r J3 j £ 2P1 1868- Class__L Book .W7 A 5 N A Defense of Louisiana. An investigation having been ordered by the Congress of the United States into the affairs of Louisiana, I was selected by the Congressional Committee to add my testimony in reference to the condition of the rural districts. I responded to the sum- mons — answering the questions with simplicity and candor — only abstaining from any political allusions; also from words of in- vective against individuals, and of disrespect to constituted authority. Subsequently, I was asked to join in a protest, calm and moderate in tone, intended to purge this community from the charge of disloyalty and lawless violence. I did so with sincerity. For this testimony, my name has been singled out for rebuke. Words of accusation have been pronounced, which if my accusers had known the facts would have remained unspoken. He is a novel politician who never cast a vote at the polls — never, in a sermon, or prayer, or public address, gave utterance to a political sentiment through a ministry of forty years. He who searches the heart, knows the struggles it has cost me to depart from that reserve which I have always endeavored to maintain upon questions of national polity. Nor could I now be moved to speak, unless the interests of the Church were involved in the issues of the hour. Disastrous in its effects upon the commerce and agriculture of the State, the present dejection is still more fatal to the welfare of the Church. Of Zion it may be truly said: " the whole head is sick and the whole heart faint." It is time, when a country has arrived at this condition, when it is no longer able to maintain schools for the young, nor churches to be a refuge for a sorrowing people, nor Priests to weep between the porch and the altar, and to make intercession for them in the day of their calamity; it is time for one charged, with my responsibility, to speak out. To refuse this, would be to stifle the remonstant energy which survives in every church, not totally dead, to defend itself against the evils which threaten its decay and extinction. " Thou shalt appear before rulers and kings, for my name's sake," is a duty not confined to the early ministers of religion. I desire to abstain from all needless crimination of others. My duty will have been discharged, when the load of calumny which rests upon this people is lifted, when the story of Southern outrages against negroes and their allies is explained, and the Church of Christ is rescued from the suspicion of winking at lawlessness and crime — holding the nation breathless at the per- secutions endured in the cause of equal rights, without a sigh of remonstrance from those who call themselves Christians. To what is this tending ? Nothing is more practicable than the cultivation of harmony among the States of this Union. Not less practicable, is the restoration of amity and affection between the two races in the South. Our hope is to live in peace with the negroes, ourselves and our children — but not while a respectable body of citizens are busy in segregating them and nursing dis- trust and alienation in their breasts ; not while the public journals are teeming with accusations unknown in political warfare and foreign to the spirit of civilization, invoking upon the white race the restraints due to a turbulent and sanguinary people. The two systems of policy are renewed, and becoming every day more distinct. The one coercive, the other curative in its effects. They confront eacn other. The nation will have to make its choice between them. Any discussion of this subject must be imperfect, which does not include the questions involved in the war, and this at present is impossible. The national heart, torn and bereaved, is too sensitive to admit any calm investigation of our recent history. The field on which that frightful contest was fought, is forbidden territory — sacred from the foot of intrusion. Silence reigns there, and the ghosts of the dead keep jealous watch over its noiseless realms. This sentiment of reserve does not attach to the events which followed upon the close of the war. No mar- tyr's blood shelters, and sanctifies them. Briefly to recall these events, will not be a hindrance, but a help to peace. Posterity will read with admiration, not unmingled with regret, of the patient struggles of the South to recover its forfeited rights in the Union. The privileges of representation first proffered were rendered nugatory in this State. Its repre- sentative men had all been in arms, and these by the will of ('ongress were excluded. This act of discrimination was not accepted by the people. From motives honorable to their spirit of chivalry, but fatal to their returning prosperity, the oppor! unity was lost to the Southern States to recover their influence in the councils of the nation. This spirit of compro- mise was spasmodic only, and stiffened at the first breath of con- tradiction. Men in power, including the highest functionaries of the Government, who had encouraged this action of the Southern people, feeding them with assurances of more favo- rable conditions in the future, were powerless to restrain the extreme and radical changes which were inevitable under the advent of a new Congress — a Congress less subdued under the terrible responsibilities of the war, and less imbued therefore, with sympathy for the vanquished. Statesmanship fled for sanc- tuary to the Church. A spectacle sublime and beautiful was at this moment pre- sented to the view of the nation, as if ordained by Providence to