Evansville Journal, Volume 19, Evansville, Vanderburgh County, 21 February 1868 — Page 2

THE EVAKVTT I F. DAILY .JOUKN A 1 : Fl IDA Y. FEBRUAKT 21. 1S6S.

luic, uaturauy u vides it?e;i ioto me two -ioi-wing ruestions under, which I propose to treat it : . 1st. What are the faetB'affeqting the ; merits of the two plan-of remtruc tion now proposed to the country? (' 2d. What is the legal status of the States lately in! rebellion, and what are the .constitutional powers of Con gress and the President respectively over! the questions involved in their restoration? If the facts are as the organs of Democratic public opinion assert them to be, Congress might well, for the Bake of accomplishing a $peedy restoration of the revolted State, waive any irregularities in the T residential proceedings and ratify aets which are believed to be beyond the scope of the constitutional powers of the Executive Department of the government. What, then, does the Democratic party allege the facts to be which should induce Congress to recognize the State organizations formed under the auspices of the President as legal, valid State governments? It is believed no better or fairer method can be employed of ascertaining the position of the Democratic party on these questions of fact than by allowing their distinguished standard-bearer in this State, Senator Hendricks, to state them in his own language. He said, in his Bth of January speech, and substantially reitera ted the statement in a subsequent speech in the Senate: 1. That after the close of the war the people of the South " entirely acquiesced in the results of the war, yielded obedience to law and respect to the authority of the United States. 2. " That the people of all the Southern States adopted the President's recommendations -and elected delegates to Conventi6ns; Constitutions were made, submitted, voted upon and ratified. 3. " That in each State Constitution slavery was prohibited; their debt contracted in the rebellion was repudiated; the right of secession was expressly and in the most solemn manner abandoned, and their several ordinances of secession were repudiated and declare invalid. 4. "These Constitutions were approved and ratified according to the forms always respected, and were acceptable to the people both North and South." I these propositions were true, or even true in the main, the revolted States and their people would to-day be represented in both houses of Congress of the United States. My present duty is to show that with a few slighc exceptions, which will be noticed, they have no foundation in truth or in fact. In other words, I ut in an appearance for the Kepubican party of Indiana, and plead the general denial to the whole complaint. Although the burden of proving these propositions is on the Democratic party, by whom they are affirmed, I take upon myself, contrary to the ordinary rule in such cases, the duty of disproving the affirmations and establishing the denial. This I shall do, not by an exhaustive review of the evidence, but by Buch a reference to the principal links in the chain as will suffice for the end proposed. First, then, did the peoire of the South, after the close of the war, yield obedience to law and respect to the authority of the United States? In entering upon this inquiry, it should be borne in mind that there then was and still is on the Statute : Book of the United States an act o j Congress entitled "an act to prescribe I i an oath of office, and for other pur- 1 poses, approved July 2d. 18G2. bv which every person elected or appointed to any office of honor or profit under the Government of the Unite! States, (the President only excepted,) was required, before entering upon the duties or his office, to take and subscribe an oath that he had never voluntarily borne arms against the United States since becoming a citizen thereof; that he had voluntarily given no aid, countenance, counsel or encouragement to persons engaged in armed hostility to the United States; that he had not sought or accepted, nor attempted to exercise the functions of any office whatever under any authority or pretended authority in hostility to the Uuited States; that he had not yielded a volmtary support to any pretended govirnment, authority, power or Consti:ution within the United States, hosile or inimical thereto." Before proceeding to show how nuch obedience the defeated rebels f the South yielded to this law, and low much respect they manifested for he authority by which it was enacted, i desire to express my gratification hat Mr. Hendricks seems to approve his oath, and to have faith in its fiicacy. He said in his late speech, that that lan is too stupid or too dishonest to' lerit the confidence cf the people ho now telis them that red-handed ibels could be restored to power. Since 18G2, it has been and now is," )ntinucs he, the Statute Jaw of ougress that no man shall be a memsr ol Congress or hold any office ider the United State who engaged ; or gave aid to the rebellion." As no doubt is here expressed of e Constitutionality of this Statute, desire expressed to repeal it, no int of confidence signified as to its opriery or efficacy. I am constrained ; believe that the Senator lias changi the opinion he formerly held on e same subject. I well remember that in 1SG4, in place in the Senate, he most em- , atically condemned this oath by tnparing it with the od'ous religious

