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The Pending Issaes.- Equal Eights to all Men, 
 
 SPEECH i ^ 
 
 OF Sw " 
 
 SENATOK GIBSON, 
 
 ON THE 
 
 Joint Eesolutions on Fationai Affairs. 
 
 IN SENATE, MARCH 8, 1866. 
 
 Mr. President — The resolntions now under 
 discussion call upon us for a deliberate expres- 
 sion of the sentiments of this body, touching 
 the great principles which have animated our 
 exertions for the last five years, and for the 
 icainteuance and establishment of which the 
 people of this State have poured out their trea- 
 sure and their blood without stint and without 
 measure. Why, and in what spirit should we 
 discuss them, and what necessity exists for their 
 present agitation or passage ? And first, let us 
 lay aside, for the time, so far as is possible, all 
 mere party spirit, and rise to the level of the 
 principles to be examined, free alike from the 
 bitterness, as well as the strife always arising 
 from mere partisan struggles. The contest of 
 fire and blood and slaughter through which we 
 have but lately passed, was for certain fixed and 
 immutable principles, above and beyond names, 
 parlies and partisans. 
 
 "When the rebellion broke out with the South- 
 em thunder of stolen guns and ammunition 
 fired on Fort Sumter, the reverberation awoke 
 an answering thunder in the North, that never 
 slumbered or slept, till its dreadful peals had 
 shattered the Confederacy of Southern traitors 
 and their Northern abettors into a thousand 
 atoms, and sank them, it was hoped, into an 
 ocean so deep, that line and plummet could 
 not reach them, nor any political resurrection 
 arouse them. 
 
 But he that hop=d or expected that the spirit 
 which instigated this rebellion in its origin, and 
 actuated it throughout in all its efi'orts, was 
 destroyed merely by the defeat of its armies 
 and the destruction of its batteries, is entirely 
 mistaken. 
 
 It, therefore, becomes necessary to continue 
 
 the contest and more firmly establish and 
 cement the principles for and on which it was 
 fought. 
 
 Cardinal among these were the questions 
 whether the United States was a nation or not ? 
 whether it bad existence as a government or 
 not? whether it had the powers and rights, the 
 privileges and duties of national esistence? 
 or whether, on the contrary, it was merely a 
 confederacy; connected together only by a rope 
 of sand, with a right in any of the States to se- 
 cede at will — a mere hulk, drifting on the great 
 ocean of nations, crowded with passengers and 
 property, sailors and crew, servants and offi- 
 cers — but no one having power to control ; the 
 right to obedience being dependent on the will 
 of the one ordered. Her condition desperate, 
 and none protecting — by none protected. 
 "Wholly unable to govern herself, of course pow- 
 erless to defend the rights of her crew or pas- 
 sengers, against the wrongful acts of power and 
 force. 
 
 On the contrary, the Unionist claimed that 
 these States were a united government, and aa 
 such, were capable of self- protection, and en- 
 titled, of right, to use all the measures, neces- 
 sary or required, to preserve not merely her 
 existence, but also the personal and political 
 rights of the people composing the nation. 
 
 The Unionist thought our national existence 
 and the rights of the people thereby established 
 and protected, were worth. ^ghting for — worth 
 bleeding for — aye, if necessary, worth dying 
 for ; and many, many of them fought, and Wed 
 and died in the cause, and their names are^. hal- 
 lowed, their graves the Meccas of the patriot, 
 where 
 

 "When Spring, with dewy Angers cold, 
 Retims to deck their hallowed mould, 
 She there shall dre^s a sweeter sod 
 Than fancy"* feet have ever trod 
 By fairy hand:* their knell is nin^, 
 Bv forms \mseen ihur dir;::e i* suu? ; 
 There IloDor comes — a pilgrim grey — 
 To bless the turf that wraps ihtir clay." 
 
 In tbe gisantic struggle through which the 
 Nation has passed, these priuciples have been 
 established, and indeed, cemented as it, were 
 with the blood and treasure of the Nation. 
 Our revolutionary fathers handed down to us, as 
 a sacred le2acy, the liberties of this country — 
 the Unionists of the last five years, have proved 
 themselves no degenerate sons, bat they, in like 
 manner, have worked out, through the lire and 
 slaughter and persecution of war, and will hand 
 down to their sons, the priceless legacy of Na- 
 tional existence, and personal and political 
 rights preserved and purified — enabling them, 
 we trust, in all future time, to enjoy unimpiired, 
 the blessings of free institutions. 
 
 But why, say some, continue the fight after 
 the enemy has been beaten ? 
 
 This was the chief argument made use of in 
 the peaceful contest of ballots and not bullets, 
 through which we passed at the election in No- 
 vember last. It, was then said, we have fought 
 and conquered, let us take these prodigal men 
 and women, and killing the fatted calf, set down 
 to eat and drink of the flesh pots, and forget in 
 onr joyousness at the return of peace, the strug- 
 gles and sorrows, the sufferings and cruelties 
 we have endured, and let us forgive our " erring 
 brethren," who fought and slew us — and we 
 are cited to the example and teachings of Him 
 who spake as never man spake, that this was 
 our duty as men and as Christians. 
 
