Qass EfrSl. Book »T^5S 4^3 Mr ©peeoli of HON. A. G. KIDDLE, OF OHIO, IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES FEB. 28th, 1863, ON THE BILL TO INDEMNIFY THE PHESIDENT. !^! The President— His Personale— Must be Sustained— The Late Elections, and what they Decided— The Democratic Party, its Position, &c. The Bill and the Course of the Demo- crats UPON THE "War Measures. Mr. RIDDLE. Mr. Speaker, the bill nominally before the House is known as the indemnification bill. The latitude of general debate, however, congressionally, permits a discussion of everything else under the sun and " within the four seas," and I shall avail myself of this permission to say very little of the measure nominally before the House, with the design of say- ing some last words, before I take leave of the public service with which I have been identified on this floor. The times themselves are exceptional, and we must resort to exceptional reme- dies. This measure, under any other cir- cumstances, would be the most extraordi- nary ever considered in Congress. It is nothing more than to indemnify the Ex- ecutive and his agents for doing acts that not only find no warrant in our statutes, but are in opposition to the whole spirit of our laws. Whoever has listened to the speeches of gentlemen in opposition, might suppose that the Presideiit was the most unscrupulous usurper that ever oppressed a people, and that the majority on this floor were in conspiracy to betray into his hands the last shadow of human rights. — Nobody would learn from them that we were in the midst of any remarkable con- vulsions. They are br'itai in their assaults upon the Executive, and fierce in denounc- ing, us. The Housa resounds constantly with their mourning eloquence as they de- pict the sufi"erings of the few whom the Government, for its own safety, has some- what rudely dealt with ; but what mortal has heard . them denounce the rebels, sr what voice of theirs has joined the great anthem of anguish that swells through the land over our own lost in battle, or who have perished in hospitals, or who now sit in mourning darkness in desolated homes. And it seems almost necessary to remind gentlemen who dwell on the indj^- vidual griefs of their favorites, that our great mother is torn with life-throes, and that these visitations of which they com- plain arc reluctantly, regretfully made, that she may live ; that these lesser ills, some of which arc doubtless in themselves unmerited, must, nevertheless be endured for the safety of the whole ; and that, in any event, the openly declared loyal, have not, will not, and cannot suffer by these summary acta ; that in the opinion and judgment of the governing majority these acts were and are necessary and wise ; and that it is expedient to make that dec- laration in the potent form of law. It is idle to mine back into the buried lore of old, rude times, and dig up prece- dents for our observance and guidance noAV, or to nicely regard the rights of per- sons and things, whether they grow out of men's natural rights or owe their being to civil polity. When the great source of the protection of all rights is threatened with destruction, of wh&t avail would be the writ of habeas corpus and trial by jury if the great fountain of remedial justice was to pei-iah ? These rights, so inestimable, are only suspended by the hand of inexor- able danger, to be restored in full vigor when that passes by. No sir ; we are in the midst of an era in which we ma^ke precedents; we cannot now follow old ones. And yet those examples from our old British history are most valuable ; for they show us our ancestors, in the midst of new and great perils, calmly and wise- ly judging of their own needs, and who boldly and unhesitatingly applied to them such remedies as they found at hand, with- out reference to precedents. These rich examples will b« lost on us if, in these fearful limes, we do net roikch forth our hands and pluck from cartk, B«ft, aud heaven, the readiest meaua forour deliTer- ancc. !>■' • «o cTerj other w . I Deinocriild on ■ ' . ' ,' ^iHBure u« that thej *i«} uol opf^ncvi lo ilio war. 1 prtty gentlemen to cxamiue \viih a liKli- cure their aoiu:il position. 1 call uo auOieH, de- nounce noboJy as dislojil. 