v^ <^ O . o " o ^" o ^-^^* .0 •^'' V '^pV \^ A. -' . ^,^*/^>^^,, '". r»'' ';^ ■'x. ^' ■-,' ^\' ^ * A^ ^ s* A •^* ^^^ -^^^^^.^ . ^9^ .V '<-'\ .^'"-^ .♦ 0- ^^ O^ ./"-^. .^'\ 0^ V *^t:t*' /\ . ELOQUENCE AND REPARTEE IN THE AMERICAN CONGRESS VOL. I. BY - WILLIAM C. SPRAQUE. DETROIT, MICHIGAN. THE COLLECTOR PUBLISHING CO. Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1896, by The Collector Publishing Company, in the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. TO MY FATHER An honored member of the 42nd Congress, whose life of tireless industry and of devotion to duty has ever been an inspira- tion to me, this book is affectionately inscribed. THE AUTHOR. 62368 PREFACE. The author claims for this book no originality of design or matter. It has been a pleasant task for him to review the pro- ceedings of the early days of the 42nd Congress, of which pro- ceedings he was an eye witness, and to cull out from these such bits of oratory and debate as might prove interesting and profit- able to the general reader. The 42nd Congress numbered among its members some of the ablest statesmen of which our country's history can boast. The oratorical ability of this Congress was above the average, and many of the selections to be found in these pages deserve to take high rank among the masterpieces of American eloquence and debate. WILLIAM C. SPRAGUE. Detroit, Michigan, November ist, 1895. INDEX. Pa^e. Controversy between Hon. William D. Kelley, Hon. Henry L. Dawes, Hon. Benjamin F. Butler and Hon. James G. Blaine 1 Con;mittee to investigate Southern outrages, Hon. Samuel Shella- barger 14 Violence should be put down, Hon. John Sherman 17 General Amnesty a means of pacification, Hon. John W. Stevenson.. 21 The cause of disorder in the South, Hon. Allen G. Thurman ' 24 Southern outrages must cease, Hon. James W. Nye 27 The Southerner honest in his convictions, Hon. Frederick A. Saw- yer 37 Mr. Butler and his friends, Hon. George W. Morgan and Hon. Benjamin F. Butler 42 Aid to poor negroes in the District of Columbia, Hon. Henry Wilson and Hon. Allen G. Thurman 43 President Grant and San Domingo, Hon. Charles Sumner 48 Defense of President Grant, Hon. Frederick T. Frelinghuysen 57 The sword of the Constitution, Hon, George P. Hoar 60 The Southerner desires peace, Hon. Washington C. Whitthome 63 The poverty of the South and its cause, Hon. William D. Kelley 68 This is war, Hon. William D. Kelley 72 The inferiority of the negro, Hon. William D. Kelley 76 Our liberty not indestructible, Hon. Stevenson Archer 80 In defense of North Carolina, Hon. Alfred M. Waddell 83 In defense of the loyal men of the South, Hon. Robert B. Elliott... 87 Enforcement of fourteenth amendment, Hon. Joseph H. Rainey 90 Thei nation must protect her citizens, Hon. Ellis H. Roberts 95 Tennessee invites capital, Hon. John M. Bright 100 An appeal for magnanimity toward the South, Hon. John M. Bright 102 A defense of the carpet-bagger, Hon. George C McKee 104 Grant not a usurper, Hon. Benjamin F. Butler 106 An appeal for moderation, Hon. S. S. Cox 112 The Ku Klux a sham, Hon. W. R. Roberts 114 An appeal for kindness, Hon. James M. Leach 118 A typical scene in the House of Representatives during the excit- ing post-bellum days, Hon. Benjamin F. Butler 120 The Republican party vindicated, Hon. Frederick T. Frelinghuj^sen 132 Let us be magnanimous, Hon. John Edwards 136 Pag-e, No annexation tolerable except northward, Hon. Justin S. Morrill.. 137 The warning's of history, Hon. Justin S. Morrill 139 This country a nation, Hon. Charles Sumner 144 The agricultural department criticised, Hon. William A. Holman 146 The surroundings of the capitol building at Washington, Hon. John F. Farnsworth 149 Duty must be met, Hon. John Scott 150 The people will yet speak, Hon. Fernando Wood 151 Let us try kindness, Hon. John B. Storm 153 Civil strife ever the pretext for the destruction of the liberties of the people, Hon, R. T. W. Duke 155 The fiery ordeal, Hon. W. AV. Vaughan 157 Wo want peace, Hon. P. M. B. Young 160 A Southerner's Idea of a Carpet-Bagg-er, Hon. E. I. Golladay 162 Give ua Amnesty, Hon. E. I. Golladay 164 How have the mighty fallen! Hon. William Williams 166 Democrats cry unconstitutional, Hon. William Williams 168 Life and liberty of the citizen, Hon. C. L. Merriam -171 A picture of slave days, Hon, C. L. Merriam 176 Courtesy Over-Much, Hon. Roscoe Conkling, Hon. Thomas F. Bay- ard, Hon. Frederick T. Prelinghuysen 178 The Republican party the friend of labor, Hon. Joseph R. Hawley.. 181 The friend of the oppressed, Hon. Charles Sumner 183 Amnesty as a matter of g-race, Hon. Henry Wilson 184 The Republican party the enemy of labor, Hon. Lewis D, Campbell 185 Labor in America not oppressed, Hon. John A. Bingham 188 What is treason? Hon. Francis P. Blair, Jr 191 Rhode Island's gift to the Nation, Hon. William Sprague 199 The pantheon of America, Hon. Henry B. Anthony 202 Roger Williams, Hon. Henry B. Anthony 204 An eloquent prayer. Rev. Dr. DeSola 206 The character of the Puritan, Hon. S. S. Cox.., 208 The character of the Puritan, Hon. B. P. Butler 212 A plea for general amnesty, Hon. George Vickers 216 JAMES G. BLAINE. ELOQUENCE AND REPARTEE IN THE AMERICAN CONGRESS. CONTROVERSY BETWEEN HON. WILLIAM D. KELLEY, OF PENNSYLVANIA, HON. HENRY L. DAWES, OF MASSACHUSETTS, HON. BENJAMIN F. BUTLER, OF MASSACHUSETTS, AND HON. JAMES G. BLAINE, OF MAINE. On March 15th, 1871, a resolution was adopted by the House of Representatives calling upon the Speaker to appoint a select com- mittee of thirteen to inquire into the condition of the late insurrec- tionary States so far as regards the execution of the laws and the safety of the lives and property of the citizens of the United States. Qn the following day Mr. Kelley, having been appointed one of the committee, asked leave to be excused from serving on account of ill health. At the same time he called the attention of the House to a circular laid upon the desks of members that morning, in which it was charged that the adoption of the resolution and the appoint- ment of the committee were the result of a combination of the high tariff Republicans with the Democracy, and emphatically denied the assertion in the following language: "In the name of the in- dustrial interests of the country and their Representatives upon the floor, I make this early, earnest and honest protest against these false and unfounded accusations." Mr. Butler then arose and stated that he had made no accusa- tion against Mr. Kelley, closing his few remarks with the satirical question: "Is there any other high tariff gentleman who desires the floor to explain his vote?" 2 ELOQUENCE AND REPARTEE A member having called the attention of Mr. Butler to the fact that the vote on the resolution showed that fifty-eight Republicans voted against the resolution, Mr. Butler said: "I understand all that perfectly, the resolution was sprung upon the House. Many of the warmest opponents of the resolution, southern men as well as other Republicans, voted for it because they saw from the trick that was played upon them that there would be no other legisla- tion except this in favor of the south, and they did not like to vote against it, so that they might not be placed in a seemingly false position at home. But that was not the way in which the eighty- four men who attended the Republican caucus, held the night be- fore, intended or ordered their committee to bring the matter of protection of southern union men before the House." Mr. Dawes then asked Mr. Butler what he meant by the term "trick." ****"! want to know what my colleague means by applying the term "trick" to fifty-eight of his political associates upon this floor who differ with fifty acting upon the same sense of responsibility and the same sense of duty that my colleague acts upon here in this House." Mr. Butler proceeded to state what he meant by "trick," saying: "I mean that when a man stays out of the caucus of the Republican party and that caucus settles a meas- ure, and then he comes in and undertakes to thwart that party by aid of the votes of our opponents whom I expected to vote, by offering a measure that they can support and he gets them to sup- port what a Republican majority cannot do, as these gentlemen did, that I say is a legislative trick, and I say it with a full knowl- edge of my responsibility. If it is not true in the judgment of the country, I shall fail. If it is true, then on the heads of those who did it be the responsibility of the laws of life, liberty and property of our friends, the loyal men of the south, unprotected and uncared for by any aid they receive from Congress when our hands are tied by this trick." After some little discussion between Mr. Dawes and Mr. Butler^ Mr. James A. Peters, of Maine, stated that he offered the resolution for the appointment of the committee. Mr. Butler asked him: "Did you write it?" Mr. Peters then said; "I did not write it. It IN THE AMERICAN CONGRESS. 3 was written by the Speaker of the House, my friend. And the friends of the resolution in the little time which they had went about the House and conferred with the distinguished gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Butler). A great many Republicans thought it a desirable thing as a compromise, a middle ground; that it ought to pass anyhow, even if other legislation was to follow it. It was not sprung upon the House, for all notice was given that could possibly be given to the friends of the resolution. It was shown to the gentleman" (Mr. Butler). In the midst of some controversy between Mr. Butler and Mr. Peters as to what answer Mr. Butler made when shown the resolu- tion and as to the character of the caucus referred to, Mr. Blaine (the Speaker), who had been referred to by Mr. Peters as having written the resolution, came upon the floor, having asked Mr. Wm. A. Wheeler, of New York, to take the chair. The following col- loquy took place: Mr. Blaine: I desire to ask the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Butler) whether he denies me the right to have drawn that resolution? Mr. Butler, of Massachusetts: I have made no assertion on that subject one way or the other. Mr. Blaine: Did not the gentleman distinctly know that I drew it? Mr. Butler, of Massachusetts: No, sir. Mr. Blaine: Did I not take it to the gentleman and read it to hhn? Mr. Butler, of Massachusetts: Yes, sir. Mr. Blaine: Did I not show him the manuscript? Mr. Butler, of Massachusetts: Yes, sir. Mr. Blaine: In my own handwriting? Mr. Butler, of Massachusetts: No, sir. Mr. Blaine: And at his suggestion I added these words, "and the expenses of said committee shall be paid from the contingent fund of the House of Representatives," (applause); and the fact that ways and means were wanted to pay the expenses was the only objection he made to it. 4 ELOQUENCE AND REPARTEE Ml. Sutler, of Massachusetts: What was the answer the gen- tleman made? I suppose I may ask that, now that the Speaker has come upon the floor. Mr. Blaine: The answer was that I immediately wrote the amendment providing for the payment of the expenses of the com- mittee. Mr. Butler, of Massachusetts: What was my answer? Was it not that under no circumstances would I have anything to do with it, being bound by the action of the caucus? Mr. Blaine: No, sir; the answer was that under no circum- stances would you serve as chairman. Mr. Butler, of Massachusetts: Or have anything to do with the resolution. Mr. Blaine: There are two hundred and twenty-four members of the House of Representatives. A committee of thirteen can be found without the gentleman from Massachusetts being on it. His service is not essential to the constitution of the committee. Mr. Butler, of Massachusetts: Why did you not find such a committee, then? Mr. Blaine: Because I knew very well that if I omitted the appointment of the gentleman it would be heralded throughout the length and breadth of the country by the claquers who have so in- dustriously distributed this letter this morning, that the Speaker had packed the committee, as the gentleman said he would, with 'weak-kneed Republicans," who would not go into an investiga- tion vigorously, as he would. That was the reason. (Applause). So that the chair laid the responsibility upon the gentleman of de- clining the appointment. Mr. Butler, of Massachusetts: I knew that was the trick of the chair. Mr. Blaine: Ah, the "trick!" We now know what the gentle- man meant by the word "trick." I am very glad to know that the "trick" was successful. Mr. Butler, of Massachusetts: No doubt. Mr. Blaine: It is this "trick" which places the gentleman from Massachusetts on his responsibility before the country. IN THE AMEKICAN CONGRESS. 5 Mr. Butler, of Massachusetts: Exactly. Mr. Blaine: Wholly. Mr. Butler, of Massachusetts: Wholly. Mr. Blaine: Now, sir, the gentleman from Massachusetts talks about the coercion by which fifty-eight Republicans were made to vote for the resolution. I do not know what any one of them may have to say; but if there be here to-day a single gentleman who has given to the gentleman from Massachusetts the intimation that he felt coerced, that he was in any way restrained from free action, let him get up now and speak, or "forever after hold his peace." Mr. Butler, of Massachusetts: Oh, yes. Mr. Blaine: The gentleman from Massachusetts says in his letter: "Having been appointed against my wishes, expressed both publicly and privatel}^, by the Speaker as chairman of a com- mittee to investigate the state of affairs in the south, ordered to-day by Democratic votes, against the most earnest protest of more than two-thirds majority of the Republicans of the House." Mr. Butler, of Massachusetts: Yes, sir. Mr. Blaine: This statement is so bald and groundless that I do not know what reply to make to it. It is made in the face of the fact that on' the roll-call fifty-eight Republicans voted for the reso- lution, and forty-nine besides the gentleman from Massachusetts against it. I deny that the gentleman has the right to speak for any member who voted for it, unless it may be the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Maynard), who voted for it for the purpose prob- ably of moving a reconsideration — a very common, a very justifiable and proper course whenever any gentleman chooses to adopt it. I am not criticising it at all. But if there be any one of the fifty- eight gentlemen who voted for the resolution under coercion, I would like the gentleman from Massachusetts to designate Uim. Mr. Butler, of Massachusetts: I am not here to retail private conversations. Mr. Blaine: Oh, no; but you will distribute throughout the entire country unfounded calumnies, purporting to rest upon asser- tions made in private conversations, which, when called for, cannot be verified. 6 ELOQUENCE AND REPARTEE Mr. Butler, of Massachusetts: Pardon me, sir. I said there was a caucus Mr. Blaine: I hope God will pardon you; but you ought not to ask me to do it! (Laughter.) Mr. Butler, of Massachusetts: I will ask God, and not you. Mr. Blaine: I am glad the gentleman will. Mr. Butler, of Massachusetts: I have no favors to ask of the devil. And let me say that the caucus agreed upon a definite mode of action. Mr. Blaine: The caucus! Now, let me say here and now that the chairman of that caucus, sitting on my right, "a chevalier" in legislation, "sans peur et sans reproche," the gentleman from Michigan, (Mr. Blair), stated, as a man of honor, as he is, that he was bound to say officially from the chair that it was not considered and could not be considered binding upon gentlemen. And more than that. Talk about tricks! Why, the very infamy of political trickery never compassed a design so foolish and so wicked as to bring together a caucus and attempt to pledge them to the support of measures wliich might violate not only the political principles, but the religious faith of men — to the support of a bill drawn by the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Butler) which might violate the conscientious scruples of men. And yet, forsooth, he comes in here and declares that whatever a caucus may determine upon, how- ever hastily, however crudely, however wrongfully, you must sup- port it! Why, even in the worst days of the Democracy, when the gentleman himself was in the front rank of the worst wing of it, when was it ever attempted to say that a majority of a party caucus could bind men upon measures that involved questions of constitu- tional law, of personal honor, of religious scruple? The gentleman asked what would have been done — he asked my colleague (Mr. Peters) what would have been done in the case of members of a party voting against the caucus nominee for Speaker. I understood that was intended as a thrust at myself. Caucus nom- inations of officers have always been held as binding. But just here let me say that if a minority did not vote against the decision of the caucus that nominated me for Speaker, in my judgment, it was IN THE AMERICAN CONGRESS. 7 not the fault of the gentleman from Massachusetts. (Applause.) If the requisite number could have been found to have gone over to the despised Nazarenes on the opposite side, that gentleman would have led them as gallantly as he did the forces in the Charleston convention. (Renewed applause and laughter.) Mr. Butler, of Massachusetts: Mr. Speaker Mr. Blaine: I have the floor. I do not very often ask it. Mr. Butler, of Massachusetts: Let not your conscience accuse you. Mr. Blaine: Mr. Speaker, in old times it was the ordinary habit of the Speaker of the House of Representatives to take part in debate. The custom has fallen into disuse. For one, I am very glad that it has. For one, I approve of the conclusion that forbids it. The Speaker should, with consistent fidelity to his own party, be the impartial administrator of the rules of the House, and a con- stant participation in the discussions of members would take from him that appearance of impartiality which it is so important to maintain in the rulings of the chair. But at the same time I despise and denounce the insolence of the gentleman from Massachusetts when he attempts to say that the Representative from the third district of the State of Maine has no right to frame a resolution; has no right to seek that under the rules that resolution shall be adopted; has no right to ask the judgment of the House upon that resolution. Why, even the insolence of that gentleman himself never reached that sublime height before. (Applause.) And that is the whole extent of my offending, that I wrote a resolution; that I took it to various gentlemen on this side of the House; that I said to the gentlemen on the other side of the House: "This is a resolution on which you cannot afford to filibuster; it is a resolution demanding a fair, impartial investigation, and under the rules I desire that this resolution may be ofifered, and my col- league (Mr. Peters) will offer it." And then the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Butler) telegraphs, he knows to how many papers through the whole United States, for doubtless his letter will be found in extenso wherever he could get it inserted in this morn- ing's journals, that this was "a legislative trick." 8 eijOQuence and repartee Mr. Butler, of Massachusetts: And I repeat it now, Mr. Blaine: There are certain repetitions which do not amount to slander; and the gentleman may repeat everything in that con- nection, as his colleague (Mr. Dawes) very well says, "except the truth." Mr. Butler, of Massachusetts, (in his seat): I did not hear my colleague say that. Mr. Blaine: The gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Butler), in his remarkable letter, uses this language: "Because the very resolution which authorized the committee was so framed, and, in my belief, purposely, in the interests of ths Democratic party, that such committee cannot report, under the rules of the House, in the face of the Democratic opposition, and, by their permission, in more than a year from this time, the usual power not being inserted in it to report at any time." The gentleman from Massachusetts is a very astute lawyer; but it has fallen under my observation that he is extremely ignorant of the rules of this House. Had the resolution contained those words it would have been tantamount to suspending the rules, and one objection would have prevented its coming in. What does the res- olution say? That that committee shall be appointed with power to report in December; report from the meeting of Congress during the entire month of December shall be in order at any time the committee may wish to make report. Eight and a half months intervene between now and December for the committee's labors, and they have one full month, with the privilege to report at any time; and yet the gentleman says the res- olution was purposely so framed as to exclude the committee from the power to report at all. It was purposely framed to be carried over the gentleman's point of order. It was to avoid that point of order I omitted those words, presuming that if the committee got through their labors at the end of nine months one whole month at the beginning of the session would be ample in which to make their report. I am admonished by the gentlemen around me of a fact, with which I am myself familiar, that the power to report at any time IN THE AMERICAN CONGRESS. 9 does not always carry with it the exercise of that power. The gen- tleman himself has been chairman during the entire Congress of a committee empowered to report at any time on this very identical subject, and on other subjects committed to it; and the members of that committee will say whether the gentleman always exercised his lull power under the rules, and whether, if the power to report at any time had been given to that gentleman, as chairman of this committee, and he had accepted the appointment, he might not have construed it as he has construed it for nearly two years on the re- construction committee, to be the power to report at no time? Now, Mr. Speaker, nobody regrets more sincerely than I do any occurrence which calls me to take the floor. On questions of pro- priety I appeal to members on both sides of the House, and they will bear me witness, that the circulation of this letter in the morn- ing prints* its distribution throughout the land by telegraph, the laying it upon the desks of members, was intended to be by the gentleman from Massachusetts, not openly and boldly, but covertly — I will not use a stronger phrase — an insult to the Speaker of this House. As such I resent it. I denounce the letter in all its essen- tial statements, and in all its misstatements, and in all its mean inferences and meaner innuendoes. I denounce the letter as groundless, without justification; and the gentleman himself, I trust, will live to see the day when he will be ashamed of having written it. Mr. Butler, of Massachusetts: By the ancient parliamentary law, of which I confess my ignorance, and of which, if full knowl- edge of it leads to such a speech as we have just listened to, I will be glad to remain in ignorance, some one person shall be Speaker of the House, to speak for the House. Does Mr. Speaker now do so? The Speaker has left his place and his gavel for the first time for two Congresses. Was it to speak upon any great measure of finance? Mr. Blaine (the Speaker): I would like to say that the pre- ceding incumbent of the chair, Mr. Colfax, now Vice-President, left the chair to chastise the insolence of the gentleman. 10 ELOQUENCE AND REPARTEE Mr. Butler, of Massachusetts: I am now upon the floor. Dur- ing this or the last Congress for the first time has the Speaker left the chair. Was it to speak upon some great measure of finance, of revenue, of protection to the loyal people of the south, or of recon- struction? Have we heard his clarion voice in behalf of the great measures of the Republican party? No; up to this time he has only been speaking to the House through a wooden gavel-head upon a wooded box. He has now left the chair for the floor. Upon what great and paramount measure? None; solely to attack a fellow member who sat down to write a letter expressing his views of public duty, who was careful to draw his letter so as not in any way to touch the Speaker of the House, but purely and con- cisely to state the naked facts of his action without a word of com- ment or innuendo, if for no other reason, because he was aware of the consequences to a humble member of a quarrel or any unfriend- liness with the Speaker of the House. He had been made painfully aware of it in the last Congress and in this; and he knew the risk that he ran if he roused that anger. He knew the man, and he felt that, in the parody of language of another — For ways that are dark And tricks that are vain, X I name Speaker And that I dare maintain. I felt all that, I knew all that, and therefore I was scrupulous not to use a word in my letter that was unparliamentary or could give just cause of ofifense. I was aware of the new-fledged hopes of the highest place in the future of the Speaker, arising from the quarrel which has been unfortunately forced upon the Republican party at the other end of the Capitol, of which he is waiting to take advantage. I knew all that; and therefore I was careful to say no word. I did not say that the Speaker wrote the resolution; I did not know that he did; but I knew he suggested it. I appeal to the Speaker's fairness — no, I cannot appeal to that. I will state what I said when he came to my seat yesterday and showed me the resolu- tion and asked me to go for it, and said I should be chairman of the committee under it. I said: "I will be damned if I will. IN THE AMERICAN CONGRESS. 11 (Great laughter.) I will have nothing to do with it." I am sorry to be obliged to use the word here— and apologize for it — but when asked to betray my associates with whom I had voted in caucus it seemed a very good one to meet the exigency. (Laughter.) . That was my answer; and when he read the clause containing an appro- priation, even I, with my ignorance of the rules, as he claims, told him how, if it was determined to put the resolution through, it would escape an objection to it to be differently worded. I did this because I believe that he suggested to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Cox) to make the point of order against the bill of the majority of the House, which carried it over under the Speaker's ruling. Mr. Cox: Mr. Speaker, that is not true. Mr. Butler, of Massachusetts: I did not say that it was true. I said I believed it at the time (laughter); and I believed it for the reason that I saw the Speaker go over there on the Democratic side of the House getting Democrats to agree to support his reso- lution after he had shown it to me — for he did me the favor to show it to me first. Then I saw him, the owner of the rich coalfields as he is, attempting to get Democrats to agree Mr. Blaine: I was in favor of the repeal of the coal tariff and the gentleman was not. Mr. Butler, of Massachusetts: Oh; I say again: For ways that are dark And tricks that are vain, I will name Speaker , And that I rise to explain. (Laughter.) Now, sir, I say again that when I saw him engaged in that con- dition of things, and saw the Speaker colloquying with the Demo- crats, I knew very well what was to come. I knew that any point of order I could raise under a resolution he had contrived would be unavailing; and I saw his resolution, substituted for the bill of the majority of the Republican party, forced through by influence on the floor and by the Speaker's gavel at his desk by aid of Demo- cratic votes. I see gentlemen here, both from the north and south, who have told me that they were put in a very delicate position by 12 ELOQUENCE AND REPARTEE this action of the Speaker in league with the opposition. So this resolution to appoint a Republican committee was passed. Now, nobody deprecates this unhappy scene on this floor more than I do. I felt that if I came into this House and undertook to make a statement of the reasons why I could not serve upon a com- mittee I should be accused of having brought personal matters into the House of Representatives, and therefore I exercised my right as a citizen to address a public letter in the public newspapers, and in pamphlet form, to my Republican associates in explanation of my position. I had a right so to do, and I had hoped that if anybody had anything to say in reply to what I had said, instead of forcing upon me a quarrel in this House, to the disgrace and dis- ruption of the Republican party, they would take the same channel of communication to the public that I had, which was open to them, especially as one of those who have arraigned me belonged to the press gang. (Laughter.) I replied to my friend from Pennsyl- vania (Mr. Kelley), using temperate and parliamentary language only. Mr. Kelley: I beg leave to interrupt the gentleman for one moment. I spoke not only for myself, but for the great body of protectionists in this House, who were wronged by the statement of the gentleman, as the vote will show. Mr. Butler, of Massachusetts: Very well; I only hope that I have done these gentlemen wrong, because I thought that if they wanted to put before us salt and coal and iron, instead of drawing out the iron that is entering into the souls of our friends at the south, they were exceedingly wrong. I missed these gentlemen from the caucus. I have been told since that in the case of some of them it was because they were afraid that the tariff might be inter- fered with if Congress remained here, and therefore were anxious to adjourn. But all this abuse of me, this getting exceedingly wrathy by the Speaker against me, does no harm, and will not frighten anybody. It will not hurt anybody. The calling of hard names will do no harm to me here or in the country. IN THE AMERICAN CONGRESS. 13 If I could have been killed by being called hard names I should have died long, long ago. (Laughter.) I have withstood the rough side of a rougher tongue than the one just wagged at me. I have seen abuse with more ingenuity, but not more malignity, launched at me. And I have survived, and shall survive long after the Speaker has filled the presidential chair; very long. Now, sir, I do not want to continue longer this disgraceful scene. I admit its disgrace to the House of Representatives; I admit its disgrace to everybody concerned in it, however unwill- ingly. But I call gentlemen now here to witness, lest it shall be said that I commenced this series of hard words here, that no un- parliamentary word was spoken by me until accused of "insolence," and every form of vituperation was launched at me. There is one thing more I wish to state. I have been accused of not reporting, "at any time," as chairman of the select Committee on Reconstruction. I did report this bill, as chairman of the select Committee of Reconstruction; and the Speaker of the House being against it, while it was being read at the Clerk's desk, made a rul- ing which allowed Mr. Wood, of New York, to introduce a joint resolution for the repeal of the duty on coal, thereby stopping the reading of the bill, which could have come up again — a ruling never before made in this House, and I trust never to be made again. Mr. Blaine (the Speaker): Will the gentleman state the rule? Mr. Butler, of Massachusetts: Yes; a ruling that while the bill was being read anybody might interrupt that reading by a motion to suspend the rules. Mr. Blaine (the Speaker): The gentleman certainly does not want a serious answer. The very principia of suspending the rules allow it to be done when no gentleman is occupying the floor. Mr. Butler, of Massachusetts: A gentleman by the name of "The Clerk," after the bill was reported by a committee of this House, was occupying the floor, by reading the bill at that time; and the very best kind of occupancy of the floor, too, for the House at least had a right to hear what the bill was before he was taken from the floor. I do not care whether I am right or wrong upon 14 ELOQUENCE AND REPARTEE the ruling. I admit my ignorance of parliamentary law; and I thank God I know no more about it than I do, because I see how it affects a man's mind who has made it a study. (Great Laughter.) But I do think if the Speaker had been half as anxious for the passage of this bill to protect the people of the south as he was for some land-grant measures passed from the Speaker's table at the last session, it would have become a law long ere this. Mr. Blaine (the Speaker) : Will the gentleman specify what? Mr. Butler, of Massachusetts: Oh, pretty much all of them. Mr. Blaine (the Speaker) : I do not think it worth while to say anything more; that is simply and only a gratuitous calumny. In this controversy the brilliant powers of repartee, for which Mr. Blaine and Mr. Butler were famous, are well shown. SAMUEL SHELLBARGER, OF OHIO. (In the House of Representatives March i6th, 1871, on the occa- sion of his having been appointed one of the committee of thirteen to investigate southern outrages.) Mr. Speaker, I have not sought the floor for the purpose of prolonging this discussion. The Speaker has thought it proper, in the exercise of that power which he has exercised so wisely and so much to the gratification of every part of the country, to place me upon the committee of tjhirteen, which was constituted by the House yesterday. And it is only, sir, because I am there by your appointment that I desire to make a statement bearing on the mat- ter of the discharge of the duties to which I am consigned by that appointment. You have in that appointment consigned thirteen gentlemen of this House to duties, the right discharge of which, in my solemn judgment, next after the enactment of some just legisla- tion demanded right now for the safety of the Republic, take rank second. Why, sir, this country now has a spectacle before it which never, in time of peace, was seen before in the history of civilized States. IN THE AMERICAN CONGRESS. 15 I challenge those who know most about what we were taught by that "reverend chronicler of the grave," to answer me, when before? In a time of what is called, with a strange charity, "profound peace," murder— unnatural, contrived, organized, banded by trea- sonous oaths, political murder; murder by wholesale, murder by day and in night time, murder of men, and of women, and of chil- dren; murder accompanied with its frightful train of whippings and burnings and robberies; murders arranged and adjusted upon a scale proportioned with nice design to the attainment of the set pur- poses of its leagued authors, to wit: The overthrow of the liberties of those emancipated and protected by the new amendments to the Constitution — stalks, almost unchallenged, through the half of the Republic. This fact is already proved by such evidences as ought to make it indisputable. Why, sir, a few months ago I went out of that the most beau- tiful, but that most profligate city of the globe, the queen of beauty just fallen, and as I went across the Seine I saw the people of Paris thronging up every street and boulevard, pressing to the "dead- house." There seemed to be thousands in intense agony of excite- ment, and I marveled what it meant. It was all because one French citizen, a woman, and her family had been foully murdered. The event startled the whole French people; and this a city, a na- tion, inured to the blood of revolutions and of war, as almost no other people is. And, sir, throughout that empire, and that conti- nent, too, for months it rang that a whole family in France had been secretly murdered, and there was no portion of that empire's soil which was left unvexed until justice discovered and punished the perpetrator. And that, sir, was France — bloody, turbulent, revolutionary France — but that France when she was, where we now deem ourselves to be, in "profound peace." Mr. Speaker, the reason why I say the duties to which I have been appointed upon this committee are of so transcendent import- ance is because our country is in that condition of disorder, of in- cipient — I was going to use that hateful word, which I hoped in 16 ELOQUENCE AND REPARTEE such connections never to use again, rebellion — that we are de- manded by the very highest duties of American Representatives to undertake the work to which we are consigned by this resolution of yesterday. In the recent report made from the other end of your Capitol by a minority of a committee, the stupendous and ghastly fact which I assert, and which so asserts itself in this "dance of death" to which I have alluded, is denied, and is denied by the other side of this House and by a powerful party in this country. It is denied that this state of mischief exists or that this coming mischief impends. This being denied, that ought to be done which the reso- lution proposes shall be done, so that there shall be no doubt left, if indeed honest doubt can now exist. But, sir, it is because it is thus made eminently right that the investigations of matters so huge in moment as these be made so complete, the nation's knowl- edge of the inexpressible guilt and of the appalling danger be com- plete, that 1 voted that it should be made; and if men want better reasons than that, I have no better to give, though I have many others to give. Wisely, sir, and well, if your convictions were like mine; wisely and well might you exercise the rights and perform the duties of the Representative of the third district of Maine in indicting a reso- lution inviting us to so important a search as this for facts like these. But I had, as I said, additional reasons, but none other so overwhelmingly commanding as this, for voting for that resolution, which you drew and we adopted, which reason I will now state in the language of another — language already become celebrated, though just telegraphed to the country and also laid upon our tables. That reason is expressed in these words, stated, I fear, too strongly, yet stated, I hope, with at least a modicum of truth, that — "Whenever and wherever the committee would go there would be sunshine and peace, and we would be compelled so to report." And if the constitution and investigations of this committee shall do what the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Butler) . here says it will— nay, not so much as that, but only save one American life and stop one butchery— God knows I would vote for it from now until the crack of doom. wr JOHN SHERMAN. IN THE AMERICAN CONGRESS. 17 Now, sir, it seems to me that these two reasons more than justi- fied, that they demanded, if your convictions were like mine, that you should have written the resolution. Another thing I wish to say, and then I close. I say it to my fellow Republicans. We are men, I trust, not made of brittle stuff. If we are, we are not fit to be the Representatives of that great party whose name we bear. VIOLENCE SHOULD BE PUT DOWN. EXTRACTS FROM AN ADDRESS OF HON. JOHN SHER- MAN, OF OHIO. There was before the Senate March i8th, 1871, a resolution to the following effect: That the Senate will consider at the present session no other legislative business than the deficiency bill, the con- current resolution for a joint committee to investigate into the con- dition of the States lately in insurrection, and the resolution pending instructing the committee on the judiciary to report a bill or bills that will enable the President and the courts of the United States to execute the laws in said States. I call the attention of those gentlemen who have examined the subject to the fact that there is no case where any crime or offense has been committed upon Democrats by this political organization Ku Klux Klan, that I know of. All have been upon one political party. Thus in the south, where the Republican party is mainly composed of a comparatively few white men and the great mass of the colored emancipated population, the white men are to be ter- rorized and the negroes are to be scourged and lashed and slaugh- tered. This cannot go on much longer. I tell you, gentlemen, that if this thing goes on, although the black race is the most humble and obedient that ever trod this earth of ours, as sure as fate retali- ation will come with fearful force. Even the worm would rise 18 ELOQUENCE AND REPARTEE under such persecution. Why, sir, in England they tried to put down the humble and lower classes there in two or three revolu- tions, but it always reacted. And these scourges and outrages can- not continue much longer before they will produce their inevitable result. Then what? Do you desire a war between the white and the black race, and burning of barns and houses, murder and deso- lation ? Up to this hour I can say that there is no case brought to my attention where this organization has committed outrages on any Democrat, If there is, I do hope Senators will palliate this state- ment by showing that this same kind of outrage has been turned against Democrats as well as Republicans. It is the worst feature of this thing that it is partisan and political, that it arrays one party against another. The only distinction between our civilization and the Mexican republic is that here when the majority decide the minority defers, and we all stand upon the old flag. But when you can have one party burning and robbing, slaughtering and murder- ing, it will not be long before the other party, whether the majority or the minority, will resort to the same tactics. It is one of the fearful elements and dangers which always surround a republican government. Whenever there is a refusal to obey the laws made by the majority in due form, and whenever popular opinion in any cornmunity can override the laws, then there is no longer a republi- can government; it is anarchy first, and despotism afterward. Mr. President, there is another remarkable feature of this whole proceeding, and that is that from the beginning to the end in all this extent of territory no man has ever been convicted or punished for any of these offenses, not one. The only claimed exception, and that is pointed out by the minority report, is where three or four negroes undertook to disguise themselves as Ku Klux, went around murdering and robbing other black people; but they were not genuine Ku Klux. They were arrested by the authorities, tried and sent to the penitentiary, and are there now. But, sir, in all this numerous array of crime there is not one man called to an account for murder, robbery, scourging, whipping. Why, sir, it is an appalling fact. In regard to Texas, the matter IN THE AMERICAN CONGRESS. IQ" was discussed here some time ago; and now from Texas to North Carolina how many crimes have been committed by this Ku Klux Klan? And yet here is the testimony of a judge in Kentucky that the grand juries refuse to indict and the petit juries refuse to con- vict, and there is no punishment for this lawless outrage upon human society. * * * * * * * * ^ -^ Now, sir, here is the testimony of several of the judges of the highest courts of North Carolina and the testimony of one of these conspirators themselves, that it was impossible to convict them; and I say this day that as against these roaming bands of Ku Klux the law in North Carolina is a dead letter. They may go in peace and quiet, commit their outrages upon the poor, the humble, the feeble, in that State, and need not fear danger, punishment or disgrace. That is the condition of society there. And, sir, what is that? It is the worst form of civil war. What is civil war? It is where a party rises in the State with sufficient power to resist the authorities. That is the meaning of civil war, and I say in North Carolina now there is an organized band, a disguised and confed- erated band, with sufficient power to not only disregard the laws and to commit crime with impunity, but no one of them can or will be punished. *********** Why, Mr. President, with such an eulogium on that race, with such a proud and haughty boast of the domineering supremacy of the white race, and of the obedience and fidelity of these poor slaves, how is it that these people can find it in their hearts to rob and scourge and murder them? If it was any other race of men that they were dealing with they would find the tables turned quicker than lightning. I say, therefore, it is not exactly fair to sneer at these witnesses, whether negroes or office-holders. >********** I have merely answered these matters thrown into this case, and which I do not think have any more bearing on it than Tammany Hall politics or Erie Railroad corporations. We come back after all to the bald, naked fact that here is an organized, disguised. 20 ELOQUENCE AND REPARTEE armed band of desperate and lawless men riding by day and night over large parts of North Carolina, destroying liberty, law and all safety of person and property. This is a glaring fact, and all that this resolution does is to allege in brief terms this fact, and refer the matter to the Committee on Judiciary to ponder and devise a remedy. I must confess that I do not myself, in the hurried mo- ments that I am allowed to look into this question, see a remedy in the law. I have no doubt a careful comparison of views and study of this subject and a fuller examination of the facts in all the other States, showing how far this organization extends, will bring out some solution. I only know that if the Judiciary Committee and this Congress can find no solution, law and liberty are dead, and this government of ours may as well be written upon the scroll of Time, its record completed. If in large proportions of the south- ern States this lawless violence can go on, then the people of the United States have not a government strong enough to carry out the only object of government, which is liberty, safety and law. And, sir, if my honorable friend from Missouri, who seems to think that the organization of the present government in North Carolina rather furnishes an excuse for these things, makes that allegation, let me ask him what excuse he can find for these same acts of vio- lence in his native State, Kentucky? In Kentucky there is a Democratic government, a Democratic Legislature; and the Louisville Courier-Journal says that appeals have been made to the Legislature to put down these things, and they have refused or neglected to do it. These gentlemen complain that the people of North Carolina seem to be too eager to get rail- roads, and they wanted railroads, and the bonds issued by the State in aid of railroads have been squandered or misapplied. Well, in Kentucky they have the same lawless violence that cannot be pun- ished, and not only will they not build railroads there, but they will not allow the City of Cincinnati to build a railroad through the State of Kentucky, when she offers to put $10,000,000 into it and to build it without any expense to that State. ********** IN TELE AMERICAN CONGRESS. 21 Now, Mr. President, I have gone over this matter cursorily, and I propose to leave it here. I have no desire to thrust myself into a political discussion, although this question does necessarily con- nect itself somewhat with political topics. My own conviction is that, but for the political organization to which I belong and the power it holds by virtue of the popular will, the negroes in the south would soon be reduced to very much the condition they were in before the war, and no loyal man could live in safety in the south. I am willing to hear this subject discussed and to fairly consider any proposition the Judiciary Committee can make, and I will not prejudice their conclusions in advance. But I say this Senate ought not to adjourn without recording its conclusion upon the testimony now laid upon their tables. There it is. More testimony may be required for a broader view; and yet, while this testimony is here we ought not to separate until WG have done what we can to put down the violence thus disclosed. In the name of civilization, outraged by these crimes; in the name of republican government, disgraced by them; in the name of four millions of negroes, emancipated by our laws; in the name of all the soldiers, living or dead, who fought to preserve your country, I invoke the full exercise of all powers of the government to punish these atrocities, to restore to their old prestige and power the laws of the land and the courts of justice, and to secure to all our citi- zens, white or black, wherever they may be, the protection of life and property. GENERAL AMNESTY A MEANS OF PACIFI- CATION. EXTRACTS FROM AN ADDRESS OF HON. JOHN W. STEVENSON, OF KENTUCKY. (In the United States Senate March i8th, 1871, in opposition to the resolution quoted in the introduction to the address of Mr. Sherman, last given.) 