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Williams, George H : Reconstruction. Speech of Hon. George H. Williams, of Oregon, Delivered in the Senate of the United States. February 4, 1868

F. & J. Rives & Geo. A. Bailey, Reporters and Printers of the Debates of Congress., Washington, D.C., 1868

Original publisher's pamphlet printed in black ink on beige paper. No binding. Three tiny holes along spine which formerly had string as a binding. 5 3/4" x 9." Fifteen pages, complete. Pages are very clean and intact except for light age toning throughout, a few tiny spots of discoloration, several stains limited to bottom margins, and offsetting or faint dampstaining throughout (most noticeable on front and back). Text is still very clean and readable. A Very Good copy. This is a speech given by Senator George H. Williams before the United States Senate in which he addresses the Military Reconstruction Act he had introduced in 1867 and defends the legality of such an act and other Reconstruction-era laws like it. He lays out many legal arguments in favor of Reconstruction legislation. For example, Williams counters his opponents by stating that the Confederate states willingly gave up their Constitutional rights when they chose to rebel against the United States federal government. He also defines what legal entities the Confederate states were for the purposes of defining what rights they have. He adds that the Union, emerging victorious from the war, has the inherent right to dictate the terms of peace with the defeated Confederacy. In one part of his speech, Williams argues, "Sir, these rebel communities went into the rebellion as States, they fought as States, they were defeated as States, and as States they became and are prostrate and powerless in the hands of those by whom they were conquered; and the only claims which they have are upon the clemency and kindness of those who triumphed in that struggle." Williams also explains that Congress has the duty to uphold the U.S. Constitution and that the constituent states of the Union are bound by that same Constitution. Under this principle, he reasons that Congress can pass Reconstruction laws in that they are the instrument by which the Union replaces the Confederate state governments, which openly rebelled against the Constitution, with ones that align with the Constitution. He directly references Article IV, Section 4 of the Constitution which states, "The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government." One of Williams's last points is that the Confederate governments, in depriving a significant number of voters (white males at the time) of their political power, were not republican in form and thus Congress could intervene in replacing said governments. George H. Williams (1823-1910) was an American lawyer and politician. Williams served as the 3rd Chief Justice of the Oregon Supreme Court from 1853-1858, a U.S. Senator from Oregon from 1865-1871, the 32nd U.S. Attorney General from 1871-1875, and the 34th Mayor of Portland from 1902-1905. Williams began his political career as a Democrat but shifted to the Republican Party in the early 1860s. He was an abolitionist and advocated for the illegality of slavery in Oregon as requirement for it to be admitted to the Union during the 1857 Oregon Constitutional Convention. During the Reconstruction era, Williams authored the Military Reconstruction Act of 1867 which was one of several Reconstruction laws that formalized the legal criteria by which former Confederate states could be readmitted to the Union.. Book. Book Condition: Very Good. Binding: No Binding

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