^ a,AAAA.'(X-K^ , 1 T K. Book__.6Ao Legal and Political Disabilitii SPEECH HOI. ZACHARIAH CHANDLER, V ^ IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES, JANUARY 31, 1872. ^^ "? Tlie Senate having under consideration the bill (II. R. No. 380) for the removal of legal and political disabilities imposed by the third section of the four- teenth article of amendments to the Constitution of the United States- Mr. CHANDLER said: Mr. President: I accept the lecture we received yesterduy from the honorable Sena- tor from Missouri [Mr. Schurz] on statesman- ship with great humility, and I am sure if my honorable friend from Nevada [Mr. Nye] had remembered the facts in the case he would not have taken exception to anything that my friend from Missouri had said. For his states- manship I have ever bad the most profound respect. When it is remembered that the hon- orable Senator revolutionized all Germany, and having demolished the kingdoms of Ger- many established that great rej)ublic which has been the admiration of the world for nearly a quarter of a century, [laughter,] who can bring his statesmanship in compeliiion with that of the honorable Senator? Then, again, I have great respect for the honorable Senator, because wheti he comes liere lie brings, like the harvester, his sheaves with him. He desired a liberal Republican- ism in the State of Missouri, and he comes upon the floor with a large sheaf, to wit, his colleague, as proof of the liberalism of his Republicanism. And, sir, I have for his Re- publicanism a profound respect, because he brings that sheaf with him. I therefore will not discuss the question of statesmansliip with the honorable Senator from Missouri, but, as I said before, I accept his a.ssertion with such humility as I am capable of. I differ from him, but of course I must be wrong, because he says sq. Mr. President, the Senator from Missouri has advocated on this floor universal amnesty. What is amnesty? If I understand it, and I think I do to some considerable extent amnesty is a boon, given for a consideration. You do not amnesty a man who has not com- mitted a crime; you do not amnesty a man whose skirts are clean ; you amnesty a crim- inal. If you grant that boon, to wit, amnesty, are you iu)t entitled to place a condition upon that boon? hi this case what is the condition that we impose for this boon? If these infamies which exist in the South must be unfolded, it is as well that I should ht.ve the unpleasant task imposed upon me of rtferringto themas any other man. I have been compelled for more 'than a year to listen to stories of wrong and outrage that would make the blood in the veins of any loyal or humane man tingle with horror. I have seen the victims who have been outraged. Why, sir, the colonel of one of our Michigan regiments, and an officer of this Government, was taken out by Ku Klux wretches and one hundred stripes inflicted upon him, ami when I saw him he could hardly mpve, because his wounds were not yet healed. 'Murders innum- erable, for they are counted by thousands, outrages innumerable, for they are counted by more tlian tens of thousands, have been per- petrated by these wretches in the night time. And now we demand what? We demand of these men simply, "Stop killing, and then we will amnesty you ;" "Stop whipping, and then we will amnesty you ;" "Stop these outrages, and then we will amnesty you." Is our demand unjust or unreasonable? Mr. President, the men who are banded together perpetrating in the night-time, and almost every night, unheard-of and untold atrocities, are the very men who seven years ago were in the rebel army. You cannot find a man of them who did not wear the rebel gray during the rebellion, and to-day they wear the Ku Klux dress and badges, and are the rebel army in a different uniform. Sir, we have amnestied every man who has shown the least sign or symptom of repent- ance. We have amnestied every man who has come forward and even asked to be am- nestied. Who are these men that are now to have amnesty forced upon them? To a very considerable extent they are the very mem- bers of this Ku Klux organization ; and what is the credit that we shall receive after the thing has been done? Why, sir, that you dared not refuse it another hour. They will say, "You refused it to us as long as you dared, and now that you dare not refuse us another hour, you grant it to us grudgingly." Sir, if I ever did vote amnesty to an unrepent- ant rebel I hope God may forgive me, but I shall never forgive m3-self. The Senator from Missouri said, "You, Sen- ators, have amnestied one and have voted him into a high office." So we did ; but that man showed the very highest possible evidence that he had repetited of his sins and was a loyal citizen. What was that evidence? He joined the Republican party, and there is no higher evidence than that. He joined the party that put down this rebellion, and he has been true and faithful ever since. I repeat, it is the very highest evidence that can be offered on this floor or anywhere else of repentance on the part of a rebel, that he has joined the lo3'al Republican party. Have these other rebels shown any such symptoms of repentance? Is there any evi- dence that any single one of the men upon ■whom we are going to force amnesty against their will and wishes, men who will not even Esk us to grant the boon, has repented of his sins and has become a loyal man ? No, sir. On the contrary, the evidence is glaring that not only are they unrepentant rebels, but that they are as bitter rebels as they were when they wore the rebel gray with muskets pointed at the loyal heart of this nation. Mr. President, I cannot vote this boon in advance of a demand for it, and I never will. The very moment that these rebels show that they have repented, that they have become loyal, law-abiding citizens, that moment I will vote them amnesty; but, until