in continuing a limitation on the right of
suffrage in the capital of the republic that has no justification in
reason, justice, or in the principles on which we profess to have
based our entire political system? Upon this question there seems to
have been but little difference of opinion among the men who laid the
foundation and built the superstructure of this Government. In those
days no limitation was placed upon the enjoyment of the defensive
rights of the citizen, including the right of suffrage, on account of
the color of the skin, except in the State of South Carolina. All of
the other States participating in the formation of the Government of
the United States had some limitation, based on sex, or age, or
property placed upon the right of suffrage; but none of them so far
forgot the spirit of our Constitution, the great words of the
Declaration of Independence, or the genius of our institutions, as to
inquire into the color of a citizen before allowing him the great
defensive right of the ballot. It is true, that as the republic moved
off in its grand course among the nations a change occurred in the
minds and practices of the people of a majority of the States. The
love of liberty, because of its own great self, and not because of its
application to men of a particular color, lost its sensitive character
and active vitality. The moral sense of the people became dormant
through the malign influence of that tolerated enemy to all social and
governmental virtue, human slavery. The public conscience slumbered,
its eyes closed with dollars and its ears stuffed with cotton. When
these things succeeded the active justice, abounding mercy, and love
of human rights of the earlier days, State after State fell into the
dark line of South Carolinian oppression, and adopted her
anti-republican limitation of the right of suffrage. A few States
stood firm and kept their faith, and to-day, when compared with the
bruised and peeled and oppression-cursed State of South Carolina,
stand forth as shining examples of the great rewards that are poured
upon the heads of the just. Massachusetts and South Carolina, the one
true, the other false to the faith and ideas of the early life of the
nation, should teach us how safe it is to do right, and how dangerous
it is to do wrong; how much safer it is to do justice than it is to
practice oppression.

"But, sir, not the States alone fell into this grievous error. The
General Government took its stand upon the side of injustice, and
apostatized from the true faith of the nation, by depriving a portion
of its citizens of the political right of self-defense, the use of the
ballot. What good has come to us from this apostasy? Take the history
of the municipal government of this city, and what is there in its
pages to make an American feel proud of the results of this departure
from the principles of true democracy? Is there a worse governed city
in all the republic? Where in all the country was there to be found
such evidences of thriftless dependence as in this city before the
cold breath of the North swept down here during the rebellion and
imparted a little of 'Yankee' vigor to its business and population?
Where within the bounds of professed fidelity to the Government was
true loyalty at a lower ebb, and sympathy with the rebellion at higher
flood; freedom more hated, and emancipation more roundly denounced;
white troops harder to raise, and black ones more heartily despised;
Union victories more coldly received, and reverses productive of less
despondency, than right among that portion of the voting population
and its adjuncts which control the local elections in this District?
With what complaisance the social elements of this capital fostered
the brood of traitors who rushed hence to the service of the rebellion
in 1861! Are these fruits of our errors pleasing?

"I would not be vindictive, I would be just. I do not want to
legislate against the white citizen for the purpose of advancing the
interests of the colored citizen. It is best to guard against all such
legislation. Let the laws which we pass here be of such pure
republican character, that no person can tell from the reading of them
what color is stamped upon the faces of the citizens of the United
States. Let us have no class legislation, no class privileges. Let our
laws be just and uniform in their operation. This is the smooth sea
upon which our ship of state may sail; all others are tempestuous and
uncertain.

"And now, Mr. Speaker, who are the persons upon whom this bill will
operate, if we shall place it upon the statute-book of the nation?
They are citizens of the United States and residents of the District
of Columbia. It is true that many of them have black faces, but that
is God's work, and he is wiser than we. Some of them have faces marked
by colors uncertain; that is not God's fault. Those who hate black men
most intensely can tell more than all others about this mixture of
colors. But, mixed or black, they are citizens of this republic, and
they have been, and are to-day, true and loyal to their Government;
and this is vastly more than many of their contemners can claim for
themselves. In this District a white skin was not the badge of loyalty
while a black skin was. No traitor breathed the air of this capital
wearing a black skin. Through all the gradations of traitors, from
Wirz to Jeff. Davis, criminal eyes beamed from white faces. Through
all phases of treason, from the bold stroke of Lee upon the
battle-field to the unnatural sympathy of those who lived within this
District, but hated the sight of their country's flag, runs the blood
which courses only under a white surface. While white men were fleeing
from this city to join their fortunes with the rebel cause, the
returning wave brought black faces in their stead. White enemies went
out, black friends came in. As true as truth itself were these poor
men to the cause of this imperiled nation. Wherever we have trusted
them, they have been true. Why will we not deal justly by them? Why
shall we not, in this District, where the first effective legislative
blow fell upon slavery, declare that these suffering, patient, devoted
friends of the republic shall have the power to protect their own
rights by their own ballots? Is it because they are ignorant? Sir, we
are estopped from that plea. It comes too late. We did not make this
inquiry in regard to the white voter. It is only when we see a man
with a dark skin that we think of ignorance. Let us not stand on this
now in relation to this District. The fact itself is rapidly passing
away, for there is no other part of the population of the District so
diligent in the acquisition of knowledge as the colored portion. In
spite of the difficulties placed in their pathway to knowledge by the
white residents, the colored people, adults and children, are pressing
steadily on.

"Taken as a class, they surely show themselves possessed of enough of
the leaven of thrift, education, morality, and religion to render it
safe for us to make the experiment of impartial suffrage here. Let us
make the trial. A failure can work no great harm, for to us belongs
the power to make any change which the future may show to be
necessary. How can we tell whether success or failure shall be the
fruit of a practical application of the principles upon which our
institutions rest, unless we put them to a fair test? Give every man a
fair chance to show how well he can discharge the duties of fully
recognized citizenship. This is the way to solve the problem, and in
no other way can it be determined. That success will attend the
experiment I do not doubt. Others believe the result will prove quite
the reverse. Who is right and who wrong can be ascertained only by
putting the two opinions to a practical test. The passage of this bill
will furnish this test, and to that end I ask for it the favorable
consideration of this house."

Mr. Boyer, of Pennsylvania, said: "The design of this bill is to
inaugurate here, upon this most conspicuous stage, the first act of
the new political drama which is intended to culminate in the complete
political equality of the races and the establishment of negro
suffrage throughout the States. Constitutional amendments with this
view have been already introduced at both ends of the Capitol. The
object of the leaders of this movement is no longer concealed; and if
there is any thing in their action to admire, it is the candor,
courage, and ability with which they press their cause. The agitation
is to go on until the question has been settled by the country, and it
may as well be met here upon the threshold. The monstrous proposition
is nothing less than the absorption into the body politic of the
nation of a colored population equal to one-sixth of all the
inhabitants of the country, as the census reports will show. Four
millions of the population so to be amalgamated have been just set
free from a servitude, the debasing influences of which have many a
time been vividly depicted in the anti-slavery speeches of the very
men who are the most prominent champions of this new political
gospel.

"The argument in favor of the American negro's right to vote must be
measured by his capacity to understand and his ability to use such
right for the promotion of the public good. And that is the very
matter in dispute. But the point does not turn simply upon the
inferiority of the negro race; for differences without inferiority may
unfit one race for political or social assimilation with another, and
render their fusion in the same government incompatible with the
general welfare. It is, as I conceive, upon these principles that we
must settle the question whether this is a white man's government.

"The negro has no history of civilization. From the earliest ages of
recorded time he has ever been a savage or a slave. He has populated
with teeming millions the vast extent of a continent, but in no
portion of it has he ever emerged from barbarism, and in no age or
country has he ever established any other stable government than a
despotism. But he is the most obedient and happy of slaves.

