NAYS-Messrs. Buckalew, Davis, Doolittle, Edmunds, Pster, Grimes, Guthrie, Hendricks, McDougall, Morgan, been afforded an opportunity of expressing their Nor have the sovereign people of the nation Poland, Riddle, Sumner-13. IN HOUSE. May 3-The bill was passed-yeas 81, nays 57, as follow: YEAS-Messrs. Ames, Anderson, Delos R. Ashley, James M. Ashley, Baker, Banks, Barker, Beaman, Benjamin, Bidwell, Bingham, Blow, Brandegee, Bromwell, Buckland, Bundy, Reader W. Clarke, Sidney Clarke, Cobb, Conkling" Cullom, Defrees, Deming, Dixon, Dodge, Donnelly, Driggs, Dumont, Eckley, Farquhar, Ferry, Garfield, Grinnell, Abner C. Harding, Hart, Henderson, Holmes, Hotchkiss, Asahel W. Hubbard, Chester D. Hubbard, James R., Hubbell, Ingersoll, Jenckes, Kasson, Kelso, Ketcham, Laflin, Latham, views upon the important questions which the amendment involves. Grave doubts therefore may naturally and justly arise as to whether the action of Congress is in harmony with the sentiments of the people, and whether State legislatures, elected without reference to such an issue, should be called upon by Congress to decide respecting the ratification of the proposed amendment. Waiving the question as to the constitutional George V. Lawrence, William Lawrence, Loan, Longyear, validity of the proceedings of Congress upon Marston, McClurg, McKee, Mercur, Miller, Moorhead, the joint resolution proposing the amendment, Moulton, Myers, O'Neill, Orth, Patterson, Plants, Alexander or as to the merits of the article which it subH Rice, Rollins, Sawyer, Schenck, Shellabarger, Smith, Spalding, Francis Thomas, Trowbridge, Upson, Van Aernam, mits through the executive department to the Burt Van Horn, Robert T. Van Horn, Warner, Welker, legislatures of the States, I deem it proper to Whaley, Williams-81. Blaine, Boutwell, Boyer, Broomall, Chanler, Coffroth, Dar- State, as detailed in the accompanying report, NAY-Messrs. Allison, Alley, Ancona, Baxter, Bergen, observe that the steps taken by the Secretary of ling, Dawson, Denison, Eldridge, Eliot, Finck, Glossbrenner, are to be considered as purely ministerial, and Grider, Griswold, Aaron Harding, Harris, Higby, James in no sense whatever committing the Executive Humphrey, Julian, Kelley, Kuykendall, Le Blond, Lynch, Marshall, McCullough, McRuer, Morrill, Morris, Newell, to an approval or a recommendation of the Niblack, Paine, Perham, Pike, Raymond, John II. Rice, amendment to the State legislatures or to the Ritter, Ross, Rousseau, Shanklin, Stevens, Stilwell, Strouse, Taylor, Thornton, Ellihu B. Washburne, Henry D. Wash people. On the contrary, a proper appreciation burn, James F. Wilson, Windom, Winfield, Woodbridge, of the letter and spirit of the Constitution, as well as of the interests of national order, harmony, and union, and a due deference for an enlightened public judgment, may at this time well suggest a doubt whether any amendment to the Constitution ought to be proposed by Congress and pressed upon the legislatures of the several States for final decision until after the admission of such loyal Senators and Representatives of the now unrepresented States as have been, or may hereafter be, chosen in conformity with the Constitution and laws of the United States. ANDREW JOHNSON. Wright-57. Up to the time this page is put to press, no vote has been taken on the re-passage of the vetoed bill. When taken, it will be inserted in a subsequent page. Message Respecting the Proposed Constitutional Amendment on Representation, &c., June 22, 1866. * To the Senate and House of Representatives: It will be seen from this report that the Secretary of State had, on the 16th instant, transmitted to the Governors of the several States certified copies of the joint resolution passed on the 13th instant, proposing an amendment to the Constitution. WASHINGTON, D. C., June 22, 1866. To the President. The Secretary of State, to whom was referred the concurrent resolution of the two Houses of Congress of the 18th instant, in the following Even in ordinary times any question of words: "That the President of the United States amending the Constitution must be justly re- be requested to transmit forthwith to the execugarded as of paramount importance. This im- tives of the several States of the United States portance is at the present time enhanced by the copies of the article of amendment proposed by fact that the joint resolution was not submitted Congress to the State legislatures to amend the by the two Houses for the approval of the Presi- Constitution of the United States, passed June dent, and that of the thirty-six States which 13, 1866, respecting citizenship, the basis of repconstitute the Union eleven are excluded from resentation, disqualification for office, and validrepresentation in either House of Congress, ity of the public debt of the United States, &c., although, with the single exception of Texas, to the end that the said States may proceed to they have been entirely restored to all their act upon the said article of amendment, and that functions as States, in conformity with the or- he request the executive of each State that may ganic law of the land, and have appeared at the ratify said amendment to transmit to the Secrenational capital by Senators and Representa-tary of State a certified copy of such ratification,' tives, who have applied for and have been re fused admission to the vacant seats. *This resolution passed the House under a suspension of the rules, which was agreed to, yeas 92, nays 25, (the latter all Democrats,) by a vote of yeas 87, nays 20, on a count by tellers. It passed the Senate same day without a division; and is a copy of a concurrent resolution passed in 1864, requesting President Lincoln to submit the anti-slavery amendment, changed only as to the phraseology descrip tire of the amendment. has the honor to submit the following report, namely: That on the 16th instant the Hon. Amasa Cobb, of the Committee of the House of Representatives on Enrolled Bills, brought to this Department and deposited therein an enrolled resolution of the two Houses of Congress, which was thereupon received by the Secretary of State and deposited among the rolls of the Department, a copy of which is hereunto an [Circular.] DEPARTMENT OF STATE, June 16, 1866. Governor of the State of nexed. Thereupon the Secretary of State, upon Respectfully submitted, WILLIAM H. SEWARD. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, June 20, 1866. SIR: I have the honor to transmit an attested copy of a resolution of Congress, proposing to the legislatures of the several States a fourteenth article to the Constitution of the United States. The decisions of the several legislatures upon the subject are required by law to be communicated to this Department. An acknowledgment of the receipt of this communication is requested by Your excellency's most obedient servant, WILLIAM H. SEWARD. VII. MAJORITY AND MINORITY REPORTS OF THE JOINT COMMITTEE ON RECONSTRUCTION. The Majority Report. June 18, 1866-Mr. FESSENDEN in the Senate, and Mr. STEVENS in the House, submitted this REPORT: That they have attended to the duty assigned them as assiduously as other duties would permit, and now submit to Congress, as the result of their deliberations, a resolution proposing amendments to the Constitution, and two bills, of which they recommend the adoption. States were left at the close of the war; the measures which have been taken towards the reorganization of civil government, and the disposition of the people towards the United States; in a word, their fitness to take an active part in the administration of national affairs. power to The Joint Committee of the two Houses of Congress, appointed under the concurrent resolution As to their condition at the close of the rebelof December 13, 1865, with direction to "in-lion, the evidence is open to all, and admits of quire into the condition of the States which no dispute. They were in a state of utter exhaustion. formed the so-called Confederate States of Having protracted their struggle America, and report whether they or any of against federal authority until all hope of sucthem are entitled to be represented in either cessful resistance had ceased, and laid down their House of Congress, with leave to report by bill arms only because there was no longer any or otherwise," ask leave to report: power to use them, the people of those States were left bankrupt in their public finances, and shorn of the private wealth which had before given them power and influence. They were also necessarily in a state of complete anarchy, without governments and without the frame governments except by the permission of those who had been successful in the war. The President of the United States, in the proclamations under which he appointed provisional governors, and in his various communications to them, has, in exact terms, recognized the fact that the people of those States were, when the rebellion was crushed, deprived of all civil The resolution under which your committee government," and must proceed to organize was appointed directed them to inquire into the anew. In his conversation with Mr. Stearns, of condition of the Confederate States, and report Massachusetts, certified by himself, President whether they were entitled to representation in Johnson said "the State institutions are prosCongress. It is obvious that such an investiga-trated, laid out on the ground, and they must be tion, covering so large an extent of territory and involving so many important considerations, must necessarily require no trifling labor, and consume a very considerable amount of time. It must embrace the condition in which those Before proceeding to set forth in detail their reasons for the conclusion to which, after great deliberation, your committee have arrived, they beg leave to advert, briefly, to the course of proceedings they found it necessary to adopt, and to explain the reasons therefor. taken up and adapted to the progress of events." Finding the Southern States in this condition, and Congress having failed to provide for the contingency, his duty was obvious. As President of the United States he had no power, ex cept to execute the laws of the land as Chief Magistrate. These laws gave him no authority over the subject of reorganization; but by the Constitution he was commander-in-chief of the army and navy of the United States. These Confederate States embraced a portion of the people of the Union who had been in a state of revolt, but had been reduced to obedience by force of arms. They were in an abnormal condition, without civil government, without commercial connections, without national or international relations, and subject only to martial law. By withdrawing their representatives in Congress, by renouncing the privilege of representation, by organizing a separate government, and by levying war against the United States, they destroyed their State constitutions in respect to the vital principle which connected their respective States with the Union and secured their federal relations; and nothing of those constitutions was left of which the United States were bound to take notice. For four years they had a de facto government, but it was usurped and illegal. They chose the tribunal of arms wherein to decide whether or not it should be legalized, and they were defeated. At the close of the rebellion, therefore, the people of the rebellious States were found, as the President expresses it, "deprived of all civil government." Under this state of affairs it was plainly the duty of the President to enforce existing national laws, and to establish, as far as he could, such a system of government as might be provided for by existing national statutes. As commanderin-chief of a victorious army, it was his duty, under the law of nations and the army