guide the civil power "weary in the greatness of its way." The Protestant Episcopal Church, including within its pale, many of the enlightened statesmen of both sections, was quick to meet the emergency, and restore the breach which had been made in its constitution. Rent assunder by the exigencies of war, not a moment was lost by some of its chief representatives, to assemble in council, and — abstaining from all words of reproach — to proceed with its legislation as if no disruption had ever occurred. The reconciliation was complete. Very soon the cruel taunts of the adversary were hushed in silent ad- miration of a Union, so honorable to the spirit of brother- hood. Had the example of this Church been followed by the nation, the peace of the Church would have been the peace of the nation ! A contrary policy was adopted. For reconciliation was sub- stituted reconstruction ; for confidence, suspicion and distrust ; for unification simple and complete, tentative schemes more con- spicuous for ingenuity than for wisdom and mercy. Naturalists will not unfrequently make choice of some inferior animal, rep- tile or insect, on which to test their various poisons. Upon the poor unhappy victim, the effect is torture, perhaps death; but science will profit of its sufferings to correct some of its errors. It has been the misfortune of this State to become the subject for the crucial experiments of statesmen, sincere in their enthusiasm to enlarge the domain of policical science. Never was a problem in political economy, submitted to a more cruel demonstration. That the reconstruction measures adopted by Congress for the South, were punitive in their design, I will not assert; that their aim was to establish the supremacy of a party, it is not my pro- vince to judge ; that they were disastrous in their results, will be the verdict of history. Good men often deceive themselves. They are victims of this deception who boast of their forbearance in dealing with the South. A more consuming policy could not have been devised. It excluded the statesmen of the land, and a large body of its ablest and best citizens, from any share in the rehabilitation of the State, and exalted to the highest functions of government, men wholly ignorant and incompetent to the task, bewildered indeed by this sudden transformation from slaves, into magistrates and rulers. So perilous a change was not wise statesmanship. The capacity of the Africans for government had been tested on their own native shores. Again, in the Islands of the Gulf of Mexico. The attempt to transfer to this race the fairest portion of the South, reckoning on their numerical strength to hold it under their sway, was to laugh to scorn the lessons of history. Ought we to be surprised that the inhabitants, — proprietors of the soil, men of our race and lineage — should revolt at this offence to their pride, not to speak of the inevitable spoliation and destruc- tion of their property. "Witness the result — in the present con- dition of this State, vividly, but imperfectly described in the message of the President to Congress, and the testimony before the Committee, in this city. Was anything else to be expected from African supremacy? A State illustrious in history, un- rivalled in its resources, intense in its submission to Federal authority, reduced to shame and bankruptcy. Over its ample domain, or the larger portion of it, the eye ranges hopelessly for some object to break the monotony of suffering. Homes dilapidated and deserted, fields stretching far and wide uncultivated as a Libyan desert, schools suspended, churches closed, and when opened, half the congregation left to guard their property and homes from spoliation. No law exists against vagrancy, consequently in many parishes little or no stock is raised, no poultry, not even vegetables, so unsparing in the spirit of depredation Disgrace is never attached to stealing from the whites, among a large class, and the convict emerges from the penitentiai-y with no sense of shame, and no loss of respectability. Indeed, the forbearance displayed by the planters under these outrages, if the facts were known as I know them, would often be regarded with amazement. Ten years of constant suffering, following close upon the hardships of the war, have made a people naturally impetuous — thoughtful and calm, slow to anger, and tolerant of wrongs which would rouse almost any other community to revolution, regardless of consequences. One confession will sometimes outweigh a multitude of random allegations. Only the other day, a lady, high born and accomplished, made the remark in my presence, that if an order were received, commanding her with her hits- band and children to range themselves in front of the iron- clads anchored against New Orleans, and brave the tempest of fire from a hundred guns, the order would send no strange tremor to her heart — so terrible have been the sufferings she had endured since the war. How many of these proofs of suffering I could add to the statistics furnished by our military authorities for the instruction of the Government. These I am not careful to prove false or exaggerated. It comforts me to know that the voice of our woe has reached the ear of our rulers, and will be reverber- ated through the land. Our desolation is confessedly great, but who are its authors ? The State Government is powerless to inspire confidence, but what are its antecedents? The law is defied, but who are its judges, jurors, magistrates, executioners ? Our system of taxation, without representation, is