Chapter XXII: The Military Reconstruction Act (2)

Mr. Griswold regretted to vote against a measure proposed by those whom he believed to "have at heart the best interest of the whole country." "It seems to me," said he, "that the provisions of this bill will lead us into greater danger than is justified by the evils we seek to correct. It is, Mr. Speaker, a tremendous stride that we propose to make by this bill to subject to military control ten million people who have once been partners of this common country, and who are to be united with us in its future trials and fortunes. This bill proposes to place all the rights of life, liberty, and happiness exclusively in the control of a mere military captain. This bill contains no provisions for the establishment in the future of civil governments there; it simply provides that for an indefinite period in the future a purely military power shall have exclusive control and jurisdiction there. That is, therefore, to me, another and a very serious objection to this bill."

"There is a necessity," said Mr. Raymond, "for some measure of protection to the people of the Southern States. I think it is clear that life, liberty, and property are not properly guarded by law, are not safe throughout those Southern States. They are not properly protected by the courts and judicial tribunals of those States; they are not properly protected by the civil authorities that are in possession of political power in those States."

Of the pending bill, he said: "It is a simple abnegation of all attempts for the time to protect the people in the Southern States by the ordinary exercise of civil authority. It hands over all authority in those States to officers of the army of the United States, and clothes them as officers of the army with complete, absolute, unrestricted power to administer the affairs of those States according to their sovereign will and pleasure. In my opinion there has not occurred an emergency which justifies a resort to this extreme remedy. The military force ought to follow the civil authority, and not lead it, not take its place, not supersede it."

"We must compel obedience to the Union," said Mr. Garfield, "and demand protection for its humblest citizen wherever the flag floats. We must so exert the power of the nation that it shall be deemed both safe and honorable to have been loyal in the midst of treason. We must see to it that the frightful carnival of blood now raging in the South, shall continue no longer. The time has come when we must lay the heavy hand of military authority upon these rebel communities and hold them in its grasp till their madness is past."

Mr. Stevens having expressed a wish to have an immediate vote, Mr. Banks remarked: "I believe that a day or two devoted to a discussion of this subject of the reconstruction of the Government will bring us to a solution in which the two houses of Congress will agree, in which the people of this country will sustain us, and in which the President of the United States will give us his support."

"I have not the advantage," replied Mr. Stevens, "of the secret negotiations which the distinguished gentleman from Massachusetts [Mr. Banks] has, and from which he seems to expect such perfect harmony between the President and the Congress of the United States--within a few days. If I had that advantage, I do not know what effect it might have upon me. Not having it, I can not, of course, act upon it."

"In the remarks which I made," said Mr. Banks, "I made no allusion to any negotiations with the President. I have had no negotiations with the President of the United States, nor do I know his opinions, and in the vote which I shall give upon this question, neither the gentleman from Pennsylvania [Mr. Stevens] nor any other man has the right to assume that I accept the policy of the Executive in the smallest particular. I hope for a change of his position; I think that it is not impossible. At all events, I think it is something which is worth our while to try for."

The previous question was moved by Mr. Stevens; but a majority refusing to second the motion, the discussion was continued.

Mr. Kasson denied the existence of a right in Congress "to establish a military government over people who have been in insurrection." He proposed as a substitute for the pending measure "A bill to establish an additional article of war for the more complete suppression of the insurrection against the United States." This provided for a division of the rebel territory into military districts, as did the original bill, and authorized commanders to declare martial law wherever it should be necessary for the "complete suppression of violence and disorder."

Mr. Ashley moved an amendment providing for the restoration to loyal owners of property confiscated by the rebel government, and providing that military government should cease so soon as the people of the rebel States should adopt State constitutions securing to all citizens equal protection of the laws, including the right of the elective franchise, and should ratify the proposed amendment to the Constitution.

Mr. Raymond thought that, on account of the great diversity of opinion, the whole subject should be referred to a select committee, who should be instructed to report within three or four days a bill which should "provide temporarily for the protection of rights and the preservation of the peace in the States lately in rebellion, and also for the speedy admission of those States to their relations in the Union upon the basis of the Constitutional Amendment." Thus he hoped a result could be reached which "would command the support of Congress and of the country, and the approval, or at least the assent, of the Executive."

Mr. Boutwell remarked that previous propositions having been referred to the Committee on Reconstruction, they had agreed upon the bill before the House with a unanimity which no other report had ever obtained, nor had any bill submitted by that committee ever been so carefully considered as this. "To-day," said he, "there are eight millions and more of people, occupying six hundred and thirty thousand square miles of the territory of this country, who are writhing under cruelties nameless in their character--injustice such as has not been permitted to exist in any other country in modern times; and all this because in this capital there sits enthroned a man who, so far as the executive department is concerned, guides the destinies of the republic in the interest of rebels; and because, also, in those ten former States rebellion itself, inspired by the executive department of this Government, wields all authority, and is the embodiment of law and power every-where. Until in the South this obstacle to reconstruction is removed, there can be no effectual step taken toward the reörganization of the Government."

