moment now, or after this bill passes, directing that the military
commander of the district shall not enforce a sentence of death
until it is submitted to him, because the military officer is a
mere subordinate of the President, remaining there at the pleasure
of the President.

"There is nothing, therefore, in these sections, that ought to
alarm the nerves of my friend from Pennsylvania, or anybody else.
I cannot think that these gentlemen are alarmed about the state of
despotism that President Johnson is to establish in the southern
states. I do not feel alarmed; nor do I see anything in these
sections as they now stand that need endanger the rights of the
most timid citizen of the United States. They are intended to
protect a race of people who are now without protection.

"Now, in regard to the fifth section, which is the main and material
feature of this bill, I think it is right that the Congress of the
United States, before its adjournment, should designate some way
by which the southern states may reorganize loyal state governments
in harmony with the constitution and laws of the United States,
and the sentiment of the people, and find their way back to these
halls. My own judgment is that the fifth section will point out
a clear, easy, and right way for these states to be restored to
their full power in the government. All that it demands of the
people of the southern states is to extend to all their male
citizens, without distinction of race or color, the elective
franchise. It is now too late in the day to be frightened by this
simple proposition. Senators can make the most of it as a political
proposition. Upon that we are prepared to meet them. But it does
point out a way by which the twenty absent Senators, and the fifty
absent Representatives can get back to these halls, and there is
no other way by which they can justly do it.

"It seems to me that this is the whole substance of the bill. All
there is material in the bill is in the first two lines of the
preamble and the fifth section, in my judgment. The first two
lines may lay the foundation adopting the proclamation issued first
in North Carolina, that the Rebellion had swept away all the civil
governments in the southern states; and the fifth section points
out the mode by which the people of those states in their own
manner, without any limitations or restrictions by Congress, may
get back full representation in Congress. That is the