The subject, lut-rt u ides itself into the

test wiiua formerly required to be trt ketyWMnbtrs nfnhr.Ilt ithh Parliament. Hut be that as it xmy. Jr. Hendricks, nov,- relies upon this TAth tb keep1 Congress uncontaminarit bf the presence of " red-handeu rebels;" and thereby admits the validity of the act prescribing it. How much obedience, then, did the people of the South-yield to this law? How much respect to the authority of the United States, by whih, it was enacted? Under the Presidential plan of reconstruction; and under the lead-of Mr. Johnson, all the rebel .States,1 except Texas, proceeded in the fall, of 1805 to elect Senators and Representatives in Congress. When they did this they were fully informed of the existence of. the act of Congress prescribing the " iron-clad" oath. How much obedience did they yield to that law? How much respect did they evince for the oath? Let a i'evt facss answer the question: , v5 Georgia chose Alexander II. Stephens, late Vice President of the Rebel Confederacy, and Herschel V. Johnson, late a Senator in the Rebel Congress, to present her reconstructed loyalty in the Senate of the United

States; and her peopl elected two Rebel Generals to seats in the House of Representatives. - - North Carolina sent as her Senators William A. Graham, fresh from the Confederate Senate, and Mr. Pool a member of the re"bel Legislature of the State during the war. In the House, the people of the same State elected a member of the rebel Congress, a Colonel in the rebel army, and a member of the Conven tion which passed the Ordinance of Secession. ' :. South Carolina, chose a3 her Senators, a Confederate State's Judge, and a staff officer of Beauregard in the rebel army. Virginia elected to the House two members of her Secession Convention who had acted as members of that body tifter the commencement of hostilities. These are mere samples of the kind of men which the South chose as members of the 3'Jth Congress, and it is perfectly notorious that, as a general rule in the elections which resulted in the choice of such men, loyalty to the Government of the United States was proscribed, while service in tne coniederate cause was a sure passeport to popular favor V it h facts like these staring us in the face, it is not difficult to deter mine how much credit is due to the senatorial assumption that these peo pie yielded obedience to law and res pect to the authority of the United States. But this is not the only evidence of the continued rebellious temper and spirit of the people of the South, and their utter want of respect for the authority ot the United States North Carolina, for instance, made the taking effect of sundry of her laws in relation to freedmen to depend upon the withdrawal of the military pro tection extended to this class of peo pie by the United State?, thereby, re fusing to "accept the situation," unless permitted to dictate to Congress what should be the character of its legislation in relation to the recent ly emancipated slaves. Mississippi showed her respect for the authority approved November 21, 18C5, as to a certain class of offenses committed be fore the war, granting an amnesty to such persona, and to such persons only, who had volunteered in the Uonlcderate army, and who did not desert said army. If a man had , served in the Union army, or en- ! listed in the rebel army and desert I ed, he was , to be tried and punished for offenses committed be fore the war; but if he had served the rebellion without deserting, this purg ed him from all guilt. W ho so blind as not to see that such legislation as this was out of pure respect for the authority of the United States 1 Again, by another act oi the same date, Mis sissippi set apart twenty per cent, of the entire revenue of the State, a revenue proposed to be raised by the most enormous taxation, for a relief fund for the relief of destitute, dis abled Confederate soldiers and their widows and children. Union soldiers who resided or might settle in the State of Mississippi, were to be taxed to pension those who fought to de stroy the Government! Does not this discrimination in favor of rebel sol diers and against Union soldiers, show a marvelous respect tor the authority of the United States? especially when it is considered that by another law of the same State, a Union soldier, if he happened to be a black man, might be sold on the block into temporary slavery to pay a poll tax. Again, maimed rebel soldiers were exempted from the payment of poll taxes and license fees; but no such exemption was extended to persons who fought for their country. Another very significant fact, showing the respect of Mississippi for the authority of the United States, was the fact that her Legislature, on the 1st of December, 1805, obliterated the very name of the only county in the State that had been loyal to the Government during the war, and re-baptized it in the name of the chief of the rebellion, by giving it the name of Davis. ,The name of the county seat ot tne same county was changed to Leesburgh, in honor of Gen. Lee. Is it not a great outrage that a Legislature so loyal as to pass an act like this, showing sn: h marked respect for the authority of the United States, should not be permitted to elect two Senators of the United States to take their seats by the sideof.Mr. Hendricks and assist him to represent true