"A well man needs no remedies," said Mr. Niblack, in a speech against the bill; "it is only when he is sick that you can require him to submit to medicinal applications. A country at peace does not need and ought not to allow martial law and other summary remedies incident to a state of war. The highest and dearest interests of this country are made subordinate to party exigencies and to special and particular interests. No wonder, then, that trade languishes and commerce declines."

On the 12th of February, Mr. Bingham proposed an amendment making the restoration of the rebel States conditional upon their adoption of the Constitutional Amendment, and imposing upon them, meanwhile, the military government provided by the pending bill.

Mr. Kelley advocated the bill as reported from the committee. "This," said he, "is little more than a mere police bill. The necessity for it arises from the perfidy of the President of the United States. Had he been true to the duties of his high office and his public and repeated pledges, there would have been no necessity for considering such a bill."

"Throughout the region of the unreconstructed States," said Mr. Maynard, "the animating, life-giving principle of the rebellion is as thoroughly in possession of the country and of all the political power there to-day as it ever has been since the first gun was fired upon Fort Sumter. The rebellion is alive. It is strong--strong in the number of its votaries, strong in its social influences, strong in its political power, strong in the belief that the executive department of this Government is in sympathy and community of purpose with them, strong in the belief that the controlling majority of the supreme judiciary of the land is with them in legal opinion, strong in the belief that the controversy in this body between impracticable zeal and incorrigible timidity will prevent any thing of importance being accomplished or any legislation matured."

"It is," said Mr. Allison, "because of the interference of the President of the United States with the military law which exists in those States that this bill is rendered necessary. In my judgment, if we had to-day an Executive who was desirous of enforcing the laws of the United States to protect loyal men in those States, instead of defending the rebel element, this bill would not be needed."

Mr. Blaine submitted an amendment providing that any one of the "late so-called Confederate States" might be restored to representation and relieved of military rule when, in addition to having accepted the Constitutional Amendment, it should have conferred the elective franchise impartially upon all male citizens over twenty-one years of age.

Mr. Blaine maintained that the people in the elections of 1866 had declared in favor of "universal, or, at least, impartial suffrage as the basis of restoration."

On the 13th of February the discussion was continued. "That the spirit of rebellion still lives," said Mr. Van Horn, of New York, "and now thrives in the South no sane man can deny; that the determination exists to make their rebellion honorable and the loyalty of the South a lasting disgrace and a permanent badge of dishonor is equally true and can not be denied. The leaders of the rebellion, being in power in all the ten States unreconstructed, still defy the authority of the United States to a great extent, and deny the-power of the loyal millions of the country, who have saved our nation's life against their treason and rebellion, to prescribe terms of settlement of this great controversy, and deny also that they have lost any rights they had before the war or committed any treason against the Government."

The measure before the House, as it came from the Committee on Reconstruction, "was not intended as a reconstruction bill," according to the interpretation of Mr. Stevens. "It was intended simply as a police bill to protect the loyal men from anarchy and murder, until this Congress, taking a little more time, can suit gentlemen in a bill for the admission of all those rebel States upon the basis of civil government."

The various amendments proposed were designed by their authors to add a plan of reconstruction to the pending bill. Of these Mr. Boutwell remarked: "Without examining into the details of the amendments, I have this to say, that any general proposition for the restoration of these States to the Union upon any basis not set forth in an act of Congress is fraught with the greatest danger to future peace and prosperity of the republic."

The amendments of Mr. Bingham and Mr. Blaine were finally combined by their authors. The combination made an amendment providing that the "States lately in insurrection" should be restored and relieved of military rule upon their ratification of the Constitutional Amendment and adoption of impartial suffrage. In order to "disentangle what seemed so much entangled," it was moved that the bill be recommitted to the Judiciary Committee, with instructions to report back immediately the amendment of Messrs. Blaine and Bingham.

Mr. Stevens then addressed the House, premising that in his state of health a few words must suffice. He felt a moral depression in viewing the condition of the party responsible for the doings of Congress. "For the last few months," said he, "Congress has been sitting here, and while the South has been bleeding at every pore, Congress has done nothing to protect the loyal people there, white or black, either in their persons, in their liberty, or in their property."

Of his previous bill, which had been consigned to its tomb in being referred to the Committee on Reconstruction, Mr. Stevens said: "I thought it was a good bill; I had labored upon it in conjunction with several committees of loyal men from the South for four months; I had altered and realtered it, written and rewritten it four several times, and found that it met the approbation of numerous societies and meetings in all the Southern States. It was, therefore, not altogether my fault if it was not so good a bill as might be found; but I did think that, after all, it was uncivil, unjust, indecent not to attempt to amend it and make it better, to see whether we could do something to enable our friends in the Southern States to establish institutions according to the principles of republican government."

