JOINT RESOLUTION

For the restoration of peace and the Union, the vindication of the Constitution, and the construction of additional and adequate guaranties of the rights and liberties of the people of the United States.

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That a convention of all the States is the most appropriate agency by which to bring about the restoration of peace and the Union, the vindication of the Constitution, and the construction of additional and adequate guaranties of the rights and liberties of the people of the United States; and to promote these great ends, such a convention should be held, and should consider the following propositions as the basis of a lasting settlement of all difficulties between the belligerent States and people, and as amendments of the Constitution of the United States:

First. The States of Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont to be formed into one State; the States of Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island to be formed into one State; and the States of Maryland, Delaware, and the Eastern Shore of Virginia to be formed into one State. But this consolidation of States to be for federal and national purposes only, unless the respective States to be formed into one shall otherwise determine.

Second. The President and the Vice-President to be taken alternately from the free and the slave States, and for the term of four years; but both not to be at the same time citizens of the free or slave States. No person who may have filled the office of the President ever again to be eligible to it.

Third. The President and Vice-President to be chosen in this manner: In the month of January next before the expiration of the presidential term for the time being, each State to select one of its own citizens, who shall be a native-born citizen of the United States, for the presidency or the vice-presidency, the ensuing term, as such State may be a free or a slave State, and as the free or slave States may be entitled to the presidency or the vice-presidency; and shall certify under the seal of State, by the governor thereof, to each house of Congress and to the Supreme Court of the United States, severally, the name of such citizen, and for which office he has been selected; and the two houses of Congress shall convene in the hall of the House the first Monday of February ensuing, and request the attendance of the Supreme Court, and when it shall be present, the certificates of the names of all the persons for the presidency that have been received shall be opened, and from those certified as herein directed the Supreme Court shall, in the presence of the two houses of Congress, choose a President, and then a Vice-President, from the names so certified for that office. Whenever the office of President shall become vacant during the term, it shall devolve on the Vice-President; and when the vice-presidency so becomes vacant, the Senate shall, from its own body, and from the senators representing the free or the slave States, as they may differ on this point from the incumbent of the presidency, select a Vice-President, to continue in office for the occasion; and thereupon the seat of the senator thus becoming Vice-President shall be vacant. No justice of the Supreme Court to be eligible to any other office whatever.

Fourth. The President to have the power to remove from office the head of the Department of State; of the Treasury, War, Navy, and Interior Departments; the Attorney General; all diplomatic officers, whether of the grade of embassadors, commissioners, or charge d'affaires, and secretaries of legation. All other officers, except those holding office during good behavior, whom the President is required to nominate to the Senate, he may suspend from their offices; but in making such suspensions he shall report each case, with the cause thereof, to the Senate, if it be in session, and if not, at its next session. In all cases where the Senate shall concur with the President, the suspension shall become an absolute removal; but as to those in which it does not concur before the end of the session to which the President is required to report them, the officers shall then, ipso facto, be reinstated in their respective offices. The President also to have power to remove all other civil officers, appointed by executive power, for incompetency to discharge their duties; for want of fidelity to the Constitution and laws of the United States, or for gross and habitual immorality; but to each officer thus removed he shall cause to be delivered a written statement of the cause of his removal, the truth and sufficient of which the officer may try in the United States court held in the district in which he may have been performing his duties, on writ of quo warranto sued out against his successor in office, and a judgement thereon in his favor to have the effect to restore him to office.