22 ELOQUENCE AND REPARTEE Mr. President, the protection of life, liberty and property is not a partisan question. It is above party. Civil liberty ceases to exist when the citizens of a free republic are not protected in the enjoy- ment of those inalienable rights. No man will go further than I in aiding this government, within its constitutional authority, to in- vestigate anywhere and everywhere these disorders. I was only [ained that a gentleman who has filled so conspicuously for so many years the distinguished positions which the honorable Sena- tor from Ohio has held in this government should, pending a joint resolution for the investigation of all these alleged outrages in order to arrive at the truth as to where they exist, to what extent they exist, should before the adoption of that resolution by both Houses rise in his place in the Senate and undertake, upon mere newspaper rumor, to hurl unfounded anathemas against so many gallant States in this American Union. Would it not have been more consistent to have waited until the joint committee which it is proposed to institute had gone to the south and brought here their report informing us of the extent of these disorders, where they existed, how organized, if so, by whom and for what purpose, and then to base his action upon such infor- mation, rather than make an inflammatory appeal upon ex parte testimony, which could have and can have no other result than to inflame the passions and the partisan prejudices of the people, when the great interests of the entire country require peace? Sir, does the gentleman feel, after his speech, with his hand upon his heart and his eye upon his God, that he is fit to sit as an impartial judge upon such a report with the preconceived prejudice against the southern States which his speech shows has already entered his bosom?* Sir, I have no such feeling. On the contrary, I pledge myself to go as far as the farthest in any constitutional investiga- tion for ascertaining the truth of the existence of these alleged disorders. The people whom I represent will shrink from, no such inquiry. I should spurn myself and the noble commonwealth, which in part I humbly represent on this floor, would spurn me if I could so far forget the duty I owe the whole country as to allow, on a question like this, mere party obligations to bind me. I am a IN THE AMERICAN CONGRESS. 23 party man, and I rejoice that I belong to one which has ever been the party of the Constitution and the Union. It is a party of law and order, one which has never sought to cover up or defend vio- lence or disorder. ********** Mark my words; take them down. I repeat that whenever that case is investigated by a grand jury it may turn out that this wrong- doer is a Republican, and not a Democrat. I do not say that there are not bad Democrats, and I am sure that you would not say that there are not bad Republicans; but what I do say is, let us on both sides of this chamber join hands and frown down any viola- tion of law or any injustice that threatens the rights of the people anywhere; but let us not make political capital of it; do not let us go off on newspaper reports and attempt to fan a flame of indigna- tion against a gallant people, who, though unfortunate in war, laid down their arms with no spot on their honor, and are now vainly seeking to prove their loyalty to a Constitution which they vainly, under mistaken hopes, attempted to overthrow. Oh, rather let us take them by the hand and encourage the bold, gallant men who publicly denounced these outrages; let us show our generosity by a general amnesty, at least by an amnesty that will encourage them and get their effective agency with their power over the misguided young men who came from the war broken-hearted and poor; let us get the moral influence of their leaders to bring them back, and again we shall have peace; nay, more, we shall have a cordon of true hearts, all bent on developing the prosperity and the greatness and the grandeur of this Republic upon the foundation-stones where its founders placed it, the reserved rights of the States intact, with a ready acquiescence in all the powers necessary to the Fed- eral Government in the execution of its rights. I am quite sure that the proposed investigation in the southern States will remove the aspersions of violence attempted to be cast and now paraded for party ends. General amnesty and a restoration of political rights to all will prove the most efficacious remedy for all disorders and all attempted violence. 24 ELOQUENCE AND REPARTEE THE CAUSE OF DISORDER IN THE SOUTH. EXTRACTS FROM AN ADDRESS OF HON. ALLEN G. THURMAN. OF OHIO. (In the Senate of the United States March 20th, 1871, during the debate growing out of the resolution for a joint committee to investigate southern disorders.) But again, sir, the Senator from Indiana says that my opposi- tion to this publication admits that if these offenses are committed there, the disclosure of the fact will injure the Democratic party. Why, what a remark was that! What a fair statement was that! Injure the Democratic party? No, sir; the Democratic party has been a party of law and order from its foundation. If it has any fanaticism at all it is a fanatical love of the Constitution and the institutions of the country. If it has ever stopped in the path of progress it is because there lay across that path the Constitution of the Republic. The Democratic party in favor of violence, for- sooth! Cannot the Senator recollect when the streets of Baltimore ran red with blood shed by Know-Nothing myrmidons-^the blood of Democrats? Cannot he recollect when houses devoted to reli- gion were given to the flames and women turned out in the cold hours of midnight because they belonged to a particular faith? Cannot he recollect the scenes of Louisville and of New Orleans? And will he tell me that this party to which I belong, and which has suflfered more from violence than any party that ever existed in ttie country, is not a party of law and of order? No, sir; it will not do. But these outrages thus committed are but drops in the bucket ompared to organized outrage in the name of law, compared to •rganized outrage where the military force of the government puts its heel, or attempts to put its heel, upon the free election of what is called, by courtesy, I suppose, a free country. Again, sir, let us leave these exciting topics and come down to see the matter really before us. I may have been seduced into IN THE AMERICAN CONGRESS. 25 speaking more at large on the subject, because paulo majora cane- mus; we are very apt to be seduced into speaking about that which is greater instead of that which is less. ** ******** No, sir, you must go deeper than that. The causes that lie at the foundation of these difficulties are patent to any man who has even a superficial knowledge of history. They are patent to any man who will reflect for a moment. There never was a great civil war yet that did not, as a consequence of it, entail upon the country in which it occurred the presence of banditti. My colleague said the other day that nothing he had ever read in history was comparable to the outrages that were now being perpetrated in the South. That was the substance of his remark. I know my colleague is a learned man; but he must have a frail memory indeed, or it has been a long time since he read history, if that is his conclusion. Does he remember the state of Italy after the end of the great civil war there? Does he remember that from one end of that peninsula to the other the whole country was full of banditti? Does he remember the state of France when Napoleon 1. was elected first consul, when it was reported to him, and reported upon reliable authority, that there were not less than forty thousand banditti in France at that time living by violence, living by plunder, and committing murder with impunity? Why, sir, it cannot be otherwise, and the most astonishing thing to the Am^erican people is this: that there has been so little outrage, that there have bec^: so few banditti, after such a great civil war as we have gone rL agh. I shall never cease to admire the American people when I think that millions of men who have been in arms, when the war closed quietly laid down their arms and resumed the occupations of peace. In the town in which I lived I saw fifty thousand of them honorably discharged from the public service; and I say it, and say it with a proud boast for my State — that though they were there in that city for days, though they were discharged and as free as I was to go where they pleased, they molested no man, they committed no act of violence, but peaceably departed to their homes. And he who 26 ELOQUENCE AND REPARTEE has reflected upon it for a moment must see that, never perhaps since the world existed, was so great an example set of the virtue, the moderation, and the intelligence of a people as was displayed by the American people when the great armies on both sides were disbanded and sent to their homes. Why, sir, these outrages were not committed then. But there has been more crime at the North since the war than there ever was before, and more crime at the South. That could not be avoided. It was inevitable. Then there are other circumstances that must produce disorder. The people at the South had fought for a cause that they religiously l)elieved in, as much as we believed in the cause for which our side fought. They were conquered, subdued, humiliated. But then they believed that the war had been carried on, as we declared that it should be, to preserve the Constitution and restore the Union, and they expected that that pledge would be faithfully fylfilled. Instead of fulfilling it you put them down under martial law, you abolished their State Constitutions, you compelled them at the point of the bayonet to adopt other Constitutions, you set their lately freed slaves above them, and gave the control of State after State to the most ignorant, the least informed and the least interested portion of the community. In this very State of North Carolina I think it appears that the colored voters are eighty thousand. The vote for the Republican ticket at the last election was eighty-three thousand and some hundreds, and the vote for the other ticket was nearly eighty-eight thousand. It clearly appears that there is scarcely a colored man in the whole State who did not vote the Republican ticket. Now, what a spectacle is that! There is a State in which but three thousand white men can be found to join the Republican party; and who are they? Where do they come from? Where were they born? What spirit of adventure took them to North Carolina? Who are these three thousand white men who, with eighty thousand negroes, have ruled that old common- wealth that used to be called the firm Old North State, the very exemplification of order? In the old State, that always would vote the Whig ticket, no -matter though all the rest of the South voted the Democratic ticket, IN THE AMERICAN CONGRESS. 27 that pattern of order and law, that Quaker State of the South, but three thousand white men can be found to vote the Radical ticket; and the denomination of that party for years and years, the plunder of the State, the ruin of her prosperity has been the result of a combination of three thousand adventurers with eighty thousand negroes; and yet the people are expected to be as mild and as placid and as gentle as so many turtle doves! Oh, no, Mr. Presi- dent, it will not do. But if we are to have an investigation let us have it. And when •we do go into this investigation, and when it comes to be consid- ered by the Senate, I beg Senators to look once more at history, and to find that by no armed tyranny, by no treading of people under the heel, has order ever been restored, unless it was the order of despotism, the silence of its reign. No, sir; if you want the people of the South to be orderly, give them good government; let them govern themselves according to the nature and spirit of our free institutions; let the intelligence of the country have fair play; let the honesty and economy that everybody will admit existed in those States before the civil war, whatever faults they may have had, once more take place. Let mere adventurers retire to the background or hide themselves in the holes from which they came; let once more the people feel that they have a Constitution that will be enforced, laws that they respect; and once more you will have peace and order there as well as you have anywhere. SOUTHERN OUTRAGES MUST CEASE. EXTRACTS FROM THE ADDRESS OF HON. JAMES W. NYE, OF NEVADA. (In the United States Senate, March 21st, 1871. The subject before the Senate was the appointment of the joint committee for the investigation of southern outrages.). 28 ELOQUENCE AND REPARTEE Now, Mr. President, these are facts. Being facts uncontra- dicted, the question comes up, what shall we do? Some say do nothing. The honorable Senator from Delaware (Mr. Bayard) begged us to be kind to these erring men, and reminded us of the terrible excitement that has been produced by the war, and won- dered, as did the honorable Senator from Ohio this morning, that greater outrages had not been committed. My answer to that way of doing it is that we have tried it for six long years. Sir, scarcely had the sound of the cannon gone from our land, and before the rattling of the drum marshaling the soldiers under arms had died away, a spirit of magnanimity, of forgiveness, of unexampled gen- erosity prevailed throughout this country. Sir, never since the plan of salvation had there been witnessed so sublime a mag- nanimity as was exhibited by the Republican party of this nation toward its offender. There was not a hearthstone but had a vacant place around it, not a home but had a vacant chair, and yet, in a spirit of a full Christian magnanimity, we said, "Father, forgive' them, for they know not what they did." That was the language of the Republican party. We wooed them with all the sweetness of which we were capable; we pointed to the former glory of this nation; we pointed to the scars that had been inflicted on the garments of the Goddess of Liberty, and begged of them, by all the glories of the past and the hopes of a still more glorious future, to return to their allegiance and forget that they had banded together for the destruction of this noble government. But, sir, as deaf as the adder and as blind as the mole, they would not listen; and the spirit that they had exhibited upon the field seemed to grow more malignant in repose. When we attempted here to clothe four millions of people among them with the rights of citizens, we were told what the result would be, and it has been more than realized. The trouble lies throughout that whole country that their education from their earliest infancy toward the negro race can no more be erased or eradicated from them than the spot could be eradicated from the hand of Macbeth's wife. Sir, I .do not understand the philosophy of this reasoning. Most men — wise men at least — take the condition of things as they are; IN THE AMERICAN CONGRESS. 29 and when the law, aye, sir, when the Constitution itself, which they are so fond of quoting, made these men citizens, and entitled to all the rights and privileges and immunities of ourselves, where is the logic of the reasoning that these southerners must be educated to receive and respect it? Sir, it is the Constitution; it is their right, and whatever the education of us individually may have been, we must accept it as a fact. There is not the pretense now that there was in olden times, that the Constitution covered and justified the degradation of the negro. My honored friend on my left (Mr. Sumner) will remember when he was arraigned upon this floor and was told that it was a thing unconstitutional to discuss or agitate the question of slavery. They say they seek repose, and the honorable Senator from Ohio said this morning that they were the party of order and of law. How was it in Kansas? It was unconstitutional for freemen to take possession of that soil, and in a spirit of constitutional resist- ance they reddened the green fields of Kansas with blood! It was not constitutional for freemen to live there, and they burned their dwellings in the night and their families escaped through the wet prairie grass by the lurid flames of their own habitations! It was not constitutional then to invade, as they called it, the territory with freemen. Sir, there will never be anything constitutional in their minds till they get possession of the helm of this government. Sir, if these things are to exist — I care not whether they are political or not — this government is at an end, for whenever the hour arrives that a government cannot protect its citizens, that moment it ceases to be a government that is entitled to respect from anybody. Now, sir, what means shall we take? We have tried law. I am in favor of trying another remedy. I would dig around these men, and see if we cannot enrich them with the principles of republican freedom ere I slew them; though their sins are now so flagrant, I would try them again; and this is called on the part of the opposition here a dominating oppression! Mr. President, I would that these things were not so. It is not only painful to me as an American citizen, but it is painful to me as a man, to see a record made here, to go out to all the world, that JO ELOQUENCE AND REPARTEE our citizens are slaughtered by thousands, and that there is na power in the local or general government to put it down. As a member of this government, I repudiate that doctrine and that saying entirely. There is power to put it down, and if it requires and invokes that power that it took to put down the rebellion, let it be used. Sir, if this government has not power to put it down, I undertake to say, and I venture the assertion to-day that it means war, and war to the knife. How slow were we when they were sending the signals for their gatherings in the South, when the rebellion com- menced, to believe that war was really intended. When we were told that troops were gathering at Richmond we tried to solace ourselves with the reflection that it did not mean war; but that it did mean war is attested by the first crossing of arms at Bull Run. That it did mean war years of history more bloody than any others in the world's recor'ds has attested. Sir, that organization then was not half as complete as now. They have a trained army of hardy veteran soldiers that my friend from Missouri (Mr. Blair) has crossed swords with on many a field. They are there in arms to- day, and there they will lie in arms till the power of this govern- ment is asserted to disarm them and to put them down. These, Mr. President, are unpleasant things to say, but they are jny honest and candid conviction. Underlying all this is the hope of the resurrection of that fearful rebellion which we put down six years ago. We had better talk in plain terms about this. I tell you, sir, the camp fires are lighted in a number of these States, and these men who are now disguised, if the bugle sounds in a foreign war, will be ready to be the allies of the foreign power. And yet we are told by the honorable Senators on the other side that this thing will pass away. It was four years after the surrender of Lee that these organizations were complete, and instead of passing away, they are gathering strength every day we live. We are told that all that has been done is only the slaughter of a few colored men. And my friend from Delaware yesterday pic- tured the youthful faces of the men who had been wronged by Colonel Kirk in North Carolina. He drew a picture so beautiful IN THE AMERICAN CONGRESS. 31 that if Hogarth could have sketched it it would have been his immortal piece. (Laughter.). They were two white boys who- were hanged to make them confess. I think Kirk was wrong in that. I, with my two friends on the committee representing the minority, think he did wrong. But here are ten killed in a night,, and the excuse is that it is the result of the fevered excitement that yet lingers upon the memory of the old rebellion. Sir, there it will linger if not stopped, till enough of the colored race have been slaughtered and driven from their homes to make a majority for the Democracy certain in this nation. Oh, sir, how they longed for the flesh-pots! Like weaning lambs they are rub- bing their ears against defenses between themselves and power, so hungry that they must feed on blood to a triumph. Do not be in a hurry, gentlemen. If you attempt to succeed in this nefarious way, as God reigns you will be beaten worse than you were. Is it so important that the Democracy get power that hecatombs of bones of slaughtered colored men must be seen all around us? In the name of God, what did the Democracy do for us before the war and during it that entitles them to this harvest at such a sacrifice? They sat back as sullen as a sullen mule in harness, and said that they did not think there was going to be much of a shower; and when our soldiers were walking to their arm pits in blood they declared that the restoration of the Union was an object that never could be reached. But with that abiding faith with which a sense of freedom clothes men, we did succeed, but never with the appro- bation of the Democracy as a party. I say nothing as to indi- viduals, and I would that the party could have a lucid interval, as had some of their individual members. This, then, is the plain statement of facts: that at whatever sacrifice, at whatever costs of blood and treasure it may be necessary to expend, power they must have, though they take the freedmen who are yet clothed in their swaddling clothes of freedom, to build a bridge across the chasm between them and power. We shall do well, Mr. President, if we look this question fair in the face. To avert this terrible climax I would apply the cor- rective now. To save our country from another desolating war I 32 ELOQUENCE AND REPARTEE would nip this new rebellion in its infancy. Whether that course be wise or not let the history of the past determine. If Mr. Buchanan had put two men-of-war in the harbor of Charleston when the secession convention met, and told them that he would blow that city to ashes if that convention did not immediately dissolve and go home, the rebellion would have been postponed. But, sir, with that same kind care that the Democracy always seems to have for those who are wrong, they hugged the delusive hope to their bosom that those men would not do much harm. It was that timid policy of Mr. Buchanan's administration that drenched this country in blood. Sir, had old General Jackson been at the helm he would have strangled the monster in its birth; but it was that effeminacy which then pervaded the councils of the nation, calling it by no harsher name, that deluged this country in blood. Sir, what is our duty now? Every principle of manhood and every principle of humanity demand that the power of this govern- ment should stop this indiscriminate and wholesale slaughter. There is not a breeze that comes from the South but what is freighted with the cry of murder. From the western sides of the Mississippi clear around the South every day the papers are filled with wrongs and outrages which curdle the blood of humanity. And yet we are told that all the remedies must be mild, and we must wait until the now apparent or temporary insanity of the South passes away. But, sir, if it must be gorged with more blood, I say stop it now. Mr. President, there is a consideration in this that reaches far above any party view. With parties, my friend from Ohio and myself will soon be done, and it will be a matter of but little im- portance to him or me what party shall succeed. But, sir, there is something in the performance of duty, as another has said far more able than I, that is with us through life, with us in the hour of death, and with us in the day of judgment. Sir, the American Senate sit here to-day with their ears saluted with the cry of murder; and yet as unmoved are the Democracy as though it was the cry of an alleluia. Sir, a sound of the scourger's lash is heard in our ears; and yet we seem to be satisfied if it is not upon our own IN THE AMERICAN CONGRESS. 33 bodies. The muscle twinges and the nerves twinge, as sensitively in a colored man as in myself. Every blow that is struck at a Republican's back or a Democrat's awakens a resounding echo in my heart. We are Senators, guardians of the people's rights, pro- tectors of their liberties, and what protection do we give? The protection that vultures give to the lamb. To-day ten men are murdered; our nerves are momentarily stirred; they settle down with a calm composure till shocked again to-morrow morning with the news of twenty more. Sir, I want to inquire, how voracious is the maw of Democracy? When will it be satisfied with this human suffering, with this human woe? How many more do you demand shall be offered up before we can awake an echo in your hearts to respond to the call of suf' fering humanity? Sir, others may do as they choose, but as for me I will stay here and put forth eVery energy until the most stringent law which the Constitution will permit is made to save my fellow- men from these intolerable sufferings. Some limid men say, "If you legislate, you may injure the Re- publican party." Away with such considerations! If I knew it would doom the Republican party to eternal oblivion, I could never sit here in my seat and hear silently and without action these appeals for protection from the poor, maimed, and scourged victims of this wrong and outrage. Is there anything necessarily in the principles 'of Democracy that should make the heart callous? Is there, I inquire, anything so desirable in power as to lead you to step to it over the bones and mangled bodies of our fellow-citizens? Sir, especially is it right for the Republican Senators here to legislate on this subject. Our hearts have been warmed, I trust, with a little of the glowing genial influences of republican liberty. We have had our triumphs, and they stand recorded by archangels. They are the triumphs of freedom. The lash has given place to persuasion; the school-book has been substituted for flogging; and while now this infant population are struggling in the A B C of -freedom, whose glimpses are but dim compared with ours, where is the Republican upon whose brow is recorded these mighty 34 ELOQUENCE AND REPARTEE achievements, that will hesitate to do what is necessary to per- petuate these glorious victories? Who trembles at this danger? The same God who took us through this fiery ordeal and battle's confusion will stand by us now. I know that the waves of political commotion are rolling moun- tain high; yet on their troubled bosom I cast my frail bark, and I hear, amid the din and confusion, "that still small voice," saying, "be not afraid; it is right." Why do men hesitate, and why do we array party against party while the signals of human distress are around us as thick as the news we receive? We are told that if we act it will be said that the Republican party govern with an iron rod. Aye, sir, that is easily said; but their iron rod has been to give liberty to the slave; their iron rod has been to give protection to the emancipated; their iron rod has been to give protection to all that large portion of southern people who were trodden down under the heel of the old slave- masters. We are told, too, that this is oppressive. Sir, it may be offensive to some, but oppression is a term that cannot be applied to it. Mr. President, it is sometimes said that I am a little too im- pulsive. That, undoubtedly, may be true; but I thank God my impulses all run in that direction. I would rather be condemned for sins of commission than omission. When my fellow's rights are in the scale, write me down then if you please, Mr. President, as one that is over-zealous in the defense of every American citizen. What, sir, has it come to this! An American citizen whipped, and by whom? By the foes that he scattered like chaff before the wind on the field of battle. Has it come to this, that the bones of the dead must be taken from Arlington to give rebels a chance to kick the bones of those they dared not look at when they lived? American citizens whipped, and by whom? By rebel soldiers; by men that this same oppression, as they term it, spread out protec- tion over as a cloud, protecting them in all their rights, till to-day there is scarcely a man marked for having belonged to that re- bellion. IN THE AMERICAN CONGRESS. 35 Sir, will the American Senate long debate this question? Has it come to this, that American citizens are whipped like dogs; whipped by cowards that go under the guise of masks, and whiten themselves like ghosts to do their work of murder; and yet the American Senate sit here quietly and unmoved amid this terrible convulsion and upheaving? Sir, go with me for a moment to the lowly cabin in North Carolina described by that most intelligent though ignorant, colored man; I think his name was Holt. He tells the story in a simple way, but he tells the story truly, and upon his back are the marks of the scourger's lash. He stood in his own house, rallying around that humble place called home; it was the home of his wife, the home of his children, the home of his boyhood, the home of his riper years. He was taken from it in the dead hour of the night by disguised ruffians, disguised cowards, and not only lashed, but shot five times through his person. Go read the lessons from that lowly cabin. His children hid under the loose flooring in his cabin, and his wife with her anxiety was looking upon him as she supposed for the last time. Sir, bottle up all the tears that were found in that lowly cabin, and with them mingle the blood of that father, and see if that will not move even the compassion of the Democrats of this body. Sir, I cannot draw the picture as it is, but you yourself (Mr. Pomeroy in the chair) can imagine, having lived in a territory subject to this rule, some of the terrible, galling apprehensions and anxieties that haunt the minds of these people. Mr, President, I love this country and her institutions. I love them more than for anything else because they give freedom to every human being. I love this country and her institutions be- cause she promises and can give protection to her humblest citizen. But, sir, my love for this country and her institutions will grow beautifully less, and I shall be covered with shame, if this govern- ment acknowledges its impotency to put down these terrible wrongs. Sir, we may fail in this; it may be that we may have bitter waters of affliction yet to travel through, and in which we are to be tried; but we shall all be better satisfied with ourselves if 3G ELOQUENCE AND REPARTEE we can say, "To avoid and punish these things we have done what we could." Mr. President, I promised to be brief. I have given but a bird's eye view of the situation, leaving it to the chairman of our com- mittee (Mr. Scott), to complete. I would not have said one word, but I could not leave without entering here publicly my protest against any acknowledgement of the impotency of this government to put down this spirit. Sir, I would try the courts. Ah! what a mockery have they become where men perjured in advance are to fill your jury-box, and perjured witnesses in advance are to swear the rights of the poor away! Courts have become a mockery; and yet we are told here by wise men and great men that we should wait and let reason have time to assume her throne. Sir, I have '.waited and waited until my ears have been pained with these reports, and things grow worse. Why mock her, then, with justice and break her sword before you unsheathe it? Why hold out to me the protection of a court when perjury has mastered the tribunal, and judges, pure in themselves, six in number, acknowledge that the administration of the law cannot be had. What can you expect under such circumstances? Go summon the jurors that whipped this poor colored man of whom I speak. Would they condemn themselves? Never. Go count the witnesses who are ready to prove an alibi, always the rascal's refuge. Then talk to me of justice and the courts! Why hold out to me the fruit that turns to ashes as my lips near it? Why, when the very atmosphere is filled with murder, seek to solace ourselves with this poor, impotent subterfuge? Sir, I would try the courts in all their phases; and if they would not do, I would try the musket with its power. The government that will not unsheath the sword to protect its citizens is unworthy the support of any man. It should be the last resort; but when it comes, it should be as terrible as armies are terrible. Better that this republican sun should set in blood than to rise as a delusion of the hopes that it ushered in. Every blow that is struck upon the back of an American citizen should cause this body to throb with anguish. This is the heart and hearthstone of our country, and I appeal to Senators, I appeal IN THE AMERICAN CONGRESS. 37 with the cry of murder from their fellow-citizens slain in cold blood, to come up manfully to the duty, adopt the most stringent law that the Constitution will permit, and try that. Sir, if nothing but power will stop it, let it be the power of the law or the power of the sword. It must be stopped. How, think you, Mr. President, it reads in foreign countries when they open our papers in the morning to read that the victims, sixty or hundreds, as in Louisiana, were massacred yesterday, and yet the American Congress sat tamely down as stupid to all human appear- ance as stupidity itself. Sir, I appeal to Republicans with more confidence than I do to the Democracy — of course I appeal to them — whether they will stop half way in this work of regeneration. No, sir; let us stand here till the cry of murder shall cease, let us stand here and ward off to the best of our ability until the sound of the lash shall die away. Let us stand here and legislate between them and the wrong-doers until every cabin shall be quiet and peaceable, and every man, black and white, shall sit down under this broad tree of American protection with no one to harm him or make him afraid. THE SOUTHERNER HONEST IN HIS CONVICTIONS. HON. FREDERin: A. SAWYER, OF SOUTH CAROLINA. (In the Senate, March 21, 1891.) Mr. President, I hope the amendment I offer will be adopted. I think the true interests of the country demand that a law should be passed relieving from political disabilities all classes on whom they now rest. I believe it will remove one of the obstacles in the way of a restoration of the harmony between the different sections of the nation. I sincerely believe that its enactment at the time when the first reconstruction measures were adopted would have spared us the record on the pages of our history of some, at least. 38: • ELOQUENCE AND REPARTEE of those tales of horror which come on every breeze from the South, atid' which lead to doubt and distrust of the adequacy of our recon- struction policy. The so-called "test oath," now happily removed from our statute books, so far as it applies to our southern fellow-citizens, in con- nection with the third section of the fourteenth amendment to the Constitution, erected a barrier between different classes of citizens which held in a compact body, whose lines were rarely broken, nine-tenths of the intelligent white men of the South Few were willing to leave the ranks of those thus marked with a common brand, and cross those lines into the camp of a party which volun- tarily raised this wall of separation, and proposed to continue and defend it. To do so brought discredit upon almost every man who ventured to ask at the hands of Congress relief from disabilities which rested on his fellows equally with himself. It was regarded as desertion; not from the cause for which the southern people fought so bravely for four years, but from the penalties which had resulted from that contest to all who engaged in it, and which penalties having been incurred in common for a common course of conduct, should be borne in common, until a common relief was granted. It was held to be a confession that pardon was needed for par- ticipation in a cause which the mass of the southern people had espoused because they believed it right. This was a confession they were not willing to make; nay, are not willing to make. Most southern men had been educated in the doctrines of State rights pushed to their extreme, and their adoption of the right of secession was but the natural corollary. For more than a generation — at the fireside, in the school room, in the pulpit, and in the forum — this poison had been infused into every stratum of society. They read the Constitution of the United States by a light thrown upon it by the brilliant sophistry of a thousand southern statesmen, and to them that instrument was as unlike the Constitution seen by the disciple of Webster and his great associates in the north as was the shield of gold seen by the knight in the story from that of silver seen by his fellow, who stood on the other side. From this IN THE AMERICAN CONGRESS. 39 standpoint, neither the Federalist nor the secessionist could see the fundamental law as the other saw it. One was wrong; perhaps neither absolutely right. Certainly both thought and believed they were right. I take not into the account the shrewd demagogue and trickster who had, possibly, no convictions, no faith, no principles, but who was ready and ripe for revolution, let it take what form it would, so that he might prosper. I am now speaking of the great mass of the people. And I insist that however unsound the reasoning which led them to secession, rebellion and war, they were honest in entering upon the struggle, honest in its continuance, and to-day honestly believe they did right. Events have proved that they blundered; but they do not admit that a blunder is of necessity a crime. They are not penitent; penitence implies consciousness of guilt. They cannot say they are penitent without baseness and falsehood. Look not, therefore, for a declaration of penitence except from those whom you will not care to trust, with or without such declarations. Discard the idea that the masses of those who fought our armies for four long, weary years, will ever tell their children that they fought in a cause they believed to be a bad one. Reject the notion that relief from political disabilities shall come only when its subjects declare themselves to have been slaves to masters they despised but dared not disobey, unless you mean to deny such relief entirely. There may be men in the South who are willing to purchase offices of trust and emolument by such confessions; but they are not, in general, the men whose arms were bared in a conflict which shook the continent and came so near burying the hopes of civil liberty amid the ruins of our noble republic. They are not the men to whom you must look in the present or in the future for the resuscitation of the forces of civilization in the South. No! The bone and sinew of southern manhood went into the rebellion with an upright heart, with a clear conscience, and they are not now ashamed of the blows they struck. Here and there a man stood out in bold relief as an exception to the rule, and called the acts of secession crimes, as well as blunders. Here and there some 40 ELOQUENCE AND REPARTEE nature, less susceptible to surrounding influences than the multitude, clung with honest love to the union of the States and looked with pious affection upon its starry emblem. All honor to those who did sol Gratitude should well forth from every loyal heart toward those who, in the dark days, stood by the Union we love — the Con- stitution we venerate, the institutions we think freighted with humanity's best interests. But while we hold it to be one of the highest praises to which one can lay claim, that he stood manfully by what we believe was the right in the late contest, while we would leave a record of loyalty to our children and our children's children, as a priceless legacy, let us not unnecessarily keep open the wounds which the terrible struggle has left by imputations of a want of fidelity to conscientious convictions on the part of those who have not this legacy to leave behind them. We won the cause in the last and highest court. Every issue was decided in our favor. Let us give up calling the vanquished by names which re-arouse in men's hearts the passions it is the interest of peace and good government and civilization, should be stilled and forever put to sleep. Bate not one jot or tittle of effort to secure the results aimed at by the prosecuti'on of the war, but, for God's sake, forego senseless clamor which does evil and evil continually, but adds naught to the security of our institutions or the peace of any portion of our people. Now, Mr. President, I am not one of those who consider the late gigantic rebellion as a trifling difference of opinion, I hold not lightly the great issues which were at stake in that contest. I believed in 1861, as I believe in 1871, that wisdom demanded of every American a strict adhesion to the national government; that that government could justly call upon every patriotic citizen to devote his whole energies to preserve the national integrity; that enlightened patriotism would see but one path to walk in; that the trust imposed upon us by the fathers of the republic must be sacredly kept, and that every heart must beat, every step must march to the music of the Union; that no matter how sincere the faith of the southern people in their cause, how firm soever their IN THE AMERICAN CONGRESS. 41 trust in its justice, truly intelligent patriotism demanded the over- throw of every force which stood in the way of complete national victory. Error is none the less to be resisted and overcome because it is honestly cherished. A bad cause is none the less to be overthrown because its adherents believe it to be a good one. Slavery is none the less to be detested because there are those who, seduced by its blandishments, believe it a beneficent institution. To me the rebel- lion was hateful. As a rebel no man had, or has, my sympathy. But because to me the rebellion was hateful, I do not see the necessity of imputing to the rebel crimes of which he had no con- sciousness. Because he saw his duty in a different line from that which it seemed incumbent on me to pursue, I do not see the necessity of supposing that he was false to his own conscience. History is full of examples of men laboring, struggling, dying in support of causes condemned by the common judgment; yet no one has doubted their honesty or good faith. Are the men of the South so far beneath the average standards of fidelity to convic- tions as to permit us to throw over their errors of judgment, their deeds of folly, nay, even over the crimes they committed in the hours of overmastering passion, no mantle of charity? The war ended years ago. The armies of the rebellion surren- dered to those of the Union. The cause of the rebellion was lost. Its advocates admitted the triumph of the Union. They abandoned,, in terms and in fact, the issues they had made. They acknowledged the cause decided against them by the last arbiter. They aban- doned the dreams of their youth, their manhood, and their old age. They ceased to regard the question whether their rendering of the Constitution or ours was abstractly right as an open one. The provisions of the national charter had been interpreted amid the gleam of sword-blades, the roar of cannon, the rattle of musketry, on a thousand fields. The decision had been sealed by the blood of a million men; no court was competent to reverse or overrule a judgment illustrated and ratified by the agonies of multitudes of widows and orphans, by the wails of fathers, mothers, sisters,, and brothers, all over the land. The men who to-day should 42 ELOQUENCE AND REPARTEE express the hope or the expectation that the present century would witness a serious attempt to controvert the positions established by the war would meet the derision of every sane man who lifted his arm for the success of the confederacy. The sole cause which bound the southern people together almost as one man in the rebellion has been removed. The cause removed, the passions, the prejudices, interests, and sympathies which surrounded and envel- oped it will surely die out. Time is the great assuager of griefs, the great destroyer of prejudices, the great cooler of passions, the great solvent of heterogeneous and antagonistic elements. Time is the great physician upon whom we must rely for the removal of most of the diseases which exist in political society in the South. MR. BUTLER AND HIS FRIENDS. (A sharp tilt between George W. Morgan, of Ohio, and Hon. Benjamin F. Butler, of Massachusetts, in the House of Represen- tatives, March 23rd, 1871.) Mr. Morgan: Allow me a moment. I may, perhaps, have misunderstood the gentleman. I understood the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Butler) to say that the bill which he introduced and asked to have referred to a committee met the approval of a majority of the Republicans on this floor. Am I right? Mr. Butler, of Massachusetts: I will restate what I said, so that there shall be no mistake. I understand that the bill which I presented, and which is ia print, does meet the approval of a majority of the Republicans on this floor. That it is perfect no- body dreams of claiming. Everything human is imperfect; every- thing human needs amendment, and nothing more and nobody more than my friends on the other side, except, perhaps, my bill. Mr. Niblack: One moment. The gentleman will relieve us on this side of the House from some embarrassment if he will cease to call us his friends. (Laughter.) Mr. Butler, of Massachusetts: Ah! HENRY WILSON. IN THE AMERICAN CONGRESS. 45 Mr. Niblack: We never recognize such relations. Mr. Butler, of Massachusetts: There was a time when the Democratic party recognized me as a friend, aye, and as a leader; and they were very cross when I left them. (Laughter.) And, as a friend near me suggests, they have not got over it yet, but have been mad with me ever since. (Laughter.) Mr. Morgan: How many of us followed the gentleman, when at the Charleston convention he voted more than fifty times for Jefiferson Davis for President of the United States? Mr. Butler, of Massachusetts: Certainly, I then voted for the representative man of the Democracy. Subsequent events have proved that the difference between the gentleman and myself is that he would not vote for Jefif. Davis then but would now, and I did then and would not now. (Laughter.) There is no trouble about understanding this matter at all. Mr. Morgan: If the choice was between the member from Massachusetts and the gentleman from Mississippi, the country would certainly justify me in making such a choice. Mr. Butler, of Massachusetts: Will the gentleman repeat his statement? There is so much confusion here that I did not hear him. (After a pause.) I repeated my words for the gentleman when he did not hear me. Is he ashamed to repeat his? I did not hear him. (After another pause.) Then I will grant him the mercy of my silence as to what I did not hear. AID TO POOR NEGROES IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. (Controversy between Henry Wilson, of Massachusetts, and Hon. Allen G. Thurman, of Ohio, in the United States Senate, March 24th, 1871.) Mr. Wilson: I am sorry that every time an act of justice, of humanity, of simple charity even, comes up, in which colored men are in any way concerned, our motives are questioned and our 44 ELOQUENCE AND REPARTEE views misconstrued on the floor of the Senate. Our motives were questioned last year without cause; they are questioned again this . year without cause. There is not a particle of evidence to show that the appropriation made last year had anything to do, or has ever had anything to do, with the elections; nor is there the slightest reason to suspect anything of the sort in regard to this small appropriation. It is to be put into the care of some of the noblest persons that ever touched this earth; persons who have given years of toil for the poor and the lowly; persons who have visited the homes of distress and sickness and death; persons who have gone into the country and begged during the last few years tens of thousands of dollars to keep the souls and bodies of these poor waifs together. There is not a particle of evidence, I say, to show that this money in any way, the most remote, can have anything to do with elections that are soon to occur here. Sir, who are these persons that are in need? They are mostly old men and old women who have given their youth, their middle age, their vitality, their powers, to others. The labor of their lives has been unrequited and unrewarded, and in their old age they are cast upon the cold charities of a world they toiled to make better. These people came mostly from Maryland and Virginia and other portions of the country into this district in a time of civil war. Many of this class have sickened and suffered and died during the last three months while we have been sitting here; and those who have been laboring for them and begging for them all winter have seen them sicken and die. I have letters in my possession from some of the best persons I have ever known, persons who, to my knowledge, have given their powers, day and night, for the last seven or eight years, to the good of others. I say I have letters from such persons assuring me on unmistakable evidence that some of these people have actually died of want in sight of this Capitol. There is no doubt that some of these poor people have died of want and neglect, and hundreds of others would have died in the same way if it had not been for those who have been watching over and caring for them. IN THE AMERICAN CONGRESS. 