of revenge. It is not because men have unwisely and unpatriotically acted, that therefore you will reduce them, as has been intimated, to subjugated provinces. It is not that that you will clothe any man with the powers of a dictator, to see that the Republic suffers no detriment, when the clothing of such a man with such powers would be the destruction of every element that ever entered into an American Union.

But, sir, I will not trespass upon the time of the Senate. I have proposed this amendment as indicative of my own views, and as explanatory of my own position.

Mr. POWELL. I ask for the yeas and nays on the amendment.

The yeas and nays were ordered.

Mr. FOSTER. The Senator from Delaware, as I understand it, wishes to strike out "five" and insert "two," on the ground of making peace. Two hundred thousand men are too many to make peace, and too few to make war.

Mr. SAULSBURY. I do not know what was the understanding of the Senator from Connecticut of my remark. The idea which I wished to convey to the Senate was, that I would yote men enough to protect your capital, and to protect every State that is now in this Union, from aggression. The force I propose is sufficient to repel any attempt at invasion. I do not believe there would be any attempt at invasion; but if there were, we should be prepared to meet it. I believe that with two hundred thousand men, that number being adequate to the defense from invasion of your capital, and to the defense of every State and Territory that is now in the Union, at the earliest possible moment, the people of this country will get hold of this question, and, by wise measures of conciliation, they will settle it, and they will settle it peaceably, and that is my object. The question being taken by yeas and nays, resulted-yeas 5, nays 32; as follows:

YEAS-Messrs. Johnson of Missouri, Kennedy, Polk, Powell, and Saulsbury-5.

NAYS-Messrs. Anthony, Bingham, Browning, Chandler,Clark, Cowan, Dixon, Doolittle, Fessenden, Foot, Foster, Grimes, Hale, Harlan, Harris, Howe, King, Lane of Indiana, Lane of Kansas, Latham, McDougall, Morrill, Nesmith, Pomeroy, Rice, Sherman, Sumner, Ten Eyck, Trumbull, Wade, Wilkinson, and Wilson-32.

So the amendment to the amendment was rejected.

The amendment made as in Committee of the Whole was concurred in.

The bill was ordered to be engrossed for a third reading, and was read the third time.

On the question "Shall the bill pass?" Mr. POLK and Mr. POWELL called for the yeas and nays, and they were ordered; and being taken, resulted-yeas 34, nays 4; as follows;

YEAS-Messrs. Anthony, Bingham, Browning, Chandler, Clark, Collamer, Cowan, Dixon, Doolittle, Fessenden, Foot, Foster, Grimes, Hale, Harlan, Harris, Howe, Johnson of Tennessee, King, Lane of Indiana, Lane of

Kansas, Latham, McDougall, Morrill, Nesmith, Pomeroy, Rice, Sherman, Sumner, Ten Eyck, Trumbull, Wade,

Wilkinson, and Wilson-34.

NAYS-Messrs. Johnson of Missouri, Kennedy, Polk, and Powell—4.

So the bill was passed.

BILL BECOME A LAW.

A message from the President of the United States, by Mr. NICOLAY, his Secretary, announced that the President had this day approved and signed an act (S. No. 6) to refund and remit the duties on arms imported by States.

HOUSE BILL REFERRED.

The bill (No. 16) further to provide for the collection of duties on imports, and for other purposes, was read twice by its title, and referred to the Committee on Commerce.

EXECUTIVE SESSION.

Mr. LATHAM. I move that the Senate do now adjourn.

Mr. SUMNER. I hope the Senator from California will withdraw the motion to adjourn. It is important that we should go into executive session.

Mr. LATHAM. Certainly I withdraw it, if there is any important business to be transacted.

Mr. SUMNER. 1 move that the Senate proceed to the consideration of executive business.

The motion was agreed to; and after some time spent in the consideration of executive business, the doors were reopened, and the Senate then adjourned.

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES.

WEDNESDAY, July 10, 1861.

The House met at twelve o'clock, m. Prayer by the Chaplain, Rev. THOMAS H. STOCKTON. The Journal of yesterday was read and approved.

MESSAGE FROM THE SENATE.

A message was received from the Senate, by Mr. PATTON, one of its clerks, notifying the House that the Senate had passed a bill (No. 6) to refund and remit the duties on arms imported by States; in which he was directed to ask the concurrence of the House.

REMISSION OF DUTIES ON IMPORTED ARMS.

Mr. STEVENS. I hope the House will agree unanimously to allow the bill just reported from the Senate to be put upon its passage. It is to remit the duties on arms imported by States. I understand that yesterday there were several cargoes of arms imported for at least three States. It would very much facilitate the operations of the Treasury Department to have this bill passed at once. Unless, therefore, objection be made, I move that the bill be put upon its passage.

Mr. BURNETT. I hope I may be indulged a moment to offer some remarks. It is not my purpose to object to the consideration of the bill. Unanimous consent was given.

Mr. BURNETT. Mr. Speaker, I am perhaps one of the few members on this floor who regard not only the commencement of this war, but its prosecution, as a thing which could have been avoided, and which might now be avoided, by proper efforts on the part of the national Legislature of the United States. Entertaining these opinions, I have been one of those who were indisposed to resort to force-to cannon, to bayonet, and to sword-under any circumstances, believing that, under our theory of government, the States cannot be held together in that way. Hence it is my purpose, as a member of this House, representing a congressional district of the State of Kentucky, to oppose, both by my vote and by my voice, every movement that looks to the prosecution of war against the southern States that have seceded from the Union.