"Of all men, the negroes themselves are best contented with their
situation. They are not the prime movers in the agitations which
concern them. An examination of the tables of the last census will
demonstrate that they do not attach much importance to political
rights. It will be found that the free people of color are most
numerous in some of those States which accord them the fewest
political privileges; and in those States which have granted them the
right of suffrage they seem to see but few attractions. In Maryland
there were, in 1860, 83,942 free people of color; in Pennsylvania,
56,949; in Ohio, 36,673. In neither of those States were they voters.
In the State of New York, where they could not vote except under a
property qualification, which excluded the most of them, they numbered
49,005. But in Massachusetts, where they did then and do now vote,
there were but 9,602. And in all New England, (except Connecticut,
where they are not allowed to vote,) there were at the last census but
16,084. If the American negro, in his desire and capacity for
self-government, bore any resemblance to the Caucasian, he would
distinguish himself by emigration; and, spurning the soil which had
enslaved his race, he would seek equality and independence in a more
congenial clime. But the spirit of independence and hardy manhood
which brought the Puritans to the shores of a New England wilderness
he lacks. He will not even go to Massachusetts now, although, instead
of a stormy ocean, his barrier is only an imaginary State line, and
instead of a howling wilderness, he is invited to a land resounding
with the myriad voices of the industrial arts, and instead of painted
savages with uplifted tomahawks, he has reason to expect a crowd of
male and female philanthropists, with beaming faces and outstretched
hands, to welcome him and call him brother. There will he find
lecturers to prove his equality, and statesmen to claim him as an
associate ruler in the land. If he cares for these things, or is fit
for them, why does he linger outside upon the very borders of his
political Eden? Why does he not enter into it--avoiding Connecticut in
his route--and take possession? The fact is, that the fine political
theories set up in his behalf are not in accordance with the natural
instinct of the negro, which, in this particular, is truer than the
philosophy of his white advisers.

"They are but superficial thinkers who imagine that the organic
differences of races can be obliterated by the education of the
schools. The qualities of races are perpetuated by descent, and are
the result of historical influences reaching far back into the
generations of the past. An educated negro is a negro still. The
cunning of the chisel of a Canova could not make an enduring
Corinthian column out of a block of anthracite; not because of its
color, but on account of the structure of its substance. He might
indeed, with infinite pains, give it the form, but he could not impart
to it the strength and adhesion of particles required to enable it to
brave the elements, and the temple it was made to support would soon
crumble into ruin."

Mr. Schofield, of Pennsylvania, said: "The cheapest elevator and best
moralizer for an oppressed and degraded class is to inspire them with
self-respect, with the belief in the possibility of their elevation.
Bestow the elective franchise upon the colored population of this
District, and you awaken the hope and ambition of the whole race
throughout the country. Hitherto punishment has been the only
incentive to sobriety and industry furnished these people by American
law. They were kept too low to feel disgrace, and reward was
inconsistent with the theory of 'service owed.' Let us try now the
persuasive power of wages and protection. If colored suffrage is still
considered an experiment, this District is a good place in which to
try it. The same objections do not exist here that are urged on behalf
of some of the States. No constitutional question intervenes. Here, at
least, Congress is supreme. The law can be passed, and if it is found
to be bad, a majority can repeal it. The colored race is too small in
numbers here to endanger the supremacy of the white people, but large
and loyal enough to counteract to some extent disloyal proclivities.

"Both the precept and practice of our fathers refute the allegation
that this is exclusively a white man's government. If we can not now
consent to so slight a recognition, as proposed by this bill, of the
great underlying theory of our Government, as declared and practiced
by our fathers, we are thrown back upon that new and monstrous
doctrine, that the five millions of our colored population, and their
posterity forever, have no rights that a white man is bound to
respect.

"Who pronounces this crushing sentence? The political South. And what
is this South? The Southern master and his Northern minion. Have these
people wronged the South? Have they filled it with violence, outrage,
and murder? No, sir; they are remarkably gentle, patient, and
respectful. Have they despoiled its wealth or diminished its grandeur?
No, sir; their unpaid toil has made the material South. They removed
the forests, cleared the fields, built the dwellings, churches,
colleges, cities, highways, railroads, and canals. Why, then, does the
South hate and persecute these people? Because it has wronged them.
Injustice always hates its victim. They are forced to look to the
North for justice. And what is the North? Not the latitude of frosts;
not New England and the States that border on the lakes, the
Mississippi, and the Pacific. The geographical is lost in the
political meaning of the word. The North, in a political sense, means
justice, liberty, and union, and in the order in which I have named
them. Jefferson defined this 'North' when he wrote 'all men are
created equal, endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable
rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.'
This North has no geographical boundaries. It embraces the friends of
freedom in every quarter of this great republic. Many of its bravest
champions hail from the geographical South. The North, that did not
fear the slave power in its prime, in the day of its political
strength and patronage, when it commanded alike the nation and the
mob, and for the same cruel purpose, will not be intimidated by its
expiring maledictions around this capital. The North must pass this
bill to vindicate its sincerity and its courage. The slave power has
already learned that the North is terrible in war, and forgiving and
gentle in peace; let its crushed and mangled victims learn from the
passage of this bill, that the justice of the North, unlimited by
lines of latitude, unlimited by color or race, slumbereth not."

Mr. Kelley, of Pennsylvania, followed: "In preparing to begin the work
of reconstructing the grandest of human governments, shattered for a
time by treason, and in endeavoring to ascertain what we should do,
and how and when it should be done, I have consulted no popular
impulse. Groping my way through the murky political atmosphere that
has prevailed for more than thirty years, I have seated myself at the
feet of the fathers of our country, that I might, as far as my
suggestions would go, make them in accordance with the principles of
those who constructed our Government. I can make no suggestion for the
improvement of the primary principles or general structure of our
Government, and I would heal its wounds so carefully that it should
descend to posterity unstained and unmarred as it came, under the
guidance of Providence, from the hands of those who fashioned it.

[Illustration: Hon. William D. Kelley, representative from
Pennsylvania.]

"For whom do we ask this legislation? In 1860, according to the
census, there were fourteen thousand three hundred and sixteen colored
people in this District, and we ask this legislation for the male
adults of that number. Are they in rags and filth and degradation? The
tax-books of the District will tell you that they pay taxes on
$1,250,000 worth of real estate, held within the limits of this
District. On one block, on which they pay taxes on fifty odd thousand
dollars, there are but two colored freeholders who have not bought
themselves out of slavery. One of them has bought as many as eight
persons beside himself--a wife and seven children. Coming to freedom
in manhood, mortgaged for a thousand or fifteen hundred dollars as his
own price, he has earned and carried to the Southern robber thousands
of dollars, the price extorted for his wife and children, and is now a
freeholder in this District. They have twenty-one churches, which they
own, and which they maintain at an annual cost of over twenty thousand
dollars. Their communing members number over forty-three hundred. In
their twenty-two Sunday-schools they gather on each Sabbath over three
thousand American children of African descent. They maintain, sir, to
the infamous disgrace of the American Congress and people,
thirty-three day schools, eight of which are maintained exclusively by
contributions from colored citizens of the District; the remainder by
their contributions, eked out by contributions from the generous
people of the North; and every dollar of their million and a quarter
dollars of real estate and personal property is taxed for schools to
educate the children of the white people of the District, the fathers
of many of those children having been absent during the war fighting
for the Confederacy and against our constitutional flag. Who shall
reproach them with being poor and ignorant while Congress, which has
exclusive jurisdiction over the District, has, till last year, robbed
them day by day, and barred the door of the public school against
them? Such reproach does not lie in the white man's mouth; at any
rate, no member of the Democratic party ought to utter it."

The debate was continued on the day following. Mr. Rogers, of New
Jersey, having obtained the floor, addressed the House for two hours.
He said: "I hold that there never has been, in the legislation of the
United States, a bill which involved so momentous consequences as that
now under consideration, because nowhere in the history of this
country, from the time that the first reins of party strife were drawn
over the land, was any political party ever known to advocate the
doctrine now advocated by a portion of the party on the other side of
this House, except within the last year, and during the heat and
strife of battle in the land. The wisdom of ages for more than five
thousand years, and the most enlightened governments that ever existed
upon the face of the earth, have handed down to us that grand
principle that all governments of a civilized character have been and
were intended especially for the benefit of white men and white women,
and not for those who belong to the negro, Indian, or mulatto race.

"It is the high prerogative which the political system of this country
has given to the masses, rich and poor, to exercise the right of
suffrage and declare, according to the honest convictions of their
hearts, who shall be the officers to rule over them. There is no
privilege so high, there is no right so grand. It lies at the very
foundation of this Government; and when you introduce into the social
system of this country the right of the African race to compete at the
ballot-box with the intelligent white citizens of this country, you
are disturbing and embittering the whole social system; you rend the
bonds of a common political faith; you break up commercial intercourse
and the free interchanges of trade, and you degrade the people of this
country before the eyes of the envious monarchs of Europe, and fill
our history with a record of degradation and shame.