an insult to Republican institutions. But what power contrived and fashioned it, and what power alone can lay the grim phantom in the way of our resuscitation. I desire to speak respectfully of the rulers of the State. I cannot so speak of some of its functionaries. They are neither wise nor good men. Louisiana is the most disturbed of all the Southern States, because it has offered the richest field for the cupidity and ambition of the greedy adventurers who are feeding upon its strength. It is a grave accusation to make against men, some of them natives of the country, that they are in league with the ne- groes for base and selfish ends. But is it false ? Wherefore is the meaningless allegation poured into their ears that the ascen- dancy of the white race would send them back into slavery? Why are they cajoled into the assumption of equal rights with the whites, and the next moment insulted and abused for voting like white people, and with white people — everywhere else no distinction tolerated, at the polls no sympathy or approximation. I wish from my heart that their iniquity ceased at this point, and they could prove themselves guiltless of the crime, of instigating the negroes to acts of aggression and armed insurrection against the whites — nominally to maintain their political rights, really to make themselves victims, and to fire the Northern heart. Is it incredible that men should be guilty of such crimes, and that the army should be invoked for their protection. A glance at our Indian frontiers will disclose to you the same drama in progress, and with the same fatal consequences to the nation's peace. It began many years ago, and is not yet ended. Before me, at this moment, is the testimony of Bishops of the Church, and officers of the army, to the ghastly array of facts ; annuities stolen by white men appointed to hand them over to the Indians, contracts disowned and broken, false weights and measures, drugs adulterated, merchandises a naked fraud, papers forged, school money withheld, horses stolen, men and women drugged with poisonous drinks and narcotics, and other countless wrongs which have made historical the Red man's agony and the nation's shame. Two years ago, I was present when a delegation of Indians — thirty in number — decked in paint and feathers, marched into a Church in New York city The Board of missions was in session. The interpreter ex- plained in a public speech how this tribe, not once only, but three times, had been expelled from their homes and crowded out from lands guaranteed them by treaty. I could not resist the sense of shame, and did not therefore share in the interchange of courtesies which I felt were unreal, as long as this great wrong was tolerated. A few months later, and the country was startled by the horrors of the lava beds, and later still by the treachery of the Modocs, who refrained not from violating a flag of truce, to wreak their vengeance upon men assembled to negotiate a peace. Few of those who read this tale of perfidy are aware that this act had its counterpart "in all its circumstances of infamy twenty years before, when the fathers of these murderers were the victims and whites were the traitors."* Indian butcheries have been cruel and remorseless, but on the other hand, military evidence is not wanting to show that Indian babies have been scalped, Indian camp fires have wit- nessed to slaughtered households — asleep under the pledge of protection. In vain has the Government labored to grapple with this evil. Public sentiment discourages the humane effort with sneers at what is called the Quaker policy of the Administration. So insidious is the influence of a few border politicians, to inflame the public mind and prevail upon it, to make their cause, I will not say their shame, its own. Who can doubt that the adoption of the same pacific policy in the South would excite in the same quarter, a stronger repugnance and contempt. The elevation of the negro race is not what they court. The reconciliation of the two races would be fatal to their influence. Nothing is so abhorrent to these peculiar friends and allies of the negro, as any measure tending to restore confi- dence in their former masters; to make them one in sentiment, and one in power. The Indian trader would lose his gains if the * Bishop Huutiugton. Indian could be made to listen to wise counsels, and the occupa- tion of these misguided men would be gone, if the Government could be sustained in a policy of pacification, if its agents would deal truthfully with the negro race, instead of deluding them about their return to slavery — and humanely with them, instead of making them discontented with their lot, and stimulating them to acts of provocation. The murders and assassinations which have defiled our land with blood, are thus explained. With such elements of mischief seething and raging beneath the surface of society, any other re- sult would be almost a miracle. No complaint is heard of Federal soldiers being murdered or molested through the South as the German soldiers were murdered during the occupation of French territory — no violence, no attempt at resistance to Federal authority. The disturbances are local, and in no instance, within my observation, have the whites been the aggressor's. The safety of the negroes had been as inviolable as that of the sol- diers, if their behavior had been as discreet and unaggressive. The melancholy tragedy in Grant Parish has been pro- claimed far and wide to the prejudice of the white people in this State. The fact has