^ % pH8.5 E-e'Conslructioii — 1865 lo 1871. ^ 668 •W27 Copy 2 SPEECPI HON. WILLAED WARNER OF ^LA^BA-M^. DELIVERED IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES MARCH 3, 1871. WASHINGTON: F. & J. RIVES & GEO. A. BAILEY, REPORTERS AND PRINTERS OP THE DEBATES OP CONGRESS. 1871. ti^io WZ. /O K fie'Constriicliou— 1860 to 1871. The Senate having under consideration the fol- lowing amendment, proposed by Mr. Wauner, to the joint resolution (II. R. No. 521) repealins the duly on coal : And that all political disabilities imposed by law or by tho Constitution of the United States upon citizens of the United States on account of rebellion are hereby removed — Mr. WARNER said : Mr. Presidext: He who would approach the discussion or treatment of a great ques- tion of Government, involving the welfare of a large portion of the people, in a purely partisan spirit or with any other intent than to state the truth as he sees it, and to act as his best judgment and conscience dictate, is unworthy to be a citizen of a free country, much less to be an American Senator. I hold my allegiance to truth and country far above my obligation to party. I support and act with a great political party, because that party is an instrumentality through which I can serve my country and humanity. Seven- teen years ago I aided in organizing the Repub- lican party, as an agency through which might be wrought out certain great and noble ends, foremost among which were the immediate limitation and ultimate eradication of human slavery in this country. It became in the hands of Providence the instrumentality through which a gigantic rebellion, inaugurated to sus- tain and perpetuate slavery through a divis- ion of the country, was crushed, the territorial integrity of the Republic maintained, and the equality of rights of men established. And now, while I may criticise some of its acts, I am profoundly convinced that its future suc- cess is absolutely necessary to the safoty and well-being of the country. TRtJE CONDITION OF KUCOXSTRUC I'lON. The main (and I may say almost the only) objections urged against the plan of recon- struction adopted by Congress, are: first, that the colored men were allowed to vote ; and secondly, that a small class of those engaged in rebellion should not be eligible as members of the State conventions to frame new consti- tutions for the rebel States; and thirdly, that this same class should not be eligible to any oiEce except by authority of two thirds of Congress. The two first-named features were contained in the act of Congress of March 2, 1867, " for the more efficient government of the rebel States," which provided as follows: "That when the people of any one of said rebel States shall have formed a constitution of govern- ment in conformity with the Constitution of the United States in all respects, framed by a convention of delegates elected by the male citizens of said State, twenty-ono years old and upvi ard, of what- ever race, color, or previous condition, who hare been resident in said State for one year previous to the day of such election, except such as may be dis- franchised for participation in tho rebellion, or for felony at common law; and when such constitution shall provide that the elective franchise shall bo enjoyed by all such persons as have the qualifica- tions herein stated for electors of delegates; and when such constitul ion shall be ratified by a majority of the persons voting on the question of ratification who arc qualified as electors fur delegates; and when such constitution shall have been submitted to Con- gress for examination and approval, and Congress shall have approved the same; and when said State, by a vote of its Legislature, elected under said con- stitution, shall have adopted the amendment to the Constitution of the United States proposed by the Thirty-Ninth Congress and known as article four- teen; and when said article shall have become a part of the Constitution of the United States, said State shall be declared entitled to representation in Congress, and Senators and Representatives shall bo admitted therefrom on their taking the oath pre- scribed by law ; and then and thereafter the preced- ing sections of this act shall bo inoperative in said Statp: Provided, That no person excluded from tho privilege of holding ofiicc by said proposed amend- ment to the Constitution of tho United States shall be eligible to election as a member of the convention to frame a State constitution for any of said rebel States, nor shall any such person-vote for members of such convention." The third-named objection was founded on the provisioti in section three of the fourteenth amendment to the Constitution of the United States, as follows : "No person shall bo a Senator or lleprpscntative in Consrcss, or elector of President and Vice Presi- dent, or hold any olTicc, civil or military, under tho United States, or under .any State, Viho, iiaving pre- viously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an olnecr of the United Slates, or as a member of any State Legislature, or as an Executive or judi- cial officer of any State, to support the CjRStitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insur- rection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may, by a vote of two thirds of each House, remove such disability." These features form the basis of all the argu- ment against llie policy of the Government toward the communities lately in rebellion and of all the partisan clamor about ven- geance and tyranny and oppression. The statement of the simple, plain fact that these provisions of law and Constitution contain all of punishment or deprivation ever imposed on those lately engaged in rebellion against the Government proves the utter groundless- ness of such clamor, because it proves the unparalleled liberality of the Government. Sir, loolving back over the way which we have come for the past six years, I am fully convinced that universal suffrage was the wisest solution of the great political problem which confronted the country at the end of the war, natnely, what to do with the South. I only regret that it was not at once ordained, and that general amnesty for the rebellion was not extended with it. In the then condition of the public mind at the South, both would have been promptly and kindly accepted ; the best men of the South would have at once taken hold of the work of reconstruction, and taking the ignorant but honest and kindly slave by the hand, the South would have risen, phenix- like, from the ashes of her ruin, and we should have been spared many of the painful events of the years since the war, and much of the ill-feeling which unhappily prevails to- day. General Grant struck the key-note of true reconstruction, and showed the wisdom of the statesman as well as the generosity of the soldier, when he said to Lee and his army, "Go harmless for the past, on condition you obey the laws in future." EFFECTS OF DELAY AND OF DISABILITIES. But when the late rebels found that there was to be no punishment for rebellion, and were induced by a faithless President to believe that they should be returned to full political power as before, and when the passions of the war which had been hushed in the hour of defeat had been kindled into life and activity by a conflict between the President and Con- gress, in which the President told the people of the South that Congress sought to impose conditions of restoration in a spirit of ven- geance, it was proposed to them to divide the power, which they were just eagerly clutching, with the late slaves, the effect was to consol- idate the white men against the system proposed by Congress, and to leave a few bold friends of the Government and of equal rights to figiit the battle alone with the aid of the newly enfranchised race. While the friends of con- gressional reconstruction were successful in carrying the elections, the result was that very many places of power and responsibility, which required for the proper discharge of the duties thereof courage, integrity, and high capacity, were sought and obtained by men lacking ia all these essential qualities. As a further re- sult have followed failures and corruptions in office, and as a consequence of these, still fur- ther prejudice and bitter feeling among those who have been opposed to the Government. This ill feeling was deepened among the more sensitive and ambitious of the late rebels by finding themselves disabled from holding any office, and they desired to see a system fail which gave their late slaves rights which were denied to them. UNIVERSAL SUFFRAGE THE TRUE PRINCIPLF. OF FREE GOVEl^.NMENT. The action of Congress in establishing uni- versal suffrage as the basis of reconstruction has been much criticised and complained of, but in my judgment this requirement was both wise and just. All concede that intelligence and property should have a voice in free govern- ment. Wealth isalmost universally allied with intelligence. The right of the ignorant, who are almost universally poor, to political rights, is alone denied, for but few now are disposed to place the denial of the ballot to the negro solely to the account of his color. Any effect- ive educational