"Why, then, should we attempt at this time to inflict the system of
negro suffrage upon those who happen to be so unfortunate as to reside
in the District of Columbia? This city bears the name of George
Washington, the father of our country; and as it was founded by him,
so I wish to hand it down to those who shall come after us, preserving
that principle which declares that the sovereignty is in the white
people of the country, for whose benefit this Government was
established. I am not ready to believe that those men who have laid
down their lives in the battles of the late revolution, who came from
their homes like the torrents that sweep over their native hills and
mountains, those men who gathered round the sacred precincts of the
tomb of Washington to uphold and perpetuate our proud heritage of
liberty, intended to inflict upon the people of this District, or of
this land, the monstrous doctrine of political equality of the negro
race with the white at the ballot-box.

"No such dogma as this was ever announced by the Republican party in
their platforms. When that party met at Chicago, in 1860, they took
pains to enunciate the great principle of self-government which
underlies the institutions of this country, that each State has the
right to control its own domestic policy according to its own judgment
exclusively. I ask the gentlemen on the other side of the house to
allow the people of the District of Columbia to exercise the same
great right of self-government, to determine by their votes at the
ballot-box whether they desire to inaugurate a system of political
equality with the colored people of the District.

"Self-government was the great principle which impelled our fathers to
protest against the powers of King George. That was the principle
which led the brave army of George Washington across the ice of the
river Delaware. It was the principle which struck a successful blow
against despotism, and planted liberty upon this continent. It was the
principle that our fathers claimed the Parliament of England had no
right to invade, and drove the colonies into rebellion, because laws
were passed without their consent by a Parliament in which they were
unrepresented.

"I am here to-day to plead for the white people of this District, upon
the same grounds taken by our fathers to the English Parliament, in
favor of self-government and the right of the people of the District
to be heard upon this all-important question. Although we may have a
legal yet we have no moral right, according to the immutable
principles of justice, and according to the declaration of Holy Writ,
that we should do unto others as we would they should do unto us, to
inflict upon the people of this District this fiendish doctrine of
political equality with a race that God Almighty never intended should
stand upon an equal footing with the white man and woman in social or
civil life."

Mr. Farnsworth, of Illinois, replied: "He [Mr. Rogers] says this is a
white man's Government. 'A white man's Government!' Why, sir, did not
the Congress of the United States pass a law for enrolling into the
service of the United States the black man as well as the white man?
Did not we tax the black man as well as the white man? Does he not
contribute his money as well as his blood for the protection and
defense of the Government? O, yes; and now, when the black man comes
hobbling home upon his crutches and his wooden limbs, maimed for life,
bleeding, crushed, wounded, is he to be told by the people who called
him into the service of the Government, 'This is a white man's
Government; you have nothing to do with it?' Shame! I say, eternal
shame upon such a doctrine, and upon the men who advocate it!

"What should be the test as to the right to exercise the elective
franchise? I contend that the only question to be asked should be, 'Is
he a man?' The test should be that of manhood, not that of color, or
races, or class. Is he endowed with conscience and reason? Is he an
immortal being? If these questions are answered in the affirmative, he
has the same right to protection that we all enjoy.

"I am in favor, Mr. Speaker, of making suffrage equal and universal. I
believe that greater wisdom is concentrated in the decisions of the
ballot-box when all citizens of a certain age vote than when only a
part vote. If you apply a test founded on education or intelligence,
where will you stop? One man will say that the voter should be able to
read the Constitution and to write his name; another, that he should
be acquainted with the history of the United States; another will
demand a still higher degree of education and intelligence, until you
will establish an aristocracy of wisdom, which is one of the worst
kinds of aristocracy. Sir, the men who formed this Government, who
believed in the rights of human nature, and designed the Government to
protect them, believed, I think, as I do, that when suffrage is made
universal, you concentrate in the ballot-box a larger amount of wisdom
than when you exclude a portion of the citizens from the right of
suffrage.

"I grant, sir, that many of the colored men whom I would enfranchise
are poor and ignorant, but we have made them so. We have oppressed
them by our laws. We have stolen them from their cradles and consigned
them to helpless slavery. The shackles are now knocked from their
limbs, and they emerge from the house of bondage and stand forth as
men. Let us now take the next grand step, a step which must commend
itself to our judgment and consciences. Let us clothe these men with
the rights of freemen, and give them the power to protect their
rights.

"Sir, as I have already remarked, we have passed through a fiery
ordeal. There are but few homes within our land that are not made
desolate by the loss of a son or a father. The widow and the orphan
meet us wherever we turn. The maimed and crippled soldiers of the
republic are every-where seen. Many fair fields have become
cemeteries, where molder the remains of the noble men who have laid
down their lives in defense of our Government. We thought that we had
attained the crisis of our troubles during the progress of the war.
But it has been said that the ground-swell of the ocean after the
storm is often more dangerous to the mariner than the tempest itself;
and I am inclined to think that this is true in reference to the
present posture of our national affairs. The storm has apparently
subsided; but, sir, if we fail to do our duty now as a nation--and
that duty is so simple that a child can understand it; no elaborate
argument need enforce it, as no sophistry can conceal it; it is simply
to give to one man the same rights that we give to another--if we fail
now in this our plain duty as a nation, then the ship of state is in
more peril from this ground-swell on which we are riding than it was
during the fierce tempest of war. I trust that this Congress will have
the firmness and wisdom to guide the old ship safely into the haven of
peace and security. This we can do by fixing our eyes upon the guiding
star of our fathers--the equal rights of all men."

The discussion was resumed on the following day, January 12, by Mr.
Davis, of New York: "Republican government can never rest safely, it
can never rest peacefully, upon any foundation save that of the
intelligence and virtue of its subjects. No government, republican in
form, was ever prosperous where its people were ignorant and debased.
And in this Government, where our fathers paid so much attention to
intelligence, to the cultivation of virtue, and to all considerations
which should surround and guard the foundations of the republic, I am
sure that we would do dishonor to their memory by conferring the
franchise upon men unfitted to receive it and unworthy to exercise it.

"I am perfectly aware that in many States we have given the elective
franchise to the white man who is debased and ignorant. I regret it,
because I think that intelligence ought always, either as to the black
or the white man, to be made a test of suffrage. And I glory in the
principles that have been established by Massachusetts, which
prescribes, not that a man should have money in his purse, but that he
should have in his head a cultivated brain, the ability to read the
Constitution of his country, and intelligence to understand his rights
as a citizen.

"I have never been one of those who believed that the black man had
'no rights that the white man was bound to respect.' I believe that
the black man in this country is entitled to citizenship, and, by
virtue of that citizenship, is entitled to protection, to the full
power of this Government, wherever he may be found on the face of
God's earth; that he has a right to demand that the shield of this
Government shall be held over him, and that its powers shall be
exerted on his behalf to the same extent as if he were the proudest
grandee of the land. But, sir, citizenship is one thing, and the right
of suffrage is another and a different thing; and in circumstances
such as exist around us, I am unwilling that general, universal,
unrestricted suffrage should be granted to the black men of this
District, as is proposed by the bill under consideration.

"This whole subject is within the power of Congress, and if we grant
restricted privilege to-day, we can extend the exercise of that
privilege to-morrow. Public sentiment on this, as on a great many
subjects, is a matter of slow growth and development. That is the
history of the world. Development upon all great subjects is slow. The
development of the globe itself has required countless ages before it
was prepared for the introduction of man upon it. And take the
progress of the human race through the historic age--kingdoms and
empires, systems of social polity, systems of religion, systems of
science, have been of no rapid growth, but long centuries intervened
between their origin and their overthrow.

"The Creator placed man on earth, not for the perfection of the
individual, but the race; and therefore he locked up the mysteries of
his power in the bosom of the earth and in the depths of the heavens,
rendering them invisible to mankind. He made man study those secrets,
those mysteries, in order that his genius might be cultivated, his
views enlarged, his intellect matured, so that he might gradually rise
in the scale of being, and finally attain the full perfection for
which his Creator designed him.

"Thus governments, political systems, and political rights have been
the subjects of study and improvement; changes adapted to the advance
of society are made; experiments are tried, based upon reason and upon
judgment, and those are safest which in their gradual introduction
avoid unnecessary violence and convulsion.

"I submit, sir, whether it be wise for us now so suddenly to alter so
entirely the political _status_ of so great a number of the citizens
of this District, in conferring upon them indiscriminately the right
of franchise."