 The Unionist answered this specious device of 
 the enemy by saying : " We will forgive them, 
 when they repent of their sins and show works 
 meet for repentance." Bot we cannot forgive 
 them so long as we see the same spirit stir- 
 ring within them, which originated the contest. 
 They are only seeking by new courses, or strange 
 devices, to accomplish the same wicked end 
 which actuated them in their original crime. 
 
 Would it have been good policy, Mr. Presi- 
 dent, to have allowed the fruits of lour years of 
 war and suffering by us, to have been lost to our 
 cause b}' not following up, to their legitimate re- 
 Bults, the victories we had obtained ? 
 
 Should wo spend thousands of millions of 
 treasure, and lose hundreds of thousands of 
 lives, of brothers, and Fons, and fathers, to sus- 
 tain our principles, and establish and cement 
 them, and having conquered, sit iilly down and 
 lav our heads in the lap of this Southf»rn Delilah 
 and have our successes, costing so much in 
 blood and tre;isure, all frittered away by the 
 ciinninif persuasions and soft words of the be- 
 trayer ? If we did, we should deserve, after 
 being sheared mentally, morally and physically, 
 to bo aronsL'd as was iSampson of ohlen time, 
 under like circumstances, with the cry of the 
 slayer and assaasin, *' The Philistines be upon 
 thee !" 
 
 TliTe was, aye there is danger of these results. 
 Th^'y who have gone through a great and ex- 
 hausting straggle, of whatever kind it may be, 
 
 are necessarily weakened and unnerved in some 
 respects, and to them the cry of peace and mag- 
 nanimity have always their charms. But the 
 Unionists listened not to the voice of the charm- 
 er, and from thence, if we will but continue our 
 vigilance, we shall yet pluck the diamond of 
 safety. 
 
 What was it originated this mighty struggle 
 but the lust of power and wealth on the part of 
 the South ? And this aggrandizement was to 
 be obtained, as is now well known, by and 
 throu2h African slavery, unbounded and unre- 
 stricted, save only by man's cupidity. This 
 could never be obtained while in union with 
 the North, and secession became therefore a 
 necessity. The conclusion being foregone, it 
 was easy to find a cau.se, and the' election of 
 Mr. Lincoln was used as the occasion. 
 
 The rebellion broke out, and soon the North 
 found that, to restore the Union and conquer a 
 peace, required the most superhuman exertions. 
 These were all put forth, and well we remember 
 how close and doubtful seemed the issue. Then, 
 and not till then, did the North appreciate the 
 magnitude of the contest, and when this was 
 seen we were not long in seizing the remedy — 
 the axe was laid at the root of the tree, and cut- 
 ting loose from our prejudices, we were blessed 
 with light and success. 
 
 The colored race'of the south — the neglected, 
 benighted, oppressed African, — " God's image 
 disinherited" — was made free — received as a 
 soldier in the Union ranks — his services accepted 
 anywhere and everywhere and at anything. He 
 fought on the field of battle; he watched as a 
 scout ; he was used as a spy ; he buried the 
 fallen in battle ; carried the wounded from the 
 field ; he nur.'^ed the sick in the hospital ; he dug 
 the intrencliments and defended them with his 
 musket. He advanced with the forlorn hope, 
 and laid down his life with the rest. His cou- 
 rage, though oft denied, before it was tried, is 
 not denied now. His blood was poured out for 
 the union cause. He sent into actual service 
 over 200,000 soldiers, and his race was nobly 
 represented among the slain as well as the 
 living, in every battle field, after his ser- 
 vices were accepted. But this was only a 
 tithe of his good deeds. He relieved our 
 wounded and imprisoned soldiers at the South, 
 and guided them always in safety to freedom. 
 And over and above, and beyond all, he was 
 faithful and loyal to the Union. In all the 
 South, no matter how dark our cause looked, or 
 how black the prospect, the colored man re- 
 mained firmly our friend. He was faithful 
 among the faithless. And when this was fully 
 seen and understood, and the true cause of the 
 war known, our statesmen advised and our 
 Commander-in-Chief proclaimed his freedom 
 and that of his race, giving the faith of the 
 nation as his assurance of protection, and with 
 that glorious decree there was tak-^n from the 
 enemy and added to the Union side in mere 
 numbers, and that is' but a small way of estima- 
 ting the force of thiii change, over four millions 
 of human beings 1 Who shall tell the effect? 
 
 Physically, it was a mighty blow, but morally, 
 it was immense. It reached every State and 
 
every county, every plantatiou and every 
 family, at the south. It stood beside every 
 table, and by night was about every couch ; and 
 though no ghost, but real, actual aud palpable, 
 yet it had ghostly power ; and to young and old, 
 man and woinau, it carried terror, for they 
 could not but think ceaselessly, with all the fears 
 of conscious guilt, of how they had abused and 
 cruelly treated him, who had thus become, if he 
 chose his own avenger. 
 
 This down-trodden race, slaves no louger, be- 
 came thus by this great decree, fkeedmen, and 
 entitled to protection, not only by the law, as 
 being equal to any others before the law, but 
 also as having fought for and with us ; for is not 
 he who sheds his blood with us, and iu our 
 cause, entitled to share with us in the privileges 
 se?ured by his courage and faithfulness, as well 
 as ours. '• He who sheds his blood with me is 
 my brother," and ought to be treated as such. 
 Humanity and good policy alike require it, and 
 justice demands it. 
 