they do show that they have repented of their rebellion, I never will vote them amnesty. Sir, it is not amnesty that they require. These men are criminals who are to-day prisoners of war, unless the President's proc- lamation that the war was ended may have relieved them. We to-day hold the parole of every man of them as a prisoner of war, and they are liable under the laws of war unless the President's proclamation has re- lieved them, the very moment they violate that parole, to be taken out and shot under martial law; and I should like to see a few of them treated as prisoners of v/ar. It would do more good than amnesty to take a hundred or two of them out some morning and dispose of them in that way. What they need is the strong hand of power to punish them for their crimes.' It is true that we have sent some sixty or seventy of them to State's prison, but that is not what they need. They need what they are inflicting upon their poor innocent loyal neighbors; they need a stronger, harsher treatment than they have received in the courts. I do not say that the proclamation of the President may not have relieved them from their positions as prisioners of war, but unless that proclamation has thus relieved them, every single man of them is liable to be brought before a military court-martial to- moKTow and shot for a violation of his parole. I have never been in very great haste to grant either amnesty or rights to the men who rebelled against the Government. When they took up arms against this Government, they forfeited every right, and when they laid down their arms they admitted that they had for- feited every right. They simply asked, not amnesty, not the protection of their property, but that we in our magnanimity would grant -' them their miserable lives. That is all they askgd. They made no further demand than that, that their lives might be spared, and they would have been perfectly content with that. But, sir, in addition to their lives, we gave them their property, and in addition to their property we have given a large majority of them amnesty, and now you propose to come in and give amnesty to the rest, not as a right, for every right was forfeited, but as a boon, and a boon for what? Sir, I will not go over the history of the wrongs and outrages that will be spread be- fore you in two or three days by the chairman of the Ku Klux Committee; but if any man desires to see sustained every assertion that I have made, and see more than sustained every utterance that has been made by the news- paper press, he has only to look over the evi- dence taken before that Ku Klux Committee, and more than all that has been said will be sustained. Mr. President, by some means or other, and I can hardly tell how, civil service reform has been dragged into this discussion upon amnesty. I do not very well understand what business it has here, but it has been here over and over and over again, and I may as well make an allusion to it as I go along. I am in favor of every effective reform that can be made in the civil service, and I am in favor of the most searching investigation to find out where reforms can be made. But the other morning I was going to show that some reforms had been made when the expiration of the morning hour interrupted me, and I was prevented. That I believe was upon another bill ; but that makes no difference. Civil ser- vice reform has been here, and I may as well say now what I meant to say then. I then said that civil service reform had been going on for the last ten or eleven years, and very effectively going on. I stated that when the rebellion broke out nearly every officer under this Gov- ernment was a traitor to his country; certainly more than nine tenths of all the officeholders in the District of Columbia were rebels against the Government. We went to work to reform every one of those rebels out of office, and we reformed loyal and faithful men into office in their places. That was our first civil service reform. Then, as I said before, Mr. Johnson, hav- ing turned "liberal Republican"— I believe that is the name now, but we always used to call them Democrats— Mr. Johnson, hav- ing turned "liberal Eepublican," found it extremely difficult to procure honest, compe- tent, faithful men who would even profess to be Johnson men. In consequence of that, he was obliged to a very considerable extent to fill his offices with incompetent men, and in many cases men not of the highest char- acter. We have reformed all of Johnson's incompetent nominees out of office and have reformed honest men into office in their places. Then, in addition to that, early in this Ad- ministration a good many Senators, and a good many members of the House of Representa- tives, and a good many members of the press, recommended the appointment of improper men to office, and it was utterly impossible that the President should know all these men. There is one instance of an editor, who I be- lieve now belongs to the reform party, who recommended several very improper men to office; they proved to be thieves; and every one of them that has been proven to be a thief has been reformed out of office and reformed into the penitentiary. Then a good many more, some recommended by members of this body, when they found that this reform was going on, reformed themselves into for- eign lands, where they were beyend the reach of the United States courts, and remain there yet in disgrace ; and a good many more, where the proof was not sufficient to convict them, and yet where the moral conviction was so strong that they could not be retained in office, have been reformed out of office and are now in disgrace in this land, and in every instance where it could be done competent and honest men have been put in their places. These reforms have been going on daily and hourly ever since President Grant's inaugura- tion, and