qualification, applicable to all classes at the South, would have been odious, for it would not only have excluded nearly all the negroes, but many thousands of white men ; in Alabama alone from twenty to thirty thou- sand. I maintain that the ballot is peculiarly and imperatively necessary to the poor and the ignorant for their safety and well-being and for the good of the State. The classes who have wealth and brains and education, or any of them, can protect themselves. It is poverty and ignorance that need to be armed with the ballot, and covered with the shield of the law's equality. THE BALLOT THE ONLY HOPE OF THE NEGRO. To have denied the negro equal political rights would have left him in a condition of vassalage and degradation nearly as helpless as slavery itself Liberty, with all the avenues of hope, ambition, and progress closed to him, would have been but half a blessing, while the most powerful incentive to effort and improvement, and the most direct interest of the State to educate him, would have been lacking. The exercise of the right of suffrage, and the respect and consequence which it gives, are among the most powerful agencies at work for his elevation and improvement. This is the law of nature, that exercise and growth are indissolubly linked to each other. The smith's arm grows strong by use, while the arm in the sling withers and wastes. The brain is quick- ened, enlarged, and strengthened by use ; the doing a thing most quickly learns how to do it well ; the use of a tool begets facility and skill in its use ; the exercise of the right of suffrage leads to thought how to vote, whom to vote for, the consideration of men and measures, the desire and habit of reading, the listening o to speeches and discussions; and thus contin- ually are men enlightened and stimulated to effort and education. Without the ballot, the vagrant and the pauper, and the oppressive poll-tax laws, which disgraced the statute- books of many of the southern States under the Johnson system of reconstruction, which confined political rights to white men, would not have been so speedily, if ever, swept away, but would rather have been made more stringent. In short, without the ballot, the negro at the South would still, as of old, have had no rights which white men would have felt bound to respect. You may see the power of wealth and intel- ligence in the dominating influence of ihe great corporations of the country, which threaten to so overshadow the land that a member of the Legislature of a great State, wiih biting sar- casm, moved that the body aJjourn, provided the president of a great corporation had no further business for them to do. But who shall S[)eak for the poor, the weak, and the ignorant if they have no votes ? I venture to repeat here what I said in the Senate on the resolution submitting the fifteenth amenduient to the States for adoption : "Knowledge is power. Wealth is j)owcr. Tlio learned andlliorich scarcely need the ballot fur their protection. Tlie great farmer who hn.s his three to five score laborers has a power and iutluencc whicli no law can takeaway. It is his landless and depend- ent tenants, in their cabins and in their ignorance, who need the ballot for theirsafcty. The millionaire in his money, and the man of education in his knowledge and his brain, have each a power in tjoverniuent greater than a hundred ballots, a power which the Constitution neither gives nor can take away. It is the poor, unlearned man, who hasnotli- ing but the ballot, to whom it is .a priceless heritage, a |)rot,eolion and a shield." * * * * " \V'hileno man putsa higher estimate on the value of intelligence in the people than I do, and while no one would do more than I would to encourage the education of the masses, I repeat that it is the disfranchisement and oppression of the poor and the Ignorant which it is our duty to guard against. In protecting the poor and the unlearned you are pro- tcctihg the great laboring, industrial classes of the country. It is these who have made your State, who have felled your forests, worked your mines, dug your canals, built your habitations and churches and school-houses and colleges, laid your railroads, made your engiues and your implements, beautilied and jidorned and made pleasant your homes, tilled your soil and filled your granaries, and sent with resist- less force the life-currents througli all the arteries of trade; v;ho have placed the Republic in her present proud r.ink among the nations. Their brawny arms and stroirg sinews have wrought out our wealth; upon their broad and stalwart shoulders rests the fabric of our Republic, its government, its laws, its inslitutijiis, its civilization. Their stout arms bear forward the car of progress, freighted with the high- est hopes of humanity, and they have aright to a voice in the Government, though their poverty and toil have allowed them no opportunities of edu- cation. "The iiresistible drift of modern civilization is toward a larger and larger enfranchisement of the people, and our end is a pure democracy. Let us |)roeeed to it with firm and decisive steiis. Then wo will liave no disfranchised, disaflected, clamoring classes, always ready and ripe for tumult, rebellion, and revolution. Then the will of the people, legally and peacefully expressed, will have a weight and a power which will command and insuro universal acquiescence and obedience. "Wcarorelayingthe very corner-stone of our tem- ple of liberty. Let us see that its proportions are broad, true, and ample, and its material indestruc- tible. Our fathers laid the foundation of our Govern- ment upon the rock of truth and justice when they proclaimed to the world, in their immortal Declara- tion, that 'all men are created equal ' — not made so by laws and constitution, but by the Creator; but they built badly, though perhaps of necessity, when they countenanced slavery in the provision relat- ing to fugitives. Let us profit by their error, and enlightened by the experience of eighty years, and warned by that experience of the terrible retri- bution which surely and inevitably follows com- promise of truth and justice, follow our principles to their logical conclusion and found this nation on the rock of universal equal human rights, thus settling forever tho questions which, never settled aright, have risen again and again to disturb, and finally to desolate our beautiful land." KKCONSTnUCTlON AND»REI''OUMATIOX. By reconstruction is generally meant the work of restoring the lately rebellious States to their normal legal relations to the Govern- ment. But the problem which confronted the patriotic, wise statesman at the end of the late war, was a deeper and more diffi- cult one than merely how or when to admit the rebel States to re[)resentation in Congress, and in the Electoral College. The Govern- ment had successfully fought a great war, and had conquered submission on the part of its enemies. How, in the hour of victory and in the flush of j>asslon, to make peace wisely; how to husii to perpetual slumber the animos- ities which created the war, and which had been greatly deepened by it; how to guard against future rebellion: how to protect in their lib- erty and rights four million human beings, all poor, and nearly all ignorant, who had been freed from slavery, and thus deprived of such protection and care as interest always gives ; how to eradicate from the public mind of the whole country, the poison of prejudice and proscription which slavery had infused; how to lay anew the foundations of civil liberty and political equality, excluding the unjust dis- tinctions wliich the toleration of the enslave- ment of a portion of the people of the country had made possible and practical; how to meet the "vast financial obligations of the Govern- ment — these were the great questions which were involved in reconstructing aGoverntnent which had been sadly shaken and broken by the tearing up of a great evil, whose roots ex- tended over the whole length and breadth of the land, and were under the very foundations of the Government. With what was done, and wilh the now uni- versallyadmittfd evil consequences of the dis- agreement between an accidental President and Congress, till are too painfully familiar to need recital, ilad there been earnest and bold unity in any policy not inconsistent with human rights, many if not most of the appalling evils which now afflict the southern States might have been much mitigated, if not altogether avoided. But President Johnson, after having helped to give direction to the loyal mind of the country by declaring that a wide distinction must be made between rebels and Union tnen, and that the rebels must take 6 back seats, and that he would be the Moses who should lead the late bondsmen from the wilderness and deserts of" slavery, into the promised land of liberty and peace, suddenly changed his ground, and became the champion of apian of reconstruction which contemplated no punishment or deprivation for rebellion, and no guarantee of protection or political rights to the colored race. One is not entitled to much credit for sagacity or statesmanship for seeing now, in the light of past events, what ought to have been done at the close of the