45 Sir, this is an act of mere humanity, an act of charity. These poor people are here. They have helped to earn the wealth of the nation. They were robbed and plundered for years out of their labor and the fruits of their labor; and now in their old age, when they are soon to sink into their graves, I think it is the duty of this Christian nation to lighten their pathway. I do hope this appro- priation of a small sum of money to keep these poor people from suffering from starvation will be made. If more is asked next year, let us give it. I hope, however, that the new government which we have pro- vided for the District of Columbia will be better than the one we have had heretofore; for I think the District of Columbia for two generations has been the most neglected, if not the worst governed, part of the country. I hope they will establish a system by which the poor will be cared for; but until that is done, I hope the nation will not see these poor people perish. I hope those who are toiling for them, without stint and without reward, will be aided in their work of charity and humanity by the generosity of the nation. Mr. Thurman: I wish to say a few more words, and shall not detain the Senate long on this subject. The Senator from Massa- chusetts who last spoke (Mr. Wilson) I think ought to return thanks to me for getting up a little debate on this subject, because it has enabled him to make his anti-slavery speech, which he has given us, I think, about twenty times the short time that I have been a member of this body. It is a beautiful speech. It is a speech that is very much calculated to strike the sympathies of men, and very much calculated to arouse their indignation against the injustice of slavery. There was danger that that speech might go into oblivion unless something could be done by some Demo- crat to afford an opportunity to make it again. Now, sir, the Senator says that these people are people who have worn out their lives toiling for others, and been deprived of their rights. Does not the Senator know that before the bugle of war ever sounded there were more free colored persons in the District of Columbia than there were slaves? What right has he to say that all the persons to whom this charity is to go are persons 46 ELOQUENCE AND REPARTEE who were slaves and who were refugees here from Maryland or from the Southern States? He has no authority to say any such thing. If that is the case, if he puts it on that ground, why does he not limit the amendment to such cases? Why does he not limit the relief to the cases of refugees? Will he do that? No, sir, he will not do that; he is too good a man to do that; he has too much heart to do that. He is not willing I am sure, or if he is, I am not willing, that our charity shall be measured by the fact whether a man was a refugee or was not a refugee. But if he puts it upon that, as creating a moral obligation upon the government to provide for these men because they were refugees or because they had been slaves, then his logic requires of him that he shall limit his bounty to that class of persons; but he does not ask any such thing. The amendment provides for no such thing. I only want to show him where his logic will carry him, where his premises will take him; that if he puts it upon the ground of our moral obligation toward those people, who were once slaves, who, in his language, have toiled away their lives for the benefit of others, he is bound to have this amendment so modified that it shall apply only to that class of persons; but he will not do that. The Senator says that the District of Columbia has been the worst governed country, if I understand him, that he is acquainted with, or some such remark as that. I think it is but little more than a year ago that he pronounced a eulogy, in the very debate on this subject, upon the government of this District of Columbia, or at least the government of Washington city, and told us how he had seen it so much worse than it now was, and pronounced something very much like a eulogy upon its government under the transcendent merits of its then mayor, Mr. Bowen; but now it is the worst governed country he has any acquaintance with! Again, he tells us that he is assured that people have died from starvation in this city of Washington, in sight of the Capitol, within a short time. I do not believe one word of it; and it will take far stronger evidence than any man's ipse dixit to make me believe one wofd of it. No, sir; the American people are not a people to let others die of starvation in their midst. He cannot show me any IN THE AMERICAN CONGRESS. 47 place in this whole republic where a person dies of hunger if his wants are known — not one. It is a pretty story to go abroad to the country and the world that here, in the capital of the nation, the people are so barbarous, so hard-hearted, that they let each other die of starvation. Who were they that died of starvation — white or black? If they were black, and if the whites of this District were such brutal people, people of such hard and iron natures, that they would not extend the hand of charity to colored persons, why did not the colored persons of this District keep them from dying of starvation? Walk up the avenue any Sunday, walk along the streets any gala day or holiday, and you find them filled with colored persons in purple and fine linen, better dressed than the members of this body, carrying as much evidence of pros- perity as the members of this body carry in their personal appear- ance. You see them riding in carriages driven by white men. You see them parading the streets dressed as if they were going to a court presentation. You meet them with gold spectacles and gold- headed canes. You find every evidence of prosperity and more than prosperity among them. Are they so hard-hearted that they let these poor old men and women of their own race, who have such demands on their sympathy, who have suffered from the vices of the institution of slavery, die of starvation? Sir, such a thing is a libel. Whoever made that statement to the Senator from Massachusetts, it is a libel on the people of this District, both white and colored. Mr. Wilson: Mr. President, so long as the Senator from Ohio and myself remain here I shall be under the necessity of often repeating a little anti-slavery speech to him. I had hoped that it would not be necessary to make anti-slavery speeches to proclaim anti-slavery doctrines any longer, but I find that Senators, like the Senator from Ohio, need a little anti-slavery teaching very often. So long as the Senator and his political associates manifest the spirit that they so often exhibit, either myself or other Senators will be under the necessity of giving them a little anti-slavery instruction. They require line upon line, and precept upon precept. I intend to perform the task imposed upon us by their needs, and 48 ELOQUENCE AND REPARTEE hope they will be patient and pardon the repetitions of anti-slavery truths. Sir, the Senator says these persons are not all refugees. I know they are not; but I tell the Senator that I have some little knowledge of this matter. I have given some little attention during the last seven or eight years to the condition of these poor people; I have used the little influence I possessed at home and in other places to secure something for them, to aid them in their sufferings. I have tried to persuade others to aid them, and I assure the Senator that the great body of these people are those who have come into the District within a few years. Some few of them are old slaves who were born here, some few of them are old freemen, but the great body of them are the freedmen who came here during and since the war. I have seen tender, touching letters written by persons whose names are honored wherever spoken, persons of the largest intelli- gence and broadest philanthropy, who have stated that in some cases death was occasioned by want. The Senator from New Hampshire before me (Mr. Patterson) has a letter referring to a special case, written by one of the ablest women of our country. Sir, there are sufferings here; there is want; there is need of aid. Let us give it. PRESIDENT GRANT AND SAN DOMINGO. ) CHARLES SUMNER, OF MASSACHUSETTS. (The following extracts are from one of the most famous speeches in the history of the United States Senate. It was deliv- ered by Charles Sumner, from his seat in the Senate, on March 27th, 1871. Mr. Sumner had long been one of the most prominent, if not the most prominent, Republican in the United States. This speech was a severe arraignment of President Grant, whose admin- istration Mr. Sumner had ceased to support. In his quarrel with IX THE AMERICAN CONGRESS. 49 the policy of the Republican party he was followed by other prom- inent Republicans, such as Carl Schurz, of Missouri, Horace Greeley and Charles Francis Adams. The opposition led to the formation of the Liberal Republican party which afterward nom- inated Horace Greeley for President, but which in the triumphant re-election of President Grant, had a short life.) Mr. Sumner: Mr. President, entering again upon this discus- sion, I perform a duty which cannot be avoided. I wish it were otherwise, but duty is a taskmaster to be obeyed. On evidence now before the Senate, it is plain that the navy of the United States, acting under orders from Washington, has been engaged in measures of violence, and of belligerent intervention, being war, without the authority of Congress. An act of war without the authority of Congress is no common event. This is the simplest statement of the case. The whole business is aggravated when it is considered that the declared object of this violence is the acquisi- tion of foreign territory, being half an island in the Caribbean Sea; and still further, that this violence has been employed, first, to prop and maintain a weak ruler, himself a usurper, upholding him in power that he might sell his country; and, secondly, it has been employed to menace the Black Republic of Hayti. Such a case cannot pass without inquiry. It is too grave for silence. For the sake of the navy, which has been the agent, for the sake of the administration under which the navy acted, for the sake of Republican institutions which suffer when the great republic makes itself a pattern of violence, and for the sake of the Republican party, which cannot afford to become responsible for such conduct, the case must be examined on the facts and the law, and also in the light of precedent, so far as precedent holds its torch. When I speak for Republican institutions, it is because I would not have our great example weakened before the world and our good name tarnished. And when I speak for the Republican party, it is because from the beginning I have been the faithful servant of that party, and aspire to see it strong and triumphant. But beyond all these considerations is the commanding rule of justice, VN^hich cannot be disobeyed with impunity. 50 ELOQUENCE AND REPARTEE The question which I present is very simple. It is not, whether the acquisition of the Island of San Domingo, in whole or in part, with a population foreign in origin, language, and institutions, is desirable; but whether we are justified in the means employed to accomplish this acquisition. The question is essentially preliminary in character and entirely independent of the main question. On the main question there may be difference of opinion — some thinking the acquisition desirable and others not desirable; some anxious for empire or at least a sanitarium in the tropics, and others more anxious for a black republic, where the African race shall show an example of self-government, by which the whole race may be uplifted; some thinking of gold mines, salt mountains, hogsheads of sugar, bags of coffee, and boxes of cigars; others thinking more of what we owe to the African race. But whatever the difference of opinion on the main question, the evidence now before us shows too clearly that means have been employed which cannot be justi- fied. And this is the question to which I now ask the attention of the Senate. Violence begets violence, and that in San Domingo naturally extended. It is with nations as with individuals — once stepped in, they go forward. The harsh menace by which the independence of the black republic was rudely assailed came next. It was another stage in belligerent intervention. As these things were unfolded, I felt that I could not hesitate. Here was a shocking wrong. It must be arrested; and to this end I have labored in good faith. If I am earnest, it is because I cannot see a wrong done without seeking to arrest it. Especially am I moved if this wrong be done to the weak and humble. Then, by the efforts of my life and the commission I have received from Massachusetts, am I vowed to do what I can for the protection and elevation of the African race. If I can help them, I will; if I can save them from outrage, I must. And never before was the occasion more imminent than now. I speak only according to unquestionable reason and .the instincts of the human heart, when I assert that a contract for the cession of territory must be fair and without suspicion of overawing force. IN THE AMERICAN CONGRESS. 51 Nobody can doubt this rule, whether for individuals or nations. And where one party is more powerful than another, it becomes more imperative. Especially must it be sacred with a republic, for it is nothing but the mandate of justice. The rule is general in its application; nay, more, it is a part of universal law, common to all municipal systems and to international law. Any departure from this requirement makes negotiation for the time impossible. Plainly there can be no cession of territory, and especially no sur- render of national independence, except as the result of war, so long as hostile cannon are frowning. The first step in negotiation must be the withdrawal of all force, coercive or mandatory. ********** War, sir, is the saddest chapter of history. It is known as the last reason of kings. Alas! that it should ever be the reason of a republic. "There can be no such thing, my lords, as a little war,*' was the exclamation of the Duke of Wellington, which I heard from his own lips, as he protested against what to some seemed petty. Gathering all the vigor of his venerable form, the warrior, seasoned in a hundred fights, cried out, and all within the sound of his voice felt the testimony. The reason is obvious. War, whether great or little, whether on the fields of France or the Island of San Domingo, is war, over which hovers not only death, but every demon of wrath. Nor is war merely conflict on a chosen field; it is force employed by one nation against another, or in the affairs of another, as in the' direct menace to Hayti and the inter- meddling between Baez and Cabral. There may be war without battle. Hercules conquered by manifest strength the moment he appeared on the ground, so that his club rested unused. And so our navy has thus far conquered without a shot; but its presence in the waters of Hayti and Dominica was war. **** * * J|cj)c4t* In other days it was said that the best government is where an injury to a single citizen is resented as an injury to the whole State. Here was an American citizen, declared by our representative to be an "innocent man," and already pardoned for the crimes falsely alleged against him, incarcerated, or, according to the polite term of 52 ELOQUENCE AND REPARTEE the Minister of Baez, compelled to a "prolonged sojourn," in order to assure the consummation of the plot for the acceptance of the treaty, or, in the words of Cazneau, "to serve and protect negotia- tions in which our President (Grant) was so deeply interested." The cry, "I am an American citizen," was nothing to Baez — nothing to Cazneau — nothing to Babcock. The young missionary heard the cry and answered not. Annexion was in peril. Annexion could not stand the testimony of Mr. Hatch, who would write in New York papers. Therefore was he doomed to a prison. Here, again, I forbear details, though at each point they testify. And^yet the great republic, instead of spurning at once the heartless usurper, who trampled on the liberty of an American citizen, and spurning the ill-omened treaty which required this sacrifice, continued to lend his strong arm in the maintenance of the trampler, while with unexampled assiduity it pressed the treaty upon a reluctant Senate. International law is to nations what the National Constitution is to our coequal States; it is the rule by which they are governed. As among us every State, and also every citizen has an interest in upholding the National Constitution, so has every nation and also every citizen an interest in upholding international law. As well disobey the former as the latter. You cannot do so in either case without disturbing the foundations of peace and tranquility. To insist upon the recognition of international law is to uphold civiliza- tion in one of its essential securities. To vindicate international law is a constant duty which is most eminent according to the rights in jeopardy. Foremost among admitted principles of international law is the axiom, that all nations are equal, without distinction of population, size, or power. Nor does international law know any distinction of color. As a natural consequence, whatever is the rule for one is the rule for all; nor can we do to a thinly-peopled, small, weak, or black nation what we would not do to a populous, large, strong, or white nation; nor what that nation might not do to us. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you, is the plain law for all nations, as for all men. The equality of nations is the first IN THE AMERICAN CONGRESS. 53 principle of international law, as the equality of men is the first principle in our Declaration of Independence, and you may as well assail the one as the other. As all men are equal before the law, so are all nations. This simple statement is enough; but since this commanding principle has been practically set aside in the operations of our navy, I proceed to show how it is illustrated by the authorities. ***** * * *** Thus does each authority reflect the other, while the whole together present the equality of nations as a guiding principle not to be neglected or dishonored. ***** * * *** Applying these principles to existing facts already set forth, it is easy to see that the belligerent intervention of the United States in the internal affairs of Dominica, maintaining the usurper Baez in power, especially against Cabral, was contrary to acknowledged principle of international law, and, that the belligerent intervention between Dominica and Hayti was of the same character. Imagine our navy playing the fantastic tricks on the coast of France which it played on the coasts of St. Domingo, and then still further, imagine it entering the ports of France as it entered the ports of Hayti, and you will see how utterly indefensible was its conduct. In the capital of Hayti it committed an act of war, hardly less flagrant than that of England at the bombardment of Copenhagen.- Happily blood was not shed, but there was an act of war. Here I refer to the authorities already cited and challenge contradiction. To vindicate these things, whether in Dominica or in Hayti, you must discard all acknowledged principles of international law, and join those, who, regardless of rights, rely upon arms. Grotius reminds us of Achilles, as described by Horace: "Rights he spurns, As things not made for him, claims all by arms." And he quotes Lucien also, who shows a soldier exclaiming: "Now peace and law, I bid you both farewell." The old Antigonus, who, when beseiging a city, laughed at a^ man who brought him a dissertation on justice, and Pomp^y, who 54 ELOQUENCE AND REPARTEE exclaimed, "Am I when in arms to think of the laws?" These seem to be the models for our government on the coasts of St. Domingo, The same spirit which set at defiance great principles of inter- national law, installing force instead, is equally manifest in disregard of the Constitution of the United States, and here one of its most distinctive principles is struck down. By the Constitution it is solemnly announced, that to Congress is given the power "to declare war." This allotment of power was made only after much consid- eration and in obedience to those popular rights consecrated by the American revolution. In England and in all other monarchies at the time, this power was the exclusive prerogative of the crown, so that war was justly called the last reason of kings. The framers of our Constitution naturally refused to vest this kingly prerogative in the President. Kings were rejected in substance as in name. The one-man-power was set aside and this kingly prerogative placed under the safeguard of the people, as represented in that highest form of national life, an act of Congress. No other pro- vision in the Constitution is more distinctive or more worthy of veneration. I do not go too far when I call it an essential element of republican institutions, happily discovered by our fathers. • • But this distinct principle of our Constitution and new-found sa:feguard of popular rights has been set at naught by the President, or rather, in rushing to the goal of his desires, he has overleaped it, as if it were stubble. Mr. President, as I draw to a close, allow me to repeat the very dee^i regret with which I make this exposure. Most gladly would I avoid it. Controversy, especially at my time of life, has no attrac- tion for me; but I have been reared in the school of duty, and, now as of old, I cannot see wrong without trying to arrest it. I plead now, as I have often pleaded before, for justice and peace. Beside the essential equity of such submission, and the moral dignity it would confer upon the republic, which rises when it stoops to law, there are two other reasons of irresistible force at IN THE AMERICAN CONGRESS. 55 this moment. I need not remind you that the Senate is now occupied in considering how to suppress lawlessness within our own borders and to save the African race from outrage. Surely our efforts at home must be awakened by the drama we are now playing abroad. Pray, sir, with what face can we insist upon obedience to law and respect for the African race, while we are openly engaged in lawlessness on the coasts of St. Domingo and outrage upon the African race represented by the black republic? How can we expect to put down the Ku Klux at the South, when we set in motion another Ku Klux kindred in constant insubordin- ation to law and Constitution? Differing in object, the two are identified in this insubordination. One strikes at national life and the other at individual life, while both strike at the African race. One molests a people, the other a community. Lawlessness is the common element. But it is difficult to see how we can condemn with proper, whole-hearted reprobation, our own domestic Ku Klux with its fearful outrages, while the President puts himself at the head of a powerful and costly Ku Klux operating abroad in defiance of international law and the Constitution of the United States. These are questions which I ask with sorrow, and only in obedience to that truth which is the requirement of this debate; nor should I do otherwise than fail in justice to the occasion if I did not declare my unhesitating conviction, that, had the President been so inspired as to bestow upon the protection of southern Unionists, white and black, one-half, nay, sir, one-quarter of the time, money, zeal, will, personal attention, personal effort, and per- sonal intercession, which he has bestowed on his attempt to main- tain half an island in the Caribbean Sea, our southern Ku Klux would have existed in name only, while tranquility reigned every- where within our borders. Another reason for retracting the false steps already taken will be found in our duty to the African race, of whom there are four million within our borders, recognized as equal before the law. To these new-found fellow-citizens, once degraded and trampled down, are we bound by every sentiment of justice; nor can we see their 56 ELOQUENCE AND REPARTEE race dishonored anywhere, through our misconduct. How vain are professions in their behalf, if we set the example of outrage? How vain to expect their sympathy and co-operation in the support of the National Government, if the President, by his own mere wilU and in the plentitude of kingly prerogative, can strike at the inde- pendence of the black republic, and degrade it in the family of nations? All this is a thousand times wrong. It is a thousand times impolitic also, for it teaches the African race that they are only victims for sacrifice. Now, sir, as I desire the suppression of the Ku Klux, wherever it shows itself, and as I seek the elevation of the African race, I insist that the presidential scheme, which installs a new form of Ku Klux on the coasts of St. Domingo, and which at the same time insults the African race, represented in the black republic, shall be arrested. I now speak against that Ku Klux on the coast of St. Domingo, of which the President is at the head, and I speak also for the African race which the President has trampled down. Is there any Senator in earnest against the Ku Klux? Let him arrest it on the coast of St. Domingo. Is there any Senator ready at all times to seek the elevation of the African race? Here is the occa- sion for his best efforts. ***** * * *** These questions I state only. Meanwhile, to my mind there is something better than belligerent intervention and acts of war with the menace of absorption at untold cost of treasure. It is a sincere and humane effort on our part, in the spirit of peace, to reconcile Hayti and Dominica, and to establish tranquility throughout the island. Let this be attempted and our republic will become an example worthy of its name and of the civilization which it repre- sents, while republican institutions have new glory. The blessings of good men will attend such an effort; nor can the smile of Heaven be wanting. And may we not justly expect the President to unite in such a measure of peace and good will? He that ruleth his spirit is greater than he that taketh a city, and so the President, ruling his spirit in subjection to the humane principles of international law IN THE AMERICAN CONGRESS. 57 and the Constitution of his country, will be greater than if he had taken all the islands of the sea. DEFENSE OF PRESIDENT GRANT. FREDERICK T. FRELINGHUYSEN. (Remarks delivered in the Senate of the United States, March 28th, 1871, in reply to speech of Charles Sumner of the day pre- vious.) Mr. Frelinghuysen: Mr. President, I made an efifort at the close of the speech of the Senator from Massachusetts to obtain the floor, and did not succeed. I am glad it was so, not only because the occasion has been better improved by the Senator from Wisconsin, but because I feel that I should, under the warmth and excitement which the denunciation of my country and of her de- liverer created in my breast, have possibly said some things which would not have commended themselves to my cooler judgment. Yesterday, however, I should have obeyed the command, "Be angry and sin not;" to-day I shall respect the injunction, "Let not the sun go down upon your wrath." I believe I am not one of those who can sleep and nurse wrath, who can fold it in my arms and let the sun rise and set upon it, in sickness and in health, from January to ^V-^rch, each day giving it greater vigor, and drawing from my v( iry some missile of malign reproach; and I do not envy the pleasure of one who has that spirit for his companion. I said, sir, that I was warm under the denunciation of my country; and has not the nation been unjustly denounced? If the statements from the Senator from Massachusetts be true, then for months, yes, for more than a year, this proud nation has been playing the bully against a feeble neighboring republic which the world's oppressed race has attempted to rear in one of the islands of the sea, and that, too, in a manner that would have been too cowardly to manifest toward England or France, and in violation 58 ELOQUENCE AND REPARTEE of the laws of justice and humanity. If the Senator be correct, then the President, his Cabinet, the House of Representatives, and the Senate are all guilty, and the Senator from Massachusetts stands in peerless purity amid a bankruptcy of patriotism and of love for national honor. I said the Senator had denounced the deliverer of my country, and has he not? Where is the warm-hearted lover of his country who does not feel that General Grant, as the instrument of God, brought us deliverance? He saved my hearthstone from desola- tion, he has perpetrated to my children an inheritance more precious than any that I hope to leave them. From the inmost recesses of an honest heart I am grateful to him and honor him. Yes, and in thousands and tens of thousands of homes at the North and West and East, where the father still grieves that his son has gone from him forever, where the young wife still wears the weeds of sorrow, where the mother hears in the sighing of the trees the death-cry of her boy, this reverence and love for the name of the nation's deliverer is a living passion. He brought victory to our arms where many others had failed. In Virginia we saw him manifest an appreciation of the value of this republic to us, to our posterity, and to the world, that few others possessed. He saw regiment after regiment swept away; he saw patriot blood flow in rivulets at his feet. One having less appreciation of the value of the stake would have faltered, would have hesitated, would have said: "In the sight of Heaven I dare not go further." But he, appreciating the value of that for which he contended, gave the <:ommand, "March on; I take the responsibility;" and there mani- fested a greatness in comparison with which that patriotism and philanthrophy which begin and end in sound and noise and rhetoric are puerile and contemptible. And, Mr. President, when the war was over the Republicans found themselves disappointed in their leader, and for four years it was to General Grant that millions looked, and not in vain, for security to their dear and blood-bought rights. Look over your statute books, and you will find that every matter of discretion, the entire execution of the reconstruction measures of Congress was IN THE AMERICAN CONGRESS. 59 referred to the general of the army; and yet he, sir, is the man who, the country is told by the Senator, is seeking to trample under foot the colored race of the world! And when the question came whether the credit and faith, and consequently the honor, of the republic would be preserved by the payment of our debt in money, or should be abandoned by adopting the illusion of paying one promise with another promise, he was the bearer of the standard around which the people gathered to preserve the honor of the republic, without the maintenance of which the nation would not have been worth preserving. Mr. President, this is the man who, we are told by the Senator from Massachusetts, is seeking to subvert the Constitution of his country; this is the man of whom it is more than hinted that he seeks to assume kingly power; this is the man who he charges that in dealing with a feeble neighboring republic is not only a Ku Klux, but is the prince and king of the Ku Klux Klan! If there is any point of disrespect to "the powers that be," or to the leader of a party that has honored and adulated the Senator, beyond that which this invective has reached, I trust it may never be found. Stripped of all vituperative adjective, what is the accusation? It is simply this: The President of the United States, pending negotiations with the existing government of Dominica for the annexation of that territory, if such annexation should meet the approval of the people of Dominica, sent a fleet to preserve the peace between Hayti and Dominica. The "moral effect" — a term which was ridiculed yesterday — the moral efifect of the presence of our fleet was that which it was expected to be; not a gun was fired, not a drop of blood was shed, and peace was preserved. Hayti has made no complaint, and will never know the great wrong that she has suffered until the speech of the Senator is sent to her. The Senator, I am happy to say, stands alone in his denunciation. I have heard the leaders of the Democratic party condemn, as they have a right to, Republican principles, and criticise the administra- tion; but I never heard one of them speak with disrespect of the great general who led the rank and file, consisting of Republicans and Democrats, on to victory and to the rescue of the republic. 60 ELOQUENCE AND REPARTEE THE SWORD OF THE CONSTITUTION. GEORGE R HOAR, OF MASSACHUSETTS. (Extract from an address delivered in the House of Representa- tives, March 29th, 1871.) From many States, from large and distant spaces of our terri- tory, in every issue of the press, by every pulsation of the telegraph, comes up to us the complaint that large numbers of our fellow- citizens are deprived of the enjoyment of the fundamental rights of citizens. That their lives are not secure; that their property does not receive the equal protection of the law; that their homes are not safe; that they are in imminent danger of death, and of torture and outrage worse than death. If anything could add to the gravity and solemnity of these representations it is the further statement that these citizens so murdered, outraged or outlawed, suffer all this because of their attachment to their country, their loyalty to its flag, or because their opinions on questions of public interest coincide with those of a majority of the American people. Surely the time has come to explore the arsenal of constitutional power and see if it contain any sword which may avenge or any shield which may protect those for whose protection and benefit we have been entrusted with the powers of government. I propose to ask the attention of the House to a brief considera- tion of the relation of the American Constitution to the fundamental civil rights of the citizen. I have long been of opinion, an opinion adopted in times of quiet, after much conscientious study, that it was the great and leading purpose of the framers of our Consti- tution to place the fundamental civil rights of the people under the protection of the strongest and supremest power known to our laws, the power of the general government. While they meant to leave all matters of local policy to the State governments, they did not mean that any lesser authority should impair, or any failure or neglect be permitted to imperil the rights which they deemed the fundamental, essential rights of human nature itself. IN THE AMERICAN CONGRESS. 61 But before discussing the provisions of the Constitution, let me call attention to one most important aid in its interpretation. Twelve years before the same men who made the Constitution set forth in the Declaration of Independence their assertion of the fundamental rights of human nature. They not only declared them, but they declared that to secure them, "governments were instituted among men;" and not only that, but when under any form of gov- ernment these ends were destroyed, it was the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new governments and provide new safeguards. Now, I do not pretend that the Declaration of Independence is a grant of power. But I maintain that when these men asserted that governments are institutftfi among men for certain ends, that the failure to secure them is a just cause for the overthrow of any government; that when they fought out an eight years' war on that issue, pledging to its maintenance life, fortune, and honor, it cannot be believed that when they came to set up their own government they established one which did not secure those ends and which, therefore, by their own showing, ought instantly to be overthrown. The Declaration is the sublime interpreter of the Constitution. Over every line, syllable, and letter of the Constitution the Declara- tion of the Independence sheds its flaming torch light. To secure these rights, equality, life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, this government was instituted among men. The power of the execu- tive, the power of the judiciary, the power of the Legislature, all these are conferred, and conferred only, to secure these rights. Between the lines, gleaming through the page where all these powers are found, are the words, "and this power is conferred to secure these rights." This was no new doctrine. The princit)le of equality was new, so far as regards its public assertion by any people. But the others were old as Magna Charta, they were old as the principles of the common law. There came into my possession in my youth a copy of Lord Coke's Second Institute, which had belonged to James Otis, and 02 ELOQUENCE AND REPARTEE which contained his autograph. On examining it I found certain passages underscored. For the purpose of this great argument in the case of the writs of assistance, where he dealt with all the fundamental questions of government and civil liberty, that great Isaiah of the revolution had marked in this book, which he held in his hand when he made the argument, one passage among others. It is the passage where Lord Coke asserts that Magna Charta is not a new grant of right, but the declaration of the old funda- mental common-law privileges of Englishmen. Magna Charta enumerates especially the rights, all now involved at the South, of life, personal security, and private property. So, Sir William Blackstone, in several passages which I have before me, asserts, distinctly and positively, that the right to life, liberty, and property, are rights which the government owes to the citizen, and if the citizen fail to receive from the government, his obligation to allegi- ance is gone. The preamble to our Constitution also, Mr. Speaker, in no doubtful language declares the same principle. I have heard it stated by able and clear-headed men that the framers of the Con- stitution assumed that the State governments would secure to the citizens these fundamental civil rights, and that it was not their purpose to deal with them in forming the national Union, that that Union was for purposes of commerce. Now let the Constitution itself answer: "We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, to secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America." Now I concede that this preamble to the Constitution contains no grant of power; it authorizes Congress to secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity only by the means which the Constitution itself provides; but, sir, in construing the powers affirmatively granted, you must do it remembering the preamble sets forth what those powers were intended to accomplish, and any IN THE AMERICAN CONGRESS. 63 limitation of those powers short of that accomplishment is contra- dicted by the preamble itself. We ordain and establish this Consti- tution, say the fathers, in order thereby that justice may be established, in order thereby that the general welfare may be pro- moted, in order thereby that the blessings of liberty may be secured to ourselves and our posterity. Now, who shall dare so limit the powers conferred by that instrument as to say that under it any lesser authority exists which may establish injustice, which may promote the welfare of a class at the expense of the rest of the people, or which may deprive ourselves or our posterity of the blessings of liberty. I come now, Mr. Speaker, to the consideration of the body of the instrument. THE SOUTHERNER DESIRES PEACE. WASHINGTON C. WHITTHORNE, TENNESSEE. (Delivered in the House of Representatives March 29th, 1871.) I respectfully but firmly deny, for them and in their name, that they are not animated by as true and loyal devotion to law, order, and the sacred rights of person and property as any portion of the American people. Crim.e exists everywhere. D.efiance to law by exceptional individuals is historically coincident with law itself; and while to this extent it may exist, aggravated by the peculiar condition of society just emerging from a war which swept it with all the devastation of a flood, and which, like the flood, left its drift and scum as a deposit, yet, sir, the whole body-politic is not demor- alized. On the contrary, the people present to you higher evidences of thrift, economy, labor, wealth, and prosperity — the natural re- sults of obedience to law and order — than any other given section of your Union, as I think I will be able to show before I am done. But before entering upon this task, will you go with me, Mr. Speaker, for a moment into a review of the condition of the South since the close of that great civil struggle? 04 ELOQUENCE AND REPARTEE To the returned confederate soldier, when his flag was furled, home was a scene of desolation. Gaunt poverty introduced him to barren fields and cheerless firesides. His companions had been thinned; numbers of them were no more; all around him was mourning. Falsehood and treachery, and not of the negro, for in the main he was true, had been the sentinels who had guarded his loved ones during his absence. There was much in this to dis- courage him; and yet, further, many of them were without the means of support to life. They cried for bread. Look at Georgia and Alabama and South Carolina during 1866 and 1867, when whole communities, without regard to former position, were dependent upon the charity of others. Yet when ordinarily despair would have welcomed death, you find the southern man not forgetting that he was an American, in whom self-taught, if not inherent, there existed a devotion to popular institutions, a love of the great principles upon which these States are founded, unquenched and, unconquerable. This loyalty, inherent, he pledged to the govern- ment, to whose allegiance and protection he returned, and at once yielded to its laws a ready obedience. He was born an American, he was a citizen of the United States, and entitled to the funda- mental principles upon which its government was based to all of the rights, privileges, and immunities of a citizen. With courage, alacrity, and cheerfulness he went to work to repair his individual fortune, to build up waste places, to restore order, to aid his neighbor and the public; in fine, to perform all the duties of the laborious, useful citizen. How was this spirit met? Pause and look at the picture. Special courts and tribunals, hitherto unknown to the law, were organized, and his rights made subject thereto. He was deprived of the right to hold office, even the most petty; he was cut off from the highest badge of American citizenship, the right to vote; all motives of individual exertion were taken away from him, and the negro, his inferior, invested with them and made his superior. In all this there was much to provoke him; yet, sir, he submitted. He saw his State government and its high offices, as well as its lowest tribunals, pass into the hands of parties who had no identity with the soil, the institutions, IN THE AMERICAN CONGRESS. 65 the property, or the people of the State; parties who, taking ad- vantage of his weakness and the supposed hostility of the national government to him, had organized the negroes into secret political clubs, holding out to them plunder of and dominion over him, inculcating them with the idea that the white man was their oppressor, and for hundreds of years had outraged them, thus raising the worst of passions; and who, by and through such ma- chinery, had seized hold of the State governments, for jobs and corrupt purposes and corrupt individual corporations, levied enor- mous taxes and created enormous debts; so that to-day the spectacle is presented of multiplied bankrupt States. Think for a moment, Mr. Speaker, of the volume of increased indebtedness and increased taxes put upon these people, and answer me, if it is at all wonderful that corrupt Governors should be impeached, that these people should be restive at the call of the tax-gatherer? Think for a moment of the condition of your American white brother, disarmed, lorded over by the ignorant, thriftless black, who, the slave and tool of miserable tricksters and plunderers, yet flaunts his freedom in his brother's face. Can you wonder that his blood will occasionally outrun his judgment? I have but glanced at the picture as it exists in the South. I would, sir, that before action had been taken upon the representa- tions which I know do that people most grievous wrong and injustice, an inquiry, impartial and fair, had been made. Justice, I fain believe, would have been done. You would have seen, sir, how grossly they have been slandered and how maliciously they have been misreported; how mountains have been made of mole- hills; how giants and heroes have been manufactured out of dwarfs and sneaks. You would have seen, by the removal of the skin, the ass; but beyond all that you would have seen what to you would have been a most conclusive answer to these libels upon States, commonwealths, and people; and as your eye took in the full measure of the picture, your heart would have swollen with ex- ultant pride, and your judgment and patriotism would have paid a tribute in their wonder and satisfaction at the convincing evidences 66 ELOQUENCE AND REPARTEE of the devotion of this people to law and order, presented in their repaired and new-built railroads, in their increased manufactures, in their flourishing high schools, in their luxuriant and rich yielding crops, in their growing cities and towns, in their improved farms, and in their increase of population. Sir, look at these circum- stantial witnesses, whose testimony outweighs a thousand such as malice and disappointment have sped to your capital. ***** * * *** But, sir, understand me. I willingly pay tribute to the loyalty of the negroes, as a mass, to their masters, during the war; they were faithful and true, apd I believe, sir, it would have been better for them, for you, for us, and the great interests of the country, if political trickery had not undertaken to manipulate them, ap- pealing to their vilest passions in order to advance corrupt ends and purposes. The whole country in the state of peace; no more disorder in the South than in the North; no more of murder, no more of arson, no more of robbery, no more of larceny, no more of outrages committed by persons in disguise; yet this people, presenting all the physical evidences that go to make up a peaceful, industrious population, observant of law and order, are to be stricken down, deprived of the due administration of justice in the destruction of their local and convenient tribunals, and deprived of the great safe- guards of personal liberty. States and commonwealths are to be destroyed for mere local disturbances or occasional personal trespasses upon the complaint of single individuals, or upon the humor of one man or the power of a cabal. All this, in face of their earnest prayer for peace, their earnest protestations and practical manifestations of obedience to law and order. "Oh! bloodiest picture in the book of time Sarmatia fell! unwept, without a crime." Shall another write this of niy beloved South? May I not turn to the great commercial interests, to whose riches we so largely contribute, to the great body of the agricultural and mechanical laborers, whose burdens we share and lighten, in the payment of the expenses of the government, to the noble and just, to whom IN THE AMERICAN CONGRESS. 