Mr. Chanler, of New York, then addressed the House:

"If, sir, it should ever be your good fortune to visit romantic old
Spain, and to enter the fortress and palace of Alhambra, the fairest
monument of Moorish grandeur and skill, as this Capitol is the pride
of American architecture, you may see cut in stone a hand holding a
key, surmounting the horse-shoe arch of the main gateway. They are the
three types of strength, speed, and secresy, the boast of a now fallen
Saracen race, sons of that sea of sand, the desert, who carried the
glory of Islam to furthest Gades. In an evil hour of civil strife and
bitter hatred of faction, the Alhambra was betrayed to Spain, 'to feed
fat an ancient grudge' between political chiefs. The stronghold of the
race, with the palace, the sacred courts of justice, and all the rare
works of art--the gardens of unrivaled splendor--all that was their
own of majesty, strength, and beauty, became the trophies of another.

"The legend of the Saracen exile tells the story of penitence and
shame; and to the last moment of his sad life he sighs in the sultry
desert for the fair home of his ancestors, the gorgeous Alhambra. We,
too, are descended from a race of conquerors, who crossed the ocean to
establish the glory of civil and religious liberty, and secure freedom
to themselves and their posterity. To-day we are assembled in the
Alhambra of America; here is our citadel; here our courts of highest
resort; around these halls cluster the proudest associations of the
American people; they seem almost sacred in their eyes. No hostile
foot of foreign foe or domestic traitor has trodden them in triumph.
Above it floats the flag, the emblem of our Union. That Union is the
emblem of the triumphs of the white race. That race rules by the
ballot. Shall we surrender the ballot, the emblem of our sovereignty;
the flag, the emblem of our Union; the Union, the emblem of our
national glory, that they may become the badges of our weakness and
the trophies of another race? Never, sir! never, never!

"Shall the white laborer bow his free, independent, and honored brow
to the level of the negro just set free from slavery, and, by yielding
the entrance to this great citadel of our nation, surrender the
mastery of his race over the Representatives of the people, the
Senate, and Supreme Court of this Union? Then, sir, the white
workingman's sovereignty would begin to cease to be.

"Then the most democratic majesty of American liberty would be humbled
in the little dust which was lately raised by a brief campaign of two
hundred thousand negro troops, and even they led by white officers,
while millions of white soldiers held the field in victory by their
own strength and valor. Deny it if ye dare! Sir, I know that this is a
white man's Government, and I believe the white workingman has the
manhood which shall preserve it to his latest posterity, pure and
strong, in 'justice tempered with mercy.'

"There may be a legend hereafter telling of the exile of
Representatives now on this floor, who, in the hour of party spite,
betrayed the dominion of their race here, and the stronghold of their
people's liberty, to a servile and foreign race."

Near the close of Mr. Chanler's remarks, his time having been extended
by courtesy of the House, a forensic passage at arms occurred between
that gentleman and Mr. Bingham, of Ohio. Mr. Chanler had said: "I deny
that any obligation rests against this Government to do any thing more
for the negro than has already been done. 'On what meats doth this
Cæsar feed that he has grown so great?' The white soldier did as much
work as he, fought as well, died as bravely, suffered in hospitals and
in the field as well as he. More than this, the white soldier fought
to liberate the slave, and did do it. The white soldier did more: he
fought to preserve institutions and rights endeared to him by every
hallowed association; to overthrow the rebellion of his brother
against their Commonwealth and glorious Union; to preserve the
sovereignty of the people against the conspiracy of a slave
aristocracy, if you will; to maintain the fabric of the Government
built by their fathers for them and their race in every country of
kindred men who, downtrodden and disenfranchised, look to this country
as a sure refuge. The white soldier fought as a volunteer, as a
responsible, free, and resolute citizen, knowing for what he fought,
and generously letting the slave share with him the honor, and
bestowing on him more than his share of the profits of the white man's
victory over his equal and the negro's master.

"We are willing that the negro should have every protection which the
law can throw around him, but there is a majesty which 'hedges in a
king.' That he ought not to have until he shows himself 'every inch a
king.'

"'Who would be free, themselves must strike the blow.'

"'Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have
greatness thrust upon them.'

"We are opposed to thrusting honor on the negro. He is to-day, as a
race, as dependent on the power and skill of the white race for
protection as when he was first brought from Africa. Not one act of
theirs has proved the capacity of the black race for self-government.
They have neither literature, arts, nor arms, as a race. They have
never, during all the changes of dynasties or revolution of States,
risen higher than to be the helpers of the contending parties. They
have had the same opportunity as the Indian to secure their
independence of the white race, but have never systematically even
attempted it on this continent, although they have been educated with
equal care, and in the same schools as the white man. Their race has
been subject to the white man, and has submitted to the yoke."

Mr. Bingham.--"I understood the gentleman to say, that the colored
race had failed to strike for their rights during the late rebellion.
I wish to remind the gentleman of the fact, which ought to bring a
blush to the cheek of every American citizen, that at the beginning of
this great struggle, a distinguished general, who, I have no doubt,
received the political support of the gentleman himself for the
Presidency, and who, then at the head of an American army within the
Commonwealth of Virginia, issued his proclamation, as general in
command of the army, notifying the insurgents in arms against the
Constitution that, if their slaves rose in revolt for their liberty,
he, Major-General McClellan, by the whole force of the army at his
command, would crush them with an iron hand. Yet the gentleman gets up
here to-day, after a record of that sort, to cast censure upon this
people because they did not strike for their liberties against the
combined armies of the republic and the armies of treason!"

Mr. Chanler.--"My honorable friend from Ohio may have made a good
point against General McClellan, but he has made none against me. I
admit that they have made successful insurrections, but my argument
was not to the effect that the negro race was not capable of the
bloodiest deeds. I avoided entering into that question. I asserted
that they had made successful insurrection; that they had held the
white race under their heel in Hayti and St. Domingo. I would only
say, with regard to this question of race, that I assert there is no
record of the black race having proved its capacity for
self-government as a race; that they have never struck a blow for
freedom, and maintained their freedom and independence as individuals
when free. I appeal to history, and to the gentleman from Ohio [Mr.
Bingham], and I speak as a student of history, and the representative
of a race whose proudest boast is that their capacity for
self-government is the only charter of their liberty. I assail no
race; I assail no man. I have taken the greatest pains to prove that
the inalienable rights of the black man are as sacred to me as those
inalienable rights I have received from my God. If the gentleman
misunderstood me, I hope he will accept this explanation. If I have
not met his question, I will now yield the floor to him to continue."

Mr. Bingham.--"And I continue thus far, that the gentleman's speech
certainly has relation to the rights of the black man within the
Republic of the United States. What he may say of their history
outside of the jurisdiction of this country, it is not very important
for me to take notice of. But inasmuch as the gentleman has seen fit,
in his response to what I said, to refer to the testimony of history,
I will bear witness now, by the authority of history, that this very
race of which he speaks is the only race now existing upon this planet
that ever hewed their way out of the prison-house of chattel slavery
to the sunlight of personal liberty by their own unaided arm. So much
for that part of the gentleman's argument as relates to history."

Mr. Chanler.--"Does the gentleman allude now to what has been done in
other lands than this? I ask the question because he says he does not
like me to go outside of the jurisdiction of this country, and I
therefore ask him not to go too far into Africa."

Mr. Bingham.--"I am not in Africa. I refer to what the gentleman
referred to himself. The insurrection in St. Domingo, I say, stands
without a parallel in the history of any race now living on this
earth, and I challenge the gentleman to refute that statement from
history."

Mr. Chanler.--"That is admitted."

Mr. Bingham.--"That is admitted. Then I want to know, with a fact like
that conceded, what sort of logic, what sort of force, what sort of
reason, what sort of justice is there in the remark of the gentleman
made here in a deliberative assembly touching the question of the
personal enfranchisement of the black race, when he says in the
statement here, right in the face of that fact, that they only are
entitled to their liberty who strike the blow for and maintain their
liberty? They did strike the blow in Hayti, and did maintain their
liberty there. They struck such a blow for liberty there as no other
race of men under like circumstances ever before struck, now
represented by any organized community upon this planet; and that the
gentleman conceded. And yet this sort of argument is to be adduced
here as reason why these people in the District of Columbia should not
receive the consideration of this House, and be protected in their
rights as men. If the gentleman's remark is not adduced for that
purpose, then it is altogether foreign to our inquiry. If the
gentleman can assign any other reason for the introduction of any such
argument as that, I should like to hear him."