they have been very effective in their results. It is my sincere belief that we never had so honest or so efficient a civil service under this Government as we have to-day; andyet undoubtedly other reforms can be made • and will be made. Wherever an abuse is pointed out to this Administration, that abuse is immediately remedied, and wherever abuses are found they will continue to be remedied. Our Saviour must have been a pretty good judge of human nature ; and yet among His chosen twelve there was one Judas, and from the days of our Saviour down to the present time I suppose the average has been about the same as with His chosen friends, about one in twelve. I think if you study the Scriptures you will make up your mind that our Saviour brought about Him the general average of honesty and dishonesty ; and it makes no difference whether in this body or in the House of Representatives, or somewhere else, you will 6nd about one Judas out of twelve. Until the millennium comes we must expect here and there to find a man who can- not resist great temptation. I believe that this Administration has used every possible effort to find the "twelfth man," and when- ever found they "made a note of ir," and turned him out and put a faithful public ser- vant in his place. Such is the Republican policy. We punish our thieves; the Demo- crats reward theirs. Now, with regard to the present civil ser- vice reform, I will not go into an investigation of that, because this is neither the time nor the place. When the time comes I shall. I am in favor of reforming out every incompetent man ; I am in favor of reforming out every dishonest man, and of reforming good men into their places. But, sir, whether this comnetitive examination which is now talked of is going to accomplish that or not, I cannot say. My judgment would be that it would require some- thing a little different from that competitive examination to carry out the mucli-talked-of civil service reform to its very best re- sults. So much by the way for "civil service." The honorable Senator from Delaware [Mr. Saulsbuby] yesterday — and I am sorry I have not his speech before me; it is not in the Globe this morning — made a speech comparing the Democratic party with the Republican party, and drawing a contrast that was not particularly favorable to the Republican party. • I propose to carry out the parallel between the two parties a little further than he did. It is a parallel that 1 think should be held up before this nation. It is a parallel that the young men of the nation now coming upon the stage of life should examine, and I for one shall never refuse to make that comparison, either on this floor or anywhere else. I like to draw it on the stump as well as I do here. It is a parallel that I have been in the habit of draw- ing for a long time. The Senator from Delaware discovered that in the good old days of Democracy we had specie payments ; in the good old days of Democracy we had lighter taxation; in the good old days of Democracy our commerce was more thriving than it is to-day; and in that same parallel he discovered that the Republican party was responsible for this increased taxation, and for this destruction of our commerce. Sir, has my honorable friend from Delaware forgotten that we have had a rebellion since the Republican party came into power? Has my honorable friend from Delaware never heard of the Alabama and her colleagues, that sailed all over the ocean destroying, wherever they found it, what lay under the American flag? Does my honorable friend from Dela- ware know that the Alabama was commanded by that eminent Democratic politician, Admi- ral Semmes, of the confederate navy, now a leading Democratic editor in the Democratic South ? Has my honorable friend ever learned that the Republican party had an enormous work to do after it came into power? Has my honorable friend ever heard what the first mis- sion of the great Republican party was after it came into power under this Government? Mr. President, it is a very common thing to hear these " liberal Republicans" of the An- drew Johnson stripe — 1 think that is the name they went by under Andrew Johnson — con- demning the action of this Government. A very common thing it is and has been for them, and they are very much in the habit of saying that the mission of the old Republican party is ended, and that they, the liberal Republicans, are coming into power. Mr. President, let us look for a moment and see what the old Repub- lican party has done, is doing, and means to accomplish, before we adopt the liberal Repub- lican platform with Vice President Blair at its head. As soon as this great Republican party came into power in the other House, though not in this House, when it simply controlled one single branch of this Government, and that only by a very meager majority, the very first act, the very first tiling that it had to do was to prevent all the vast Territories of the United States being given over to the blighting curse of human slavery. When the Democracy had a majority in this body of more than two to one, and we held the other House by a smaller majority, on this floor only three Democrats went with the twenty Republicans to prevent this enormous wrong and outrage upon the free people of the United States. Democracy broke down the wall of separation between freedom and slavery, and demanded that the whole of the Territories of the United States should be given over, bound hand and foot, to the blighting curse of slavery ; and- the first act, the first part of the mission of this great Republican party, was to rescue those vast Territories from this curse of slavery. Mr. President, we did it after a prolonged and terrible struggle. You fill remember the Lecompton constitu- tion, and the terrific conflict we had over it; | but we accomplished that part of our mission,' I and we saved from