1 have karned the didercncu Lciwecu ttren^th undcourse •xpreanioae, and ftiots are niorc puni^eut than a1 use. These genlltncii ui^sure us that ih£j arc aoi oijpoM:d lu tho wur but only to o»* polir Democratic cosnista. Not opposed to liie war i I self? How comes ir, then, that theso gentlemen, as a party, invariably oppose every measure for ii<: profcccutiou ? In favor of the war ? How, then, docs it happen that they can novor lind anything in any measure to carry it ou that tlicy can support? We are unf.>rtuna{9, indeed, that in these two years, amid the variety of our measures, we have never yet stumbled on one that coulil command their support us a party. And s'Jll more stranjie is it, that as they are ardently iu favor of a vigorous prose- cotijn of the war, and as we have never yet brought forward the right measures for that purpose, that no one of them has ever in all theso dubious times proposed a single measure to promote (he war; not -one. This is amazing. They are for the ■war, but thay luivo no plan, no policy, no scheme, no moasuie, no anythinp to push it forward ; and if we had acted with them, Mr. Davis would have made a conquest of the v/Lole Unitod Stales months ago. Aubtber equally remarkable thing is, that Bv a parly these genilemen find every one of our ]iropoBed measures unconsliiu- tioaal. f-'trang'>, is It not, that wo never en,n hn constitutional? Lut we are not, and we never hhall be ho long as we urge forward thia war. 1h it, indeed, true that the C ttstilulion was go ingeniously framed that every meuHuro for the common •afoty ilnds no warrant in that instru- laent '.' I pray iLrso coiKliluiional dootorn to ranMick tbeir vast learning on this hub- Jc«l, ainl show ufl one way, only one, in which we can ruin the rebels and savr enr*olve«. No, wir; gei.tlemen are deceiv- it. jr th< u)i»< '.vee and many of their people; I they mean to bj loyal and serve the coun- , try ; they think they do. They think they I aro only opposed to our policy and means for carrying on the war, when they are really, heart and houI, oppobcd to the war ' itself. This was tlie logical con-equence of their position at the commencement of the war. All history shows, ancient andmod- , em, e.3pccially British and American his- tory, that the parly in opposition to the ( Qoverument when a war bieaks out is in- variably opposed to the war itself. I need , not refer to instHnces. There aro no ex- ; oeptions, and the l)emocmcy has followed ' the rule. Indeed they must oppose it, or j cease as a party ; aad that was too much ! for their patriotism. These views fully explain their court^e during all this Con- ( gress. They hiive opposed everything, and proposed notliiup. They argue against our measures till driven to the wall, when ( they resort to tho euiiuently fundamental ! democratic proc.-^sa of enlightening our j counsels, they stolidly sit down and put a great meuBUTO to the iutellectiml test of , I'hysical endurance, and make lliemselves I eacred lo lidicule. In this connection I wish only to remark that I belong to a p^riy that has never yet produced :•. traitor, or a °j'mpatliizer with one. This is no mcrit^ for a Republican cannot be a traitor. Let the country pon- der this. But what can be said of a party in whose members it is thou'^ht to be a rare distino- tion that they are merely patriotic; who,- to be true to the couiitry. must bo better than their parly, aud are loyal in spite of its teachings, and their iiolitioal associa- tions ? 1 am glad lo pay that on thia Hoor there are many such brave and noble men ; while the mass of their followers arc true, as the people ever are. TUE PEE8IDENT, UIS RKLATIONS TO THE WAB, CKITICISMS Oi" UIM, ETC. How easy it is to abuse, traduce, and de- nounce. That it requires neither wl*, grace or truth, is illustrated by the assaults of those gentlemen on the President. I shall enter upon no laudation of the Presi- dent, yet there are some words I deem it fitting now lor me to say iu reference to him. Sir, the Executive is the arm of tho peo- ple under our Ooustitulion. and with it only can we deal a blow upon the rebel- lion. He who would Ptrikelliat. save with this arm, strikes fully upon our own cause. Whoever strengtlicns this arm slrenglliens llio national cause ; whoever weakens it^ slreugthens the enemy. For the time be- ing the other branches of tho Government might well be in nheyancp, that all our en- ergies might go to swell tho mighty mus- cles of that arm. To save all, all must be risked. Yotj canuot separate the E.xecu- livo from the ptrtonaU ot tho President; and whatever delraclB from him personal- ly weakens the executive force, as