regulations, to restore order, to preserve property, and to protect the people against violence from any quarter until provision should be made by law for their government. He might, as President, assemble Congress and submit the whole matter to the law-making power; or he might continue military supervision and control until Congress should assemble on its regular appointed day. Selecting the latter alternative, he proceeded, by virtue of his power as commander-in-chief, to appoint provisional governors over the revolted States. These were regularly commissioned, and their compensation was paid, as the Secretary of War states, "from the appropriation for army contingencies, because the duties performed by the parties were regarded as of a temporary character; ancillary to the withdrawal of mili- When Congress assembled in December last tary force, the disbandment of armies, and the the people of most of the States lately in rebelreduction of military expenditure; by provis- lion had, under the advice of the President, orional organizations for the protection of civil ganized local governments, and some of them rights, the preservation of peace, and to take had acceded to the terms proposed by him. In the place of armed force in the respective States." his annual message he stated, in general terms, It cannot, we think, be contended that these what had been done, but he did not see fit to governors possessed, or could exercise, any but communicate the details for the information of military authority. They had no power to or- Congress. While in this and in a subsequent ganize civil governments, nor to exercise any message the President urged the speedy restoraauthority except that which inhered in their tion of these States, and expressed the opinion own persons under their commissions. Neither that their condition was such as to justify their had the President, as commander-in-chief, any restoration, yet it is quite obvious that Conother than military power. But he was in ex-gress must either have acted blindly on that clusive possession of the military authority. It was for him to decide how far he would exercise it, how far he would relax it, when and on what terms he would withdraw it. He might prop erly permit the people to assemble, and to initiate local governments, and to execute such local laws as they might choose to frame not inconsistent with, nor in opposition to, the laws of the United States. And, if satisfied that they might safely be left to themselves, he might withdraw the military forces altogether, and leave the people of any or all of these States to govern themselves without his interference. In the language of the Secretary of State, in his telegram to the provisional governor of Georgia, dated October 28, 1865, he might "recognize the people of any State as having resumed the relations of loyalty to the Union," and act in his military capacity on this hypothesis. All this was within his own discretion, as military commander. But it was not for him to decide upon the nature or effect of any system of government which the people of these States might see fit to adopt. This power is lodged by the Constitution in the Congress of the United States, that branch of the government in which is vested the authority to fix the political relations of the States to the Union, whose duty is to guarantee to each State a republican form of government, and to protect each and all of them against foreign or domestic violence, and against each other. We cannot, therefore, regard the various acts of the President in relation to the formation of local governments in the insurrectionary States, and the conditions imposed by him upon their action, in any other light than as intimations to the people that, as commander-in-chief of the army, he would consent to withdraw military rule just in proportion as they should, by their acts, manifest a disposition to preserve order among themselves, establish governments denoting loyalty to the Union, and exhibit a settled determination to return to their allegiance, leaving with the law-making power to fix the terms of their final restoration to all their rights and privileges as States of the Union. That this was the view of his power taken by the President is evident from expressions to that effect in the communications of the Secretary of State to the various provisional governors, and the repeated declarations of the President himself, Any other supposition inconsistent with this would impute to the President designs of encroachment upon a co-ordinate branch of the government, which should not be lightly attributed to the Chief Magistrate of the nation. opinion of the President, or proceeded to obtain the information requisite for intelligent action on the subject. The impropriety of proceeding wholly on the judgment of any one man, how nesses whose position had given them the best means of forming an accurate judgment, who could state facts from their own observation, and whose character and standing afforded the best evidence of their truthfulness and impartiality. A work like this, covering so large an extent of territory, and embracing such complicated and extensive inquiries, necessarily required much time and labor. To shorten the time as much as possible, the work was divided and placed in the hands of four sub-committees, who have been diligently employed in its accomplishment. The results of their labors have been heretofore submitted, and the country will judge how far they sustain the President's views, and how far they justify the conclusions to which your committee have finally arrived. ever exalted his station, in a matter involving | could only be had to the examination of witthe welfare of the republic in all future time, or of adopting any plan, coming from any source, without fully understanding all its bearings and comprehending its full effect, was apparent. The first