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closed his remarks, the bill went over till to-morrow.

THE PAY OF OFFICERS AND SOLDIERS OF THE ARMY.
The House then proceeded to this consideration of the bill to reduce and establish the pay of officers and to regulate the pay of soldiers of the army. 
Mr. Davis (rep.) of N. Y., addressed the House in opposition to the bill, and was followed on the same side by Mr. ROGERS.
 
Mr. ROUSSEAU (rep.) of Ky, took exception to some remarks of Mr. Rogers', which he considered too highly eulogistic of the officers of the regular army and correspondingly disparaging of the officers of the volunteer service. He denounced this as a slander and misrepresentation which he could not hear anywhere ,without repelling. 

Mr. ROGERS asked the gentleman from Kentucky whether he was a graduate of West Point.
Mr. ROSSEAU replied that he was not.
Mr. ROGERS intimated that that accounted for the position that the gentleman took.
Mr. ROUSSEAU said it was not necessary for him to have ever seen West Point to known the efficiency of the volunteer army. That volunteer army had put down the rebellion, and would have done it if there had not been a West Pointer in the country. It would have done so as well without West Point as with it. 
Mr. ROGERS said, in an under tone, that he did not believe it.

Mr. ROUSSEAU protested that it was not of the least importance to him what the gentleman from New Jersey did or did not believe. He did not think that he (Mr. Rogers) knew enough to have any belief about it, or, if her did, he certainly could not inform the House on the subject. Who were the officers who had drilled and trained the volunteer force? Not regular officers but officers of volunteers. He has hoped that even the gentleman from New Jersey could have assailed the bill without assailing the volunteer force of the nation. As one of the volunteers he repelled the assault upon them, and if he was a West Pointer he would repel it all the more strongly. 

Mr. SCHENCK (rep.) of Ohio, took the floor.
Mr. ROGERS asked to leave to reply to Mr. Rousseau, but Mr. Schenck absolutely declined to yield. 
Mr. ROGERS, however, succeeded in making himself heard in a declaration that the gentleman (Mr. Rousseau) totally misrepresented him, and that the object was to place him (Mr. Rogers) before the country in a false position. 
Mr. SCHENCK insisted the he would not yield the floor to the gentlemen from New Jersey, and the Speaker pro tempore (Mr. Orth) hammering lustily, in order to induce Mr. Rogers to resume his seat,
Mr. ROGERS appealed to Mr. Schenck to allow him three minutes for explanation. 
Mr. SCHENCK utterly refused to do so. 
Mr. ROGERS then declared in a loud voice, which the Speaker's hammer was unable to drown, that all he had got to say was that the charges against him were false. 
The discussion of the bill was continued by Messra. THAYER, DAMON and SCHENCK.  
The House then seconded the previous question and proceeded to vote by yeas and nays on the passage of the bill. The bill was passed-yeas 86, nays 39.
The following are the provisions of the bill as amended and passed:-

Be it enacted, That from and after the 30th day of September next, instead of pay allowances and emoluments of every kind, except as hereinafter provided, the following shall be the yearly compensation of all officers of the army of the United State, of the several grades respectively:-
Of a general, $15,000; of a lieutenant general, $10,000; of a major general, when commanding a geographical military division, embracing two or more departments, or of a separate army actually in the field and engaged in military operations, $7,000; when commanding a geographical military department, or a division in the field, $6,500; when on other duty, $6,000; of a brigadier general, when commanding a military department, army, or division in the field, or on a service as chief of bureau, $5,500; when commanding a brigade, or on other duty, $5,000. Of a colonel, when commanding a brigade, or military post, $3,500; when commanding a regiment, or on other duty, $3,000. Of a lieutenant colonel, when commanding a regiment or military post, $2,800; when on other duty, $2,600. Of a major, $2,500. Of a captain, $2,000. Of a first lieutenant, $1,800. 

SEC. 2. That whenever an officer is on furlough, or on leave of absence, for a period of more than sixty days, his pay shall be reduced 30 per centum below ordinary duty pay for such time as is in excess over sixty days, except when such absence from duty is occasioned by sickness or wounds received in the line of duty. 

