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ADDENDA.

A Bill relating to the Freedmen's Bureau and |
Providing for its Discontinuance.

July 20-The PRESIDENT sent a veto, of which these are the most important paragraphs:

"The mode and manner of receiving and counting the electoral votes for President and Vice President of the United States are in plain and simple terms prescribed by the Constitution. That instrument imperatively requires that the President of the Senate " shall, in the presence

become entitled to representation in Congress pursuant to the acts of Congress in that behalf: Be it enacted, &c., That the duties and powers Provided, That nothing herein contained shall be of commissioner of the bureau for the relief of construed to apply to any State which was repre freedmen and refugees shall continue to be dis-sented in Congress on the 4th day of March, 1867. charged by the present commissioner of the bureau, and in case of a vacancy in said office occurring by reason of his death or resignation, the same shall be filled by appointment of the President on the nomination of the Secretary of War, and with the advice and consent of the Senate; and no officer of the army shall be detailed for service as commissioner, or shall enter upon the duties of commissioner, unless appointed by and with the advice and consent of the Senate; and all assistant commissioners, agents, clerks, and assistants shall be appointed by the Secretary of War, on the nomination of the commissioner of the bureau. In case of vacancy in the office of commissioner happening during the recess of the Senate, the duties of the commissioner shall be discharged by the acting assistant adjutant general of the bureau until such vacancy can be filled.

SEC. 2. That the commissioner of the bureau shall, on the 1st day of January next, cause the said bureau to be withdrawn from the several States within which said bureau has acted, and its operations shall be discontinued. But the educational department of the said bureau, and the collection and payment of moneys due to soldiers, sailors, and marines, or their heirs, shall be continued, as now provided by law, until otherwise ordered by act of Congress : Provided, however, That the provisions of this section shall not apply to any State which shall not, on the 1st of January next, be restored to its former political relations with the Government of the United States, and be entitled to representation in Congress.

Passed both Houses.

of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates, and the votes shall then be counted." Congress has, therefore, no power, under the Constitution, to receive the electoral votes or reject them. The whole power is exhausted when, in the presence of the two Houses, the votes are counted and the result declared. In this respect the power and duty of the President of the Senate are, under the Constitution. purely ministerial. When, therefore, the joint

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resolution declares that no electoral votes shall be received or counted from States that, since the 4th of March, 1867, have not adopted a constitution or State government under which a State government shall have been organized," a power is assumed which is nowhere delegated to Congress, unless upon the assumption that the State governments organized prior to the 4th of March, 1867, were illegal and void.

"The joint resolution, by implication at least, concedes that these States were States by virtue of their organization, prior to the 4th of March, 1867, but denies to them the right to vote in the election of President and Vice President of the United States. It follows either that this assumption of power is wholly unauthorized by the Constitution, or that the States so excluded from voting were out of the Union by reason of the rebellion, and have never been legitimately restored. Being fully satisfied that they were Joint Resolution excluding from the Electoral never out of the Union, and that their relations College Votes of States lately in Rebellion thereto have been legally and constitutionally which shall not have been Reorganized. restored, I am forced to the conclusion that the Resolved, &c., That none of the States whose joint resolution which deprives them of the right inhabitants were lately in rebellion shall be to have their vote for President and Vice Preentitled to representation in the electoral col-sident received and counted is in conflict with lege for the choice of President or Vice President of the United States, nor shall any electoral votes be received or counted from any of such States, unless at the time prescribed by law for the choice of electors the people of such State, pursuant to the acts of Congress in that behalf, shall have, since the 4th day of March, 1867, adopted a constitution of State government, under which a State government shall have been organized and shall be in operation; nor unless such election of electors shall have been held under the authority of such constitution and government, and such State shall have also ❘ tuted before that period.

the Constitution, and that Congress has no more power to reject their votes than those of the States which have been uniformly loyal to the Federal Union.

