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THE TRUE POLICY OF THE GOVERNMENT RELATIVE TO THE CONDUCT OF THE 
 WAR WITH A VIEW TO THE RESTORATION OF THE UNION. 
 
 S F EE C H 
 
 HON. ELIJAH WAKD, 
 
 OF NE^V YORK, 
 
 DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
 JANUARY 9, 1865. 
 
 The House haying under cousideration the motion to reconsider the vote by which the House on the 15th of 
 last June rejected a joint resolution (.■^. No. 16) submitting to the Legislatures of the several States a propo- 
 sition to amend the Constitution of the United States — 
 
 Mr. WARD said : 
 
 Mr. Speaker : It is not my intention to discuss at this time and place the causes 
 which have inaugurated the terrible rebellion which has already cost the Republic such 
 a frightful waste of life and treasure. It is enough for me to know that a death-blow 
 has been aimed at the heart of the American Union, to feel indignant at the outrage and 
 solicitous to avert it. It is enough for me to know that a sacrilegious attempt has been 
 made to break up the wisest form of government that human wisdom ever devised, to 
 feel it my duty to join in the effort to chastise the perpetrators of so great a crime. I 
 have not approved of all that has been done under the sanction of the war power. I 
 have deemed it proper to protest, in the name of the loyal and law-abiding constituency 
 I have the honor to represent on this floor, against certain acts of the Executive and 
 Congress, which, in my opinion, have been the means of prolonging this sanguinary war; 
 but I am settled in the conviction that secession is treason, and that as such it must be 
 put down at all hazards and at any cost. If secession succeeds, republican liberties 
 are lost forever, and the Government, failing to vindicate its power, would ibrfeit the 
 consideration and respect of every civilized nation on earth. If the heresy of secession 
 were to be recognized as a canon of our political faith, there would be an end to our 
 Government. Let Louisiana secede unhindered, and then, when that act has been 
 accomplished, what is to prevent her from handing that State over to England or any 
 other Power, commanding as she does the mouth of the great Mississippi ? This she 
 most assuredly has a right to do if she has a right to secede, thus closing up the " Father 
 of Waters," and excluding all the States on its borders from a market. The same rale 
 would apply to any other seceded State. Hence the duty of every American patriot, 
 whatever his station or condition, to uphold the Government in its efforts to compel the 
 seceded States to respect the Constitution and the laws of the country. Upon this 
 conviction of duty 1 have ever acted since the first insult to our flag was offered. The 
 same abiding sense of the responsibility which rests upon me as a Representative of the 
 people in Congress will, I trust, carry me unflinchingly through whatever phase may yet 
 remain undeveloped in the fearful drama which has been so long in process of action. 
 If the conduct of the war had not been marked by some of the most startling usurpa- 
 
tions of power that ever made a free people tremble for their liberties, my voice should 
 never have been raised except in the way of encouragement and sympathy. 
 
 Much wonder has frequently been expressed, Mr. Speaker, that in this fearful crisis 
 through which our bleeding country is now passing, in the awful presence of the grand 
 and sublime uprising of the people of this nation, no master spirit has yet risen in the 
 midst of our assemblage capable to stay the uplifted hand, and gifted with that peculiar 
 sagacity which employs the acquired light of yesterday in the selection of a path tor to- 
 morrow. Whatever may be the cause, it cannot be denied that the present crisis has 
 most signally failed in the production of those towering intellectualities whose impress 
 never fails to marie itself deeply upon the mold of their times, and which during all our 
 former trials as a nation have been wout to direct the destinies of the Republic trium- 
 phantly through the fiery paths of sedition and conspiracy. Hence the blunders and 
 mismanHgemeiils wbjch have characterized the conduct ot this war. The spirit which 
 was wont to kindle the voices of former statesmen as if with a coal from the altar is no 
 longer manifest in the places of power. Under these circumstances, and in view of the 
 obstacles which we may yet have to contend with before the blessings of peace can be 
 restored to our distracted country, it behooves every man in the position I have the 
 honor to occupy, however humble his pretensions or capacity, fearlessly to present his 
 views on the great questions now at issue, in order that out of the very multitude of 
 counsels some good and practical result may be attained. 
 