SEC. 3. That in lieu of the additional ration which was allowed to commissioned officers of the line and staff, there shall be allowed and paid to every commissioned officer ten per cent on his yearly pay, for each full and complete term of five years' continuous and faithful service as such office, and this, in increased graduate compensation, shall be allowed in the case of any officer or soldier of volunteers who may be commissioned in the regular army to include the time during which he this served honorably and faithfully as a volunteer. 

SEC. 4. That surgeons, chaplains, military storekeepers and other officers and persons having by law assimilated or declared rank, shall be paid according to the rank which they hold by law. 

SEC. 5. That forage in kind shall be allowed and drawn by mounted officers for horses actually kept by them at the place where they are on duty. That the pay and allowances of all non-commissioned officers and enlisted men in the army of the United States shall continue the same as provided by the act to increase the pay of soldiers in the United States army and for other purposes, approved June 23, 1864, and by other existing laws; but hereafter each enlisted man shall, instead of any allowance for bounty, receive an increase on his pay proper of one dollar per month during the second year of his enlistment, a further increase of one dollar per month during the third year of his enlistment, and one additional dollar per month during each additional year of his enlistment; and when any soldier re-enlists immediately, or within ninety days after the expiration of a previous term of enlistment, it shall be counted as one continuous term of enlistment, and he shall receive from year to year additional pay at the rate of one dollar per month on each successive year that he remains in the service.

SEC. 6. That all officers and enlisted men of the army of the United State shall be entitled to reveive the pay that may be due them monthly, unless the same be withheld by a sentence of a court martial or for other good cause, on the order of the Secretary of War; and any failure to make such prompt and punctual monthly payment, except for the fault of the officer or enlisted man himself, or when it is certified by the officer in command that such payment could not, from the circumstances, be conveniently made, shall be help and taken to be a military offence on the part of the Paymaster General or other officer of the Pay Department, who, being supplied with funds for that purpose, shall be willfully guilty of such neglect or refusal to pay, and shall subject the delinquent officer to trail by court martial, and such punishment as the court may direct. 

SEC. 7. That the allowance now made by law to officers travelling under orders where transportation is not furnished in kind, shall be increased to ten cents per mile. 

SEC. 8. That when it is necessary to employ soldiers as artificers or laborers in the construction of permanent military works, public roads or other constant labor of not less than ten days' duration in any case, they shall receive, in addition to their regular pay, the following addition compensation therefor:- Enlisted men working as artificers, and non-commissioned officers employed as overseers of such work, not exceeding one overseer for every twenty men, thirty-five cents per day, and enlisted men employed as laborers twenty cents per day. But such working party shall only be authorized on the written order of a commanding officer. This allowance of extra pay is not to apply to the troops of the Engineer and Ordnance Departments. 

SEC. 9. That officers may purchase from the departments the same amount of substinence and fuel as they are now permitted by law to draw in kind, or commute at uniform prices, to be fixed from time to time by the Secretary of War, not exceeding the average actual cost of the same exclusive transportation upon their certificate, that it is for their own [[?]] their families; and nothing in this act [[?]] the right of officers to use without [[?]] buildings [[?]]