Mr. Stevens deprecated a disposition among his friends to be hypercritical in relation to mere verbal details. "If I might presume upon my age," said he, "without claiming any of the wisdom of Nestor, I would suggest to the young gentlemen around me that the deeds of this burning crisis, of this solemn day, of this thrilling moment, will cast their shadows far into the future and will make their impress upon the annals of our history, and that we shall appear upon the bright pages of that history just in so far as we cordially, without guile, without bickering, without small criticisms, lend our aid to promote the great cause of humanity and universal liberty."

The question being taken on the motion to refer to the Committee on the Judiciary, it was decided in the negative--yeas, 69; nays, 94. The question was then taken on the passage of the bill. It passed the House--one hundred and nine voting in the affirmative, and fifty-five in the negative.

"I wish to inquire, Mr. Speaker," said Mr. Stevens, "if it is in order for me now to say that we indorse the language of good old Laertes, that Heaven rules as yet, and there are gods above."

At the evening session of the Senate on the same day, the bill "to provide for the more efficient government of the insurrectionary States" was announced as having passed the House, and at once received its first reading. Mr. Williams gave notice of his intention to propose an amendment, but on the following day, when the Senate proceeded to consider the subject, he said that being impressed with the necessity of the passage of the bill, and fearing that any amendment might endanger if not defeat it, he had concluded not to present his amendment.

Mr. Johnson said that the adoption of the amendment would make the bill much less objectionable to him, although he could not vote for it even if amended. He then offered the amendment, which was substantially the same as that proposed by Messrs. Bingham and Blaine in the House of Representatives.

Mr. Stewart regretted that the Senator from Oregon had changed his mind in regard to this amendment. "The military bill without that," said he, "is an acknowledgment that, after two years of discussion and earnest thought, we are unable to reconstruct, and are compelled to turn the matter over to the military. It seems to me that the people of the United States want and demand something more than a military government for the South."

Several Senators thought Mr. Stewart was unnecessarily troubled about military governments in the South. "Are we," asked Mr. Morrill, "who have stood here for five long, bloody years, and witnessed the exercise of military power over these rebel States, to be frightened now by a declaration of that sort? That is not the temper in which I find myself to-day. I have got so accustomed, if you please, to the exercise of this authority----"

"That is the trouble," said Mr. Stewart.

"That has not been our trouble that we have exercised power," said Mr. Morrill; "that has been the salvation of the nation. The trouble has been from the hesitation to exercise authority when authority was required."

Mr. Wilson thought that the wisest course would be to pass the bill just as it came from the House. If it was to be amended at all, he would propose an amendment that all citizens should "equally possess the right to pursue all lawful avocations and receive the equal benefits of the public schools."

"I think the amendments," said Mr. Howard, "entirely incompatible with the scheme and provisions of the bill itself, and that gentlemen will discover that incompatibility on looking into it."

Mr. Henderson thought that the remedy proposed by him long before would be found the only cure for the ills of the nation. "I offered," said he, "twelve months ago, a proposition, as a constitutional amendment, that was to give political rights to the negroes. Some Senators said it was a humbug, that it was Jacob Townsend's Sarsaparilla, or some thing to that effect, that it would amount to nothing. Now, I will ask what other protection can you give to a Union man in the Southern States than the ballot?"

Since the bill must be passed both Houses and go to the President by the following Tuesday, in order to give Congress time to pass it over his veto, Mr. Williams, who had the bill in charge, was desirous of having it passed upon in the Senate on the evening of the day of this discussion, February 15th. Several Senators protested against this as unreasonable haste. "It is extraordinary," said Mr. Doolittle, "that a bill of this kind, that proposes to establish a military despotism over eight million people and a country larger than England, France, and Spain combined, is to be pressed to a vote in this Senate the first day it is taken up for consideration."

"If the measure will not bear argument," said Mr. Hendricks, "then let it be passed in the dark hours of the night. I think it is becoming, when despotism is established in this free land, that the best blood that ever ran in mortal veins was shed to make free, that that despotism shall be established when the sun does not shed its bright light upon the earth. It is a work for darkness and not for light."

"He talks about establishing a despotism," said Mr. Henderson, "and gets into a perfect fret about it. Why, sir, the Southern States have presented nothing but a despotism for the last six years. During the rebel rule it was a despotism, the veriest despotism ever established upon earth; and since the rebel rule ceased, the President of the United States certainly has governed the Southern States without ever consulting Congress on the subject."

The Senate held an evening session for the consideration of this bill. Mr. Hendricks proposed to modify the pending amendment so as to provide for impartial rather than universal suffrage. He thought that States should be allowed to limit suffrage. Mr. Saulsbury would not vote for this amendment because he was unwilling to "touch, taste, or handle the unclean thing." On the other hand, Mr. Davis could vote for it because he preferred a "little unclean thing" to "a big one." Mr. Hendricks finally withdrew his amendment.

Mr. Doolittle hoped that the majority would seriously weigh this question because on it might depend whether the people of the South would accept the Constitutional Amendment, and accept the proposition necessary to get rid of military despotism.

"Make them," said Mr. Wilson.