Those being my views and sentiments, I cannot, I will not, under any circumstances, give my vote to measures which look to the involvement of our common country in a long, bloody struggle, which must, in my judgment, result in injury to both sections of the country, by the destruction of all its material interests and the prostration of republican representative government on this continent. I have said all that I desire to say; and the gentleman from Pennsylvania can take his own course with the bill.

The bill was read a first and second time. It directs the Secretary of the Treasury to refund and remit the duties and imposts on all arms imported into the United States since the 1st day of May last, or which may be imported before the 1st day of January next, by or for the account of any States, on being satisfied that the said arms are intended in good faith for the use of the troops of any State which is, or may be, engaged in aiding to suppress the insurrection now existing against the United States.

Mr. WASHBURNE moved the previous question on the third reading of the bill.

Mr. MALLORY. May I be permitted to ask the gentleman from Illinois to withdraw the demand for the previous question for one moment? Mr. WASHBURNE. If the gentleman will renew the demand for the previous question, I will withdraw it.

Mr. MALLORY. I will renew it. I have risen, Mr. Speaker, simply to protest, in the name of Kentucky and of her Union Representatives on this floor, against the remarks made by my colleague, [Mr. BURNETT.] [Applause, and cries of "Good."] I stand here, sir, to pledge the State of Kentucky, the large and overwhelming majority of the people of that State, to the support and maintenance of the Government of the United States, and of the Constitution of the United States. [Loud and continued applause on the floor and in the galleries.]

The SPEAKER. The Chair must remind gentlemen on the floor that applause is a violation of parliamentary decorum. He will insist on the enforcement of the rules, and hopes the House will sustain him. In case of any repetition of applause or disapproval by the galleries the Chair

will feel compelled to order them to be cleared. The Chair hopes that spectators will observe the proprieties of the time and the occasion. These are not times to convert the national Council Hall into a theater.

Mr. MALLORY. It is not my intention to make anything like a lengthy speech at the present time, but simply to express the sentiment of Kentucky in regard to the unfortunate state of affairs that now exists in the United States. We in Kentucky believe that the peril, the danger, the destruction of property, the ruin of so many interests in the United States, have been brought about by the action of those very seceded States of the South which seem to excite the sympathy of my colleague so much. That being, in my opinion, the sentiment of the people of Kentucky, I am authorized, I think, to say to this House and to the country, that the people of Kentucky, through their Union Representatives on this floor, stand ready to support the Government of the United States in every constitutional means which Congress may think proper to resort to in maintaining the Government and Constitution of the United States. [Applause.]

In accordance with my promise to the gentleman from Illinois, I renew the call for the previous question.

The previous question was seconded, and the main question ordered to be put.

The bill was then ordered to a third reading; and was accordingly read the third time.

Mr. BURNETT. I call for the yeas and nays on the passage of the bill.

The yeas and nays were not ordered.
The bill was passed.

Mr. STEVENS moved to reconsider the vote by which the bill was passed; and also moved to lay the motion to reconsider on the table. The latter motion was agreed to.

ADDITIONAL ARMY APPROPRIATIONS.

Mr. STEVENS, from the Committee of Ways and Means, reported a bill making additional appropriations for the support of the Army for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1862, and appropriations of arrearages for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1861; which was read a first and second time, referred to the Committee of the Whole on the state of the Union, and ordered to be printed.

ADDITIONAL NAVAL APPROPRIATIONS.

Mr. STEVENS, from the same committee, also reported a bill making additional appropriations for the naval service, for the year ending 30th June, 1862, and appropriations of arrearages for the year ending 30th June, 1861; which was read a first and second time, referred to the Committee of the Whole on the state of the Union, and ordered to be printed.

Mr. VALLANDIGHAM moved to reconsider the votes by which the two bills just reported from the Committee of Ways and Means were referred to the Committee of the Whole on the state of the Union; and also moved to lay the motion to reconsider on the table. The latter motion was agreed to.

COLLECTION OF THE REVENUE.

Mr. WASHBURNE, from the Committee on Commerce, reported back House bill No. 16, further to provide for the collection of duties on imports and for other purposes; asked that the same might be put on its passage, and called the previous question.

The bill was read.

The first section provides that whenever it shall, in the judgment of the President, by reason of unlawful combinations of persons in opposition to the laws of the United States, become impracticable to execute the revenue laws and collect the duties on imports by the ordinary means, in the ordinary way, at any port of entry in any collection district, he is authorized to cause such duties to be collected at any port of delivery in said district until such obstruction shall cease; and in such case the surveyors at said ports of delivery shall be clothed with all the powers and be subject to all the obligations of collectors at ports of entry; and the Secretary of the Treasury, with the approbation of the President, shall appoint such number of weighers, gaugers, measurers, inspectors, appraisers, and clerks, as may be necessary, in his judgment, for the faithful execution of the revenue laws at said ports of deliv

ery, and shall fix and establish the limits within which such ports of delivery are constituted ports of entry, as aforesaid; and all the provisions of law regulating the issue of marine papers, the coasting trade, the warehousing of imports, and collection of duties, shall apply to the ports of entry so constituted, in the same manner as they do to ports of entry established by the laws now in force.