trueonilitatiunal- iib - i, The butchery at Memphis, end the slaughter at New Orleans, speak in thunder tones ia iavor of the proposition that the people of the South yielded obedience to the law and respect to the authority of the United Sfates! Let me call your attention to a bilrgf fiwTcg$ut of the last named butchery, rendered by the Chief of Police of the eity of New Orleans to the City Treasurer of that city, after the uuurJer of the members of the Convention. Thus it reads: . - 1 Comptrollek s Office. i "COMWROI.LltK'9 OFFtCS "NKWORLISAm NOV. ltt, lSCT 7'i ! ("OFFICE OF TH( UHIEF OF fOL.lCK. City of New Orleans. To Thomas B Adams. , , VDr, Fo cash . . loads of sh .paid ins hauling orty-tix - ; of dead and tvoumlexi from around the Mechanic' ItiMHul to Htation iHonw, at i. ..Ji39 00 Paid for carrying vend from (Station 'j House to worlt Mouse yard eight Joocf.t,.,afc $) ..;.... Paid lor fifteen loail-t wounded from , nation ii Fieedmens' Hospital, at 24 00 60 00 fa id carriage and cab iire lor my- . Hdf and aula during the week of the riot...-. 7. j 00 Here you see, from an official document recently brought to the notice, of Congress by Gen. Butler, that these rebel officials of New Orleans account for ixiy-inae loads of dead and wounded Union men murdered (in cold blood. ' ; The blood of these .slaughtered ones crying from the ground, must have inspired Mr. Her Iricks when he asserted that the people of the South yielded obedience to law. and respect to the autnorlty of the United States. And y. i te-e are the people for governing whom.'1' gallant Phil. Sheridan was re uoved from command by the President, to tae great delight of , the Demi( r;itic party. North and South. , But we are affined not only that the people ot the bouth did yield obedience to law and respect to the au thority of the United States, but that they entirely acquiesced in the results of the war. ' One of the results of the war, as is now conceded on ail har.ds, was the abolition of slavery in the insurgent States, and the consequent obligation to protect the freedmen in their inalienable rights, among which, there is f;ood authority for saying, are "life, iberty and the pursuit of happiness." Indeed, the founders of the Republic are reported to have declared that, to secure these rights governments are instituted, among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.?' When Mr. Johnson assumed to be the United States,' and arrogated to himself the law-making power of the Government, he was not unmindful of the fact that slavery had been abolished in , the insurrectionary States by ' Executive proclamation as a necessary war measure, and that this abolition had received the sanction of Congress and the people. ; In his amnesty' proclamation of May- 29, 18G5, he required every rebel, as a condition oi pardon, to take and subscribe the following, oath, viz: I do solemnly swear, or affirm, in the presence of Almighty God, that I will henceforth faithfully support. protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, and the Union of the States thereunder; and that 1 will in like manner abide bv and faith fully support all laws and proclama tions which have been made during the existing rebellion with reference to the emancipation of slaves. So help me God. ' By the President's other proclama tion of the same date, (May 29, 18C5,) appointing a Provisional Governor for North Carolina, and providing for the r3-establishment of civil government in that State, one of the qualifications prescribed for every voter was that he should previously to voting take and subscribe the amnesty oath which has just been quoted at length. The North Carolina proclamation was the model after which all the other reconstruction proclamations subsequently issued were fashioned; the same oath being required in each as a condition precedent to the exercise of the elective franchise. The rebellious people of North Carolina. South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, Florida and lexas, in reconstructing under the Presidential plan, took this amnesty oath. " lhese facts now passed into historv. are reproduced to show that so far as swearing faithfully to support freedom as against slavery is concerned, the people of those States did acquiesce in the results of the war. But to make his declaration eood. Mr. Hendricks must beprepircd to show not only that they thus swore, but that they also in food faith kept their oath. In supplying the evidence on this point, it will not be expected that within the limits of a single SDeech all the proofs of the entire acquiesceace will be adduced as to all the seceded States. Instead of attempting this, soma scraps from the history of Johnsonian reconstruction in a single State will be submitted as a sample of the whole. Let Mississippi be the model State selected, and let the evidence be drawn from her legislative enactments passed in 18J5, before the meeting of Congress in December of that year. lhe resueitated rebel .Legislature of! Mississippi mat in October, ISoo. and was in sess-on during that month, ti.o month of November, and a few of tu first days of December of the year. It was composed of men who had jtst sworn faithfully to, support the abolition of slavery, and no wiokeJ Rad;cil Conzress had as yet done I i ausht to provoke them to do other- (

loy.iity and er? v ? ""

