OF PENNSYLVANIA. (BORN 1792, DIED 1868.)

ON THE FIRST RECONSTRUCTION BILL;

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, JANUARY 3, 1867


MR. SPEAKER:

What are the great questions which now divide the nation? In the midst
of the political Babel which has been produced by the intermingling
of secessionists, rebels, pardoned traitors, hissing Copperheads, and
apostate Republicans, such a confusion of tongues is heard that it
is difficult to understand either the questions that are asked or the
answers that are given. Ask what is the "President's policy," and it is
difficult to define it. Ask what is the "policy of Congress," and the
answer is not always at hand. A few moments may be profitably spent in
seeking the meaning of each of these terms.

In this country the whole sovereignty rests with the people, and is
exercised through their Representatives in Congress assembled. The
legislative power is the sole guardian of that sovereignty. No other
branch of the government, no other department, no other officer of the
government, possesses one single particle of the sovereignty of the
nation. No government official, from the President and Chief-Justice
down, can do any one act which is not prescribed and directed by the
legislative power. Suppose the government were now to be organized
for the first time under the Constitution, and the President had
been elected, and the judiciary appointed; what could either do until