 I have observed that the more entirely the objects which stand in the way of the execu- 
 tion of any purpose are ignored, the more easy it becomes to lay down plans for the 
 perfect management of the affairs of the country, military and financial. Overlook the 
 rivers and the mountains, the distance and the atmospheric phenomena, the reluctance 
 upon one side and the resistance upon the other, and to construct the most infallible pro- 
 gramme for the suppression of the rebellion is one of the easiest of the undertakings. 
 To overlook the laws of trade, the limits of the popular power, and the propensity of 
 mankind to prefer their own to any other interest, and to prescribe a financial policy 
 which shall carry the country safely through the war and its consequences is a work not 
 above the powers of the most ordinary capacity. Individuals entirely able at a single 
 efi'ort or less to solve all the problems of our condition are easily to be found. The 
 country is rather redundant of them than otherwise. They cross us on all sides, in the 
 newspapers and on the street corners. But that which alike marks all their solutions is 
 the omission of more or less and sometimes of all the real elements of the calculation. 
 *" On to Richmond "' is easily said. " Order a levy en masse, and advance all along the 
 line "' is a suggestion so magnificent as to give an air of pusillanimity to the inquiry 
 whether its execution is practicable. Issue legal-tender notes ad libitum, tax without 
 measure, and borrow without limit, are pieces of advice which are all the more accepta- 
 ble, perhaps, because they who propose them refrain from disclosing that there are 
 points beyond which neither of these sources of revenue can be made available. For 
 my own part, sir, I shall not take upon myself the invidious task of attempting to solve 
 the perplexing problem of the war, nor yet of suggesting any panacea for the cure of 
 existing evils. I simply desire to ofier a few remarks which are forced upon me by the 
 constantly recurring deviations from the avowed object for which this devastating war 
 was originally and authoritatively declared to be waged. I feel that I am somewhat 
 entitled to the indulgence of the House when I venture to raise my voice as a warning 
 to those in power that the mass of the people no longer recognize them as their repre- 
 sentatives in a glorious struggle ; that they no longer consider the war as a war for the 
 salvation of the country, but as having degenerated to a strife about a collateral issue 
 utterly foreign to the cause which tbey entered so heartily to sustain. 
 
 Sir, when the rebellion first broke out I had the honor of being a member-elect of 
 this body, and from the day that I took my seat on this floor I have never sought to em- 
 barrass the Government in its efforts to bring back the seceded States under the glorious 
 flag of that Union which had protected them all so long and so well. 
 
 In the extra session of 1861, the House of Representatives declared by a solemn act 
 " that the war was not waged upon our part in any spirit of oppression, nor for any pur- 
 pose of conquest or subjugation, nor for the purpose of overthrowing or interfering with 
 the established institutions of those States, but to defend and maintain the supremacy of 
 the Constitution, and to preserve the Union with all the dignity, equality, and rights of 
 the several States unimpaired." Had the noble and patriotic sentiments enuilciated in 
 that resolution been made the rule of action by both branches of the Government, the war 
 
 X 
 
•would, I believe, b'ftfore this time have been terminated ; for whatever may be said of the 
 proud and indomitable spirit with which the people of the South have carried ou the war, 
 and of their attitude of haughty defiance, I am fully convinced that if the olive branch 
 had been tendered in that spirit of magnanimity which becomes a dignified Government 
 after it has vindicated its power, the repentant rebels, at least the greatest portion of 
 them, seeing the folly of their ways, would long ere this have returned to their 
 allegiance. 
 