the bligiit of slavery our great Territories, large enough to create half a dozen European empires. The next part of the mission of this great Republican party was to put down and over- throw a Democratic rebellion against this Gov- ernment, and that was thrust upon us, forced upon us before we had been in power one month and twenty days, by the firing upon Fort Sum- ter. It had been threatened for years ; it was threatened while we were saving the Territories from the curse of slavery; it was threatened upon every measure that displeased the South, either in this body or in the other ; but there were few who believed the South would ever attempt so reckless and foolish a thing as the overthrow of this Government. But they undertook it; and here permit me to say that this was not a southern rebellion alone. If the northern Democrats had not ofifered aid and comfort and assistance to their southern brother Democrats not a gun would ever have been fired at our flag. The whole Democratic party of this nation is responsible for that rebellion, and the world and all history will hold them to that responsibility. I am not surprised at all that the Democratic party desires to blot out Its record and the record of the past. But let us look a little further into' this. The honorable Senator from Delaware says that we had specie payments when the Republican party came into power. Yes, sir, so we had, and we had until we had been fighting this Democratic rebeiuon for more than six months. What was the condition of the country when Mr. Lincoln was elected President of the United States? The credit of the United States stood higher than the credit of any other Government on the face of the earth. Our bonds were higher in the markets of the world six months before Mr. Lincoln's inauguration than the bonds of any other Government, and the Treasury was pleth- oric But after the firing upon Fort Sumter our loyal Government was compelled to borrow almost fabulous sums to put down this Demo- cratic rebellion. It was obliged to borrow these sums to chase the Democratic cruisers all over the waters of the earth that were trying to destroy our commerce and that did destroy it. Fabulous sums we were obliged to borrow to carry on the war against the Democratic party. I We borrowed, and as long as the gold in this nation was sufficient to enable us to pay our I armies to carry on the war so long we con tinned to pay specie on demand ; but afier the banks had loaned us $150,000,000 in gold, with which we paid every dollar of expense during the first si.K months of the war, the gold in the country was exhausted, and then we were driven to the absolute necessity of issuing paper money or giving up the contest. Would my honorable friend from Delaware have given up the contest and allowed this great nation to be divided ; or would he have resorted to paper money or to anything else to put down this Democratic war? Mr. President, I will not go over the history of the war, but I will say this : that through- out the whole of it the sympathy of the Demo- cratic organization, (I do not say of all Demo- crats by any mfiuner of means, because .there were remarkable examples of devotion to the 6 country on the part of Democrats, but the sympathy of the Democratic organization, as a political organization, from the time the first gun was fired until the surrender at Appo- mattox,) was with the rebels, and that very sympathy furnished them aid and comfort from the beginning until the end of the war, aid and comfort that they required, or they would have thi'own down their arms months and perhaps years before they did. Hence, I say that the Democratic party is responsible for the continuance of the war. In their State conventions and national conventions and all their political organizations, wherever held, no matter whether in Michigan, Ohio, Vermont, or South Carolina, it made no difference, there the Democratic party expressed sym- pathy with the rebellion, and resolved only a few months before the final surrender at Appo- mattox that the war was a failure, and that peace ought immediately to be restored. How could you restore peace with defiant rebels in arms against your Government except by a vile surrender and the loss of your Govern- ment? Who ever believed that there was a chance for peace upon any other terms than an unconditional surrender to the demands of the South. And that is just what these Demo- crats meant throughout. We have listened here during the fifty days we have been in session to a great many con- stitutional arguments showing our constitu- tional duties. Mr. President, [Mr. Anthony in the chair,] those arguments must sound very familiar to you and me. They do to me. You and I both sat here and listenened to a better constitutional argument from Jeff. Davis five minutes before he left this body than has been delivered by these constitutional advo- cates since the commencement of this session. Robert Toombs delivered a better constitutional argument than has been delivered here this session. Those arguments were in the same vein and strain as we hear now. It sounds very familiar to hear these old Democratic speeches. I contend that we have not only stood by the Constitution, but that we have saved the Constitution, all there is left of it. You and your party would have overthrown the Government, and in so doing you would have overthrown the Constitution ; and every shred of it that is left you owe to us, and you ought to get down on your knees and thank us for saving what we did. I do not much like to be lectured upon my constitutional duties from that source. I recognize my con- stitutional obligations, and I recognize yours. But, Mr. President, our mission did not end with the putting down of the rebellion, nor did we cease our eflTorts for the public good during the continuance of the rebellion. The mission of this