It is worthy of remark that if the States whose inhabitants were recently in rebellion were legally and constitutionally organized and restored to their rights prior to the 4th of March, 1867, as I am satisfied they were, the only legitimate authority under which the election for President and Vice President can be held therein must be derived from the governments insti

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"It clearly follows that all the State govern- | date of the 4th of July, 1868, and was transments organized in those States under acts mitted by and under the name of W. W. Holof Congress for that purpose, and under military den, who therein writes himself Governor of control, are illegitimate and of no validity what- North Carolina, which paper certifies that the ever; and, in that view, the votes cast in those said proposed amendment, known as article States for President and Vice President, in pur-XIV, did pass the Senate and House of Repre suance of acts passed since the 4th of March, sentatives of the General Assembly of North 1867, and in obedience to the so-called recon- Carolina on the second day of July instant, and struction acts of Congress, cannot be legally re- is attested by the names of John H. Boner or ceived and counted; while the only votes in Bower, as secretary of the House of Representthose States that can be legally cast and counted atives, and T. A. Byrnes, as secretary of the will be those cast in pursuance of the laws in Senate, and its ratification on the 4th of July, force in the several States prior to the legislation 1868, is attested by Tod R. Caldwell as Lieutenby Congress upon the subject of reconstruction." ant Governor, president of Senate, and J. W. Same day-The bill re-passed the SENATE- Holden as speaker of House of Representyeas 45, nays 8, as follow: atives;

YEAS-Messrs. Abbott, Anthony, Cameron, Cattell, Now, therefore, be it known that I, Andrew Chandler, Cole, Conkling, Conness, Corbett, Cragin, Johnson, President of the United States of Drake, Edmunds, Ferry, Fessenden, Frelinghuysen, Harlan, Harris, Henderson, Howard, Howe, Kellogg, America, in compliance with and execution of McDonald, Morgan, Morrill of Maine, Morrill of Ver- the act of Congress aforesaid, do issue this mont, Morton, Nye, Osborn, Patterson of New Hamp-proclamation, announcing the fact of the ratificashire, Pomeroy, Rice, Ross, Sherman, Sprague, Stew-tion of the said amendment by the Legislature art, Sumner, Tipton, Trumbull, Van Winkle, Wade, of the State of North Carolina, in the manner Welch, Willey, Williams, Wilson, Yates-45.

NAYS-Messrs. Buckalew, Davis, Doolittle, Hendricks, McCreery, Patterson of Tennessee, Vickers, Whyte-8.

Same day-It passed the HOUSE-yeas 134, nays 36; and the Speaker proclaimed it to be a

law. The NAYS were

Messrs. Adams, Archer, Axtell, Barnes, Beck, Boyden, Boyer, Brooks, Cary, Eldridge, Fox, Getz, Glossbrenner,

herein before set forth.

presents with my hand, and have caused the In testimony whereof I have signed these seal of the United States to be hereto affixed. Done at the city of Washington, this eleventh day of July, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty

Golladay, Grover, Haight, Holman. Hotchkiss, Jung, [SEAL.] eight, and of the Independence of the

Thomas L. Jones, Kerr, Knott, Marshall, McCullough,
Niblack, Nicholson, Phelps, Randall, Ross, Sitgreaves,
Stone, Taber, Lawrence S. Trimble, Van Auken, Wood,
Woodward-36.

Proclamation of President Johnson respecting
the Ratification of the XIVth Amendment by
Florida and North Carolina, July 11, 1868.
Whereas by an act of Congress, entitled "An
act to admit the States of North Carolina, South
Carolina, Louisiana, Georgia, Alabama, and
Florida to representation in Congress," passed
on the 25th of June, 1868, it is declared that it
is made the duty of the President within ten
days after receiving official information of the
ratification by the legislature of either of said
States of a proposed amendment to the Consti-
tution known as article XIV, to issue a procla-
mation announcing that fact;

And whereas the said act seems to be prospective;

And whereas a paper, purporting to be a resolution of the Legislature of Florida, adopting the amendment of the XIIIth and XIVth articles of the Constitution of the United States, was received at the Department of State on the 16th of June, 1868, prior to the passage of the act of Congress referred to, which paper is attested by the names of Horatio Jenkins, Jr., as president pro tem. of the Senate, and W. W. Moore as speaker of the Assembly, and of William L. Apthoop as secretary of the Senate, and William Forsyth Bynum as clerk of the Assembly, and which paper was transmitted to the Secretary of State in a letter dated Executive Office, Tallahassee, Florida, June 10, 1868, from Harrison Reed, who therein signs himself Gov

ernor;

And whereas, on the 6th day of July, 1868, a paper was received by the President, which paper being addressed to the President, bears

United States of America the ninety-
third.
ANDREW JOHNSON.

By the President:

WM. H. SEWARD,

Secretary of State.