67 we lay bare our past lives and present motives, the purity and sincerity of which make us akin, to array themselves against measures proposed which threaten so much of woe, not only to us, but to them. Then, sir, what is the lesson and duty of the hour? It is that you retrace your steps, go to the people of the South with words of kindness; go and convince them that in a spirit of justice you will administer the government, making its burdens and its benefits equal; remove all causes of irritation, proscribe proscription, and, in my judgment, that the people will show to you and to the world that they are fit custodians of the trust to preserve constitutional liberty now and forever. Reverentially are they now attached to the institutions and forms of government under which they were born and reared. They want no king, no emperor, no monarch, no dictator, no cabal, no oligarchy, but a government where the will of the people (bound only by sacred obligations to respect the rights of the weak and unfortunate) shall be the supreme law of the land; a government where equal and exact justice shall be done to all men of all persuasions — a government like that made by our fathers. Give us, Mr. Speaker, such a government, and around it our affections will gather now, and with it our hopes and our energies in the future will go, to preserve it and perpetuate it forever. Sir, in the few minutes remaining of my time, I hope the House will indulge me in a few remarks somewhat personal to myself. I protest my own devotion to a republican form of government. With me it is as dear as any aspiration connected with life, and if I have one motive in life above another, it is that that form of government shall be perpetuated, and shall be transmitted to my generations in all coming time. 08. ELOQUENCE AND REPARTEE THE POVERTY OF THE SOUTH AND ITS CAUSE. WILLIAM D. KELLEY, OF PENNSYLVANIA. (Delivered in the House of Representatives, March 29th, 1871.) Mr. Speaker, I approach the discussion of the pending question with no hostility to the people of the South or any part of them, but with an interest in their welfare and prosperity that I scarcely feel for the people of my own colder section of the country. They are the children of the past; and appreciating the trials they are compelled to endure, I give them my sympathy, and am ready to labor with them to convert the cross they bear into a crown of triumph. I thank the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Whitthorne) for alluding to the material resources of the South, and thus diver- sifying the argument on that side of the House, on this and kindred questions, by referring to them and proposing them as a subject worthy of consideration. Sir, as I listened to his statement of the productions of the South, as shown by the recent census, and which he seemed to think startling by reason of their grand totals, I could but grieve at the meager result and ask myself what they would have been had the people of the South frankly accepted the condition of affairs at the close of the war, and, looking to the future, had welcomed immigrants from the North and from other countries with their enterprise, their industries, their capital, and, if you please, their cupidity; for I know that there is no part of our country, and doubt whether there is any part of the world, that presents such golden invitations to the poor man of skill and enterprise, or the rich man, who would by legitimate and productive industry, speedily double, treble, or quintuple his capital, as the territory embraced in the States lately in rebellion! As I have traveled through that section, two causes of wonder have been steadily presented to me: one the amazing natural wealth of the country, and the other the terrible poverty and ignorance of the mass of the people. How vast and varied are the resources of IN THE AMERICAN CONGRESS. 69 the South when compared with those of the North! Its cotton, tobacco, rice, and sugar fields, of which it enjoys the monopoly, are surrounded by fields on which every production of the North may be grown in greater abundance, in proportion to the labor expended, than we can produce them; its water-power, greater certainly than that of the eastern and middle States of the North, runs, as it has done through centuries, to waste; its mineral re- sources are in such a variety and combination as are nowhere else found within the limits of our broad country; its sun shines all the year round, so that while they of cold New England or the far Northwest are housed around the hearthside and the glowing fire, and the children and good wife are robed in woolens, they of the South are sporting in the open fields and consuming fuel only for culinary purposes. And yet, with all these resources, the people of the South are to-day — in a less degree, thank God, than I found them in the spring of 1867— steeped in poverty and unfamiliar with many household and other conveniences which the working people of the North are used to and regard as essential to their comfort and that of their families. The homes of the working people of Philadelphia, lighted with gas and supplied with hot and cold water and bath-rooms, afford comforts which you will find only in dwellings recently erected in the large cities or principal towns of the South. I speak of these things not to disparage the people of the South or to wound their sensibilities. Their deplorable condition is the result of the infernal system of slavery, which denied wag<- the laborer, and so robbed toil of its dignity and aspiriiti. • -d capital of its just rewards. When and where labor is well paid capital turns rapidly, for there are many consumers of its produc- tions, and with each turn comes profit. Where industry is honored and rewarded and capital is safe cities spring up, and that which v/as farm land, little better, in the absence of a near market for its productions, than valueless, becomes priceless with the growth of the city, around which farm land increases with marvelous rapidity in both its market and its intrinsic value. ***** * * *** 70 ELOQUENCE AND REPARTEE Sir, the showing of southern productions made by him will not, I repeat, sustain the theory of the gentleman from Tennessee. He says that the agricultural productions of that section equal in value the entire productions of the North. Will the statesmen and exconomists of the South never escape from this sad delusion? Why, sir, the annual hay crop alone of the northern States equals in value the annual crop of all the agricultural staples of the South, among which, of course, I do not include hay, which is now, as a result of the exigencies of the war, produced there to some extent. The argument presented by the Democrats on this bill, except the suggestions of the gentleman from Tennessee, which I now leave, is to me an old and familiar one. It may present some novel aspects to new members, but to those of us who have been here for the last ten years it is an old song, threadbare, and sadly monotonous. Its burden is the want of constitutional power. Sir, when I came here ten years ago, that plausible, but fallacious sug- gestion was ringing not only in my ears, but in the ear of the nation. ''You cannot coerce a State, because the Constitution does not invest you with the power;" and in the long interim I have heard the suggestion repeated as an argument against every bill or proposition that has been before the House for the purpose of suppressing the rebellion or securing to the people of the results of the war. President Lincoln's call for seventy-five thousand troops was wholly unconstitutional, according to the theories of the Demo- cratic members of the House. For weeks and months the country rang with their denunciations of the "unconstitutional" suspension of- the writ of habeas corpus. The law authorizing the issue of irredeemable legal-tender notes was, as they asserted, a stab at the Constitution from which it could never recover. The draft was unconstitutional, so nefariously unconstitutional that it was to be resisted by force if necessary. The States alone must supply the quotas of troops, and upon them the call must be made. We can aU„ readily imagine the alacrity with which Kentucky, pledged to neutrality, would have responded to such a call! Confiscation and emancipation! For neither of these was there a warrant in the IN THE AMERICAN CONGRESS. 71 Constitution, said the leaders of the Democratic party. So, too, as to the enlistment of colored troops. Well do I remember hearing in this hall, long after the midnight hour had passed, while Crittenden and Wickliffe were still here from Kentucky, the thun- dering denunciations of the violation of the Constitution involved in that measure. White farmers, workingmen, and others might die to save the country, but to put the life of a valuable slave at risk in such a cause was to the Democratic mind a sacrilegious violation of the Constitution. When we admitted West Virginia as a State the country was almost deafened by the cry that it was unconstitutional, inasmuch as the State of Virginia, then a member of the southern confederacy and in arms against the government, had not given its consent thereto, in accordance with the require- ments of the Constitution. ***** * * *** Mr. Kelley: I decline to yield to the gentleman for a speech, but will answer his question, and tell him to what I attribute the unhappy condition of the South. I attribute it to Democratic influence, as I did the breaking out of the rebellion, to the fact that the southern people had been misled by the Democratic party of the North into the belief that if they threatened war the cowardly people of the North would acquiesce, and there would be no blood- shed. I attribute it to the same cause to which I attributed the last year and a half of the rebellion, when the confederacy had become a mere shell, and its government was "robbing the cradle and the grave" to replenish the ranks of its exhausted armies; to the influence upon its misguided leaders of the sympathetic speeches of Democratic leaders in the North, to the resolutions of the Chicago convention declaring the war to be a failure, and de- manding peace at any price; and to the course of the northern Democratic press that led the rebels to hope that northern resist- ance to their armies would be checked at home or exhausted, and that they would still by such aid be able to establish their govern- ment. Democratic speeches made here in this House and the course of the Democratic press maintained the rebellion for nearly two 72 ELOQUENCE AND REPARTEE years. And, in conclusion, I say if the Democracy of the North had condemned the outrages in the South which we are considering, the condition of affairs there now would be very different from what it is; and that even now, while we discuss this bill, the assertions of gentlemen, sustained by a plausible show of argument, that there is no constitutional power in Congress or the government to suppress these great wrongs and restore public tranquility, are heard among the Ku Klux and hiss them on to slaughter. In replying to this question I have given the gentleman from Wis- consin (Mr. Eldridge)*, my impressions honestly, as I would utter them before my God in final account. THIS IS WAR. WILLIAM D. KELLEY, OF PENNSYLVANIA. (Delivered in the House of Representatives March 29th, 1871, as a part of the remarks elsewhere given in this book under the head of 'The Poverty of the South and Its Cause.") As the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Whitthorne) adjured us to-day to retrace our steps, it will try to retrace the steps which we have taken and undo the work we have done, and which, if peace is to dwell within our borders, must stand forever. "Retrace your steps," sai'' he. How far back would he have us go? Will he and his par..; :iends be content if we wipe out the fifteenth amendment, or will they require us to add to it the fourteenth and the thirteenth? Will they pause there, or do they intend to require us to unite with them in returning to slavery those in whose veins flow in equal degree Caucasian and African blood, and those in whom seven-eighths of the blood bind them by ties of closer kindred to the white people of the South, and the other eighth to descend- ants long ago brought in slavery from Africa? How far must we retrace our steps to secure the blessed boon of peace? Not one step. No, gentlemen, there will be no retracing IN THE AMERICAN CONGRESS. 75 of steps. We Republicans mean to go on until we shall give full force and effect to every provision of the American Constitution, until we shall have embodied not only in the laws, but intrenched in the daily habits of the American people, the great prophecy made in the Declaration of Independence and referred to by the scholarly and eloquent gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Hoar) to-day, the right of every man within our broad limits to be absolutely free in the enjoyment of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Until this shall be done the Heaven-inspired Republican party will not have accomplished its mission. Sir, a government that cannot protect the humblest man within its limits, that cannot snatch from oppression the feeblest woman or child, is not a government. It is wanting in the vital attribute of government. The power to protect its people inheres indestruct- ibly in all governments, and that frame of Constitution or laws which does not provide for it fails to establish government. But in our case we are not left to inference and deduction. The declaration of this correlative power and duty is blazoned in the forefront of our Constitution. Its preamble is brief, but pregnant, and among the few declared objects of the government then to be created v/ere these: "to establish justice, to insure domestic tran- quility, promote the general welfare and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity." These were objects for which our government was ordained; and it is little less than impious for gentlemen to tell us that no powers granted originally or ingrafted by any of the amendments, empower us to secure to all the people of the South their specified and iundamental rights. Sir, if without the powers given by the recent amendments to the Constitution we had not had the power to make and enforce such a bill as this, the life of the nation could not have been maintained, and the government must have gone down in the midst of war in the earliest days of the rebellion. We found, as exigencies arose, that the powers with which to meet them were in the Constitution, and we exercised them, as I doubt not we would do now, inde- pendent of the recent amendments to the Constitution. 74 ELOQUENCE AND REPARTEE Sir, we are in the condition of war. Domestic tranquility does not prevail throughout the Sotith. I admit that there may be considerable portions of the country in which a general state of good order prevails. I make due allowance for a condition of society following a great war, I make due allowance for all that, and for the effects of poverty and ignorance that necessarily resulted from slavery. Violence is to be expected under such circumstances. Violence, sporadic, emotional, sudden, riotous, turbulent, we were to expect. But the possibility of organized, armed, trained, drilled, sworn bands ot murderers, who should murder for political effect, came not within the scope of my imagination. Yet the proofs are glaring as the sun at noon-day, or the stars in a moonless and cloudless night that this state of afifairs has existed, and does exist, to a large extent among men who are bound by the highest honorable obligation known to soldiers, a parole of honor, to remain at peace. The camps or Klans of the Ku Klux are in many instances officered by paroled confederate officers, and largely com- posed of paroled soldiers. Their camps and Klans are a military organization, and they are all armed. The gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Elliott) told us the other day that there came to them through the port of Charleston, in swiftly recurring invoices, great numbers of Winchester rifles, and a particular species of revolving pistol. Poor men, without visible means of support, whose clothes are ragged and whose lives are almost or absolutely those of vagrants, are thus armed with new and costly rifles, and wear in their belts a brace of expensive pistols. I will not pause to ask who furnish these weapons, with which southern Republicans are to be awed into silence and inaction or murdered. I repeat, sir, that this is war. And that the facts known to us would justify Congress in declaring certain counties of South Carolina, those recently in disturbance, and from which the officers were driven, and certain parts of other States to be in rebellion, and authorize the President to use the United States army in the sup- pression of armed rebellion and the establishment of peace and order. The bill under consideration proposes no such violent r IX THE AMERICAN CONGRESS. 75 remedy as this. It proposes to apply legal and peaceable remedies there, and anywhere else in the country where, under the circum- stances described in the bill, the laws are resisted or nullified by force or armed conspiracy. I would have no more done for the South, or for any of the southern States, than I would have Con- gress do for my own State. When the men of Western Pennsyl- vania undertook to resist the law by armed combination, Washing- ton marched the troops of the United States and the militia under his command into that State and restored order, and we, the good people of Pennsylvania, have found none of our rights invaded, nor our institutions at all impaired, because when lawlessness became stronger than the State government, the United States stepped in, and by restoring the supremacy of the law, established order throughout our limits. Sir, do we live under a government? Are we a civilized people? Because, if we are, and if we do live under a government, the power to suppress outrages such as these is at our command, and the duty of doing it is laid upon us by a power higher than a written Constitution. Humanity implores, and the Father of man and God of justice commands us to put forth our powers and suppress this fiendish organization, and give peace and security to all the men in the South, let them have been born and reared where they may and their color or politics be what they may, and I thank God that the Republican party at last seems disposed to do its whole duty in this behalf. Oh, how old and exhausted arguments do come back again? Said the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Morgan) to-day, "It was an insult to the State of Kentucky to appoint a colored mail agent," and he suggested that that colored man had been appointed to that position for the purpose of insulting Kentucky and bringing on acts of violence. So it used to be said. "Now, you will only anger the South if you do that." "That will be an insult to the South." The South, with a million of armed men in the field, were to have their delicate feelings considered; and we were to do nothing in the way of legislation that would shock their sensibilities. And now 76 ELOQUENCE AND REPARTEE we are to permit a band of sworn men, forty thousand strong, in the single State of North Carolina, to go abroad at night a scourge of the people, and to exist as a terror by day. And for what pur- pose? Why do gentlemen on the other side endeavor to persuade us to desist? Is it not to enable those who sympathized with them and are now in political association with them, to accomplish by murder, conspiracy, and terror what they failed to do by open war — take possession of this government? And when this is done, to follow it up by attempting the mad scheme of retracing "the steps" taken by the American people since rebel guns were fired at Sumter, and turning backward a providential revolution. THE INFERIORITY OF THE NEGRO. WILLIAM D. KELLEY, OF PENNSYLVANIA. (Delivered in the House of Representatives, March 29th, 1871.) The inferiority of the negro has also been hashed up again. Sir, will gentlemen never learn that morals, industry, manhood, general intelligence, stamp the man, and not the character of his hair, or the color of his skin? Will they never learn that the object of government is not to protect the strong, who can care for them- selves, but to protect the weak, the ignorant, and those who are degraded because they have been made to suffer in the past? And how shall you protect such but by giving them their equal political rights, and incorporating them into the political people and power of the country? They were soldiers, they are taxpayers; their industry created the wealth of the South, and will soon restore it if their rights are maintained. The loss by war is simply the loss of the annual crop. It is marvelous, yet well understood by those who have studied the philosophy of the thing, how soon a war-scarred nation regains its wealth; the annual crops coming in from fields quickened by the wastes of war, fields that have lain fallow during the time of IN THE AMERICAN CONGRESS. 77 strife, tilled with renewed courage and industry by the impoverished people, send forth crops larger than ever since they were first tilled. And the observer finds at the end of the fourth or fifth year that the wealth of the people equals the amount that existed when the war began. The outraged colored people of the South have earned the dollars, grown the cotton, the tobacco, the rice, cut the timber, built the factories, to which the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Whitthorne) referred; and shall they enjoy none of them? The madness of the South made them free, and we have fully enfran- chised them by statute and constitutional provision; and shall they have the word of promise to the ear only? Shall they have the nominal right to the privileges of citizenship without participation in the general administration of the government? Shall they have the right to vote, and yet be held by a master class in ignorance, subjection, and degradation, so that when election day comes they may be driven, like dumb cattle, to the polls, or like serfs, away from the places at which those who are really free exercise their right? Gentlemen from the South will learn. ***** * * *** It stands, sir, a spectacle for gods and men, so that many millions oi this long enslaved and oppressed race, who, limited as their opportunities have been, have since shown that there were among them so many capable of performing all the duties of citizens, and who are animated by noble aspirations; but who, while the master and adult male members of the family were away fighting to maintain slavery, they toiled for and watched over the wives and children and aged parents of their oppressors, trusting, with child-like faith, to the God whose day of deliverance they believed to be surely at hand. ***** * * *** But, to recur to a point to which I was addressing myself when diverted by an interruption, the negro, who is spoken of so slight- ingly by gentlemen, is now one of the political elements of the country. There are more than four millions of them in a population of about thirty-eight millions. They must have not only what the 78 ELOQUENCE AND REPARTEE Constitution guarantees to them, the right of suffrage, but must be recognized in all communities as an element of our people, entitled to all rights, privileges, and immunities, especially in South Carolina, where, in i860, four-sevenths of the people were of African descent; in Mississippi, where a still larger proportion of them are so; in Louisiana, where the races divide about equally; and in other sections, learn this fact, the sooner they enjoy peace and prosperity. The sooner they quicken into fruition the hopes, aspirations, and energies of the blacks and the poor whites of the South, by giving them steadiness of employment, by inviting to their midst capital to advance industrial enterprises, the sooner will they enjoy peace and safety and a measure of prosperity which no part of the South has ever enjoyed. It is within my knowledge, sir, that in the early part of 1867 there was a combination of northern capitalists who had gathered together subscriptions amounting to $300,000,000, to be placed at the disposal of the people of the South on such security as they could give. These men mere ready to establish a Credit Mobilier with such a capital which would lend money on mortgage payable in annual installments, the entire principal not to be called in for a given number of years. At the instance of these gentlemen I went through the South to look at its resources and to report upon the probable safety of such investments, and from New Orleans I made a preliminary report, such as could be made by observations from the railroad and from intercourse with the people I had met upon the great thoroughfare. It was favorable. The next report they received was of a certain scene in Mobile, in which, as my com- panions tell me — for military power restrained me from making a personal examination — the wall before which I stood while speaking to the people was marked with sixty-seven bullet marks. One man was struck in the head, the bullet passing around under the scalp and taking off part of the ear as it came out. Another, within three feet of me, placing his hands upon his abdomen, cried out, "My God, I am shot!" and fell dead to the sidewalk. That was the next report. It had precisely the effect, gentlemen, that these assassina- tions of humble men have upon your interests and those of your constituents. IN THE A:MERICAN CONGRESS. 79 Every man driven out of the South, every annoyance, social or otherwise, inflicted upon his family, is a barrier to the flow of capital and a check to the development of your resources. And for your sake, as well as for the sake of our common country and her free institutions and laws, I will support this bill. I do it in no spirit of hostility, but with a feeling of fraternity. You could have had in Mississippi a large infusion of young farmers from Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, but for the slaughter of the two Zooks, who had gone there without politics or political affiliation and carried their hereditary estate with them. And, Mr. Speaker, when their crop of cotton was ripe and ready for picking, their carcasses were found in the field. The neighbors who had annoyed them up to that time would not permit them to enjoy the fruits of their labor; and the negroes, who had been paid their wages, and had not worked on shares, were charged with having murdered them, because, as it was falsely said, their wages had been ^withheld, and they suspected that the crop was about to be carried ofif. Every instance of that kind takes from the South her power, disparages her in the estimation of others, and breeds doubt and dissension among her people; and I say to gentlemen who expect the steps we have taken to be retracted: "Do not lay to your souls the flattering unction that if the Democratic party comes into power you will undo what has been done." Revolutions which enfranchise millions of men never go backward. Masses of men once enfran- chised, and who have drank freely of the waters of freedom, cannot be re-enslaved. Join with us, then, in giving peace and security to your fertile and beautiful section. Say to these people who were so humane and so loyal to your families during the war: "We will protect you; we will win your love and confidence by guarantying your rights." Do that, and it will give you peace, and result in your prosperity; and the North and Europe will hasten with their capital to rebuild your waste places, to construct your railroads, make your harbors, and convert your now useless min- erals, into wealth for you and the world. The school house and the church will then arise where are now to be found vacant barns 80 - ELOQUENCE AND REPARTEE in which camps and Klans of Ku Klux meet to arrange their unholy work. Do not dream that you can disfranchise these men. They know what freedom is, and even the worm will turn and sting. If we do not interpose to give them safety, and you hav^ not the generosity to do it, beware; for a day may come, if millions of people shall be driven to despair, when for every freedman's hut that is desolated, ten blazing mansions may illumine the midnight sky. Sink them not to that condition; save yourselves, I implore you, by proving that there is in you as much humanity as there was in the slaves who, while you warred for their degradation and enslavement, labored for and watched over your wives and children. (Applause.) OUR LIBERTY NOT INDESTRUCTIBLE. (Extract from an address delivered in the House of Representa- tives March 31st, 1871, by Hon. Stevenson Archer, of Maryland.) Our people seem to labor under the delusion that liberty is indestructible. If they will continue, they will soon find a sad end to their delusion. We have seen bad precedents followed by worse. We have seen innovations repeated, and each succeeding one magnified. This bill is the last and greatest of these innovations. We have seen act follow act, until all the orig- inal rights of the States have been absorbed and centered in Con- gress, and Congress now proposes to pass all the power thus ab- sorbed into the hands of one man. Let this bill pass, and then farewell to the republic. Although the people have until the late elections been silent and passive, I pray God they miy yet reclaim the lost ground; and the hope of every patriot now rests on them. I appeal to them to correct these abuses and to restore the government to its original beauty. IN THE AMERICAN CONGRESS. 81 Men who knowingly err will generally justify themselves on -some pretext, and though they have to do so by appealing to some popular prejudices. Revenge is one of the base passions of human nature, and, no doubt, has great weight in shaping public sentiment at the North against the southern people. And there are those •who would pander to this vicious passion by justifying the extreme measures of Congress as a proper punishment to the people of the South for their errors. Such a motive may have influence with some, but it is an aggra- vation of the wrongs. Congress has no right to inflict punishment on individuals or on whole communities. How blind and mis- guided is that policy which undertakes to bring back a misguided people by oppressing and punishing them? Was ever a people brought to love or even respect a government which oppressed them? Man can never be brought to love those who oppress him. Religion may teach it but in vain. And if there be any such thing as a free government which does not command the respect and approbation of the people, statesmen have failed to show us how it can be maintained. Punishment was not the object; it was a shallow pretense, used to deceive the people. The veriest rebel or secessionist at the South becomes at once a loyal citizen, purged of liis offense, by joining the party and sustaining its extreme measures. Many of its most prominent men at the South, from Governors down, were the most zealous and active secessionists. They are rewarded and not punished. There is great joy over their ■conversion to the Republican party. This proves that punishment was not the object. If the southern people are disloyal, as they are charged with being, oppression lias made them so, and the Radical party is responsible therefor. At the close of the war they acknowledged their error, they had suflfered grievously for it, and were anxious to be restored to their relations with the government, and did all in their power to place themselves right. They were repulsed with scorn and consigned to punishment under military despotisms. That old Roman was wise who said in the Roman Senate the way to attach a conquered people to their conquerors is to treat 82 ELOQUENCE AND REPARTEE them with kindness. And it was said that Romulus was very wise^ with respect to the people he subdued, by making those who were his enemies the same day citizens. The southern people are even yet treated as enemies, and such treatment is very sure to make them so. Kindness is the fountain from which attachment springs as well for governments as for individuals. A Roman emperor made a conspirator against his life his warm friend by forgiveness and kindness. Had the Republican party pursued this policy after the war closed, it would have given renewed strength and renewed attachment to the government. Besides, sir, the secessionists had some claims to forgiveness, especially from New England. It was a plant of northern origin, as early as 1796, under the nurture of the Hartford Courant, and upon the acquisition of Louisiana it received a new stimulus and bid fair to bring forth its fruits. Its spread was encouraged by public journals, public meetings, legislative bodies, and from the pulpits. It was fostered by such names as Plummer, Pickering, Hillhouse, Hunt, Otis, Griswold, and others, and culminated in that Hartford convention which sent delegates to Washington as its advocates. Its prospects, however, were blighted by the general joy produced by General Jackson's brilliant defense of New Orleans. To say nothing of the effect of this bill on the South, what of the northern people? By sustaining the Radical party they but forge the chains that ere long will encircle them in the toils of slavery. They have encouraged precedents which this day by this bill threaten to break up their State governments and place them under a one-man, military despotism, which will subject their lives, liberties, and property to military tribunals. And what of the western people, that great community of noble men whose minds should be as free as the air they breathe, will they, too, crouch before the tyrant's scepter, voluntarily surrender their rights, and) willingly take upon themselves the yoke of slavery? Will they quietly stand by and see a military satrap, with licentious soldiery, take possession of their States and State govern- ments? Will they calmly see the standard of military supremacy erected on the ruins of civil power? The North, the West, and I IN THE AMERICAN CONGRESS. 83 the Middle States had better beware. They will but fill the chalice which ere long will be applied to their own lips. When it conies they will have but themselves to blame. In adhering to the Republican party, they have but fostered the monster which is now about to crush them. IN DEFENSE OF NORTH CAROLINA. (Extracts from an address by Hon. Alfred M. Waddell, of North Carolina, in the House of Representatives, April ist, 1871.) Mr. Speaker, I rise to the performance of a sacred filial duty to my mother State. And it is fortunate for me that I am called upon to do so to-day, because very recently, in another place, another of her children intrusted with her honor and her dearest interests, a sentinel upon her highest watch-tower, has betrayed his trust. Sir, in the criminal code of the Romans there was no provision made for the punishment of parricide, because it was considered an impossible crime. The unnatural being who could slay father or mother was considered as outside of the range of possibilities in creation. What shall be said of the American citizen who, when his mother State lies prostrate and helpless under accumulated calamities, unparalleled in the history of this country, when she stretches her bleeding arms and utters her pleading voice to him to aid and defend her, not only turns a deaf ear to her cry, but can become the willing tool of her defamers and despoilers; cannot only stand by consenting unto her death, but can himself give the last, final stab to her honor and her life? Sir, such a character as that was fitly described in the burning language of the poet-patriot of Ireland: "Unpraised are her sons till they've learned to betray. Undistinguished they live, if they shame not their sires; And the torch that would light them thro' dignity's way Must be caught from the pile where their country expires." 8-1: ELOQUENCE AND REPARTEE But while I admit that crimes have been committed, and that from various causes the perpetrators of them have escaped punish- ment, I do most emphatically deny that the people, or any considerable portion of them, countenance or encourage the wrong- doers. I deny that there has been or is now any resistance to the execution of the laws, State or Federal. I deny that the property or lives of loyal men (which too often means licensed thieves) are not safe down there; and I assert that the humblest officer in the State, even though he be a negro constable, so black that charcoal would make a white mark on him, can go in safety, alone, and at midnight, and arrest the best citizen of the State. Admitting all that can justly and truthfully be said against her people, I assert that in no State of this Union is there now, or has. there been, less crime of any kind than in the State of North Carolina. I assert that a more quiet, peaceable, and law-abiding people than her citizens do not live on earth, not even excepting: that favored land which was blessed by the nativity, and now rejoices in the existence, of the gentleman from Massachusetts. Still they have been pilloried before the world as a decivilized community, in which social chaos prevailed; the State has been represented as one in which the genius of murder held high carnival, as an accursed land of outlaws and assassins, in which there was no protection for life, liberty, or property, and upon which the iron hand of military power must be laid to reduce it to order and peace. We, her Representatives on this floor, have sat quietly and listened to the denunciations of our people by gentlemen who have no other acquaintance with them than such as they have gathered from their slanderers and traducers, until we would have been losti in amazement except for the fact that no style of argument other than that of generosity can surprise us. We have no bitter words to say to gentlemen on the other side while defending our State and our people. They have worn the collar six long, weary years in silence and sorrow, and if they had not been sustained by the deathless spirit of true heroism and love of liberty, they would have utterly succumbed to their fate. They must still submit tc IN THE AMERICAN CONGRESS. 85 whatever legislation is provided for them; but, although reduced to a condition of political degradation heretofore unknown in this country, although smitten by poverty, plundered and oppressed, they still struggle manfully on, clinging to the hope that their countrymen will yet do them justice, and restore to them their rights. I will describe to you in a few words the true condition of the people of North Carolina after the war, and their experience during the past five years of Republican rule, while under the absolute control of ''the party of progress and great moral ideas," and I will say at the outset that no party in the history of this country ever had such an opportunity to perpetuate its power by intrenching itself behind impregnable lines, and no party ever so utterly wasted its opportunities and so covered itself with disgrace. Coming out of the great struggle like a strong man exhausted by fever, the State lay prostrate and helpless. I shall not insult the intelligence of the House by dwelling on the evils attending the annihilation of the entire labor system of a country at a single blow, nor shall I harrow my own feelings by a recital of the sufferings and humiliations to which our people were subjected. Suffice it to say that they pre- sented a condition which demanded, if not the experiment of active charity, at least the privilege of exemption from further molestation. They had complied with all that was required of them by the government, and only desired to rebuild, as best they might, their waste places. Now, Mr. Speaker, to return to the bill under consideration, I wish to utter my -solemn protest against its passage, not merely because it will affect the people whom I represent, but as an American citizen, who, regardless of your incredulity, still loves his country and earnestly desires to promote her glory and prosperity. If the people of the South were inspired by a sentiment of re- venge toward their countrymen, if, like Samson of old, they wished to involve the whole American people with themselves in a common ruin, I know no way in which that sentiment could be more swiftly b m ELOQUENCE AND REPARTEE and surely gratified than by the passage of this bill. Pass it and you tear down the last column on which rests the still fair but disfigured temple of American liberty. Pass it, and by congress- ional enactment you will have established an absolute despotism, not o/er the South alone, but over the whole country. Pass it, and the whole power of this government will be in the hands of one, whose hands never relax their grasp on anything that is put into them. And then you will see that of which you have now but a glimpse; then you will indeed see him "instruct his princes after his will and teach his Senators" not to oppose his schemes of aggrandizement. If gentlemen will not listen to the protest of the people of the southern States against this rank usurpation, because they are accustomed to disregard appeals from that quarter, let them at least, for their own sake and that of their children, whose rights and liberties are imperiled, cease this violent, unconstitutional, and revolutionary legislation, which can bring only evil upon the country, the whole country; for the man must be a stark fool who cannot see that, however strong the disposition to limit the opera- tion of this bill to the southern States, it will inevitably and inexorably extend its deadly influence over the whole land. I feel, Mr. Speaker, the extraordinary circumstances by which I and my southern colleagues find ourselves surrounded on this occasion. I feel that I stand here to-day a messenger sent back by those who have passed through the bitter waters of a Dead sea, to warn their more fortunate brethren who have not yet reached its shores of what awaits them in its passage, and to arrest their footsteps. It will be well with them if they heed the warning. But if they do not, if they will persist in their blind march into the region of political darkness and death, we will at least have the satisfaction of knowing that the calamities which surely await them arc in no wise chargeable to us. ***** * * *♦» Now, Mr. Speaker, I shall bring my remarks to a close, and in doing so I desire to address myself to gentlemen who contem- plate voting for this measure. The people of those States which IN THE AMERICAN CONGRESS. 87 gentlemen seem to take pleasure in designating as "the States lately in rebellion," people whom gentlemen still continue to denominate "rebels" in this sixth year of peace, are quite accustomed to military rule, the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus, and the like. It is no new thing to them. Bad and disgraceful as it is to American civilization, it is better than some of the so-called civil governments which have existed in those States. If your eagerness to secure the blessings of that kind of government is so great that you cannot be happy until it is established everywhere throughout the country, perhaps, those of us who have experienced those blessings ought not to be so selfish as to oppose your equal participation in them. It is barely possible, after all, that under the influence of a catholic spirit the southern people may rejoice with you in the accomplishment of your purpose. But I serve notice on you now and here, before the American people, that when your purpose is accomplished, when by a reckless violation of the Constitution of your country, in order to carry elections and to maintain a party in power, you shall have delivered over your constituents, bound hand and foot, to the mercy of a military despot, and cannot turn your frightened gaze toward those upon whom you have so long been accustomed to lay your burdens, and pile upon their bowed heads this last load of crime and folly. IN DEFENSE OF THE LOYAL MEN OF THE SOUTH. (Extract from an address by Robert B. Elliott, of South Caro- lina, in the House of Representatives, April ist, 1871.) ***** * * *** I do not wish to be understood as speaking for the colored man alone when I demand instant protection for the loyal men of the South. No, sir, my demand is not so restricted. In South Carolina alone, at the last election, twelve thousand of the working white men in good faith voted the Republican ticket, openly 88 ELOQUENCE AND REPARTEE. arraying themselves on the side of free government This class- has discovered that the same beneficent system that emancipates the laborer of the one race secures the freedom of the other. They understand that the shackle that bound the arms of the black man threw a deep shadow on the path of the laboring white. The white Republican of the South is also hunted down and murdered or scourged for his opinion's sake, and during the past two years more than six hundred loyal men of both races have perished in my State alone. Yet, sir, it is true that these masked murderers strike chiefly at the black race. And here I say that every southern gentleman should blush with shame at this pitiless and cowardly persecution of the negro. If the former master will yield no obedience to the laws of the land, he should at least respect the claims of common gratitude. To him I say that the negro, whom you now term a barbarian, unfit for and incapable of self-government, treated you in the day of your weakness with a forbearance and magnanimity unknown before in the history of a servile population. In the dark days of the war, when your strong men were far to the front, the negro, with no restraint save his own self-control, tilled your fields and kept watch and ward over your otherwise unprotected dwell- ings. He guarded the person of your wife, the chastity of your daughter, and the helpless infancy of your children. Nobly sup- pressing the manhood that burned within him, he learned "to labor and to wait," and exhibited through all his weary years of sufifering and unrequited toil — "That calm reliance upon God For justice in His own good time. That gentleness to which belongs Forgiveness for its many wrongs." And how do you requite him now? Be it said to the shame of your boasted chivalry among men of honor in every land, simply because he exercises his privileges as an American freeman, you would drive him into exile with the pitiless lash or doom him to swift murder, seeking your revenge for political power lost by moving at midnight along the path of the assassin! IN THE AMERICAN CONGRESS. 89 It is the custom, sir, of Democratic journals to stigmatize the negroes of the South as being in a semi-barbarous condition; but pray tell me, who is the barbarian here, the murderer or his victim? I fling back in the teeth of those who make it this most false and foul aspersion upon the negro of the southern States. I thank God that in the darkest chapters in the history of my race there is no such record as that unfolded by the dread annals that tell the story of the long-protracted horrors of Andersonville. I trust, sir, that this bill will pass quickly, and be quickly enforced. History teaches us that the adequate policy is the best. In one section of the Union crime is stronger than law. Murder, unabashed, stalks abroad in many of the southern States. If you cannot now protect the loyal men of the South, then have the loyal people of this great republic done and suffered much in vain, and your free Constitution is a mockery and a snare. It is recorded that on the entry of Louis XVHI. into Paris, after the fall of the great Napoleon, an old marshal of the empire who stood in the vast throng, unknown, was addressed by an ardent Bourbon who expatiated on the gorgeous splendors that marked the scene, and exclaimed: "Is this not grand? Is it not magnificent? What is there wanting to the occasion?" "Noth- ing," said the war-worn veteran, as his mind wandered over Lodi and Wagram and Austerlitz, and the hundred other fields of victory where he struck beneath the eagles of his now fallen chief. "Nothing," he answered with tremulous voice; "nothing is wanting to the occasion but the presence of the brave men who died to prevent it." Such, sir, will be the bitter reflection of all loyal men in this nation, if the Democratic party shall triumph in the States of the South through armed violence. 