5. That all proceedings with a view to Reconstruction originating in Executive power are in the nature of usurpation; that this usurpation becomes especially offensive, when it sets aside the fundamental truths of our institutions; that it is shocking to common sense, when it undertakes to derive new governments from a hostile population just engaged in armed rebellion; and that all governments having such origin are necessarily illegal and void.
6. That it is the duty of Congress to proceed with Reconstruction; and to this end it must assume jurisdiction of the States lately in rebellion, except so far as that jurisdiction has been already renounced, and it must recognize only the Loyal States, or States having legal and valid legislatures, as entitled to representation in Congress, or to a voice in the adoption of Constitutional Amendments.
These resolutions were read and ordered to be printed. Mr. Sumner, after remarking that he saw “no chance for peace in the Rebel States until Congress does its duty by assuming jurisdiction over that whole region,” proposed to read a letter he had just received from Texas.
MR. MCDOUGALL [of California]. Allow me to ask the Senator to read the signature. Let the name of the writer be given.
MR. SUMNER. I shall not read the signature----
MR. SUMNER. And for a very good reason,--that I could not read the signature without exposing the writer to violence, if not to death.
MR. DAVIS [of Kentucky]. Mr. President, I rise to a question of order. I ask if the reading of the letter by the Senator from Massachusetts is in order.
THE PRESIDENT _pro tempore_. In the opinion of the Chair, a Senator, in making a speech to the Senate, has a right to read from a letter in his possession, if he deems proper.
MR. DAVIS. I ask whether it is in order for the Senator from Massachusetts to make a speech at this time.
THE PRESIDENT _pro tempore_. The Chair sees nothing disorderly in it.
Mr. Sumner then read the letter, and remarked:--
I should not read this letter, if I were not entirely satisfied of the character and intelligence of the writer. It is in the nature of testimony which the Senate cannot disregard. It points the way to duty. We must, Sir, follow the suggestions of this patriot Unionist, and erase the governments under which these outrages are perpetrated. The writer calls them “sham governments.” They are governments having no element of vitality. They are disloyal in origin, and they share the character of the Rebellion itself. We must go forth to meet them, and the spirit in which they have been organized, precisely as in years past we went forth to meet the Rebellion. The Rebellion, Sir, has assumed another form. Our conflict is no longer on the field of battle, but here in this Chamber, and in the Chamber at the other end of the Capitol. Our strife is civic, but it should be none the less strenuous.