Mr. Chanler.--"I merely wish to say, in reply to the gentleman, that I
have read history a little further back. I remember when the British
fleet and the British army held out a similar threat to the white race
of this country. The proclamation of General McClellan did keep down
the negroes; and this fact proves what I assert--that they are a race
to be kept under. No race capable of achieving its liberty by its own
efforts, would have listened for one moment to the paper threats of
all the generals in the world. The negroes listened to McClellan, and
they shrank behind the bush. They are bushmen in Africa. They are a
dependent race, unwilling--I assert it from the record of
history--unwilling to assert their independence at the risk of their
lives. By their own efforts they never have attained, and I firmly
believe they never will attain, their liberty."

Mr. Bingham replied: "I desire to say to the gentleman from New York,
when he talks of being a 'student of history,' that before the
tribunal of history the facts are not against me nor against the
colored race. I beg leave to say to the gentleman that these people
have borne themselves as bravely, as well, and, I may add, as wisely
during the great contest just closed, as any people to whom he can
point, situated in like circumstances, at any period of the world's
history. They were in chains when the rebellion broke out. They
constituted but one-sixth of the whole body of the people. By the
terms of the Constitution of the United States, if they lifted a hand
in the assertion of their right to freedom, they were liable that
moment to be crushed by the combined power of the Republic, called
out, in pursuance of the very letter of the Constitution, 'to suppress
insurrection.' Yet, notwithstanding the fact that their whole living
generation and the generations before them, running back two
centuries, had been enslaved and brutalized, reduced to the sad and
miserable condition of chattels, which, for want of a better name, we
call a 'slave'--an article of merchandise, a thing of trade, with no
acknowledged rights in the present, and denied even the hope of a
heritage in the great hereafter--yet, sir, the moment that the word
'Liberty' ran along your ranks, the moment that the word
'Emancipation' was emblazoned upon your banners, those men who, with
their ancestors, had been enslaved through five generations, rose as
one man to stand by this republic, the last hope of oppressed humanity
upon the earth, until they numbered one hundred and seventy-five
thousand arrayed in arms under your banners, doing firmly,
unshrinkingly, and defiantly their full share in securing the final
victory of our arms. I have said this much in defense of men who had
the manhood, in the hour of the nation's trial, to strike for the flag
and the unity of the republic in the tempest of the great conflict,
and to stand, where brave men only could stand, on the field of poised
battle, where the earthquake and the fire led the charge. Sir, I am
not mistaken; and the record of history to which I have referred does
not, as the gentleman affirms it does, make against me."

Mr. Grinnell, of Iowa, in reply to Mr. Chanler, said: "He [Mr.
Chanler] proceeds to say that they are now, as a class, dependent as
when they were brought from their native wilds in Africa. Sir, I
believe if the gentleman were master of all languages, if he were to
attempt to put into a sentence the quintessence, the high-wines, and
sublimation of an untruth, he could not have more concentrated his
language into a libel.

"What is the fact, sir? It is perfectly notorious that these four
million slaves have not only taken care of themselves amid all the
ingenious impediments which tyrants could impose, but they have borne
upon their stalwart shoulders their masters, millions of people, for a
century. Why, sir, it seemed as impossible for a man to swim the
Atlantic with Mount Atlas upon his back, or make harmonious base to
the thunders of heaven. But these men have achieved the world's
wonder--coming out from the tortures of slavery, from the
prison-house, untainted with dishonor or crime, and out of the war
free, noble, brave, and more worthy of their friends, always true to
the flag.

"Mr. Speaker, it was in fable that a man pointed a lion to the picture
which represented the king of the forest prostrate, with a man's foot
on his neck, and asked what he thought of that. The reply was, 'Lions
have no painters.' For days the unblushing apostles of sham Democracy
have in this House drawn pictures of the ignorance and degradation of
the people of color in the District of Columbia. Had the subjects of
their wanton defamation had a Representative here, there would have
been a different coloring to the picture, and I would gladly leave
their defense to the Representatives of classes who have by hundreds
darkened these galleries with their sable countenances, waiting for
days to hear the decisive vote which announces that their freedom is
not a mockery.

"Who are they to whom this bill proposes to give suffrage? They are
twenty thousand people, owning twenty-one churches, maintaining
thirty-three day schools, and paying taxes on more than one and a
quarter million dollars' worth of real property. Thirty per cent. of
their number were slaves; but the census does not show that there is a
Democratic congressional district in the Union where a larger
proportion of its population are found attendant at the churches or in
the schools.

"They did not follow the example of their pale-faced neighbors, to the
number of thousands, crossing the line to join in the rebellion; but
three thousand and more of their number went into the Union army,
nearly one thousand of whom, as soldiers, fell by disease and battle
in the room of those who wept on Northern soil for rebel defeats, and
now decry the manhood and withhold just rights from our true national
defenders.

"In the South they were our friends. In the language of an official
dispatch of Secretary Seward to Minister Adams, 'Every-where the
American general receives his most useful and reliable information
from the negro, who hails his coming as the harbinger of freedom.' Not
one, but many, of our generals have proclaimed that the negro has
gained by the bayonet the ballot. Admiral Du Pont made mention of the
negro pilot Small, who brought out the steamer Planter, mounting a
rifled and siege gun, from Charleston, as a prize to us, under the
very guns of the enemy. He brought us the first trophy from Fort
Sumter, and information more valuable than the prize.

"The celebrated charge of the negro brigade at the conflict at Port
Hudson has passed into history. The position of the colored people in
the State of Iowa reflects lasting honor on their loyalty, and our
brave white soldiers would not have me withhold the facts. In the
State there were between nine hundred and a thousand people of their
class subject to military duty. Of that number more than seven hundred
entered the army. They put to blush the patriotism of the dominant
race in all Democratic districts. Seven-tenths of a class, without the
inducement of commissions as lieutenants, captains, colonels,
commissaries, or quartermasters, braving the hate and vengeance of
rebels, rushing into the deadly imminent breach in the darkest hour of
our struggle! Where is the parallel to this? They had no flag; it was
a mockery. There was no pledge of political franchise. Does history
cite us to a country where so large a per cent. of the population went
forth for the national defense? It was not under the Cæsars; and
Harold, in the defense of Britain, left behind him a larger per cent.
of the stalwart and the strong. They were more eager to maintain the
national honor than the zealots to rescue Jerusalem from the
profanation of infidels. Not Frank or Hun, nor Huguenot or Roundhead,
or mountaineer, Hungarian, or Pole, exceeded their sacrifices made
when tardily accepted. And this is the race now asking our favor.

"Mr. Speaker, it will be one of the most joyful occasions of my life
to give expression to my gratitude by voting a ballot to those who
owed us so little, yet have aided us so faithfully and well. My
conscience approves it as a humane act to the millions who for
centuries have groaned under a terrible realization that on the side
of the oppressor there is power.

"My purpose is not to leave that heritage of shame to my children,
that I forgot those whose blood fed our rivers and crimsoned the sea,
and left them outcasts in the 'land of the free,' preferring white
treason to sable loyalty. I rather vote death the penalty for the
chief traitor, all honor and reward for our soldiery, and a ballot,
safety, and justice for the poor."

On the 15th of January the discussion was continued by Mr. Kasson, of
Iowa, who said: "Much has been said in this debate about the gallantry
of the negro troops, and about the number of negro troops in the war.
Gentlemen have declared here so broadly that we were indebted to them
for our victories as to actually convey the impression that they won
nearly all the victories accomplished by the armies of the United
States, and that to them are we indebted for the salvation of our
country and our triumph over the rebellion.

"I do not agree with them in the extent of their praise, nor the
grounds upon which it has been placed. One gentleman, I think it was
the gentleman from Pennsylvania, speaks of our debt to the negroes,
because they have fought our battles for us. This is a falsification
of the condition of the negroes, and of the history of the country in
this particular. _Those negroes fought for their liberty_, which was
involved in the preservation of the Union of the States. They fought
with us to accomplish the maintenance of the integrity of the country,
which carried with it the liberty of their own race; and what would
have been said of the negroes if they had not, under such
circumstances, come forward and united with us? While I yield to the
negro troops the credit of having exhibited bravery and manhood when
put to the test, I do not yield to them the exclusive or chief credit
of having won the victory for the Government of my country in
preserving this Union. Let us not, under false assertions of fact,
send out to the country and the world from this floor the declaration
that the white race of this country are wanting in the gallantry, the
devotion, and the patriotism which ultimately secured for our armies
triumph, and for our nation perpetuity.