Certificate of Mr. Secretary Seward respecting

the Ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, July 20, 1868. William H. Seward, Secretary of State of the United States, to all to whom these presents may come, greeting:

Whereas the Congress of the United States, on or about the sixteenth of June, in the year one thousand eight hundred and sixty-six, passed a resolution which is in the words and figures following, to wit:

[For text of XIVth Amendment, see page 68 of Manual of 1867, or 194 of the combined Manual.]

And whereas by the second section of the act of Congress, approved the twentieth of April, one thousand eight hundred and eighteen, entitled "An act to provide for the publication of the laws of the United States, and for other purposes," it is made the duty of the Secretary of State forthwith to cause any amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which has been adopted according to the provisions of the said Constitution, to be published in the newspapers authorized to promulgate the laws, with his certificate specifying the States by which the same may have been adopted, and that the same has become valid, to all intents and purposes, as a part of the Constitution of the United States;

And whereas neither the act just quoted from, nor any other law, expressly or by conclusive implication, authorizes the Secretary of State to

determine and decide doubtful questions as to the authenticity of the organization of State legislatures, or as to the power of any State legislature to recall a previous act or resolution of ratification of any amendment proposed to the Constitution;

And whereas it appears from official documents on file in this Department that the amendment to the Constitution of the United States, proposed as aforesaid, has been ratified by the legislatures of the States of Connecticut, New Hampshire, Tennessee, New Jersey, Oregon, Vermont, New York, Ohio, Illinois, West Virginia, Kansas, Maine, Nevada, Missouri, Indiana, Minnesota, Rhode Island, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Massachusetts, Nebraska, and Iowa;

And whereas it further appears, from documents on file in this Department, that the amendment to the Constitution of the United States, proposed as aforesaid, has also been ratified by newly-constituted and newly-established bodies avowing themselves to be, and acting as, the legislatures, respectively, of the States of Arkansas, Florida, North Carolina, Louisiana, South Carolina, and Alabama;

And whereas it further appears from official documents on file in this Department that the legislatures of two of the States first above enumerated, to wit: Ohio and New Jersey, have since passed resolutions respectively withdrawing the consent of each of said States to the aforesaid amendment; and whereas it is deemed a matter of doubt and uncertainty whether such resolutions are not irregular, invalid, and therefore ineffectual for withdrawing the consent of the said two States, or of either of them, to the aforesaid amendment;

And whereas the whole number of States in

the United States is thirty-seven, to wit: New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Vermont, Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio, Louisiana, Indiana, Mississippi, Illinois, Alabama, Maine, Missouri, Arkansas, Michigan, Florida, Texas, Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota, California, Oregon, Kansas, West Virginia, Nevada, and Nebraska;

aforesaid amendment has been ratified in the manner herein before mentioned, and so has become valid, to all intents and purposes, as a part of the Constitution of the United States. In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand, and caused the seal of the Department of State to be affixed.

[SEAL.]

Done at the City of Washington this 20th day of July, in the year of our Lord 1868, and of the independence of the United States of America the ninetythird. WILLIAM H. Seward, Secretary of State.

Concurrent Resolution of Congress on the same Subject, July 21, 1868.

Whereas the legislatures of the States of Connecticut, Tennessee, New Jersey, Oregon, Vermont, West Virginia, Kansas, Missouri, Indiana, Ohio, Illinois, Minnesota, New York, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Nebraska, Maine, Iowa, Arkansas, Florida, North Carolina, Alabama, South Carolina, and Louisiana, being three-fourths and more of the several States of the Union, have ratified the fourteenth article of amendment to the Constitution of the United States, duly proposed by two-thirds of each House of the Thirty-Ninth Congress; therefore

Resolved by the Senate, (the House of Representatives concurring,) That said fourteenth article is hereby declared to be a part of the Constitution of the United States, and it shall be duly promulgated as such by the Secretary of State.

July 21-Passed the SENATE without a count. Same day Passed the HOUSE-the resolution-yeas 126, nays 32; the preamble-yeas 127, nays 35.

Georgia has ratified it since, by a majority of ten in the Senate, and twenty-four in the House.

General Blair's Letter to Colonel Brodhead. WASHINGTON, June 30, 1868. Colonel JAMES O. Brodhead.