The second section provides that if, from the cause mentioned in the foregoing section, in the judgment of the President, the revenue from duties on imports cannot be effectually collected at any port of entry in any collection district, in the ordinary way and by the ordinary means, or by the course provided in the foregoing section, then, and in that case, he may direct that the customhouse for the district be established in any secure place within said district, either on land or on board any vessel in said district, or at sea near the coast; and in such case the collector shall reside at such place, or on shipboard, as the case may be, and there detain all vessels and cargoes arriving within or approaching said district, until the duties imposed by law on said vessels and their cargoes are paid in cash; provided, that if the owner or consignee of the cargo on board any vessel detained as aforesaid, or the master of said vessel, shall desire to enter a port of entry in any other district in the United States where no such obstructions to the execution of the laws exist, the master of such vessel may be permitted so to change the destination of the vessel and cargo in his manifest, whereupon the collector shall deliver him a written permit to proceed to the port so designated; and provided further, that the Secretary of the Treasury shall, with the approbation of the President, make proper regulations for the enforcement on shipboard of such provisions of the laws regulating the assessment and collection of duties as in his judgment may be necessary and practicable.

The third section provides that it shall be unlawful to take any vessel or cargo, detained as aforesaid, from the custody of the proper officers of the customs, unless by process of some court of the United States; and in case of any attempt otherwise to take such vessel or cargo by any force, or combination, or assemblage of persons, too great to be overcome by the officers of the customs, it shall and may be lawful for the President, or such person or persons as he shall have empowered for that purpose, to employ such part of the Army, or Navy, or militia of the United States, or such force of citizen volunteers as may be deemed necessary, for the purpose of preventing the removal of such vessel or cargo, and protecting the officers of the customs in retaining the custody thereof.

or repudiated by the persons exercising the functions of government in such State or States, or in the part or parts thereof in which said combination exists, nor such insurrection suppressed by said State or States, then, and in such case, it may and shall be lawful for the President, by proclamation, to declare that the inhabitants of such State, or any section or part thereof, where such insurrection exists, are in a state of insurrection against the United States; and thereupon all commercial intercourse by and between the same and the citizens thereof, and the citizens of the rest of the United States, shall cease, and be unlawful so long as such condition of hostility shall continue; and all goods and chattels, wares and merchandise, coming from said State or section into the other parts of the United States, and all proceeding to such State or section, by land or water, shall, together with the vessel or vehicle conveying the same, or conveying persons to or from such State or section, be forfeited to the United States; provided, however, that the President may, in his discretion, license and permit commercial intercourse with any such part of said State or section, the inhabitants of which are so declared in a state of insurrection, in such articles, and for such time, and by such persons, as he, in his discretion, may think most-conducive to the public interest; and such intercourse, so far as by him licensed, shall be conducted and carried on only in pursuance of rules and regulations prescribed by the Secretary of the Treasury. And the Secretary of the Treasury may appoint such officers at places where officers of the customs are not now authorized by law as may be needed to carry into effect such licenses, rules, and regulations; and officers of the customs and other officers shall receive for services, under this section, and under said rules and regulations, such fees and compensation as are now allowed for similar service under other provisions of law. Section six provides that from and after fifteen days after the issuing of the said proclamation, as provided in the last foregoing section of this bill, any ship or vessel belonging in whole or in part to any citizen or inhabitant of said State or part of a State whose inhabitants are so declared in a state of insurrection, found at sea, or in any port of the rest of the United States, shall be forfeited to the United States.

Section seven provides that in the execution of the provisions of this act, and of the other laws of the United States providing for the collection of duties on imports and tonnage, it may and shall be lawful for the President, in addition to the revenue cutters in service, to employ in aid thereof such other suitable vessels as may in his judg ment be required.

Section eight provides that the forfeitures and penalties incurred by virtue of this act may be mitigated or remitted in pursuance of the autho

the act entitled "An act providing for mitigating or remitting the forfeitures, penalties, and disabilities accruing in certain cases therein mentioned," approved March 3, 1797, or in cases where special circumstances may seem to require it, according to regulations to be prescribed by the Secretary of the Treasury.

The fifth section provides that whenever the President, in pursuance of the provisions of the second section of the act entitled "An act to provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the Union, suppress insurrections, and repel invasions, and to repeal the act now in force for that purpose," approved February 28, 1795, shall have called forth the militia to suppress combinations against the laws of the United States, and to cause the laws to be duly executed, and the insurgents shall have failed to disperse by the time directed by the President, and when said insurgents claim to act under the authority of any State or States, and such claim is not disclaimed

Section nine provides that proceedings on seizures for forfeitures under this act may be pursued in the courts of the United States in any district into which the property so seized may be taken and proceedings instituted; and such courts shall have and entertain as full jurisdiction over the same as if the seizure was made in that dis

trict.

Mr. VALLANDIGHAM. I desire to ask the gentleman from Illinois a question in relation to this bill.

The SPEAKER. No debate is in order, the previous question having been called, except by unanimous consent. If there be no objection, the gentleman will proceed.