"I ask," said Mr. Doolittle, "if that is the true language of a statesman, to say to a people who have been educated in the largest liberty, a people in whose veins the Anglo-Saxon blood is flowing, which for a thousand years has been fighting against despotism of every form, 'You must accept this position at the point of the bayonet, or forever live with the bayonet at your throats?' Is that the way to make peace?"

"I think it is statesmanship," replied Mr. Wilson, "to settle this question of reconstruction upon the solid basis of the perfect equality of rights and privileges among citizens of the United States. Colored men are citizens, and they have just as much right as this race whose blood has been fighting against oppression for a thousand years, as he says, and any settlement of this civil war upon any other basis than perfect equality of rights and privileges among citizens of the United States is not statesmanship; it is mere trifling; only keeping open questions for future controversy. Nothing is settled unless it is settled upon the basis of justice."

"I shall vote for this amendment," said Mr. Lane, "believing that it is necessary to make a perfect system for the restoration of the lately rebellious States."

"The amendment," said Mr. Johnson, "is objectionable to me only upon the ground that it denies to those States the right of coming into the Union entitled to representation until they extend the suffrage, because I believe the right of suffrage is a matter with which the Congress of the United States has no concern."

"I know perfectly well," said Mr. Buckalew, "that a vote for this amendment, although given under circumstances which do not commit me to the proposition as a final one, will be misunderstood and perverted. It will be said throughout the country of each of those who stand in the position in which I stand, that we have departed, to some extent at least, from that position which we have hitherto maintained, and maintained against all the influences of the time, against the pressure of circumstances which have swept many from our side and carried them into the large and swollen camp of the majority. Sir, I for one am ambitious of being known as one among that number of men who have kept their faith, who have followed their convictions, who have obeyed the dictation of duty in the worst of times, who did not bend when the storm beat hardest and strongest against them, but kept their honor unsullied, their faith intact, their self-respect unbroken and entire."

"My object is," said Mr. Henderson, when proposing to modify the pending amendment, "to secure the franchise, and after that is secured, to go forward and establish civil governments in the Southern States."

Extended arguments against the measure were made by Mr. Johnson and Mr. Hendricks. At twelve o'clock the minority desired to adjourn, and the friends of the measure would have been willing to do so could an understanding have been had as to an hour on the following day when the vote would be taken.

Mr. McDougall would submit to no such-limitation upon free speech. "I do not expect myself," said he, "to speak at any great length, but yet if upon careful consideration I should choose to do so, or if possessing the recollections of past times and memories and reasons and considerations that yet lay in my hidden memories I shall choose to talk for a longer period, I shall claim the right to do so."

"I am anxious to give my views on this subject," said Mr. Davis. "I do not feel able to give them at this late hour of the night; still, I believe I could hang on for three or four hours if I was disposed to do so, [laughter,] but I believe that to-morrow I should not occupy more than at the farthest two hours of the time of the Senate."

Numerous amendments were proposed, much discursive talk was indulged in, and many motions to adjourn were voted down. At length, three o'clock of Saturday morning, February 16th, having arrived, an adjournment was brought about by means of a very long amendment proposed by Mr. Henderson as a substitute for the entire bill. This opening up a new discussion, the friends of the pending bill saw the impossibility of coming to a speedy vote, and consented to an adjournment.

On the reässembling of the Senate on Saturday, February 16th, Mr. Doolittle delivered a very long speech in opposition to the bill, and in vindication of his political course which had been called in question by the "Radicals of Wisconsin." "I rise," said he, "to plead for what I believe to be the life of the republic, and for that spirit which gives it life. I stand here, also, to answer for myself; because, foreseeing and resisting from the beginning what I knew must follow as the logical consequences of the adoption of certain fundamental heresies originating in Massachusetts, and of which the honorable Senator upon my right [Mr. Sumner] is the advocate and champion, I have been for more than eighteen months denounced in my State by many of my former political associates and friends."

At the evening session of the Senate, Mr. Saulsbury and Mr. Davis delivered extended speeches against the measure. "I appeal to you, sir," said Mr. Saulsbury; "I appeal to those who exercise political power in this country now, by all the memories that cluster around the glorious past; by the recollection of the noble deeds and heroic sufferings of our ancestors, for you and for me, for your posterity and for my posterity; by all the bright realizations which might be ours in this present hour; by all the bright future and all the glories which are in that immediate future, stop your aggressions upon the Constitution of your country."

The vote having been taken on the amendment proposed by Mr. Johnson and the substitute of Mr. Henderson, they were both rejected.