what- ever elevates him gives it added strength. So that whatever shakea the confidence of the people, or any of them, in the capacity or integriiy of the Preaideut, by juai so much aids the rebellion, as that which strengthens confidence in him gives vigor to tho national cause. The President, without the people, and all of thorn, can no more conduct this war to & successful issue than can the people without him. Alone, no matter what are his personal qualities, he would be the feeblest driveller that ever perished under a great catastrophe, and the people must perish with him. With a united people he is irresistible, spite of mistakes and acci dents. A united people and President can control fate and compel success. They must stand together; and woe unutterable to the wretches whose words or deeds shftll separate them, from this it follows that if the President will not go with ns we must go with him. The freedom cf speech is the last franchise a free people will sur- render, and our millions will exercise it in the midst of no matter what calamities They will discuss the events and manage- ment of the war. It is their war, and the humblest of them has an interest in it equal to that of the first citizen, aad they must and may discuss his acts with a free and manly ken. But I submit if the just limit 01' criticism and manly debate has not been Ijrutally outraged in the fierce denunciations of the President by gentle- men on this floor, and which have been caught up and re-echoed by their partisan press? Sir, if these obscene revilers could gain credit with the masses, no power on earth could save ua from destruction, for they would shiver the only arm that must bring us safety. And so, too, I speak of the ceaseless tide of criticism — shall I call it? — that has deluged to drowning all the military operations of the Adrt)inifttration. Was this world ever before so enriched with such a quantity of such valuable com- mentary on the art of war, and by such masters — generals by instinct and the grace of Uod ? For a year and a half this luminous tide has swept over us; and will some mortal tell of some good, the least, that has waited upon the labors of these critics? What mistake has been avoided, what error retrieved, or what blunder re- deemed ? And yet what jealousies they have engendered, what factions they have built up, and what feuda they have embit- tered ! I pray gentlemen to remember that no general has been improved by denuncia- tion or made skillful by nbuse ; nor yet re- moved by this clamor, and never will be. But the confidence of subordinates has been shaken in a conimander, and the con- fidence of the people has been weakened in the President, fnr placing or retaining a general in command, when no two could agree upon a substitute or BuocesBor. These outspoken comments here and else- where have at teaat the merit of boldness; but what shall be said of that muttering, unmanly, yet swelling under-currcut of complaining criticism, that reflects upon the President, his motives and capacity, so freely and feebly indulged in by men having the public confidence? — whisper- ings and complainings and doublings and misgivings and exclamations and predic- tions. I have heard men complain that George ViTashiugton had died, as if untime-* ly, and feebly sigh for a return of Andrew Jackson to life. What can bo done with such puling drivelers ? Mea who have a morbid passion to exaggerate our misfor- tunes, and aggregate and riot in our cal- amities ; and who ave never so happy as when they can gloat over t)ie sum of our disasters, which tliey charge over to the personal account of the President. I am sick of this eTerlaEting cowardice and pallor, under reverses. Defeats must come, disasters must come, and still great- er ones, perhaps, and the end is not yet. These men would never ' have worked through the fir.st Revolution ; but that, as this will be, was achieved in spite of them. Sir, if we fail it will bo wholly because we are unworthy to succeed ; because we win not with our whole heart and energy, might, mind, and strength, give ourselves up wholly to this war a.? do the rebels; study its portent?, and obey its demands alone. The task it impo-^es is for our hu- man kind. Its work is the accumulated work of the dea;t centuries thrust upon our hands, and iia hope is the hope of all the ages to be born. If we doubt, assail, and cast down those who alone mu^it lead us, we might as well now