been strangely withheld, that before this event, so deeply deplored by our citizens, the negroes had rushed to arms, whole families of the white community had been frightened from their homes by insulting forays and threats of extermination ; some escaping across the river, and others to the woods—one dear child, to my knowledge, having perished from cold and exposure in the forest — and another already dead and laid out for burial was madly flung into the public street. "Prior to the at- tack on the fortification at Colfax," I quote from a letter addressed to me, by the excellent Rector of the adjacent Parish, "the negroes had driven from their homes every white family in the vicinity. A reign of terror has been inaugurated, and they had threatened the destruction of the white race in three parishes. Their deliberation to sack and burn the towns of Natchitoches, Alex- andria and Pineviile was openly proclaimed. Almost the whole negro population was armed, and prepared to carry into effect this perfidious design against the whites in the event of their being able to maintain themselves at Colfax. They courted the assault, being confident that they could annihilate the attacking party, and this being done, the country would be left defenceless, and they were to sally forth upon the work of destruction," I add the testimony of one of the victims, in his dying moments, one of the few white men that were killed, that he had thrown away his arms and had entered the building under a flag of truce raised by the negroes, when he received his mortal wound. Noth- ing is more calculated to excite a maddened crowd to the work of indiscriminate destruction. Witness the fate of one or more Indian tribes whose sudden slaughter by our Federal soldiers under violent provocation, has escaped any public reproof from the Government. The iniquity is not visited on the soldiers, nor does the guilt attach to the poor Indian, but to the mercenary horde whose avarice and perfidy taught the red man to hate the white man, and to bring upon themselves this terrible retribution. The striking fact is not disputed that the Indians under British dominions in the near province of Canada are universally pacific and respectful in their behavior, and they are increasing in numbers. The analagous fact is equally significant that the emancipated serfs in Russia have exhibited no signs of violence, but meekly accepted the change in their condition, contented with the naked gift of freedom. Which of us is not affected with shame at this contrast with our Indian tribes who are vexing themselves into a slow and lingering death ; and with our eman- cipated slaves who, not even in their state of bondage, were so discontented, so restless and impatient under i*estraint, insensible to the'blessings they enjoy, while there remains one boon they do not enjoy. For every negro admitted to Congress, there is an increase of many hundreds admitted to the penitentiary. I recite these facts in no spirit of enmity for the colored race, who have no warmer friend, — and many of them know it — in any efforts for their intellectual and moral improvement. The negroes are not a cruel and vindictive race. They are not inclined to be aggressive in political or social life. I am only concerned to show that negroes like Indians are very largely the victims of treachery. They have not like the Indians lands and forests, and furs to barter, but they have votes, and for these votes men will sacrifice the peace of the nation. While engaged in this conspiracy against the peace of the country, the efforts of these persons is to evoke public sympathy for their wrongs. We know what this means — it hides iniquity and stimulates the ardour of adherents in a doubtful cause, to raise the cry of persecution. If you listen to their complaints, no cause ever had so many martyrs. The}'' arc ostracised; for their political opinions or made victims of sectional animosity. Not unfrequently have I met with individuals through the land, who believed that to visit the South, would be to expose themselves to insult, if not to violence. An accusation of this kind, impugns the Church 9 for the violation of catholic unity, and for ingratitude to many noble and generous benefactors. Is it true? Look at facts. History portrays the victims of persecution in all ages, hiding themselves from public view, seekiug refuge in the wil- derness or in dens and caves of the earth. It has been reserved for these Southern martyrs, to be clothed with political power, and to command for themselves and their adherents the highest offices of profit and dignity. Behold them ostracised from their homes— to become representatives in the legislature: pilgrims and wanderers — traversing their judicial circuits quietly and leisurely, to administer justice ; driven by the sharp edge of persecution — to occupy lordly mansions and to sit down at sumptuous tables, who had never riches, some of them never homes before. Persecution is not very sharp which is thus displayed. Of one thing these persons have a right to complain — that the peo- ple under their rule are not satisfied. They will murmur. They are not reconciled to this change. Bereft of power in the land of their inheritance, the voice of their complaint can- not be hushed in a moment. Beholding the sad breach made in many communities and households, the deep sigh will escape from the lips, ' this is not the necessary result of emancipation.' For this restlessness and loud complaint they are abused for dis- loyalty and disobedience to authority. The