"Unless intelligence exists in this country, unless schools are
supported and education diffused throughout the country, our
institutions are not safe, and either anarchy or despotism will be the
result; and when you propose substantially to introduce at once
three-quarters of a million or a million of voters, the great mass of
whom are ignorant and unable to tell when the ballot they vote is
right side up, then I protest against such an alarming infusion of
ignorance into the ballot-box, into that sacred palladium, as we have
always called it, of the liberties of our country. Let us introduce
them by fit degrees. Let them come in as fast as they are fit, and
their numbers will not shock the character of our institutions.

"I turn for a single moment to call attention to the philanthropy of
the proposition. If you introduce all without regard to qualification,
without their being able to read or write, and thus to understand the
questions on which they are to decide, what would be the effect? You
will take away from them the strongest incentive to learn to read or
write. As a race, it is not accustomed to position and property; it
has no homesteads, it has no stake in the country; and unless they are
required to be intelligent, and qualified to understand something
about our institutions and our laws, and the questions which are
submitted to the people from time to time, you say then to them, 'No
matter whether or not you make progress in civilization or education,
you shall have all the rights of citizenship,' and in that way you
take away from them all special motive to education and improvement.
On the contrary, if the ability to read and write and understand the
ballot is made the qualification on the part of these people to
exercise the right of voting, the remaining portion will see that
color is not exclusion. They would all aspire to the qualification
itself as preliminary to the act. You can submit no motive to that
race so powerful for the purpose of developing in them the education
and intelligence required.

"I say, therefore, on whatever grounds you put it, whether you regard
the safety of our institutions or the light of philanthropy, you
should insist on qualifications substantially the same as those
required in the State of Massachusetts. And let me say that, taking
the State of Massachusetts as an example of the result of general
intelligence and qualified suffrage, and a careful guardianship of the
ballot-box, I know of no more illustrious example in this or any other
country of its importance.

"With a credit that surpasses that of the United States, with a
history that is surpassed by no State in the Union, with wealth that
is almost fabulous in proportion to its population, with a prosperity
almost unknown in the history of the world, that State stands before
us to-day in all her dignity, strength, wealth, intelligence, and
virtue. And if we, by adopting similar principles in other States, can
secure such results, we certainly have an inducement to consider well
how far this condition is to be attributed to her diffused education,
and to the provisions of her constitution."

At the close of Mr. Kasson's speech, a colloquy occurred between him
and his colleague, Mr. Price, eliciting the fact that the question of
negro suffrage in Iowa had been squarely before the people of that
State in the late fall election, and their vote had been in favor of
the measure by a majority of sixteen thousand.

Mr. Julian, of Indiana, having obtained the floor near the hour of
adjournment, made his argument on the following day, when the
consideration of the question was resumed. In answer to the objection
that negro voting would "lead to the amalgamation of the races or
social equality," he said: "On this subject there is nothing left to
conjecture, and no ground for alarm. Negro suffrage has been very
extensively tried in this country, and we are able to appeal to facts.
Negroes had the right to vote in all the Colonies save one, under the
Articles of Confederation. They voted, I believe, generally, on the
question of adopting the Constitution of the United States. They have
voted ever since in New York and the New England States, save
Connecticut, in which the practice was discontinued in 1818. They
voted in New Jersey till the year 1840; in Virginia and Maryland till
1833; in Pennsylvania till 1838; in Delaware till 1831; and in North
Carolina and Tennessee till 1836. I have never understood that in all
this experience of negro suffrage the amalgamation of the races was
the result. I think these evils are not at all complained of to this
day in New England and New York, where negro suffrage is still
practiced and recognized by law."

In answer to the argument that a "war of races" might ensue, Mr.
Julian said: "Sir, a war of races in this country can only be the
result of denying to the negro his rights, just as such wars have been
caused elsewhere; and the late troubles in Jamaica should teach us, if
any lesson can, the duty of dealing justly with our millions of
freedmen. Like causes must produce like results. English law made the
slaves of Jamaica free, but England failed to enact other laws making
their freedom a blessing. The old spirit of domination never died in
the slave-master, but was only maddened by emancipation. For thirty
years no measures were adopted tending to protect or educate the
freedmen. At length, and quite recently, the colonial authorities
passed a whipping act, then a law of eviction for people of color,
then a law imposing heavy impost duties, bearing most grievously upon
them, and finally a law providing for the importation of coolies, thus
taxing the freedmen for the very purpose of taking the bread out of
the mouths of their own children! I believe it turns out, after all,
that these outraged people even then did not rise up against the local
government; but the white ruffians of the island, goaded on by their
own unchecked rapacity, and availing themselves of the infernal
pretext of a black insurrection, perpetrated deeds of rapine and
vengeance that find no parallel anywhere, save in the acts of their
natural allies, the late slave-breeding rebels, against our flag. Sir,
is there no warning here against the policy of leaving our freedmen to
the tender mercies of their old masters? Are the white rebels of this
District any better than the Jamaica villains to whom I have referred?
The late report of General Schurz gives evidence of some important
facts which will doubtless apply here. The mass of the white people in
the South, he says, are totally destitute of any national feeling. The
same bigoted sectionalism that swayed them prior to the war is almost
universal. Nor have they any feeling of the enormity of treason as a
crime. To them it is not odious, as very naturally it would not be,
under the policy which foregoes the punishment of traitors, and gives
so many of them the chief places of power in the South. And their
hatred of the negro to-day is as intense and scathing and as universal
as before the war. I believe it to be even more so. The proposition to
educate him and elevate his condition is every-where met with contempt
and scorn. They acknowledge that slavery, as it once existed, is
overthrown; but the continued inferiority and subordination of the
colored race, under some form of vassalage or serfdom, is regarded by
them as certain. Sir, they have no thought of any thing else; and if
the ballot shall be withheld from the freedmen after the withdrawal of
military power, the most revolting forms of oppression and outrage
will be practiced, resulting, at last, in that very war of races which
is foolishly apprehended as the effect of giving the negro his
rights."

A serious question confronted Mr. Julian, namely: How could
Representatives from States which negroes by constitutional provision
are forbidden to enter, be expected, to vote for negro suffrage in
this District? He said: "In seeking to meet this difficulty, several
considerations must be borne in mind. In the first place, the demand
for negro suffrage in this District rests not alone upon the general
ground of right, of democratic equality, but upon peculiar reasons
superinduced by the late war, which make it an immediate practical
issue, involving not merely the welfare of the colored man, but the
safety of society itself. If civil government is to be revived at all
in the South, it is perfectly self-evident that the loyal men there
must vote; but the loyal men are the negroes and the disloyal are the
whites. To put back the governing power into the hands of the very men
who brought on the war, and exclude those who have proved themselves
the true friends of the country, would be utterly suicidal and
atrociously unjust. Negro suffrage in the districts lately in revolt
is thus a present political necessity, dictated by the selfishness of
the white loyalist as well as his sense of justice. But in our Western
States, in which the negro population is relatively small, and the
prevailing sentiment of their white people is loyal, no such emergency
exists. Society will not be endangered by the temporary postponement
of the right of negro suffrage till public opinion shall render it
practicable, and leaving the question of suffrage in the loyal States
to be decided by them on its merits. If Indiana had gone out of her
proper place in the Union, and her loyal population had been found too
weak to force her back into it without negro bullets and bayonets, and
if, after thus coercing her again into her constitutional orbit, her
loyalists had been found unable to hold her there without negro
ballots, the question of negro suffrage in Indiana would most
obviously have been very different from the comparatively abstract one
which it now is. It would, it is true, have involved the question of
justice to the negroes of Indiana, but the transcendently broader and
more vital question of national salvation also. Let me add further,
that should Congress pass this bill, and should the ballot be given to
the negroes in the sunny South generally, those in our Northern and
Western States, many of them at least, may return to their native land
and its kindlier skies, and thus quiet the nerves of conservative
gentlemen who dread too close a proximity to those whose skins, owing
to some providential oversight, were somehow or other not stamped with
the true orthodox luster.