 Does any one suppose that the conscience of 
 the North will be satisfied witli banding our 
 colored brother aud friend, bound hand and 
 foot, and delivered over to the treatment he is 
 certain to receive at the hands of his old master, 
 when the cord that binds him is loosened, the 
 northern soldier withdrawn, and the Freedman's 
 Bureau abandoned ? Will the northern people, 
 at the mere signal of the politician, close their 
 eyes, and not see, shut their ears, and refuse to 
 hear the suiferings and groans that will cer- 
 tainly arise from the fierce spirit of the South, 
 once let loose from the terror or northern power 
 and northern bayonets 1 
 
 Has that fell spirit been quelled 1 Has the 
 Ethiopian changed his skin, or the leopard his 
 spots 1 Has the South shown the slightest 
 sorrow or repentance for its numerous and black- 
 hearted sins ? Has it done any work meet for 
 repentance 1 Look over the whole calendar of 
 what it has done, and point, if you can, to any 
 thing in that direction. We have only to look 
 at their legislation to show that the virus still 
 remains, animating with its deadly spirit the 
 law-making power. It is certainly fair to judge 
 the South, and their alleged repentance aud 
 willingness to accept the result of the war, by 
 the public acts of their representatives. The 
 people are fairly chargeable with all that is done 
 or omitted by those whom they have elected to 
 act for them since the war termiuated. And 
 how do we find them acting ? Are they 
 seeking to effectuate and enforce the prin- 
 ciples on which the war terminated, or 
 
 of law accessible to them, and giving them the 
 privileges of witnesses and the right of testify- 
 ing ? There is nothing of the kind. If given at 
 all, iu any one respect, it is so guarded, limited 
 and restricted as to be of no substantial 
 benefit. It is only necessary to peruse 
 the shameful black code of South Carolina, 
 or that of Louisiana, worse, if it be possible, 
 and that of Alabama, to be painfully alive, to 
 how little appreciation the southern people have 
 of the right ''to life, liberty and the pursiiit of 
 happiness," inherect now in the freedmen, as 
 well as the white, and which the latter is bound 
 now to respect. 
 
 " Colored children between the ages mention- 
 ed [eighteen and twenty-one] who have neither 
 father nor mother living in the district in which 
 they ore found, or whose ])arents are paupers, or 
 anable to afibrd them a comfortable mainten- 
 ance, or whose parents are not teaching them habits 
 of industry and honesty, or are persons of noto- 
 riously bad character, or are vagrants, or have 
 been convicted of infamous offenses, and colored 
 children, in all cases where they are in danger of 
 moral contamination, may be bound as appren- 
 tices by the district judge or one of the magis- 
 trates for the aforesaid term." 
 
 The case of Mississippi is much worse, as the 
 following evidence very clearly shows : 
 
 1. The Legislature rejected, almost unani- 
 mously, the Constitutional amendment abolish- 
 ing slavery. 
 
 2. The same body established a state militia 
 system, and ordered that its troops should wear 
 the old confederate gray as their uniform. 
 
 3. It changed the name of a county to Davis. 
 
 4. It levies taxes upon almost everybody and 
 everything, but exempts blind and disabled 
 confederate soldiers, aud provision is also made 
 for supplying maimed soldiers with artificial 
 limbs, at the public cost. 
 
 5. Resolutions were adopted for erecting a 
 grand national monument to the gallant dead 
 of the stfite who fell in the late memorable 
 struggle. 
 
 6. Three commissioners were appointed to 
 proceed to Washington to obtain the removal of 
 the federal colored troops from the state. 
 
 7. The governor of the state has issued an 
 order to disarm the negroes. 
 
 8. A bill was passed, ostensibly to confer 
 civil rights upon the freedmen, but its details 
 
 re such that the fewer the rights which the ne- 
 gro realizes under it, the better be will be off. 
 
 It would seem from the vayiety of their de- 
 vices, as though their whole thoughts had beeu 
 
 those to which they have held all through the addressed to the question of how they could 
 
 struggle, yielding only to superior power and 
 force, and yielding no more than they could 
 help 1 What do we find them enacting ? Laws 
 for the preservation of the lives, liberty and 
 property of the freedmen ? Laws enabling then: 
 to purchase, hold and take real and personal es- 
 tate, and to sell and convey the same at pleasure 1 
 Laws to furnish them with the means of educa- 
 tion — to enable them to go from place to place — 
 to work for whom and at such wages as they 
 choose — and lastly, and what is of vital im- 
 portance to them, enactments making the courts 
 
 most firmly and efl'ectually retain and control 
 the work and labor of the freedmen, and yet, 
 not subject themselves to the authority of the 
 United States, under the amendment of the Con- 
 stitution abolishing slavery, and authorizing the 
 legislation necessary to enforce the provision. 
 No one can have failed to notice that some of the 
 rebel states, while ratifying that amendment, 
 accompanied it with a deliberate reservation, that 
 nothing therein should be deemed as granting 
 power to Congress over the freedmen subse- 
 quently. And in some of these states, we find 
 
euactments forbidding Ihe freedman from own- 
 ing any land ; requiring him to always live in 
 one parish, never to leave the employment of 
 one till he has hired out to another ; and not to 
 leave an employer at all without his consent, or 
 without leave from some other white man, in 
 the same town and holdirg an office; declaring 
 him a disorderly person if he violates any of 
 these btatutes, or refuses or neglects to work, or 
 disobeys the orders of his master, and punishes 
 him with imprisonment and stripes. In case of 
 his being found guilty or disorderly, or violating 
 these black laws, he can be bound out (o service 
 for years. The system of slavery is thus suli- 
 stantially restored, and the constitutional en- 
 actment easily avoided by finding or declaring 
 the freedman guilty of iome crime, or something 
 that is called a crime. It is also evaded b} 
 binding out to service all children till they 
 reach a certain age, and also any person who 
 does not work or refuses to work, or is found 
 traveling without a pass, wliich he can only 
 ob'ain from his employer. 
 