L wweXhaa-as their ow.ajadgme'nts I should dictate. .' ' , ,

What, then, under thee favorable circumstances did they do? c -By law they compelled all colored persons to have homes, and by the same law rendered it impossible that they t should have homes by making them .incompetent to rent or lease, (much less to own,) lands or tenements, save in an incorporated towu or city, and there they could only rent under the control and with the permission of the corporate authorities. The object of this legislation was palpable; it was to drive the emancipated slaves to seek homes, as tenants by sufferance, in their old quarters, on. the plantations' with' their former' masters.' By the same act, the freedmen, and all other colored persons, were also required to have some lawful employment in order to legalize their existence in the povereign reconstructed State of Missisipp:. f How, , then, could lawful employment be acquired or obtained? ;I answer that a colored person could only have lawful employment in one of two ways, viz.: first, by being licensed to live and to labor by the police authorities of the locality in which he might live, the price of license being fixed by the local au. thoritics, and varying from one to five dollars, and being revokable by those who Usued it. Second, by contracting in writing to serve some white man for a period of more than one month, and by that contract reducing himself to a worse condition than that of slavery itself. The contract necessary to legalize the colored man's existence, was by law declared to be an entire contract, and if the employee quitted the service of his master, without good cause, before the expiraiiou or ms term oi service, tie iorfeited all wages then due, and was liable besides to bo arrested by any officer or citizen and carried back to his master; and for making the arrest and delivery, such officer or citizen was entitled to five dollars reward, and ten cents a mile from the place of arrest to the place of delivery, all thi-i to be paid bv the master, and de ducted out of the future earnings of the fugitive. And, lest there should be any failure to execute this fugitive slave law. it was made the duty of every civil oiheer to make the arrest and delivery of the fugitive But these Johnsonized rebels well knew that it would be a vain thing to enact that a colored man could not legally exist in the State of Missis sippi, save as the stipulated temporary 6iave or some white man, unless there were proper penalties prescribed against the terrible crime of not hav ing a lawful employment. This omission was supplied by the vaerant law of Mississippi, approved by Governor ii. U. Humphreys, late a General in the Confederate service, on the 24th day of November, 18(5. and still ap proved by Mr. Hendricks and his party, as may be inferred by the de claration that these people acquiesced in the results of the war. By this vagrant act. all colored per sons, male and female, over the age of eighteen years, who should on the second Monday of January, 18GG, or thereafter, be found without lawful employment or business, were declared to pe vagrants, and on conviction thereof, were to be fined not exceeding fifty dollars, and imprisoned, at the discretion of the court, not exceeding ten days, and if the fine was not paid within five days after convic tion, it was made the duty of the sheriff to hire out said coavict to any person who would for the shortest period pay said fine and all cost". Look for one moment at the beauties of this Democratic acquiescing legislation, passed by men who had the oath to support the abolition of slavery fresh upon their lips and upon their souls. It embraces three propositions, viz.: First, Colored persons must have homes or be outlawed ; but lest they should get homes, they are prohibited by law from renting houses or lands. Second, If they have not homes, they must have some lawful emplotnent or business; but the law prevents them from having a lawful employment or business, unless they are licensed or bound to serve some white man in a written contract that makes them worse than the slaves of their employers. Third, If they have no lawful employment or business, they are vagrants and punishable by a fine not exceeding fifty dollars, and to pay the fine and costs the man or woman is put upon the block and sold into temporary bondage. Even Indiana Democrats would ac quiesce in suca a result ot the war as would still permit their Southern brethern to sell colored people on the block for the dreadful crime of being black and having no license to live and to labor issued by some rebel Democratic official. Again, by the sixth section of this same vagrant act, it was made the duty of the police authorities of eaer county to levy an annual special poi! tax of not exceeding one dollar ou every colored person, male and fe male, between the ages of eighkca and sixty years, to constitute a Freeiman's Pauper Fund; and by th.3 seventh section, a failure to pay this tax was made evidence of vagrancy, and it was made the duty of the Sherriff to arrest the defaulting tax payer u.. (.viihout trial,; proceed at once to o uiui or her out to any, one who .L.l .'jr the shortest time pay the tae accruing costs. ' onocSing a pun mi upon a woman, and then levying upon the woman aud seiiing her on the block to pay Us, afford? evidence of hnancia genius and acquiescing loyalty, that ,