90 ELOQUENCE AND REPARTEE ENFORCEMENT OF FOURTEENTH AMENDMENT. (Extracts from an address delivered by Hon. Joseph H. Rainey, of South Carolina, in the House of Representatives, April 1st, 1871.) Mr. Speaker, in approaching the subject now under considera- tion, I do so with a deep sense of its magnitude and importance, and in full recognition of the fact that a remedy is needed to meet the evil now existing in most of the southern States, but especially in that one which I have the honor to represent in part, the State of South Carolina. The enormity of the crimes constantly per- petrated there finds no parallel in the history of this republic in her very darkest days. There was a time when the early settlers of New England were compelled to enter the fields, their homes, even the very sanctuary itself, armed to the full extent of their means. While the people were offering their worship to God within those humble walls, their voices kept time with the tread of the sentry outside. But, sir, it must be borne in mind that at the time referred to civilization had but just begun its work upon this continent. The surroundings were unpropitious, and as yet the grand capabili- ties of this fair land lay dormant under the fierce tread of the red man. But as civilization advanced with its steady and resistless sway, it drove back those wild cohorts and compelled them to give way to the march of improvement. In course of time superior intelligence made its impress and established its dominion upon this continent. That intelligence, with an influence like that of the sun rising in the east and spreading its broad rays like a garment of light, gave life and gladness to the dark and barbaric land of America. Surely, sir, it were but reasonable to hope that this sacred influence should never have been overshadowed, and that in the history of other nations, no less than in our own past, we might find beacon-lights for our guidance. In part this has been realized, and might have reached the height of our expectations if it had not been IN THE AMERICAN CONGRESS. 91 for the blasting effects of slavery, whose deadly pall has so long spread its folds over this nation, to the destruction of peace, union, and concord. Most particularly has its baneful influence been felt in the South, causing the people to be at once restless and discon- tented. Even now, sir, after the great conflict between slavery and freedom, after the triumph achieved at such a cost, we can yet see the traces of the disastrous strife and the remains of disease in the body-politic of the South. In proof of this, witness the frequent outrages perpetrated upon our loyal men. The prevailing spirit of the Southron is either to rule or to ruin. Voters must perforce succumb to their wishes or else risk life itself in the attempt to maintain a simple right of common manhood. The suggestions of the shrewdest Democratic papers have proved unavailing in controlling the votes of the loyal whites and blacks of the South. Their innuendoes have been evaded. The people emphatically decline to dispose of their rights for a mess of pottage. In this particular the Democracy of the North found themselves foiled and their money needless. But with a spirit more demon-like than that of a Nero or a Caligula, there has been con- cocted another plan, destructive, aye, diabolical in its character, worthy only of hearts without regard for God or man, fit for such deeds as those deserving the name of men would shudder to per- form. Is it asked, what are those deeds? Let those who liberally contributed to the supply of arms and ammunition in the late re- bellious States answer the question. Soon after the close of the war there had grown up in the South a very widely-spread willing- ness to comply with the requirements of the law. But as the clemency and magnanimity of the general government became manifest, once again did the monster rebellion lift his hydra head in renewed defiance, cruel and cowardly, fearing the light of day, hiding itself under the shadow of the night as more befitting its bloody and accursed work. I need not, Mr. Speaker, recite here the murderous deeds com- mitted both in North and South Carolina. I could touch the feelings of this House by the story of widows and orphans now wandering amid the ravines of the rural counties of my native State 92 ELOQUENCE AND REPARTEE seeking protection and maintenance from others who are yet unable, on account of their own poverty, to grant them aid. I could dwell upon the sorrows of poor women, with their helpless infants, cast upon the world, homeless and destitute, deprived of their natural protectors by the red hand of the midnight assassin. I could appeal to you, members upon this floor, as husbands and fathers, to picture to yourselves the desolation of your own happy firesides should you be suddenly snatched away from your loved ones. Think of gray-haired men, whose four score years are almost numbered, the venerated heads of peaceful households, without warning mur- dered for political opinion's sake. ****** * * ** Could I exhume the murdered men and women of the South, Mr. Speaker, and array their ghastly forms before your eyes, I should not need remove the mantle from them, because their very presence would appeal, in tones of plaintive eloquence, which would be louder than a million tongues. They could indeed — "A tale unfold whose lightest word Would harrow up thy soul." ****** * * ** In the dawn of our freedom our young republic was widely recognized and proudly proclaimed to the world the refuge, the safe asylum of the oppressed of all lands. Shall it be said that at this day, through mere indifference and culpable neglect, this grand boast of ours is become a mere form of words, an utter fraud? I earnestly hope not! And yet, if we stand with folded arms and idle hands, while the cries of our oppressed brethren sound in our ears, what will it be but a proof to all men that we are utterly unfit for our glorious mission, unworthy of our noble privileges, as the greatest of republics, the champions of freedom for all men? I would that every individual man in this whole nation could be aroused to a sense of his own part and duty in this great question. When we call to mind the fact that this persecution is waged against men for the simple reason that they dare to vote with the party which has saved the Union intact by the lavish expenditure of blood and treasure, and has borne the nation safely through the fearful IN THE AMERICAN CONGRESS. 93 crisis of these last few years, our hearts swell with an overwhelming indignation. ****** * * ** In most of the arguments to which I have listened the positions taken are predicated upon the ground of the unconstitutionality of the bill introduced by the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Shella- barger). For my part, I am not prepared, Mr. Speaker, to argue this question from a constitutional standpoint alone. I take the ground that, in my opinion, lies far above the interpretation put upon the provisions of the Constitution. I stand upon the broad plane of right; I look to the urgent, the importunate demands of the present emergency; and while I am far from advocating any step not in harmony with that sacred law of our land, while I would not violate the lightest word of that chart which has so well guided us in the past, yet I desire that so broad and liberal a con- struction be placed upon its provisions as will insure protection to the humblest citizen, without regard to rank, creed, or color. Tell me nothing of a constitution which fails to shelter beneath its rightful power the people of a country! I believe when the fathers of our country framed the Constitution they made the provisions so broad that the humblest, as well as the loftiest citizen, could be protected in his inalienable rights. It was designed to be, and is, the bulwark of freedom, and the strong tower of defense, against foreign invasion and domestic violence. I desire to direct your attention to what is embodied in the pre- amble, and would observe that it was adopted after a liberal and protracted discussion on every article composing the great Ameri- can Magna Charta. And like a keystone to an arch it made the work complete. Here is what it declares: "We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America." If the Constitution which we uphold and support as the funda- mental law of the United States is inadequate to afford security to 94 ELOQUENCE AND REPARTEE life, liberty, and property— if, I say, this inadequacy is proven, there its work is done, then it should no longer be recognized as the Magna Charta of a great and free people; the sooner it is set aside the better for the liberties of the nation. ^***** * * ** I say to the gentlemen of the opposition, and to the entire membership of the Democratic party, that upon your hands rests the blood of the loyal men of the South. Disclaim it as you will, the stain is there to prove your criminality before God and the world in the day of retribution, which will surely come. I pity the man or party of men who would seek to ride into power over the dead body of a legitimate opponent. ****** * * ** If the country there is impoverished, it has certainly not been caused by the fault of those who love the Union, but it is simply the result of a disastrous war madly waged against the best govern- ment known to the world. The murder of unarmed men and the maltreating of helpless women can never make restitution for the losses which are the simply inevitable consequence of the rebellion. The faithfulness of my race during the entire war, in supporting and protecting the families of their masters, speaks volumes in their behalf as to the real kindliness of their feelings toward the white people of the South. In conclusion, sir, I would say that it is in no spirit of bitterness against the southern people that I have spoken to-day. There are many among them for whom I entertain a profound regard, having known them in former and brighter days of their history. I have always felt a pride in the prestige of my native State, noted as she has been for her noble sons, with their lofty intellect or tried statesmanship. But it is not possible for me to speak in quiet and studied words of those unworthy her ancient and honorable name, who at this very day are doing all they can do to deface her fair records of the past and bring the old State into disrepute. I can say for my people that we ardently desire peace for our- selves and for the whole nation. Come what will, we are fully determined to stand by the Republican party and the government. IN THE AMERICAN CONGRESS. 95. As to our fate, "we are not wood, we are not stone," but men, with feelings and sensibilities like other men whose skin is of a lighter hue. When myself and colleagues shall leave these halls and turn ou- footsteps toward our southern homes we know not but that the assassin may await our coming, as marked for his vengeance. Should this befall, we would bid Congress and our country to remember that 'twas — "Bloody treason flourish'd over us." Be it as it may, we have resolved to be loyal and firm, "and if we perish, we perish!" I earnestly hope the bill will pass. THE NATION MUST PROTECT HER CITIZENS. (Extracts from an address by Hon. Ellis H. Roberts, of New York, delivered in the House of Representatives, April 3rd, 1871.) ****** * :^ *:)« In SO grave an emergency people naturally turn to the govern- ment for help. In the present case the wronged and outraged victims appeal to the republic, for fidelity to which they are abused. So serious are the difficulties, that every human resource should be employed to afford relief. Every American citizen turns instinctively to that power which was ordained "to establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, and secure the blessings of liberty." They look to Congress "to provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States." This is a nation, and in no nook or cranny of its domain is there a spot where the national aegis does not cover the humblest of its citizens. So much is guaranteed in the clause of the Constitution that "no State shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States;" and statutes may rightfully so provide, and may be en- forced by every proper means. The present violence is directly aimed to break down, not only national law, but the recent amend- ments to the national Constitution. Shall it be conceded that these 96 ELOQUENCE AND REPARTEE are all a mere brutum fulmen? May we create citizens and not protect them? Does the Constitution enfranchise a race, only to consign it helplessly to wrong and outrage and murder? No, Mr. Speaker, the constitutional power exists to protect the citizens of the republic. Upon that branch of the subject the arguments of the chairman of the select committee, the eminent gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Shellabarger), and of the other dis- tinguished gentlemen who have followed him on this side, are unanswered and unanswerable. And the argument of the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr, Elliott) and his appeal shame the ability and patriotism of the minority of this House. The doctrine of State sovereignty is proclaimed anew. The chief of the "lost cause," Jefiferson Davis, at Selma, Alabama, in the month of March, just passed, in the midst of popular applause, "expressed the hope that he would yet live to see the sovereignty of the State vindicated," and predicted that it would ultimately triumph. Concede that sovereignty, and Alabama must cease its outrages upon citizens of other States domiciled within her borders. Against the plea of State rights to cover the butchery of citizens, the same State rights protest. Citizens of New York seeking homes in South Carolina and Alabama have had their roofs burned over them and have been driven away by violence. Yes; citizens of New York are victims of these outrages. And if State rights are to be set up, I insist upon the claim of the Empire State, that its citizens shall have all privileges and immunities of citizens in every State of this Union. And for the security of those privileges and immuni- ties I appeal to all the power of the national government. And there are ethics which underlie and inspire and interpret constitutions. Obligations are mutual. Allegiance presupposes protection. The chief sovereignty guarantees that, and failure any- where it must correct. Nothing can so weaken the life of a govern- ment as even to seem to neglect its citizens. No higher duty can exist than to protect them. Be they white or black, they must have free speech, a free ballot, and a safe home. Born here or there, beside the lakes or the gulf, beyond the seas or under the shadow of the Capitol, once a citizen, however humble, he may IN THE AMERICAN CONGRESS. 97 claim the protection of the laws. The carpet-bag has been made the pretext of slaughter; let it become the symbol of the expulsion of the new barbarism. The American must travel, must be free to move. That freedom has made the wealth and greatness of our territories. It has chosen our remotest rivers for its daily pathway. It burrows in the mines of Nevada as naturally as it saunters on Broadway. Its white plume waves on the Sierras and penetrates the forests of the farthest north. The carpet-bag is the sign of the vitality of our people. You may possibly limit the Russian to the hamlet of his birth; to the American the continent belongs. He carries his nationality with him. He will be protected in the harbor of Constantinople, and he will be delivered from British prisons on a simple certificate of naturalization. So he must be protected where the magnolia blooms and the cotton bursts its bolls; where the orange tree and the sugar cane woo the sun, as well as where the maize lifts its spears and the early snows bring their mantle of peace. History, indeed, is conclusive that mere severity is not states- manship. Elizabeth and Cecil tried harsh measures upon Ireland, and their example has been long followed by their successors. Sir Henry Sidney had overrun four provinces, had blown up castles, and harried towns, and as Froude says, "it was the way of a bird in the air, the way of a ship upon the sea, the way of a serpent upon the rock." For a single emergency armies serve a purpose; for per- manent government the iron hand is always a failure. The best brains of England have failed to make it successful in India, in Ireland, anywhere. We have tried it with our Indians, and it has failed. You may annihilate communities, you may make the country a desert, as parts of India and of Ireland have been — swept clean as a threshing-floor. But our danger is not in that direction. Run over in your mind, Mr. Speaker, the assaults made upon the principles involved in this bill. We have heard from the ablest constitutional lawyers on the Democratic side of the House, from their ablest reasoners. What have they told us? Let me do them 98 ELOQUENCE AND REPARTEE entire justice and extend to them full courtesy. They have vouch- safed to us very little of legal or constitutional argument, but a great deal of denunciation of the Republican party. They have touched very little upon the sacred rights of the citizen, and the grand obligations of government by the people, but they have had much to say about who may and who may not come back to this hall. They forget there has been a war and a victory. They reproduce the old prejudices of pro-slavery days, and they still assume that the rule of violence beneath a southern sun is chivalry. Did you observe, too, the chaste wit with which on Saturday the attempt was made to belittle the sufferings of the southern people? The same men were wont to ridicule "bleeding Kansas." Nero fiddled while Rome was burning. It is Democratic statesman- ship to chuckle and to laugh over the mutilation and murder of American citizens. To men to whom these things appear seemly it may seem decent also to denounce as tyranny the legislation which has enfranchised a race and saved a republic. But, step by step, our opponents have learned the lessons which the Republican party has taught them. The effort to render freedom national and slavery sectional was quite as radical and as dangerous, our enemies being witnesses, as is the present bill. Sir, the glory of the Consti- tution was never known until the Republican party demonstrated that it meant more than the protection of slavery. Was that usurpation? That Constitution has been the true firmament of popular liberty; but it was left for this generation, and for you, Mr. Speaker, and your party, to set in it the three amendments of personal liberty, of equal citizenship, and of a free ballot — the three blazing stars in the sword-belt of Orion — to guide political mariners forever. This enlargement of equal rights has been the tyranny, the usurpation of Congress, approved by the people for the past ten years. ****** * * ** Years at best the embers of the strife would smolder. Run the plowshare of industry deep among them and turn them under the IN THE AMERICAN CONGRESS. 99 green turf. Let the showers of material prosperity drench them. Then, by patience and by time, they will be transformed into productive and beneficent elements of the soil. Now, any mischief- maker may rake them up, and they will glow with lurid light and with destroying heat. Something may be done by Congress, and it must be done efficiently. But the real work must be done at home. Laws must be sustained by moral sentiment and personal effort must supplement official action. Then not too much march- ing of armies will be required. The peace which is to "come to stay" must have its home in the hearts of the people. And for a like reason amnesty must have a basis in society and in feeling on the soil. It is absurd for Congress to remove disabili- ties from those who were chiefs in the rebellion, while that very class are busy impeaching Republican officials on political pretexts and imposing disabilities by the lash, the scourge, the bowie knife, and the pistol. Concede protection to loyal men; let citizens be rendered safe, not by law and force only, but by mutual alliance and friendly purposes, and no limit can be set to the magnanimity of the American people and of their Representatives. For, as they have demonstrated their heroism by great deeds of conflict, they can and will seek peace by methods equally chivalric. But to that result co-operation is demanded on the part of all classes of the southern people. Good feeling must be reciprocal. On the part of Congress the first step has been to pull the mask from the face of this monstrous conspiracy and to show it in its horrid deformity. The report of the Senate committee has let the light in upon a single State, and the Ku Klux sits at the mouth of its cave, a Giant Despair, mumbling over the bones of his victims. The proposed joint committee will do more work of the same kind; and the conspiracy will retreat as it advances. That committee will be only the head-light of the national power. It will be well if before it the new barbarism will scatter and disappear. For, sure as the fiat of God, men, and not masks, are to rule this land. Law and administration must enlist to establish civilization, an orderly industry, courts open to all, and absolute protection for every citizen. With them co-operates every moral influence: books and V-, Of 0. 100 ELOQUENCE AND REPARTEE journals, human thought and the world's progress. "Day unto day uttereth speech." Let the statute you are now considering add its educational force. It would be well, indeed, if both parties on this floor would unite in declaring that every American citizen has about him the panoply of a government of forty million people pledged to each other's defense in every legal right. If that may not be, at all events let the majority of this House, of both Houses, record in law the sacred obligation of personal protection to every inhabitant, and appeal to every moral and beneficent influence to join with us in the crusade of peace. We have a right to ask the Democratic party to withhold its insidious poison, to cease its instigations to violence, to stop the devices for "firing the southern heart," to bid its partisans obey the laws. We have a right to counsel all classes at the South, for their own sake and for the honor of the Union, to trample out lawlessness and do the works of peace. And we rely now, as in the long, dark days, upon the Republican party to arouse the national conscience, to stiffen popular determination, to consecrate all moral influences and all the power of the government, to protect the weak and the defenseless, and to maintain and perpetuate the equal rights of every citizen by secure liberty under law. TENNESSEE INVITES CAPITAL. (Extract from an address delivered by Hon. John M. Bright, of Tennessee, in the House of Representatives, April 3rd, 1871.) The Representative from Pennsylvania (Mr. Kelley), from his tour through the South in 1867, seemed to imagine that the very soil was burning with rebellion, and that the air was shimmering with stifling heat, and he concluded that northern men and northern capital could not venture there in safety. Capital is calculating and timid, and just such speeches as his are repressing the outflow of the redundant capital of the North. IN THE AMERICAN CONGRESS. M I can say that northern men, who were northern soldiers, with northern capital, with Republican politics, have erected woolen mills, the dull thunder of whose looms reverberates day and night thi-nigh the streets of my own quiet village. Our mountain gates in East Tennessee stand open wide. The great basin of Middle Tennessee, with its blue mountain rim on the east and the Tennessee river as a water-belt on the west, with a soil exuberant in the pro- duction of all the grasses, cereals and staples, and West Tennessee, alike remarkable in fertility, and washed by the Father of Waters •on the west, all stand open to the influx of honest industry, capital, and improvement in useful arts. Her quarries of marble, her beds of copper, of iron, and of coal, exist in mountain masses; aye, her coal-beds are sufficient to feed the smelting furnaces of the nation. The renown of Lowell will pale before her water-powers, whose roar, unheeded for ages, has been calling to be apprenticed to the servitude of machinery. All are welcome to come with their cap- ital, to be of us and affiliate with us, but not to make war upon us. I regret that I am called upon to notice the invidious comparison of the same Representative between the metropolitan refinements of the laboring class of his constituents, whose dwellings are lighted with gas and who have the convenience of hot and cold-water baths, and the southern laboring men, who live in humble homes and are denied the conveniences of his constituents. Let me remind the honorable gentleman that, while I do not represent much of the ornamental part of society, I do represent in the main a brave, intelligent, virtuous, and hospitable peasantry, who, in common with the same class scattered through the rural districts everywhere, constitute the bone and sinevv- of the republic. It is sometimes the case that the country has to deplore the decay of her men, amid the increase of her wealth: ''111 fares the land, to hastening ills a prey, Where wealth accumulates and men decay. Princes and lords may flourish or may fade, A breath can make them, as a breath has made; But a bold peasantry, their country's pride, ; When once destroyed, can never be supplied." 102 ELOQUENCE AND REPARTEE AN APPEAL FOR MAGNANIMITY TOWARD THE SOUTH. (Extract from an address of Hon. John M. Bright, of Tennessee, delivered in the House of Representatives, April 3rd, 1871.) But grant me a word, not to harrow, but to heal. The South regarded the government as sectionalized in the election of Presi- dent Lincoln. The ship of State careened and drifted upon the dark cliff of American slavery. The shock precipitated many of us overboard, and how the craft was shattered we all know too well. Although war generally executes its own judgments (and how terribly they fell upon the South none but they do know); yet Congress has continued to afflict us with rapid installments of vengeance. More than one hundred thousand of our southern sons lie sleeping on the battlefield; our maimed and wounded soldiers hobble on their crutches unpensioned by a friendly government; our land was ravaged, burned, and blackened with desolation, as if swept with a "whirlwind of fire;" famine breathed through her shriveled lips misery upon the children of poverty and want; our State authorities disfranchised the mass of our citizens, and, in some instances, drove from the ballot box the old pioneers who had driven out the savages, and had wrestled with the old oaks of the forest to subdue the country for the coming generations. The Federal Government came and partitioned the country into military districts, dismantled some of the Legislatures, expelled the judiciary, dishabilitated the citizens, and dragged the rugged harrow of reconstruction through the bowels of our State Constitu- tions. Some of the States were denied representation in the Elec- toral College for President, and some were held off in political quarantine and denied representation in Congress until they adopted the fourteenth amendment, old Virginia among the number. Yes, old Virginia, who, when ancient liberty was to be won, furnished IN THE AMERICAN CONGRESS. 103 a Henry to thunder in her forum, a Washington to roll the tide of war, successive Presidents to guide the helm, and brought as dowry to the Union the vast domain in the West out of which have grown up giant States like children around her feet. Surely western Representatives will not forget that they have a mother, and surely will not vote for her further humiliation. Nearly every act of Congress has a sting for the southern man. When, willing to bury the memories of the past, he treads his way into the far West, upon the rough and perilous edge of Indian warfare, even there he finds the sectional presence of his govern- ment, denying him the benefit of the homestead unless he can take the test-oath. The old soldier in our second war of independence, who fol- lowed General Jackson, who, in the language of a great statesman of Tennessee — "Silenced the roar of the British lion on the plains of New Orleans, and the American eagle took its loftiest flight and uttered its loudest note of exultant liberty" — these old soldiers now come and hold out their hands, trembling with the palsy of age and want, and ask the pittance of a pension in remembrance of an ancient debt of gratitude, and they are refused unless they can pass the purgatorial ordeal. We have not only felt the linger, but the pressure of the loin of the government upon us. We have been war-ridden, tax-ridden, debt-ridden, poverty-ridden, league-ridden, Ku-Klux-ridden, militia- ridden. State-ridden, Congress-ridden; and now to be President- ridden, with the halter of the habeas corpus, and his military rowels dashed into our lacerated flanks, it would overleap all the bounds of mercy. Let me assure the Republicans that they are greatly abused by the mendacious rumors of oppression which come pealing to them from the South. As the keeper of the lion rowels him up in his cage with his iron bar until he provokes a defiant growl, so some political miscreant may gall the rebel to utter a murmur, which enters a sort of Dionysius ear, reaching from Congress into the South, and as it travels it swells into appalling thunder as it opens 104 ELOQUENCE AND REPARTEE into the hall of Congress. And then you begin to cry out "Re- bellion!" "Reconstruction!" and all your resentments flare up to- ward the South like the quills of the porcupine. Let me appeal to you of the North to dignify your great triumph over your southern brethren with magnanimity and mercy. Cease to play with the thunders, change your line of policy, expunge your sectional legislation, and strike the fetters from your disfranchised brethren. Let us, North and South, bring our sectional prejudices and sacrifice them as burnt ofiferings on the common altar of our country. Let the compassion of Congress be stretched out like the wings of a mighty angel and shake the odors of forgiveness on the land. Let us try and imitate the sublime divinity of Him who, with the gall upon His lips, looked up to Heaven through His crown of thorns and invoked the benediction of forgiveness on His foes. Then our land will have rest; then will we have universal peace, brotherhood, and prosperity. A DEFENSE OF THE CARPET-BAGGER. (Extract from an address of Hon. George C. McKee, of Missis- sippi, delivered in the House of Representatives, April 3rd, 1871.) ***** * * >!=** The opposition have dealt heavily in assertions and (•r^'^nnciations against the Republican party, and especially against sfjuih' -n Re- publicans. Even the very able and, generally, very courteous gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. Beck) makes a stump speech which would delight any half-way reasonable Ku Klux; and he particularly denounces the "carpet-baggers," as he is pleased to denominate those who settled in the South from the North. I did expect such puerilities from certain other gentlemen, but not from him. It seems to me that one who brought his fillibeg and empty sporran all the way from Scotland to Kentucky might pardon a native citizen who simply removes from one part of his country to another. IN THE AMERICAN CONGRESS. 105 I came to Mississippi during the war. I came beneath the con- quering flag of my country, upholding and sustaining it. I live in Mississippi because I have the right to do so; and no one can gainsay it. And if I had only been there eight months, instead of eight years, my right would be the same. All that I have is in Mississippi. My property and my interests are there. There my hopes of the future are centered. I rejoice in her rejoicings and sympathize in her sorrows. In the happy and prosperous days which I think and hope are coming to Mississippi in the not far distant future, under the auspices of peace and order, I shall claim my share of her gladness and her prosperity; and if, which God avert, sorrow and disaster should come to Mississippi, though with bowed head and sorrowing heart, yet will I not shrink from bearing her cross. And to those who talk of driving me and mine out of the State, I tell them that my foot is as firm as was the foot of McGregor when he trod his native heath. Other members of the opposition try another tack, and are sonietimes inclined to be soothing, and tell us in dulcet tones of the peace and order now reigning in the South. Listen to the harmonious voice of the gentleman of Tennessee (Mr. Whitthorne) while he tells us that — "The whole country is in a state of peace; no more disorder at the South than in the North; no more of murder, no more of arson, no more of robbery, no more of larceny, no more of outrages, committed by persons in disguise." Oh, sweet beatitude! Oh, thrice blessed, peaceful elysiuni of Memphis! The millennium has arrived! The Prince of Peace has surely come to reign among the sweet Ku Klux lambs of Tennessee! I congratulate the happy Representatives of that peaceful people. I wish that all this were, indeed, true. I would that I could believe it. The gentleman with his fertile imagination traces the picture as he and I would wish it, but he traces it in fancy's glowing dyes; but to me stern truth paints it in darker hues and gives it a more somber coloring, and the pages whereon is written the history of reconstruction in Tennessee are black with crime and red with blood. X06 ELOQUENCE AND REPARTEE Behold the dark deeds in North and South Carolina, proved and established by the testimony taken. Colored men had been made the especial objects of Ku Klux vengeance. They have been driven from home, their cabins and school-houses burned, their little possessions destroyed, and they themselves have been shot in the highway and hunted like wild beasts in the swamp; guilty of no crime, charged with no offense except loyalty and Republicanism, violating no law, and yet they are scourged and shot and hung by the infamous Klan because God had made them t)lack and Repub- licans had made them free. Why do we hesitate to protect them? How much longer shall we wait? Every breeze that blows from the South wafts to our dull ears the stories of outrage and wrong. When the Waldenses, persecuted on account of their religion, were slaughtered among their native Alps, in a far-off land, blind John Milton stirred the iron heart of Cromwell and all the Commonwealth of England into action by his stern lyric: "Avenge, O Lord! Thy slaughtered saints, whose bones Lie scattered on the Alpine mountains cold." Oh, for a tongue or pen like his, which could arouse this nation from its "constitutional" timidity and stir it up to duty! GRANT NOT A USURPER. (Extract from an address by Hon. Benjamin F. Butler, of Massachusetts, in the House of Representatives, April 4th, 1871.) ***** * * *** Almost every Democratic orator, when he declaims upon this topic, divides his speech into two heads first: First, virulent abuse of the humble individual who now addresses the House, because he advocates a law to insure safety to life and property, and to punish murder and felony, and there they join in full cry of the whole pack — IN THE AMERICAN CONGRESS. 107 "The little dogs and all, Tray, Blanch, and Sweetheart, see, they bark at me;" And the second head of their discourse is, accusations against the President that he desires this law to be passed in order to be able to wield military power for his own aggrandizement. He is now in the highest position on earth, the elected chief of the strongest government and the first and most powerful nation in the world. For him there is no higher step in the ladder of fame, no higher seat of power, no higher reward than the approbation of his countrymen for a nation saved, a government preserved, and its liberties transmitted unimpaired to posterity, who shall bless his name therefor forever. And they seem to forget that once he held more military power, as general of the armies, than could be given him by the Congress of the United States if we laid all the nation could now command at his feet. At the surrender of the braver allies of the Democracy he stood at the head of nearly a million and a half of trained soldiers, the successful general, who had saved the life of the nation, and he had the plaudits of every true and loyal man. If he had desired to aggrandize himself by military power, then was his time. But he disbanded his army and it melted away, each soldier into a good citizen, "like the snow-flake soft falling on the sod," all the better citizens for having been good soldiers, and the general himself took the position of a subordinate, wnth but a show of military force at his command, to execute obediently the orders of the civilian-tailor President, who was his not-much-honored chief. If unholy ambition ever could tempt him to proclaim himself dictator and overturn the frame of government of his country, then was his time, not now; and if ever the form of government could have been changed by armed soldiers against the wishes of the people, it was then, not now. But his w^orst enemy never then accused him of the suspicion of such design, and the accusation is now made only as a miserable party war-cry of a spiteful and unscrupulous opposition. If I were to pass criticism upon his administration— and it would certainly be the only one to which it is, with any show of justice, 108 ELOQUENCE AND REPARTEE open it would be that the President has been too scrupulous in keeping the administration of the government too completely within the letter of the laws, never by any chance overstepping its bounds, although sorely tempted so to do, in order to suppress violence and enforce order and peace. Such, indeed, was the animadversion made upon it by my colleague (Mr. Dawes) in the debate the other day, when, in deploring this state of things in the South, he said, substantially, "that we had laws enough on this subject, but the fault was one of administration." Be it so; but that is not the fault usually attributed to a reckless grasper after power or a seeker to overturn the liberties of the people and make himself supreme dictator. The gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Morgan), in his speech the other day, was kind enough to say that, "If the gentleman from Massa- chusetts (Mr. Butler) is not leader here, it was evident that he is master somewhere else." He does me honor overmuch. I claim no influence or power save that of a Representative of the people, striving to do his duty without fear or favor, in urging the passage of such laws as in his best judgment are for the good of his country. It is the highest position to which I can aspire, and one of which I am justly proud. Would to God the taunt of the gentleman from Ohio were true! That President Grant could, under the laws, and would make me "master somewhere else." Oh, for an hour of such power to rule the right and suppress the wrong; to save and defend the oppressed and down-trodden; to stay and punish the evil-doer. Then, indeed, should midnight raider aivi the murderous Ku Klux smiter of defenseless women and cliiUlren, and the disguised assassin and burner of quiet men's houses hang on the trees like ripe fruit ready to be plucked, until every man's rights, however humble, should be respected, and every roof tree, however lowly, should be the safe castle of refuge for its occupant, from Mason and Dixon's line to Mexico. We hear many fears expressed lest our bill to punish con- spiracies for murder, arson, robbery, and other felonies, when it becomes law, shall be used as an instrument for the oppression of I IN THE AMERICAN CONGRESS. 109 the people. No good and just man need fear its provisions. But let the wicked conspirators tremble. Every man can escape the stringency of its action by remaining a quiet and peaceful citizen, and not infringing the rights of person, property, or liberty of another, and voting the Democratic ticket only once at one election, and suffering his neighbor to exercise freely the same privilege if he is so benighted as to wish so to do. Let that be done, and every Democrat, rebel, and Ku Klux will be safe from its terrors. It is ''the wicked who flee when no man pursueth." No hard-working and industrious white man or negro at the South, who is laboring to support himself, his wife, and family, to lay up his share of the three and a half millions of accumulations already deposited by the blacks in their savings banks since the war-a greater amount de- rived from earnings of their labor since their late masters ceased, in part, from robbing them of its products, than the entire bankmg capital, outside of their principal cities, invested by the whole southern white population since the war-but what^wiU applaud and bless our action. Gentlemen on the other side of the House threaten us if we pass this bill we shall destroy the Republican party; that an outraged and indignant people will drive us from our seats. If they believe what they say, then why not get out of the way and let us pass it? Why filibuster to prevent enactment of this, or, as they declare, a worse one from being offered. We believe, on the contrary, that an indignant people ought to hurl us from our seats, and that the Republican party ought to be disbanded, if we are not strong enough to protect the , only people in the South who were our friends during the war, save the soldiers that we sent to destroy the rebellion. No; every act of opposition shows that their leaders well understand that with peace, quiet, and observance of the laws in the South comes the end of the Democratic party there; and hence their determined and almos frantically furious opposition to any law which shall secure that consummation. . , Again, they exultingly tell us that the Republican party ..weak and divided, that our power is waning; and that the Democratpv.ll 110 ELOQUENCE AND REPARTEE carry the country in the next presidential election, because of our many divisions and dissensions. Let them not "lay that flattering unction to their souls." The Republican administration stands stronger to-day in its majority of members of this House than any other administration at the beginning of its second Congress since Jackson's. The present Democracy never will learn from the teachings of history. They do not seem to understand that every administration, having disposed of its offices, having disappointed many of its adherents, having the responsibilities of affairs on its hands, always seems comparatively weak at the beginning of the third year of its power. The Republican party is still strong in the affections and con- fidence of the people. When the time comes our ranks will be serried, our columns closed up. To borrow a simile from a pro- fession into which I was thrust for four years by the exigencies of public service, let me say to the Democracy that as yet, during this administration, the Republican bugle has only sounded the "stable- call" to groom the horses and clean the stalls, that we have been trying to discipline our camp-followers to brighten the harness and polish the guns; not the most pleasant of duties. But when our bugle sounds "boots and saddles," every Republican will mount ready for the fray, and each squadron will gallop into column eager to meet their old foes. When trumpet rings our "Charge!" we shall dash forward as one man to the music of the good old tune of — "John Brown's body lies moldering in the ground. But his soul is marching on." And the dismayed and discomfited allied army of the Democracy, rebels, and Ku Klux Klans will again go down before us as of yore did the hordes of the Saracens before the onslaught of the knights of Richard the Lion-Hearted. At the conclusion of the address of Mr. Butler, Mr. Cox, of New York, made an extended speech, beginning as follows: Mr. Speaker, we have just been listening to a very extraordinary speech. It consisted of a philippic against the South, and a good deal of exaggeration about southern outrages. There was also a IN THE AMERICAN CONGRESS. Ill good deal of gratuitous advice given to the Democratic party. We did not ask for it. The gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Butler) is the chartered libertine of debate in this House. He has indulged to-day, malice-prepense, in an inflammatory harangue against violence, and yet he is the most violent man in this House. He has given us a speech in which there is not a single glimpse of benevolence to irradiate the gloom of its vindicative invective. He has, in his close, defended his party. It needs it. His ability as a lawyer might have made this debate interesting. But he only opened a door for a most undisciplined rabble of unproven state- ments and rumors. He appears here as the oracle of persecuted virtue, and yet he would infiame every heart with his own venge- ance. He has already issued a "polluted philippic" against this side, charging us with murder and what not. Now he hurls the same at the heads of half the nation. If this bill be, as the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Garfield) says, outside the Constitution, it is a provision for pillage and massacre; but they are disguised by the solemnities of law. That excites in the gentleman from Massachusetts no compunction, but the wild conduct of an oppressed people gives him undisguised horror. He should remember that when our laws are violative of the Constitu- tion they lead to rapine and murder, and no less but more heinous is the crime when done under the guise of law. He forgets what Mackintosh has said. The gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Butler) comes under this category. He is full of contentions. He is an enemy of the State. He kindleth coals of discontent. I know no one so thor- oughly guilty as a public enemy. He asked, Mr. Speaker, for one hour to have control of the executive department and of the army and navy. What for? To help the right and put down the -wrong? Oh! The American people may have fallen from step to step into a large and gaping abyss in their politics, but they have not yet fallen to that lower abyss when the responsible powers of the executive will ever be confided to the gentleman from Massachusetts. 112 ' ELOQUENCE AND REPARTEE He would like to lead an army of mercenaries, demagogues, and fanatics against the southern people. As the Speaker once said, the gentleman was in the fore front of the worst wing of secession. I do not know but that if he went out with such an army he would do as they are now doing in France, fraternize with those against whom he marched out to fight. (Laughter.) He hurls his philippics, based upon thousand-tongued rumor, against better men than himself. He hurls them against men like Senator Davis, of Kentucky, and, in defiance of the rules of the House, abuses him not only for his age, but for something else. We all understand the motives of that abuse from the gentleman. AN APPEAL FOR MODERATION. (Extract from an address delivered by Hon. S. S. Cox, of New York, in the House of Representatives, April 4th, 1871.) I will not say, Mr. Speaker, that this reach of power, beyond all the requirements of the time, and to meet extravagant allega- tions of disorder, is inspired by unworthy motives. I will not charge upon the gentleman from Ohio any sinister design in seeking thus to aggrandize power in the hands of our military executive. That official may or may not be contemplating an invasion of our system by the mailed hand; and yet this bill may be the velvet glove over it for ulterior purposes. My duty is within the effects of the bill. I say that there is never, under any conceivable set of circumstances, any authority to break our oaths or the organic law, to suppress any local disorders. The inexperienced and profligate governments South, so long as they are inspired by ignorance and rapacity, will meet open and secret enemies. This bill will intensify such enmity until Mexico shall appear in all her chaos within our borders. But I do say, on my responsibility here, and if it was the last word I had to breathe about public afifairs, that these disorders can never be eradicated while federal patronage and executive ambition feed those disorders. s. s. cox. IN THE AMERICAN CONGRESS. 