RECONSTRUCTION ONCE MORE.
PUBLIC SCHOOLS; OFFICERS AND SENATORS WITHOUT DISTINCTION OF COLOR.
Speeches in the Senate, on the Third Reconstruction Bill, July 11 and 13, 1867.
July 8th, Mr. Trumbull, of Illinois, from the Committee on the Judiciary, reported a “Bill to give effect to an Act entitled ‘An Act to provide for the more efficient Government of the Rebel States,’ passed March 2, 1867.” This was the third Reconstruction measure of the present year. It was debated for several days. July 11th, Mr. Sumner said:—
MR. PRESIDENT,—Before offering amendments which I have on my table, I desire to call attention briefly to the character of this bill.
The subject of Reconstruction has been before Congress for many years. It first appeared in the Senate as a proposition of my own, as long ago as February, 1862. From that time it has been constantly present. If at any moment Congress has erred, it has been from inaction, and not from action. And now the same danger is imminent.
Mark, if you please, the stages. At every step there has been battle. Nothing could be proposed which was not opposed, often with feeling, sometimes even with animosity. I do not speak now of the other side, but of friends on this side of the Chamber, some of whom have fought every measure.
To my mind nothing has been plainer from the beginning than the jurisdiction of Congress. Obviously it was not for the Executive, but for the Legislative. The President was commander-in-chief of the army; that function was his. But he could not make States or constitutions, or determine how States or constitutions should be made. All that he did to this end was gross usurpation, aggravated by motives and consequences.