Mr. Sherman then offered an amendment in the nature of a substitute, the preamble of which declared that "No legal State governments or adequate protection for life or property now exist in the rebel States." It retained the military feature of the original bill, with the modification that the President, instead of the General of the army, should appoint district commanders. The most important part of the amendment was a plan of reconstruction, which added a new section to the bill in the following form:

"SEC. 5. _And be it further enacted_, That when the people
of any one of said rebel States shall have formed a
Constitution of government in conformity with the
Constitution of the United States in all respects, framed by
a convention of delegates elected by the male citizens of
said State twenty-one years old and upward, of whatever
race, color, or previous condition of servitude, who have
been resident in said State for one year previous to the day
of such election, except such as may be disfranchised for
participation in the rebellion, or for felony at common law,
and when such Constitution shall provide that the elective
franchise shall be enjoyed by all such persons as have the
qualifications herein stated for electors of delegates, and
when such Constitution shall be ratified by a majority of
the persons voting on the question of ratification who are
qualified as electors of delegates, and when such
Constitution shall have been submitted to Congress for
examination and approval, and Congress shall have appointed
the same, and when said State, by a vote of its Legislature
elected under said Constitution, shall have adopted the
amendment to the Constitution of the United States proposed
by the Thirty-ninth Congress, and known as article fourteen,
and when said article shall have become a part of the
Constitution of the United States, said State shall be
declared entitled to representation in Congress, and
Senators and Representatives shall be admitted therefrom on
their taking the oath prescribed by law, and then and
thereafter the preceding sections of this act shall be
inoperative in said State."

Mr. Sherman made a brief speech in explanation of the bill. "All there is material in the bill," said he, "is in the first two lines of the preamble and the fifth section, in my judgment. The first two lines may lay the foundation, by adopting the proclamation issued first to North Carolina, that the rebellion had swept away all the civil governments in the Southern States; and the fifth section points out the mode by which the people of those States, in their own manner, without any limitations or restrictions by Congress, may get back to full representation in Congress."

After numerous propositions to amend, and speeches against the bill by Messrs. Hendricks, Cowan, Buckalew and McDougall, the Senate reached a vote upon the bill at six o'clock on Sunday morning. Twenty-nine voted in the affirmative, namely:

Messrs. Anthony, Brown, Cattell, Chandler, Conness, Cragin,
Creswell, Fogg, Frelinghuysen, Grimes, Howard, Howe,
Kirkwood, Lane, Morgan, Morrill, Poland, Pomeroy, Ramsey,
Ross, Sherman, Stewart, Trumbull, Van Winkle, Wade, Willey,
Williams, Wilson, and Yates.

Ten voted in the negative, to-wit:

Messrs. Buckalew, Cowan, Davis, Doolittle, Hendricks,
McDougall, Nesmith, Norton, Patterson, and Saulsbury.

The Senate amended the title of the bill by substituting the word "rebel" for "insurrectionary." Thus passed in the Senate the great measure entitled "A bill to provide for the more efficient government of the rebel States."

On Monday, February 18th, the bill, as amended, came before the House. Mr. Stevens moved that the amendments of the Senate be non-concurred in, and that the House ask a Committee of Conference.

Mr. Boutwell opposed the amendment. "If I did not believe," said he, "that this bill, in the form in which it now comes to us from the Senate, was fraught with great and permanent danger to the country, I would not attempt to resist further its passage."

He objected to the bill on the ground that it proposed to reconstruct the rebel State governments at once, through the agency of disloyal men, and that it gave additional power to the President when he had failed to use the vast power which he already possessed in behalf of loyalty and justice.

Mr. Stokes saw in the bill the principle of universal amnesty and universal suffrage. "I would rather have nothing," said he, "if these governments are reconstructed in a way that will place the rebels over Union men."

"Now, what has the Senate done?" Mr. Stevens asked. "Sent back to us an amendment which contains every thing else but protection. It has sent us back a bill which raises the whole question in dispute as to the best mode of reconstructing these States by distant and future pledges which this Congress has no authority to make and no power to execute. What power has this Congress to say to a future Congress, When the Southern States have done certain things, you shall admit them, and receive their members into this House?"

"Our friends," said he, in another part of his remarks, "who love this bill, love it now because the President is to execute it, as he has executed every law for the last two years, by the murder of Union men, and by despising Congress and flinging into our teeth all that we seek to have done."

Mr. Stevens thought that in two hours a Committee of Conference could frame a bill and report it to the House free from all these difficulties--free from all this extraneous matter--which would protect every loyal man in the Southern States, and do no injustice to the disloyal.

Mr. Blaine supported the bill as it came from the Senate. "Congress," said he, "no more guarantees, under this bill, the right of any rebel in any State to vote than did Congress guarantee to the rebels in Tennessee the right to vote."

"Although this bill," said Mr. Wilson of Iowa, "does not attain all I desire to accomplish, it does embrace much upon which I have insisted. It reaches far beyond any thing which the most sanguine of us hoped for a year ago. It secures equal suffrage to all loyal men; it sets aside the pretended governments which now abuse power in the rebel States; it insists on the ratification of the Constitutional Amendment, under the operation of which all the rebels who now occupy official position in the States affected by this bill will be rendered ineligible to office, State or national; it presents an affirmative policy, on the part of Congress, hostile to that of the President; it demonstrates the ability of Congress to agree upon a given line of future action; and, finally, it reserves to Congress jurisdiction over the whole case when the people of any Southern disorganized State may present a Constitution and ask for admission to this body as a part of the governing power of the nation. There is too much of good in this to be rejected. I will vote to concur in the amendment of the Senate."