From Washington
WASHINGTON, June 15.- In the debate on the constitutional amendment yesterday, [[?]] he stood [[?]] in the [[?]] when [[?]] perceived his crown of [[?]] stood in prison, and before that internal instructment of tyranny-a court martial; and as he stood in principle so he would in practice. He believed now, as then, in the right of secession, and those States were justified in going out, and, moreover, that they did go out and became foreign States. He was, therefore, against the reconstruction policy of the President, who was only carrying out Lincoln's schemes and was now faithful to the Republicans, and had been since he led the Democratic party; but he believed in the President's declaration that there should be no taxation without representation, and in his view to the Southern States had no right to representation in Congress, and no right to furnish the country with Presidents and Vice-Presidents. He wanted Tennessee admitted into the Union which she must be by an act of Congress, but [[?]] bill for that purpose could receive his vote as long as the the test-oath the South could have [[?]] representation of Mr. Lincoln, he said Mrs. Surra entreated for four days' respite to prepare herself to meet her God, but "Not one hour!" thunder forth the voice of the War Department. "[[?]] angels of Heaven shall not rejoice over the pentant sinner, but the angels of mercy [[?]] relief from a higher authority, where probably a more merciful heart, than Preston King's [[?]] janitor. Where is Preston King now? [[?]] answers, "Where!" and, notwithstanding application of her broken-hearted daughter, he remains, they are still in the keeping of War Department. 
Mr. Harris then showed how differently South has acted in the case of John [[?]] whose body was given to his friends. He concluded by saying that the right of succession born with the Constitution. 
Mr. Leland said the Democratic party [[?]] from Mr. Harris' views. It did not [[?]] the Southern States were ever out of the [[?]] In this he differed from Harris and Thad. 
Mr. Dawes denied, for Mr. Stevens (who [[?]] present,) that he held the opinion that, under the Constitution, the States has the right [[?]] out of the Union, but he believed that they fought themselves out, were recognized as [[?]]ligerents, and were conquered, and that State now were conquered territories. 
The speech of Mr. Harris excited great [[?}]] and comment, the members crowding around him during its delivery. 
It is stated that our Minister to Austria nuder authority from the Government, [[?]] the sovereign of that country that sending Austrian troops to Mexico would be looked as an unfriendly act, and a violation of the [[?]] doctrine, to the support of which we pledged. We learn officially that the [[?]] Government has given the assurance such troops shall be sent to aid Maximilis. 
The House Committee has added to list, sulphur, saltpetre, American wines, and cast-iton water-pipes, and have [[?]] mowers and reapers, wooden ware, machinery, iron bridges and paper, printing, and levying a tax of five per all other qualities. The tax on clothing from one to two cents, and that on cot down from five to two cents. Cigars per thousand on all valued at over one and twenty dollars; smoking tobacco cents per pounds, and the ten per cent. issues of State banks is suspended for from July 1st. 

Major-General Fisk on Homes for Colored People. 

The following is taken from a tract entitled "Plain Counsels for Freedmen," by Brevet Maj. Gen. Clinton B. Fisk, published by the American Tract Society:
Heretofore, you have had no opportunity to provide homes for yourselves and families. You were liable to be removed at any time, and it was impossible for you to keep your families together. But all that is now changes; and, if you have the mind to do it, you may in a few years own a piece of ground and a good house. In many places lots may be purchased for from fifty to give hundred dollars, and land for from one to thirty dollars per acre. A little economy and well-directed industry will enable you to make a purchase, and to become a freeholder. 
Now, as soon as you have a house of your own all paid for, you are, comparatively, an independent man. No one can make you move away. You need not ask permission to live and die there. You command the situation. You own all that is under your ground to the center of the earth, and all that is above you to the twinkling stars. 
I advise you to imitate the German people. They live close and work hard until they get good homes, and that makes them a thrifty, happy people. You scarcely see a German beggar. And, if you take the advice I have given you, we will see few negro beggars in the United State twenty years hence. 
But I wish to give you a hint of two about your home after you have it.
It should be comfortable. It is better to make it tight and warm than waste fuel in keeping it heated. 
It should be kept clean. Filth breeds sickness, and invites into your house the most fearful contagions. 
It should be beautiful. The great God loves beauty, and so He stoops down and paints all the flowers, and every thing He touches is beautiful. The beauty of the Lord appears in all His works, and He is pleased with us when we see and admire it. Many people have a mistaken notion of beauty. They confound it with pride and vanity, and talk and act as if a religious person should be as rough and as ugly as possible. What a sad mistake!
Now, make your homes as pretty as possible. A little paint, a little whitewash, a few yards of paper, some gravel walks and a few flowers, make all the different in the world in the appearance of homes.
Have you even seen Dick Slack's home? Let me describe it: It stands on a bare lot. The fence is down, and much of it, to tell the truth, has been used for kindling. The pigs root around his door and sleep under his house. No flower blooms about his dwelling, no green plat of grass spreads its charms before your eyes. His house is innocent of paint or whitewash, and from one window the crown of an old hat sticks out, from another a pillow. 
And Dick is like his house. See him, standing there motionless as a post, half bent, with his hands in his pockets. Oh! Dick, stir yourself! Put up a nice fence about your dwelling. Go put glass in your windows. Grass, flowers, gravel and whitewash are cheap. 
Let us take a walk over to Paul Thrifty's. He! we are there. Open the pretty gate. Listen to the hum of the bees. They know where to find the flowers. See! that is a humming-bird sipping daintily from the sweet honey-suckle which Mrs. Thrifty has trained by the side of the house. You walk on a clean pavement. Paul meets you at the door. His hand is hard but his heart is warm. His wife is clean, his children sweet, and every thing has an air of comfort.
Paul has a home! He loves it. His voice goes up to God in prayer for his blessings in his household. The good angels hover over the place. All the covenants of promise are his. And his children may wander to the farthest verge of the green earth, but their hearts will go back to the dear old home, and their memories will recall the wise counsels, the solemn warnings, and heartfelt prayers of the parental fireside. 
General Fisk is an easy, clear and vigorous writer. You look through his sentence to their meaning with ease and pleasure, with which you see the objects behind broad, clean and beautiful glass. We trust out colored readers will at once obtain, read and circulate these [[?]] in Counsels".