South was never more proud and defiant before the war, are the words which fell from the lips of ruling statesmen in Congress. Protection, is demanded from this great wrong — protection, for those in power from those out of power — protection for scorpions who have stolen the dove's nest, that they shall not be obliged to listen to the plaintive cries of the mother bereft of her young — protection, for the soft slumbers of the wolf gorged with his prey that he shall not be disturbed by the bleating of the sheep-fold upon the midnight air ! The presence of the army and navy of the United States is everywhere entitled to an honorable recognition. Defenders of our national heritage, they eschew political and sectional animosi- ties. With few exceptions their officers represent the sense of honor, the heroism, the high moral culture of the nation. Their vocation exempts them from the temptation to craft and venality which are the vices of this age. While they remain what they are collectively, the nation will not want for a school of honor. No where in this land — alas that circumstances should obscure it for the hour — are these strangers more truly welcome than in this 10 community. Their honor is our honor, their heroism is our in- heritance and that of our children. Next to a local government of their own choice this people would almost unanimously prefer a military government. Until that boon is granted, let the army be invigorated under a wise leader, and its guardian care diffused through every parish, and every armed league will gladly disband, convinced that the nation's shield will afford them am- ple protection. This sentiment does not bind them to the silent approval of the attempt of the military, outside of their legitimate sphere, to de- prive this people of their just rights, to eject from their seats in the Legislature men afterwards proved to be entitled to their place, and to arraign the ministers of religion when they raise the voice of humble remonstrance in defen^e of truth and justice. • This people claim the army for their defence, not for their degra- dation. They are jealous for its dignity as well as for their own. They want to feel, when at the head of its columns they see the national banner with its glistening eyes looking on theni — they want to feel every pulse thrill with emotions of national brotherhood and not to bow their heads beneath its folds as a conquered and disinherited people. I am bold to make this charge — not against the Chief Magistrate of this nation, who is often in our prayers, never in our animadversions — nor against the chief ruler of this State, to whom we are equally bound to render honor — but against the power which is stronger than both, and which is holding this State under its inexorable sway, I am bold to make this charge — modern History has no example of a power so hard to propitiate, perhaps no example of equal patience under such misfortunes. Was it a mute prophecy of our coming fate, which is expressed in the emblem upon our national es- cutcheon — the Eagle with one talon holding forth the olive branch of peace to all nations, and with the other grasping the arrows of death, pointed to its own breast — friendly to all others intolerant and cruel only to its own ! I might have enlarged upon the wrongs inflicted upon the negroes more boldly, and not depart from the example of my excellent brother Bishop Whipple, whose voice has so often been raised in defence of the Indians from the cruel devices of roving adventurers, who are preying on their ignorance and inciting them to acts of hostility. His sorrows are mine. His weeping remonstrances are echoed in the depths of my soul. His example almost rebukes me, that I have kept so long silent 11 Tinder wrongs, which threaten to make one-half of this diocese a homeless wilderness. I have disclaimed any personal allusion. Can it be necessary to add that I am not speaking in the interests of sections or parties. The subject is no longer one to feed sectional strife, since it is so often witnessed that our citizens of Northern birth are among the most steadfast champions of Southern rights — nor of party, since the representatives of each party, both in the Congressional Committee and elsewhere are contending with each other to do us justice and to engage our gratitude and respect. For many sweet amenities of life and deeds of noble charity I am indebted to men and women of Repub- lican antecedents, never so conspicuously as now. At home and abroad, are to be found good men of each political hue, who are as innocent of the enormities under which we suffer, as the bow in the cloud is innocent, of adding to the terrors of the storm, I greet them as willing laborers in every effort to raise our emancipated citizens to a new and higher life. For their encouragement, let me say, and I am responsible before God for this testimony — that our people accept the results of the war without mental reservation. The supremacy of the Federal Government is no where more sincerely acknowledged, and if left to rulers of their own choice as in other States, and to the local administration of their own affairs, they are able to main- tain peace and execute justice towards all people of every race and complexion, universally and impartially. I will add that the best and most honored citizens of the State are unanimous in their purpose, and sanguine of their ability to arrest the spread of disorder and violence, and without imposing any restraint upon freedom of speech, or freedom of suffrage, to mature a