the Union cause has gained important and substantial advantages; and whereas, in view of these triumphs, it is no longer beneath our dignity nor dangerous to our safety to evince a generous magnanimity becoming a great and powerful people, by offering to the insurgents an opportunity to return to the Union without imposing upon them degrading or destructive conditions: Therefore, Resolved, That the President be requested to appoint three commissioners, who shall be empowered to open negotiations with the authorities at Richmond, to the end that this bloody, destructive, and inhuman war shall cease, and the Union be restored upon terms of equity, fraternity, and equality, under the Constitution. Mr. Ellihu B. Washburne moved that the preamble and resolution be laid on the table. The yeas and nays being desired by one-fifth of the members present, So the preamble and resolution were laid on the table. Mr. Robert C Schenck R. B. Van Valkenburgh Ellihu B. Washburne Mr. James C. Robinson James S. Rollins Lorenzo D. M. Sweat William H. Wadsworth Chilton A. White Joseph W. White Charles H. Winfield Mr. Ganson introduced a bill (H. R. 32) to regulate the sessions of the circuit and district courts for the northern district of New York, and for other purposes; which was read a first and second time, and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary. Mr. Samuel F. Miller submitted the following resolution; which was read, considered, and agreed to, viz: Resolved, That the Committee on Military Affairs be requested to inquire into the justice and expediency of so amending the enrolment act as to place all persons enrolled under said act in one class, from which class all drafts that are now ordered or shall hereafter be ordered shall be made, and that the said committee have leave to report by bill or otherwise. Mr. Denison submitted the following resolution, viz: Resolved, That the Committee on Military Affairs be instructed to report a bill to increase the pay of all private soldiers now in the service of the United States to thirty dollars per month; and in all cases where a soldier has a family, to pay one-half of said sum to his family. The same having been read, Mr. Ellihu B. Washburne submitted the following amendment, viz: Strike out the word "report," and insert in lieu thereof the words "inquire into the expediency of reporting." And the question being put, Will the House agree thereto? It was decided in the affirmative. The resolution as amended was then agreed to. Mr. Finck submitted the following resolution; and debate arising thereon, it was laid over under the rule, viz: Whereas, in the opinion of this house, the federal government is invested by the Constitution of the United States with all necessary power and authority to suppress any resistance to the due execution of the laws thereof, and to employ the army and navy in aid of the civil authority to disperse all armed resistance to the rightful power and jurisdiction of the United States; and whereas, in the judgment of this house, the army and navy cannot be rightfully used to subjugate and hold as conquered territory any of the States of this Union: Therefore, Be it resolved, That in this national emergency Congress will forego all feeling of mere passion or resentment, and will recollect only its duty to the country; that this war should not be waged on our part in any spirit of oppression, nor in any spirit of conquest or subjugation, nor for the purpose of overthrowing or interfering with the rights or established institutions of the States, but to defend and maintain the supremacy of the Constitution and preserve the Union, with all the dignity, equality, and rights of the several States unimpaired; and as soon as these objects are attained the war ought to cease. Mr. Cox submitted the following resolution, and moved the previous question thereon, viz: Resolved, That the Secretary of War be directed to communicate to this house the report made by Major General George B. McClellan concerning the organization and operations of the army of the Potomac while under his command, and of all army operations while he was commander-in-chief. The said resolution was then laid over one day, under the rule. Mr. Harding submitted the following resolution, viz: Resolved, That the Union has not been dissolved, and that whenever the rebellion in any one of the seceded States shall be put down and subdued, either by force of the federal arms or by the voluntary submission of the people of such State to the authority of the Constitution, then such State will be thereby restored to all its rights and privileges as a State of the Union, under the Constitution of such State and the Constitution of the United States, including the right to regulate, order, and control its own domestic institutions according to the constitution and laws of such State, free from all congressional or executive control or dictation. The same having been read, Mr. Harding moved the previous question, and the House refused to second the same. Debate then arising on the resolution, it was laid over under the rule. Mr Grider submitted the following resolution, viz: Resolved, That the Committee of Claims be instructed to report a bill, at their earliest convenience, providing a commission or agency to ascertain and assess the damage done to loyal citizens by the army of the United States where no pay has been received nor sufficient and legal vouchers given the citizens upon which pay can be had and received. The same having been read, On motion of Mr. Stevens, it was amended by striking out the word "report," and inserting in lieu thereof the words "inquire into the expediency of reporting." The resolution as amended was then agreed to. Mr. Wadsworth submitted the following resolution, viz: Resolved, That the powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution nor prohibited by it to the States are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people, and the federal