and highest obligation is to guarantee to every State a republican
form of government. The rebellion having overthrown constitutional
State governments in many States, it is yours to mature and enact
legislation which, with the concurrence of the Executive, shall
establish them anew on such a basis of enduring justice as will
guarantee all necessary safeguards to the people, and afford what our
Magna Charta, the Declaration of Independence, proclaims is the chief
object of government--protection to all men in their inalienable
rights. The world should witness, in this great work, the most
inflexible fidelity, the most earnest devotion to the principles of
liberty and humanity, the truest patriotism and the wisest
statesmanship.

"Heroic men, by hundreds of thousands, have died that the Republic
might live. The emblems of mourning have darkened White House and
cabin alike; but the fires of civil war have melted every fetter in
the land, and proved the funeral pyre of slavery. It is for you,
Representatives, to do your work as faithfully and as well as did the
fearless saviors of the Union in their more dangerous arena of duty.
Then we may hope to see the vacant and once abandoned seats around us
gradually filling up, until this hall shall contain Representatives
from every State and district; their hearts devoted to the Union for
which they are to legislate, jealous of its honor, proud of its glory,
watchful of its rights, and hostile to its enemies. And the stars on
our banner, that paled when the States they represented arrayed
themselves in arms against the nation, will shine with a more
brilliant light of loyalty than ever before."

Mr. Colfax having finished his address, took the following oath, which
stood as the most serious obstacle in the way of many elected to
Congress from the Southern States:

"I do solemnly swear that I have never voluntarily borne
arms against the United States since I have been a citizen
thereof; that I have voluntarily given no aid, countenance,
counsel, or encouragement to persons engaged in armed
hostility thereto; that I have neither sought nor accepted
nor attempted to exercise the functions of any office
whatever, under any authority or pretended authority in
hostility to the United States; that I have not yielded a
voluntary support to any pretended government, authority,
power, or constitution within the United States, hostile o