Spirit Of Jefferson

Spirit of Jefferson.

BENJAMIN F. BEALL, Editor.
CHARLESTOWN, VA.
Tuesday Morning, July 16, 1867.

Congressional.
In the House of Representatives, on Monday, the 8th inst., the Committee on Elections reported that no person who had given aid and comfort to the rebellion should be allowed to be sworn in as members of the House, but the disloyalty of the constituents or illegality of elections should not prevent a member holding a certificate from being sworn in. The report was laid on the table and ordered to be printed.
A resolution calling for the proceedings of the Cabinet on reconstruction was passed—ayes, 103; nays, 26.
Mr. Butler moved that a special committee of five, with power to send for persons and papers, should be appointed to investigate the assassination of Lincoln, and that the committee be empowered to promise the protection of the House to accomplices who have not been tried or sentenced who may give valuable evidence. The rule was suspended, and the resolution passed.
Mr. Stevens, from the committee of nine, introduced the following bill:
An Act supplementary to an act entitled "An act to provide for the more efficient government of the rebel States," passed March 2d, eighteen hundred and sixty-seven, and the act supplementary thereto, passed March 23d, eighteen hundred and sixty-seven.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That it is hereby declared to have been the true intent and meaning of the acts of March second and March twenty-third, eighteen hundred and sixty-seven, to which this act is a supplement, that the governments then existing in the rebel States of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, Florida, Texas, and Arkansas, were illegal and void; and that thereafter said governments were to be continued, subject in all respects to the military commanders of the respective districts and to the authority of Congress only.
Section 2. And be it further enacted, That the said acts to which this is a supplement shall be construed to authorize the officer assigned to the command of any military district under said acts, whenever he shall deem it necessary to the due performance of his duties under said acts, to remove or suspend from office any municipal or State officer, or person exercising authority under or by virtue of any so-called State government existing in his district, and to appoint another person in the stead of the officer or person so removed, if he shall deem proper so to do, and to authorize the officer assigned to the command of any military district under said acts, whenever he may deem it necessary as aforesaid, to prohibit, suspend, or set aside, any act or proceeding of any such State or municipal government, or any act or thing done under or by virtue of its authority; it being the intention of said act that during its continuance the said so-called State governments of the rebel States shall be allowed to continue only as subordinate to, and subject to the control of, the officers assigned to the military districts aforesaid, respectively, and to Congress; and all acts heretofore done by any such officer in accordance herewith shall be deemed valid.
Section 3. And be it further enacted, That the boards of registration of the several military districts established by the acts to which this is additional shall admit to registration only such persons as they deem entitled to be registered by the act aforesaid. They shall not regard the taking the oath prescribed in the act of March 23, 1867, conclusive evidence of the right of the person taking it to be registered, but prima facie only, and may receive such evidence under oath relating thereto as they may deem proper, either from the person applying to be registered or others, and either of the members of said boards is hereby authorized to administer oaths or affirmations and examine witnesses touching the right of any person to be registered. Said boards of registration may strike from the list of voters the name of any one already registered who, in their judgment, improperly took the oath prescribed in the acts to which this is additional, or was not entitled by said acts to be registered, and shall not be bound or governed in their action by any opinion of any officer of the United States Government. Record evidence shall not be required by said boards to prove participation in the rebellion, but parole evidence of the fact of such participation shall be deemed by said boards sufficient to effect the disfranchisement provided for by the acts to which this is additional.
Section 4. And be it further enacted, That no civil court of the United States, or of any State, shall have jurisdiction of any action or proceeding, civil or criminal, against any such district commander, or any officer or person acting by his authority, for or on account of any act done by him in his official capacity under this act, or under the acts to which it is supplementary—to-wit: the act named in the first section of this act, and the act of March twenty-three, eighteen hundred and sixty-seven, supplementary thereto.
Section 5. And be it further enacted, That no district commander shall be relieved from the command assigned to him under the aforesaid acts unless the Senate shall have first advised and consented to his removal; or unless by sentence of court martial he shall be cashiered or dismissed from the army; or unless he shall consent to be so relieved.
Section 6. The time for the completion of the registration of persons properly qualified to vote may be extended by order of any of the said district commanders to any date prior to the 1st day of October, 1867.
Mr. Stevens accepted the following as an additional section:
Any person who shall attempt to prevent the execution of this act shall be guilty of misdemeanor, and on conviction shall be liable to a fine of $5,000 or imprisonment for one year. The right of any person to register as a legal voter shall in no respect be changed or affected by the President's pardon for participation in rebellion.