Mr. VALLANDIGHAM. I merely desire to ask the gentleman whether this bill is not substantially the same as that reported by my colleague, [Mr. BINGHAM,] from the Committee on the Judiciary, during the last session?

Mr. WASHBURNE. I have not a sufficiently distinct recollection of the provisions of the bill introduced last session by the honorable gentleman from Ohio, to answer the question definitely.

Mr. VALLANDIGHAM. From the reading

of the bill, my impression is that the first sections are substantially the same as the bill reported by my colleague, to which I have referred. Other provisions have, however, been added. I regard the bill, in one or two particulars, as manifestly unconstitutional. I voted against the bill of my colleague, along with every gentleman upon this side of the House, once or twice in the last session, and I shall vote now as I voted then. Upon so important a bill, however, I desire to record my vote; and I suppose gentlemen on the other side will have no objection to giving us the yeas and nays on its passage.

Mr. WASHBURNE. I do not propose to take up any time in the discussion of this bill. It has been most thoroughly considered in the Treasury Department, and by the Secretary of the Treasury himself. It has also been fully considered by the Committee on Commerce at two meetings of that committee, and they unanimously ordered me to report it back, and ask the House to put it on its passage.

In answer to a letter which I addressed to the Secretary of the Treasury, asking his views in detail, he has sent me a communication which I send to the Clerk's desk, and ask to have read. It explains fully the provisions of the bill; and when the reading shall have been completed, I will ask for a vote upon the bill, and am willing that the yeas and nays shall be taken upon its passage. The letter was read, as follows:

TREASURY DEPARTMENT, July 9, 1861. SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your communication of the 8th instant, requesting my views in detail of the provisions of the "bill further to provide for the collection of duties on imports, and for other purposes."

The existing condition of things on the Mississippi river and its tributaries is an illustration of the propriety of the provisions of the first section of the bill. The port of entry is New Orleans, and the ports of delivery are St. Louis, Louisville, Cincinnati, Pittsburg, Wheeling, and others. Duties under existing laws can be assessed only at New Orleans. They may be collected at the ports of delivery. All the officers necessary for the assessment of duties on imports, such as appraisers, weighers, gaugers, and measurers, reside at New Orleans; but none such are authorized at ports of delivery.

If the duties are not ascertained at New Orleans, there is no power or means of ascertaining them elsewhere, and the first section of the bill provides for that exigency, by giving such power to the surveyor at the port of delivery as will enable him to perform all the duties of a collector in reference to any foreign merchandise which may arrive at his port without being duly entered, and duties ascertained at the port of entry. The other provisions of that section are necessary to enable the surveyor to discharge the duties of collector under the laws regulating the coasting trade and the warehousing of imports.

The provisions of the second and third sections of the bill are, in substance, those of the first section of the act of 2d March, 1833, entitled "An act further to provide for the collection of duties on imports," and are designed to provide for the emergency contemplated in that act. They do not seem to require any special comment except to state that an option is given to the master of a vessel arriving with foreign merchandise, or owner or consignee of the cargo, (not given in the act of 1833,) either to pay duties to the collector on shipboard or to enter at some other port where the duties may be collected in the ordinary way. The connection between the courts of the State and the United States being broken, the provision confining the issuing of process interfering with the vessel and cargo in the custody of the collector to courts of the United States, would seem to be proper, and, indeed, necessary, to the collection of the revenue in the mode proposed.

The fourth section of the bill gives to the President the power to close a port of entry whenever duties cannot be collected in the ordinary way or without too serious inconvenience and difficulty in the modes provided in the previous sections of the bill. The right to prescribe at what points commerce shall be carried on, and duties collected, has been exercised by Congress from the origin of the Government in all the various laws creating collection districts and ports of entry and delivery. This section merely vests the President with the power, where it is impracticable or extremely difficult to collect duties at a port of entry, to suspend the privilege of importation at that point, giving due notice of such suspension, and restoring the privilege when the emergency shall have ceased. In the condition of things contemplated in the fourth section, no other course would seem to be open without a practical abandonment of efforts to collect the revenue.

The fifth and sixth sections of the bill refer to the same subject matter, and contemplate an organized insurrection against the United States, embracing a State or part of a State. To permit, under such circumstances, commerce to flow uninterrupted in its accustomed channels, would only add strength to the rebellion. Its total cessation would bring with it a full sense of the loss and inconvenience to which their position subjects them. Being in a state of declared hostility to the United States, the property of the insurgents, and all property proceeding to their relief, would be liable to confiscation. But there may be individuals or sections of a State so in insurrection that may entertain loyal sentiments; and to meet this contingency, it would seem proper to vest the President with the power to permit, by special license, commercial intercourse to be maintained with such individuals or sections; and such a provision is accordingly inserted in the fifth section. It will be per

ceived, by reference to the sixth section, that ample notice is to be given before vessels belonging to inhabitants of States in insurrection can be seized for forfeiture.

For the prompt and faithful execution of the provisions of this bill, should it become a law, and of existing laws regulating the collection of duties, it is deemed expedient, as provided in the seventh section, that the President be authorized to employ other vessels in addition to the revenue cutters, now in service. In view of the superior efficiency of steam vessels as revenue cutters and coast guards, it would he desirable that such power should be conferred on the President as will enable him to procure vessels of that description, also, for the public service.