S Daily Post.
THURSDAY EVENING, JUNE 14, 1866. NO. 128.

RECONSTRUCTION. 
Condition and Claims of the Rebel States.
How Restoration is to be Brought About.
THE PRESIDENT'S SCHEME REVIEWED.
Final Report of the Joint Committee on Reconstruction, Submitted to the U. S. Senate on June 8, 1866.

The following is the final report of the Reconstruction Committee, submitted by Mr. Fessenden to the Senate on Friday:
The joint committee of the two Houses of Congress, appointed under the concurrent resolution of December 13, 1865, with directions to "inquire into the condition of the States which formed the so-called Confederate States of America, and report whether they or any of them are entitled to be represented in either House of Congress," with leave to report by bill or otherwise, ask leave to report:
That they have attended to the duties assigned them as assiduously as other duties would permit, and now submit to Congress, as the result of their deliberations, a resolution proposing amendments to the Constitution, and two bills of which they recommend the adoption.

EXTENT OF THE FIELD OF INQUIRY.

Before proceeding to set forth in detail the reason to which, after great deliberation, your Committee have arrived, they beg leave to advert briefly to the course of proceedings they found it necessary to adopt and to explain the reasons therefor. 
 The resolution under which your Committee was appointed, directed them to inquire into the condition of the Confederate States and report whether they were entitled to representation in Congress. It is obvious that such an investigation, covering so large an extent of territory, involving so many important considerations, must necessarily require no trifling labor, and consume a very considerable amount of time. It must embrace the condition in which those States were left at the close of the war, the measures which had been taken forward the reorganization of civil government, and the disposition of the people toward the United States; in a word, their fitness to take an active part in the administration of national affairs.  THE SOUTH AT THE CLOSE OF THE WAR. As to their condition at the close of the rebellion, the evidence is open to all, and admits of no dispute. They were in a state of utter exhaustion. Having protracted their struggle against Federal authority until all hope of successful resistance had ceased, and laid down their arms only because there was no longer any power to use them, the people of these States were, when the rebellion was crushed, "deprived of all civil government, and must proceed to organize anew." In his conversation with Mr. Stearns, of Massachusetts, certified by himself, President Johnson said, "The State institutions are prostrated, laid out on the ground, and they must be taken up and adapted to the progress of events." Finding the Southern States in this condition, and Congress having failed to provide for the contingency, his duty was obvious. As President of the United States he had no power except to execute the laws of the land as Chief Magistrate. These laws gave him no authority on the subject of reorganization, but by the Constitution he was Commander-in Chief of the army and navy of the United States. These Confederate States embraced a portion of the people of the Union who had been in a state of revolt, but had been reduced to obedience by force of arms. They were in an abnormal condition, without civil government, without commercial connections, without national or international relations, and subject only to martial law. By withdrawing their representatives in Congress, by renouncing the privilege of representation, by organizing separate Government, and by levying war against the United States, they destroyed their State Constitutions in respect to the vital principle which connected the respective States with the Union and secured their Federal relations; and nothing of those constitutions was left of which the United States was bound to take notice. For four years they had a de facto government, but it was usurped and illegal. They chose the tribunal of arms wherein to decide whether or not it should be legalized, and they were defeated. At the close of the rebellion, therefore, the people of the rebellious States were found as the President expressed it, "deprived of all their civil governments."