113 By all the lessons I have culled from history as to the wrongs of the people; by all the graces which in better governments pacified the unresting populations after civil wars; by all the worst that can happen where a proud and intelligent race are subordinated to their inferiors; by the perils which belong to secret and smothered hate and revenge; by the common love we bear to our venerable institu- tions; by the hopes of the millions yet, I trust, to call these institu- tions blessed, I beseech gentlemen to pause before they add more and more to the grievances, whether real or imaginary, which are the procreant cause of these civil disorders. Gentlemen of the dominant party here, I call on you to pause! Already the power is slipping from your grasp. Do not teach bloody instructions for your successors to follow. Teach us that gentleness and moderation which I hope to see pursued when your opponents shall have control. Do you not perceive that your neglect of pressing duties here, within your admitted province of legislation, is preparing your political shroud? Do you not see that your taxes, so inordinate, and your prodigalities so corrupt, your failure to revive commerce, and other objects of great utility are preparing your graves? Know that the Connecticut election, so triumphantly trumpeted here, is but a little halt on the grand march. We lose no member here by it. If you will put your ear to the ground you will hear the tramp, tramp, tramp of the coming Democracy! I beseech you not to cripple the powers of the States, which may be your guard in som_e perilous hour of that coming party. Lead us not into temptation; deliver us from these coming evils, whether open or concealed. Do not take from this people that municipal spirit and local government which are their birthright and their safeguard. Yet such, Mr. Speaker and gentlemen, is the effect of this measure. It is supported here without authentic proof. It is sup- ported on evidence inadequate to prove a debt, yet it is potential to deprive a nation of its municipal and civil rights. It is supported on evidence too ridiculous to convict of the lowest offense, yet it is used to support a charge on which the liberties and rights of a great nation are to be imperiled. It is monstrous to blast the fame 114 ELOQUENCE AND REPARTEE of one-half of our people to enslave them all. Gentlemen, I pray you to pause. You are on the brink. Your legislation will re- bound. Save, oh! save us the possible, probable, nay, certain, horrors to follow the execution of such laws by an irresponsible will. Save yourselves; aye, save your party. It has many en- nobling memories; it has in its midst many gallant men; it has enrolled many splendid statesmen. Many of them have already deserted its flag, but still you number gentlemen, statesmen, and Christians. They ornament your ranks. But I beseech you to remember that there is no honor in pursuing with vengeance a discontented people. Cut yourselves not off entirely from one-half of our nation. You will then flourish no longer; for, as Brougham once said, "the blossom dies when severed from the root and stem." Save your country as an entirety, that you may continue to adorn it. Save the Constitution, without which the Union is not a band of States, but the emblem of a roving banditti. Has that instrument lost all its wholesome terror? Is it like the battle-ax of Richard Coeur de Lion, referred to by the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Butler), too great for our modern pigmies to wield, a relic for the sanctuary, an object only of reverence for what it was, more honorable in its rust than its edge? For its safety I make my humble prayer, first to you, who have the temporal power to stay your invasion of the Constitution and the flood-tide of blood, faction, and ruin to ensue from the execution of this act. But if I fail in this appeal, I then appeal to the throne of God for that mercy, in its abundance, which we shall need when such vindicative legislation is the law of our land. THE KU KLUX A SHAM. (Extract from an address of the Hon. W. R. Roberts, of New York, in the House of Representatives, April 4th, 1871.) ***** * * **:K Sir, we have been told by a gentleman on the other side that civil war exists in a portion of this country, and has existed there IN TH^ AMERICAN CONGRESS. 115 for some years back. Now, sir, this is a very grave fact, if a fact, or a very grave falsehood, if a falsehood. Why, sir, it was only the other day the Speaker from that chair proclaimed peace through- out the length and breadth of his land; proclaimed, in fact, that— "He knew not that American alive With whom his soul was any jot at odds, More than the infant that was yet unborn." It is true that there might have been even then a small rod pickling for the member from Massachusetts, and that, like Sir Boyle Roach, he smelt a rat, floating in the air, saw it, and deter- mined to nip him in the bud. Or it might be that visions of San Domingo, Grant, Sumner, Baez, and the horticultural commission, interviewing snails and other natives, including water-lots ar.d water-rats, passed before his mental vision and disturbed his peaceful reverie; but, save these, all was peace, gentle, meek-eyed peace, as smiling as a lovely morning in May, and as grateful to the senses as the perfume arising from citizen Grant's conserva- tory. This, sir, was the state of things on the 4th of March last, according to our respected Speaker, according to public opinion, and according to the evidence on this floor. Why, sir, we see all the old places occupied on the Democratic side by old and young men of the South; they seem peaceful and hearty, and, to judge from appearances, they have all got thoir scalps on. No sign of *'Ku Klux" there. At the other side of the House we also see men from the South; and this reminds me of a story. An Irishman in a strange town stood looking at a vessel anchored in the stream, and apparently lost in anxious thought, when he was accosted by a searcher after knowledge. "Paddy," said he, "where are you from?" "Begor, sir, I'm from everywhere but here, and I'll soon be from here, too, sir." (Laughter.) Well. sir, they oh the other side, from the South, seem hearty, and, to judge from appearances, they have got their scalps on also. No sign of Ku Klux there; at least, not on the scalps. All the evidence we have got satisfies me that there has been no civil war from 1865 to March 4th, 1871; and I have seen no evidence that civil war has broken out since then. li^ ELOQUENCE AND REPiUlTEE But, then, sir, we have the assertion of the President that dis- orders exist in some of the southern States, and it is only now he has found it out. Some of these disturbances are said to have occurred in 1865 and 1866; but neither the President, nor the Senate, nor the Republican House of Representatives deemed them worthy of serious consideration until about the loth of March. When they found themselves sinking from the weight of San Do- mingo, high tariff monopolies, robbery of the masses to enrich the few, land grants, railroad jobs, and public plunder of every con- ceivable kind, they felt the necessity of having some cry with which to throw dust in the eyes of the people, so as to save the Repub- lican party from disintegration and the ruin that assuredly awaits it. Groping around with the gentleman from Massachusetts in the van, they came bump up against the Ku Klux, and immediately the entire party shouted out as with one voice, "We have it, we have found it! The terrible Ku Klux are on us, and now we shall have the handling of $250,000,000 a year for some time longer." And ever since then, sir, we have been surfeited with Ku Klux. It has been up in the Senate, with Grant at the head of it. It has been in the House, with neither head or tail to it. It has been in San Domingo with the "horse marines." It has been North, South, East, and West; even the New England school girls have got it. (Laughter.) In fact, it has been everywhere; and now we are sick and tired of the bald, despicable and transparent sham. Sir, I was born on as kindly a soil as God's sun ever shone upon, and among a people who love justice and hate oppression. I know, from a sad and bitter experience, how laws conceived in prejudice and selfishness, and enforced by bad and designing men, can rob a people and brand them with crimes of which they are not guilty, and, under the plea of serving law and order, drive them to acts of desperation and violence. And it may be — nay, the conviction is irresistible to my mind — that this bill now before the House is presented with a view of arousing the passions of the suffering people of the southern States, of forcing them to commit indiscreet and violent acts, that Radicalism may have a pretext for further violations of the Constitution, and thereby enable the Republican IN THE AMERICAN CONGRESS. 117 party to hold on to power at the cost of our liberties and all that freemen hold dear in life. Sir, this dodge may be very ingenious, but it has not the m€rit of novelty. It has been tried time and again, from Nero down to George III. Ancient history furnishes numerous examples, and modern history some very notable ones. There, for instance, was the land of Tell, Switzerland; there is the land of Kosciusko, poor, partitioned, and strangled Poland; and we need only to look at unfortunate Ireland as one of the most significant and remarkable of all; remarkable in the means resorted to to crush, rob, and exter- minate a people; and significant in their absolute and entire faiture to crush out the love of liberty and the yearning for independence which a beneficent Creator, for a wise and holy purpose, implanted in the heart of man. Sir, I am nearly done; time will not permit me to treat this momentous question at greater length. I have not entered upon a legal discussion of it, as I am not a lawyer; and even if I were, it would be unnecessary, as that has been done already with such marked ability as to satisfy every impartial mind that this bill is subversive of the Constitution of these United States, the only authority by which we sit here to pass law^s under its powers and within its scope. But, sir, I have spoken my honest convictions, prompted by a heart that worships every foot of American soil, because it is a free, and a just, and a generous country. It has furnished an asylum to me and to millions of my oppressed coun- trymen, and her arms have ever been open to receive the victims of oppression from every clime; while her guardian spirit. Liberty, spreads her heavenly wings over the drooping form of the heart- broken exile and whispers in his ears, "Thou art a man; arise K' Hope sheds her radiant light upon his pathway to cheer him on 1o where nature's goddess, plenty, showers abundance upon his head. For these reasons I love America, her laws and her flag. I have gazed upon it in other lands until imagination multiplied t1*»e stars upon its field of blue an hundred-fold; and as I looked I saw upon each star the name of every nation on the globe, and upon its stripes these words: Liberty, Union, and Fraternity. 118 ELOQUENCE AND REPARTEE And it is because I desire to see this nation continue great, prosperous and free, the hope of mankind and the asylum of the oppressed, that I protest against the passage of this bill. I believe that a magnanimous and fraternal spirit is the truest wisdom. It will go much further toward cementing our Union and healing the wounds caused by our unfortunate civil war, than all the penal and oppressive laws, with bayonets to back them, that have disgraced the statute-books of Christendom. Treat the people of the southern States as our brothers — brothers in fact, in feeling, and in name. Let us be just to them, and we will be just to ourselves, to our icture. If I could, by stretching forth my hand over these IN THE AMEPwICAN CONGRESS. 151 southern States, restore them all to peace and quietude, stop this disorder, no man would more willingly do it. All the feelings of my heart go out in the warmest desire for the peace and security of the South. Brothers of my own blood are there, and I would be recreant to all the dictates of duty, as well as of humanity, if I said one word that was calculated to give a wrong impression as to the true state of affairs. I do not wish to do it. I wish to see the honest men, the true men, of the Democratic party in the South stand up in the front, as ex-Governor Reid did, and stay the waves of this seething mob, lest ere long their own homes and hearth- stones be buried in the general anarchy that must ensue. We want not the government of the mob in this land. We want a Govern- ment in which the law will be supreme, in which (quoting the thought of another, for I have not his language), supreme justice will moderate the whole tone and tenor of public morals. Justice is the object at which all Governments should aim. Justice is at once the brightest emanation of the Gospel and the greatest attri- bute of God. It teaches the lofty that he cannot sin with impunity. It teaches the lowly that the law is at once his protec- tion and his right. And I trust that before this Congress rises, if we can do nothing else, we shall put some law on the statute book which shall satisfy the people of this land and of the world that we wish again, instead of disorder and strife, to inaugurate the reign of that supreme justice which introduces order and peace and love into a world which but for her would be a wild waste of passion. THE PEOPLE WILL YET SPEAK HON. FERNANDO WOOD, OF NEW YORK. (Closing paragraph of speech delivered in the House of Repre- sentatives March 30th, 1871, during the consideration of the bill to 152 ELOQUENCE AND REPARTEE enforce the provisions of the fourteenth amendment to the Consti- tution.) ****** * * ** Our taxpayers are ridden by oppressive taxation, our mercantile marine is rottening at our wharves, the American flag is seen no more in foreign waters, our public credit is depreciated, and the- only constitutional currency known to the country in Democratic times, gold and silver, has vanished from the public gaze, and we fear forever driven from view. The informer and revenue spy is prowling around our domiciles, examining into all our private, do- mestic, individual, and personal affairs in order to hunt up "the pound of flesh" which the Government seeks, to be given away in subsidy schemes and to maintain the plundering army of Black Re- publican hirelings. The people wonder at all this. They had been taught to believe that there were statesmen at the head of this Government, that there were men here capable of grasping these great political problems and working out the destinies of the country just emerging from a civil war, leaving us with an enormous public debt and an oppressive system of internal and external taxation. Instead of this being done by those in charge of public affairs, the great interests of the country are neglected, while the people are driven away from all their pursuits of life and have no hope, no recourse. Ah, Mr Speaker, pass your bill, but there is a greater power than the military of the land. There is a potential power of public opinion; there is the almighty voice of American freemen. I heard it yesterday in New Hampshire; we shall hear it to-morrow in Con- necticut; we will then hear of it from California. And then from State to State, from North to South, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, it will be heard. The sober second thought of the Ameri- can people will come to sweep the Goths and Vandals from the places which know them now, but which will soon know them no more forever. Sir, I have in these feeble remarks attempted to deal justly with this great subject. I feel that a crisis is upon the country. I feel that, after thirty years' public experience, in my last days, I IN THE AMERICAN CONGRESS. 153 may see the last expiring throe of my country if this bill is to be- come a law; that a silent revolution has gone over the American people; that our form of government itself has been subverted; that the theory of republicanism, founded upon free public opinion, has been forgotten; that, prostrate to the will of power, imperialism is to be created and to be placed in the hands of the President of the United States. Sir, all I can say is that we shall make to it the opposition which our consciences and our oaths of office and our duty to the people of the whole country demand, representing your constituencies when you fail to do so, doing our utmost for the defense of the Constitution and of the rights of the American people. LET US TRY KINDNESS. HON. JOHN B. STORM, OF PENNSYLVANIA. (Closing paragraph of a speech on the Fourteenth Amendment, delivered in the House of Representatives March 31st, 1871.) *^**** * * ** And right here, can we not learn a lesson from the history of Ireland? The oppression of Ireland was persevered in by the Eng- lish Government for centuries. For ages the cry went up from the oppressed people for relief from harsh and unjust laws. Her patriots and defenders were imprisoned; they suffered death upon the gal- lows, or banished as convicts to the dark forests of Tasmania. It was but recently that the English Government attempted a better way of dealing with the Irish people; but recently has she learned that the mild sway of just and benign laws is more potent than standing armies. But the act of grace and concession has come too late to Ireland. Her heart has become set like flint against any appeal now. If what England has done within the last two years had been done at the beginning of the present century, Fenianism, 154 ELOQUENCE AND REPARTEE like a ghost, would not raise its horrid head to the terror of Eng- lish statesmen. It hangs like a cloud upon the hopes of that nation. In case of a foreign war, she cannot rely upon that nation whose soldiers won for the Iron Duke his glory, and of whom he was justly proud. Shall we repeat this folly in regard to the South? They sinned, but most grievously have they answered for it. They were honest in their convictions, I believe, and fought bravely to maintain them; but their offenses were nevertheless pardonable. They fought for their "peculiar institutions;" but the slave is now a freeman, in- vested with all his rights, while the master has lost his to a great extent, and is now represented in this Hall and in the Legislatures of the States by. his former slave. Death has been active, especially among the leaders of the rebellion. Most of them are in their graves. Others, broken in spirit, ruined in fortune, their hopes crushed, have sunken into obscurity; and the balance of them walk like Pariahs, the land of their birth. Is it not time to see what kindness might do? If God dealt with us as we deal with the rebels, what would become of us? If a father dealt so with an erring child, what would become of the home circle? Let us labor for the good time coming, when peace shall wave its everlasting green over our beloved land; when the bitter memories of our recent inglorious war shall be obliterated, and the fond recollections of our united achievements of former and better days make us a free, happy, and united people. IN THE AMERICAN CONGRESS. 155 CIVIL STRIFE EVER THE PRETEXT FOR THE DESTRUCTION OF THE LIBERTIES OF THE PEOPLE. HON. R. T. W. DUKE, OF VIRGINIA. (Extract from speech delivered April 3d, 1871. in ihe House of Representatives on the Fourteenth Amendment.) ****** * * ** In conclusion, Mr. Speaker, history teaches us that the enemies of freedom, have ever made civil strife and tumult the pretext for destroying the liberties of the people. This is illustrated all along the track of ancient and modern history. I will cite a few exam- ples. Sulla, returning from the suppression of a revolt in Greece, encountered in civil war the followers of Marius, and after their overthrow, became dictator and absolute master^ of Rome. Julius Caesar, crowned with laurels, fresh from his victories over rebel- lious Gaul, crossed the Rubicon, scattered the armies of Pompey, and, while rejecting the title and crown of king, assuijied all the attributes of emperor of Rome. In France, the revolt of the Huguenots was soon followed by the murder of Coligny and /the massacre of St. Bartholomew; and the people harassed by civil dis- cord, submitted to the absolute rule of the Louises. The dead calm of despotism was preferred to civil strife. And again the suppres- sion of the revolt in LaVendee was quickly followed by the reign of terror; and that was soon succeeded by the consulate and empire of the first Napoleon. I trust our rulers do not intend to imitate these examples. If they do, then, sir, I desire to call their attention to one bright exception to the dark picture which I have drawn.. I refer you to that country from which we have drawn our language and most of our institutions and laws. However we may dispute over the Alabama claims, or the fishery question, I hope the day is far distant when we shall cease to remember that our ancestors were 156 ELOQUENCE AND REPARTEE the countrymen of Shakspeare and Milton, Newton and Locke, Blackstone and Hale, Sidney and Hampden. In England, while revolt, rebellion, and civil strife may for a short time have been followed by repression, yet in the end the result has always been an advance in the direction of freedom; and to-day, if the British Par- liament were to confer upon the queen's ministers the powers which it is now proposed to confer upon our Republican President, there would be a revolution in less than twenty-four hours Sir, I still have faith in the Anglo-Saxon blood of the American people. So soon as the mists of prejudice and the clouds of pas- sion, engendered by the late war, shall have passed away, they will discover that those whom they had placed as "sentinels upon the outer walls" of freedom, while signaling to them an imaginary foe upon the far-off southern horizon, and warning them against dangers which do not exist, have themselves been busily engaged in sapping and mining the very foundations of the citadel of their liberties, the Constitution of the United States. And when the people shall discover this there will come up to these Halls a voice of condemnation so loud and deep that it may well be taken for the "voice of God. ' Sir, this storm of popular indignation has already swept over the distant prairies of Missouri. You may hear, too, its angry mutter- ings along the blue mountains of Pennsylvania in the warning voice of her Republican Governor. And but the other day it shook the granite hills of New Hampshire to their very base; and the political graves in which the party in power fondly hoped they had forever buried the friends of the Constitution, have opened and have given up, not dead men's dry bones, but active, living men, who are now in our midst! To the faithful shepherds, who have watched during the long, dark night of a Nation's agony, there has at length appeared the bright morning star in the east, which heralds the approach of the glorious dawn of peace and joy and deliverance. But when Herod, the king, and his high priests heard these things they were exceed- ing wroth, and sent forth and sought to slay the innocents. IN THE AMERICAN CONGRESS. 157 THE FIERY ORDEAL. HON. W. W. VAUGHAN, OF TENNESSEE. (Extract of speech in the House of Representatives April 3d, 1871.) ****** * * ** Now, Mr. Ragland says, sir, that the wonder will ever remain with the philosopher and statesman that we should have passed this fiery ordeal with so little to debase our manhood. So say we all. I wish that I had it in my power to light up the dark political night through which my people have passed with the living, blazing torch of truth as it is, so that every man and woman in the northern States might read the endurance, the heroic endurance and patience, that have characterized the people of my much-loved States since 1865. Gentlemen, you can never know all that we have endured. Go back to 1865. See the armies of the confederate States surren- der to the armies of the Government. They stack their arms; they furl the flag they followed vainly for four long, dark, bloody, weary years, to be unfurled no more forever. They were told that the Oiowl of the war-dog was to be heard no more in the land. On the graves of their fallen comrades had they dropped the silent tear. Under these circumstances, strangely solemn, did they pledge their honor that they would again return to their loyalty, to the Govern- ment of the United States. And for the pledges of the war-worn veteran I have ever had the highest respect. And the good faith with which the confederate soldier has respected his parole but settles me in my convictions. See him when he takes up his long, weary march from the field of surrender back to his native, though desolate and much-loved Tennessee. What has he left? His will, his muscle, his soil, his climate, and his seasons. He goes to his home and to work; you rarely see him at any of the public places. Wisdom said, "Pour oil upon the troubled waters; heal up the old sores;" but the Republican porty of my State said: "No, they shall have but one right, J.nd that 158 ELOQUENCE AND REPARTEE shall be the privilege of paying all the taxes." You send r.s a few missionaries from this side of the river to teach iis how to manage our own affairs; and with the few whites that they find in my State you organize the negroes into a party and you drive the people, the intelligence of the country, from the ballot-box, the very men that are interested in peace, order, and law. You cannot say it was because these men were rebels that they were refused the right of the ballot. Not at all; for whenever the confederate soldier proposed to vote the Radical ticket they took him right in. If they sent him to Congress he was soon par- doned and got his seat. Hundreds of citizens that have been true to the Government were refused simply because they proposed to vote the Democratic ticket. I remember an old roldier of 1812, eighty-two years old, who had fought with the hero of the Hermit- age in his every engagement on this continent, asking me to go to the registrar and procure for him a certificate to vote. I thought it best for him to go in person. He went. I waited for his return, and when he told me that he had been refused, the big tears rolled down his cheek. What was his sin? He was a Jackson Democrat. Gentlemen, the right of the ballot is a very sacred right, and of it has been beautifully said that it falls — "As snowfiakes fall upon the sod; But executes a freeman's will, As lightning does the will of God." This moving menagerie of political hucksters were not content with having enslaved a once proud and gallant State, and that they then held the liberties and the property of a whole people in the hollow of their hands; they must exercise their power with insolent severity to its utmost extent. In three years, under Radical rule, our State debt was increased $20,000,000. Our cities were ruined. Upon application to the Legislature by irresponsible corporations, from three to twelve county commissioners were appointed, and by the order of said commissioners, under the powers with which they were clothed, counties were taxed from two to four hundred thousand dollars, and IN THE AMERICAN CONORESS. 159 by them the county bonds were issued and delivered to said cor- porations, and this, too, without the vote or consent of the counties. Not one vote was polled for or against the taxes so levied. I would ask the gentlemen on the other side of the House to take home to themselves, and answer me, under similar circumstances, would your people have complained or not? Now, Mr. Speaker, I wish to say one word to the friends of this bill; that is, go back and see your people before you make it the law of the land; go and take counsel with prudent, safe men of your districts, the old men. I do not believe, gentlemen, that our people are ready to make this radical change in the form of our Government, and that self-government has proven a failure, or that they desire you as their Representatives to give all of their rights under the Constitution into the hands of one single individual. Gentlemen, wisely have you selected your Napoleon, an ambi- tious and brilliant young ofificer. In times of profound peace you ask that he may be clothed with this only argument, the bayonet. Once again would I urge you, go and confer with your people. Could we call back from the spirit land the gifted Clay, and could he stand upon this floor as in other days, what, think you, gentle- men, would be his advice to us? I read from his speech made in 1818: * * * * Gentlemen, heed the warning voice of the patriot statesman. I want a good government. I desire it for my children and those that are to come after me. I love my country; I love the memory of her mighty heroes; I love her scarred and mutilated Constitu- tion; I love liberty; I love safety, peace, law, and order. I hate disorder; I hate murder. But yet, sirs, I hate the evidences of mili- tary despotism, as clearly indicated in your bill, ten thousand times worse; since disorder may be remedied and murder may be punished, but our liberties once lost may never be regained. Pause, gentlemen, and reflect whether your triumph in the passage of this bill may not be a victory over the Constitution of your coun- try, and a triumph purchased with the liberties of the people. I 160 ELOQUENCE AND REPARTEE pray you, let not the fate and fortunes of our people pass into the hands of an ambitious military chieftain. Mr. Speaker, if we had more of the patriotic impulses that ani- mated the bosoms of the faithful few that met the Adamses at Independence Hall in 1776, this bill would not be entertained for one single moment. Our fathers, unlike you, were jealous of the executive and legislative departments of the Government, and all of the amendments made to your Constitution by them were designed to secure the rights of the people as against the powers of those departments. Gentlemen, one word and I have done. I desire to say to the Republicans that propose to stand by their country in this the hour of her peril that the gratitude of a mighty nation will ever be* yours; for, sirs, like noble heroes worthy of freedom have you lifted yourselves above the shackles of party and propose to stand by the Constitution of your country. And to my Democratic friends I simply submit this sentiment: "Stand by the right 'mid the gloom and the sorrow That hang lowering over the prospect to-day; For the truth will shine brighter and clearer to-morrow, While darkness and doubt shall be driven away." WE WANT PEACE. HON. P. M. B. YOUNG, OF GEORGIA. (Extract from speech in the House of Representatives April 4th, 1871.) ****** * * ** Sir, we want peace; that peace you have so long promised us, that peace which is guaranteed by the Constitution, and which to-day is enjoyed by the people of every State in the North and IN THE AMERICAN CONGRESS. 161 in the West. We only ask to be permitted to participate in the Government, and to feel that it is our Government as well as yours. Restore to us our old Government; we wish to be citizens of none other. We want no other Government; it is the Government of our fathers and of yours; it is the Government we desire to transmit to our posterity. The Government of the United States admin- istered according to the Constitution, I believe is the best Govern- ment in the world. For one, sir, I can say without successful contradiction that since the fall of the banner of the lost cause I have labored zealously to smooth over the bitterness and the asperities of the past, and I have done all in my power to bring peace, quiet, and harmony to our distracted country. Lawless acts have been committed in some localities of the South, but to no such extent as has been alleged so often in this House. Lawless acts occur everywhere. They are not produced in the South from any spirit of disloyalty to the Government; they are but the natural offspring of oppression, insult, and outrage, perpetrated upon the people, and for which they have no legal redress. Mr. Speaker, there is a remedy for all these troubles. Restore to those people their rights under the Constitution; restore to them the responsibilities of citizenship in the Government; extend to them the hand of fellowship, and let them know that they are once more restored to the confidence of the Government. Lift from them all their legal and political disabilities, pardon all their political offenses. Then, sir, you will have a country, not only bound together by its mountains, its rivers, its laws, and its common interests, but a country and a Government bound and cemented by the affections of its people. Pardon them. It is the spirit of peace; it is the spirit of justice; it is the spirit of charity; it is the command of God. 162 ELOQUENCE AND REPARTEE A SOUTHERNER'S IDEA OF A CARPET-BAGGER. HON. E. I. GOLLADAY, OF TENNESSEE. (Extract from a speech delivered in the House of Representa- tives, April 4th, 1871.) Gentlemen have complained in this debate that every man of the North coming among us is dubbed with the name of ''carpet- bagger." Sir, they have an entire misconception of the meaning of the term as used among our people. A carpet-bagger is one who has not even a carpetbag in which to pack his all. He comes among us to manipulate the Loyal Leagues, control negro voters, and get office. He comes among us to breed dissensions, provoke strife, and make capital for the life of his party North by exciting to bloodshed and outrage. His mission is not one of peace and love, and when he can no longer succeed in getting office he is at once a bird of passage. He has no idea of eating his bread in the sweat of his brow, or turning an honest penny by some judicious labor. How he arrives, whether foot-back or upon the charity of a free pass from some mimigration society, is not always easily told. His baggage is done up in a bundle, and in obedience to that old- time notice of hotels, that "passengers without baggage must pay in advance," he puts up his bundle with the landlord as baggage. He starts out to find some "truly loil" resident who can instruct him as to the presidency of the Loyal League. He introduces himself by signs and grips into the confidence of such. He finds out whether there is to be an election soon. It matters little about the salary of the office, if there is any money to pass through his official hands; he knows he can provide for himself. He visits the League, and becomes a candidate; he repairs to his hotel and unfolds his bundle, consisting of a few orders from the "Freedmen's Bureau," a picture or two of John Brown, an old flaxen duster which has IN THE AMERICAN CONGRESS. 163 not seen the washerwoman since it was purchased or picked up in the purlieus of some northern city, and an old brass spur, perhaps, "lifted" from the War Department as he passed through Washing- ton to see if he could not get a troop of the Army to protect him on his visit South. He gets into office, robs the people, and flees the land, because, as he claims, it is no longer safe by reason of the Ku Klux. Methinks I see him now as he arrives in Wash- ington. His eyes are meekly lifted toward that great mansion at the other end of the avenue. He starts for the White House, and enters the presence of our excellent President singing that plaintive old melody: "Here. Lord, I give myself away, 'Tis all that I can do." He recites the hobgoblin stories of the terrible Ku Klux; and I fancy now I can see the eyes of the President overrun with tender- ness, and hear the dulcet notes, as they resound softly and comfort- ingly through the fretted ceilings and rich tapestries of that splendid mansion: "Come rest in this bosom, my own stricken deer; Though the herd hath fled from thee thy home is still here. Here still is the smile which no cloud can o'ercast. And the heart and the hand all thine own to the last." Yes, sir, a mission to Pernambuco or Timbuctoo is soon arranged, or a postoffice South, and the glorious openings for future promotion in the glorious isle of San Domingo are discussed with bounding hopes. Blessed Carpet-bagger! In the North you found it hard to steer clear of jails and penitentiaries, but having visited the land of Ku Kluxes thou art freedom's now, and fame's, one of the few — to be provided for! For such characters as these is it any wonder, Mr. Speaker, that the South has no more love than the North? Are we not bone of your bone and flesh of your flesh, and shall we be turned into a Botany bay? And the scalawag is the counterpart of such a character as I have drawn, only he is a plant of native growth— an excrescence on the body-politic, sent to fill out some wise design not yet discovered in the book of fate. 164 ELOQUENCE AND REPARTEE GIVE US AMNESTY. HON. E. I. GOLLADAY, OF TENNESSEE. (Extract from a speech delivered in the House of Representa- tives April 4th, 1871.) * >i: * -^ H< ♦ ■-!: * >ic * Mr. Speaker, when it is remembered that the war heaved to its deepest depth the structure of southern society, and suddenly changed the education and practices of a century, we are astonished that the South has done so well and made such strides toward redemption. What a contrast she offers with France, now free of the invader, but yet vomiting blood and heaving in untold throes Of misery and agony. The problem for adjusting all troubles South is simple and plain. Strange all do not see it. "The world is governed too much." Give us amnesty, extend to us the right hand of fellow- ship, and lift us up from the degradation and humiliation of ene- mies, and make us brothers by restoring confidence and good-will. Then, sir, shall we be happy, and not until then. Sir, I am reminded of an illustrious incident in history, in the record of an old Indian chief. When General Jackson had con- quered the Creeks, and when their old leader and chief, Weathers- ford, stood a captive in his presence. General Jackson told him his nation and people could be saved by submitting in good faith to the Government of the United States. The answer of the chief was that he desired peace and order, that his people might be relieved of their suflferings. Said he: "Sir, my warriors can no longer hear my voice; their bones are at Talledega, Emuckfau, and Toho- peka. I have not surrendered myself thoughtlessly. While there were chances of success, I never left my post nor sued for peace. But my people are gone, and my brave's are dead, and I now ask it for my nation and myself. On the miseries and misfortunes brought IN THE AMERICAN CONGRESS. 165 upon my country I look back with deepest sorrow, and wish to avert still greater calamities. You will exact no terms of a conquered people but such as they should accede to, for you are brave and generous! And if they are opposed, you shall find me among the sternest enforcers of obedience. Those who would still hold out can be influenced only by a mean spirit of revenge, and to this they must not and shall not sacrifice the remnant of their country. You have told our people, go and be forgiven and be safe. And, sir, they shall listen to it." May I not be permitted, Mr. Speaker, to add that such is the true spirit, caught from a southern-born type, of every son of the South who adhered to her fortunes in the great w^ar, and express the hope we may all learn wisdom and practice it, as caught from these two illustrious men, and cease this insensate and fanatic cry, "John Brown's body lies buried in the ground, but his soul keeps marching on!" Let him see in that charnel-house of death which he invoked and earned by his bloody hands and crimes, and let the great American union, with its noble Constitution, march on to that day, foretold in prophecy, when — "No more the sun shall gild the rising morn. Nor evening Cynthia fill her silver horn, But lost, dissolved, in one superior ray, O'erflow^ the courts of earth and heaven!" Sir, Philip of Macedon educated with tlie bayonet the once free and glorious land of Greece, but it was found, when his instructions were completed, that the cold and clammy hand of death was on her brow! The nations of Europe educated with force the free-born ideas of the once fair land of Poland, but the lecture room was at once exchanged for the dismal vaults of the grave! England has for years been educating unhappy Ireland with the bayonet, and sir — "The harp that once through Tara's halls The soul of music shed, Now hangs as mute on Tara's walls As if that soul were fled." IGG ELOQUENCE AND REPARTEE Let us profit by such examples lest we be called to stand beside the fratricidal grave of the South, in which will be found buried love, freedom, and all we hold dear to our hearts! Restore the South to amnesty and equality, and let her rest from persecution and oppression! Our embassadors bring you the same tidings which the British embassadors carried to the Roman patrician in that celebrated letter called "The groans of Britain." "The bar- barians," said they, "on the one hand chase us into the sea, the sea, on the other, throws us back on the barbarians, and we have only the hard choice left us of perishing by the sword or the waves." And so we say, "The Radicals, carpet-baggers, and negro stupidity chase us upon the rocks of reconstruction, and reconstruction chases us back into their hands, and we ^re to be left to die either by misrule or the sword of martial law." Reject the bill and give us peace. HOW HAVE THE MIGHTY FALLEN! HON. WILLIAM WILLLAMS, OF INDIANA. (Extract from a speech delivered in the House of Representa- tives, April 5th, 1871.) Mr. Speaker: Had Solomon lived in our day, surrounded by the circumstances which surround us, he would never have made the declaration that there was nothing new under the sun, for it is certainly new that in our boasted and free Republic there should be found a political party claiming as its founders Jefferson, Madi- son, and Jackson, and numbering in its organization millions of devout worshipers at the shrine of blind party adherence, who to-day stand in the highway of progress and civilization and attempt to block up the way of the advancing columns who are pressing on to a grander and nobler Sestiny. IN THE AMERICAN CONGRESS. 167 Sir, I would give to the Democratic party full credit for its noble achievements in the days of its purity, when fidelity to the Constitution and integrity in the administration of the civil affairs of the Government were the leading characteristics which marked its birth and followed it to mature manhood. Sir, I would with no ruthless hand pluck one laurel from the wreath that encircles the brow of the Democratic fathers who now sleep in the silent tomb of a country to-day, over whose vast territory our flag still floats, and whose bright jewels upon its folds proclaim protection to every American citizen. Sir, I could go to Monticello and the Hermitage, where sleep Jefiferson and Jackson, and kneel upon their green surface, and, remembering the sacred deposits within, I could devoutly pray that the spirits of the departed statesmen and heroes might be reani- mated and galvanized into life to go forth to their degenerate and fallen children, who to-day are willing worshipers at the shrine of treason and inspire them to higher and holier purposes and a loftier patriotism. Sir, how are the mighty fallen! The impress of decay is written upon all things material, and as I speak to-day in the council chamber of a free and patriotic people and as the Representative of one hundred and twenty thousand of her people for my country. I see a ghastly specter of what is called Democ- racy walking as a pestilence in darkness, or the destruction that wasteth at noonday, and shameless and with brazen effrontery pro- claiming that, under that fiag and under its protection, to give to the American citizen protection to life, liberty, and property is a violation of the letter and spirit of the Constitution of our fathers. 168 ELOQUENCE AND REPARTEE DE^IOCRATS CRY UNCONSTITUTIONAL. HON. WILLIAM WILLIAMS. OF INDIANA. (Extract from a speech delivered in the House of Representa- tives, April 5th, 1871.) Whenever the rights of the people are invaded, and the secret organizations of the Democratic party in the South, masked in horrid costume, and bound by secret and terrible oaths, under cover of midnight, plunge the murderer's knife into the heart of the loyal Republican, whose only crime is defending the principles of free government, who take from home, wife, and children, their only protector in the hours of darkness and hang him to the nearest tree because he votes the Republican ticket — ah, more, who are the whippers of women and the scourgers of cripples, the halt, maimed, and blind; who are instrumental as the suborners of witnesses, who bribe their judges, and place in the jury box perjured accomplices and villains, who let the guilty escape, and the local and civil law becomes a farce and a mockery — when these things are to be cor- rected and life and liberty protected by congressional legislation, then a holy horror surrounds our Democratic friends on the other side of the House, and in an instant the sonorous voice of my friend from Wisconsin (Mr. Eldridge), and the sweet and melodious voice of the genial and pleasant gentleman from New York (Mr. Cox), and the commanding voice of the distinguished leader of the Democracy from New York (Mr. Brooks), are heard shouting "Revolution, revolution, revolution; a violation of the Constitu- tion!" Sir, I will do my Democratic friends the justice to say that while I have no confidence in their patriotism when it conflicts with party success or party triumph, I have abundant confidence in their consistency. When the leaders of their party in the South, who IN THE AMERICAN CONGRESS. 169 had been fed, nurtured, and educated at the expense of the Govern- ment, raised the impious hand of rebellion to tear down our flag from a national fort; who stole from the arsenals of the North our cannon and arms, to destroy the life of the Nation and dismem- ber our Republic and make slavery its corner-stone, and upon the ruins of a free government build up a slave oligarchy to rule the empire; who robbed our Treasury and divided the spoils, and cast lots for our heritage, to bury it forever — when this was attempted, and the Republican party sounded the tocsin of alarm, and the clarion voice of Lincoln was heard above the rebel cannon calling his countrymen to our defense, the Democrats said it was unconsti- tutional to preserve the life of the Nation! When the President called for the seventy-five thousand troops to defend our national capital from the invading hosts of traitorous Democrats of the South, the cry waxed louder, "unconstitutional!" When slaves, loyal to freedom and humanity, entered the lines of our Army and brought food to our famishing and suffering soldiers, and were refused to be given back to their rebel masters whose hands were red with the blood of our martyred heroes, Democracy shouted, "unconstitutional!" When, to save the life of the nation, the im- mortal proclamation of Lincoln, freeing four millions of the dusky sons of Ham, was borne upon the telegraphic wires, and the air was rent with the shouts of hallelujahs to God in the highest. Democrats said, "unconstitutional," "a violation of the fugitive slave law," a law that made every northern white man perform the duties of the southern bloodhound to his southern master. When money and cannon were wanted for the defenses of our national unity, Democrats said, "unconstitutional." When the Democratic party met in national convention at Chicago, in 1864, they said by solemn resolution the war was a failure, and was the wrong remedy for secession; and my venerable friend from New York, over the way (Mr. Wood), who was a delegate to that convention, made a prayer for peace. Sir, I fancy in my imagination, I see my distinguished and vener- able-looking friend, who is now in his seat, down upon his knees in that distinguished assemblage of peace Democrats, his locks having 170 ELOQUENCE AND REPARTEE grown gray in political sin, and just about to pass over Jordan, his eyes looking imploringly to heaven, crying, "Peace! peace! peace!" and hear him say, "Call back our victorious armies who are con- quering rebellion, and divide the great land that God has given to us and who had decreed that our Republic should be one." Mr. Speaker, every victory to our loyal armies was "unconstitu- tional." When Sherman took that grand march to the sea, ex- celling in grandeur the proudest achievements of the elder Napo- leon, or Wellington, or any dead or living hero. Democrats said it was "unconstitutional!" When our proud chieftain. Grant, with the boys in blue, took from Lee his sword, and the last armed rebel plead for mercy. Democrats said it was "unconstitutional." When we sought to reconstruct the rebellious and disloyal States and bring them back under republican forms of government, and place these wandering stars of the empire in their proper political orbits, Democrats said "military usurpation" and "unconstitutional!" When we heard them knocking at the door of Congress for admis- sion, with constitutions Republican in form, and we had killed the fatted calf and were encircling their necks with the golden chain of the Republican party, of equality before the law, and protection to life, liberty, person, and property, you Democrats solidly voted to keep them out, and shouted in coarse, guttural tones, "unconstitu- tional!" And now, when your disbanded confederate brothers, who, in violation of their parole, and in disguise and masked, in the dead hours of the night are holding their meetings in woods and caves, plotting the murder and assassination of Union men and poor defenseless women, and when Government revenue officers are menaced, and the cry of the victims comes to us from nearly every southern State to shield them from the murderous hands of these villains and assassins who prowl masked at midnight, shouting their exultations in the midst of their devilish and bloody carnival, you Democrats say "unconstitutional," "revolution," "oppression;" and when we attempt to amend the Constitution, you swear that is un- constitutional. IN THE AMERICAN CONGRESS. 