slough into any infamy that men will call peace, or skulk behind the meditating scepter of no matter what despot, and forever hide our dishon- ored heads amid the ruins of our nation- ality. If any man here distrusts the Pres- ident, let him speak forth here, like these bad leaders, openly, and ao longer ofi'end the streets and nauseate places of common resort with their unv/crthy clamor. He may not have in excess that ecsiatic fire that makes poets and prophets and mad- men; be may not possess much of what we call heroic blood, th?.t drives men to stake priceless destinies on desperate ven- tures, and lose them; he may not in an eminent degree possess that indefinable something that school-boys call genius, that enables its poesesHor through new and unheard—of combinations to grasp at wonierful results, and that usually ends in failure ; or, if he possesses any or all of these qualities, they are abashed and subdued iu the presence of a danger that dwarfs giants and teaches pru- dence to temerity. Ho is an unimpas- sioned, cool, shrewd, spgacious, far-seeing man, with a capacity to form his own judgments, and a will to execute them ; and he postesses an integrity pure and simple as the white rays of light that play about tho Throne. It is this that h?i3 so tied the hearts and lovo of the people to him, that will not unloose in the breath of kU lbs demagogues in ih« laud. Ii is idle to c^^mpare hiiu wiih Wuiibiugton or Jiick- BOD. Like all exiraorlinarj uiea, he id au ori);inal, aud must aianl iu liis owu niche. Ue has as.tiduousl; studied the teachings of this war; has It'urnod its j:;ieai Itesoa ; and in full time ho uttered ita great word. Jle commits errors. . Who would have comoiiited fiwer .' Thii-k of the tierce and hungry demundi that iucessantly devour hiiu up. Ktiucmttr the n-peaied instances in our own lime when tht) able»i of our statostoen iu that chair, with cabinela of their choice, uud sustained by inajorilies in rongree.". in limes of fro'.ouud peace, have gone down, and tlieir administra- tions huve perished uuder the bare weight of the Government. And ihcn contemplate, if you can, in additior. to the burdens that have crushed "o many Mroug men, the fearful n-sponsi- bilities imposed u];on this m;in. 1» it not a ruarvel, a m6st living wonder, that he sustains ihem so well ? Let not the dis- Unt luuther, who has given up a loved one to fearful dc;iritUnd<:u resolution, and it's getters-up H»id to :iM-mgelv(«s, 'that'll fix 'om : and it floated out on the popular bre ith like an .Ii It'ttf on the wind, and was lojt in •■M of forgctfult.fs.'j, DO more to be ' "iw lure Vou might as well at- 111 ends io tie down the .! foroea *.ols so sublime, that tke maxim permitting them to profit by cxpe- rience cannot reach them! Their folly mounts up to that awful crime that has no name, and can have no forgiveness. THE ELECTIONS, AND WHAT THEY DECIDED. But we are told that the scepter is al- ready passing from us, and the country is again drifting upon the wrecking rocks of Democracy. Were this so, it would seem but the ordinary result of the labors of the wo parties. The Republicans, as a party, have do^ne no act, spoken no word, to re- tain power in their hands. Their whole energy has been given to the cause of the country only, regardless of all possible political consequences to themselves. — Never in the world's history did a party so apply the knife to its own members, and 80 unsparingly lay bare the doings of its weak or wicked. And no party ever so boldly and detiantly thrust the weapons of assault into the hands of its enemies, and pointed out its own vulnerable places. And certainly no party ever so selfishly and wickedly traded in the calamities of a wretched country, for the sole purpose of stealing back the power it ha^ lost, as these leaders of Democracy. And they every day, on this floor, taunt us with their already achieved success; that we are already blasted with a popular mildew ; and we arc caricatured under the ghostly forms of corpses walking about the Cap- itol. My colleague from the capital district (Mr. Cox) early denounced us as contu- macious, because we did net vacate our seats aud abandon everything to the Jiands of the recently resurrected Demo- cracy, who came with the smell of the charnel-house and the odor of old corrup- tion upon them so strong that we may well doubt their return to fu,ll life. Sir, the Democracy have not secured the next Con- gress; they