step, therefore, was to obtain the required information. A call was accordingly made on the President for the information in his possession as to what had been done, in order that Congress might judge for itself as to the grounds of the belief expressed by him in the fitness of States recently in rebellion to participate fully in the conduct of national affairs. This information was not immediately communicated. When the response was finally made, some six weeks after your committee had been in actual session, it was found that the evidence upon which the President seemed to have based his suggestions was incomplete and unsatisfactory. Authenti- A claim for the immediate admission of Senacated copies of the new constitutions and ordi- tors and Representatives from the so-called Connances adopted by the conventions in three of federate States has been urged, which seems to the States had been submitted, extracts from your committee not to be founded either in reanewspapers furnished scanty information as to son or in law, and which cannot be passed withthe action of one other State, and nothing ap-out comment. Stated in a few words, it amounts pears to have been communicated as to the remainder. There was no evidence of the loyalty of those who had participated in these conventions, and in one State alone was any proposition made to submit the action of the conventions to the final judgment of the people. to this: That inasmuch as the lately insurgent States had no legal right to separate themselves from the Union, they still retain their positions as States, and consequently the people thereof have a right to immediate representation in Conwhatever; and further, that until such admisgress without the imposition of any conditions sion Congress has no right to tax them for the support of the Government. It has even been contended that until such admission all legislation affecting their interests is, if not unconstitutional, at least unjustifiable and oppressive. propositions are not only wholly untenable, but, It is believed by your committee that all these if admitted, would tend to the destruction of the Government. Failing to obtain the desired information, and left to grope for light wherever it might be found, your committee did not deem it either advisable or safe to adopt, without further examination, the suggestions of the President, more especially as he had not deemed it expedient to remove the military force, to suspend martial law, or to restore the writ of habeas corpus, but still thought it necessary to exercise over the people of the rebellious States his military power and jurisdiction. This conclusion derived still greater force from the fact, undisputed, that in all these States, without justification or excuse, rose in inIt must not be forgotten that the people of these States, except Tennessee and perhaps Arkansas, surrection against the United States. They delibthe elections which were held for State officers erately abolished their State goverernments so and members of Congress had resulted, almost far as the same connected them politically with universally, in the defeat of candidates who had the Union as members thereof under the Constibeen true to the Union, and in the election of tution. notorious and unpardoned rebels, men who could giance to the Federal Government, and proThey deliberately renounced their allenot take the prescribed oath of office, and who ceeded to establish an independent government made no secret of their hostility to the Govern- for themselves. In the prosecution of this enterment and the people of the United States. Un-prise they seized the national forts, arsenals, dockder these circumstances, anything like hasty ac-yards, and other public property within their tion would have been as dangerous as it was obviously unwise. It appeared to your committee that but one course remained, viz: to investigate carefully and thoroughly the state of feeling and opinion existing among the people of these States; to ascertain how far their pretended loyalty could be relied upon, and thence to infer whether it would be safe to admit them at once to a full participation in the Government they had fought for four years to destroy. It was an equally important inquiry whether their restoration to their former relations with the United States should only be granted upon certain conditions and guarantees which would effectually secure the nation against a recurrence of evils so disastrous as those from which it had escaped at so enormous a sacrifice. To obtain the necessary information recourse borders, drove out from among them those who remained true to the Union, and heaped every imaginable insult and injury upon the United States and its citizens. Finally they opened hostilities, and levied war against the Government. They continued this war for four the most determined and malignant spirit, killing with years in battle and otherwise large numbers of loyal people, destroying the property of loyal citizens on the sea and on the land, and entailing on the Government an enormous debt, incurred to sustain its rightful authority. Whether legally and constitutionally or not, they did, in fact, withdraw from the Union and made themselves subjects of another government of their own creation. And they only yielded when, after a long, bloody, and wasting war, they were compelled by utter exhaustion to lay down their arms; and this they did not willingly, but declaring that they | eral authority. It must have a government yielded because they could no longer resist, afford- republican in form, under and by which it is ing no evidence whatever of repentance for their connected with the General Government, and crime, and expressing no regret, except that they through which it can discharge its obligations. had no longer the power to continue the despe- It is more than idle, it is a mockery, to conteud rate struggle. that