Executive can neither, directly nor indirectly, exercise any of the powers thus reserved or lawfully restrict or obstruct the exercise thereof by the people. The same having been read, Mr. Wadsworth moved the previous question, and the House refused to second the same. Debate then arising on the resolution, it was laid over under the rule. Mr. Voorhees submitted a preamble and resolution, which he subsequently modified to read as follows, and which were read, considered, and agreed to, viz: Whereas the increased prices attached to all the commodities of life render the expense of living and of supporting families almost if not quite double what sufficed for such purposes at the commencement of the war in which we are now engaged: Therefore, Be it resolved, That the Committee on Military Affairs be instructed to inquire into the expediency of preparing and reporting, at as early a day as practicable, a bill providing for the increase of the pay of the white private soldiers now or hereafter in the army of the United States to the sum of twenty-five dollars per month; also providing for the increase of the pay of all commissioned officers and musicians now or hereafter in said army forty per cent. on the amount now paid them by law; and also providing for the payment to the soldiers who have heretofore been enlisted, including those who have been honorably discharged by reason of disability or other cause, of an amount of bounty money equal to the highest amount now being paid by the government for volunteers. Mr. Holman submitted the following resolutions, viz: Resolved, That the doctrine, recently announced, that the States in which an armed insurrection has existed against the federal government have ceased to be States of the Union, and shall be held, on the ultimate defeat of that insurrection, as Territories or subjugated provinces, and governed as such by the absolute will of Congress and the federal Executive, or restored to the Union on conditions unknown to the Constitution of the United States, ought to be rebuked and condemned as manifestly unjust to the loyal citizens of those States, tending to prolong the war and to confirm the treasonable theory of secession, and if carried into effect must greatly endanger the public liberty and the constitutional powers and rights of all of the States, by centralizing and consolidating the powers of the government, State and national, in the federal Executive. Resolved, That the only object of the war ought to be to subjugate the armed insurrection which for the time being suspends the proper relations of certain States with the federal government, and to re-establish the su premacy of the Constitution; and the loyal citizens of those States, and the masses of the people thereof, submitting to the authority of the Constitution, ought not to be hindered from restoring the proper relations of their respective States with the federal government, so far as the same is dependent on the voluntary act of the people, by any condition except uneonditional submission to the Constitution and laws of the United States. In the language heretofore solemnly adopted by Congress, the war ought not to be waged on our part for any purpose of conquest or subjugation, or purpose of overthrowing or interfering with the rights or established institutions of those States, but to defend and maintain the supremacy of the Constitution and to preserve the Union, with all the dignity, equality, and rights of the several States unimpaired; and as soon as those objects are accomplished the war ought to cease. Resolved, That all necessary and proper, appropriations of money ought to be promptly made by this Congress for the support of the military and naval forces of the government, and all measures of legislation necessary to increase and promote the efficiency of the army and navy and to maintain the public credit ought to be adopted; that, through a vigorous prosecution of the war, peace, on the basis of the union of the States and the supremacy of the Constitution, may be the most speedily obtained. The same having been read, Mr. Stevens moved that they be laid on the table. Yeas. It was decided in the affirmative, {eys The yeas and nays being desired by one-fifth of the members present, Mr. John B. Alley Isaac N. Arnold Nathan F. Dixon Ignatius Donnelly Mr. John F. Driggs Ebenezer Dumont Mr. John W. Longyear Those who voted in the negative are Mr. James C. Allen, Owen Lovejoy Mr. John H. Rice Edward H. Rollins William G. Brown Mr. Charles A. Eldridge So the resolutions were laid on the table. Mr. Cravens submitted the following resolution, which was read, considered, and agreed to, viz: Resolved, That the Committee on Military Affairs be instructed to inquire into the expediency of providing by law for the payment to loyal citizens for the horses and other property taken from them by the Union or rebel forces during the rebel raid of John H. Morgan into the State of Indiana and Ohio in July, 1863, and to report at an early day by bill or otherwise. Mr. Julian submitted the following resolution, viz: Resolved, That the Committee on the Judiciary be instructed to report a bill for the repeal of the third and fourth sections of the "act respecting fugitives from justice and persons escaping from the service of their masters," approved February 12, 1793, and the act to amend, and supplementary to, the aforesaid act, approved September 18, 1850. The same having been read, Mr. Julian moved the previous question. Pending which, Mr. Holman moved that the resolution be laid on the table. And the question being put, It was decided in the affirmative, (Yeas The yeas and nays being desired by one-fifth of the members present, Those who voted in the affirmative are 81 73 Nathaniel B. Smithers Henry G. Stebbins Mr. Theodore M. Pomeroy Mr. Holman moved that the vote last taken be reconsidered, and also moved that the motion to reconsider be laid on the table; which latter motion was agreed to. |