 This Government did not begin the war. The seceded States, at the time the rebel- 
 lion was inaugurated, had nothing to complain of; no overt act had been committed by 
 the Government, none of their prerogatives had been interfered with, none of their cit- 
 izens had been burdened by taxation, all their rights and institutions were under the 
 protection of the United States. They have gone out from among us under the false 
 pretense that they foresaw in the future that they should lose their just political power 
 and influence in the Union, and acting upon this self-imposed delusion they have drawn 
 the sword wantonly and willfully upon the Government and loyal people of the United 
 States. 
 
 What I mean hy the term olive-branch, sir, is the exhibition of a generous and concilia- 
 tory spirit, which I regret to say has not hitherto characterized our invitations to the people 
 of the seceded States to come back and be restored to the inestimable privileges of 
 American citizens. All our legisktion on the subject, whether we look to the Confisca- 
 tion bill, or to those other severe enactaients which have called forrh so much bitter 
 acrimony on this floor, has been marked by a spirit of viudictiveness and oppression 
 utterly unworthy ot a great and a Christian nation. Even the proclamation of amnesty 
 of President Lincoln fails to hold out any hope of satisfactory results, because its pro- 
 visions are not in accordance with the fundamental principle of self-government, that 
 the majority must rule. 
 
 There is in this plan for restoration so triumphantly heralded by the friends of the 
 Administration an attempt at usurpation so offensive to the people that no mind regu- 
 lated by the usual dictates of sanity and guided by the wisdom of the Constitution could 
 ever have elaborated. The proposition made by the sole authority of the President to 
 constitute one-tenth of the citizens of a State the whole State, is so preposterous that it 
 can scarcely be regarded as serious. Were such a proposition to be acted upon, the 
 Government would find itself placed even in a more awkward position than it occupies 
 now, for it would have to maintain a standing army in each of the States thus surrepti- 
 tiously brought into the Union, in order to protect the dominant minority from violent 
 actSj on the part of that overwhelming majority which, by this anomaly in legislation, 
 would be totally disfranchised. 
 
 Sir, I am as strongly ojspbsed as any of my compeers on the other side of the House 
 to the re-admission into the Union, with the right of slave property, of any State where 
 slavery has been swept away by the onward march of our armies. Whatever may be 
 the object of the war, the practical result is the same, and that is, the overthrow of 
 slavery ih all those portions of slaveholding territory which our armies subjugate ; in 
 these the relation of master and slave ceases to exist. The masters retreat as our forces 
 advance, and carry with them a portion of their slaves, but the greater part remain be- 
 hind and take refuge within our lines ; and the question is, what shall become of them 
 and what are our duties in regard to them ? The American people have behaved ad- 
 mirably since this war biroke out. They have shown an energy and elasticity of spirit, 
 a power of organization and combination, a readiness to make sacrifices, a patriotic de- 
 votion, worthy of the highest praise. Let us not forget the claims of those unhappy freed- 
 men whom we have deprived of their masters, their natural guardians and protectors. 
 
 The war is no longer waged for the purpose of restoring the union of all the sovereign 
 States that are and ever were in our great national communion, with all the purity 
 and strength of our precious Constitution undimmed and untarnished, but for the newly- 
 avowed object of subjugation, estermination, and emancipation, until every Southron 
 shall be reduced to the most crouching and abject submission, not to the Constitution, 
 but personally to those who hold the sword and the purse of the country. Sir, I am not 
 prepared to join in any such crusade. I occupy the same platform today that I did on 
 the breaking out of the rebellion. I am in favor of a vigorous prosecution of the war, 
 by all constitutional means, for the purpose of destroying the military power of the re- 
 bellion ; but I am not willing to prolong this war a moment longer than is necessary to 
 effect its legitimate object. The consequences of a mistaken policy are too serious to 
 
5 
 
 W' 
 