re- publican system of government, under which the inhabitants of the State will remain a free, loyal, and in the end, a united and prosperous people. More than this may be accomplished for the African race. Relegated to the care of those who are allied to them by the tra- ditions of the past, the awakened sense of responsibility for their welfare will be quickly developed. Idleness and intemperance will be restrained, which are now clothing the 'men and children in rags. Domestic virtue, which our present laws do not attempt to reach, will revive, and they will be protected from the feuds which are filling the land with violence and blood. Schools will be opened, and the young be educated in obedience, as well as in knowledge, to meet their coming responsibilities. Avenues to 12 political power will not be closed, but they will be rescued from the fatal ambition to be made rulers, without the tutelage or dis- cipline necessary to make them citizens. Above all, religious in- struction will be communicated to the multitude, now sinking under superstition from an unhappy prejudice against * White Teachers, and they will learn to become intelligent christians — prepared to christianize Africa, after being defeated in their frantic efforts to Africanize Louisiana. God's ways are unsearchable, and who shall say that this dark problem so long fruitful in alienation and woe, may not become the solvent to make us one again, to dissolve the spell of fanaticism, to distinguish a true from a false philan- throphy, to rebuke hypocrisy religious and political, and to unite good men of all shades in one final struggle to restore to the nation its. lost inheritance of unity and concord ! Am I then to speak to my fellow-citizens only in words of despair, and not with the joyful accents of one, whose ministry it is to heal the broken hearted, to preach deliverance to the captive, and the opening of the prison doors to them that are bound. The crisis of our fate is over. The experimental system has failed- Good men of all parties moved by our patient submission are hastening to our deliverance. From the East, from the West and the North, we hear the cry — perish ancient animosities, and let the brotherhood of the nation assert its power. At home the restoration of ejected representatives in our Legislature is an event equally auspicious of a bright future. The greatest power on this earth is principle, and you have proved it by [your patient endurance. The power of a great principle is stronger than a throne and will subvert thrones. It has an empire of its own, numbering its subjects in every land, under every clime. Under its inspiration you have advanced until the period of your re- demption draweth nigh. Impetuosity has made many a man its victim where a calm sense of rectitude would have spared him to be a conqueror. Be patient, and in seeking only legal means to recover your power, give token how wisely, how gently, how magnanimously you will use it. * Among evil agencies, the most mischievous is that of colorod preachers, many of whom disown tin- Bible as a rule of morals for their race More fatal is the influence of these false teachers of religion, than that of the whole tribe of polticians. 13 With these words I retire from this theatre of action, which will soon cease to involve the interests of Christ's Kingdom. The Church once recovered from the perils which are now consuming its life, will make its voice to be heard in your political struggles no more. Descending from above, our religion interferes with no existing forms of human government. Its progress will be attended with no party triumph. Its accredited ministry exists to reform and bless the world, not to embroil themselves in its struggles for power. It affects not to concern itself with temporal things, but in the exercise of moral and spiritual might, to purge the nations of the earth from evil, and to raise mankind to a new and higher life with God. My Brethren of the Clergy will not be encouraged by what has been here spoken, to admit secular questions to enter the pre- cincts of the Lord's Sanctuary and to mingle in His worship. The voice of the Bishop has spoken, not from the Pulpit, but from another position where he stands a watchman on the walls of Zion. Upon him let the weapons of the adversary fall. God will not allow his strength to forsake him under reproach, while they modestly pursue their sacred mission. Higher functions are theirs than any which have here come under review. Higher interests invoke their zeal. It belongs to the functions of the Priest of God to deal with realities amidst the unrealities of this perishing world. Eternal truths are upon his lips. Immortal interests are in his custody. His work is expected to live when other men's labors are doomed to die. Earthly tribulations, .poverty, nakedness, fade into insig- nificance upon his sight. A guilty world stands before him accused of rebellion against God, exposed to coming judgment and the perdition of ungodly men. Hasten each one of us to arouse the slumbering conscience of rulers and people, of friends and foes, to prepare for the day of impending trial. Perish earthly animosities in the near prospect of that hour, when every man shall stand naked and trembling before God, and the final sentence of justice for which He is gathering materials form our daily history, will tarry no longer. " For with what judg- ment ye judge, ye shall be judged, and with what measure ye meet it shall be measured to you again." LIBRARY OF CONGRESS mi iiiii 111 mi 014 645 141 A