great Republican party was a wonderful mission. We not only had to save the vast Territories of the nation from slavery, and to put down a Democratic rebellion, but we had to pass certain great measures for' the benefit of this Union, and we have done it. That beneficent measure known as the agri- cultural college land act was the work of this great Republican party, that has established agricultural colleges in almost every State in this Qnion, and which, I trust, will establish such a college in every State. That was a part of the mission of this great Republican party, and it performed it, and performed it well. Another part of the mission of this great Republican party was the homestead law, giv- ing a farm to the man who cultivates the soil, saying to every people and nation imder heaven, "Send your laboring men here and we will allow them to take an interest in the soil by siiijply paying the actual cost of sur- vey." This was a part of the mission of the Republican party, and we have performed it, and performed it well. Then, again, the great national banking system, the best the world has ever seen, or perhaps ever will see, a system that, in my humble judgment, will be adopted by every commercial nation under heaven before ten years shall have rolled around — the plan of issuing a currency based upon the obligations of the Government, that is good in every nook and corner of the laijd — was a part of the mis- sion of this Republican party. Prior to that every State issued its bank notes at its own good will and pleasure, and bank bills that were good in Michigan were not worth the paper on which they were printed in Florida, and those issued upon the Atlantic coast were worth less than nothing at the Pacific. Sir, we have established a currency so uniform that from Alaska to Texas there is not one fourth of one per cent, difference in its value; and from Maine to Texas there is not the difference of one eighth of one per cent.:. a currency so absolutely good that if a bank fails the value of its notes rather appreciates than depreciates in consequence of that failure. The desire has been — it is not so now — so great to obtain the privilege of starting banks that men have actually paid a premium for broken bank notes in order that they might establish banks in their sections of the country. This great beneficent banking system was one of the missions of this great Republican party, of v/hich I am proud, and of which I intend to boast a little. Another mission of this party, and one which I ought perhaps to have brought in at an earlier portion of my remarks, was this: we found four million slaves in this land of lib- erty — a foul blot upon our escutcheon in the eyes of all the world. I have had it thrown in my face a thousand times by people of for- eign Governments, "You profess to be the freest Government on earth, and yet you have four million men in absolute and degrading bondage. " It was a blot that no man on this floor could excuse or defend. We said that we had no responsibility for it; that it was a State institution ; but we never could make a foreigner understand that this great-nation had not power to do away with so mighty a wrong. It was a part of the mission of the Republican party to strike off the shackles from those four million slaves, and make them men. It was a slow process. I remember that the first lime we enacted that a colored individual might sit in that gallery it created more tumult than all that has been made by the "liberal Repub- licans" within the last three months. It fairly raised a howl of rage all through the streets of this capital, that wc would permit a colored individual to come and take a seat in this gallery ! Well, sir, it was one step, and we took it. The next step was more terrific in its results. We finally decided to take colored troops into our Army, and then the whole Democratic camp was in as terrific a slate of confusion as a bum- blebee's nest would be with a hot iron in it. [Laughter.] Never did I see such an absolute horror created as was created by that re.^olution to take colored troops into the pay of the Gov- ernment. I went home and was obliged to meet this on the stump ; it was thrown in my face everywhere, and I told my Democratic friends at home that in my humble judgment a black man was good enough to shoot a rebel, but; that if there was any Democrat there who was so anxious to get into the Army, and had been crowded out by a black man, I would agree to take the black man out and let the Democrat in. Well, sir, I never had to take a single black man out. [Laughter.] Democrats were not anxious to get in, but they were exceed- ingly anxious to put all the white Republicans in, keeping the black men out. We took black men into the Armj', and after they had fought gallantly against the Democratic rebellion, we were obliged to strike off their shackles, and we did it. For that act the responsibility is on the Republican party, and it is a thing that will go down in history, its chiefest crown of glory through all time. Mr. President, the Democrats have no re- sponsibility for that act ; not one of ihetn voted for it; not one of them favored it; and now they want these black men to vote with them; and what is the process they pursue to make Democrats of them? They whip them until they promise to vote the Democratic ticket, and then if they do noi vote it they kill ihem. Tliat is the Democratic argument! I am ready at all times to discuss this par- allel with the Democratic party here or else- where — always glad to have it bro^ight up. It always furnishes me pleasure to enter into this discussion ; but I have not quite got through with the mission of the great Republican party. The next part of the mission of this Repub- lican part}' wa.s to prevent the repudiation of the public debt after our armies had conquered the rebellion. In one