he
Executive."

Mr. Boutwell remarked that previous propositions having been referred
to the Committee on Reconstruction, they had agreed upon the bill
before the House with a unanimity which no other report had ever
obtained, nor had any bill submitted by that committee ever been so
carefully considered as this. "To-day," said he, "there are eight
millions and more of people, occupying six hundred and thirty thousand
square miles of the territory of this country, who are writhing under
cruelties nameless in their character--injustice such as has not been
permitted to exist in any other country in modern times; and all this
because in this capital there sits enthroned a man who, so far as the
executive department is concerned, guides the destinies of the
republic in the interest of rebels; and because, also, in those ten
former States rebellion itself, inspired by the executive department
of this Government, wields all authority, and is the embodiment of law
and power every-where. Until in the South this obstacle to
reconstruction is removed, there can be no effectual step taken toward
the reoerganization of the Government."

"A well man needs no remedies," said Mr. Niblack, in a speech against
the bill; "it is only when he is sick that you can require him to
submit to medicinal applications. A country at peace does not need and
ought not to allow martial law and other summary remedies incident to
a state of war. The highest and dearest interests of this country are
made subordinate to party exigencies and to special and particular
interests. No wonder, then, that trade languishes and commerce
declines."

On the 12th of February, Mr. Bingham proposed an amendment making the
restoration of the rebel States conditional upon their adoption of the
Constitutional Amendment, and imposing upon them, meanwhile, the
military government provided by the pending bill.

Mr. Kelley advocated the bill as reported from the committee. "This,"
said he, "is little more than a mere police bill. The necessity for it
arises from the perfidy of the President of the United States. Had he
been true to the duties of his high office and his public and repeated
pledges, there would have been no necessity for considering such a
bill."

"Throughout the region of the unreconstructed States," said Mr.
Maynard, "the animating, life-giving principle of the rebellion is as
thoroughly in possession of the country and of all the political power
the