war. Yet I may be pardoned for saying, I am fully convinced that if uni- versal suffrage, universal amnesty, universal education, and obedience to the laws had been made, by the united action of Congress and the President, the corner stones and conditions of reconstruction and restoration, we would now have substantial peace and prosperity at the South and throughout the country. Amnesty for rebellion would have secured the good will and cooperation of a great body of the white people of the South, and security and protection of the negro would have been secured by this result, and by making these the conditions of amnesty to the whites. EFFECT OF PKOSCPaPTIOX AND POLITICAL DIS- ABILITIES. Like begets like. I'roscription on one side prompts proscription on the opposite side. Bit- terness excites bitterness in return. Tolera- tion toward others tends to i>roduce toleration toward those who exercise it. Through all the ages of human life soft words have turned away wrath, and thus it will ever be while human nature remains unchanged. But If pro- scription on account of rel)ellion had been wise, the rule adopted in the fourteenth amend- ment was not a wise or a just one, for many of the best Union men of the South were pro- scribed by it, while many of the most active and vehement secessionists escaped its effects. That a man had held office under the United States before the war, was an evidence of the good will and confidence of his people and of his influence among them, but not of his hav- ing been a promoter of rebellion against the Government ; nor do I think that the fact of his having taken a formal oath to support the Constitution of the United States, added much, if any, to his obligation to support the Gov- ernment, or to his guilt in opposing it. Alle- giance inheres in citizenship, and oaths never have, and never will have, any force to check revolutions. Under our Constitution you can legally hang a man for treason against the Gov- ernment, though he has not taken an oath of allegiance to it, and you cannot do more if he has. If you felt that safety and justice demanded some measure of proscription, then you should have been careful to proscribe your enemies and not your friends. To have accomplished this result it would have been better to have disqualified for a time from holding office those v^rho had been the original promoters of secession and rebellion, as shown by their votes. But my experience and care- ful observation for the past six years have con- firmed the conviction which I held at the close of the war, that political disabilities have been the source of injury and not good to the Gov- ernment and its friends, and that the day of peace has been postponed and not hastened by their imposition; and such is the general opinion among intelligent, thoughtful Repub- licans in the South. DENIAL OF JUSTICE TO SOUTHEKN UNION MEN. A powerful reason for the weakness of the Government party in the South is to be found in the refusal of Congress to place loyal claim- ants in the rebellious States on the same foot- ing of loyal men in loyal States, on the ground that they are constructive enemies of the Gov- ernment, because living inside of territorial lim- its, within which, for a time, the public enemy had control. Though the Senate has taken action looking to a remedy for this wrong, yet as that action has not yet become law. and as this doctrine of constructive treason and public enemies, as applied to loyal citizens of our ov/n country, is, in my judgment, so monstrously wrong, so repugnant to the natural judgment and conscience of the human heart, so opposed to the promise which was held out by the Gov- ernment and its friends during the great strug- gle, and so suggestive of mischievous conse- quences in the future, I cannot, in justice to myself and ray constituents, refrain from saying a few words on the subject. Admitting, if you please, that the inhabitants of an enemy's country have no rights of prop- , erty which the conqueror is bound to respect, I I deny that the doctrine applies to this case. ! The South was not an enemy's country. Ene- mies there were in it, enough of them, and bitter too, but the rebellious district was all the while, and never for a moment ceased to be, a part of the American Union, of our undi- vided and indivisible country. Never for a moment did we absolve the people of those States froid their allegiance and duty to this Government, nor was the claim of any part, or anyoneof them, to be released from allegiance, or from any duty due from them as citizens, ever entertained. Never did we abrogate or relinquish our right to collect taxes, to compel military service, to hang for treason, any individual in these States. When the rebel- lion was strongest and most hopeful of final success, as at all other times, the whole rebel- lious district was enfolded in the strong arms of the national Government, and our Army and Navy beleagured it on every side, and proclaimed to the inhabitants thereof, and to the world, from the mouths of ten thousand cannon, "This is the land of the Republic, and the people thereof are its citizens, and otve it allegiance and service." Now, when such of these citizens as have maintained their loyalty and allegiance to the llepublic through ail, and through unparalleled trials and persecutions, come and ask payment, as other citizens, for material and valuable aid rendered the Government in its effort to sub- due insurrection, are we to meet them at the doors of this Chamber with the declaration, "Away witli your claims; you are enemies, public enemies of the Government; we will not pay you ; we need all the money to pay the Vailandighams of Ohio and the Sons of Lib- erty of Indiana?" If this be public justice, then I am at a loss to imagine what public injustice would be. If this be sound public policy, then I do not know what unsound policy would be. If to tell the widows and the orphans of the men of the South who were hung to the limbs of trees for loyalty to our flag, or fell in our armies under it, and whose bones have been gathered by a grateful people into our beauti- lul national cemeteries, that they cannot be paid for food and forage furnished our soldiers, because they and their husbands and fathers were and are public enemies, be not the very climax of ingratitude, injustice, and inhuman- ity, then I have misunderstood the theory of this Government and of the late war, and my head and heart are alike wrong. FEAR OF FRAUD. , But it is alleged that the Government v/ill ' be defrauded. Sir, there is danger of fraud every where, in Congress, courts, and claimants. Men sell cadetships. Shall you abolish Con- gress and West Point? This country has furnished an Arnold who would have sold his country. Shall you abolish the Army? Judges have been corrupt. Shall you abolish the courts? Judas betrayed Christ. Was our Saviour and his religion, therefore, to be v/ith- out apostles? Of course there will be some cheating in these claims, as there v/ill be in everything until the millennium shall have dawned ; and_ when I look over the world from this capital and see how much is to be done, what mighty changes are to be wrought in the hearts of men, I am painfully led to think that the time is far distant when all men v/ill pay in the coin of truth all their obliga- tions to themselves, to society, and to God. And I hope that payment to these noble south- ern loyalists may not be deferred until that remote day— far more remote, I fear, than the day of specie payments. This taint of fraud ; this svant of fidelity in every word and act to judgment and conscience ; this depravity of the human heart, which, if not total, is bad enough, is not peculiar to the people of the South. We are continually being deceived ! and defrauded by bad men in all sections of i the country. Shall you abolish the mail ser- I vice because you occasionally get a thieving ' postmaster? Shall you cease to levy and col° lect taxes because some citizens make false returns and some of your ollicers may Ijo cor- rupt? Shall we cease to appropriate money for the public expenses because some of it will be misapplied? Shall we cease to pay bounties to our soldiers and sailors because some of them go to cowards and deserters? Shall we cease to elect Presidents because we have had an Andrew Johnson? The Saviour, in choosing twelve, got one traitor; we ought not to expect to do better. Do not let us refuse to pay our honest debts on the plea that we are alraid that we will pay some that we are not bound to pay. That would be like a man refusing to pay his notes because he was afraid some one might present a forgery. Guard the measure as well as we can against fraud, so that you do not so restrict it as to make it a mockery, a cup of Tantalus, to be seen and not tasted, but avow and enact our duty and our willingness to pay loyal per- sons lor property taken for the use of our armies. Why, Mr. President, we are paying pensions and bounties to some of these claimants. Only last week we passed a bill granting a pen.sion to an Alabamian. Do we give bounties and pensions to public enemies? Do we make postmasters, revenue officers, marshals, Uni- ted States attorneys, and judges of enemies? But, itwill