cannot Tail to "command universal adra'ration. The tax just mentioned, be it remembered, was a special poll tax only applicable to colored persons, and applicable to these without regard to cex. Besides this, colored men with all male inhabitan's of the State, between the" ages of twenty-one and sixty, were subject to a State poll tax of one dollar per annum, and if it was not paid the Sheriff was to compel the delinquent to work six days on any public road of bridge or other public work; and if there was no such wort in the county to be done, the Sheriff was to hire the defaulting tax payer for six days to any person who would ptiy the one dollar tax and one dollar additional for cost. This law in terms

applied to white persons a well as black, but any oae can see hat it was aimed chiefly at be defenceless Ireedmen, . it being well understood that none of the white chivalry : bf the couth could or would be made to sub mit to the performance of 6ix days of compulsory labor to pay a poll tax of one dollar. -The crowning evidence of, thd entire acquiescence of the , people of Mississippi in the results of the war is, however, to be found in an act, approved November 23, 18G5, entitled "an act to punish certain- offenses therein named and for other purposes." t By this act a penalty of not less than ten noR more than one hundred dollars is denounced against every freedman, free negro or mulatto, w)u slaill exTcise the function of a Minister of the Gospel without a license from a regularly organized church, and should he fail to piy the fine and costs for the space of five days after conviction, he shall be hired out by the Sheriff or other officer, at public outcry, to any white person who will pay such fipe and costs and take such convict for the shortest time. Such was a part of the diabolical ingenuity which these reconstructed rebels employed to evade the amnesty oath they had just taken, and to show their entire acquiescence in the results of the war. Is it not marvellous that Mr. Hendricks, in searching for evi dence ot the acquiescence ot the Southern people in the results of the wr, should ignore these solemn legislative records, and instead thereof rely upon the opinion of General Grant, formed on a flying railroad trip made through m the Southern States, and occupying, "as it did, but a few days? Is it not still more strange that the Senator should turn aside i from this and similar legislation, aud adduce as conclusive evidence of acquiescence, the opinion of his distinguished colleague in the Senate, expressed more than a mouth before this legislation had been inaugurated? Amoog lawyers, it is accounted to be a sure sign of a weak case, when the barrister resort9 to inferior, secondary, or hearsay evidence, in support of his cause, where the best evidence is attainable. Such a cause may enable the advocate to exhibit his skill, and occasionally to make a sharp point on his adversary, and may have victory, but canuot have truth for its object. I present you not the opinion of this distinguished general, or that eminent statesman, as to what he sup posed to be the temper and spirit of the people of the South, as regarded their yielding respect to the authority oi the United otates. and acquiescing in the results of the war; but as in finitely better and higher evidence, I submit to you what these people. themselves, said and did in their legislative assemblies. Mr. Hendricks, in the speech to which I have alluded, for the purpose of working up the passions and prejudices of his party against a despised and injured race, drew a fancy sketch, with which he was so well pleased that he subsequently held it up, in another speech, to the admiring gaze of the Senate of the United States. In this sketch, he depleted the atro cious conduct ot the colored men oi the South waging a war of barbarians against the property and persons of the white people, and in prosecuting this cruel purpose, he exclaimed: "Whatever may be the sympathies of the North on the question of freedom from slavery, you need not think they will be with the negro in this hor rible contest, now imminent: lor when the Northern man sees the mother and children escaping from the burning house that has sheltered and protect ed them; when he hears the screams of beauty and innocence in the flight from pursuing lust; if he ever venerated a mother, or loved a sister or wife, his heart and haud will be for the pale-faced woman, and for the child of his own race." As a work of art, this p:cture lacks but one element to make it a masterpiece. That lacking element is its utter want of truthfulness. It ought to have been remembered, in drawing this picture, that a change of figures was necessary to make it true to actaai n:e. lue brown-faced woman cuaiif in have been placed in the foregvo.;;: !, with the Confederate white iij.u, brutalized by the contact and pr-ict'ce of slavery, in hot pursuit. SacL -cenes as this have not been of ifii rqueot occurrence in the South ; and if we may judged of results by the number of people in that section who are neither black nor white, the palefaced man was generally successful in the chase. Gratitude for the kind treatment extended by the colored men of the South to the wives and little ones of Southern Democrats, whe they were engaged in a cruel and atrocious war, waged to perpetuate the bondage of these sable sons of toil, and to overthrow the Governrneet, ought to protect them from such unfounded as ) . rat a