Slate, Democrats recom- mended paying it in greenbacks; in another State they recommended paying the interest for a little while; and in another State they advocated absolute repudiatioir; but nowhere, in no State, did the Democratic party as an organization stand up for an honest, faithful, 8 honorable payment of that debt. It was for repudiation in some shape or other; and we, the Republican party, had it as a part of our mission to save the national honor from being disgraced by this Democratic party, and we have done it. Mr. President, we did more; but I will come to that in a few moments. We not only saved the national credit from dishonor, but we raised it from the very dust of humiliation, until it stands to-day on a proud eminence before the •world. That is our work. No thanks to you, gentlemen. You did your best to discredit the nation, but you failed ; and now you arraign us, do you ? We plead not guilty to your arraignment, join issue, and bring you to trial. The next step in the mission of this great Republican party was reconstruction. I will not weary the Senate with all the points in the mission of this party. I am only bringing out a few salient points to which I mean to call the attention of the Senate, and I want to keep them in perpetual remembrance. The next part of the mission of the Republican party was the reconstruction of these rebel States. I confess that I was not in as great a hurry as some were for that reconstruction. I could have waited a little longer for that act to be consummated, but after all I went with the Republican party in pressing it because I would not stand out from my associates. I repeat, however, I could have waited a little longer any day that we passed any reconstruc- tion law. But, sir, you will remember very well that Mr. Johnson conceived a plan of his own for reconstructing these rebel States, and he un- dertook to force his plan of reconstruction over Congress. He adopted a system of pro- visional governments. Mr. Johnson knew as well as you or I did that he had no right to appoint a provisional governor. Mr. Johnson knew perfectly well that when he was appointed Governor of Tennessee the very first act of President Lincoln was to send his name before the Senate as a brigadier general in the Amer- ican Army, and Brigadier General Andrew Johnson went to Tennessee as military gov- ernor, and not as provisional governor. Presi- dent Lincoln had a perfect right to appoint any man a brigadier general in the American Armyand then make him a military governor, but neither President Lincoln, nor Andrew Johnson, nor anybody else, except Congress and the President, had any right to appoint a provisional governor. Well, sir, he proclaimed amnesty to rebels and undertook to carry out his plan of recon- struction, bringing them in as rebels. But the mission of the Republican party was to pre- vent this consummation. The liberal Repub- licans joined with the Democrats to a man and voted against every measure that we adopted here to prevent this foul wrong at- tempted to be perpetrated by Andrew John- son ; but the great Republican party was strong enough then to overcome the Demo- cratic party and the liberal Republicans, too, and it is strong enough now. The liberal Republicans and the Democrats have always acted together. You remember very well, sir, that in 1862 they undertook all over these United States to get up a Union Republican party ; that was, a Republican party that would be satisfactory to the Democ- racy. They tried it in Michigan, and reduced our majority from twenty-two thousand down to seven tliousand. They tried it in New York, and elected Horatio Seymour. They tried it in every State ; and had tliey succeeded in the three great States of Ohio, Pennsyl- vania, and New York, it is my solemn belief that this Government would have been over- thrown ; but the Lord was on our side, and they were not permitted to succeed. They elected Seymour in New York, but they failed in Ohio and Pennsylvania. Now, Mr. President, the RepubUcan party carried out faithfully and efficiently and suc- cessfully this part of its mission, and to-day we have every State in this Union represented upon this floor. I am sorry there is not more love for the Union in these southern States, but they are all restored, and if they see fit to behave themselves they will all be treated as brethren in this great brotherhood of States. But until they do, until they lay down their Ku Klux arms as they laid down their muskets and their gray uniforms, I for my own part am disposed to say, "Stay out; you shall not hold 9 oflSce ; you can vote, but we will not permit you to hold seats upon this floor, where you will misrepresent the views of the loyal men of your States." Now, Mr. President, as we are going through a comparison of the two great political parties, and as we have been dared to that comparison, I desire to give a few facts and figures in con- nection with these two great parties. There seems to be an impression on the part of Dem- ocrats and liberal Republicans that the masses of the people of these United States have become so disgusted with the old Republican party, with the present Republican party, that they are going to rush right into the arms of the Democracy, and it is proper to show them what that embrace will be when they reach there. Let us look a little further into the financial condition of the country in 1869 and to-day. The amount of debt, including accrued in- terest and less cash in the Treasury, on the 1st day of March, 18G9, three days before the inauguration of President Grant, was $2,525,463,260 01. On the 1st of April, 1871, it was $2,309,697,590 27. The reduction of the debt during the two years and one month from March 1, 1869, to April 1, 1871, was $215,763,663 74, a reduction equivalent to $8,630,026 55 per month, or $103,567,518 60 per annum. Now, my