DEAR COLONEL: In reply to your inquiries, I beg leave to say, that I leave to you to determine, on consultation with my friends from Missouri, whether my name shall be presented to the Democratic Convention, and to submit the following as what I consider the real and only

And whereas the twenty-three States first herein before named, whose legislatures have ratified the said proposed amendment, and the six States next thereafter named, as having ratified the said proposed amendment by newly-issue in this contest. constituted and established legislative bodies, together constitute three-fourths of the whole number of States in the United States:

The reconstruction policy of the Radicals will be complete before the next election; the States so long excluded will have been admitted, neNow, therefore, be it known, that I, William gro suffrage established, and the carpet-baggers H. Seward, Secretary of State of the United installed in their seats in both branches of ConStates, by virtue and in pursuance of the second gress. There is no possibility of changing the section of the act of Congress, approved the political character of the Senate, even if the twentieth of April, eighteen hundred and Democrats should elect their President and a eighteen, herein before cited, do hereby certify majority of the popular branch of Congress. We that if the resolutions of the legislatures of cannot, therefore, undo the Radical plan of reOhio and New Jersey ratifying the aforesaid construction by congressional action; the Senate amendment are to be deemed as remaining in will continue a bar to its repeal. Must we subfull force and effect, notwithstanding the subse-mit to it? How can it be overthrown? It can quent resolutions of the legislatures of those States which purport to withdraw the consent of said States from such ratification, then the

only be overthrown by the authority of the Executive, who is sworn to maintain the Constitu tion, and who will fail to do his duty if he allows

the Constitution to perish under a series of con- | the good-will and kindness which that body has gressional enactments which are in palpable shown to me. Its nomination was unsought, and violation of its fundamental principles.

If the President elected by the Democracy enforces or permits others to enforce these reconstruction acts, the Radicals, by the accession of twenty spurious Senators and fifty Representatives, will control both branches of Congress, and his administration will be as powerless as the present one of Mr. Johnson.

unexpected. It was my ambition to take an active part, from which I am now excluded, in the great struggle going on for the restoration of good government, of peace and prosperity to our country. But I have been caught up by the whelming tide that is bearing us on to a great political change, and I find myself unable to resist its pressure. You have also given to There is but one way to restore the Govern- me a copy of the resolutions put forth by the ment and the Constitution, and that is for the convention, showing its position upon all the President elect to declare these acts null and great questions which now agitate the country. void, compel the army to undo its usurpations at As the presiding officer of that convention, I the South, disperse the carpet-bag State govern-am familiar with their scope and import, and ments, allow the white people to reorganize their own governments, and elect Senators and Representatives. The House of Representatives will contain a majority of Democrats from the North, and they will admit the Representatives elected by the white people of the South, and, with the co-operation of the President, it will not be difficult to compel the Senate to submit once more to the obligations of the Constitution. It will not be able to withstand the public judgment, if distinctly invoked and clearly expressed on this fundamental issue, and it is the sure way to avoid all future strife to put the issue plainly to the country.

I repeat, that this is the real and only question which we should allow to control us: Shall we submit to the usurpations by which the Government has been overthrown; or shall we exert ourselves for its full and complete restoration? It is idle to talk of bonds, greenbacks, gold, the public faith, and the public credit. What can a Democratic President do in regard to any of these, with a Congress in both branches controlled by the carpet-baggers and their allies? He will be powerless to stop the supplies by which idle negroes are organized into political clubs-by which an army is maintained to protect these vagabonds in their outrages upon the ballot. These, and things like these, eat up the revenues and resources of the Government and destroy its credit-make the difference between gold and greenbacks. We must restore the Constitution before we can restore the finances, and to do this we must have a President who will execute the will of the people by trampling into dust the usurpations of Congress known as the reconstruction acts. I wish to stand before the convention upon this issue, but it is one which embraces everything else that is of value in its large and comprehensive results. It is the one thing that includes all that is worth a contest, and without it there is nothing that gives dignity, honor, or value to the strug gle. Your friend, FRANK P. BLAIR.

as one of its members, I am a party to their terms; they are in accord with my views, and I stand upon them in the contest upon which we are now entering; and I shall strive to carry them out in future, wherever I may be placed, in public or private life. I congratulate you, and all conservative men, who seek to restore order, peace, prosperity, and good government to our land, upon the evidences everywhere shown that we are to triumph at the next election. Those who are politically opposed to us flattered themselves there would be discord in our councils; they mistook the uncertainties of our views as to the best methods of carrying out our purposes, for difference of opinion with regard to those purposes. They mistook an intense anxiety to do no act which should not be wise and judicious, for a spirit of discord; but during the lengthened proceedings and earnest discussions of the convention there has prevailed an entire harmony of intercourse, a patient forbearance, and a self-sacrificing spirit, which are the sure tokens of a coming victory. Accept for yourselves, gentlemen, my wishes for your future welfare and happiness. In a few days I will answer the communication you have just handed me by letter, as is the customary form.