be said these people are only enemies in law, not in fact; their treason is only constructive, not real. Mr. President, the class of persons for whom we claim pay- ment are not enemies at all, in any sense, and never have been. They are, and always have been, our best friends. They have not been guilty of treason, either actual or constructive. Mr. President, we cannot afford to say that these eight or nine million people inhabiting the lately rebellious States are the enemies, publicly or privately, of the Government. We cannot afford to say to the world bv our refusal to pay these claims of loyal men at the South that the rebellious States were ever out of the Union ; that the confederacy was an estab- lished government ; that the allegiance of these citizens to the national Governmenthad ceased; that they had all become by successful war aliens and public enemies ; that v/e conquered them all by force of arms ; that we hold them all in the Union and in subjection to our laws by military force. This admission would sound badly (in the discussion of the Alabama claims) when repeated by the British minister, would hurt our standing among the nations of the world, would impair the national credit, and discourage loyalty in the future. No, Mr. President, this veil of constructive treason under which it is sought to hide our otherwise admitted obligation to pay the just claims of truly loyal men at the South is too thin to hide the palpable injustice of denying payment to a widow of one of our own soldiers, to whom you are now paying a pension, for food furnished her husband and his comrades while lighting under our flag. FRUITS OF RECOXSTRUCTIOX. But, Mr. President, I want to say a word about the fruits of this system of reconstruc- tion which has been so much abused, by the Democratic party. The Grst grand result tc which I desire to call attention, and which is worth all the sacrifices of tlie war, is the con- stitutions of those southern States which guar- •anty liberty, equal rights, and universal edu- cation and universal suffrage. These constitu- tions are fully up to the spirit of the age, and embody the best ideas of the civilization of the last half of the nineteenth century. They have been the v/ork of the plan of reconstruc- tion established by the Republican party, and of universal suffrage, and all that is required to give prosperity, security of life and prop- erty, and happiness at the South is a faithful and honest administration under them by hon- est and competent men, and the support of a healthful, bold, public sentiment to sustain the ofHcers of the law in enforcing it and in arrest- ing and punishing criminals. But ibr the con- dition of universal suSrage imposed by Con- gress, constitutions so just to all, so wisely regardful of the interests of education and internal development, so in harmony with the advancing sijirit of the age, would not and could not have been adopted for at least a generation to come. Thus far has the hand of just progress been pushed forward on the dial of time by a patriotic Congress in adopting a sound prin- ciple ; and 1 venture the prediction that no backward wave of Democratic reaction will ever be found strong enough to seriously disturb these constitutions thus firmly founded in wisdom and justice. These new governments have sometimes been brought into disrepute by the fact that I have before stated, that corrupt and incompe- tent men have got into position under them, who have not only brought discredit upon the congressional plan of reconstruction, but upon the very principles which underlie it. For those men I have no apology, no defense to make. Some of them, I admit, have been so corrupt that, like the pariahs of India, their shadows would pollute the very water upon v/hich they might fall, and I wish as heartily' as any man that we were rid of them. The party of reconstruction and the great princi- ples upon which reconstruction was founded would be the stronger and the country bene- fitted by their riddance. Much of the responsibilities for the defeat of the Republican party in some of the south- ern States is due to these incompetent or selfish and corrupt men. I have read some- where of a traveler in the Alps who saw on the mountain-side a poor sheep dragging about its dead comrade, to which it had been tied by a straw-rope by the shepherd to prevent stray- ing too far. The poor animal had picked every blade of grass and every leaf and twig within reach of its strength to drag the carcass to which it was tied, and was just ready to fall and die when the couiijassionate traveler cut the straw band and set it free to use and enjoy its natural strength. So these selfish, corrupt, and immoral men have been as dead carcasses chained to Republicanism : and I ask all honest men of all parties to join me in cuttizig them loose and in putting the administration of republican government in the hands of honest and competent men. But the Democrats of the southern States have themselves mainly to thank for these base officers, for it was their bitter and intolerant spirit which prevented many good men from taking office under the reconstructed governments. The Democrats sought by proscription, intimidation, and abuse to keep all good men from accepting office, and now abuse us because we have given them bad ones. But, sir, there has not been a scheme of cor- ruption consummated or projected, in connec- tion with these southern States and municipal governments, in which Democrats have not been full partners and from which they have not had their full share of plunder. I have never yet voted a Democratic ticket, but v/ill agree to do so when all Democrats get to be honest. And when they shall purify the government of the city and State of New York, where they have ample power, I will agree they may cast stones at our southern State governments. What this Democratic government of New York city is, let the following extracts from Democratic papers show, i'oraeroy's Democrat of Sep- tember 23, 1870, says, editorially: "Democrats hero in this Democratic city stand back like cowards, waiting in line with thieves, repeaters, crib-keepers, burfflars, murderers, and prison-birds, to see wlio is a tit man to represent, not the people, but Bill Tweed, Peter B. Sweeney, Slippery Dick Connolly, and a few other owners of mahogany barns, rose-wood bos pens, and veneered palaces filled with furniture charsed to and paid for by the city. "Under iho nianag-ement of our present city offi- cials the credit of ttio city is not worth so much as the promise of a blackleg or a, drunken prostitute. For they wiil keep their word, while the he.id sa- chems of Tammany, claiming to own the city of New York, live by lying, thrive by trickery, fatten in cor- ruption, cheat their supporters, victimize the pub- lic, rob the tax-payers, steal from every fund they handle, and pay audited claims of honest business men only on shares." The New York Evening Free Press, of Feb- ruary 20, 1870, with Senator^iiirnMAN's name at the mast-head for President in 1872, says, in a leading editorial : "Were an honest vote cast here, honestly can- vassed, these men would not retain their usurped power twenty-four hours, and we should bo saved not only from the deep disgrace of being ruled by them, but from being annually robbed of millions of dollars. Will any respectable citizen disinter- estedly say that it is contrary to the spirit, intent, and province of a republican Government to adopt the only mcan« left forgetting a fair acknowledg- ment of the will of the voters of this city? We have no hope in State authorities for protection. They are the instruments of the ring, and owe their places and power to the very frauds they should be the first to deprecate and overthrow. The police are a large felloe in the ring's great balance wheel, and wo can look to thorn for anything but aid in this extremity." Let the Democracy get out of their glass houses before they begin stone-throwing. MIIJTAKV ixteufi:k!3S(:k. But, Mr. President, the charge has been heralded forth in every Democratic newspaper of the country, and has been rung in our eara in this Chamber day after day by the Derao- 9 cratic Senators, that these governments were forced on the people of the southern States by the use of the bayonet ; that they are sustained by the Army, and that elections are carried by military interference. I brand all these charges as utterly untrue, and challenge the proof. I make the assertion broadly, from a thorough knowledge of the facts within my own State, that neither the Array, nor any member of it, has ever been used or has ever acted to intimidate, or to control voters, or to influence their votes in favor of the Repub- lican party. The troops have been there sim- ply as the conservators of the peace, and have acted, only when called upon by the proper civil officers, to aid them in the execution of judicial process or the precepts of courts. In no other manner have they ever been used or have they ever acted, during President Grant's administration, and I defy proof to the contrary. This cry about military interference in elec- tions in the South, and about constitutions being forced on the people by bayonets, is