construction. He did not think it the most modest proposition in the
world for Mr. Bingham to urge the reference to his committee of a
great question which, the House generally desired to consider. "Let us
have no delay," said he, "no recommitment, rather the earliest action
upon this bill, as the requirement of the people who have saved the
country, what the suffering implore, what justice demands, and what I
believe God will approve."

"It is to my mind most clear," said Mr. Donnelly, in a speech upon the
pending question, "that slavery having ceased to exist, the slaves
became citizens; being citizens they are a part of the people, and
being a part of the people no organization deserves a moment's
consideration at our hands which attempts to ignore them."

Of the Southern States as under rebel rule, Mr. Donnelly remarked:
"The whites are to make the laws, execute the laws, interpret the
laws, and write the history of their own deeds; but below them; under
them, there is to be a vast population--a majority of the whole
people--seething and writhing in a condition of suffering, darkness,
and wretchedness unparalleled in the world. And this is to be an
American State! This is to be a component part of the great, humane,
Christian republic of the world."

"It is hard," said Mr. Eldridge, in a speech against the bill, "sad to
stand silently by and see the republic overthrown. It is indeed
appalling to those accustomed from early childhood to revere and love
the Constitution, to feel that it is in the keeping of those having
the power and determination to destroy it. With the passage of this
bill must die every hope and vestige of the government of the
Constitution. It is indeed the final breaking up and dissolution of
the union of the States by the usurpation and revolutionary act of
Congress."

"Your work of restoration," said Mr. Warner, "will never commence
until the Congress of the United States assumes to be one of the
departments of the General Government. It will never commence until
you have declared, in the language of the Supreme Court, that the
Executive, as commander-in-chief of the army and navy, 'can not
exercise a civil function.'"

"In less than two brief years of office," said Mr. Warner, speaking of
the President, "he has exercised more questionable powers, assumed
more doubtful constitutional functions, obliterated more
constitutional barriers, and interposed more corrupt schemes to the
expressio