 If the freedman is abused or insulted, or de- 
 prived of his rights or bis property, or his wife 
 or children taken from him, he has now the 
 freedmaii's court or bureau to resort to for redress, 
 and there his evidence and that of his wife and 
 children and others of his race is received, and 
 if, on examination, his case is one proper for 
 relief, his wrongs are redressed. The act estab- 
 lishing that tribunal is, however, temporary in its 
 character, ard expires by its own limitaiion in 
 one year after the war ceased. The congress 
 foresaw, that if this law was allowed to expire, 
 and no substitute enacted, the freedmen would 
 be left naked in the hands of their enemies, and 
 therefore enacted the act, which has lately been 
 vetoed by the president. 
 
 If the freedmen's bureau shall expire, and no 
 new law be in the meantime enacted, and the 
 freedmen thus left without protection from the 
 merciless hands of their late masters, it will be 
 the most ungrateful and unmerciful act, that 
 was ever perpetrated since the world began. 
 Shall we- of the North, the people of the State 
 of New York, or we, their representatives, be 
 guilty of such a gross and shameful breach of 
 laith and conQdence? If so, let us take from 
 the summit of this capitol the statu'j of Justice, 
 that principle whose seat is in the bosom of 
 God, and which the artist symbolized so well in 
 the representation surmounting the dome above 
 this chamber — " the blinded brow, to show the 
 stern siLgleness of heart; the scales, to weigh 
 the merits of the case ; and the keen sword, the 
 agent of a Budden and complete retribution." 
 Let us, at leatt. if we do not take down the 
 statue, remove the scales and sword, for neither 
 are longer needi-d, when we are so regardless of 
 our plighted faith to protect those freed men in 
 the full enjoyment of their rights. 
 
 If we aru consenting to this crime, or having 
 part or lot in it. we may bo assured our conni- 
 vance will bring on again, and that full »oon, 
 this desperate battle to light over again; and it 
 HO, we may well fear, that aftersuch wicked dis- 
 regard and unfaithfulness to those of our race 
 who helped us before, the God of battles, the 
 
 God of justice, w^ho fought with us then — our 
 pillar of cloud by day and of fire by night — will 
 be in that coming contest, a Nemesis avenging, 
 and if He do not destroy, will suffer us to fight 
 alone ; and we shall not have, or deserve, the 
 aid of the freedman, as ho will not fail to re- 
 member our shameful disregard of his former 
 faithfulness in our cause. 
 
 The means for protecting the life of this nation 
 and the rights of the freedmen from the dis- 
 armed rebel of tlie South, are in our own hands 
 and power. We can use them if we will, and 
 mark. Sir, I would not counsel the abuse of those 
 means. Those means lie in the conditions we 
 may reasonably and properly impose on the 
 lately armed and rebellious States, before we 
 shnli receive them or their representatives into 
 full national relations ; and in the enacting of 
 suitable legislation for the establishment and 
 permanent protection of the rights guaranteed 
 to the freedmen. 
 
 First, Is such legislation, and the imposition 
 of such conditions, necessary and expedient "? 
 
 Passing for the present the necessity of legis- 
 lation, let us look at the conditions necessary to 
 be imposed, and the right to impose them. 
 
 lii dealing with this question let us look at it 
 practically and in the light of facts, and not be 
 carried away by paere theories and abstractions. 
 
 The southern states seceded from the Union, 
 in fact. They passed ordinances of secession, 
 and organized a rebellion against the govern- 
 ment, and maintained by civil war, a separate 
 existence for over four years. During all this 
 time, they were actually, as much out of the 
 Union, as if never members of it. They made 
 their own laws, and enforced them. Disregard- 
 ed all laws made by the Union, and we could 
 not, and did not, for four years compel obedi • 
 ence to them. 
 
 Now, 1 presume, it will not be denied by any 
 one. that had a rebel appeared at Washington 
 during the rebellion, and claimed a seat in the 
 Senate, or in the House, as a representative from 
 a constituency, at the time in arms, attempting 
 to destroy the nation, the Senate or House in 
 which his application was made, would have had 
 a clear right to reject the claim. Wherefore, on 
 what ground could they have so determined ? 
 Simply, for the reason that he was a rebel, and 
 his constituency in like condition with himself. 
 What is the difference between then and now ? 
 They are still in the same position as then, only 
 that they are not in arms. The rebellion is only 
 conquered so far as to disarm the soldiers and 
 officers. 
 