 BuflPer me to be governed by the spirit of faction on the one hand or influenced by sub' 
 servieucy to power on the other. We have now arrived at that stage in the progress of 
 the war when we should consider the question of offering to the people of the rebel States 
 such conciliatory terms as are constitutional, just, and practicable, and most likely to 
 lead to the re-establishment of the national authority over the whole country. The terms 
 and conditions offered to the insurgents in the President's proclamation of amnesty are 
 only calculated to inflame their hatred of the North and impel them to renewed resist- 
 ance. They are flugrantly at variance with the declarations voluntarily "made to the 
 people of the loyal States and published to the world. I desire to see such terms offered 
 as a proud and already chastened people can accept without positive degradation to 
 themselves — terms which shall recognize the esistence of the States with constitutions 
 and forms of administrations — terms, in short, calculated to divide our enemies and 
 draw the hearts of the repentant people of the decaying confederacy toward our Gov- 
 ernment. When these honorable terms are rejected, then I shall be willing to leave 
 events to the harsh and cruel necessities of the justice which is vindicated by the 
 Bword. 
 
 But, sir, although the beneficent spirit which pervaded Mr. Crittenden's resolution to 
 which I have referred, was not: allowed to exercise its healthy influence over the delib- 
 erations of this body, its provisions were tacitly adopted as a governing principle in the 
 conduct of the war — bo much so, that when Generals Fremont, Hunter, and Phelps, 
 issued their proclamations of emancipation, the President revoked them all, declaring 
 again and again that he had no right under the Constitution to emancipate the slaves. 
 Those who spoke in behalf of the Executive, and in eiuci^lation of his views, stated 
 everywhere — in the public streets, in conventions, and in the Legislatures — that the 
 President was determined that the seceded States on re-entering the Union -should be 
 protected in all their rights. Governor Stanley, who travelled five thousand miles, it is 
 supposed at the express request of the President, that he might try to persuade the peo- 
 ple of North Carolina out of the rebellion, stated in his speech of June 17, 1862, de- 
 livered at Washington, North Carolina, that Mr. Lincoln was no abolitionist, that 
 he was the best frieud the South had, and that all the Administration wanted was peace. 
 Governor Stanley spoke according to instructions, as many others had done before him 
 in every section of the country, v/hich had the effeft of producing a strong I'eeling of 
 reaction throughout the border States, and adding thousands upon thousands to the re- 
 cruiting lists. 
 
 These assurances, Mr. Speaker, concerning the alleged objects of the war were of so 
 broad and distinct a character that no man of well regulated mind could avoid confiding 
 in them. For my own part, I relied as implicitly upon the^e solemn pledges as the 
 magistrates of ancient Rome did on the sjbilline boobs when danger pressed the eternal 
 city. I should frankly have despised myself had I sufiVred a doubt to rise in my own 
 mind as to the integrity of purpoi^e which governed the action of the President. All that 
 I pausf'd to consider wa^, that when he took his oath of oSice he swore to maintain the 
 Union and enf;)rce the laws ; that had he attempted to trifle with the sacred riglits of the 
 people, and allow a Government to be broken up which he bad sworn to preserve, he 
 would have acted contrary to the requirements of the Constitution, and deserved to be 
 impeached. Upon these solemn convictions, I rallied all my feeb e strerigtli to the sup- 
 port of the Government, the Con.-titution, and the Union, looking upun secfssioa as eter- 
 nal war, and recognizing this great principle — that we are one people, that one we will 
 remain, and one we will die. 
 