"The ballot should be given to the negroes as a matter of justice to
them. It should likewise be done as a matter of _retributive_ justice
to the slaveholders and rebels. According to the best information I
can obtain, a very large majority of the white people of this District
have been rebels in heart during the war, and are rebels in heart
still. That contempt for the negro and scorn of free industry, which
constituted the mainspring of the rebellion, cropped out here during
the war in every form that was possible, under the immediate shadow of
the central Government. Meaner rebels than many in this District could
scarcely have been found in the whole land. They have not been
punished. The halter has been cheated out of their necks. I am very
sorry to say that under what seems to be a false mercy, a misapplied
humanity, the guiltiest rebels of the war have thus far been allowed
to escape justice. I have no desire to censure the authorities of the
Government for this fact. I hope they have some valid excuse for their
action. This question of punishment I know is a difficult one. The
work of punishment is so vast that it naturally palsies the will to
enter upon it. It never can be thoroughly done on this side of the
grave. And were it practicable to punish adequately all the most
active and guilty rebels, justice would still remain unsatisfied. Far
guiltier men than they are the rebel sympathizers of the loyal States,
who coolly stood by and encouraged their friends in the South in their
work of national rapine and murder, and while they were ever ready to
go joyfully into the service of the devil, were too cowardly to wear
his uniform and carry his weapons in open day. But Congress in this
District has the power to punish by ballot, and there will be a
beautiful, poetic justice in the exercise of this power. Sir, let it
be applied. The rebels here will recoil from it with horror. Some of
the worst of them, sooner than submit to black suffrage, will
doubtless leave the District, and thus render it an unspeakable
service. To be voted down and governed by Yankee and negro ballots
will seem to them an intolerable grievance, and this is among the
excellent reasons why I am in favor of it. If neither hanging nor
exile can be extemporized for the entertainment of our domestic
rebels, let us require them at least to make their bed on negro
ballots during the remainder of their unworthy lives. Of course they
will not relish it, but that will be their own peculiar concern. Their
darling institution must be charged with all the consequences of the
war. They sowed the wind, and, if required, must reap the whirlwind.
Retribution follows wrong-doing, and this law must work out its
results. Rebels and their sympathizers, I am sure, will fare as well
under negro suffrage as they deserve, and I desire to leave them, as
far as practicable, in the hands of their colored brethren. Nor shall
I stop to inquire very critically whether the negroes are _fit_ to
vote. As between themselves and white rebels, who deserve to be hung,
they are eminently fit. I would not have them more so. Will you, Mr.
Speaker, will even my conservative and Democratic friends, be
particularly nice or fastidious in the choice of a man to vote down a
_rebel_? Shall we insist upon a perfectly finished gentleman and
scholar to vote down the traitors and white trash of this District,
who have recently signalized themselves by mobbing unoffending
negroes? Sir, almost any body, it seems to me, will answer the
purpose. I do not pretend that the colored men here, should they get
the ballot, will not sometimes abuse it. They will undoubtedly make
mistakes. In some cases they may even vote on the side of their old
masters. But I feel pretty safe in saying that even white men,
perfectly free from all _suspicion_ of negro blood, have sometimes
voted on the wrong side. Sir, I appeal to gentlemen on this floor, and
especially to my Democratic friends, to say whether they can not call
to mind instances in which white men have voted wrong? Indeed, it
rather strikes me that white voting, ignorant, depraved, party-ridden,
_Democratic_ white voting, had a good deal to do in hatching into life
the rebellion itself, and that no results of negro voting are likely
to be much worse."

After an hour occupied by Mr. Randall and Mr. Kelley, both of
Pennsylvania, in a colloquial discussion of the history and present
position of their State upon the subject of negro suffrage, Mr.
Thomas, of Maryland, addressed the House. After setting forth the
injustice the passage of the bill would work toward the people of his
State, he said:

"If I believed that the matter of suffrage was the only mode to help
the negro in his elevation, and the only safeguard to his protection,
or guarantee to his rights, I would be willing to give it to him now,
subject to proper qualifications and restrictions. But I am honest in
my conviction that, uneducated and ignorant as he is, a slave from his
birth, and subject to the will and caprice of his master, with none of
the exalted ideas of what that privilege means, and with but a faint
conception of the true position he now occupies, the negro is not the
proper subject to have conferred upon him this right. I believe if it
is given to him, that in localities where his is the majority vote,
parties will spring up, each one bidding higher than the other for his
ballot, and that in the end the negro-voting element will be
controlled by a few evil and wicked politicians, and as something to
be bought and sold as freely as an article of merchandise. I am
satisfied of another fact, from my experience of the Southern negro,
that if they are ever allowed to vote, the shrewd politician of the
South, who has been formerly his master, will exert more influence
over his vote than all the exhortations from Beecher or Cheever.

"It is a notorious fact that the Southern planter maintained his
political influence over the poor white man of the South, because the
poor white man was dependent on him for his living and support. And
you will find, when it is too late, that the Southern planter will
maintain the same political influence over the poor, uneducated,
ignorant, and dependent African, even to a greater extent than he
formerly exercised over what used to be called the 'poor white trash.'

"Mr. Speaker, let us not, because we have the majority here to-day,
pass upon measures which, if we were evenly divided, we would hesitate
to pass. Let us not, because we are called radicals, strike at the
roots of society, and of the great social and political systems that
have existed for over a century, and attempt to do in a day, without
any preparation, what, to do well and safely, will require years of
patience on the part of the freedmen, and earnest, honest exertions to
elevate, improve, and educate on our part. Let us look at this
question as statesmen, not as partisans. Let us not suppose that the
parties of to-day will have a perpetual existence, and that because
the negro, freed and emancipated by us, would naturally vote on the
side of his deliverer to-day, that it is any guarantee, when new
parties are formed and a competition arises, that the whole or the
major part of his vote will be cast on the right side. White men and
black men are liable to the same infirmities.

"Let us rather, sir, rejoice at what has been already done for him,
and be content to watch his future. Let us help to elevate and improve
him, not only in education, but in morals. Let us see to it that he is
not only protected in all his rights of person and of property, but
let us insist that the amplest guarantees shall be given. Let us wait
until the great problem the African is now working out has been
finished, and we find that he thoroughly comprehends and will not
abuse what he has got, before we attempt to confer other privileges,
which, when once granted, can never be taken from him. Sir, let it not
be forgotten that 'revolutions never go backward;' and if you ever
confer this right on the negro, and find it will not work well, that
you have been too hasty, that you should have waited awhile longer,
you will find it is too late, and that, once having possessed it, they
will not part with it except with their lives."

On the 17th of January the debate was resumed by Mr. Darling, of New
York, who remarked:

"What public necessity exists for the passage of this bill at this
time? There are no benefits which the colored people of this District
could attain by the exercise of the right of suffrage that Congress
could not bestow. Our right and power to legislate for this District
are unquestioned, and instead of wasting days and weeks over a
question which is exciting bitter feeling among our own people, had we
not better give our attention to matters of great national interest
which so urgently demand speedy action on our part? Let us pass laws
for the education of the people of this District, and fit them
ultimately to receive the elective franchise; or, if any thing is
required to satisfy the intense desire, manifested by some gentlemen
of this House, to bestow the franchise on those not now possessed of
it, give it to every soldier who served in the Union Army and was
honorably discharged, whether old or young, rich or poor, native or
foreign-born, white or black, and show to the world that the American
people, recognizing the services and sufferings of their brave
defenders, give them, as a recognition, the highest and best gift of
American citizenship.

"If I know myself, I know that no unjust or unmanly prejudice warps my
judgment or controls my action on any matter of legislation affecting
the colored race on this continent. I believe in their equality of
rights before the law with the dominant race. I believe in their
rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. And yet I
believe that, before we confer upon them the political right of
suffrage, as contemplated by the bill now under consideration, we
should seek to elevate their social condition, and lift them up from
the depths of degradation and ignorance in which many of them are left
by the receding waves of the sea of rebellion. There are many strong
objections to conferring upon the colored men of this District the
gift of unqualified suffrage without any qualification based on
intelligence. The large preponderance which they possess numerically
will inevitably lead to mischievous results. Neither would I entirely
disregard the views of the people of this District, many of whom I
know to be sound, loyal Union men.

"But I do not wish to see the Union party take any step in this
direction from which they may desire hereafter to recede. Let us first
rather seek to enlighten this people, and educate them to know the
value of the great gift of liberty which has been bestowed upon them;
teach them to know that to labor is for their best interests; teach
them to learn and lead virtuous and industrious lives, in order to
make themselves respected, and encourage them to act as becomes
freemen. Then they will vote intelligently, and not be subject to the
control of designing men, who would seek to use them for the
attainment of their own selfish ends.