a partisan cry for political effect, and has no foundation in facts. The Senate committee of investigation has been continued through the next session. Upon that committee there have been placed by the Republican President of the Senate two of the ablest Democratic Senators, [Mr. Blair and Mr. Bayard,] who have most loudly repeated this charge that the Army has been used to control the elections at the South. They are in communication ■with their Democratic friends in the South, as is shown by the communication from Governor Lindsay, of Alabama, which tJie Senator from Delaware [Mr. Bayard] caused to be read in the Senate a few days ago. Their Democratic friends in the other House will also be glad to furnish any information they may have on this point. The committee has power to summon witnesses. Now, I challenge them to furnish to the Senate and the country the proof of the truth of this charge of the use of the bayonet to control elections which these Democratic Senators have so often and so boldly made on this floor. Sir, the proof cannot be made in a single instance under General Grant's adminis- tration. Mr. BLATR. Mr. President The VICE PRESIDENT. Does the Sen- ator from Alabama yield to the Senator from Missouri? Mr. WARNER. In one moment. If these facts are as charged ; if, as the Senator from Missouri, who is now appealing to me, says, the troops have been used to drive voters from the polls, the fact can be established, and I hope it may be. Now I will yield to the Senator. Mr. BLAIR. If the Senator challenges any particular instance of interference of the military, I should like to ask him if the mili- tary did not occupy the State-house in his own State to keep out the regularly elected Gov- ernor at the last electioa in the interest of one who was defeated by the people, and if the military did not succeed in doing it for some time? Mr. WARNER. I am coming to that very point directly, and I hope the Senator will remain in the Chamber. I shall answer him very fully on that point. For the present I answer "no," most emphatically. The Sen- ator from Missouri, in debating this ques- tion of military interference at the South, on the 15th of February, said — I quote from the Globe of February 18 : "It is only necessary now to withdr.aw the Army from the South, where it is employed in driving voters from the polls and carrying the elections against a majority of the legal voters in those States, and the people will resume their rightful authority." * * H: :i: if; ;); * ;i: * * "Mr. President, I was perfectly well aware that this practice, although it commenced at the South, would not end there. The party in power com- menced using the bayonet to set up the carpet-bag- gers in the southern States, in the reconstructed States." * * * * "Now an election is not valid unless it is superintended by the bayonets of the regular Army. Our Army moves wherever there is an election. They no longer make war upon the camps of the enemies of the Government, but they make war upon tiic political opponents of the Administration, and charge upon the ballot-boxes and the polls." And, again, on the 24th of February, the Senator from Missouri said — I quote from the Globe of February 28 : " The head of the Army was made President by the bayonet. He never would have been made Presi- dent if the command of the Army had not been taken from the h;inds of the then President, where it was lodged by the Constitution, iiid placed in the Gen- eral's hands, in violation of the Constitution, and exercised by him through Ins subordinates through- out the South. lie elected himself by the bayonet as much as Louis Napoleon Bonaparte accomplished the coup d'etat by the bayonet, and he will use it as relentlessly in New York as he has done in Missis- sippi." Now, Mr. President, these are grave, bold charges, which, if true, would be a sufficient ground for the impeachment and conviction of President Grant. The Senator charges him with the gravest crime possible, that of mili- tary usurpation. I challenge the Senator to the proof. He has tlie opportunity. He is upon a committee where he can summon any witnesses he chooses. Let him bring the proof before the country. I cannot prove a negative. He can prove the affirmative, if his statement be true ; and I hold him responsible before the country for the proof of his charge. I venture the prediction that he cannot bring reliable witnesses to swear to a single case of interfer- ence with a single voter iti the South during General Grant's administration. Sir, this talk about the fear of troops at the election is idle and absurd. The American people are not afraid of the mere sight of troops. The fact that a few troops were in New York somewhere during the election, had as little influence in keeping legal voters from voting as they chose, as did the fact that at the same time there were troops in Alaska and Paris. But, sir, a great deal has been said about 10 the presence of troops in New York and about the election law which we passed at the last session, and that there was no need for the one, and no authority for the other. I hold in my hand a paper published in New York, the Evening Free Press ; and as it tlies, as 1 have said before, the name of my friend, the able and distinguished Senator from Ohio, [Mr. Thurman,] for President, I presume it is good Democratic authority. I tind in this paper this editorial in regard to elections in New York, under date of February 20, 1871 : "It maybe, as some over-zealous sticklers for the- oretical freedom say, anti-democratic to advocate the armed supervision of elections in this city, but ■we doubt it. We cannot conceive of anything in practice more anti-i'emocratic than the corruption of the ballot-box. If the purity of elections cannot be preserved by easy methods, let it be maintained and secured by the most stringent measures. If bayonets will not suffice to prevent the will of the people from being defeated by thieves, ruffians, per- jurers, and place-seekers, we say plant batteries at the polls and use them. No honest citizen cares a rush about meeting soldiers at his voting-place if they are discovered to be necessary to the preven- tion of his vote being either thrown aside or fraud- ulently counted in favor of the candidate against whom he cast it. Every good citizen, whatever may be his party, will rejoice at the adoption of any method by which the frauds which have become a system in our elections here can be stopped. " For several years these frauds have become so gigantic, so overpowering, and so thoroughly well understoodandcomprehended, that decent men have refrained from voting, knowing that they would ex- pend tlie time and trouble needful in so doing for nothing and to no purpose. \Vha.t bribery, repeat- ing, ruffianly violence, false registry, and whisky were unable to wholly accomplish, wholesale swind- ling in canvas-ing has completed, and thus both the city and the State have been given over into the possession of the four unprincipled rascals who are now known the world over as the New York 'ring,' These men have organized their corrupting machin- ery so skillfully that nothing short of Federal inter- ference with it, and that by force of arms, can defeat its inlamous purposes." ****** "We must have either a Federal election law, or before a great while we shall be compelled to right ourwrongs, or at least put an end to tliem, byre- course to a law which would be still more 'oppress- ive,' 'infamous,' and ' uncons'itutional,' namely, the law administered by Judge Lynch. The question embraced in the Federal election law which dis- turbs the ring was debated when the adoption of the Constitution was under consideration." This is good Democratic authority in favor of the necessity of troops in New York at elec- tion time and on the question of the constitu- tional authority of Congress to pass election laws. I commend to the attention of our Dem- ocratic friends the following extract from No. 69 of the Federalist, written by Alexander Hamilton : "The natural order of the subject leads us to consider in this place that provision of the Consti- tution which authorizes the national Legislature to regulate, in the last resort, the election of its own members. It is in these words: ' The times, places, and manner of holding elections in each State shall be prescribed by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by law make or alter such regulations, except as to the places of choosing Sen- ators.' This provision has not only been decliiimed against by those who condemn the Constitution in the gross, but it has been censured by those who have objected with less latitude and greater moder- ation." * * * * "I am greatly mistaken, j notwithstanding, if there be any other article in the whole plan more completely defensible than this. Its propriety rests upon the evidence of this plain proposition: that every Government ought to con- tain in itself the means of its own preservation. Every just reason will at first sight approve an ad- herence to this rule in the work of the Convention, and will disapprove every deviation from it which may not .appear to have been dictated by the neces- sity of incorporating into the work some particular