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While the liberty of deliberation
would then be free and Congress would have full power to decide
according to its judgment, there could be no objection urged that the
States most interested had not been permitted to be heard. The principle
is firmly fixed in the minds of the American people that there should be
no taxation without representation. Great burdens have now to be borne
by all the country, and we may best demand that they shall be borne
without murmur when they are voted by a majority of the representatives
of all the people. I would not interfere with the unquestionable right
of Congress to judge, each House for itself, "of the elections, returns,
and qualifications of its own members;" but that authority can not be
construed as including the right to shut out in time of peace any State
from the representation to which it is entitled by the Constitution.
At present all the people of eleven States are excluded--those who
were most faithful during the war not less than others.


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