 Hear what General Thomas says as to the con- 
 dition of these States, in his evidence lately 
 siven before the Pve-construction Committee at 
 Wa-hingt()U : 
 
 " I do nut think it would be expedient to re- 
 move the troops until people show that they are 
 themselves willing and determined to execute 
 civil law with im])arlial justice to all parties. I 
 think public sentiment is divided on the subject 
 of allowing freedmen to become freeholders. I 
 have Jieard of no legislation on that subject, 
 either to empower them to become freeholders, 
 or to prohibit them from becoming such. If 
 
national troops and the Freedmen's Bureau were 
 to be withdrawn from the State at this time, I 
 do not believe that the Union men or the freed- 
 men could have justice done them. Injustice 
 toward them would commeDce in suits in courts 
 for petty offenses and neighborhood combina- 
 tions to annoy them so much that they could 
 not reside there. I am satis 6ed that until a 
 better state of feeling shall arise there, if all 
 restraint should be removed, the freedmen 
 would be thrown back into a condition of .vir 
 tual slavery — that is, they would be compelled 
 by legislative enactments to labor for little or no 
 wages, and legislation would assume such a form 
 that they would not dare leave their employers 
 for fear of punishment ; and unless white men 
 who had led Union men through the war had 
 very strong personal friends, tbey could not live 
 in the State. They would be annoyed so much 
 in various ways that they could not live 
 there in any peace or comfort." 
 
 Listen to the evidence of General Saxton, as 
 to the condition of affairs iu the States of Geor- 
 gia, South Carolina and Florida. He says : 
 
 " Among the great majority of the white pop- 
 ulation, hatred to Yankees is thorough and in- 
 tense. If the United States military forces were 
 to be withdrawn, it would be hardly possible 
 for Northern men and Union men to remain 
 there, particularly those who had taken any 
 prominent part on the side of the Government. 
 The object which the freedmen has most at heart 
 is the purchase of land. They all desire to get 
 small homesteads, and to locate themselves up- 
 on them, and there is scarcely any sacrifice too 
 great for them to make to accomplish this ob- 
 ject. I believe it is the policy of the majority 
 of their former owners to prevent negroes from 
 becoming landholders. They desire to keep ne- 
 groes landless and as nearly in a condition of 
 slavery as-possible." 
 
 Hear what General Grierson says, as to the 
 causes of this, and the effects of misjudged len- 
 ity on them : 
 
 " Q. To what do you attribute the change of 
 sentiment between the time of Lee's surrender 
 and later on ? A. That would only be a matter 
 of opinion. I think if the disloyal had been 
 dealt with more severely there would have been 
 less dissatisfaction and more loyalty in the South 
 to-day ; their demands have steadily increased ; 
 at the time I left they complained that their 
 Congressmen were not admitted, and they seem- 
 ed to think that on that account they were an 
 injured people. I think that every Congress- 
 man elected in the State of Alabama was elected 
 by reason of his devotion to the cause of the 
 Rebellion. Some of them served at Richmond 
 as Congressmen, and others as officers in the 
 Rebel army, but in no case that I know of was 
 a loyal man elected. The truly loyal people of 
 Alabama do not wish the present elected Con- 
 gressmen and Senators from that State admitted 
 into Congress," 
 
 The evidence is abundant and conclusive to 
 this point. 
 
 Our right to reject the rebels during the war, 
 will stand on the ground of the right of self- 
 preservation. Had we allowed them to come 
 
 into the two Houses of Congress with sword and 
 bayonet and revolver, how long could our na- 
 tional existence have been maintained 1 Not an 
 hour. And it seems to me no one can deny the 
 right to exclude these States during their armed 
 rebellion. 
 
 But it is said they are States ; and with all the 
 rights of a State, they could not legally secede, 
 and their act of secession was a mere nullity ; 
 and the moment they were conquered, their 
 rights revived in full force. Certainly, a most re- 
 markable corollary, and from singular premises. 
 
 The only diflerence then, between the peo- 
 ple of the South during the rebellion, and their 
 representatives who are now asking admission 
 into Congress, is, that the one fought with 
 the bayonet to carry out his disunion 
 principles and the other seeks an en- 
 trance into Congress to carry them into effect 
 with the ballot. We have fought and conquered 
 them with the bullet, and I trust in a kind 
 Providence, if we are only true and faithful 
 to the great principles which have actuated us 
 in the past, we may yet fight and conquer them 
 with ballots. 
 
 But let us not, while trusting Providence, for- 
 get that we are expected to " watch as well as 
 pray," and above all that we should not fail to 
 use the worldly weapons the law has furnished 
 to our hands, in order to defeat the machinations 
 of our enemies, and let us impose such con- 
 ditions, as will in all future time relieve us from 
 this overshadowing danger. 
 
 The first resolution before us to my mind 
 clearly enunciates this right. 
 
 It declares that such State must, in order to 
 entitle it to representation, " present itself, not 
 only in an attitude of actual loyalty and harmo- 
 ny, but in the persons of representatives whose 
 loyalty cannot be questioned," and that each 
 House of Congress " has full power to determine 
 for itself, when the constituency or the repre- 
 sentative meets the conditions above set forth." 
 
 To my mind, this resolution in plain and 
 vigorous language declares that in the two 
 houses is vested the exclusive control of this 
 whole subject, and with the express power to 
 impose such conditions as they may deem es- 
 sential to satisfy them that the constituencies 
 claiming to be represented occupy " an attitude 
 of actual loyalty and harmony," and that the 
 representative is himself loyal. These States are 
 thus to be exckided, till they are loyal and har- 
 monious to the government, and the two Houses 
 are to determine whc7i such states occupy this 
 position. 
 