Mr. Bingham maintained that in the bill, as it passed the House, they had voted as extensive powers to the President as were conferred upon him by the bill as amended by the Senate. The former bill provided that the General in command of the army should detail army officers; but all officers of the army are under command of the Commander-in-chief as constituted by the supreme law of the land. "For myself," said he, "I had rather that my right hand should forget its cunning, and that my tongue should cleave to the roof of my mouth, than to find myself here so false to my own convictions, and so false to the high trust committed to me by that people who sent me here as to vote against this bill."

"This bill," said Mr. Farnsworth, "provides a platform ten steps in advance of the platform upon which we went to the people last fall. We then only expected the ratification of the amendment to the Constitution proposed by Congress at its last session, and the formation of Constitutions, republican in form, which should give the people there the right to send loyal men here as Senators and Representatives. But by this bill we extend impartial suffrage to the black man--universal suffrage."

"I am one of those who believe we ought to do something," said Mr. Schenck. "I believe we ought to declare to these rebel States, as we do by this bill, that they shall be put under martial law, and held by the strong hand to keep the peace until they have complied with whatever conditions are imposed upon them. But while we do this, I think it equally important to announce to them, to announce to the country, to announce to our constituents as the completion of the whole platform upon which we go before the nation, the terms which we require of them."

Mr. Garfield favored the Senate amendment. "There are some gentlemen," said he, "who live among the eagles on the high mountain peaks, beyond the limit of perpetual frost, and they see the lineaments in the face of freedom so much clearer than I do, whenever any measure comes here that seems almost to grasp our purpose, they rise and tell us it is all poor and mean and a surrender of liberty."

"These terms embrace, in my judgment," said Mr. Thayer, "every guarantee, every safeguard, and every check which it is proper for us to demand or apply. Upon these foundations we can safely build, for by them we retain the final control of the question in our own hands."

Mr. Hotchkiss opposed the bill as amended. "If you allow this bill to go into operation as it now stands," said he, "without making any amendment of its provisions, and permit these elections to be held, as they must necessarily be held under this bill, under the authority, control, and regulation of the rebel governments in those States, there will be no security whatever, and you will have the elections in New Orleans held under the control of Mayor Monroe and the mob which he used to such fell purpose last summer. That is the entertainment to which this bill invites us.

"I regard this as a flank movement," said Mr. Bromwell, "by which is to be brought about that darling scheme of certain politicians--universal amnesty and universal suffrage. Whether it end in universal suffrage or not, one thing is certain, it is universal amnesty."

"It would be emphatically," said Mr. Donnelly, "a government of rebels. I say a government of rebels, because although the amendment which has reached us from the Senate contains the words, 'Except such as may be disfranchised for participation in the rebellion,' that disfranchisement has to come from the rebels themselves, and surely there is no man upon this floor weak enough to suppose that they will so disfranchise themselves."

Mr. Le Blond opposed both bills. Of the one before the House, he said: "This bill is quite as infamous, quite as absurd, as the bill that the distinguished gentleman from Pennsylvania, [Mr. Stevens,] who is Chairman of the Committee on Reconstruction, contends for and hangs so tenaciously to. It confers all the powers that that bill gives; it confers all the powers that the most radical could claim consistently."

"I shall content myself," said Mr. Eldridge, "with denouncing this measure as most wicked and abominable. It contains all that is vicious, all that is mischievous in any and all of the propositions which have come either from the Committee on Reconstruction or from any gentleman upon the other side of the House."

"If you do not take this bill," said Mr. Delano, "although in all its parts it does not suit you, what are you likely to give the American people? Nothing. I will not return to my constituents admitting that I have failed to try to do something in this great trial of the nation. It is not for rebels that I legislate; it is not for the right of those who have sought to destroy this Government that I extend mercy; but it is for the liberties, rights, and welfare of my country, for all parts of it."

"If this bill be passed," said Mr. Banks, "in my belief there will be no loyal party known and no loyal voice heard in any of these States, from Virginia to Texas."

Many members subsequently presented arguments and opinions for and against the bill, in speeches limited to fifteen minutes in length. This occupied a session protracted until near midnight.

On the following morning, February 19th, a vote was taken, and the House refused to concur in the amendments of the Senate, and asked a Committee of Conference.

The action of the House having been announced in the Senate, that body immediately proceeded to consider a motion made by Mr. Williams, that they insist on their amendment and agree to the conference. The proposition to give the subject into the hands of a Committee of Conference was opposed by many Senators, who thought a question of so much importance should be deliberated upon in a full Senate. If such a committee were appointed, their report could only be adopted or rejected without modification or amendment. They would only have the power which they possess over a nomination by the President--power to reject a nominee without naming another.

"The result arrived at by the Senate in reference to this bill," said Mr. Conness, "was after the most mature consideration that was ever given to any proposition that came before this body, resulting in an unanimity, at least on this side of the chamber, unparalleled in legislative proceedings--a result hailed by the country at large, demanded by the most intelligent and powerful of the American press, alike acceptable to the industrial and commercial interests of the country, which suffer from a continual disorganization of the country affecting its vital industries."

