“I look upon this measure as necessary,” continued Mr. Howard, “as one form in which the sense of Congress ought to be expressed against any hasty attempt to readmit these rebellious States into the Union.” For one, he would require the loyalty and friendliness of a majority of the people of the rebellious States to be proved before readmitting any of them. “The theory of our Government,” he went on, “is different from that of almost every other government on earth. It is that the will of the majority shall govern; in common phrase, the majority of the people, but practically the majority of the voting population.”
In conclusion he declared that it was “the bounden duty of Congress, in every case, to keep out of the Union every one of these eleven seceded States until, in pursuance of our laws, passed or to be passed, it has become perfectly evident to us that there is in such a State a clear, absolute majority of its voting population friendly to the Government of the United States, and willing to proceed in the discharge of their functions as a State; and, until that is done, you may be perfectly sure, so long as I hold a seat in this body, my vote will be given against any such proposal. I never will consent to admit into this Union a State a majority of whose people are hostile and unfriendly to the Government of my country. I prefer to hold them in tutelage (for that is really the word) one year, five years, ten years, even twenty years, rather than run the risk of a repetition of this rebellion, which has cost us so much blood and treasure.”[[378]]
Ten Eyck, considering Louisiana as the strongest case, mentioned it in preference to Arkansas or Tennessee, and, from a paper furnished by a gentleman who was familiar with the situation there, was able to state that “eleven thousand four hundred and fourteen votes were polled at this election. The average vote for ten years prior to the rebellion in these parishes was fifteen to sixteen thousand.” The same parishes cast their highest vote, 21,000, in 1860. He expressed a wish to save Tennessee also from the effect of the resolution, and declared that he did not see how the Vice-President-elect, an alien, could preside over the Senate. Further, a vote in favor of the resolution prejudged the case of the Senators and the legality of the Legislature which sent them.[[379]]
Senator Pomeroy did not suppose that States unrepresented in either House could be represented in the Electoral College. He criticised the correctness of the preamble so far as it related to Arkansas. The rebel governor as well as the rebel legislature, he said, was driven out long ago.
“Arkansas,” he continued, “has not voted at all in the Presidential election.... Under the instructions and impressions that the members from Arkansas received here last session, they distinctly understood that States not represented in either branch of Congress would have no right to vote at the Presidential election. They returned to Arkansas and so reported, and they never had any election; there are no votes here from that State. They have been in suspense awaiting the action of Congress.” The resolution itself did not, of course, affect Arkansas, for there were no votes from that State to be counted.[[380]]
Mr. Cowan, probably adopting a hint dropped by Senator Ten Eyck, noticed the fact that the proclamation of January 1, 1863, exempted from its operations thirteen named parishes of Louisiana because no rebellion existed in them. The validity of that decree had been recognized, while the proclamation of December 8 following invited the people of Louisiana and other States to resume their rights. The question was whether the arrangements of the President were to be executed in good faith.
It was the duty of the Executive, he continued, “to put down this rebellion, to relieve the people from its oppression, and to restore them precisely to where they were when the rebellion found them. If that is done, in ten days after his proclamation, eo instanti, the people resume their rights and functions; and in this case I understand they are not only in possession of the right, but are actually in the enjoyment of it, having a regularly organized government with all the machinery necessary and proper to a government.” He believed that men and money were furnished the President to sustain State governments and make them supreme within their own limits.
Concluding this portion of his remarks he said: “Mr. President, this involves a direct conflict between the Legislative and Executive bodies of this Government, and at this time I am of opinion that we cannot afford to enter into that conflict.”[[381]]
Senator Powell, of Kentucky, said that when it was asserted that General Banks did not interfere in the Louisiana election the statement was not true, for there could be no greater interference in the elections of a State than to alter the qualifications of voters. He declared himself “opposed to admitting on this floor persons who are elected under the bayonet influence in any way whatever. I very well know that there was no free expression of the people of Louisiana in these elections. I know that they but obeyed the behests of the military, whatever commanders may say about it.... But for its tragical results upon republican liberty it [the election] would be the greatest of farces.”
The Kentucky member believed that the rebellious States were still in the Union, and when a majority of the people in any of them returned to loyalty, when their governments were organized, their Senators and Representatives should be received.[[382]]