The propriety of the remaining provisions of the bill giving to the court of the United States in any district jurisdiction over the penalties and forfeitures, and providing for their remission, is believed to be too apparent to require explanation or remark.

I have the honor to be, very respectfully,

S. P. CHASE, Secretary of the Treasury. Hon. E. B. WASHBURNE, Chairman Committee on Commerce, House of Representatives.

The previous question was seconded.

Mr. PENDLETON, of Ohio. I call for the yeas and nays upon ordering the main question. I am not willing to vote upon this bill without fur

ther consideration.

Mr. WASHBURNE. I am willing that the yeas and nays shall be taken upon the passage of the bill; but I hope the gentleman will not take the time of the House by calling the yeas and nays upon ordering the main question.

Mr. PENDLETON, of Ohio. I desire to vote for this bill, if I can properly do so; if it be properly considered and amended; but I cannot vote for it if it is to be pressed to a vote now, before I can have time to read it.

The yeas and nays were not ordered.

Mr. WICKLIFFE. I wish to make a single inquiry of the gentleman from Illinois. I understand one of the clauses of the bill to authorize the suspension of the ports of entry of the States in rebellion, still recognizing them as ports of entry in the United States. Now, I am of the impression that there are certain treaties between this country and other nations making the freedom of importing goods into all the ports of the United States unrestricted and unlimited. Has the gentleman examined into that subject, and taken into consideration the propriety of abolishing them as ports of entry, in preference to their suspension by the Executive?

Mr. WASHBURNE. I think if the gentleman from Kentucky had listened to the communication from the Secretary of the Treasury, he would have seen that his inquiry is fully answered. The Secretary of the Treasury states in his communication that "the existing condition of things on the Mississippi river and its tributaries is an illustration of the propriety of the first section of the bill."

Mr. JOHNSON. It is impossible to hear anything read either by the Clerk or by any member. I cannot consent to vote for a bill which I have never read, and do not understand. I therefore consider it unnecessary that anything more in reference to it should be had, and object.

The SPEAKER. The Chair thinks the objection comes too late; but he will state to the gentleman that the bill has been printed, and can be obtained by any gentleman by sending to the document room for it.

Mr. WASHBURNE. The Secretary says: "The provisions of the second and third sections of the bill are in substance those of the first section of the act of 2d March, 1833, entitled An act further to provide for the collection of duties on imports,' and are designed to provide for the emergency contemplated in that act. They do not seem to require any special comment except to state that an option is given to the master of a vessel arriving with a foreign merchandise, or owner or consignee of the cargo, (not given in the act of 1833,) either to pay duties to the collector on ship-board, or to enter at some other port where the duties may be collected in the ordinary way.

The fourth section of the bill gives to the President the power to close a port of entry whenever duties cannot be collected in the ordinary way, or without too serious inconvenience and difficulty in the modes provided in the previous sections of the bill. The right to prescribe at what points commerce shall be carried on, and duties collected, has been exercised by Congress from the origin of the Government in all the various laws creating collection districts and ports of entry and delivery. This section vests the President with the power, where it is impracticable or extremely difficult to collect duties at a port of entry, to suspend the privilege of importation at that point, giving due notice of such suspension, and restoring the privilege when the emergency shall have ceased."

This, I think, answers the interrogatory propounded by the gentleman from Kentucky.

Mr, VALLANDIGHAM. I understand that

there will be no objection to giving us the yeas and nays on the passage of the bill.

Mr. WASHBURNĒ. I have no objection to ordering the yeas and nays.

The bill was ordered to be engrossed, and read a third time; and being engrossed, it was accordingly read the third time.

Mr. VALLANDIGHAM demanded the and nays on the passage of the bill.

yeas

on Military Affairs to sit during the session of the House.

There was no objection; and it was ordered accordingly.

NATIONAL LOAN.

Mr. STEVENS. Has the morning hour expired?

The SPEAKER. It has.

Mr. STEVENS. I move, then, that the rules be suspended, and that the House resolve itself into the Committee of the Whole on the state of the Union, to consider and act on the national loan bill. Before the question is taken on that motion, I move that general debate on the bill be closed in one hour after its consideration shall be commenced.

Mr. BURNETT. I would like to make an inquiry of the gentleman from Pennsylvania. I desire to know whether it is the purpose of the chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means to give a reasonable opportunity for discussion on these important bills before they are voted on?