have not even elected a ma- jority of the next House. They will be fitronger, but they will be powerless save to mock and make mouths at fate, as they do here. Even if they were able to tear our laws from the statute-book, the energy of our legislation will have launched the country and its cause so far on the return- less tide of events as to place them beyond their reach. If the gentleman looks to the numerical vote of the free States, where parties only exist in a quasi normal condition, he finds a majority of over eighty- six thousand votes againtt the De- mocracy by the official count. And yet these elections are declared to be a con- demnation of the President and his policy ; of emancipation, confiscation, the aboli- tion of slavery in this capital, and I know not what beside. Sir, all they did or could accomplish was merely to designate who should fill the offices, to indicate who of the applicants should have the places. Sir, before an election can ar"oaat to a solemn judgment of the people upon the most grave and momentouG issues, it must be had afier the fullest and most complete hearing before tho whole people, all of whom must have an opportunity to pass upon them, and in a period of profound repose, favorable to reflection and decis- ion. Not one of these conditions attended these elections. 1. There ne/er was any hearing, full or otherwi.se, before the whole people upon these issues. In many sections not a pc- litical speech was made, nor a paragraph published upon them. In my own section of Ohio, not a word, not a single word, for or against theee leading measures. Every- body of all parties acquiesced in them. 2. An entire fifth, at least, of the voters were absent both from the argument and the decision of the cause. Who shall pretend (o say that the absent are concluded by this decision thus made in their absence, or Ihat any issue or principle could be settled by this fraction of E. tribunal ? It could and did elect men to office, and nothing more, no matter how exhaustive may have been the discussion, how long the deliberation, or how solemn the decision. 3. The fact of the absence of this im- mense mass of the people, itself proves the presence of a gigantic disturbing cause, which rendered deliberation and judgment impossible. Wc were at war. The absent were in the field, in camp, on the march, in battle, pursuing and being pursued ; in hospitals nursing, or being nursed; dead, burying the dead, or being burled. We were in a huge war against treason for the nation's life. The nation's map was torn asunder; a huge ragged gulf, from the Atl3.ntic tD Mexico, parting' the life arteries, was growing wider and v/ider. We were try- ing to grapple the fragments together with our naked hands, bridging the chasm with the live bodies of our devoted people, or filling it up with their red and mangled remains. Our ears were filled with the roar and clangor of battle, its shout and shriek and groan. The States were turned into great re- cruiting stations, into extemporized camps. Hundreds of fiery-tongued orators were urging the strong and brave to the field. Hundreds of thousands were unclasping the staying arms of love from their necks and rushing to battle and death ; and partings and sobs and tears were through all the land. Not a living human heart but was moved as it never was before, and went out to contemplate, or stood still to feel and agonize in the presence of this fearful calamity. In the midst of these scenes came the elections. Save the think- ing few, and the designing many — who caved for them ? Who of the masses who questioned every breeze for the result of th..' fight, and who trembled at every rumor for the safety of the loved, or who went in innumerable mourning pro cessions to take leave of the departing regiments — who of these would know of or care for the issues that ar/aited their decision by what seem- 6 by those same Democrats, under tlie same leader, by ten thoussud. if this election in Ohio settled anything but the offices, it was a condemnation by tho Democracy of that State of (if the Crittenden resolution. And strange or principle ^^P^'.^^^f. J^, "' i ^a may seem, my colleague, [Mr. Cox,] uleJ by the people in that elcc- ^ ^«;^^^^^^\i eulogizer of this everlasting m\ • , .». . .v« !.« >,t,n,1rpd IhniTs- ' resolution, T?ft3 among the foremost in pro- Think you that the two linn'lrcdU.ous_-,ics.^^ ^^.