 I am well aware, sir, that my course in sustaining the war policy of the President has 
 subjected me lo considerable animadversion, and that my motives of action have fre- 
 quently, and sometimes wickedly, been misconstrued by those who either could not un- 
 derstand the emergencies of the occasion, or who preferred seeing this great Republic 
 split up into fragments rather than yield one ioia of their prejudices. But, sir, there is 
 one tribunal to which I appeal with feelings of pride and conftdence from the judgment 
 of disunionisfs : it is the tribunal of my conscience. The verdict which I find recorded 
 there will sustain me under all calumnies and vituperations. When the day shall come 
 for me to render an account of my stewardship to my constituents, I shall be able to 
 show them that in denouncing treason and in sustaining the Government in its efforts to 
 put down rebels in arms I have been true to myself, to my country, and to the steri-iest 
 requirements of the Democratic creed. How much the Democratic party, actii;g as a 
 party, through its organization, may do to bring back peace to the country, it is impos- 
 
sible to predict. It will depend upon the steadiness with which it adheres to what are 
 admitted to be Democratic principles. To expect to return to BonvA practices iu 
 the Government through the medium of a party which, from any suggestions of expe- 
 diency, however plausible, departs from ila principles, is, of all expectation?^ the most 
 irrational. Peace will return ; the war fury is a passion which exhausts itself. But 
 however desirable peace may be, we ought to be united iu the determination that when 
 it comes it should bring with it the Union of the States under the Federal Constitution. 
 Those who fail to recognize this national exigency are not imbued with the true spirit 
 of Democracy ; they have read the signs of the times to very little purpose. The Dem- 
 ocratic party is essentially a party of progress, and those who asnire to be its leaders 
 ought at least to have sense enough to know that we are in the midst of a great revolu- 
 tion, and that revolution is progress. 
 
 The only issue before the people at this time is the issue of Union or disintegration^ 
 I admit that the country needs peace, and I am anxious to secure it ; but I do not want 
 to get it by indirection. In my judgment, the only feasible plan of restoration is a vig- 
 orous prosecution of the war, or ihe proffer of conciliatory terms to those who are willing 
 to renew their allegiance to the Federal Government. These are the only paths which 
 lead to peace, and I want the people to understand the stern reality of the fact. It is a 
 great mistake, sir, to suppose that political truth and naked taci; are meat too strong 
 for their digestion, and that the reslity must be largely diluted with romance iu order to 
 render it palatable to them. I sincerely believe that the best way to deal with the people, 
 in order to secure their support to a just cause, is to place before them the true issue in 
 the distiucieat manner. I believe, furthermore, that good causes have failed more fre- 
 quently through the cowardice and double-dealing of professed politicians, under the pre- 
 sumption that the people could only be made to do right by deceiving them and playing^ 
 upon their prejudices, than from all other causes combined. In the hurry and spirit ot 
 the hour men are a little too apt to think doubt and consideration evidences of disloyalty, 
 and caution and patience vices rather than virtues. This error has been made several 
 times since the war began, and has resulted in great depression among the people, when 
 the truth dispelled the brilliant anticipations of enthusiastic hopes. 
 
 It would seem to a superficial observer that rapid advances are being made in the 
 overthrow of popular liberty, that the people are supine and indifferent on the subject, 
 that one essential requisite after another of a popular government is being swept 
 away into the mad vortex of fanaticism and passion, until hardly the lorm of our 
 grand old fabric of constitutional liberty remains as a 'mournful memento of the glorious 
 past. To those, however, who more critically analyz=i public events, it will be seen that 
 all grave questions outside of the restoration of the Union have been merely postponed 
 until the termination of the war. The people have been taught to revere the Consti- 
 tution and the Union. The conviction of their jadgment is that the structure of our 
 Government is well adapted to develop the commercial, acrricultural, and industrial re- 
 sources of the country, and to promote the general pro.-^perity arid happiness. The Con- 
 stitution in its operation prior to the rebellion conlaineci every safeguard requisite lor a 
 prosperous career. The history of every nation demonstrates that its citizens will ac- 
 cept the form of government best calculated to give protection to person and property 
 and to promote the general welfare. Trade, commerce, agriculture, and all the in- 
 dustrial pursuits, thrive under a siable government and languish and perish under the 
 opposite one. Under the Constitution the equilibrium is well preserved. The passage 
 of a law requires the co-operation of this honorable body, the Senate, and the Execu- 
 tive. If we pass an unconstitutional measure, the Senate operates as a check ; if both 
 bodies pass such an act, ihs President can veto it ; if all co-operate, the Supreme Court 
 can interpose its decision and declare the act void. I know of no nation in which the 
 rights of ihe people are more c:<refully and admirably guarded. In addition, this is the 
 only country iu modern times that has thiis far successfully demonstrated the capacity 
 of ihe people for self government. This problem is now on trial. For these reasons, 
 when the rebellion began, the people with great una;;imiry rallied to the support of the 
 Government without respect to party ; such unanimity continued until the prosecution 
 of the war was diveited from the origital object, the ressoration of the Union, and a series 
 of measures were inauy:urated, such as eontiscatiou, abuliiion, emancipation, suspension 
 of the v;rit of habeas corpus in the loval States, and others of a like character, whic-h 
 divided the North and united the South; abolitionism at)olished slavery in the District^ 
 of Columbia ; coaliecatiou: merely enabled property to be coutiscated in such parts ox 
 