The yeas and nays were ordered. The question was taken; and it was decided in the affirmative-yeas 136, nays 10; as follows: YEAS-Messrs. Aldrich, Allen, Alley, Ancona, Arnold, Ashley, Babbitt, Goldsmith F. Bailey, Joseph Baily, Baker, Baxter, Beaman, Bingham, Francis P. Blair, Samuel S. Blair, Blake, George H. Browne, Buffinton, Campbell, Chamberlain, Ambrose W. Clark, Cobb, Colfax, Frederick A. Conkling, Roscoe Conkling, Conway, Cooper, Covode, Cox, Cravens, Crisfield, Crittenden, Cutler, Davis, Dawes, Delano, Delaplaine, Diven, Duell, Dunn, Edgerton, Edwards, Eliot, English, Fenton, Fessenden, Fouke, Franchot, Frank, Gooch, Goodwin, Granger, Grider, Gurley, Haight, Hale, Harrison, Hickman, Holman, Horton, Hutchins, Julian, Kelley, Francis W. Kellogg, Lansing, Law, Lazear, Leary, Lehman, Loomis, Lovejoy, McClernand, McKean, McKnight, Mallory, Mitchell, Moorhead, Anson P. Morrill, Justin S. Morrill, Morris, Nixon, Noble, Noell, Nugen, Odell, Olin, Patton, Perry, Pike, Pomeroy, Porter, Potter, John H. Rice, Richardson, Riddle, Edward II. Rollins, Sedgwick, Shanks, Sheffield, Shellabarger, Sherman, Sloan, Smith, Spaulding, John B. Steele, William G. Steele, Stevens, Stratton, Benjamin F. Thomas, Francis Thomas, Thayer, Train, Trimble, Trowbridge, Upton, Vandever, Van Horn, Van Valkenburgh, Van Wyck, Verree, Vibbard, Wall, Wallace, Charles W. Walton, E. P. The question was taken; and the motion limitWalton, Ward, Washburne, Webster, Wheeler, Whaley,ing debate in the Committee of the Whole on the Albert S. White, Chilton A. White, Windom, Woodruff, Worcester, and Wright-136.

NAYS-Messrs. Burnett, Harding, Norton, George H. Pendleton, Reid, Robinson, Vallandigham, Voorhees, Wadsworth, and Wood-10.

So the bill was passed.

During the vote,

Mr. HARDING said: I have had no chance to examine the bill, and therefore cannot vote for it. I vote in the negative.

Mr. PENDLETON, of Ohio. As the House has refused an opportunity for considering the bill, I vote in the negative.

Mr. WASHBURNE. I object to debate.

Mr. KELLOGG, of Illinois. I was not within the bar when my name was called, having been detained at my room by indisposition, and I ask the unanimous consent of the House for leave to record my vote.

Mr. VALLANDIGHAM. I object. Mr. KELLOGG, of Illinois. If permitted, I would have voted in the affirmative. Mr. FISHER (not being within the bar when his name was called) asked leave to vote. Mr. VALLANDÍGHAM objected. Mr. FISHER stated that he would have voted in the affirmative.

Mr. JOHNSON. Mr. Speaker, as I have had no opportunity to read and examine the bill, I ask leave to be excused from voting on it. I cannot take the statement of others as to its contents and effects.

The SPEAKER. Debate is not in order; nor is it in order to move to be excused from voting during the call of the roll.

Mr. RICE, of Massachusetts (being in his committee room when his name was called) asked leave to vote.

Mr. VALLANDIGHAM objected.

The vote was announced, as above recorded. Mr. WASHBURNE moved to reconsider the vote by which the bill was passed; and also moved that the motion to reconsider be laid on the table. The latter motion was agreed to.

EXCUSED FROM A COMMITTEE.

Mr. MALLORY. Mr. Speaker, I find that I have been appointed on the Committee on the Post Office and Post Roads; and as I am also a member of the Committee on Indian Affairs, I move that I be excused from further service on the latter committee.

The motion was agreed to.

SPECIAL COMMITTEE ON CONTRACTS.

Mr. FENTON. I move that the special committee on contracts for war supples, &c., be increased from five to seven members.

There was no objection; and it was ordered accordingly.

MILITARY COMMITTEE.

Mr. BLAIR. I ask the unanimous consent of the House that leave be granted to the Committee

Mr. STEVENS. I propose to give an hour for the discussion of this bill. I made the motion because I learned that some gentleman on the other side desired to make a speech. I am as willing to accommodate the gentleman on some future bill. I am not disposed to entirely cut gentlemen off.

state of the Union was agreed to.

The House then resolved itself into the Committee of the Whole on the state of the Union, (Mr. COLFAX in the chair.)

The CHAIRMAN. The national loan bill is the only one before the committee, and will be taken up for consideration.

Mr. VALLANDIGHAM. I move that the first reading of the bill for information be dispensed with.

The motion was agreed to. The reading of the bill for amendment was commenced.

Mr. VALLANDIGHAM. Mr. Chairman, in the Constitution of the United States, which the other day we swore to support, and by the authority of which we are here assembled now, it is

written:

"All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States."

It is further written also that the Congress to which all legislative powers granted are thus committed

"Shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech or of the press."

And it is yet further written, in protection of Senators and Representatives in that freedom of debate here, without which there can be no liberty, that

"For any speech or debate in either House they shall not be questioned in any other place."

Holding up the shield of the Constitution, and of a Representative of the people, I propose to standing here in the place and with the manhood myself, to-day, the ancient freedom of speech used within these walls; though with somewhat more, I trust, of decency and discretion than have sometimes been exhibited here. Sir, I do not propose to discuss the direct question of this civil war in which we are engaged. Its present prosecution is a foregone conclusion; and a wise man never wastes his strength on a fruitless enterprise. My position shall at present, for the most part, be indicated by my votes, and by the resolutions and motions which I may submit. But there are many questions incident to the war and to its prosecution, about which I have somewhat to say now.

Mr. Chairman, the President, in the message before us, demands the extraordinary loan of $400,000,000-an amount nearly ten times greater than the entire public debt, State and Federal, at the close of the Revolution in 1783, and four times as much as the total expenditures during the three years' war with Great Britain, in 1812.