"The fact that it is a very important bill," said Mr. Williams, "only makes it the more necessary, as it seems to me, to adopt the usual practice in such cases"--that of appointing a Committee of Conference.

Mr. Sumner favored the appointment of such a committee. The Senate had made its best endeavor, the House had refused to concur, and now to ask that body to vote upon the question again without a Committee of Conference would kill the bill. In such a case there could be no hope during the session for any just and beneficent measure either of protection or reconstruction.

Mr. Fessenden had taken no part in the debate upon the bill when it was on its passage. A majority of his political friends having determined that the measure which passed the Senate was the best that could be accomplished, he had deemed it his duty not to present his individual objections to the bill. "I would have very much preferred," said he, "the Military Bill, as it was called, pure and simple, without having any thing else upon it, and leaving to other legislation, if it was judged expedient, what else might be done."

Mr. Trumbull had not before said a word in reference to this bill. He never regarded the Military Bill as it came from the House of Representatives as of the slightest importance. Section fourteenth, of the Freedmen's Bureau Bill conferred all the powers given in the Military Bill. If these had not been used for the protection of the loyal people of the South, would the reiteration of the statute be to any purpose? Yet Mr. Trumbull thought the amendment put upon the bill by the Senate contained every guarantee that had ever been asked for by any one. He was unwilling that a great question like this, open in all its parts, should be submitted to a Committee of Conference.

The vote was finally taken, after a prolonged discussion. The Senate insisted on its amendment, and refused to appoint a Committee of Conference.

The bill having gone back to the House of Representatives, they resolved by a vote of one hundred and twenty-six to forty-six to recede from their disagreement to the amendment of the Senate, and to concur in the same with amendments, providing that no person excluded from holding office by the recently proposed Constitutional Amendment should be eligible for membership in the convention to frame a constitution for any of the rebel States, nor should any such person be allowed to vote for members of such convention. Another amendment proposed by the House was the addition of a section (sixth) to the bill providing that until the rebel States should be admitted to representation in Congress, any civil governments existing therein should be deemed provisional only, and subject to the paramount authority of the United States, who may at any time abolish, modify, control, or supersede them.

This qualified concurrence on the part of the House having been announced in the Senate, that body proceeded immediately to consider the question of acquiescence.

Mr. Sherman said that his only objection to the amendment of the House was, that it disfranchised ten or fifteen thousand leading rebels from voting at the elections, yet he was willing to agree to the amendment.

Mr. Sumner congratulated Mr. Sherman on the advanced step he had taken. "To-morrow," said Mr. Sumner, "I hope to welcome the Senator to some other height."

Mr. Sherman was unwilling to admit that he had come to Mr. Sumner's stand-point. He was willing to accept the bill, although it excluded a few thousand rebels from voting, yet "I would rather have them all vote," said he, "white and black, under the stringent restrictions of this bill, and let the governments of the Southern States that are about now to rise upon the permanent foundation of universal liberty and universal equality, stand upon the consent of the governed, white and black, former slaves and former masters."

Then followed an extended discussion of the question as to whether the Senate should agree to the amendments proposed by the House. Mr. Doolittle proposed and advocated an amendment providing that nothing in the bill should be construed to disfranchise persons who have received pardon and amnesty. This amendment was rejected--yeas, 8; nays, 33.

The vote was then taken upon the final passage of the bill as amended by the House; it passed the Senate--yeas, 35; nays, 7.

The Bill "to provide for the more efficient government of the rebel States," having thus passed both houses of Congress on the 20th of February, it was immediately submitted to the President for his approval.

On the second of March the President returned the bill to the House, in which it originated, with his objections, which were so grave that he hoped a statement of them might "have some influence on the minds of the patriotic and enlightened men with whom the decision must ultimately rest."

The Veto Message was immediately read by the clerk of the House of Representatives. The following extracts present the President's principal objections to the measure:

"The bill places all the people of the ten States therein
named under the absolute domination of military rulers. * * *

"It is not denied that the States in question have each of
them an actual government, with all the powers, executive,
judicial, and legislative which properly belong to a free
State. They are organized like the other States of the
Union, and like them they make, administer, and execute the
laws which concern their domestic affairs. An existing _de
facto_ government, exercising such functions as these, is
itself the law of the State upon all matters within its
jurisdiction. To pronounce the supreme law-making power of
an established State illegal is to say that law itself is
unlawful. * * *

"The military rule which it establishes is plainly to be
used, not for any purpose of order or for the prevention of
crime, but solely as a means of coercing the people into the
adoption of principles and measures to which it is known
that they are opposed, and upon which they have an
undeniable right to exercise their own judgment.

"I submit to Congress whether this measure is not, in its
whole character, scope, and object, without precedent and
without authority, in palpable conflict with the plainest
provisions of the Constitution, and utterly destructive to
those great principles of liberty and humanity for which our
ancestors on both sides of the Atlantic have shed so much
blood and expended so much treasure.