desire is to give you a very brief sketch of the financiering of this Republican party, and then I desire to give you a very brief sketch of Democratic financiering, with which the whole people are supposed to have fallen in love. I have given the amount of reduction of the public debt during the two years and one month from March, 1809, to April 1, 1871. The figures I am using are official, from the books of the Treasury ; but I have not the official figures since that date. The amount of the debt now is somewhere about $2,285,000,000. But, sir, this Administration has reduced the principal of the debt from March 1, 1869, to April 1, 1871, $214,294,406 25. The reduc- tion of principal and accrued interest amounts to $206,981,406 72. The reduction of princi- pal and accrued interest less cash in the Treas- ury amountsto $215,760,663 74. The monthly charge for interest on the public debt on the 1st of March, 1869, was $10,532,402 50 ; on the Ist of April, 1871, it was $9,527,212 67. The reduction in the monthly charge of interest in these twenty-five months is $1,005,249 83; and the reduction per annum is consequently $12,062,997. This reduction of the public debt and conse- quent saving of annual interest was, by careful and economic administration, effected under revenues which had been very largely reduced, as I shall proceed to show. Mark you, sir, we have not only reduced the debt this enorm- ous amount in this brief period of time, but we have at the same time reduced the taxes. We, the great Republican party, have done this, and I propose to boast a little over what we have done. I am not going to appear before either the bar of public opinion or any other bar as a criminal. I arraign the criminals before that bar, and I am the prosecutor, and not the defendant. By the act of July 13, 1866, we reduced our taxation $65,000,000 ; by the act of March 2, 1867, we reduced our taxation $40,000,000; by the act of February 3, 1868, we reduced taxation $23,000,000 ; by the acts of March 31 and July 20, 1868, we reduced taxation $45,000,000 ; and there was a further reduc- tion by the act of July 14, 1870, of internal taxes to the amount annually of $55,212,000, and of customs duties $23,636,827 33; mak- ing in all since July, 1866, that this great Republican party has* taken from the annual taxation of this land, $251,848,827 33. In addition to paying this enormous amount on our national debt, we have gone on reducing taxation year after year until we have removed more than two hundred and fifty million dol- lars annirally from our national burdens of taxation. In addition to that you will remem- ber that we have reduced our annual tax for interest by actual payment over a million dollars a month, or over twelve million dollars a year ; and yet we are to be arraigned by this Democratic party for extravagance. Now I want the Democrats to look at their record. I have shown ours. There has been only one place where they could make a record that I know of, and that was in the city of New York. No one will deny that you have pure, unadulterated Democracy there. There is not an element of anything else, nor has there been for years, in the management of the affairs of 10 New York. They have drawn their lines there broad and deep. Here is the record : "Increase of the Ciiy Debt. — According to the ofQcial report of the defendant, Richard B. Connolly, con- troller of the city and county of New York, for the year ending 31st of December, 1S6S, the funded and bonded debt of the city on tlie date upon which said defendant, Hall, entered upon his duties as, mayor, amounted to $34,746,030 00 And the funded and bonded debt of the county, as evidenced by the same oflS- cial report, amounted to 15,882,800 80 Making together a total of. 150,628,830 80 "The last official report of said controller was made up to the 31st day of July, 1871, and by this report it is shown that upon that date the funded and bonded debt of said city amounted to $77,914,108 51 And the funded and bonded debt of said county amounted to 35,743,150 00 Making together a total of. 113,657,2.58 51 From this deduct the amount of the debt of said city and county when the defendant, Ilall, became mayor, as shown above 50,628,830 80 The difference is the increase in the funded and bonded debt of the city and county during the two and a half years of the present mayoralty $57,028,427 71 "In addition to this sum of $57,028,427 71, raised upon the bonds of the said city and county, the supervisors of the county, in accordance with the provisions of the statutes enacted in that behalf, (laws of 1869, chapters 875 and 876, and laws of 1870, chapters 382 and 383,) levied and raised during each of the years 1869 and 1870, by tax upon the estates by law subject to taxation within said county, for the support of the city and county governments, and to pay the quota of said county. of State taxes for each of said years, as follows: In 1869 $21,309,536 34 In 1870 23,569,127 71 Making a total of 44,878,664 05 There has also been paid into the treas- ury of the city and county during the years 1869 and 1870, and the first six months of 1871, on account of assessments collected during said years, as the plaintiff is informed and believes $12,975,071 09 And from the general fund, 5.836,657 35 18,811,728 44 Total 63,690,392 49 To this add the increase of the funded and bonded debt, as above 57,028,427 71 And add further the floating debt and claims made against the city and county, unpaid at this date, which together, as the plaintiff is informed and believes, exceed 21,000,000 00 Total $141,718,820 20 "showing the average expenditure and cost of the government of the city and county during the two and a half years of the defendant Hall's mayor- alty to have been per year $56,627,528 08. or upward of five and one half per cent, upon the fixed valua- tion of the estates, real