d by Mr. Guthrie: "The Senator tells us that the
emancipated men ought to have their civil rights, that the black codes
fell with slavery; but the Senator forgets that at least six of the
reoerganized States in their new Legislatures have passed laws wholly
incompatible with the freedom of these freedmen; and so atrocious are
the provisions of these laws, and so persistently are they carried
into effect by the local authorities, that General Thomas, in
Mississippi, General Swayne, in Alabama, General Sickles, in South
Carolina, and General Terry, in Virginia, have issued positive orders,
forbidding the execution of the black laws that have just been passed.

"So unjust, so wicked, so incompatible are these new black laws of the
rebel States, made in defiance of the expressed will of the nation,
that Lieutenant-general Grant has been forced to issue that order,
which sets aside the black laws of all these rebellious States against
the freedmen, and allows no law to be enforced against them that is
not enforced equally against white men. This order, issued by General
Grant, will be respected, obeyed, and enforced in the rebel States
with the military power of the nation. Southern legislators and people
must learn, if they are compelled to learn by the bayonets of the Army
of the United States, that the civil rights of the freedmen must be
and shall be respected; that these freedmen are as free as their late
masters; that they shall live under the same laws, be tried for their
violation in the same manner, and if found guilty, punished in the
same manner and degree.

"This measure is called for, because these reconstructed Legislatures,
in defiance of the rights of the freedmen, and the will of the nation,
embodied in the amendment to the Constitution, have enacted laws
nearly as iniquitous as the old slave codes that darkened the
legislation of other days. The needs of more than four million colored
men imperatively call for its enactment. The Constitution authorizes
and the national will demands it. By a series of legislative acts, by
executive proclamations, by military orders, and by the adoption of
the amendment to the Constitution by the people of the United States,
the gigantic system of human slavery that darkened the land,
controlled the policy, and swayed the destinies of the republic has
forever perished. Step by step we have marched right on from one
victory to another, with the music of broken fetters ringing