ingredient with which a rigid conformity to the rule was incompatil)lc." * * * * "It will not be alleged that an election law could have been framed and inserted in the Constitution which would have been applicable to every probable change in the situation of the country; and it will, therefore, not be denied that a discretionary power over elec- tions ought to exist somewhere. " It will, I presume, be as readily conceded that there were only three waysiu which this powereould have been reasonably organized; that it must either have been lodged wholly in the national Legislature, or wholly in the State Legislatures, or primarily in the latter and ultimately in the former. The last mode has, withreason, been preferred by the Con- vention. They have submitted the regulations of elections for the Federal Government, in the first instance, to the local administrations, which, in ordinary cases and when no improper views prevail, may be both more convenient and more satisfactory; but they have reserved to the national authority a right to interfere whenever extraordinary circum- stances might render that interposition necessary to its safety. Nothing can be more evident than that an exclusive power of regulating elections for the national Government in the hands of the State Legislature would leave the existence of the Union entirely at their mercy." * * * * "If we are in a humor to presume the abuses of power, it is as fair to presume them on the part of the State government as on the part of the General Govern- ment. And, as it is more consonant to the rules of a just theory, to intrust the Union with the care of its own existence than to transfer that care to any other hands, if abuses of power are to bo hazarded on the one side or on the other, it is more rational to hazaid them where the power would naturally bo placed than where it would unnaturally be placed." Now, Mr. President, Congress has only gone so far as to provide by law certain remedies for frauds at the polls, which the majority of Congress thought perfectly proper and consti- tutional, and yet a great outcry is raised about it; yet this Democratic paper says, if neither the civil law nor bayonets and batteries will answer to protect the honest voters against the frauds and corruptions in that city, then resort must be had to lynch law to protect the free- dom of the ballot. I think our Democratic friends must have forgotten the fact that Mr. Buchanan not only called out but used troops at an election here in the city of Washington. Mr. BOREM AN. Will the Senator give us the date of that paper from which he has quoted ? Mr. WARNER. New York, February 20, 1871. FIFTEENTH AMENDMENT. Mr. President, I was surprised at the argu- ment of my friend, the distinguished Senator from Missouri, in regard to the fifteenth amend- ment. He declared that the fifteenth amend- ment had been proposed by a usurping frag- ment of a Congress ; that it had been carried in the northern States against the will of the people and by fraud, and had been forced upon the southern States, and yet, that not- withstanding all these alleged facts, it is bind- ing and valid to all intents and purposes. I do \ 11 not see the connection between the premises and the conclusion. The Senator, on the 15th of February last, said : "What is this whole system of reconstruction, as it is called, this exclusion of States from their inher- ent and guarantied rights? Taxation without rep- resentation, their furidamental laws set iiside, the popuhir will suppressed, the right of suffinge taken from the States by a usurping frngment of Congress, the Federal Constitution itself clianged in its char- acter by tlio same usurping fragment and in defiance of the known and expressed will of the people. The Government is literally, practically subverted." And yet he admits the validity of the fif- teenth amendment, proposed by this nsnrping fragment of a Congress and adopted through fraud and force. J quote from the Globe of February 18 what the Senator said on this point on the loth of February : "Mr. MouTON. The Senator will allow me to say that his answer is not explicit. His argument is that certain States improperly ratified it; but the ques- tion was whether he regards the adoption of the amendment as complete and the amendment as being now a part of the law of the land? "IMr. Blair. I shall endeavor to be sufficiently explicit. 1 do regard it as complete. I do regard it as a part of the law of the land." If I believed that the Congress that proposed the fifteeiiih amendment was but a " usurping fragment" of a Congress, I certainly could not hold that the fifteenth amendment is legal and binding upon the people of the United States. I am glad, to save agitation, and that so wise a measure may rest in peace and safety, that the Senator has come to the conclusion to maintain the validity of this amendment; and 1 ho[)e he will adhere to it. But, sir, what would be the result of the Sen- ator's position that Congress was a "usurping fragment'' of a legal body from 18G1 to 1870? Why, sir, then at the very time that the Sen- ator himself held a seat in the other House at the beginning of the war, it was a fragment of a Congress and he was part of it. The south- ern Senators and Representatives had con- temptuously left their seats in Congress, not even deigning to resign, and had gone home to make war; but the Senator himself remained in the other branch of Congress, wisely and patriotically, as I remember, doing his duty there as a Kepresentative of his Stale, as a part of that usurping fragment of a Congress, and took an active part iti enacting the laws under which we made war, and under which hundreds of thousands of brave men were sent to their graves and thousands of millions of treasure drawn from the people of this country and expended in the prosecution of that war. Sir, if the Congress of which he was a part was a usurping fragment of a Congress, it was without authority to prcjsecute war, and he and I were guilty of murder in killing men of the South engaged in the rebellion, under the pre- tended authority of the action of that Congress. I see no escape from the conclusion, if his doc- trine be correct, that his commissions which the Senator held in the Union Army were "null and void," that his troops were but a mob, and that he was but a marauder and plunderer when at Cheraw, South Carolina, he "dispensed hospitality in a manner to put to shame the most hospitable South Caro- linian." But, Mr. President, what is a further conse- quence? If by the desertion of the rebel Sen- ators and Representatives from these Halls Congress ceased to be a legal law-making body of this country under the Constitution, and became a usurping, fVagmentary body, thea the rebels had it in their power, simply by leav- ing their seats, to destroy the legislative power of the country and to break down theGovern- ment. According to that theory. Congress was destroyed when Davis, Toombs, and their asso- ciates in rebellion left their places in Congress to engage in rebellion ; the legislative power of the country was at an end ; Congress was destroyed; there was no power even to make laws to put down the rebellion, to raise sol- diers, or to levy taxes to pay them. That prin- ciple, if carried out, would put it in the power of a minority at any time, by leaving their seats in Congress, to break up the Government. But, Mr. President, the Senator from Mis- souri denies all power in Congress to punish for rebellion, even to the extent of imposing disabilities from holding office, and asserts that there can be no legal punishment for re- bellion except through the conviction of a court. The Senator said: "This legislative trial, conviction, and punish- ment is known to every lawyer to be a bill of attain- der (irohibited by the Constitution of the United States." If that be true, then Davis might have come back to his seat in the Senate at any lime, be- cause expulsion for treason would have been a punishment which, under the Senator's theory, Congress could not inflicl. Not only Davis, but all the rest of those who left here to engage in the rebellion, could at any time have returned and claimed their seats, and there would have been no power in Congress to prevent. Furthermore, they might even now return and claim their pay ; and the offi- cers of the Army who deserted the flag to join the rebel armies might return and claim their pay, and perhaps even their places in the Array, for not one of them has been judicially convicted of treason against the Government. These are the legitimate consequences of the denial to Congress of any power to impose any punishment or disability for rebellion; and the Senator considers even the imposition of test-oaths as a punishment for rebellion. But, Mr. President, the Senator seems to have held a very different opinion on the 11th of July, 18G5, when he issued to the officers and soldiers of the seventeenth corps his famous order, from which I extract as follows: "The Romans made their conquering soldiers freeholders in the lauds they had conquered ; and .as upon your return to your homes you will find most of your occupations and cuiploymeuts tilled by adepts from civil life, and as the