and personal, subject to taxation in the said county, tue fixed valuation of said estates being, according to the report of the commissioner of taxes and assessments, for the pres- ent year, (1871,) $1,075,009,00.0. "So much is known. What the floating and unset- tled claims may amount to no man can say. Allow- ing the city and county of New York to contain one million people, which is considerable more than the actual population, and we have an expenditure of more than one hundred and forty-seven dollars per capita; or for each man, woman, and child, for two years and a half of civil government, and no extraordinary work of improvement, more than fifty-nine dollars a year^er capita for local or muni- cipal government. Apply this ratio of expenditure to the nation, which would, no doubt, be realized if the Democracy should be intrusted with power — and estimating the population at forty millions, for convenience, and because that is no greater ratio of excess than allowed for New York — and the national expenditures for one year would exceed C2.360,000,000, an amount greater than the present national debt, and greater than the expenditures of the nation during any year of the war, though at times more than a million of men were under arms.' Think of it, sir. Allowing the same expend- itures under the national Government that have been squandered under the Democratic gov- ernment of the city of New York, and our annual expenses would be $2,360,000,000. This is a contrast that I advise gentlemen to study before they make up their minds that they are going body and soul into the Demo- cratic ranks, whether they be liberal or illib- eral Republicans. It is worthy of study. I could go on to give these outrageous expend- itures of the Democracy to an unlimited ex- tent, which I will not do because they are familiar. I have brought this up as a speci- men of Democratic prudence and Democratic economy in the only place in the United States where the Democratic party has had full swing as the Republican party has had in the nation. It seems to be the opinion of these Demo- crats and liberal Republicans that this exposS is going to be so attractive that the whole mass of the great Republican party, whose mission is not yet ended, is going to rush into the embrace of this old Democratic party. I tell my honorable friends on the other side that they are making a miscalculation. The people of this great nation are going to do no such thing. Yoii will find here and there a sore-headed Republican who will join the liberal Republicans, and will join any party 11 to break up the great Republican party. Sir, we have alwa3'S had just such sore-heads and traitors, and in about the same proportionate numbers. We have got along very well without thorn, and are fully able to meet their opposition. But I wish to make one honorable exception. When the Blair family deliberately made up their minds to go into the Democratic ranks — I hope my honorable friend from Missouri [Mr. Blair] is wilhin the sound of my voice — they did not stay in our caucuses and grumble ; not a bit of it; but when they made up their minds they raised the Blair flag, and with drums beating and trumpets sounding they marched into the Democratic ranks and demanded an instantaneous surrender. The Democratic party surrendered, and I think it did a wise thing. From ihat day to this it has had a head and a tail; the head it surrendered to, but the tail was the Tammany ring. [Laughter.] One furnished the brains and the other the money ; but inas- much as the money supply is cut off, I must tell my Democratic friends they will miss that supplj^ more than they would the other. From that day to this we have been furnishing recruits for the Democratic party. I do not want our Democratic friends to be discouraged. We are bound to furnish them with a candidate for the Presidency. They shall not dissolve their party for the want of a candidate. If we have not a candidate that is satisfactory to gentlemen on the other side in the Senate, we will go outside of the Senate. You shall have a candidate, and a Republican candidate, too ; and your experience has been so joyous, you have had such eminent success with your Republican nominees, that my im- pression is that you had better keep up the practice. For every sore-headed Republican that you have taken into your ranks we have taken a hundred live Democrats into ours, and we are willing to keep up the swapping. [Laughter.] It has been so every year since the breaking out of the rebellion, and it will continue to be so. We want you to take one or all of our disaffected Republicans, and we will take a hundred Democrats to fill their places. Now, do not hesitate at one. If you want more than one, take two; if you want more than two, take three ; take them all. Do not be discouraged for lack of a presidential candidate. We are liberal. We are disposed to do the liberal thing by you. Pick out your man and we will sav " God speed you." In the mean time we will bring up this Democratic record of yours beside the old Republican rec- ord, and we will take all the young Democrats who are now coming on the stage of life, and you can take all the sore-heads from the Repub- lican party, and we will keep trading. I do not believe you v/ill make any more by that trade than we will; but if you think you can, I bid you God speed, in the mean time, how- ever, if you will follow my advice, and no doubt my advice will have great weight with our Democratic friends, you will never again bring up a comparison between the old Dem- ocratic party that started and carried on the rebellion and the great live Republican party that crushed the rebellion and now maintains its living issues. Printed at the Office of the Congressional Globe. n: ^ i ,Ag'l2 I';' ■ LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 013 744 557 8 '■m/m. '>'>>'\i'/'A<;j