SPEECH OF GENERAL BLAIR.

The

Mr. CHAIRMAN: I accept the platform of resolutions passed by the late Democratic Convention, and I accept their nomination with feelings of profound gratitude; and, sir, I thank you for the very kind manner in which you have already conveyed to me the decision of the Democratic Convention. I accept the nomination with the conviction that your nomination for the Presidency is one which will carry us to certain victory, and because I believe that the nomination is the most proper nomination that could be made by the Democratic party. contest which we wage is for the restoration of constitutional government, and it is proper that we should make this contest under the lead of one who has given his life to the maintenance of constitutional government. We are to make the contest for the restoration of those great principles of government which belong to our race. And, my fellow-citizens, it is most proper that we should select for our leader a man not from military life, but one who has devoted MR. CHAIRMAN AND GENTLEMEN OF THE COM- himself to civil pursuits; who has given himself MITTEE: I thank you for the courteous terms in to the study and the understanding of the Conwhich you have communicated to me the action stitution and its maintenance with all the force of the Democratic National Convention. I have of reason and judgment. My fellow-citizens, I 20 words adequate to express my gratitude for | have said that the contest before us was one for

Speeches of Horatio Seymour and Francis P. Blair, Jr., Accepting the Nominations, July 10, 1868.

[From the N. Y. World, July 11, 1868.]

SPEECH OF GOVERNOR SEYMOUR.

thirty years shall bear interest at four and a half per centum; and bonds falling due in forty years shall bear interest at four per centum; which said bonds and the interest thereon shall be ex

the United States, other than such income tax as may be assessed on other incomes, as well as from taxation in any form by or under State, municipal, or local authority, and the said bonds shall be exclusively used, par for par, for the redemption of or in exchange for an equal amount of any of the present outstanding bonds of the United States known as the five-twenty bonds, and may be issued to an amount, in the aggregate, sufficient to cover the principal of all such five-twenty bonds, and no more.

the restoration of our government; it is also one for the restoration of our race. It is to prevent the people of our race from being exiled from their homes-exiled from the government which they formed and created for them-empt from the payment of all taxes or duties to selves and for their children, and to prevent them from being driven out of the country or trodden under foot by an inferior and semibarbarous race. In this country we shall have the sympathy of every man who is worthy to belong to the white race. What civilized people on earth would refuse to associate with themselves in all the rights and honors and dignity of their country such men as Lee and Johnston? What civilized country on earth would fail to do honor to those who, fighting for an erroneous cause, yet distinguished themselves by gallantry in that service? In that contest, for which they are sought to be disfranchised and to be exiled from their homes-in that contest, they have proved themselves worthy to be our peers. My fellow-citizens, it is not my purpose to make any long address, (cries of "go on,") but simply to express my gratitude for the great and distinguished honor which has been conferred upon

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SEO. 2. That there is hereby appropriated out of the duties derived from imported goods the sum of one hundred and thirty-five millions of dollars annually, which sum, during each fiscal year, shall be applied to the payment of the interest and to the reduction of the principal of the public debt in such a manner as may be determined by the Secretary of the Treasury, or as Congress may hereafter direct; and such reduction shall be in lieu of the sinking fund contemplated by the fifth section of the act entitled An act to authorize the issue of United States notes, and for the redemption or funding thereof, and for funding the floating debt of the United States," approved February twenty-fifth, eigh teen hundred and sixty-two.

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SEC. 3. That from and after the passage of this act no percentage, deduction, commission, or compensation of any amount or kind shall be allowed to any person for the sale, negotiation, redemption or exchange of any bonds or securities of the United States, or of any coin or bullion disposed of at the Treasury Department or elsewhere on account of the United States; and all acts or parts of acts authorizing or permitting, by construction or otherwise, the Secretary of the Treasury to appoint any agent, other than some proper officer of his department, to make such sale, negotiation, redemption, or exchange of bonds and securities are hereby repealed.

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