Before the extinction of Slavery, State Rights were successful against this guaranty. To invoke this tyrannical pretension was enough. How often was it heard on this floor! How completely did it dominate the Constitution itself! But the habit still continues, and we are still compelled to hear this same pretension, under which States played the turtle, drawing head, legs, and tail all within an impenetrable shell. With the overthrow of the Rebellion on the bloody field this pretension should have been abandoned and forgotten. A State is not a turtle, which can shut itself within its shell, and enjoy its own separate animal existence; but it is a component part of this great Republic, with which it is interlaced and interlocked so as to share with every other State a common life, subject to one and the same prevailing law. To insist that a State can play the turtle now, as in the days when Slavery ruled, is to dishonor the Constitution, and to abandon the crowning victory over the Rebellion.
Do you ask for the power in the Constitution to enter into a State and establish republican government? I give it to you in an immortal text. To question it is to show an ignorance of language which in this case is clear beyond criticism, and an ignorance also of the true genius of American institutions, where unity of rights is the Alpha and the Omega. The national motto, E Pluribus Unum, is another expression of that great unity by which the States are lost in the Nation. And this guaranty I now invoke for the protection of the good people of Georgia, and for the protection hereafter of Human Rights, when imperilled anywhere within the limits of the Republic.
But there are other and exceptional reasons why Georgia is still within the control of Congress. The process of Reconstruction in this State is not yet completed; so that the government there is simply provisional, and nothing else. This is only according to the Reconstruction Act of March 2, 1867, where it is provided,—
“That, until the people of said Rebel States shall be by law admitted to representation in the Congress of the United States, any civil governments which may exist therein shall be deemed provisional only, and in all respects subject to the paramount authority of the United States at any time to abolish, modify, control, or supersede the same.”[10]
Nothing can be more explicit. Until the people of the Rebel States are “by law” admitted to representation, they are under the power of Congress. Everything done is inchoate, and nothing more. But Georgia is not yet “by law” admitted to representation, and we are now considering when and how such admission shall take place. Meanwhile, according to express language of the Act, the government is “provisional only.” Nor is this all; for the Act proceeds to declare further that this government is “in all respects subject to the paramount authority of the United States at any time to abolish, modify, control, or supersede the same.” Words cannot be stronger. “Abolish,” “modify,” “control,” “supersede.” To argue against their plain meaning is simply ridiculous. To insist that the existing government is beyond the reach of Congress, to be extended or abridged, to be recognized or superseded in its discretion, is preposterous. The power is reserved in terms almost excessive in fulness. Therefore do I say there can be no question of power on the present occasion. As well question that the sun shines or the river flows.
There being no question of power, there arises, then, the obligation of duty. Congress has the power to protect republican institutions in Georgia, and to protect the good people there; and it has the further power to superintend the work of Reconstruction to the end. All this it must do. It cannot abandon the appointed work. Of course it will ascertain the exact condition of things, and will then apply the remedy. No excuse of State Rights, no fine-spun technicality, no plea of irregularity, no argument of “estoppel” can be heard. All these are trivial and unworthy against the commanding duty. Georgia must be saved to herself and to the Union, and Congress must supply the means.
Several courses are open to Congress, and all equally within its powers; for all are derived from the same fountains.
1. Georgia may be remanded for an indefinite period to a condition like that of the Territories, subordinate in all respects to the jurisdiction of Congress, which may meanwhile mould it into loyalty and order.
2. Or the State may be subjected to a military government, until such time as it is fit in every respect for self-government.