n the
question.

"I take no account of the aggregation of whitewashed rebels, who,
without any legal authority, have assembled in the capitals of the
late rebel States and simulated legislative bodies. Nor do I regard
with any respect the cunning by-play into which they deluded the
Secretary of State by frequent telegraphic announcements that 'South
Carolina had adopted the amendment,' 'Alabama has adopted the
amendment, being the twenty-seventh State,' etc. This was intended to
delude the people and accustom Congress to hear repeated the names of
these extinct States as if they were alive, when, in truth, they have
now no more existence than the revolted cities of Latium, two-thirds
of whose people were colonized, and their property confiscated, and
their rights of citizenship withdrawn by conquering and avenging
Rome."

A second thing of vital importance to the stability of this republic,
Mr. Stevens asserted to be "that it should now be solemnly decided
what power can revive, recreate, and reinstate these provinces into
the family of States, and invest them with the rights of American
citizens. It is time that Congress should assert its sovereignty, and
assume something of the dignity of a Roman senate. It is fortunate
that the President invites Congress to take this manly attitude. After
stating, with great frankness, in his able message, his theory--which,
however, is found to be impracticable, and which, I believe, very few
now consider tenable--he refers the whole matter to the judgment of
Congress. If Congress should fail firmly and wisely to discharge that
high duty, it is not the fault of the President."

Mr. Stevens closed his speech by setting the seal of reprobation upon
a doctrine which is becoming too fashionable, that "this is a white
man's Government." He uttered a severe rebuke to those who thus
"mislead and miseducate the public mind."

There were some Republicans in Congress who disagreed with Mr. Stevens
in his theory of the condition of the late rebel States, yet no one
ventured immediately, to use a contemporary expression, "to take the
Radical bull by the horns."

At length, three days afterward, Mr. Raymond, as a representative of
the "Conservatives," ventured a reply. He thus set forth his theory as
in opposition to that of Mr. Stevens: "I can not believe that these
States have ever been out of the Union, or that they are now out of
the Union. I can not believe that they ever have been,