 The two Houses may undoubtedly prescribe 
 their own rules, and the evidence of com- 
 pliance. The resolution in substance so states, 
 and properly to. 
 
 Would not the two Houses have power to 
 say that a State, which, at the same session it 
 appointed a representative to the Senate of the 
 United States, had enacted a law to raise and 
 maintain an armed force, or to send an embassj 
 to England, was not in a state of loyalty and 
 harmony to the government ? Certainly it 
 would, and why, because these acts would 
 show the existence of a hostile feeling on 
 
the part of the State sufficient to amply] 
 justify the rejection of their claim to represen- , 
 tatioD. I 
 
 So also, if any of these states refused or ne- ; 
 glected to pass the laws which in the judament 
 of the two Houses, were requisite to show that 
 the states were loyal and harmonious to the ^ 
 Government, such for instance as a disavowal of i 
 the claim for compensation for slaves emanci- j 
 pated during the war, or that of taxation for the , 
 purpose of paying the rebel w.ir debt, such re- ; 
 fusal or omission would, the two Houses being i 
 the exclusive judga, entitle them to reject the 
 claim to representation. [ 
 
 Then as to whether lef^islation is necessary in \ 
 order to protect the loyal people of the South ? j 
 The two houses of congress in order to re- 1 
 lieve and protect the freedmen, lately passed 
 what is called the Freedmen's Bureau bill, by 
 which he is placed under the shield of the gov- ■ 
 ernment. 
 
 This act, so necessary, as we have seen, has | 
 just been vt-toed by the president. He makes I 
 some objections to the details of the act — but 
 no one can read his message and fail to see that ] 
 it is the measure and not the details, that meet I 
 his disapproval, 
 
 He objects to it as unnecessary and inexpedi- 
 ent, omitting however, to meet one other great j 
 reason for its necessity, that it was passed 
 since the congress by the amendment to the 
 constitution, obtained the power, to pass it as a 
 permanent act. 
 
 The President objects also to the bill, that 
 it is unconstitutional. He forgets or ignores 
 the great amendment to the Constitution, 
 by which slavery was abclished and the Con- 
 gress was authorized to pass laws necessary 
 to enforce the amendment. This very Freed- 
 men's bill is one of the laws deemed necessary 
 by Congress to effectuate the provision. The 
 necessity for it arose from the amendment being 
 ordained as part of the fundamental law. With- 
 out these and similar provisions protecting the 
 freedmen, his enfranchisement is merely nomi- 
 nal, as has been already shown. The President 
 further objects, that there is an existing Freed- 
 man's Bill, which does not expire until one year 
 after the closing of the war, and that there is 
 time abundant yet to pasi a law if necessary. 
 He forgets that there will be thousands at the 
 Sooth to claim, and State courts ready to decide, 
 as soon as Congress adjourns, that the war 
 closed in May last. Why leave any doubt on 
 the subject ? 
 
 As to this objection of unconstitutionality to 
 the Freedmen's Bureau act, if there was any 
 foundation for it, why was it never made to the 
 Indian Bureau act? It is well known that the 
 government from an early period was compelled 
 to take the Indian rate under its care as its 
 wards. The reasons for this were in many 
 respects the same as thosu which now compel 
 the founding; of the Freedmen's Bureau. The 
 Indian was of separate race, the white man was 
 steadily depriving him of his property and his 
 rights, and it was seen that unless tlie govern- 
 ment interfered the Indian race would be des- 
 troyed to t!ie eternal disgrace and infamy of 
 
 the dominant race. By this act the Indian is 
 placed under the protection of the government. 
 Agents are appointed and justice is adminis- 
 tered among them, and above all, any white 
 man who deals unjustly by them is punished 
 according to his deserts. In distress or 
 in famine, the Indian is fed by the govern- 
 ment, and in sickness he has medicine and 
 medical attendance at the expecse of the Gov- 
 ernment. 
 
 No one ever heard the objection that these 
 proceedings were unlawful, or this act uncon- 
 stitutional. 
 
 It may be claimed that this is all founded on 
 treaties with the Indians, aud duties arising 
 therefrom. The payments made no doubt often 
 have been, but the duty is higher than any mere 
 treaty right; it arises from the sacred right 
 which every person, born on the soil of a 
 nation, has to its protection — to full security 
 for his person and property. 
 
 The African race, like that of the Indian, has 
 peculiar claims to these rights — claims on our 
 justice, if not on our humanity, and we cannot 
 disregard them without national > ishonor. 
 
 But the veto message further says, "That 
 he," the freedrnan, "possesses a perfect right to 
 change his place of abode, and if, tlierefore, he 
 does not find in one community or State a mode 
 of life suitable to his desires, or proper remu- 
 neration for his labors, he can move to another, 
 where labor is more esteemed and better re- 
 garded." 
 
 The president forgets that it is the freedman's 
 bureau that enables him to " change his place 
 of abode ;" and thatif he had not that protection 
 and made an effort to go in search of labor, 
 leaving a master who misused or did not pay 
 him, seeking that place " where labor was more 
 esteemed and better regarded," he would be ar- 
 rested as a " disorderly person," would be con- 
 victed of this crime before his master's court, 
 and would be bound in the fetters of slavery 
 again as firmly as ever. 
 