171 Mr. Speaker, I have no doubt but when our Democratic friends shall have uttered their last shout on earth against Republicanism and progress and protection to American citizens, and shall appear at the great judgment seat, and when Satan shall close up his bill of sale, on these Democratic disloyal politicians who offered no prayer during the entire war for our success, but clogged up the wheels of progress, they will, when he calls them home to himself, say to him, ''Satan, this is clearly unconstitutional." (Great laugh- ter.) LIFE AND LIBERTY OF THE CITIZEN. HON. C. L. MERRIAM, OF NEW YORK. (Extracts from a speech delivered in the House of Representa- tives, April 5th, 1871.) Mr. Speaker, as a Republican Representative from the State of New York, where Democracy bears imperial sway, (the nation knows by what means obtained), I may, perhaps, be pardoned for listening with impatience to the general onslaughts upon the Repub- lican party from gentlemen upon the other side of the House, and especially from the honorable gentleman from New York (l^r. Wood), who proclaims to the world that it is the intention of the Republican party to "erect a military despotism upon the ruins of a republic." Such utterances would shock the hopes of liberty- loving men throughout the world were they not so in conflict with the instincts and history of parties in America as to be transparent to all intelligent men that it is intended only as partisan food, to further impose upon the credulity of an ignorant Tammany con- stituency. We in New York, who live under the baneful shadow of pure and undefiled "Democracy," where justice is forced to hide its head in shame, and capital trembles before its audacious greed, 172 ELOQUENCE AND REPARTEE are painfully aware of the tricks of Satan to steal the livery Oj Heaven wherewith to serve Democracy. Mr. Speaker, nothing so well illustrates the magnanimity of the Republican party and its respect for constitutional law as its acts of reconstruction since the war; and nothing, perhaps, so well illus-| trates the animus of the misguided sons of treason and their allies, the Democratic party of the North, as the way they have met the generosity of a triumphant nation. With full powers of legislation in our hands to punish by exile or the scaffold, we have extended the right hand of fellowship and welcomed the once armed enemies of our Union back into the bless- ing of nationality. With power to form the conquered soil into territories, to be governed by the party in power, with a magnanimity unparalleled! in the history of nations, we have restored former States with the rights of self-government, and bid them a "God-speed" in the brotherhood of a common greatness. Republican sentiment only, waited evidence of their sincerity to remove finally all disabilities; and as the Congress of the United States stood waiting and ready, we were staggered by the cries of loyal southern citizens, driven in terror from their homes by masked bands of midnight assassins. We pause in silence and sorrow as every breeze from the South comes laden with the cry of anguish. We find that wherever the black archangel of Democracy rides upon the night a reign of blood and terror follows in his track more savage than the bloodhounds of slavery, more damning than the Democratic feast at Andersonville. The Democracy of the North, in pretended unbelief, stand in solid phalanx a guard of honor round about the festive blood-dance of its tools, the hideous Ku Klux. Thousands of men are supplied from the North with the most modern and expensive breech-load- ing rifles. Can any impartial man familiar with the ambitions of Tammany doubt from whence they come? If there still lingers in any man's mind a single doubt that the Ku Klux are under the control of the Democratic party of the North, I ask him to read IN THE AMERICAN CONGRESS. 173 Tom tjie words of the honorable gentleman from New York (Mr. Z^ox), who but yesterday told the world from his seat in this House :hat "he had proposed in a Democratic caucus the issuing of an iddress appealing to the Ku Klux to abide by the laws of the land." Can any sane man, familiar with the evidence that necessitated he last presidential message to Congress, longer doubt that we have vithin our borders the germs of another rebellion? Scarce have the thunder echoes of one civil strife died upon the lir before we have mutterings of another storm. Scarce has a nation, weary of war, laid aside its emblems of Tiourning before we are deafened by the roll of artillery. Scarce are a nation's tears dry over the bier of the immortal Lin- :oln before we hear the stealthy tread of other midnight assassins. Scarce is the grass green over our hero graves when fresh graves yawn before us. Scarce has a proud nation crushed out one rebellion before we Dehold another, and more dastardly, lifting its hideous form to stagger the progress of our civilization. Is it then in vain that we have extended the right hand of fel- owship to our erring brothers of the South? Like the slave- lolders' rebellion, this is a political war, a war aimed for power over Republicanism. Of all the new-made graves not one is filled with a murdered Democrat. Of all the widow and orphan tears, daily multiplying md crying to Heaven for vengeance, not one is shed over the grave Df a Democrat. This war, outvying the remorseless savagery of the tomahawk md scalping-knife, is all upon one side, all upon the defenceless, kvhose only crime is that they are loyal Republicans. It seems but 1 part of the great drama for political triumph to murder or banish ;he leaders of the Republican party in the South. If there be no :omplicity with Tammany, why does Democracy hesitate to-day to legislate to crush this incipient rebellion in the bud? If these outrages were perpetrated upon American citizens on the high seas, or in any foreign land. Democrats and Republicans 174 . ELOQUENCE AND REPARTEE all over our Republic would burn with the fires of vengeance. If an American citizen had returned from a foreign land, as our revenue collector, Huggins, returned to Washington last week, with the bleeding galls of a hundred lashes upon his back, no power under Heaven could have kept even the Democratic members of this House in their seats. Great Heavens! has it come to this, that party ambition has so benumbed the pride and manhood of an American legislator that he should stand in this House and shield such barbarism from out- raged law! I charge it home upon the consciences of every member of this House that he knows scarce an hour passes of the day or night but loyal and true men are fleeing in terror to swamps and forests before the masked fiends of Democracy, who would gorge' upon their quivering hearts. Let me say to the Democratic party that if they hope to ride into power by such work as this they mistake the spirit of American civilization. While they may exult in a false courage over the ap- parent discord in the Republican ranks, they forget that ours is a Republic of ideas as well as a Republic of individuals, and that as we have no purpose but the good of humanity our word battles are fought alike in secret caucus and in the open universe, and in our conflicts as to the wisest and best mode of action let them not misinterpret our differences as an abandonment of principles which underlie and sustain the structure of law. order, and good govern- ment. Nor is it wise in them to hug the false fantasy of "Repub- lican disintegration." An occasional light may fall from our politi- cal firmament through an unsatisfied ambition. They are welcome to such as these. Republican principles do not depend upon lead- ers, to fall when they die. Their abiding place is in the hearts of a great and free people, who will welcome any sacrifice to save. The indictments against Democracy for its complicity with trea- son no man could count. They are written on every page of our late conflict. If the Democratic party denies the responsibility of originating the war, we know their responsibility for its continuance. The blood of our citizens killed in the last year of the war is upon IN THE AMERICAN CONGRESS. 175 their souls, and they can never hope to wash out its stains, and, if we are to judge of the present, they accept the issue and welcome the curse. We would do no injustice to thousands of good men marching to-day, all so blindly, under the banner of Democracy. These have no thirst for blood; these carry no incendiary torch to level the temples of education to the cold ashes of ignorance; these fatten not upon the victims of the stiletto and the lash; nevertheless, while they stand in the bodyguard of honor round about the festive blood- dance of the Ku Klux Klan, intelligence and patriotism everywhere will hold them responsible for its deeds. ***** * * *** In the light of history, have we no reason to suspect that Demo- cracy with all its cunning has set aflame the Ku Klux fires? Not six months have passed since it stood in the Senate Cham- ber, face to face with sixteen thousand soldier dead on the heights of Arlington, and demanded that we should remove their bones. They would scatter the ashes of our hero dead. They would sell the pillow from under his head, and for what? Surely, for no other reason than to serve the scum and Lees of treason. But, thank God, the sacred instincts of a grateful nation spurned the sacrilege. Surely it has been said none too soon "that this nation and the human race never needed the Republican party more than to-day." Mr. Speaker, the President early told us he should have no policy to enforce against the will of the people. Recognizing their will in this crisis and his duty, he has called upon us for such legis- lation as will protect loyal citizens in the South, and behold, the honorable gentleman from New York sees in it a desire to build up a military despotism upon the ruins of a Republic. He charges our President with a desire to secure by the bayonet his re-election in 1872, when, to meet a present emergency, he asks for special legislation, the force of vvhich shall expire before said election. "Motives of our President!" A man who so aided in saving our country, and whose world-acknowledged military renown should be the pride of every American, and who has enough of human glory 176 ELOQUENCE AND REPARTEE to gratify a single life so brief as ours, and hence can have no "mo- tive," as Chief Magistrate, but to serve his country, that the page of history shall shine with greater luster upon American fame. If it were a Democratic leader, one of the chiefs of Tammany, who legislates entire railroads into the pockets of the ring, paving their way to power over a prostrate franchise, robbing the State of its choicest gifts, so debauching public morals as to peaceably enjoy a power to which no foreign potentate dare aspire, well might a nation suspect a criminal intent. A PICTURE OF SLAVE DAYS. HON. C. L. MERRIAM, OF NEW YORK. (Extract from a speech delivered in the House of Representa- tives, April 5th, 1871.) Mr. Speaker, in the year of our Lord 1854, in the slave-market of New Orleans, stood, side by side, half a hundred human beings, of all ages and both sexes. From among them was taken to the auction block a bright-eyed boy of six summers. He was nearly as white as our own children in northern homes. There was a care- less confidence in his every grace, for the only protecting power on earth, where centered his love, stood near, eyeing him with evident pride. I heard the cry "Going! going! gone!" and this only joy of a slave mother's heart was registered to an Alabama planter for $625. The mother came next. "Going! going!" but no response from the owner of the boy. Turning imploringly to the planter, she besought a bid. "Going! going!" yet his lips were sealed. Fall- ing upon her knees she implored. The only reply was, "I bought him for a body servant and have women enough." "Going! going! IX THE AMERICAN CONORESS. 177 gone!" and she parted from her darling child forever. In the sum- mer of the same year, when sailing to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, we anchored in the straits of Canso. Weary of the sea, I strolled up the hillside to a fisherman's habitation, and was welcomed by a colored family who had come from their native home in the sunny South to this inhospitable shore, that they might be free. By the fireside sat an old white man, a splendid specimen of our proud Anglo-Saxon race. Long white hair fell over his shoulders, and he seemed a very picture of the patriarchs of old. Excusing a con- scious impertinence, I inquired why he was alone with this family, in this far-ofif part of the world. Turning toward me. he said: "Two years ago I lived a mile over beyond. My wife and sister died, I was blind, and should have perished but for these kind peo- ple bringing me to their home." "But," said I, addressing the old lady, "it don't appear as if you could afiford to take care of him." "O, lor," says she, "it doesn't take any more fire to keep us all warm than it would if he were not here." "But he has to eat?" Sauntering up to the old gentleman, with a generous look, charac- teristic of her race, she says, "John, you know you are welcome." I stood a moment in silent imagination, beyond, the present hun- dred years, when we of to-day shall stand in the presence of impar- tial judgment, and as I heard the echoes of slave-chains through the desolated chambers of that mother's heart, robbed of God's best blessing, it mingled so strangely with those noble words of "wel- come," that I saw along down the pathway of our history the sure- coming storm of God's vengeance; and when the demon of war bathed our land in fraternal blood I recognized a just retribution. But when I heard the honorable gentleman from New York (Mr. Wood), rise in this House and bid this colored race to the soft em- brace of Democracy, remembering their long suffering, their trjjist, their patience, I must confess that I, at least, failed to see the cause for such a curse. I could find no solution for this change of heart, unless it were in the prophetic vision of Wendell Phillips, when he foretold a day not far distant when a distinguished representative of the Democratic party (Mr. Wood) would boast of African blood coursing through his veins. 178 ELOQUENCE AND REPARTEE Mr. Speaker, the reverence Democracy has always exhibited in the presence of our Constitution is in perfect accord with their rev- erence for all things sacred. If Republicans presumed to give it elasticity, in order to arm, equip, and save, a cry of injured inno- cence filled the air, and they bewailed their sorrow in unaffected despair, while they, with unflinching hands, stood jeady to fire the train to blow Constitution and country to thin air. But, Mr. Speaker, when they raised their impious hands to shatter Constitution and country, our Constitution went out to the battle- fields with a million brave hearts, and it came back with them when "our boys came home with victory at last;" and now, when loyal men, in the agonies of a death-struggle, call upon the nation to save. Democracy stands with ghastly tread upon the thin lines of "State rights" and wildly howls of usurped power, broken oaths, and a Constitution trampled in the dust! I believe the Constitution is broad enough, high enough, strong enough to protect American citizens everywhere, in their lives, liberties, and in the pursuit of happiness; and if any man doubts, I would say to the terror-stricken, fleeing frpm the torch, the lash, the stiletto, "Come! come! come!" and I would wrap them in the folds of our starry flag, and in the presence of God and my country I would say, "Here is our Constitution, as it was, as it is, as it ever shall be." COURTESY OVER-MUCH. (A typical controversy between Hon. Roscoe Conkling of New York, Hon. Thomas F. Bayard of Delaware, and Hon. Frederick T. Frelinghuysen of New Jersey, in the United States Senate, De- cember i8th, 1871.) Mr. Frelinghuysen: Mr. President Mr. Conkling: Before the honorable Senator from New Jersey proceeds will he allow me one moment? I wish the floor for a moment. ROSCOE CONKLING. IN THE AMERICAN CONGRESS. 179 Mr. Frelinghuysen: Very well. Mr. Conkling: I do not seek the floor in order to oppose the only proposition which I understand to be incorporated in the speech of the Senator from Delaware; on the contrary, I shall be glad to vote to give the minority in this Chamber, the Democrats here, another member of this committee, and be glad to vote also that the selection be left to themselves. I seek the floor because the Senator from Delaware, as I understood him, demanded of me specifically to know whether he was or was not right in the allegation he made touching a recent State convention held in the State of New York. Mr. Bayard: No; my remark was directed to the senior Sena- tor from New York. Mr. Conkling: Then the Senator does not wish to know from me how the fact was? Mr. Bayard: I have no objection to the Senator making the statement, as he seems anxious to do so, but I did address my remark to the senior Senator from New York. I said that prob- ably he may give us some little history as Lo the truth of the alle- gation to which I referred, whether or not the Republican State convention of New York was or was not controlled pretty much by Federal officials from the custom house at New York? Mr. Conkling: I heard the Senator. I see that the Senator is on the floor; I will yield to him if he asks me to do so. The Presiding Officer (Mr. Carpenter in the chair): The Sen- ator from Delaware seems to be still on the floor. Mr. Bayard: I had concluded all I wished to say. Mr. Conkling: I was going to yield to the Senator without his requesting me to do so. Mr. Bayard: Well. Mr. Conkling: I will yield to him with great pleasure if he wishes me to do so. Mr. Bayard: I do desire to apologize to the Senator and to the Senate if I have without due thought taken the floor during the time the Senator was entitled to it; but in truth I found myself during the debate which I had just closed so interrupted by my ISO ELOQrEXCE AND REPARTEE honorable friend from New York that it did not occur to me that he was standing much upon form, because he scarcely during that time, as I remember, would permit me to conclude my sentence; but I am good-natured, and therefore made no complaint. If I have infringed upon the forms of debate in regard to his rights, I sincerely apologize to him for it. Mr. Conkling: I did interrupt my honorable friend by his per- mission, because I relied, as I always safely may, upon his courtesy, and so he knows he may rely with equal safety upon mine. I wash, however, to remind him that it was hardly worth while for him thus to proceed to repeat over again what he had said before, while, he was in the act of disclaiming that he addressed it to me at all. I remind him, however, that he did nominate me as the senior Senator from New York, as it so happens that my term of service here has been longer than that of my colleague. He will forgive me, therefore, for falling into the error of sup- posing when he spoke of me in that way, looking toward me, that he meant me. He now authorizes me, if I wish to make a statement on this subject, to make it. I beg to say to the hon- orable Senator that I have no wish whatever to venture any state- ment in that regard. I think I understand how far out of place in this Chamber such topics are, and nothing would have induced me to respond in a matter of that sort unless I had understood that a direct requisition specifically and individually was made upon me by my honorable friend trom Delaware. I am so in the habit of acquiescing in everything that he proposes, and I am always ani- mated by so lively a disposition to oblige him, that I was willing to sacrifice somewhat what I conceived the proprieties of the occasion in order to gratify his curiosity in that regard; but as he has no curiosity which he wishes to be satisfied by me, although I under- stood him to call upon me, I am very glad indeed to take leave of the subject, and to restore the floor, with my thanks, to the honorable Senator from New Jersey. Mr. Bayard and Mr. Fenton: One moment. The Presiding Officer: Does the Senator from New Jersey yield to the Senator from Delaware? 4k^ THOMAS F. BAYARD. IN THE AMERICAN CONGRESS. 181 Mr. Frelinghuysen: Yes, sir. Mr. Bayard: It never is possible for me to associate age with the honorable Senator from New York. Youth and beauty are so entirely his that I never dreamed of applying the phrase "senior Senator" to him. (Laughter.), But I did turn to the gray hairs of his colleague, and I did consider him the senior Senator, but I beg pardon. Mr. Conkling: That is a very good saying, one of the best of all the good sayings of my honorable friend. (Laughter.) Mr. Fenton: Mr. President The Presiding Officer: Does the Senator from New Jersey yield to the Senator from New York? Mr. Fenton: For a moment only. Mr. Frelinghuysen: I only want a few minutes myself. Mr. Fenton: Allow me at this point Mr. Frelinghuysen: I am afraid it will lead to a long debate if you get into Syracuse. (Laughter.) THE REPUBLICAN PARTY^ THE FRIEND OF LABOR. HON. JOSEPH R. HAWLEY, OF MASSACHUSETTS. (Extract from a speech delivered in the House of Representa- tives, December 19th, 1871.) ********* Now, it has pleased gentlemen on the other side of the House this morning to charge the Republican party with the passage of laws calculated to infringe upon the rights of labor. And I lis- tened to the views of the gentleman from New York (Mr. Wood), who v/as last upon the floor, when he charged the Republican 182 ELOQUENCE AND REPARTEE party with bringing upon the country all the difficulties and all the wrongs to which he alluded. Sir, the Republican party has always supported the interests of the laboring classes, while on the other hand I point the gentleman to the fact that the Demo- cratic- party fostered slavery in this country; that it declared that in all the free territory of the nation slavery existed by force of the Constitution of the United Stat^. I point to the fact that it fostered slavery and encouraged it in the Staes where it existed, and that it repealed the Missouri compromise for the purpose of carrying slavery into free territory. On the other hand, I point him to the fact that the Republican party has made free every human being within the length and breadth of our country; that it has not only made them free, but that it has given to every man in this country the ballot by which he may protect his rights, so that it becomes the highest interest of the people of this country to see that the masses of the people who possess these rights are educated and in every way protected. I point him to the further fact that the Republican party has given to the country the home- stead law instead of giving slavery to the Territories. It has opened up the whole wide field of the West to the homestead settler, where every poor man in the country may go with his family and take up one hundred and sixty acres of public lands, and where he may live securely protected by the laws of his country. This is my answer to the gentleman, and I say, in conclusion, that it does not become the Democratic party, it does not become gentle.men upon the other side of the House, to say that the Republican party has been opposed to the interests of labor in this country. I affirm that the Republican party has been from its commencement until now, and will continue to be, the friend of the laboring masses of our country. IN THE AMERICAN CONGRESS. 183 THE FRIEND OF THE OPPRESSED. HON. CHARLES SUMNER, OF MASSACHUSETTS. (Extract from remarks in the United States Senate, December 20th, 1871.) And here, again, I wish it understood that there is no question of social life. How often have we had that introduced into this Chamber? In old days, when slavery was arraigned, the constant inquiry of those who represented slavery was, ''Are you willing to associate with the colored persons; will you take these slaves, as your equals, into your families?" Why, sir, was there ever a more illogical inquiry? What has that to do with the question? A ques- tion of rights cannot be encountered by any social question. I may have whom I please as my friend, as my acquaintance, as my asso- ciate, and so may the Senator; but I cannot deny any human being, the humblest, any right of equality. He must be equal before the law or the promises of the Declaration of Independence are not yet fumiled. And now, sir, I pledge myself, as long as my strength remains in me, to press this question to a successful end. I will not see the colored race of this country treated with indignity on the grounds assigned by the Senator from Georgia. I am their defender. The Senator may deride me, and may represent me as giving too much time to what he calls a very small question. Sir, no question of human rights is small. Every question by which the equal rights of all are affected is transcendent. It cannot be magnified. But here are the rights of a whole race, not merely the rights of an individual, not merely the rights of two or three or four, but the rights of a whole race,, recognized as citizens, voting, helping to place the Senator here in this Chamber, and he turns upon them and denies them. 184 ELOQUENCE AND REPARTEE AMNESTY AS A MATTER OF GRACE. HON. HENRY WILSON, OF MASSACHUSETTS. (Remarks in the United States Senate, December 20th, 1871.) Mr. President, I shall vote for this bill; not as a measure of justice to the South or or equality among citizens. I vote for it as a safe and sound measure of public policy, as a thing of charity and mercy, of unmerited grace. In passing this bill the less we say about justice or equality the better. Whatever may have been the wisdom of this provision of the Constitution imposing disabilities, neither justice nor equality were violated. Those disabilities were, indeed, a very — yes, sir, very light punishment to inflict by the country upon those who sought through the fire and blood of civil war to blot the Republic from the list of nations. That crime and the motive for that crime would never be expiated by the simple prohibition for a few years of the right of a few guilty leaders of rebellion to hold office. Sir, when we think of justice to the actors in that dreadful crime, dungeons open their doors and scaffolds rise up before us. Do not, sir, place this act of kindness, charity, and mercy upon that justice which would have doomed these men to a swift and sure punishment for their sin against man and their crime against their country. I say this not in hatred of the South or the people of the South. No, sir, no. I never hated the South nor its people, not even when they were drenching the land with blood to keep manacles forever upon human limbs. I hate no one. South or North, neither man nor woman; but the criminality of the re- bellion increases every day, and will continue to increase as time shall more and more distinctly reveal to the eyes of humanity the wickedness of its motives and purposes. But the war ended six years ago. Its wicked cause has utterly perished. The nation lives in vigor and power. It can afford not to execute justice, and to forgive the vanquished. It can with IN THE AMERICAN CONGRESS. 185 safety be magnanimous. It is sound policy to be forgiving and on- erous and merciful now. So feeling and so believing, I shall vote for this measure. I am not among those who believe that these restrictions have anything to do with the Ku Klux organization. These organizations grew out of the great crime of slavery, that poisoned the very bone and marrow of our people. That poison is not quite out of our system yet, either in the North or in the South; but it is wearing away. Time, the providence of God, the growth of free liberal ideas, and Christianity, will wear it out in the end;, but it will take two or three generations before we see the last of it. THE REPUBLICAN PARTY THE ENEMY OF LABOR. HON. LEWIS D. CAMPBELL, OF OHIO. (Extract from an addi^ss delivered in the House of Representa- tives, December 20th, 1871.) * iff ■ y^: ;|c ^ ^ ^ ^ 5|c Gentlemen on the other side have told us, the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Farnsworth) yesterday stated that the Republican party had by its legislation shown itself to be the true friend of the work- iijgiiicn. Now, sir, I say it in no vindictive spirit, "more in sorrow than in anger," because I cherish very fond recollections of it, hav- ing been myself identified with that Republican party in its purer and better days, and shall be prepared to maintain the declaration when these questions are more legitimately before us for discussion, that no party has ever existed whose legislation has been charac- terized by more of oppression and wrong to the great laboring and producing classes of the country than the Republican party for the last ten years. Go back, if you please, and take a mere hasty retro- spective glance at what has been done. Little more than ten years 18G ELOQUENCE AND REPARTEE ago the rebellion broke out. And who, I ask, was it that fought down that rebellion? The great laboring and producing classes of society. When Mr. Lincoln issued his first proclamation for seventy-five thousand men the mechanic left his workshop, the farmer his plow, the day-laborer his avocation, and rallied under the flag of beauty and glory which now so gracefully adorns your chair, Mr. Speaker, and marched forward to battle and death in order that the Republic might live. Gentlemen may say capital went too. Yes, but when capital went it went on horseback with its eagles and its stars on its shoulders, while labor went on foot, marching through the mud and through the storm, standing in the trenches, charging on the line of the enemy, mounting his breastworks, and laying down its life at the cannon's mouth. Mr. Speaker, after they had thus gone forth under contract in 1861, that they should have thirteen dollars in gold a month for thus fighting, bleeding, and dying. Congress passed two bills in February, 1862. They were twins in birth. They came into life hand in hand. The one was the act authorizing the five-twenty bonds, and the other the legal-tender act. And the soldier who had gone forth under a contract to be paid in gold, after he was in the field, when he fought and when he bled, was paid off, not in gold, but in greenbacks, when it took three dollars, or at least two dollars and a half of legal tender to purchase for the support of his wife and child at home what, if you had carried out your contract, they would have bought for one dollar. As to the act authorizing the five-twenty bonds, without going into the details of what then occurred on this floor, I will say that, on the authority of the chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means at that time, the principal of those bonds was to be paid in greenbacks. Now, I say, Mr. Speaker, that the Secretary of the Treasury, from the statement before me, has already paid over and above the principal, in currency, the sum of $1,536,000 over and above what, by the terms of the original contract, were to have been paid. ********* Now, by your tariff system you tax oppressively the working- man from his cradle to the grave onerously and unjustly. A boy IN THE AMERICAN CONGRESS. 187 baby if born to-night, the laboring man is blessed with an increase of family; the moment it breathes the breath of life it begins to pay a tax upon the little flannel shirt that is put upon him. Then, as he grows up to be a little boy running around his father's house, and receives a holiday present at Christmas of his little red-top boots (and that is an epoch in the life of every little boy), as he struts about in the snow and asks his father to admire his boots, that father knows that he has had to pay a heavy duty upon them. If, when he arrives at manhood, he decides to become a mechanic, you tax every edged tool that he uses. If he becomes a farmer, be- longs to that noble class that is the source of all the wealth of this country, then you tax him upon the leather, the iron, the steel that he uses, upon the salt and everything else that he consumes. That is all done for the benefit of capital. Then, as he grows in years, and arrives at the ripe good old age of three score and ten, and tottering along at last tumbles into his grave, you impose a tax upon his estate for the screws that are used in his cofifin. And when his friends are gathered around his grave, and they come to perform the last office for him in making the little hillock of brown earth that shall mark the' resting-place where his mortal remains are to repose until the morning of the resurrection, you tax the estate for the Ames' shovel that is used for that purpose. Sir, there was a little procession on last Saturday in the streets of New^ York city that meant business. They have not their agents here to press their claims upon the consideration of the House, as the capitalists have. They are coming; the clans are gathering; the reveille will be beaten again; and from the mountain top the call to the charge will soon be sounded. The struggle of 1872 between the interests of labor and the oppressive demands of cap- ital will be the most remarkable ever known in the history of this country. The clans are gathering. They will come from the moun- tain-top and from the valley, from the work-shop, from the plain, from the far-ofif frontier, from the sea, from the river, from the lakes, in one common union against these wrongs that have been inflicted upon them. They will come, sir, with no new banner, ISS ELOQUENCE AND REPARTEE but under the good old "stars and stripes," under which they have fought and under which their fathers before fought. They will rally to the rescue; and they will have inscribed upon their banners, in letters of living light, "The equality of man before the law" — that heaven-born principle which, in my judgment, should guide our legislation. They will not come as they did in 1861, with cannon and shot and shell, to desolate the land. They will not come to make your mountain streams and your rivers run red with American blood, shed by American hands. No, no; they will come armed with "A weapon firmer set And surer than the bayonet; The ballot that falls as still As a snow flake on the frozen sod, But executes a freeman's will As lightning does the will of God." Mr. Speaker, in this struggle I do not know where the Demo- cratic party will stand, or how many of the Republican party nvill unite in this great movement. For my own part, by every instinct of my nature, by every fond memory of poverty-stricken parents who cared for me as a child upon the frontier of the West, by all that I have learned in later life, I expect to be a private in the ranks of that mighty phalanx that shall come up and exact equal justice. LABOR IN AMERICA NOT OPPRESSED. HON. JOHN A. BINGHAM, OF OHIO. (Extract from an address in the House of Representatives, De- cember 20th, 1871.) Sir, it is pitiful to hear gentlemen talk of labor in America being oppressed. The millions, sir, who swept away our forests and let IN THE AMERICAN CONGRESS. 189 in the sun upon the fertile earth from sea to sea, across this con- tinent; who have hewed from the forest and the rock the material and built the habitations of the nation; who feed and clothe and shelter the_ whole living population of America, will laugh to scorn the utterances of any man on this floor, or elsewhere, who talks about the laboring masses of America being oppressed by American legislation! Sir, they are the architects of their own fortunes, the protectors of their own rights, the promoters of their own interests, and the makers of their own laws. They built our fabric of civil government. They enacted in the first session of the First Congress under the Constitution of the United States an act which ordained the total exclusion of the law of primogeniture throughout the public domain. They had the wisdom by this legislation in the First Congress under the Constitution, represented by men who understood their wishes and had respect for their wants, to improve upon the old-time system of England by which the whole territory of the realm within the limits of Great Britain, under the direct operation of law known as primogeniture, has been put in the hands of the few to the exclusion of the many. Looking to their own interests, they took care in that early legislation to abolish that law of primogeniture, which sooner or later England must abolish, or primogeniture will abolish England, with its throne and scepter. Let those gentlemen who talk thus of the American laborer learn a lesson from this first legislation of Congress, which declared that England's law of primogeniture was forever excluded from the public domain of the United States, and in its stead provided the wise and comprehensive provision that throughout the public do- main, when any person should die intestate seized of lands therein, the same should descend, share and share alike, to the children of his house, or his next of kin of equal blood. There stands the answer of America in one of her first acts of legislation to this babble about not caring for or looking after the interests of labor. Gentlemen also talk here of the tariff. Everybody knows that th'e need of just such tariff regulation in the interests of labor was one of the immediate producing causes of our national Revolution. The gentleman, my colleague (Mr. Campbell), talks about the tax 190 ELOQUENCE AND REPARTEE on the nail in his coffin. But for the result of our Revolution and legislation the gentleman would not have been permitted to have a nail for his coffin unless he carried it three thousand miles across the sea and paid tribute upon it to a foreign country. The people having achieved their independence, very wisely proceeded in the First Congress, as we have seen, to legislate not only for their own interests in the public lands, and for their equal distribution as far as possible, but to legislate in the interests of labor by declaring that it was needful for the protection as well as for the development of American industry to impose duties upon foreign imports. Sir, facts like these constitute the logic of the argument in the discussion of American affairs. Let the inquiry go on. When the commission comes to inquire as to the relations of labor in this country, let the answer go out to all the listening nations of the Old World, that the relations of labor in America are simply these: that labor is America, that America is a nation of laborers; and let them, in the light of that utterance, understand the significance of the words in the text of our Constitution, that "neither the United States, nor any State of this Union, shall grant any title of nobility." Let them understand in the light of the facts touching labor in this country, that the only nobility tolerated or recognized in America under American law is that nobility which springs from the honest toil of brain, or heart, or hand. Let it be understood all over the world that the only nobleman to be recognized in America under American law is the man who finds out and faith- fully performs his duty to himself, his country, and his race; who by his honest toil, if you please, makes a blade of grass grow where none grew before. Let it be understood that the great body of our people are of the nobility born of honest toil; that they are the men who cover your plains year by year with fields of golden grain, who clothe your mountains to their very summits with the purple vine; that they are the men who unearth the immense min- eral masses imbedded in your mountains, and, amid the darkness that broods over the blast of the furnace and the rolling of the wheel, mold them by the good hands of their genius into forms of strength, and use, and beauty. Let the investigation go on, and IN THE AMERICAN CONGRESS. 191 reveal to the world the fact that the only condition possible to America in consonance with the Constitution of the United States is that just condition of things which assures the development of individual and collective man — the citizen and the State — and pro- duces diversified labor with fair and just rewards. Finally, sir, let it be understood that America, having broken every unjust fetter, imposed not by virtue of the national law, but by virtue of local State laws, has at last crowned the Republic with the greatness of justice in this, that it has secured by the combined power of all to the humblest citizen in the land all his rights of property and of person, including his right to work and his right to enjoy the fruits of his toil. An American citizen, proud of my country and its laws, I challenge and demand investigation. As to what has been said here so hurriedly in the heat and ex- citement of debate about the enormous revenues collected from customs and by means of internal taxation, it is sufficient to say that they are a part of the price paid by our law-abiding people for the life of the Republic. There is no man in the nation, to whatever party he belongs, who, if he has a head to comprehend the great mission of America, murmurs on account of all the sacrifice and all the suffering that have fallen upon this people within the last ten years, in presence of the fact that for the sacrifice 'and the suffering he has a country redeemed, regenerated and made im- mortal among the nations by the virtue and the valor of her people. Let the investigation go on. WHAT IS TREASON? HON. FRANCIS P. BLAIR, JR., OF MISSOURI. (Address in the United States Senate, December 21st, 1871.) Mr. Speaker, the subject I have selected for a few remarks this morning is that of general amnesty. It is a subject which has 192 ELOQUENCE AND REPARTEE created no little excitement and interest in the West, as well as in other portions of the United States; and I presume that there is no subject to-day in this country which is attracting so much atten- tion as that of "universal amnesty." I am sure that there is no subject that could arouse the sympathies in my own breast more than that which looks to the amelioration of the suffering condition of my own race, I am one of those, if you please, who long since hoisted and marched under the banner that floats to the breeze "the equality of all men before the law." I have rallied under that banner in years past, and I expect to do so as long as there is a human being in this land who is deprived of equal rights and privileges under the law. I shall continue to rally under it, and my voice shall ever be heard in behalf of the equality of those who are deprived to-day of the privileges of American freemen. We hoisted the banner with this republican motto, and labored for the liberation of those who are not of our own race or com- plexion; and we brought about results which partially crowned with victory all our labors in the campaigns of the past, when we gave not only physical, but political, freedom to the black men of the country. I am one of those, Mr. Speaker, who do not propose to stop at this point. I am one of those who intend to keep the ball rolling as long as one of my race in this Government is deprived of the liberties and privileges granted to the black man. I am one of those who to-day think that the friends of the white men of this country, who are now deprived of the blessings of this Republic, have the right to be heard on this floor, and throughout the length and breadth of this land. I am not unmindful of the fact that the cries of that class of people have come to the Congress of the United States time and again in vain. I am not unmindful of the fact that there are men, white men, who are to-day deprived of those blessings which gentlemen so, flippantly speak of in this House as belonging to "all men before the law." Mr. Speaker, in unfurling the banner and striking for "the equality of all men before the law" I do not mean to leave my own race degraded as they are to-day in a portion of the States in this IN THE AMERICAN CONGRESS. 193 # Union. If that is not Republicanism, then I am not a Republican, either in a partisan or in a general sense; but if it is Republicanism, then I want the Republican party of this nation to come up to the work. Let them in this House and in the Senate say to the people of the United States that they will be true to their principles, and that the white men of this country shall be free men again, and be invested with all the rights and privileges the Constitution gives to American citizens. But, Mr. Speaker, I am told these men committed a great crime; that they are unworthy of confidence, and beneath the notice of the American people; and that such unmistakably is the doctrine held by the Republican party of this Union. What crime, Mr. Speaker, have they been guilty of? Is the crime committed by them in 1861 in rebelling against this Government any greater than our fore- fathers committed in raising the standard of revolution against the mother country, England? Is treason by American citizens against the American Government a greater crime than treason by British citizens against the British Government? The people of the South- ern States to-day are guilty of no greater crime, legally considered, than that of which our forefathers were guilty when they rebelled against the government of England. And the question with me — when we look back over that period and read the history of our country with so much interest, and with our bosoms heaving with sympathy for those of our people who were engaged in that great revolution — is why we to-day have such feelings toward our own brethren when they, like our forefathers, simply raised their arms to strike down a Government which they thought failed to protect them? I say, why is this? Both were alike guilty of treason under the law. Is it because they have been guilty of a moral crime; or is it because they have been guilty of a legal crime; or is it because they have been guilty of both? Does treason necessarily involve moral turpitude? I hold that it does not. Moral ofifenses are well defined. Legal offenses and crimes are also well defined. But I have yet to learn that, because an ofifense is such as we term a legal offense, it necessarily follows 194 ELOQUENCE AND REPARTE^E that thereby it becomes a moral offense. Were the leaders of re- bellion against the Government of the United States guilty of a moral offense? We do not arraign, try, or condemn them for such. If they were guilty of a moral crime, they will have to answer for that to a higher tribunal than we have here on this earth. If they were guilty of a legal crime that crime has since been blotted out by executive clemency. They stand before this Government to-day without offense, so far as participation in rebellion is concerned; they stand as citizens of this great country; they stand as freemen, and as such they should be recognized and regarded in the councils of our nation. If it be held that treason is necessarily a moral crime, then it necessarily follows that our forefathers were guilty of a moral crime in rebelling against England, and that every attempted revolution by any people against any established Government is a moral crime. I presume, however, that it will not be contended that rebellion necessarily is a moral crime, but that it is simply a legal offense against the Government. I think we should take all their surround- ings into view and see whether or not they deserve at our hands such treatment as they are to-day receiving from this Government. I am not here to apologize for their treason. Had the Government seen fit to enforce the penalty of the law, it would have been a re- sponsibility resting upon the Government itself. It had been the right to punish for treason against the Government and against its laws. But it did not see cause to do it; and now having passed by the crime of treason, having blotted it out, we still withhold from a portion of that people the right to appear on this floor and to hold office in this Government or under the State Governments. Self-interest prompts man to do a great many things that he would not otherwise do. And in this view of the case I look at this rebellion probably in a different light from that in which a great many others would view it. I look on that people as going into the rebellion to protect themselves as they believed against the aggres- sions of a party that had risen to power in i860. I look upon them, in other words, as going into rebellion to secure to themselves their property that they then held under the laws of the States in which IN THE AMERICAN CONGRESS. 