of any State as having resumed the relations of loyalty to the Union," and act in his military capacity of this hypothesis. All this was within his own discretion as military commander. But it was not for him to decide upon the nature or effect of any system of government which the people of these States might see fit to adopt. This power is lodged by the Constitution in the Congress of the United States, that branch of the Government in which is vested the authority to fix the political relations of the States to the Union, and to protect each and all of them against foreign or domestic violence, and against each other. We cannot, therefore regard the various acts of the President in relation to the formation of local Governments in the insurrectionary States, and the conditions imposed by him upon their action in any other light than as intimations to the people that as Commander-in-Chief of the army, he would consent to withdraw military rule just in propertion as they should by their acts manifest a disposition to preserve order among themselves, establish governments denoting loyalty to the Union, and exhibit a settled determination to return to their allegiance, leaving with the law-making power to fix the terms of their final restoration to all their rights and privileges as States of the Union. That this is the view of his power taken by the President is evident from expressions to that effect in the communications of the Secretary of State to the Provisional Governors, and the repeated declarations of the President himself. Any other supposition, inconsistent with this, would impute to the President designs of encroachment upon a co-ordinate branch of the Government, which should not be lightly attributed to the Chief Magistrate of the nation. WHY CONGRESS DESIRED FURTHER INFORMATION. When Congress assembled, in December last, the people of most of the States lately in rebellion had, under the advice of the President, organized local governments, and some of them had acceded to the terms proposed by him. In his annual message he stated, in general terms, what had been done, but he did not see fit to communicate the details for the information of Congress. While in this, and in a subsequent message, the President urged the speedy restoration of these States, and expressed the opinion that their condition was such to justify their restoration, yet it is quite obvious that Congress must either have acted blindly on that opinion of the President, or proceeded to obtain the information requisite for intelligent action on the subject.  The impropriety of proceeding wholly on the judgment of any one man, however exalted his station, in a matter involving the welfare of the Republic in all future time, or of adopting any plan, coming from any source without fully understanding all its bearings and comprehending its full effect, was apparent. The first step, therefore, was to obtain the rquired information. A call was accordingly made on the President for the information in his possession as to what had been done, in order that Congress might judge for itself as to the grounds of the belief expressed by him in the fitness of the United States recently in rebellion to participate fully in the conduct of national affairs. This information was not immediately communicated, and was only communicated upon a third call. When the response was finally made, some six weeks after your Committee had been in actual session, it was found that the evidence upon which the President had based his suggestions was incomplete and unsatisfactory. Authenticated copies of the new constitutions and ordinances adopted by the conventions of three of the States had been submitted extracts from newspapers had furnished scanty information as to the action of one other State, and nothing appears to have been communicated as to the remainder. There was no evidence as to the loyalty of those who had participated in these conventions, and in one State alone was any proposition made to submit the action of the conventions to the final judgment of the people. Failing to obtain the desired information, and left to grope for light wherever it might be found, your committee did not deem it advisable or safe to adopt, without further examination, the suggestions, more especially as he had not deemed it expedient to remove the military force, to suspend martial law or to restore the writ of habeas corpus, but still thought it necessary to exercise over the people of the rebellious States his military power and jurisdiction. This conclusion derived still greater force from the fact, undisputed, that in all these States except Tennessee and perhaps Arkansas, the elections which were held for State officers and members of Congress had resulted, almost universally, in the defeat of candidates who had been true to the Union, and in the election of notorious and unpardoned rebels, men who could not take the prescribed oath of office, and who made no secret of hostility to the Government and people of the United States. Under these circumstances any thing like hasty action would have been as dangerous as it was obviously