Sir, that same Constitution which I again hold up, and to which I give my whole heart and my utmost loyalty, commits to Congress alone the power to borrow money and to fix the purposes to which it shall be applied, and expressly limits Army appropriations to the term of two years. Each Senator and Representative, therefore, must judge for himself, upon his conscience and his

and patience and peace, and by ultimate and adeequate compromise, every State would be restored to it. It is true, indeed, sir, that the Republican party, with great unanimity and great earnestness and determination, had resolved against all conciliation and compromise. But, on the other hand, the whole Democratic party, and the whole Constitutional Union party, were equally resolved that there should be no civil war upon any pretext; and both sides prepared for an appeal to that great and final arbiter of all disputes in a free country-the people.

Sir, I do not propose to inquire now whether the President and his Cabinet were sincere and in earnest, and meant really to persevere to the end in the policy of peace; or whether from the first they meant civil war, and only waited to gain time till they were fairly seated in power, and had disposed, too, of that prodigious horde of spoilsmen and office seekers, which came down at the first like an avalanche upon them? But I do know that the people believed them sincere, and cordially ratified and approved of the policy of peace; not as they subsequently responded to the policy of war, in a whirlwind of passion and madness, but calmly and soberly, and as the result of their deliberate and most solemn judgment; and believing that civil war was absolute and eternal disunion, while secession was but partial and temporary, they cordially indorsed also the proposed evacuation of Sumter and the other forts and public property within the seceded States. Nor, sir, will I stop now to explore the several causes which either led to a change in the apparent policy or an early development of the original and real purposes of the Administration. But there are two which I cannot pass by. And the first of these was PARTY NECESSITY, or the clamor of politicians, and especially of certain wicked, reckless, and unprincipled conductors of a partisan press. The peace policy was crushing out the Republican party. Under that policy, sir, it was melting away like snow before the sun. The general elections in Rhode Island and Connecticut, and municipal elections in New York and in the western States, gave abundant evidence that the people were resolved upon the most ample and satisfactory constitutional guarantees to the South as the price of a restoration of Union. And then it was, sir, that the long and agonizing howl of defeated and disappointed politicians came up before the Administration. The newspaper press teemed with appeals and threats to the President. The mails groaned under the weight of letters demanding a change of policy; while a secret conclave of the Governors of Massachusetts, New York, Ohio, and other States, assembled here, promised men and money to support the President in the irrepressible conflict which they now invoked. And thus it was, sir, that the necessities of a party in the pangs of dissolution, in the very hour and article of death, demanding vigorous measures, which could result in nothing but civil war, renewed secession, and absolute and eternal disunion, were preferred and hearkened to before the peace and harmony and prosperity of the whole country.

But there was another and yet stronger impelling cause without which this horrid calamity of civil war might have been postponed, and, perhaps, finally averted. One of the last and worst acts of a Congress, which, born in bitterness and nurtured in convulsion, literally did those things which it ought not to have done, and left undone those things which it ought to have done, was the passage of an obscure, ill-considered, ill-digested, and unstatesmanlike high protective tariff act, commonly known as "THE MORRILL TARIFF. Just about the same time, too, the Confederate Congress at Montgomery adopted our old tariff of 1857, which we had rejected to make way for the Morrill act, fixing their rate of duties at five, fifteen, and twenty per cent. lower than ours. The result was as inevitable as the laws of trade are inexorable. Trade and commerce-and especially the trade and commerce of the West-be- gan to look to the South. Turned out of their natural course years ago, by the canals and railroads of Pennsylvania and New York, and diverted castward at a heavy loss to the West, they threatened now to resume their ancient and accustomed channels-the water-courses-the Ohio and the Mississippi. And political association

and union, it was well known, must soon follow the direction of trade and interest. The city of New York, the great commercial emporium of the Union, and the Northwest, the chief granary of the Union, began to clamor now loudly for a repeal of the pernicious and ruinous tariff. Threatened thus with the loss of both political power and wealth, or the repeal of the tariff, and at last of both, New England-and Pennsylvania, too, the land of Penn, cradled in peace-demanded now coercion and civil war, with all its horrors, as the price of preserving either from destruction. Ay, sir, Pennsylvania, the great keystone of the arch of the Union, was willing to lay the whole weight of her iron upon that sacred arch, and crush it beneath the load. The subjugation of the Southay, sir, the subjugation of the South! I am not talking to children or fools; for there is not a man in this House fit to be a Representative here who does not know that the South cannot be forced to yield obedience to your laws and authority again until you have conquered and subjugated her-the subjugation of the South, and the closing up of her ports, first by force, in war, and afterwards by tariff laws, in peace, was deliberately resolved upon by the East. And, sir, when once this policy was begun, these self-same motives of waning commerce and threatened loss of trade impelled the great city of New York, and her merchants and her politicians and her press, with here and there an honorable exception, to place herself in the very front rank among the worshipers of Moloch. Much, indeed, of that outburst and uprising in the North, which followed the proclamation of the 15th of April, as well, perhaps, as the proclamation itself, was called forth, not so much by the fall of Sumter-an event long anticipated-as by the notion that the "insurrection," as it was called, might be crushed out in a few weeks, if not by the display, certainly, at least, by the presence of an overwhelming force.