 It is from the dreadful effects of this judicial 
 blindness of the South that the act, vetoed by 
 the president, sought to guard the freedrnan ; 
 and it is this veto which leaves them unprotect- 
 ed to the passions of the secesh and rebel of 
 the South. 
 
 The President in his annual message, only in 
 December last, says that: "Good faith requires 
 the security of the freedmen in their liberties 
 and their property, their right to labor and 
 their right to claim the just return of their la- 
 bor." And how shall this right be enforced, ia 
 the first question that arises ; because it cannot 
 be that the President intended by this language 
 to state an aphorism, or merely declare an ab- 
 stract proposition. He no doubt int<^nded to 
 use the language as a part of his constitutional 
 dutj', in lecommcnding such measures of legis- 
 lation to Congress, as he deemed expedient. He 
 therefore substantially recommended to Con- 
 gress to provide for the security of the freed- 
 men, in his liberty and property, and his right 
 to labor and to receive a just compensation 
 therefor. The President had thus performed 
 his duty, and was Congress negligent or inat- 
 
7. 
 
 tentive to theirs 1 Not at all. On the contrarj^ I mighty things in Egypt, when he led out the 
 
 children of Israel from their bondage, but he did 
 nothiug equal to this ; and t/ien, he was forty 
 years in the work, but this was done, as it were, 
 with a word. 
 
 In the mighty problems of God's providence, 
 was ever anything like thisi 
 
 Before the rebellion tlie institution of slavery 
 was as safe as anything created by man could be 
 — it was the corner stone of the South, and of 
 the two great parties of the North, it was diffi- 
 cult to prove which had said the most, or done 
 the most to secure its perpetuity — though the 
 South unhesitatingly gave the palm to the De- 
 mocracy, for they had never hesitated while the 
 Whig party h,ad made moral reservations or ex- 
 pressed qualms of conscience on the subject. 
 But still both had resolved that it could not be 
 meddled with in the States. 
 
 But the rebellion broke out, and with it war, 
 and with war came all its consequences. 
 v; War, not being created or arising out of law, 
 is not the creature of law, nor does it know or 
 acknowledge obedience to law, and thus the in- 
 stitution of slavery, which absolute law only can 
 create or maintain, had only brute force to sus- 
 tain it, and fell to pieces because the force that 
 kept it up was not equal to the emergency. 
 
 The South then found how true it was "that 
 they who take the sword shall perish by the 
 swo'rd." Most righteous retribution The very 
 institution which the war was started to save, by 
 the war was destroyed. War alone could have 
 effectuated this result, and that war must be 
 one originated by the South, as the North would 
 never have inaugurated it for that purpose. No 
 civil strife, no exercise of national authority 
 could have accomplished it, and yet it was done. 
 The judicial blindness of the slaveholders near- 
 ly three thousand years since described in pro- 
 phetic anticipation, as: 
 
 " That mad, furious power, 
 Whose unrelenting mind 
 No God can govern, and no justice bind, 
 
 was the sole producing cause of this result. 
 
 Is this blindness of our southern brethren^ to 
 continue? or will they accept the result, whicb 
 the God of battles and of infinite justice has 
 brought upon them for their wickedness and 
 oppression ? 
 
 Recent events seem to show that their eyes are 
 not yet fully opened, or that they have not yet 
 exhausted ihe vials of His wrath. That, tak- 
 ing encouragement from the Executive veto of 
 a great measure for the permanent protectionof 
 the frt'edmen, and seeing the doughface politic- 
 ians of the North emerging from the retirement 
 
 we find that the subject of the freedman, his 
 
 condition, and right to protection, received 
 
 proper attention in both Houses. The result 
 
 was the "Freedmen's bill," so called, and 
 
 which, as we have seen, has been vetoed. 
 
 It is said by some that there is no need of any 
 
 act on the subject, and that the amendment of 
 
 the constitution will be executed by the courts 
 
 of the United States. Those who argue thus 
 
 can have no adequate conception of the feeling 
 
 at the South, and th^ result certain to flow from 
 
 treating the Southern rebels with what I may 
 
 call the sugar and molasses treatment, instead 
 
 of the stern and strict rule which should 
 
 always follow great crimes committed by large 
 
 communities. 
 
 They now nourish the most bitter hatred to 
 
 this nation, and only desire two things at our 
 
 hands — to discharge the Freedmen's Bureau, 
 
 and withdraw the Union soldiers from their 
 
 borders ; these done, and the questions of 
 
 freedmen's rights, whether j)ersonal or political, 
 
 would soon be determined in a manner that 
 
 would horrify the conscience of the North, but 
 
 too late for successful intervention. 
 
 It is under these circumstances, Mr. President, 
 
 that vv^re in session and have these resolutisns 
 
 under discussion, and I cannot refrain from sol- 
 emnly urging that this hour has its teachings. 
 
 "He who will not profit by the lessons of the 
 
 past," says an old proverb, " has lived his life 
 
 in vain." Shall we be thus chargeable 1 Shall 
 
 we, having done these mighty works, now take 
 
 our rest and " eat, drink and be merry," taking 
 
 no thought of the past, and no care for the future. 
 
 If we do, we have indeed " lived in vain," and in 
 
 the hereafter in this life, there will be no though 
 
 more harrowing than that, which, at work or at 
 
 leisure, will surely ever be with us, that we suf- 
 fered our children and brothers to die for a cause 
 
 they could not save, and which we miserably 
 
 lost, through our bickerings, our listlessness, 
 our follies or our crimes. 
 