interests is, if not unconstitutional, at least unjustifiable and oppressive. It is believed by your committee that all these propositions are not only untenable, but, if admitted, would tend to the destruction of the Government. It must not be forgotten that the people of these States, without justification or excuse, rose in insurrection against the United States--very deliberately abelished their State Governments, so far as the same connected them politically with the Union, as members thereof under the Constitution. They deliberately renounced their allegiance to the Federal Government, and proceeded to establish an independent government for themselves. In the prosecution of this enterprise they seized the national forts, arsenals, dockyards and other public property within their borders; drove out from among them those who remained true to the Union, and heaped every imaginable insult and injury upon the United States and its citizens. Finally they opened hostilities and levied war against the Government. They continued this war for four years with the most malignant spirit, killing in battle and otherwise large numbers of loyal people, destroying the property of loyal citizens on the sea and on the land, and entailing on the Government an enormous debt, incurred to sustain its rightful authority. Whether legally and constitutionally or not, they did in fact withdraw from the Union, and made themselves subjects of another government of their own creation. And they only yielded when, after a long and bloody and wasting war, they were compelled by utter exhaustion to lay down their arms; and this they did, not willingly but declaring that they yielded because they could no longer resist, affording no evidence whatever of repentance for their crime, and expressing no regret, except that they had no longer the power to continue the desperate struggle. It can not, we think, be denied by any one, having a tolerable acquaintance with public law, that the war thus waged, was a civil war of the greatest magnitude. The people waging it were necessarily subject to all the rules which, by the law of nations, control a contest of that character, and to all the legitimate consequences was that within the limits prescribed by humanity, the conquered rebels were at the mercy of the conquerors; that a Government thus outraged had a most perfect right to exact indemnity for the injuries done, and security against the recurrence of such outrages in the future, would seem too clear for dispute. What proof should be required of a return to allegiance, what time should elapse before a people thus demoralized should be restored in full to the enjoyment of political rights and privileges, are questions for the law-making power to decide, and that decision gave considerations of the public safety and the general welfare. It is moreover contended, and with apparent gravity that from the peculiar nature and character of our Government, no such right on the part of the conqueror can exist; that from the moment that rebellion lays down its arms and actual hostilities cease, all political rights of rebellious communities are at once restored; that because the people of a State of the Union were once an organized community within the Union, they of necessity so remain, and their rights to be represented in Congress at any and all times, and to participate in the government of the country under all circumstances, admit of neither question nor dispute. If this is indeed true, then is the Government of the United States powerless for its own protection, and flagrant rebellion carried to the extreme of civil war, is a pastime which any State may play at--not only certain that it can lose nothing in any event, but may even be the gainer by defeat. If it fails the war has been barren of results, and the battle may be still fought out in the legislative halls of the country. Treason, defeated in the field has only to take possession of Congress and the Cabinet. Your committee does not deem it either necessary or proper to discuss the question whether the late Confederate States are States of this Union, or can ever be otherwise. Granting this profitless abstraction, about which so many words have been wasted, it by no means follows that the people of those States may not place themselves in a condition to abrogate the powers and privileges incident to a State of the Union, and deprive themselves of all pretense of right to exercise those powers and enjoy those privileges. A State within the Union has obligations to discharge as a member of the Union. It must submit to and uphold Federal authority. It must have a government republican in form, under and by which it is connected with the General Government, and through which it can discharge its obligations. It is more than idle, it is a mockery, to contend that a people who have thrown off their allegiance, destroyed the local government which bound their States to the Union as members thereof, defiled its authority, refused to execute its laws, and abrogated law that