Fifth. The absolute right, at all times, and under all conditions, of the people to the writ of habeas corpus, and to trial by jury in the mode prescribed by the Constitution, for capital or other offences, being indispensable to secure to them personal liberty, the freedom of religious opinion and worship, and the sanctity of church edifices, the freedom of speech and the press, and the right of the people at their elections to vote for those whom they prefer, without constraint, intimidation, and in faithful conformity to the laws, and under the exclusive direction of the proper officers of such elections; their right peaceably to assemble, and freely to discuss and pronounce their opinions on all public measures, and the conduct of public officers; and to purchase and keep arms and munitions for their own defence; the exemption of all persons not in the military or naval service in time of war or public danger, from military arrest, except when they are within the actual lines of some corps in time of war or public danger, and when arrested under such circumstances to be at once handed over to the proper civil authorities; and the absolute immunity of such persons from trial or examination, under martial or military law, by military tribunals of any kind, or by any other law or courts than the civil contra-distinguished from the military; and of their persons, houses, papers, and effects from searches and seizures, without warrant or other process of law; the military power never to be brought into conflict with the civil authorities, but in all times where it is necessary and proper, to be employed to uphold the civil law and courts. The Constitution and laws of the United States made in pursuance of it, being the supreme law of the land, and continuously and under all circumstances of unimpaired validity, no other law, or authority, can have any effect to nullify, suspend, or limit their operation. And all acts of Congress not authorized by the Constitution, and all edicts and proclamations of the President, or orders of any military officer, in derogation of the Constitution or laws, being utterly null and void, the President having no power whatever that is not conferred by an express provision of the Constitution, or by some law of Congress, passed in pursuance of it. And the only localities and conditions in which the Constitution, laws, and courts of the United States can be suspended, being when a portion of the country is occupied by a dominating hostile army; and as its rule is removed, their being resumed, the right of the people to all the sources of information, by the purchase of and transmission to them of all books, newspapers, and so forth, without any obstruction, and to free trade and commerce with their fellow-citizens of all the States, except so far as restricted by law. The personal rights, privileges, and liberties here set forth been the inheritance of the people of the United States, and the chief and inestimable fruits of human government, they shall always be held to be inviolable, and their infraction to be both a grievous private wrong to every person thereby injured, and also a public crime; and all persons who may commit it to become infamous, and to be further punished by laws to be passed for that purpose, without pardon or commutation.

Sixth. Each State to have the exclusive right and power to declare and establish, within its own limits, every subject of property and its local and domestic institutions, and to make all laws and regulations concerning them.

Seventh. Private property not to be taken for the United States, except to subserve some operation of the federal government authorized by the Constitution, and not until full and fair compensation shall have been made to its owner, or secured to him in a mode to be provided by law.

Eighth. No military necessity ever to originate, or confer any power whatever, except with and for armed forces in the field or in garrison, and within their present actual lines, to supply the ordinary and necessary military wants of each force essential to the public service, immediate or impending, and so urgent as to not allow the delay which would be required for the action of the civil authority; and all power created or authorized by any military necessity to be exercised exclusively by the officer present and in the actual command of the force in which and where it arises. The United States to be bound to make full indemnity for the damage sustained by all persons from any acts done by any of its military officers under a real or supposed military necessity, and the officer to be also responsible to all persons injured by his abuse of power.

Ninth. No negro, or person whose mother or grandmother is or was a negro, to be a citizen of the United States.

Tenth. The enumeration in this proposition of certain rights and liberties of the people, and powers of the States, and of denials, restrictions, and limitations of powers to the United States, the federal government or its officers, not to be held to deny, or disparage any of the other rights and liberties of the people or powers of the States; and as to the United States, the federal government or any of its officers to confer or enlarge any power whatever.

Eleventh. In giving construction to the Constitution, this rule shall be inflexibly adhered to. All rights, liberties, or privileges assured by it to the people, or powers reserved to the States; and all denials, restrictions, or limitations of power to the United States, the federal government, or any of its officers, provided for by its particular, or express language, not to be abrogated, impaired, or in any way affected, by any of its general language or provisions, or by any implication resulting from it, or by any other law or laws whatsoever.

• S. Res. 81 (introduced on 1864-12-12 00:00:00 - CREATE - e904190) [This document]
  • Motion to Print S. Res. 81 (introduced on 1864-12-12 00:00:00 - PROCEDURE - e904192)

• S. Res. 81 (introduced on 1864-12-12 00:00:00 - CREATE - e904190) [This document] [view current proposal at this moment]
  • Motion for Unanimous Consent to Introduce S. Res. 81 (introduced on 1864-12-12 00:00:00 - PROCEDURE - e904191) [view current proposal at this moment]
    • None (introduced on 1864-12-12 00:00:00 - ADOPT_PROPOSAL - e314376) [view current proposal at this moment]
  • Motion to Print S. Res. 81 (introduced on 1864-12-12 00:00:00 - PROCEDURE - e904192) [view current proposal at this moment]