Conference Committee, and he begged those "who look to any
measure that shall guarantee a republican form of government to the
rebel states, with universal suffrage for loyal men," to vote for
this bill as it came from the Senate.

--Mr. Wilson of Iowa sustained the bill. "Although it does not
attain," said he, "all that I desire to accomplish, it embraces much
upon which I have insisted, and seems to be all that I can get at
this session. It reaches far beyond anything which the most sanguine
of us hoped for a year ago."

--Mr. Bingham declared that "the defeat of this bill to-day is really
a refusal to enact any law whatever for the protection of any man in
that vast portion of our country which was so recently swept over by
our armies from the Potomac to the Rio Grande."

--General Schenck spoke with great force in favor of the bill,
answering the somewhat reckless objections of Mr. Stevens in the most
effective manner.

--General Garfield replied to those who objected to the Senate
provision giving the command of officers in the South directly to the
President. He said, "I want this Congress to give the command to the
President of the United States, and then, perhaps, some impeachment
hunters will have a chance to impeach him. They will if he does not
obey." He rebuked the gentlemen "who, when any measure comes here
that seems almost to grasp our purpose, resist and tell us that it is
a surrender of liberty. I remember that this was done to us at the
last session, when everybody knows that if the Republican party lived,
it must live by the strength of the Constitutional amendment, and when
we agreed to pass it the _previous question_ was waived to allow
certain gentlemen to tell us that it was too low and too unworthy, too
mean and too unstatesmanlike."

--Mr. Russell Thayer of Pennsylvania supported the bill. He said, "I
see in this provision, as I believe, what the deliberate judgment of
the American people will regard as ample guarantees for the future
loyalty and obedience of the South. Those conditions are: _first_,
that the Southern States shall adopt a constitution in conformity with
the Constitution of the United States; _second_, that it shall be
ratified by a majority of the people of the States, without distinction
of race, color, or condition; _third_, that such constitution shall
guarantee universal and impartial suffrage; _fourth_, that such
constitution shall be approved by Congress; _f