y are neither dead by forfeiture or _felo de se_, but
are now in full and perfect existence, with all their municipal
machinery in full play. That the proposition of the Committee of
Fifteen to amend the Constitution is fundamental and revolutionary,
and destructive of the freedom of the States and the liberties of the
people; that it is a threat to deprive them of their rights by
compelling them either to admit negroes to the right of suffrage or to
give up a share of their representation, which is theirs by law and
the last amendment to the Constitution. That the resolution now before
us from the same committee is also revolutionary and destructive,
being an attempt to suspend the Constitution and laws in regard to
representation in Congress over eleven States of the Union until
Congress shall see fit to restore them. It is a declaration on the
part of the members of the present House and Senate, that having the
means of keeping these States from being represented here, they are
going to do so as long as they please; that no one of these measures
can be justified as a punishment for the rebellion; that the
Constitution forbids them as bills of pains and penalties, and as _ex
post facto_ in their character."

Mr. Garret Davis, in the course of a speech in opposition to the
resolution, suggested a summary solution of the present difficulties:
"There is," said he, "a provision in the Constitution which requires
the President to communicate to the two houses of Congress information
as to the state of the Union, and to recommend to them such measures
"as he shall deem proper and expedient. What does this necessarily
impose upon him? He has to ascertain what men compose the two houses
of Congress. It is his right, it is his constitutional function, to
ascertain who constitute the two houses of Congress. The members of
the Senate who are in favor of the admission of the Southern Senators
could get into a conclave with those Southern Senators any day, and
they would constitute a majority of the Senate. The President of the
United States has the constitutional option--it is his function, it
his power, it is his right--and I would advise him to exercise it, to
ascertain, where there are two different bodies of men both claiming
to be the Senate, which is the true Senate. If the Southern members
and those who are for admitting them to their seats constitute a
majority of the whole Senate, the President has a right--and, by the