RECONSTRUCTION AGAIN.
THE BALLOT AND PUBLIC SCHOOLS OPEN TO ALL.
Speeches in the Senate, on the Supplementary Reconstruction Bill, March 15 and 16, 1867.
To counteract the malign influence of President Johnson, and to protect the public interest jeopardized by his conduct, Congress provided for a session to commence March 4, 1867, immediately after the expiration of its predecessor. The new Congress was signalized by a second Reconstruction Bill, “supplementary to an Act to provide for the more efficient government of the Rebel States,” passed March 2, 1867, which was promptly introduced into the House of Representatives and passed.
As early as March 13th, the House bill was reported to the Senate from the Judiciary Committee, with a substitute, and for several days thereafter it was considered. Among the various amendments moved was one by Mr. Drake, of Missouri, providing that the registered electors should declare, by their votes of “Convention” or “No Convention,” whether a convention to frame a constitution should be held, which was rejected,—Yeas 17, Nays 27.
March 15th, Mr. Fessenden, of Maine, moved an amendment, that the commanding general should furnish a copy of the registration to the Provisional Government of the State; and whenever thereafter the Provisional Government should by legal enactment provide that a convention should be called, the commanding general should then direct an election of delegates. In the debate on this proposition, Mr. Sumner said:—
MR. PRESIDENT,—In voting on the proposition of the Senator from Maine, I ask myself one question: How would the Union men of the South vote, if they had the privilege? They are unrepresented. We here ought to be the representatives of the unrepresented. How, then, would the Union men of the South vote on the proposition of the Senator? I cannot doubt, that, with one voice, they would vote No. They would not trust their fortunes in any way to the existing governments of the Rebel States. Those governments have been set up in spite of the Union men, and during their short-lived existence they have trampled upon Union men and upon their rights. That region might be described as bleeding at every pore, and much through the action of the existing governments, owing their origin to the President. So long as they continue, their influence must be pernicious. I hear, then, the voice of every Union man from every one of the Rebel States coming up to this Chamber and entreating us to refuse all trust, all power, to these Legislatures. I listen to their voice, and shall vote accordingly.
But I feel, nevertheless, that something ought to be done in the direction of the proposition of the Senator from Maine. I listened to his remarks, and in their spirit I entirely concur; but it seems to me that his argument carried us naturally to the proposition of the Senator from Missouri. To my mind, that proposition is founded in good sense, in prudence, in a just economy of political forces. It begins at the right end. It begins with the people. The Senator proposes that the new governments, when constituted, shall stand on that broad base. The proposition of the Committee stands the pyramid on its apex. I am therefore for the proposition of the Senator from Missouri, and I hope that at the proper time he will renew it, and give us another opportunity of recording our votes in its favor.