195 they lived. It was then a question of property, a question of dollars and cents, a question of interest (that prompts all of us to act) that prompted that people in 1861 to take up arms against this Govern- ment. They owned slaves; these slaves were v/orth millions of dollars. And not only did they own them, but they or their an- cestors had purchased them, or a great portion of them, from men living in the northern States. In other words, the men who cried out against slavery, who waged a war against slavery the strongest, owed their position in society to the fact that they had then and there in their pockets the proceeds of slaves sold to that same people who rebelled against the Government of the United States. If not, we know that their ancestors did have. Now, then, that being the case, it does look to me, Mr. Speaker, that it should induce us at least to look with some degree of liber- ality upon the offense that they committed in 1861 against the Gov- ernment. If they honestly believed that their rights were jeopar- dized, if they honestly believed that the party in power were the enemies of their interests, and that their slave property was in danger, they did nothing more than all other people who rebel against their Government do w^hen they rebel, because they believe their interests are in danger. I cannot conceive, then, how it is that we can expect that people ever to view the rebellion in any other light than as being right in its incipiency and through all its stages. If they believed that slavery was no moral crime in itself, if they believed that the institution of slavery was compatible with divine daw as well as with the political laws of the land, if they believed it was no offense against God or man to hold slaves, and if they believed honestly that their slave property was in danger, I say that their consciences can never be brought to the point where they can say they did wrong in waging rebellion against the United States Government. I make these remarks rather in reply to those which are fre- quently made that the southern people should come back to the Government and kneel down, as it were, at our feet and ask forgive- ness for the wrong that they have done. That, sir, involves the very question of their honest purpose and intention at the beginning lOG ELOQUENCE AND REPARTEE of the rebellion. If they believe that they were right, they will never come back and say that they committed a wrong in going into re- bellion against the Government. The men who went into the re- bellion and the men who prosecuted it with arms against the Gov- ernment, believing that they were right, were just as honest in their purposes and intentions, and their consciences just as free from wrong and crime, as the consciences of those who enlisted under the banner of the Union believing they were right and waged the war to suppress the rebellion. Until the mind is convicted of wrong the conscience cannot have any reflection with reference to that which is held to be wrong by others. People must be taught to know what wrong is before they can feel ^ny compunctions of conscience. The man who feels that slavery was right can never have any such compunctions with reference to the institution of slavery. Was slavery, then, right? This question can only be of importance to those who believe slavery wrong in the abstract and without divine sanction or recog- nition. For the consideration of all such I submit the following from the Bible: When Lot, Abraham's brother, was captured at the battle of the Kings, in the valley of Siddim, it is said: "And when Abraham heard that his brother was taken captive, he armed his trained servants," born in his own house, three hun- dred and eighteen, and pursued them unto Dan." — Genesis, chap- ter 14, verse 14. Again when Sarah had dealt harshly with Hagar, her servant, and Hagar had left, it is said that an angel of the Lord appeared and said unto her: "Return to thy mistress, and submit thyself under her hands." — Genesis, chapter 16, verse 9. Again, we have the following as a law given to the Israelites: "Both thy bondmen and thy bondmaids, which thou shalt have, shall be of the heathen that are round about you, of them shall ye buy bondmen and bondmaids. Moreover, of the children of the strangers that do sojourn among you, of them shall ye buy, and of their families that are with you, which they begat in your land; and IN THE AMERICAN CONGRESS. 197 they shall be your possession. And ye shall take them as an in- heritance for your children after you, to inherit them for a posses- sion; they shall be your bondmen forever." — Leviticus, chapter 25, verses 44, 45 and 46. And upon this subject we further find that not only strangers could be bought and made slaves of, under what we call the Jewish economy, but the Israelites themselves could be sold into slavery, and when thus sold they were compelled to serve until the jubile* next succeeding their enslavement; and even then, in certain cases, if they did not wish to leave their masters, holes were bored through their ears and they were made slaves forever. (Exodus, chapter 26, verses 1-6.) In addition to that, we find in the New Testament Scriptures many injunctions to servants to obey their masters and to masters to be kind to their servants. And we have a notable instance in the case of Paul returning Onesiums. an escaped slave, to his master again. (Epistle of Paul to Philemon.) Now, if there is one fact clear to mind, it is that the Scriptures recognize the institution of slavery. And the only difference be- tween myself and many of those who are advocates of the institu- tion is, that I never have believed, I do not believe now, and I never expect to believe, that the slavery of the Bible is confined to any particular race, black or white; I believe it is general; and the idea that the black people of this country were slaves because of a curse pronounced upon their forefathers, I never could tol- erate. Now, while that is true, it is nevertheless the fact that the Old and New Testament Scriptures do recognize the institution of slavery. Then, not only did the southern people have the custom of their forefathers, not only did they have the fact that every State in this Union at one time, save one, tolerated slavery before them, but they had the sanction of divine Writ for the institution they then held and had in their midst. Now, I hold that slavery, having the sanction not only of divine but of political law. it was a question with that people to determine whether their rights were jeopardized; and relying upon 108 ELOQUENCE AND REPARTEE the great law of self-defense and the right of revolution that all people adhere to, it was for them to determine when they should exercise it. This they did, honestly, as I believe; but, as I also believe, without just cause. Their bravery, and the sacrifices they made, attest their honesty and sincerity. Should not these facts mitigate their offense and soften our feelings toward them? It is said by some that they cannot sit in the councils of the nation with such great rebels and traitors as Jefferson Davis, Breckinridge, Toombs, and others. I cannot see upon what this is founded. It looks to me more like a matter of prejudice and passion than anything else. I cannot see how we can make a law admitting into this House those "who have been guilty of treason against the Government, and refuse admittance to Jeft'erson Davis, Breckinridge, Toombs, and others. I cannot see by what process of reasoning or logic such a conclusion can be reached, or upon what it is based. If one is guilty of treason so are the others, and yet such men are admitted to this floor by the dozen. This shows that it cannot be a question of principle, but of prejudice, that prompts to such a course. I well remember the great respect and regard entertained for Robert E. Lee at the close of the rebellion by the Union element of the country, and even by the soldiers who had fought under the Union flag. I well know how, even to this day, they as it were cherish the memory of Stonewall Jackson. Yet, while Robert E. Lee, with his artillery and machinery of war, destroyed the lives of hundreds and thousands of our Union soldiers, Jefferson Davis was sitting as a civil officer at the head of his Government, and never, perhaps, destroyed the life of one. So with Stonewall Jack- son — a man with whom the soldiers and officers of our Army would rather have met than any other. Yet these men can be respected and appreciated, while Davis, Breckinridge, Toombs, and others are derided and denounced because they happened to hold civil positions in the rebel government. Who was more dangerous to the rebellion, Lincoln as civil magistrate, or Grant as the commander of the Union Army? IN THE AMERICAN CONGRESS. 199 If we look at the enormity of the crime, if we look at the offense that was committed, if we look at the injury done to our people and our own Government, if we look at the great expense entailed upon our government and the destruction to our soldiery by Robert E. Lee and those who fought under him, it appears to me his crime as compared with that of Jefferson Davis, Breckinridge, and Toombs is as a mountain to a mole hill. Yet those who were in arms against the Government and doing us the greatest injury, we can take to our embrace and surround with our sympathies, while we repulse and drive from our presence those who were the civil functionaries of the confederate government. I cannot see any reason for this distinction and discrimination; and it is to be hoped that parties here will unite before the close of the session and pass a bill wiping out all distinction on account of the rebel- lion, and making "all men equal before the law." Then, Mr. Speaker, we shall have a republican Government in form, and the grand mission of those who have enlisted under the banner of "freedom and the equality of all men before the law" will have been consummated. RHODE ISLAND'S GIFT TO THE NATION. HON. WILLIAM SPRAGUE, OF RHODE ISLAND. (Address delivered January 9th, 1872, on the occasion of the presentation of a memorial statue of Roger Williams, by the State of Rhode Island to the people of the United States.) Mr. President, I formally present, in the name and in behalf of the State of Rhode Island, a memorial statue of its founder, to the people of the United States, to be preserved in the national Capitol with the statues of those worthies whose services and merits, in the judgment of their grateful descendants, entitle them to this pre-eminent honor. ">00 ELOQUENCE AND REPARTEE It is less to be regretted than the artist who has created so strik- ing an ideal conception of Roger Williams had no authentic source from which he could produce the likeness of the man, since the name of Roger Williams is rather identified with the living ideas of which he was the exponent, than with any mere individualities of form and feature. Two centuries and a half have almost elapsed since the General Court of the Plymouth Colony expressed the intolerant bigotry of a political clergy by pronouncing sentence of banishment upon Roger Williams. His chief offense was a denial that the civil power extended to matters of faith and conscience; and for this he was driven beyond the pale of what was then, in New England, the abode of religion and civilization. After experiencing the privations of a bitter winter in a wilder- ness among the savages he landed, after a second warning from his persecutors, with a handful of devoted friends, upon the western shore of the Seekouk in the early summer of 1636. From this be- ginning sprang the now proud and prosperous city of Providence. But it is not because he was the founder of a city, nor because he planted a colony, from the loins of which has sprung a vigorous State, that Rhode Island has resolved to set up his statue in the Capitol of the nation; but she has accorded him this honor because he successfully vindicated the right of private judgment in matters of conscience, and effected a moral and political revolution in all the Governments of the civilized world. The doctrine of absolute separation between Church and State is so universally recognized by the men of this generation, as a cardinal necessity to the existence of a free and healthy Govern- ment, and appears to us to be such an evident political axiom, .hat it requires an effort to suppose that it was not a principle of political philosophy from the earliest settlement of this country. It was not so. The Puritans of New England were willing to suffer to the last extremity for conscience sake, but they were in no sense martyrs to liberty of conscience, and were as intolerant of heresy ■:o their belief as the Conformists of England, or the Church of Rome. The Puritans brought with them the best results of the IX TPIE AMERICAN CONGRESS. 201 Reformation which had agitated Europe from the time of Wickliffe to Luther, but as a body they had no conception of the idea that in matters of faith the conscience of the man, and not the law of the State, was supreme. The merit of Williams in announcing and maintaining this then strange and heretical doctrine is therefore to be estimated with reference to the adverse tendencies and opinions of the period. He alone brought the great work of the Reforma- tion to its last grand stage of development. It is a mistaken idea that violent revolutions are the only crises which determine the fortunes of the people. There are other in- fluences less startling but not less important, more gradual in their culmination, but not less certain, which modify and shape by their silent but ceaseless power the destiny not merely of a single people, but of a whole race. When we contemplate, as with just pride we may, the boundless resources of our common country, and realize that with each succeeding year we are giving strength and per- manency to that lively experiment in self-government which for less than a century has been nursed on this continent, we may well gratefully inquire how much of this great progress and political triumph is due to the spread and adoption of that idea, which, in weakness and in discouragement, was first resolutely ex- hibited in a scheme of government by a single master-spirit, in 1636, on the hills of Providence. It was a happy thought, which suggested that the several States" should contribute to form a national gallery of the statues of the men who have been most prominent in their history. Rhode Island would have been untrue to her antecedents, had she failed to name her first citizen for this dignity. She presents, in prompt response to the opportunity, this memorial in marble, for the con- templation of those who resort hither to witness the best develop- ment of a republican Government, and in grateful acknowledgment of the services which, not to her alone, but to the whole world»^ have been rendered by Roger Williams. 202 ELOQUENCE AND REPARTEE THE PANTHEON OF AMERICA. HON. HENRY B. ANTHONY, OF RHODE ISLAND. (A portion of an address made in the United States Senate, January 9th, 1872, on the occasion of the presentation of the statue of Roger Williams by the State of Rhode Island to the people of the United States.) Mr. President, I had not intended to interpose any remarks, at this time; for although it is always an easy and a pleasant duty for a Rhode Island man to discuss the character, to recount the history, and to celebrate the praises of the great Founder of our State, I have received no intimation, from those who had charge of the subject at home, that anything from me was expected or desired. And yet, sir, it is hardly possible for a Rhode Island Senator to remain entirely silent, when, in this high presence, the theme is Roger Williams; and I am sure you will not deem it an intrusion or an invasion of the province of my colleague, to whose abler hands this matter has been committed and who has so well performed the duty assigned to him, if I detain you, very briefly, before the question is put. My colleague has well said that it was a happy idea to convert the old Hall of the House of Representatives into the Pantheon of America. The idea originated with my distinguished friend who sits upon my right (Mr. Morrill, of Vermont), then a leading member of the House,' as he is now of the Senate. It was indeed a happy idea to assemble in the Capitol the silent effigies of the men who have made the annals of the nation illustrious, that there, overlooking our deliberations, inspiring our counsels, and ani- mating us by their example, they may seem to guard the greatness which they founded or defended. And I do not deem this proceeding an idle form, but rather a high ceremonial of the Republic; and I anticipate, with a patriotic IN THE AMERICAN CONGRESS. 203 pleasure, that it will be repeated, from time to time, until every State shall have sent here her contribution to this assemblage of heroes and patriots and statesmen and orators and poets and scholars and divines — of men who, in every department of great- ness, have added lustre to the American name. And as often as this scene is repeated; when Virginia shall send to us the statue of Washington, which cannot be too often found repeated in the Capitol; and with it that of Thomas Jefferson or of Patrick Henry; when North Carolina shall send us Nathaniel Macon, and South Carolina shall send us Sumpter or Marion, and Georgia shall send us Oglethorpe; when Kentucky shall send us Daniel Boone and Henry Clay, and Tennessee shall send us Andrew Jackson, and Illinois shall send us Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Doug- las, and Missouri shall send Thomas H. Benton; when New York shall send us Peter Stuyvesant and Alexander Hamilton; when Connecticut shall send us Roger Sherman and Jonathan Trumbull — I believe they are here already; I know that the blood of both is represented in this Chamber by men coming from States that were not born wben the names which their Senators worthily beai were first made illustrious — when Vermont shall send us the stal- wart form of that hero who thundered at the gates of Ticonderoga "in the name of the Continental Congress and the great Jehovah"; when New Jersey shall send us the great grandfather of the Senator who sits on the opposite side of the Chamber (Mr. Stockton), and the uncle of the Senator who sits nearer me (Mr. Frelinghuysen); when Pennsylvania shall send us William Penn, and when Massa- chusetts, pausing in the embarrassment of her riches, looking down the long list of her sons who, in arms, in arts, and in letters, in all the departments of greatness, have contributed to her glory, shall, with hesitating fingers, select two to represent that glory here; then, and on every such occasion, I trust that the spirit of party will cease, that the voice of faction will be hushed, and that we shall give an hour to the past. We shall be the wiser and better for it. 204 ELOQUENCE AND REPARTEE ROGER WILLIAMS. HON. HENRY B. ANTHONY, OF RHODE ISLAND. (Portion of an address delivered in the United States Senate, January 9th, 1872. on the presentation of the statue of Roger Williams to the people of the United States by the State of Rhode Island.) In all our history no name shines with a purer light than his whose memorial we have lately placed in the Capitol. In the history of all the world there is no more striking example of a man grasping a grand idea, at once, in its full proportions, in all its completeness, and carrying it out, unflinchingly, to its utmost legitimate results. Roger Williams did not merely lay the foundation of religious freedom, he constructed the whole edifice, in all its impregnable strength, in all its imperishable beauty. Those who have followed him, in the same spirit, have not been able to add anything to the grand and simple words in which he enunciated the principle, nor to surpass him in the exact fidelity with which he reduced it to the practical business of government. Religious freedom, which now, by general consent, underlies the foundation principles of civilized government, was, at that time, looked upon as a wilder theory than any proposition, moral, political, or religious, that has since engaged the serious attention of mankind. It was regarded as impracticable, disorganizing, im- pious, and, if not utterly subversive of social order, it was not so only because its manifest absurdity would prevent any serious effort to enforce it. The lightest punishment deemed due to its confessor was to drive him out into the howling wilderness. Had he not met with more Christian treatment from the savage children of the forest than he had found from "the Lord's annointed," he would have perished in the beginning of his experiment. IN THE AMERICAN CONGRESS. 205 Mr. -President, fame, what we call human glory, renown, is won on many fields and in many varieties of human effort. Some clutch it, with bloody hands, amid the smoke and thunder of battle. Some woo it in the quiet retreats of study, till the calm seclusion is broken by the plaudits of the admiring millions, of every tongue and of every clime. Others, in contests, which, if not bloody, are too often bitter and vindictive, seek it in the forum, amid "the applause of listening senates," caught up and echoed back by the tumultuous cheers of popular adulation. All these enjoy, while they live, the renown which gilds their memories with unfadmg glory The fame which attends them is their present reward. It stimulates them to greater exertions and sustains them in higher flights. And it is just and right. But there is a fame of another kind, that comes in another way, that comes unsought, if it comes at all; for the first condition for those who achieve it is that they shall not seek it. When a man, in the communion of his own conscience, following the lessons of his own convictions, determines what it is his duty to do, and, m obscurity and discouragement, with no companions but difficulty and peril goes out to do it-when such a man establishes a great principle, or succeeds in achieving a great amelioration or a great benefit to the human race, without the expectation cr the desire of reward, in present honor or in future renown, the fame that shines a glory around his brow is a reflection from the "pure white hght in which the angels walk, around the throne of God. Such a man was Roger Williams. No thought of himself, no idea of the recompense or of praise interfered to sully the perfect purity of his motives, the perfect disinterestedness of his conduct. Laboring for the highest benefit of his fellow-men, he was entirely indifferent to their praises. He knew (for God, whose prophet he was, had revealed it to him) that the great principle for which he contended, and for which he sufifered, founded in the eterna fit- ness of things, would endure forever. He did not inquire if his name would survive a generation. In his vision of the future, he saw mankind emancipated from the thralldom of the priestcraft, from the blindness of bigotry, from the cruelties of intolerance. 206 ELOQUENCE AND REPARTEE He saw the nations walk forth in the liberty wherewith Christ had made them free. He saw no memorial of himself, in marble or in bronze, or in the general admiration of mankind. More than two centuries have passed since he flourished; nearly two centuries have passed since he died, buried like Moses, for "no man knoweth of his sepulcher;" and now the great doctrine which he taught pervades the civilized world. A grateful State sends up here the ideal image of her Founder and her Father. An appreciative na- tion receives it, and, through her accredited representatives, pledges herself to preserve it among her most precious treasures. AN ELOQUENT PRAYER. (A prayer made in the House of Representatives, January 9th, 1872, at the opening of the session, by Rev. Dr. De Sola, minister of the Portuguese Synagogue, and Professor of Oriental Literature in McGill University, Montreal.) Almighty and Everlasting God, these, Thy servants, the repre- sentatives of the people of the United States in Congress assembled, have come to legislate in accordance with the principles of civil and religious liberty enunciated by their sires, the founders of this Republic, and by perpetuating the same, to prove themselves worthy the glorious heritage they have received. Then look down from Thy holy habitation, from heaven, and assist and bless them at this time. Pour out Thy spirit most plenteously upon them; yea, let rest upon them the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and ability, the spirit of the knowledge of Thee, O Lord. Let righteousness be the girdle of their loins, and faith- fulness the cincture of their reins. And in all their deliberations for the public weal, let not personal or partisan hostility find place; but suffer harmony, patriotism, truth, and justice to pervade them, so that to bigotry there may be given no sanction, and to persecu- tion no assistance. Let such a spirit prevail in all they do and say IN THE AMERICAN CONGRESS. 207 for this, their country, and inspire them with an enlarged sentiment of peace and good-will toward all other peoples. We gratefully acknowledge, O Lord, that such a sentiment is signally manifesting itself in our day, and we render unto Thee our most hearty thanks that thou permittest us, even now, to wit- ness a victory of peace infinitely greater than any victory achieved in war, at any time , and by any people, in that this nation and its parent nation are settling their differences, not by might, not by power, but by Thy spirit, in a^^manner best becoming those of one origin', language and blood, by an appeal to the arbitrament of nations impartial and disinterested. And as aforetime and among; other peoples many a vindictive and bloody struggle, destroying both the material resources and moral strength of those engaged, has originated in much less important considerations, we have special cause to thank Thee that this evil was averted, and to ask that the words of the Chief Magistrate of this Republic may indeed be realized; that this example may be everywhere followed, so as to restore to the productive industry of the world millions of men engaged in training and preparations for war. Bless, then, both these nations who proclaim the glad tidings of peace to the world; draw them yet nearer and nearer to each other in mutual esteem and mutual confidence, and this not merely for their own welfare, but for the blessings of all the families of the earth, to whom they are the hope, the teachers of liberty, and enlightenment. Supreme Ruler of the Universe, may it please Thee to let the light of Thy countenance shine continuously upon this land Thou hast so greatly favored. Open unto it Thy goodly treasure, and bless it with prosperity within and tranquility without. Preserve it from bloodshed and from the pestilence that stalketh in dark- ness Maintain within it the good character of liberty Thou hast inspired and as he who sacrilegiously touched Thine altar of old was accounted worthy of death, so perish the unhallowed hand that would pervert or destroy this Constitution of wisdom, justice, and liberty, for the narrow purposes of sectarianism. And lastly, and above all, may its people advance most in the fear of Thee, and 208 ELOQUENCE AND REPARTEE love of Thee, so that they may be for a name and praise among all the nations of the earth. THE CHARACTER OF THE PURITAN. HON. S. S. COX, ©F NEW YORK. (Remarks made in the House of Representatives, January nth, 1872.) Mr. Speaker, I am reluctant to intrude upon these funereal ceremonies enacted two hundred years after the burial of Roger Williams; but, after what we have heard on matters connected with esthetics, history, religious toleration, and "soul liberty," I undertake to say that Roger Williams will never suffer by discus- sion in this House from the State of Massachusetts, or in this age of enlightenment. We are all, Mr. Speaker, under obligations to Roger Williams, though it extends back nearly two centuries. I am ashamed to say that the State of Rhode Island, where I was educated, has never yet erected a monument to his memory, or even discovered the place of his sepulture. It does not much matter, as his soul is not located. Some one has said that an apple-seed planted in the ground struck into his skull, and has produced fruit. It has so, for many generations. Under the shadow of that apple-tree, men can sit down as under the old vine and fig-tree of the Scriptures, with none to molest or make afraid, so far as God and religious connection are concerned. Mr. Speaker, Roger Williams came to Rhode Island driven through the woods. He landed on the rock called "What-Cheer." I have often stood upon that "rock." He was received by the Indians with kindly welcome. Hence the name of the rock. He was a true, good and tolerant Christian gentleman. The colony IN THE AMERICAN CONGRESS. 209 of Massachusetts, which cast him out, could not appreciate such a soul at that time; nor have they since, though Mr. Bancroft gives him an immortality as one of the heroes of our altar. Roger Williams went into the wilderness. The very savages received him afaer he had been exorcised, as a bad spirit, by that puritanical element so lauded here to-day at his expense; the same spirit which left England to escape sacrifice and disasters. It makes in true history no exhibition of the heroism of those great Puritans of England who, like Pym, Hampden, Vane, and Crom- well, did not "leave their country for their country's good." Nor did the Puritans come to this country, as has been said, to leave their mother Church of England. Without leaving their church at all they went to Holland. There they became so trouble- some and pestiferous that the Dutch shipped them to some un- known country. It was shrewdly suspected and is generally be- lieved that it was intended to land them on the island which I have the honor, in part, to represent; but by some dispensation of Prov- idence, or a trade or bribe with the skipper, they did not land there, but at Plymouth. The Puritans made a system of government which has been much praised. But, as I could show from history, it does not contain one element of democratic, religious, or civil liberty. It throttled Roger Williams by exiling soul liberty. This is proved by the elegant and truthful speech of the gentleman from Rhode Island. All history confirms it. My reason for voting to receive this statue from Rhode Island is that Roger Williams was the champion of that which was then too great and generous for Massachusetts to accept; but which the American Republic in 1787 —aye, all nations now— including Spain and Italy, receive as the organic law of the relation between God and His creatures. In America we are not without illustrations of religious liberty. Lord Baltimore illustrated it in Maryland, as Roger Williams, almost contemporary, illustrated it in Rhode Island. But if you will search history for truth, you will find that these Pilgrim fathers, so prodigally lauded, when they were about to come to this country, went to King James and applied for a charter. They told him 210 ELOQUENCE AND REPARTEE that they wanted to go to another land to "worship God, and — catch fish." (Laughter.) The gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Butler), just before me; will see the propriety of keeping up that record. (Laughter.) King James said in reply: "Fore God. All right. Go and worship God and catch fish; for catching fish is the apostles' own calling." (Laughter.) The Puritans, therefore, came to this country with an eye always upward to God, and with an eye somewhat downward for a bite. (Laughter.) But, Mr. Speaker, I did not expect to participate in this debate. I had no right, perhaps, to enter into the discussion, excepting for this one reason: I belong to the little State of Rhode Island. Perhaps, by my size, I belong to that little State which Major Noah once said he could put in his breeches pocket, and which I believe is entitled almost to one Representative under the recent appor- tionment — "two," some gentleman says. I shall be satisfied with one — Roger Williams. But whether one or two, she is a sovereign State; and most sovereign in the ideas of Roger Williams. I have reason, sir, to love Rhode Island; I have reason to re- vere the memory of Roger Williams — not because he was a Baptist, or that I am particularly fond of water. (Laughter.) I am espe- cially a friend of Rhode Island because, as a boy, I was drawn thither to her splendid and liberal college. Brown University, and to the grand presence of Roger Williams, Dr. Wyland. He was the demi-god of our era. Under his tuition I spent the happiest of my days. The chief delight of my life is that I was educated by his great and generous soul; and in a college, the first clause in the charter of which was that there should be perfect religious liberty to Protestant and Catholic, to Jew and Gentile, to paynim and infidel — all alike. This is the 'distinguishing characteristic of Rhode Island. The principle of religious liberty, or as Roger Williams himself called it, of "soul liberty," is illustrated in the charter of the college of Rhode Island. In Massachusetts they made their laws to conform to the law of God; but the Puritan people and the Puritan Church were the Aarons always to interpret those laws. Like the Ulemats of the Turkish constitution, if called upon by the Sultan to interpret IN THE AMERICAN CONGRESS. 211 the constitution; if they did not interpret the constitution according to the idea of the Sultan, they were to be pounded to death in a mortar. (Laughter.) The Puritan adopted a similar mode. I am sure there has been improvement in recent times. There has been great advance in Massachusetts since Roger Williams went into the wilderness. I have seen the day, and I am not old, when a Baptist, an Episco- palian, a Separatist, Quaker, or a Dissenter, would have stood in fear of being hanged, if not in Washington, on Boston Common (laughter); but I do not believe at this day that any man in this House would wish to revive the relentless, terrible, and horrible agonies through which the better man of our colonies passed two hundred years ago. We have passed all that; no thanks to the Puritan. There is to be no more tearing out of Quaker tongues, no more death of supposititious witches, no exile of Baptists. We have fixed it as a part of the Constitution, not religious liberty for this one or that one, but complete religious or "soul liberty" for all, not the mere toleration; not the writ of habeas corpus which you have altogether abrogated, not the liberty of print, speech, locomotion, or life, but the liberty in which each and every man exults, as a sentient being, when untrammeled, he lifts his soul in prayer to his Maker and his God. Therefore, I welcome this efifigy of Roger Williams to the Capitol. It is a protest against intolerance and bigotry. It is an everlasting symbol of religious liberty, as fixed in our Constitution, by the practice and example of Roger Williams and Rhode Island. Let his form in marble ever reproduce in the mind the generous, logical, and noble truths of his life of sacrifice and devotion. 212 ELOQUENCE AND REPARTEE THE CHARACTER OF THE PURITAN. HON. B. F. BUTLER, OF MASSACHUSETTS. (Remarks made in the House of Representatives, January nth, 1872.) I listened with great pleasure, Mr. Speaker, to the very able, well put, and eulogistic address of the honorable gentleman from Rhode Island (Mr. Fames). I agree with every word that he said in praise of one of the foremost men of his day, and I am glad that while Rhode Island has not preserved a lineament of his face, or any correct efBgy of his form, or even the memory of the spot, in a State small enough to find it, where his grave is, that at this late day her people have placed a statue here as a monument to the practical founder of religious liberty. I had thought, Mr. Speaker, it were not well even to controvert anything which seemed not to do justice to Massachusetts. I looked upon it as a finished oration, as a sort of funeral eulogium, in which it is always permitted to say all possible good about the dead, even at the expense of other dead, or the living, if not too unjust perhaps; and, therefore, I saw no sufficient reason why I should interfer'e, although in that I may have been mistaken. But the remarks my colleague felt himself called on to make, which have brought the early founders of Massachusetts somewhat in prominence before the House, and what has fallen since from the gentleman from New York (Mr. Cox) as to them, seem to demand a word of explanation of the Puritan character, which, I am certain, the gentleman from New York neither understands nor appreciates. True it is, sir, the Pilgrims left England for Holland because they could not worship God according to the dictates of their conscience in their English homes. They went to Holland where they had full liberty of conscience, full right to worship God in IN THE AMERICAN CONGRESS. 213 the form they desired, but where they did not remain, for the reason that they could have no control in teaching and bringing up their young men and young maidens in their fathers' faith; where heresies of all descriptions were, in their view, undermining the true practices of the word of God. And for that reason they did — what? They sought a new world. For what purpose? For the purpose of founding a Church which of itself should be a State, which looked to but one ruler, looked to but one superior, looked to but one law and but one guide, and that His holy word. As the gentleman from New York has said, they hired a captain to land them, where I suppose they intended to land, on the island of Manhattan, or somewhere in what is now the State of New York, which he failed to do. And, Mr. Speaker, may we not pause a moment to contemplate what would have been the change in that island if they had landed there? (Laughter.) May not we of Massachusetts, fishermen as we are, some of us — followers of St. Peter, at an humble distance, as we are — may we not point to Massachusetts, on the one side, as a specimen of a Puritan Com- monwealth, and to the island of Manhattan, on the other, as a Commonwealth that I have no words of characterization? Now, sir, when our Pilgrim i fathers came to Plymouth for this high and noble purpose, what did they do? They gave up the refined society of the Old World; nay, more, all the comforts of civilization and delights of home and pleasures of country. For what? For conscience sake. Why? Because they believed in their souls that their religious teachings and doctrines were right and all others were wrong. They came to a wilderness and en- dured every privation, even the horrors of starvation; they risked the attacks of a savage, an unknown foe, extending over the con- tinent; they encountered all the horrors of climate, sickness, and death itself, for the purpose of founding a commonwealth in which they could worship God as they believed was His will according to His word. Thus they founded religious liberty in this sense only, that they interpreted the Scriptures according to private judgment, and not according to the dogma of any church; and they asked no man to come to their New World with them who 214 ELOQUENCE AND REPARTEE did not believe as they did, and they required no man to stay there unless, believing as they did, he chose so to do. They had per- iled everything except their souls' salvation to get a place even in the wilderness, where they might have the opportunity, in the fear of God, of working out that problem of their souls' salvation, and all that they asked was not to be interfered with by anybody else who should set up false doctrines in their belief. And while they welcomed to their new home in the wilderness, founded by starvation and privations, everybody, they insisted that everybody who came there should not interfere with their religious liberty. That was the theory upon which the Puritan Commonwealth was founded, as I understand it. Having made these sacrifices, having taken these pains to get a Commonwealth in which they might carry out their views of God's words; they only asked that other men should not. come there and' interfere with them and take away their liberty of conscience by teaching false heresies to their children. If they had intruded upon any one else's land, if they had gone to the Dutch colony in New York, if they had gone to the Church of England colony at James River, if they had gone to the semi-Catholic colony at Baltimore, if they had interfered with the Quaker colony afterward founded in Pennsylvania, if they had gone to any colony and undertaken in that colony to set up their peculiar doctrine, their peculiar ideas, their peculiar worship, then there would have been some ground of complaint; but coming into a savage wilderness and setting up their church and their altars there they testified by giving up their lives to the sanctity of their belief and to their devotion to it; and they simply asked that others should not interfere with that which they had purchased at such a price. Whenever the Puritan character is contemplated in this view, everybody, I think, will agree that there is no occasion for sneers, no occasion for animadversion, no occasion for complaint, no occasion to look upon them otherwise than as they were, sincere, earnest, zealous, devout believers and doers of God's word as it was given to their understanding, full in the faith that others who differed from them were wrong, and acting contrary to God's will; IN THE AMERICAN CONGRESS. 215 they only asked such others to go away from them, and when they did not choose to go away from them they put them on one side. (Laughter.) I claim, as one of the Representatives of Massachusetts, that this was their merit, that they were not only troublesome to those that interfered with them and their religious belief, and who came where they alone had a right to be and the comers had no right to be; and the result has been seen. The same clearness of per- ception, the same devotion to duty, the same energy in the per- formance of that duty, the same self-reliance, the same trust in God's providence which brought them to this new world, has leavened this whole country with their ideas, until now we have in this country, from sea to sea, the Government founded and carried on by the Puritan ideas of Massachusetts. The Puritans claimed the same right only what we claim and now exercise, and a right which this Congress has exercised, not to permit others to come into our country and establish their own ideas of Govern- ment and their own institutions. If any one doubts this I ask him to look at what this Government is now doing to-day near the Great Salt Lake in regard to Mormonism, where we are insisting that our ideas, our religion, our institutions shall be established and maintained, and not the ideas and institutions of others. I claim, then, and I wish to impress my view of the Puritan character upon the House, that believing they were right, believing they were God's chosen people, and acting upon that belief, giving up everything on earth to substantiate and enjoy that belief, with practical good sense, with clearness of judgment, and with stern- ness of purpose upon that belief, they founded their State, and dealt with everybody else that interfered with them as their consciences and good judgments dictated; and when in after times we see the fruits of that action we can pardon the mistakes, if any, which they made. Sir, I am not here to defend our Puritan fathers; their history is their defense; but a still better defense, if one were needed, is the result of their acts and the example of their lives, an empire greater and more powerful than the sun ever shone upon, with 216 ELOQUENCE AND REPARTEE every man within its borders a free man, with every religion which looks to one God, and to His Son, our Saviour, tolerated, per- mitted; nay, invited. This is what I claim to be the result which sanctions the conduct, illustrates the character, and is the evidence of the energy of purpose and the religious teachings of the Puritan founders of Massachusetts. A PLEA FOR GENERAL AMNESTY. HON. GEORGE VICKERS. OF MARYLAND. (Conclusion of an address in the United States Senate, January 15th, 1872.) ********* It has been said that the sublimest word in our language is duty, and the most important, responsibility; that the man who has conquered a nation is not great until he has conquered himself, for true greatness is moral greatness and nobility of spirit; and that he who cannot forgive others breaks the bridge over which he himself must pass. Let us rise to the moral grandeur of duty and responsibility, achieve a victory over our prejudices, over our memories of the past — our resentments, and spirit of retaliation — rise to the dignity and honor of our station, and to the exalted standard of pure and generous patriotism, forgetting ourselves and all our conflicts and dififerences in the love we bear to our fellows, equal in all the elements of true manhood to ourselves. It was said by an eminent historian that the true end of politics is to make life easy and a people happy. Let us verify in our history to-day this adage of a wise man, and leave no blot upon the history of our times by maintaining distinctions among equals. You boast of having struck the manacles from the hands of the slaves, while you place them upon the mind, the volition, the 8D-23;8 IN TflE AMEKICAX C(3NGRESS. 217 freedom of the whites. Let us act up to the wisdom of statesmen, and while you proclaim the liberty of bondmen, pronounce the emancipation of our race; withdraw your military from southern soil and restore tranquility and order. Suffer not the fleeting and unworthy influences of party to weigh down the mighty balances of human rights, the immunities of the citizen and the demands of the nation; but in view of the humiliations, sufferings, and destruc- tion of the past, looking with the prescience and hope of the patriot to the stupendous greatness and glories of a happy future, rise to the true character of our position, and restore to our people and the States equality, justice, confidence, and constitutional rule, the secure and solid foundations of free republican institutions. Can there be anything in the history of governments and of men higher, nobler, sublimer, than a great people, by their Representa- tives and Senators, obliterating all traces of proscription, and bringing back into a common fellowship, into full communion and brotherhood, those who are "bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh/' who speak our language, worship the same God, and seek to serve the same country? Send, therefore, the white-winged messenger of peace, reconciliation, and hope to those, who will contribute to our growth, unity and prosperity. ^ • ' ^ v^ ^ * • - o '» < -^^0^ ^/^ ^MC^ %.^ ^ .^-"<. 4 o ^ ^J■' ^' r\..^ 'T' 0^7 o 'O \^' DOBBS BROS. -^-. % _^ .V= ' * • ' A^'