Uoverumeut has 12 vast tracts of vacant lands which will be increased by the war, the interests of the country and your own will concur in the apportioninentof these lands to your use and occupancy, establishing a citizen soldiery to_ maintain internal peace and set foreign i"oes at defiance." Speaking of tlie defeat of Napoleon's schemes in Mexico, be further said in the same order: "If that object can be obtained bv pacific means, then soldiery is at an end and your solo busines hereafter will be to develop, enrich, and improve our great country. To that end our soldiers should be provided with homesteads, and in no part of the country would they fare better or would they be more useful than in the South, which they have redeemed." Now here is a plain proposition for the con- 6scation of the lands of rebels, and a direct recommendation to his officers and soldiers to carpetbag down South to the land which they have redeemed. But now, while the Senator utters no word against the Ku Klux mobs in the South, which hang men for their political opinions, he can find no language strong enough to denounce Congress for keeping a few men out of office for rebellion. What great light has the Senator seen since July, 18G5, that has so changed his mind and his heart ? CARPET-BAGGERS. But I desire to notice another charge which we hear a great deal about. The favorite name applied to our southern governments by our Democratic friends is that of " carpet-bag gov- ernments," and the northern men, mostly sol- diers who went to the South after the war, are called ''carpet-baggers." I know that before the war t!ie South was a pretty hot place for a northern man with northern ideas, but sup- posed that one of the results of the war was the vindication of the right of any citizen of this country to go into any part of the country and become a citizen and have equal political rights with other citizens there, including freedom of speech and political action. I did not anticipate that T should find the Senator from Missouri applying to us what is understood to be an odious appellation, that of "carpet-bagger." I am the more surprised because I think he has been something of a carpet-bagger himself. If my memory serves me right, he went to Louisiana about the same time and for the same purpose that I went to Alabama, to raise cotton, and I think had about the same luck; and I am astonished that he should be so ready to believe all the rumors that are circulated about carpet- baggers. I know very well that when the Senator talks in any disparaging way about carpet- baggers lie does not intend to apply it to me personally, for I know how kindly his feelings toward nie are ; but I am surprised that he should seek the disparagement of these men, who were mostly sohliers, and some of whom followed his lead in the war against the rebel- lion, on mere rumor, for he has been the victim of rumor himself, and I should have thought that having felt the injustice thereby done him he would not be so ready to heed it as to others. I remember a story which was current through the South, and was published gener- ally in the papers, about the Senator from Missouri, and which was doubtless as ground- less as most of the stories that he hears about his comrades. The story is, that at a political meeting in the neighborhood where the Sen- ator had his plantation, his Democratic friends got a colored man to preside, as is their habit, in hopes to get the colored vote for Seymour and Blair. After the white men had got through with their speeches, which were largely made up of abuse of carpet-baggers, who, it was alleged, had gOne down there to spy out and plunder the land, the colored president of the meeting was called upon for a speech. He said, in response, that he indorsed all that had been said about these carpet-baggers; that he himself had been in the employ of a carpet- bagger, and had worked for him all summer, and the carpet-bagger had gone off without paying him ; and, said he, "I think you must all know him ; I have heard his name called many times to-day; they call him Frank Blair." [Laughter.] "Carpet-baggers" are northern men living at the South, and are like men everywhere; there are some good and some bad among them ; but, let me tell the Senator, there are as many good men among them as you will find among any equal number of men else- where. We have in my State some of the Senator's own officers and soldiers, who are all the supporters of reconstruction, and who are in patriotism and moral worth, if not in position and ability, the peers of the Senator. His gallantand skillful adjutant general, whom he will well remember, is one of them, and I do not think he, when he remembers his services to his country, his fidelity in her hour of trial, his purity of private character, would expect his old commander, by any indirection even, to cast any aspersion upon him because he had seen fit to go to Alabama after the war and honestly cast his lot among that people and voted as his judgment and conscience bade him. The Senator's commissary is another of these "carpet-baggers." Now let me say to the Senator that these "carpet-baggers," mostly soldiers, who are the equals in bravery and fidelity to their country if not in ability to the Senator himself, are nearly all, I may say, almost without exception, found u])on my side of reconstruction and not upon his. It is a curious fact, if this policy of reconstruction be such an abomination, such an outrage upon the people, and so contrary to the spirit in which we conducted the war. that nearly all tlie sol- diers of the country should be found sustain- ing it. I am surprised that the Senator from Mis- souri should revive his null and void doctrines about reconstruction. In the last presidential election he called the yeas and nays of the American people ou that question, and they 13 voted by a, majority of three hundred thousand that reconstruction was not "null and void," but should stand. THE ALAliAM-V KLKCTION. Nov.', Mr. President, I will speak of tlie Alabama election, and the gubernatorial con- test there, which the Senator inquire.s of me about. The Senator from Delaware [Mr. 1>.vy- ard] said the other day in debate, and I then sought the opporiunity to correct him, but lie declined to yield to me — I quote from the Globe of February 18 — "There was an election held in Alabama, as in other States, last fall. A Legislature, a (Governor, a State treasurer, and other officers were elected. The Governor, not content with the result of that elec- tion as evidenced by the counting of the votes, iirst took the usual remedy indicated by congressional ex- ample and attempted by force to keep possession of the archives of the State and the papers of his office. Failing in that ho resorted to the legal tribunals of his State." Mr. President, to use the mildest term, the statement of the Senator from Delaware is en- tirely incorrect. The facts are these, and I avail myself of a very clear statement made in a speech by one of my colleagues [Mr. Buck] in the House : " You have seen it stated by the press that Gov- ernor Smith sought to retain possession of the office for which, as a candidate, he had been defeated by the use of Federal troops, negroes, militia, &c. All such reports are withoutfoundation, and were know- ingly and falsely circulatetl to mislead the public mind for political effect and to direct attention from the real wrongs and outrages of the Ku Klux Dem- ocracy. "I have already shown that Governor Smith re- ceived more votes than Jlr. Lindsey. I will now show you how he attempted to obtain a fair count of the vote by which ho was unquestionably reelect- ed, lie employed three of the ablest lawyers in the State, namely. ex-Governor Parsons, lion. Alexan- der White, and Samuel F. Rice, late chief justice of the supreme court of the State, to examine the question and advise the course proper to be taken. The constitution of the State declares that — " ' Contested elections for executive officers shall be determined by both Houses of the General Assembly' in such manner as shall be prescribed by law.' "This has been the language of the constitution since 1S19, yet by some oversight the Legislature has never ' prescribed the manner' in which it should be done. There was but one of two alternatives for the Governor in this state of the case. lie must give up the ofljce to which he h.ad been legally reelected and the cause of education and internal improvements, both of which are peculiarly Republican principles in our State, or he must resort to the courts of the land for relief. "After a very careful examination of the legal •luestions involved it was determined to file a bill in the chancery court for Montgomery county, fully stating all the foregoing facts and many others which cannot be now mentioned, showing that he was not only entitled to the office by a majority of more than one thousand votes, if the votes actually given were counted, but that by means of force, fraud, and vio- lence the Republican party had been deprived of many thousand votes which their candidates other- wise would have received. "The bill was filed accordinsly. It contained a prayer for an injunction restraining the presiding