saults from any Democrat of the Chicago platform persuaxion. As an offset to this imaginary picture, "let me pve-cnt to yon another, not ilrawn wholly fr hii fju-.-y, but whl'-ii might have tnken p!acQ UDder the lei.-ilation to which 1 have called your attention, had nut that legislation been htricken from txVte.nce by the enactments of Oongres aud the ftroni; arm of military power. Suppose a discharged Unio.i soldier, with tho uoi'orm of his country f till upon his back, but laboring under the double misfortune of haying given one of his limbs to his country, and of having a black (skin, to be a resident of Mississippi, and to be assessed 'with the Fpocial poll tax of" which mention has already been made. Snppose him not to have the money with which to pay this tax: and tap-

pose another discharged soldier, wearing the Confederate grey, to have been elevated, in consequence of his devotion tor the Vebel caac, to the office of Tux Collector, by 1H admiring fellow rebels. Behold the rebel soldier elutch the black man dressed in blue, aud place, him upon Abe block and expose him to sale,' to pay a tax from which the rebel auctioneer is exempt. In witnes-iins; such a scene as this, think you that the . heart or hand of the Northern man who venerates a mother, or loves a sister or wife, would be in favor of the rebel manseller. - But again, I think I see in Mississippi two discharged white soldiers, both maimed by wdunds received in battle, the one still wearing the loyal blue, the other the Confederate grey : each was faithful , to tho cause for which he fought; the man in grey. because of his fidelity to the rebellion, is exempt from paying a poll tax. and has boen elected Sheriff of the count'. Behold him march off the Union soldier, to perlorm six davs of enforced labor to raise a fund, onefifth of which is to go to the man in grey, aud other disabled rebels, to compensate thein for their sufferings in attempting to destroy tho Government to which both alike owed allegiance. In whose favor would the heart and hand of the Northern man be, under such circumstances, if not himself at heart a traitor? Would he not, amid such surroundings, sing " We'll rally 'round the flag, boys, we'll rally onco again," before we will tolerate the perpetration of such outrages under color of law? But I must proceed to other questions of fact involved in the issue. The Democracy assert, and we deny that the People of all the Southern States adopted the President's recocamendations, and elected delegates to conventions, constitutions were made, submitted, voted upon, and ratified. How stand the facts? There are two classes of rebel States that are still without representation in Congress. In tha first class is Virginia, Louisiana and Arkansas, in each of which there was some port of State organization claiming to be the legitimate government of the State at the time Mr. Johnson commenced his work of reconstruction. As to these three States, he appointed no provisional Governors, and provided for no cenventions, but recognized the organizations existing at the close of the war as the legitimate governments of these States respectively. The convention which amended, or pretended to amend, the Constitution of the State of Virginia, met in Alexandria in the Summer of 1801, at a time when the greater portion of that State was in possession of the rebel armies. The record shows that the vote on the amendment abolishing slavery stood, ayes 13, to one nay. So that this grand constitutional convention of Virginia consisted of fourteen members, who represented the people of Richmond, then the seat of government of the rebel Confederacy, as well as other portions of the State then under rebel control. To call such a meeting a convention of the people of Virginia is to misrepresent its character, and to trifle with the intelligence of the public, and I aver that the action of this convention never was submitted to, voted upon, or ratified bv any portion of the people of Virginia, not even by the people of the city of Alexandria. Can a constitution so made or amended be binding on any person? And yet this is the constitution under which it is insisted that the present Virginia State organization must be recognized. What are the fact3 in relation to Louisiana? In 18G4 General Banks issued a military order providing for the election of a Constitutional Convention at a time when a great portion of the State was held by rebel armies, and the Convention which assembled under this military order framed tho Constitution which the Democratic party insists must now be recognized by Congress, because the President has seen proper to treat the fetate organization formed under it as the legitimate State government of Louisiana. Congress had more than once, before Mr. Johnson took upon himself to recognize this organization, repudiated the whole thing, and Mr. Hendricks, by his votes and speeches in t'ie Senate, had concurred in this action. After the Presidential election of 18G4, a joint resolution was presented to the Senate.' declaring that the revolted States which, including Louisiana, were named in the preamble, were not entitled to be represented in the electoral college for the choice of President and Vice President of the United States, for the term of- office commencing on the 4th day of March, 18G5. - A motion was made to except Louisiana irom the operation of the resolution, by striking the namo of that State therefrom, and thereby permit