"Now, Mr. Speaker, in conclusion I desire to say that, as no election
will take place in this District until next June, there can be no
reason for special haste in the passage of this bill, and that there
is a proposition before this House, which seems to be received with
very general favor, to create a commission for the government of this
city; and, in order to give an opportunity to mature a bill for that
purpose, and have it presented for the consideration of this House, I
move the postponement of the pending bill until the first Tuesday in
April next."

At a previous stage of the discussion of this measure, Mr. Hale had
proposed amendments to the bill. These amendments were now the subject
under discussion. They were in the following words:

"Amend the motion to recommit by adding to that motion an
instruction to the committee to amend the bill so as to
extend the right of suffrage in the District of Columbia to
all persons coming within either of the following classes,
irrespective of caste or color, but subject only to existing
provisions and qualifications other than those founded on
caste or color, to wit:

"1. Those who can read the Constitution of the United
States.

"2. Those who are assessed for and pay taxes on real or
personal property within the District.

"3. Those who have served in and been honorably discharged
from the military or naval service of the United States.

"And to restrict such right of suffrage to the classes above
named, and to include proper provisions excluding from the
right of suffrage those who have borne arms against the
United States during the late rebellion, or given aid and
comfort to said rebellion."

At the close of Mr. Darling's remarks, in which he had moved to
postpone the whole subject, Mr. Hale, of New York, having argued at
considerable length in favor of the several clauses of his proposed
amendment, remarked: "Of the details of my amendment I am by no means
tenacious. I do not expect to bring every member of the House, or even
every member on this side of the House, to concur in all my own views.
I desire simply to put my measures fairly before the House, and to
advocate them as I best can. I am ready and willing to yield my own
preferences in matters of detail to their better judgment. More than
that, I shall not follow the example that has been set by some on this
side of the House who oppose my amendment, and who claim to be the
peculiar friends of negro suffrage, by proclaiming that I will adhere
to the doctrine of qualified suffrage, and will join our political
enemies, the Democrats, in voting down every thing else. No, sir; for
one, and I say it with entire frankness, I prefer a restricted and
qualified suffrage substantially upon the basis that I have proposed.
If the voice of this House be otherwise--if the sentiment of this
Congress be that it is more desirable that universal suffrage should
be extended to all within this District, then, for one, I say most
decidedly I am for it rather than to leave the matter in its present
condition, or to disfranchise the black race in this District."

Mr. Thayer, of Pennsylvania, spoke as follows: "The proposition
contained in this bill is a new proposition. It contemplates a change
which will be a landmark in the history of this country--a landmark
which, if it is set up, will be regarded by the present and future
generations of men who are to inhabit this continent with pride and
satisfaction, or deplored as one of the gravest errors in the history
of legislation. The bill, if it shall become a law, will be, like the
law to amend the Constitution by abolishing slavery, the deep
foot-print of an advancing civilization, or the conspicuous monument
of an unwise and pernicious experiment.

"Much has been said, on the part of those who oppose the bill, on the
subject of its injustice to the white inhabitants of the District of
Columbia. Indeed, the argument on that side of the question is, when
divested of all that is immaterial, meretricious, and extravagant,
reduced almost entirely to that single position. Abstract this from
the excited declamation to which you have listened, and what is left
is but the old revolting argument in favor of slavery, and a selfish
appeal to prejudice and ignorance. It is insisted that a majority of
the white voters of the District are opposed to the contemplated law,
that they have recently given a public expression of their opinion
against it, and that for that reason it would be unjust and oppressive
in Congress to pass this law. In my judgment, this is a question not
concerning alone the wishes and prejudices of the seven thousand
voters who dwell in this District, but involving, it may be, the
honor, the justice, the good faith, and the magnanimity of the great
nation which makes this little spot the central seat of its empire and
its power.

"If it concerns the honor of the United States that a certain class of
its people, in a portion of its territory subject to its exclusive
jurisdiction and control, shall, in consideration of the change which
has taken place in its condition, and of the fidelity which it has
exhibited in the midst of great and severe trials, be elevated
somewhat above the political degradation which has hitherto been its
lot, shall the United States be prevented from the accomplishment of
that great and generous purpose by the handful of voters who
temporarily encamp under the shadow of the Capitol? It may be that the
determination of a question of so much importance as this belongs
rather to the people of the United States, through their
Representatives in Congress assembled, than to the present qualified
voters of this District. Sir, the field of inquiry is much wider than
the District of Columbia, and the problem to be solved one in which
not they alone are interested. When Congress determined that the time
had come when slavery should be abolished in this District, and the
capital of the nation should no longer be disgraced by its presence,
did it pause in the great work of justice to which it laid its hand to
hear from the mayor of Washington, or to inquire whether the masters
would vote for it? It is not difficult to conjecture what the fate of
that great measure would have been had its adoption or rejection
depended upon the voters of this District.

"Shall we be told, sir, that if the Representatives of the people of
twenty-five States are of the opinion that the laws and institutions
which exist in the seat of Government of the United States ought to be
changed, that they are not to be changed because a majority of the
voters who reside here do not desire that change? Will any man say
that the voices of these seven thousand voters are to outweigh the
voices of all the constituencies of the United States in the capital
of their country? I dismiss this objection, therefore, as totally
destitute of reason or weight. It is based upon a fallacy so feeble
that it is dissipated by the bare touch of the Constitution to it.

"Whatever is the duty of the United States to do, that is for their
interest to do. The two great facts written in history by the iron
hand of the late war are, first, that the Union is indissoluble, and
second, that human slavery is here forever abolished. From these two
facts consequences corresponding in importance with the facts
themselves must result: from the former, a more vigorous and powerful
nationality; from the latter, the elevation and improvement of the
race liberated by the war from bondage, as well as a higher and more
advanced civilization in the region where the change has taken place.
It is impossible to say that the African race occupies to-day the same
position in American affairs and counts no more in weight than it did
before the rebellion. You can not strike the fetters from the limbs of
four million men and leave them such as you found them. As wide as is
the interval between a freeman and a slave, so wide is the difference
between the African race before the rebellion and after the rebellion.
You can not keep to its ancient level a race which has been released
from servitude any more than you can keep back the ocean with your
hand after you have thrown down the sea-wall which restrained its
impatient tides. Freedom is every-where in history the herald of
progress. It is written in the annals of all nations. It is a law of
the human race. Ignorance, idleness, brutality--these belong to
slavery; they are her natural offspring and allies, and the gentleman
from New York, [Mr. Chanler,] who consumed so much time in
demonstrating the comparative inferiority of the black race, answered
his own argument when he reminded us that the Constitution recognized
the negro only as a slave, and gave us the strongest reason why we
should now begin to recognize him as a freeman. Sir, I do not doubt
that the negro race is inferior to our own. That is not the question.
You do not advance an inch in the argument after you have proved that
premise of your case. You must show that they are not only inferior,
but that they are so ignorant and degraded that they can not be safely
intrusted with the smallest conceivable part of political power and
responsibility, and that this is the case not on the plantations of
Alabama and Mississippi, but here in the District of Columbia. Nay,
you must not only prove that this is the general character of this
population here, but that this condition is so universal and
unexceptional that you can not allow them to take this first step in
freedom, although it may be hedged about with qualifications and
conditions; for which of you who have opposed this measure on the
ground of race has proposed to give the benefit of it to such as may
be found worthy? Not one of you. And this shows that your objection is
founded really on a prejudice, although it assumes the dignity and
proportions of an argument. The real question, sir, is, can we afford
to be just--nay, if you please, generous--to a race whose shame has
been washed out in the consuming fires of war, and which now stands
erect and equal before the law with our own? Shall we give hope and
encouragement to that race beginning, as it does now for the first
time, its career of freedom, by erecting here in the capital of the
republic a banner inscribed with the sacred legend of the elder days,
'All men are born free and equal?' or shall we unfurl in its stead
that other banner, with a strange device, around which the dissolving
remnants of the Democratic party in this hall are called upon to
rally, inscribed with no great sentiment of justice or generosity, but
bearing upon its folds the miserable appeal of the demagogue, 'This is
a white man's Government?' When you inaugurate your newly-discovered
political principle, do not forget to invite the colored troops; beat
the assembly; call out the remnants of the one hundred and eighty
thousand men who marched with steady step through the flames and
carnage of war, and many of whom bear upon their bodies the honorable
scars received in that unparallele

Showing first 200,000 characters. Full text: gutenberg.org/ebooks/24596