* * * * *

"The power thus given to the commanding officer over all the
people of each district is that of an absolute monarch. His
mere will is to take the place of all law. The law of the
States is now the only rule applicable to the subjects
placed under his control, and that is completely displaced
by the clause which declares all interference of State
authority to be null and void. He alone is permitted to
determine what are rights of person or property, and he may
protect them in such way as in his discretion may seem
proper. It places at his free disposal all the lands and
goods in his district, and he may distribute them without
let or hinderance to whom he pleases. Being bound by no
State law, and there being no other law to regulate the
subject, he may make a criminal code of his own; and he can
make it as bloody as any recorded in history, or he can
reserve the privilege of acting upon the impulse of his
private passions in each case that arises. He is bound by no
rules of evidence; there is indeed no provision by which he
is authorized or required to take any evidence at all. Every
thing is a crime which he chooses to call so, and all
persons are condemned whom he pronounces to be guilty. He is
not bound to keep any record or make any report of his
proceedings. He may arrest his victims wherever he finds
them, without warrant, accusation, or proof of probable
cause. If he gives them a trial before he inflicts the
punishment, he gives it of his grace and mercy, not because
he is commanded so to do.

* * * * *

"Cruel or unusual punishment is not to be inflicted, but who
is to decide what is cruel and what is unusual? * * * Each
officer may define cruelty according to his own temper, and
if it is not usual, he will make it usual. Corporal
punishment, imprisonment, the gag, the ball and chain, and
the almost insupportable forms of torture invented for
military punishment lie within the range of choice. The
sentence of a commission is not to be executed without being
approved by the commander, if it affects life or liberty,
and a sentence of death must be approved by the President.
This applies to cases in which there has been a trial and
sentence. I take it to be clear, under this bill, that the
military commander may condemn to death without even the
form of a trial by a military commission, so that the life
of the condemned may depend upon the will of two men instead
of one.

"It is plain that the authority here given to the military
officer amounts to absolute despotism.

* * * * *

"I come now to a question which is, if possible, still more
important. Have we the power to establish and carry into
execution a measure like this? I answer certainly not, if we
derive our authority from the Constitution, and if we are
bound by the limitations which it imposes. This proposition
is perfectly clear; that no branch of the Federal
Government, executive, legislative, or judicial, can have
any just powers except those which it derives through and
exercises under the organic law of the Union. Outside of the
Constitution we have no legal authority more than private
citizens, and within it we have only so much as that
instrument gives us. This broad principle limits all our
function and applies to all subjects. It protects not only
the citizens of States which are within the Union, but it
shields every human being who comes or is brought under our
jurisdiction. "We have no right to do in one place more than
in another that which the Constitution says we shall not do
at all. If, therefore, the Southern States were in truth out
of the Union, we could not treat their people in a way which
the fundamental law forbids. * * *

"If an insurrection should take place in one of our States
against the authority of the State government, and end in
the overthrowing of those who planned it, would they take
away the rights of all the people of the counties where it
was favored by a part or a majority of the population? Could
they for such a reason be wholly outlawed and deprived of
their representation in the Legislature? I have always
contended that the Government of the United States was
sovereign within its constitutional sphere; that it executed
its laws like the States themselves, by applying its
coercive power directly to individuals; and that it could
put down insurrection with the same effect as a State and no
other. The opposite doctrine is the worst heresy of those
who advocated secession, and can not be agreed to without
admitting that heresy to be right.

* * * * *

"This is a bill passed by Congress in time of peace. There
is not in any one of the States brought under its operation
either war or insurrection. The laws of the States and of
the Federal Government are all in undisturbed and harmonious
operation. The courts, State and Federal, are open and in
the full exercise of their proper authority. Over every
State comprised in these five military districts life,
liberty, and property are secured by State laws and Federal
laws, and the national Constitution is every-where enforced
and every-were obeyed.

* * * * *

"Actual war, foreign invasion, domestic insurrection--none
of these appear, and none of these in fact exist. It is not
even recited that any sort of war or insurrection is
threatened."

"Upon this question of constitutional law and the power of Congress," the President gave quotations from "a recent decision of the Supreme Court _ex parte_ Milligan." Having commented upon this opinion, the President proceeded with his objections:

"I need not say to the Representatives of the American
people that their Constitution forbids the exercise of
judicial power in any way but one; that is, by the ordained
and established courts. It is equally well known that, in
all criminal cases, a trial by jury is made indispensable by
the express words of that instrument. I will not enlarge on
the inestimable value of the right thus secured to every
freeman, or speak of the danger to public liberty, in all
parts of the country, which must ensue from a denial of it
anywhere, or upon any pretense. * * *

"The United States are bound to guaranty to each State a
republican form of government Can it be pretended that this
obligation is not palpably broken if we carry out a measure
like this, which wipes away every vestige of republican
government in ten States, and put the life, property,
liberty and honor of all the people in each of them under
the domination of a single person clothed with unlimited
authority.

* * * * *