a people who have thrown off their alleIt cannot, we think, be denied by any one, giance, destroyed the local government which having a tolerable acquaintance with public law, bound their States to the Union as members that the war thus waged was a civil war of the thereof, defied its authority, refused to execute greatest magnitude. The people waging it were its laws, and abrogated every provision which necessarily subject to all the rules which, by the gave them political rights within the Union, law of nations, control a contest of that charac- still retain, through all, the perfect and entire ter, and to all the legitimate consequences follow- right to resume, at their own will and pleasure, ing it. One of those consequences was that, within all their privileges within the Union, and espethe limits prescribed by humanity, the conquered cially to participate in its government, and to rebels were at the mercy of the conquerors. That control the conduct of its affairs. To admit a government thus outraged had a most perfect such a principle for one moment would be to right to exact indemnity for the injuries done declare that treason is always master and loyand security against the recurrence of such out-alty a blunder. Such a principle is void by its rages in the future would seem too clear for dispute. What the nature of that security should be, what proof should be required of a return to allegiance, what time should elapse before a people thus demoralized should be restored in full to the enjoyment of political rights and privileges, are questions for the law-making power to decide, and that decision must depend on grave considerations of the public safety and the general welfare. It is moreover contended, and with apparent gravity, that, from the peculiar nature and character of our Government, no such right on the part of the conqueror can exist; that from the moment when rebellion lays down its arms and actual hostilities cease, all political rights of rebellious communities are at once restored; that, because the people of a State of the Union were once an organized community within the Union, they necessarily so remain, and their right to be represented in Congress at any and all times, and to participate in the government of the country under all circumstances, admits of neither question nor dispute. If this is indeed true, then is the Government of the United States powerless for its own protection, and flagrant rebellion, carried to the extreme of civil war, is a pastime which any State may play at, not only certain that it can lose nothing in any event, but may even be the gainer by defeat. If rebellion succeeds, it accomplishes its purpose and destroys the Government. If it fails, the war has been barren of results, and the battle may be still fought out in the legislative halls of the country. Treason, defeated in the field, has only to take possession of Congress and the cabinet. Your committee does not deem it either necessary or proper to discuss the question whether the late Confederate States are still States of this Union, or can even be otherwise. Granting this profitless abstraction, about which so many words have been wasted, it by no means follows that the people of those States may not place themselves in a condition to abrogate the powers and privileges incident to a State of the Union, and deprive themselves of all pretence of right to exercise those powers and enjoy those privileges. A State within the Union has obligations to discharge as a member of the Union. It must submit to federal laws and uphold fed very nature and essence, because inconsistent with the theory of government, and fatal to its very existence. On the contrary, we assert that no portion of the people of this country, whether in State or Territory, have the right, while remaining on its soil, to withdraw from or reject the authority of the United States. They must obey its laws as paramount, and acknowledge its jurisdiction. They have no right to secede; and while they can destroy their State governments, and place themselves beyond the pale of the Union, so far as the exercise of State privileges is concerned, they cannot escape the obligations imposed upon them by the Constitution and the laws, nor impair the exercise of national authority. The Constitution, it will be observed, does not act upon States, as such, but upon the people; while, therefore, the people cannot escape its authority, the States may, through the act of their people, cease to exist in an organized form, and thus dissolve their political relations with the United States. That taxation should be only with the consent of the taxed, through their own representatives, is a cardinal principle of all free governments; but it is not true that taxation and representation must go together under all circumstances, and at every moment of time. The people of the District of Columbia and of the Territories are taxed, although not represented in Congress. If it is true that the people of the so-called Confedrate States had no right to throw off the authority of the United States, it is equally true that they are bound at all times to share the burdens of government. They cannot, either legally or equitably, refuse to bear their just proportion of these burdens by voluntarily abdicating their rights and privileges as States of the Union, and refusing to be represented in the councils of the nation, much less by rebellion against national authority and levying war. To hold that by so doing they could escape taxation would be to offer a premium for insurrection, to reward instead of punishing for treason. To hold that as soon as government is restored to its full authority it can be allowed no time to secure itself against similar wrongs in the future, or else omit the ordinary exercise of its constitutional power to compel equal contribu tion from all towards the expenses of govern |