^ condemnation; and stranger •d to them at that time the trivial proccBS of the ballof "ITjey would not know ot them or care for them; and that man is » wretch boyond rcJemptioD. tr ft fool five times dn.incd, who aSBorls that nnjtl ing in tho way of principle or poVo/^ was oould be ec and who 'then volunteored. ruHhcd toarms ^<:;;^f^^^:;:^"::Z;r,,^--^ to condemn a war .hat they jven to fig^^^^^ ^^^^ ^^^^^^^ was tugging to condemn a policy {^r '"•'^ff w" Xon — "" .idin^rthat gentleman in this labor their blood, or to rrbuke R President ^^^.on they obeyed from love and prO'omi.J '"'■■f t)ect? Condemn euanclpation ? Why die their blood, or to rebuke . President ^ ^-m ! away ai^i^ng tha^t g^^^^^ ^.^ ^^^ ^.^^^ misconceived, misdelivered brat they volunteer 7 Or think you that the fa- thers and brolhoM who gave thcte up to peril, intended by their votes to condemn ihemselvc?, as tho murderers of their pous for thus sending them d ifeott them and kindred Sir, there has been another election in Ohio ;' a final and silencing reply to all this clamor of my colleague; an election the fulfillment of an old promise, tind full of the promise of a new prophecy. Two , , , . , f .k;^ ^r,ii^„v 'vears airo the people of that State elected strife aud death xn support of^this pdicy^. , y'-J^^^gf^^",,,,, ^^ il^jo^ty of which were ■What man has here presented a members of the Democratic party. With- Btrance against ^-^IZ^^^'^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^ame^Legisla- tho8uepens.oaofthewrtofA.«6.'rc.r/>,i.^ mine ^f whose members still Who has petitioned for ho repeal ^i^^_^ ^Z\rr..rA^.. re-elected to the Senate of confi.-oation act, tho tax law, or tho re-es tabliahmeiit of slavery in this capital? TIUS ELECTIONS IS OHIO. are Democrats, re-elected to the Senate the United States Beujamin Franklin Wade. In the teeth of these elections and the light shed upon them by the iUumina- The electiops cannot in any way be ta- ; ting speeches of my colleagues, they seized ken 88 ft condemnation of tho Republicans upon that embodiment of the intensest en- fts a pHriy, for as a di:^tinctive party, on'ergiesof the radical forces that are now their own platform, they were not in the grasping at the throat of this rebellion, contest anywhere. In Ohio they at once and hurled him back into the Senate as the abandoned their parly organization and haughty respocse of a mighty State to their fraterniicd wi'h everybody and every- childish clamor. What do you suppose thing that stood by the common caus".— now our State thinks of emancipation and Thev asked nothing for themselves, lor confiscation and the arrest of traitors ? Do no placet" for favorite"? ; and in the weak- you say to me that this Legislature was ness of their magnanimity they thrust the elected two years ago? I reply that, one State b«\ck into the bands from which the year ago it refused to elect Mr. Wado, and people had rescued it, and to which, under ' that it was only their estimation of those ordinary circumstances, they would never great measures and the events that have have again oomraitted it. They disregard- ; pprung into life siuce, that enabled the ed the sacrifice, tho labor, the unselfish de- 1 Democrats of that body to overcome preju- Totion of an able, pure, and patriotic Exec- 1 dices strong as life, and rise to this great utive who had faced the first gush of tho j act, an act that seals Ohio to emancipation fltorro' and whose efTorte had placed Ohio and its kindred measures. It is the recoil, in the van with her foremost sisters; and the reaction iu Ohio, that re-elected Mr. thev put at the head of affftirs a lifo-long Mr. Wade. THB DEMOCRATIC PAHTT AND THK EEBKL- opponent, who had been twice rejected by the people for that high ofl'-ce. The Union Convention, composed mainly of Republi- cans, that made this nomination in 18tJl, plpccd this Democratic candidate for Go/- ernor on the Crittenden resolution— so of- ten referred to here as the perfect scheme of salvation— BH their State platform.