the country ai have been recovered from the rebels ; the emancipation proclamation 
 has don<? nothing more, as yet, than the legitimate operation of the war power would 
 have achieved, that is, liberated slaves where the army has secured possession. It ia 
 evident, in my judgment, that the whole policy of the Government has been, since the 
 adoption of the Crittenden resolution by this honorable body, to postpone indefinitely 
 the close of the war. Eutertr.ining these views, I deemed it my duty to oppose all these 
 collateral issues, such as arbitrary arrests, confiscation, suspension of the writ of habeas 
 corpiu-, and the freedom of the press in loyal States, and emancipation, as having a ten- 
 dency to retard a successful issue to this most deplorable war. 
 
 Many honorable members of this House for whom I have great respect, supposed that 
 these measures, great iu themselves, aud especially that of arbitrary arrests, were para- 
 mount in the public mind, and would overshadow all other questions. I concede the 
 gravity of the point involved, but still, great as that ^nd the other collateral issues are, the 
 people regarded the life of the nation and the problem of self-government as paramount, 
 and desired these issues first settled before permitting others to engross their attention. 
 The Union restored or separation accomplished, these grave questions will then become 
 a subject of serious inquiry, and the culpable parties be hald responsible for the inroads 
 made upon personal ri^^hts and liberty. 
 
 In addition to the series of measures to which I have referred, v?^e are now called upon 
 to sanction a joint resolution to amend the Constitution so that all persons shall be equal 
 under 'he law, without regard to color, and so that no persoa shall hereafter be hela in 
 bondage. I might object to this amendment, sir, upon the ground that to prohibit the 
 establishment or continuance of slavery aa a legal relation would be virtually to admit 
 that it may exist as such legal relation, and that such an admission in the Constitution 
 would leave that instrument, in respect to human liberty, in a worse state than it is at, 
 present. Upon this point, however, I do not intend to enlarge; for, as I understand it, 
 the fact of servitude among a people will be little affected by any provision which their 
 constitution may or may not embody. 
 