 Mr. President, we are living in a time of great 
 events, we do not realize the fact, but it is so, 
 and when the history of the past five years is 
 written, there will not in the history of the 
 world, have been so many mighty things 
 crowded into the same short space of time as 
 has occurred during that period, to this nation. 
 The simple truth is stranger than any fiction, 
 and romance is turned into reality. 
 
 In the beginning, nearly half of this nation, 
 for the purpose of extending and perpetuating 
 the institution of slavery, were organizing a re- 
 bellion against the Union. Armies were raised ^ ^ 
 
 to defeat the rebels ; but the forces on each side, I into which the M'ar had consigned them, and 
 for a considerable time, made no great head gathering courage from the aid thus furnished, 
 against the other ; then larger armies were raised and from the black-hearted spirit still unscotched 
 and mighty battlts fought, but still no positive ' within them, they are preparing new schemes 
 and finishing stroke; then Antietam, with its I to enable them to repossess their lost power over 
 dreadful slaughter and its nearly balanced termi- 1 the freedmen, and that the villainous heresy 
 nation ; and then came the decree of Emakcipa- j and snake of secession is only " scotched and 
 TiON, and the shackles fell from the arms of the \ not killed, while -.ve remain in danger of his 
 southern slaves, and with a single stroke, four 
 millions were added to the Union side, and taken 
 from the rebels ; not mere animals, but human- 
 ity, with souls, as well as bodies, Moses did 
 
 former tooth." If so, then let us not forget that 
 
 'Freedom's battle once begun, 
 Bequeathed from bleeding fire to BOn, 
 Though baffled oft, is ever won." 
 
8 
 
 But, Mr. President, it is urged that we must 
 conciliate the south— that no enduring peace 
 can be obtained without showins; them that we 
 have confidence in them, and that true states- 
 manship requires that we should bury our dif- 
 ferences iu the grave of oblivion, and seek by 
 kindness and confidence to win the love of the 
 south, and draw them over to onr principles. 
 
 We tried the virtue of conciliation before this 
 struggle begun — the north besought the south 
 almost to its own abasement, to avoid this con- 
 test — but she would have it, and must take the 
 consequences of her own violation of all laws, 
 both human and divine. If we do not enforce no iv 
 security for the future, w-e shall be unfaithful to 
 our duty — regardless of the promises we have 
 made, and of the faith we owe to the freedmen, 
 and careless of the rights and interests of our 
 posterity. 
 
 Shall we be thus guilty in the sight of God 
 and man ? We ask the people of the North, if 
 with all the light of the past and all the hope of 
 the future, they are willing to bury their hopes 
 and the hopes of four millions of enfranchised 
 human beings in that sepulchre? If so, let a 
 tomb stone be erected over the grave of the 
 great Union party, and let it bear the inscription 
 that was written in the olden time of one who 
 was treacherously slain at the hands of a pro- 
 fessed friend: 
 
 "Died Abner as a fool dieth ? 
 Thy hands were not bound, 
 Nor ihy feci nut into fetters ; 
 As a man falleth bef re wicked men, 
 Sofeliest thou." 
 
 Go ask yon father who sent his son to the 
 war for the Union he loved so well ; yon 
 mother, who parted from f^im, with sorrow, oh 
 such sorrow, as only a mother can feel, and yon 
 sister, who in parting from him for the last time, 
 threw her arms around him and tearfully bid 
 him God speed. Go ask them if they are pre- 
 pared to say that their great loss was all in vain. 
 
 And you, ye sainted, patriotic dead, whose 
 bodies now lie mouldering in southern soil, the 
 victims of starvation or cruelty in southern 
 prisons, or of rebel bullets in the field, will 
 your friends, your townsmen, mayhap your kith 
 and kin, will they say that all this was withont 
 fruits, and that your great sacrifice was useless? 
 Why, Sir, death from this war has been all 
 around us. 
 
 " There is no flock howe'er watched or tended 
 But one deud lamb Is ttiere; 
 There is no fireside howao'er defended 
 But has its vacant chair. 
 
 The air is f u 1 of farewells to the djing, 
 
 And.mournings for the dead; 
 The heart of Rachel for her children crying 
 
 Will not be comforted." 
 
 And is this the answer you will give to the 
 mother in our Israel, who demands an account 
 of you for the blood of her son, shed on the 
 battlefield of freedom and the Union, that he 
 died for a cause he could not save 7 
 
 Never I never, let that be the answer to her 
 agonizing cry, but rather that the people shall 
 never stay their hands, never stop their efforts, 
 till the principles for which he fought and died 
 have become the head of the corner i^our po- 
 litical system. 
 
 Let us preserve these principles, and protect, 
 and, if necessary, extend them. For these pur- 
 poses let us sustain and support these resolu- 
 tions — let us hold up the hands and strengthen 
 the arms of those unfaltering and unswerving 
 representatives iu Contiress assembled, who 
 have so gloriously battled and are still battling 
 for the right, and let us unshrinkingly .«taud by 
 the fieedman and for his right-i, and we shall 
 illustrate iu our lives the heroic principles of 
 our fathers, and hand down to our posterity 
 this glorious Union without one star dissevered 
 from its national banner — without one shackled 
 slave within our n.itional borders. 
 
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