— Against this candidate, on that platform, some of these same Democ.atic gentlemen, under the head of my colloague, [Mr. Val- landighani,] rallied tho l)euiocraoy, simple and unregencrated, and they cast against them over fifiy thousand voles. Be it re- membered tlial this v^as before the inaugu- ration of inesc measures, now said to be condemned. Those votes were against Ibo war and the Crittenden rcBoh.lion. At the last elcctioc, the enrno Union party placed conservative candidates on the saine Crit- tenden resolution, and they were beaten LION. The evils of this war and their origin are charged upon us. My colleague, [Mr. Cox,] in tho speech referred to, aggregated the ills that have overtaken the country siuce the advent of the Republican power under fourteen bloody heads, precisely as if they were to be charged to our account; as if our very presence in the inidet of peace and beauty had invoked t'jcia from the heavens above and conjure I them from tho earth below. I have heard of a disease among men called bronze. Its principal Hymplom is an inteaso brassincss of the face. Here is a case of bronzo. It seems to me, also, iliat sevc-al other gen- tlemen over there have it more or Ush se- vere, and iiiony of ihe caiics ara badly com- plicated with another prevailing disorder. In the spring of 1857 a democratic Ad- ministration succeed one equally Demo- cratic. A Democratic President, Demo- cratic CongresSjDemocratic Supreme Court, ■with a Democratic Cabinet at home and Democratic Ministers abroad. The army was commanded by Democratic Generals, and the navy obeyed Democratic orders. Everything was Democratic; and the suc- ceeding four years was a saturnalia of De- mocracy. Its principles as illualrated in these days, reigned and worked none but their legitimate results. No provisions of the Constitution; no scruples of consci- ence; no doubt of morality; no question of the public good; none of national glory; no regard for opinion or the voice of after history, intervened to check or chango these inevitable results, and never in the world's history was the descent of a great nation BO fatal and so rapid, as ours, nor a na- tional calamity so mournful and so pro- found ; and none certainly was ever so wholly and entirely due to the unaided ef- forts, the wide, deep, and measureless de- pravity of those who worked the govern- mental processes. Disorder was not con- fined to one branch of the public service, it pervaded the whole j not limited to subor- dinates, to bureaus, and departments, but the three great co-ordinate branches of the Government were disorganized and de- bauched, with scarce the form of adminis- tration left. The virus was not merely circulating in a few narrow channels, but under a malignant poison the framework of the Government itself was dissolving, and its foundations crumbling away. The Constitution was unequal to sustain the weight of ruins, and the States themselves dropped off dead and rolton— wrenched away by these Democratic hands. Such a state was reached that the only remedy possible was a recurrence to first principles, and an appeal to the untouched life and love of the people. But who was there here with recognized power to make that appeal? The judges of the Supreme Court, in a frenzy, tore the national ermine from their shoulders, and fled, howling fierce blasphemies and treason against the life of the nation. Whole delegations in these two houses left their seats to execute the conspiracy they had concocted here, and ruFhed forth to lead armies hither to trample out the little vitality that their strangling hands had left in the nation's heart. In the Ex<^cu- tive Mansion still sat a feeble old man amid the wreck of fallen faculties and the debris of a not over virtuous life ; puling and driveling in helpless imbecility ; blind and weak, unknowing and uuca,ring, in the hands of the giant criminals of his Cabinet, who had turned the national pal- ace into a cave of conspirators and mur- derers against the national honor and ex- istence. And when the time drew near for the Executive elect to assume his du- ties, for the security of his lifs he was obliged to disguise his person and steal to tho capital in the night, like a fugitive, amid the jeers of these same gentlemen. During all this time, tho loading gentle- men on your right, who now charge these ills upon us, who charge us with a daily violation of the Constitution, and who stand here to thwart and hinder the Presi- dent, who alone is armed with power to crush this rebellion — these gentlemen oc- cupied the same seats, were members of the same Democratic party, brothers of the same political litter with the conspirators, seeing all these thing3, and in daily and nightly intercourse with the plotters and doers of them, with the interests of Amer- ican citizens and the responsibilities of American Representatives; and yet, dur- ing all that v/retched time, not a man of them — not a