passion in the North, compelled either a sudden waking up of the President and his advisers to the frightful significancy of the act which they had committed in heedlessly breaking the vase which imprisoned the slumbering demon of civil war, or else a premature but most rapid development of the daring plot to foster and promote secession, and then to set up a new and strong form of Government in the States which might remain in the Union. I

But whatever may have been the purpose, assert here to-day, as a Representative, that every principal act of the Administration since, has been a glaring usurpation of power, and a palpable and dangerous violation of that very Constitution which this civil war is professedly waged to support. Sir, I pass by the proclamation of the 15th of April, summoning the militia-not to defend this capital; there is not a word about the capital in the proclamation, and there was then no possible danger to it from any quarter; but to retake and occupy forts and property a thousand miles off-summoning, I say, the militia to suppress the so-called insurrection. I do not believe indeed, and no man believed in February last, when Mr. Stanton, of Ohio, introduced his bill to enlarge the act of 1795, that that act ever contemplated the case of a general revolution, and_of resistance by an organized Government. But no matter. The militia thus called out, with a shadow, at least, of authority, and for a period extending one month beyond the assembling of Congress, were amply sufficient to protect the capital against any force which was then likely to be sent against it-and the event has proved it-and ample enough also to suppress the outbreak in Maryland. Every other principal act of the Administration might well have been postponed, and ought to have been postponed, until the meeting of Congress; or, if the exigencies of the occasion demanded it, Congress should forthwith_have been assembled. What if two or three States should not have been represented, although even this need not have happened; but better this, a thousand times, than that the Constitution should be repeatedly and flagrantly violated, and public But whatever may have been the causes or the liberty and private right trampled under foot. As motives of the act, it is certain that there was a for Harper's Ferry and the Norfolk navy-yard, change in the policy which the Administration they rather needed protection against the Adminmeant to adopt, or which at least they led the istration, by whose orders millions of property country to believe they intended to pursue. I will were wantonly destroyed, which was not in the not venture now to assert, what may yet some dayslightest danger from any quarter, at the date of be made to appear, that the subsequent acts of the Administration, and its enormous and persistent infractions of the Constitution, its high-handed usurpations of power, formed any part of a deliberate conspiracy to overthrow the present form of Federal republican government, and to estab-ple were not allowed the slightest voice in this the lish a strong centralized Government in its stead. most momentous question ever presented to any No, sir; whatever their purposes now, I rather Government. The entire responsibility of the think that, in the beginning, they rushed heed- whole work was boldly assumed by the Execlessly and headlong into the gulf, believing that,utive, and all the powers required for the purposes as the seat of war was then far distant and difficult of access, the display of vigor in reinforcing Sumter and Pickens, and in calling out seventyfive thousand militia upon the firing of the first gun, and above all, in that exceedingly happy and original conceit of commanding the insurgent States to "disperse in twenty days," would not, on the one hand, precipitate a crisis, while, upon the other, it would satisfy its own violent partisans, and thus revive and restore the falling fortunes of the Republican party.

These, sir, were the chief causes which, along with others, led to a change in the policy of the Administration, and, instead of peace, forced us headlong into civil war, with all its accumulated

horrors.

I can hardly conceive, sir, that the President and his advisers could be guilty of the exceeding folly of expecting to carry on a general civil war by a mere posse comitatus of three-months militia. It may be, indeed, that, with wicked and most desperate cunning, the President meant all this as a mere entering wedge to that which was to rive the oak asunder; or possibly as a test, to learn the public sentiment of the North and West. But, however that may be, the rapid secession and movements of Virginia, North Carolina, Arkansas, and Tennessee, taking with them, as I have said elsewhere, four millions and a half of people,|| immense wealth, inexhaustible resources, five hundred thousand fighting men, and the graves of Washington and Jackson, and bringing up too, in one single day, the frontier from the Gulf to the Ohio and the Potomac, together with the abandonment by the one side, and the occupation by the other, of Harper's Ferry and the Norfolk navy-yard; and the fierce gust and whirlwind of

the proclamation.

But, sir, Congress was not assembled at once, as Congress should have been, and the great question of civil war submitted to their deliberations. The representatives of the States and of the peo

in hand were boldly usurped from either the States or the people, or from the legislative department; while the voice of the judiciary, that last refuge and hope of liberty, was turned away from with contempt.

Sir, the right of blockade-and I begin with it is a belligerent right, incident to a state of war, and it cannot be exercised until war has been declared or recognized; and Congress alone can declare or recognize war. But Congress had not declared or recognized war. On the contrary, they had but a little while before expressly refused to declare it, or to arm the President with the power to make it. And thus the President, in declaring a blockade of certain ports in the States of the South, and in applying to it the rules gov erning blockades as between independent Powers, violated the Constitution.

But if, on the other hand, he meant to deal with these States as still in the Union, and subject to Federal authority, then he usurped a power which belongs to Congress alone-the power to abolish and close up ports of entry; a power, too, which Congress had also but a few weeks before refused to exercise. And yet, without the repeal or abolition of ports of entry, any attempt by either Congress or the President to blockade these ports is a violation of the spirit, if not of the letter, of that clause of the Constitution which declares that "no preference shall be given by any regulation of commerce or revenue to the ports of one State over those of another.”