s; not less of those who think that the rebellion
has placed the citizens of the rebel States beyond the protection of the
Constitution, and that Congress, therefore, has supreme power over them
as conquered enemies, than of that other class who think that they
have not ceased to be citizens and States of the United States, though
incapable of exercising political privileges under the Constitution, but
that Congress is charged with a high political power by the Constitution
to guarantee republican governments in the States, and that this is the
proper time and the proper mode of exercising it. It is also entitled
to the favorable consideration of gentlemen upon the other side of the
House who honestly and deliberately express their judgment that slavery
is dead. To them it puts the question whether it is not advisable to
bury it out of sight, that its ghost may no longer stalk abroad to
frighten us from our propriety. * * *

What is the nature of this case with which we have to deal, the evil
we must remedy, the danger we must avert? In other words, what is that
monster of political wrong which is called secession? It is not, Mr.
Speaker, domestic violence, within the meaning of that clause of the
Constitution, for the violence was the act of the people of those States
through their governments, and was the offspring of their free and
unforced will. It is not invasion, in the meaning of the Constitution,
for no State has been invaded against the will of the government of the
State by any power except the United States marching to overthrow the
usurpers of its territory. It is, therefore, the act of the people of
the States, carrying with it all the consequences of such an act.
And therefore it must be either a legal revolution, which makes them
independent, and makes of the United States a foreign country, or it is
a usurpation against the authority of the United States, the erection
of governments which do not recognize the Constitution of the United
States, which the Constitution does not recognize, and, therefore, not
republican governments of the States in rebellion. The latter is
the view which all parties take of it. I do not understand that any
gentleman on the other side of the House says that any rebel government
which does not recognize the Constitution of the United States, and
which is not recognized by Congress, is a State government within the
meaning of the Constitution. Still less can it be said that ther