on
that refers to a joint committee a subject that this body alone can
decide. If there are credentials presented here, this body must decide
the question whether the person presenting the credentials is entitled
to a seat; and how can this body be influenced by any committee other
than a committee that it shall raise itself?"

Mr. Trumbull, of Illinois, then followed: "If I understood the
resolution as the Senator from Indiana does, I should certainly vote
with him; but I do not so understand it. It is simply a resolution
that a joint committee be raised to inquire into the condition of the
States which formed the so-called Confederate States of America, and
to report whether they or any of them are entitled to be represented
in either House of Congress, with leave to report at any time by bill
or otherwise. It is true, as the Senator says, that after having
raised this committee, the Senate will not be likely to take action in
regard to the admission of the Senators from any of these States until
the committee shall have had a reasonable time at least to act and
report; but it is very desirable that we should have joint action upon
this subject. It would produce a very awkward and undesirable state of
things if the House of Representatives were to admit members from one
of the lately rebellious States, and the Senate were to refuse to
receive Senators from the same State.

"We all know that the State organizations in certain States of the
Union have been usurped and overthrown. This is a fact of which we
must officially take notice. There was a time when the Senator from
Indiana, as well as myself, would not have thought of receiving a
Senator from the Legislature, or what purported to be the Legislature,
of South Carolina. When the people of that State, by their
Representatives, undertook to withdraw from the Union and set up an
independent government in that State, in hostility to the Union, when
the body acting as a Legislature there was avowedly acting against
this Government, neither he nor I would have received Representatives
from it. That was a usurpation which, by force of arms, we have put
down. Now the question arises, Has a State government since been
inaugurated there entitled to representation? Is not that a fair
subject of inquiry? Ought we not to be satisfied upon that point? We
do not make such an inquiry in reference to members that come from
States which have never undertaken to deny their allegia