single man — uttered a word of dissent, reproof, or reproach to the con- spirators, nor a whisper of warning or an admonition to the people. Through all that fearful time, as day by day the treason was more clearly developed and more boldly avowed, and as one miscreant after another hissed his poisoned philippic against his country, end derided and de- fied its power to prevent or punish his treason, these men sat here as mute as Memnon, in whom no sun-stroke could awake a response. From them came not the slightest effort to prevent tho catastro- phe — no law to restrain, no resolution to stay. So far from seeking to prevent or hinder the rebellion, they one and all de- nied all power to do either. So far from attempting to pi'event a dissolution of the Union, one of their leaders, with the consert of their silence, proposed and ad- vocate a dismemberment. And yet these minions of the traitors, whose proudest achievements were to win some note of approval, some word of commendation from their patrons and masters, charge us as the authors of these ills, and are now the . only true patriots alive. Oh ! I know that gentlemen, after two yea -s, make swift haste to disclaim all sympathy with the dismemberment scheme of their asscciate, and I take them at their wo^d, as congressionriUy bound to do. — But, 81 r, when that project was brought forward and advocated by its author, on that fearful day when tho Union was put to the rack, and its thews and sinews were cracking like the crack of doom under the awful strain, these gentlemen eat by and gave it the assent and approbation of their silence. Not a word of dissent nor a token of reproof escaped from one of them. They had predicted a dissolution of the Union as a result of our success in the last Pres- identid election ; and God knows it is not their fault that the prophecy is not ful- filled. I know, sir, that when the shock at Sum- ter came, it hushed these gentlemen into silence and seeming patriotism. They were as much am.ized as their old allies were, at the reoults North ; a united peo- ple standing with hands outstretched for weapons, and ilemanJing to be led against apt illustrations; he shall be fairlj met the traitors. Vou roinember the course of with all the arins and weapons of a fair, IheBo gentlemen at the extra session : phil- honoriihlo, and manly warfare, and he may lipics fierce and bitter against the Presi- encounter indignation that will scorch, dent and his policy, and not a word of rep- sarcasm that will tliiy alive, and wit that rehonsion of the 'Tel>el3 in arms. And j will sting todeath. Heshall be met. And then how sedulously and industriously j as the gentleman was making that speech, they set about di?ging up and jralvaniiing ! there came ominous responsiye mtirmurs the buried skekton uf their pirty ; gcing ' from the galleries all around this Hall, and among the people with phiiras and fiaudu- I the gentleman s friends demanded that lent pretenses, and returning at tlio recent thej' be cleared. Sir, when the gentleman session with more and bitterer speeches, and then among the people, re-organizing their old party, and lubricating and re- pairing its old machinery, ami pu'tinp forth its numoa and cries— and for what? Can any man tell me for what? What need had the country that could be best .«>erved by their party ? Their only pur- pose is amid thei-e calamitie.s to steal back the power tlioy liad lost, regardless of con- Be'incnces. TLe Itepublican organization V, a-* abandoned, lind its hosts, united with all men of all parties for the one purpose of sustaining the Government, became a party of and for the Ooverrmcnt. And these gentlemen havo banded together, not to sustain the Government — that would place them with us — but to oppose and war upon this J. arty of the Government to put it down. The rebels strike at the Govern- ment in the field, and these leaders strike at it hero; and yet they do not oppose the Government — not they. T do not care for words. When wo remember the oour.sc of these ^'ontlemen during the incipient stages of the rubellion, and when we now see one set of the same men at open war with the Government, and the other in open opposi- tion to it, pursuing the same end by ditfer- cnt means only, that is the end of argument. VAtLANMCH-lJl's APPEAL TO THE PEOPLE. But, sir, I must yield the floor to other gentlemen. I wif-li to say one word furth- ' er. My learned and astute colleague, ( Mr. Vallan