 Sir, it would seem to me that the sum total of the wisdom of the ruling party is con- 
 tained in the dogma that the negro is exactly like the white man. To some it may seem 
 that this is not very much, hardly enough to constitute the foundation of a political sys- 
 tem and an administration policvfora great nation and ■ a numerous people; but this 
 is a matter of opinion. Some may suppose that the basis of a political system ought — 
 observing the uses of sciences in general — to be laid upon some fact, the existence of 
 which is capable, of de'.noa»tration ; but, sir, we, the people of the United States, are 
 trying great and sublime experiments in politics, and if we can succeed in making 
 something stand upon nothing, will it not show that we are justly entitled to the reputa- 
 tion for political sagacity and adroitness which we have been considerably more ready 
 to claim than the benighted statesmi*i of Europe have been willing to accord? So far 
 as I can see, Mr. Speaker, in any form of civilization rt-semblimr our own, servitude 
 wdl always exist ; and servitude rendered necessary by circumstances which the servile 
 party cannot control, is bondage. Bondage will differ iu form, as it is modified by the • 
 character of the parties between whom it exists, and it will differ in intensity as it is 
 affected more or less by external conditionsi The relation of master and servant in the 
 South is natural to this extent: it is the relation into which the white aud black races, 
 being brou'j:ht together, 'naturally fell under the influences of mutual necessities for 
 personal security, social tranquility, and subsistence. The relation of master and servant 
 in Great Britain is affected by the pressure of a costly Govrrnment, which draws from 
 labor, through capital, the means to defray its annual expenses. Servitudes differ in 
 degree and they differ in kind, but the most important difference of the two — the one that is at 
 once the most significant and the least changeable — is the difference in degree ; a man 
 may be nominally free, but if he is a workman without capital, and lives in a state of 
 society of which it may be said "once a peasant, always a peasant; once a factory 
 operative, always a factory operative ; " if the constant labor of his body when in health 
 is only just sufficient to provirle him with food and clothing, and if old age, or a few days 
 of illneas, inevitably reduces hira to pauperism or starvation, he has little to boast of his 
 freedom, and would find it hard to discover wherein it ministers to his elevation or his 
 hanpinoas. 
 
 The freedom of a British working man consists in a limited liberty to change his 
 employer. lie is descended from ancestors who toiled as he toils, all their days for food, 
 clothing, aud shelter, aud these scanty iu quantity and poor in quality. He begets a 
 
posterity to whom he transmits his poverty and his hopelessness, and his whole life, from 
 his cradle to his prave, is one long, desperate struggle against starvation and nakedness. 
 This is British liberty to a majority of the people ot England. This is what it has been 
 for hundreds of years, with no prospect of change but for the worse. Legislation has 
 been tried abundantly, with a view to work improvements, and with worse than no avail. 
 England has always had and now has her theorists who have labored to create imaginary 
 Utopias, but that vast war debt, which, like a millstone, is grinding the people to powder, 
 and pressing them into the, earth, is a thing that cannot be lifted by constitutional clauses, 
 or parliamentary expedients. That legislator will do well, Mr. Speaker, v/ho can devise 
 an amendment to the Constitution which shall relieve the people of the United States, 
 without regard to color, from the pressure of a war debt larger in proportion to their 
 resources than that of Great Britain. The debt is inevitable, it already exists, it is 
 being increased with giddy rapidity. There is nothing in our institutions to prevent 
 national indebtedness irom producing the same effects upon the people of the United 
 States that it has produced upon the people of Great Britain. Here is a thing, sir, 
 which may well enlist the wisdom of the wisest statesmen of the country. If nature 
 has made the negro different in any respect from the white man, all the constitutional 
 clauses in the world will do nothing toward obliterating that difference. If it has made 
 the negro like the white man, that likeness will at the proper time assert itself without 
 constitutional assistance. Nature can neither be hindered nor accelerated by legislative 
 contrivances, and no m9re than the European can the African be elevated to any valuable 
 purpose by the will of another. 
 
 It was declared by me at the last session that for generations to come the laboring 
 men of the United States would be required to work one or two hours in each day more 
 than at present, in order to pay off the debt contracted by this war. Now, sir, under all 
 the advantages afforded by a new country, and circumstances, in many respects, favorable 
 to an extraordinary degree, the average laboring man of the United States has hitherto 
 done little more than live. Impose upon him the necessity of two hours or of one hour 
 additional labor per diem to support himself and his family, and he is, call him by what 
 flattering title you may, a bondman. Against this bondage, the most hopeless and 
 inexorable o>f all servitudes, no constitutional amendments, however cunningly devised, 
 will afford security ; it will descend from father to son, engraving, as it does in 
 England, its characters, revolting and indelible, deeper and deeper upon each succeeding 
 generation. 
 
 Mr. Speaker,-if at a time when no causes of excitement were disturbing the minds of 
 the people a despot had arisen over us, to decree and enforce upon the operative 
 population of the United States two hours per day of additional labor for the remainder 
 of their lives, what a cry would have gone up from all parts of the land against an act 
 so tyrannical! What protest would have been entered by such, if any there were, who 
 were permitted to discuss and condemn ! What exhortations there would have been to 
 combine for resistance, a'ud what citations of principles against a domination so 
 heartless and destructive I What pictures, at once true and revolting, would have been 
 drawn? of the degradation of the people, broken in spirit and pressed to the dust by 
 excessive toil and intolerable exaction, and what fiery indignation would have been felt 
 and expressed against the unnatural monster by whom the wrong was devised and 
 executed ! The result is not altered because we happen to reach it by a process leas 
 direct. The evil will be the same, the wrong the same, the same the suffering when the 
 excitement has passed away and the fact remains, and we see it in its nakedness ; 
 but then, if it is not so now, it will be too late to permit the discovery to be of much 
 avail. 
 
 Without pursuing this point, I would say that slavery has always been and is re- 
 garded as a domestic question. The right to abolish it does and ought to rest with the 
 States in which it exists. Since the organization of the Government the law of climate 
 and soil has controlled the eubjeet, and has caused the abolition of slavery in six of the 
 original States, and either abolished or prohibited it in all but nine of the new States 
 since admitted. This Government is one of delegated powers, and those not conferred 
 are reserved to the States respectively or to the people. In regard to slavery the Coti- 
 Btitution is silent, and therefore no power exists to amend it in the respect indicated ; 
 and in addition, in my judgment, that instrument contemplated that all the States should 
 participate in any amendment thereof. Sir, I do not stand here as the apologist off 
 slavery, but merely to insist that we have no right to incorporate the proposed amend- 
 
ment, and that even if the right exists it is a most injudicious time for the exercise of 
 the power when we should desire to brinir back the seceded States to loyalty and obedi- 
 ence. Our action in this respect cannot fail to add fuel to the flame, widen the breach 
 already existing, further embitter the South, and prolong the sanguinary contest. I do 
 not regard this question as having been decided by the late election. The issue there 
 involved was the vigorous prosecution of the war for the restoration of the Union. En- 
 tertaining these ideas, 1 cannot vote for the proposed amendment. 
 
 Such are some of my views, Mr. Speaker, on some of the most important questions 
 which agitate the public mind at this moment. If the war be brought to a close within 
 a reasonable time, and a united country be the result, this great Republic, with its im- 
 mense resources, will spring into new life, and under the blessed reign of peace will 
 ultimately shake off its burdens and repose queen like among the nations of the earth. 
 
 We must be prepared to make still greater sacrifices than any that have gone before, 
 if necessary, to save the Union ; but the considerations to which I have adverted ad- 
 monish us, as I have observed already, cot to prolong the war a moment longer than ia 
 necessary to effect the legitimate object. Let us be careful lest in seeking to obtain a 
 fancied benefit for others we do not destroy ourselves. *It has been justly said, sir, that 
 to most men experience is like the stern-lights of a ship, which illumine only the track 
 it has passed. It will be a sad thing for the Republic if those who have it in their power 
 to control its destinies are recorded by history in such a category. On the use to be 
 made hereafter of the light of experience depends our whole future destiny. It is to 
 decide whether we take the first fatal step of disintegration whicli will lead us to the po- 
 sition of those petty States whose weight in the world's council is represented by a 
 cipher, and whose little quarrels only provoke a smile, or whether we remain a great peo- 
 ple — homogeneous, united and powerful. 
 
 McGiti. & WiTHsaow, Printers, 366 E street, Washington, D. 
 
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