officer of the Senate, (lion. R. N. Biut,) whoso duty it was to ' open and publish ' the vote for Governor during the first week of the session, in the presence of a majority of the members of the General Assem- bly, from performing that duty until tlio General Assembly, then in session, could ' prescribe the man- ner' for making the contest as provided in the con- stitution; and in case the tjeneral Assembly should refuse to 'prescribe the manner.' then that the court of chancery should take jurisdiction of the case. In the absence of the chancellor the bill was presented to Hon. Benjamin F. Siffold, one of the judges of the supremo court of the State, who granted the injunction, which was duly issued and served on the presiding officer of the senate. "Un the day required by law that officer, in the presence of the two houses of the General Assembly, in joint convention in the hall of the liousc of repre- sentatives, proceeded to open and publish tho vote for other executive State officers; but as he had been enjoined from opening and publishing the vote for Governor, (and also for the office of treasurer, on a bill filed by that officer,) he read to the convention a copy of tho injunction in each case which had been served on him; and in obedience to them announced to the convention that he should not open and pub- lish the vote for each of those offices; and ho did not. After this was done the .Senate retired immediately to the senate chamber in a body, and then adjourned until the following Monday morning (this being Sat- urday) at the usual hour; and the journal of thesen- ate will show these facts. Thcspeaker of the House then assumed to be the presiding officer of a joint convention of tho two houses, not a senator being present. In a few minutes the Lieutenant Governor- elect, hnviug taken theoath of (dlice before a circuit judge who was present for the purpose, but after the senate liad adjourned and not in the presence of that body, collectively or individually, except one or two, came into the hall of the house and assumed to bo tho presiding officer of the senate, and therefore tho presiding oflicer of that convention, upon which a large m'ljority of the Republican members of tho house retired. A secretary was appointed, and the returns of the election for (iovernor and treasurer were sent for, thry having been returned uncounted to the secretary of State for safe-keeping by lion. Mr. Barr. These returns were produced, and the aforesaid Lieutenant Governor-elect, claiming to be the presiding officer of the senate, proceeded to open and publish the vote for these two officers in the presence of the house of representatives only — two senators only having returned to tho hall after the adjournment of the senate — and then amd there declared Mr. Lindsey duly elected by a majority of fourteen hundred and twenty-nine votes. " This high-handed proceeding, of which I was an eye-witness, was in violation of the constitution and laws of Alabama in several particulars : "1. It was a violation of the law and fact for the speaker to assume to presideover a jointconvention of the two houses when only one house was present. "2. The constitution requires the vote for Governor to beopened and published by the i)residiug officer of the senate, in the presence of a lunjority of the mem- bers of the General Assembly. The senate was not present. "3. The law of the State rcciuires the Governor to take the oath of officein the i)rese!?ee of both houses. I The oath was administered in the )>resence of the house alone. "i. The Lieutenant Governor-elect wasnot sworn into office in the presence of tho senate, over which he was to preside; and unless that body caused him to take tho oath of office at some subsequent period when it was in session, and caused that fact to be entered on its journal, there is no legal evidence that he ever took the oath of office at all. "5. At the time tho Lieutenant Governor-elect returned to the house and assumed to preside over a convention of the two houses, when only one was present, as the Lieu tenant Governor of Alabama, and therefore tho presiding officer of the senate, the jour- nal of the senate shows that body had adjourned and that lion. Mr. Barr was tho presiding officer; and the house of representatives had no power to decide that another person was the presidiug officer of the senate. "G. The house of representatives, in order to sus- tain this proceeding, have caused their journal to sliow, as I am informed, that tho Senate wasprcseiit when the vote for Mr. Lindsey was opened and pub- lished, in tho manner already stated, and when ho took tho oath of office as Governor. "T. The whole proceeding, so far as opening and publishing the vote for (Jovernor and treasurer was concerned, was in violation and in contempt of tho injunction which had been srantcd by one of the 14 supreme judges, and duly serfcil, and, I may add, obeyed, so far as the Republican party was con- cernpd. "While these unlawful and revolutionnry proceed- ings were in progress the capitol and tlie streets of the city were thronged with armed and excited men. Threats ivere made on the str'^et, and comiuunioated to Governor Smith, that he would be kicked out of theexeeuiivechambcrandassassinated. He believed that he was legally elected ; he had appealed to the courts to assert his right to the office, as every citizen of theState m;iy do when reelected to an office which he already holds, and he was unwilling to abandon the office and the assertion of his right to it by legal and peaceable means. Neither was he willing to be assaulted and thrust out, and perhaps killed. To prevent this United States soldiers were called to the capitol, but nut to hold the office by Ibrce, as has been charged, bat for the sole purpose of repelling force if an attack should be made. Tlie Governor had already appealed to the law, and he never did resort to anything else, for the purpose of asserting his right to the olBce. lie only called on the sheriff of Montgomery county, who was present, to i>rotcct hiin and the State capitol by means of the United States soldiers, as a portion of his posse, from a scene of riot and bloodshed, which he had great reason to think imminent. That the presence of the sherili" and Ihesoldiers atlhecapitol thateveningprevented a riot, the consequences of which no one could fore- tell, is at least probable. "Before the proceedings in the house of repre- sentatives terminated which I have described niglit caine on. and when the house adjourned the mem- bers and the crowd left the State-house. A few minutes later Colonel Drnrn, with four soldiers, re- ported to the sheriff of Montgomery county, who was at thcdoor of thecxecutiveroomsin thecapitol. In less than fifiecn minutes from that time a messen- ger informed (xovernor Smith that Colonel J. J. Jolly was at the door, and would like an interview, to ■which the Governor replied he would receive any comtnnnicntion he had to make in writing, lie sent acommunieation in writing from Mr. Lindsey, stat- ing that he had duly qualified and was ready to enter upon the duties of his olfice, and that ho had author- ized Colonel Jolly to demand for him and in his name take possession of the executive rooms and the books and papers of the office. TheGovernorat once penned a reply and sent it out ; but Jolly had gone." * * ''■' ;::***** "Governor Smith still refused to surrender the office to Mr. Lindscy, the senate recognizing Smith, and the house Lindsey, as Governor; and this condi- tion of aff.iirs continued live orsix days. Meanwhile, the r>eniocr:)lic la-ess teemed with the most violent abuse of Governor Smith and his counsel, as also the judge who had granted tho injunction and the pre- siding oiUcer of the senate who had obeyed it. They were denoiince'hich makcsthe lives and property of the citizen the sport of every reckless marauder. Be- tween such a state of things and the military we choose the latter. Soonerthan this, let the State be remanded to the territorial condition, or governed as a conquered province by the strong arm of mili- tary law." The Selma (Alabama) Argus, a Democratic paper, lately published the following: Sin: I see from yourartielein your last issue(Jan- uary 27) that you accuse a body of disguised men of going to Grecnsborough, on Tuesday last, a nd releas- ing a man from thej ail in that place who had been con- fined for horse-stealing. We inform you, sir, that your author has told a malicious falsehood. The man who was released on that evening was not confined for horse-stealing, but for killing a negro and the tak- ing of a Yankee's horse (openly) that it might enable him to make his escape from ii court (like Black- ford's) of injustice: and we say to you, sir, that the party did not visit Greensboro ugh on that evening for the purpose of releasing this man i\IcCrary, but for the purpose of catching and giving Mr. Blackford what he lawfully deserves and will get before the 1st day of March. We do not communicate to you for the purpose of clearing ourselves of but onp thing, and that is the release of a horse-thief. Sir, it is not our object to release thieves, but, on the other hand, it is our sworn duty to bring them all to justice, and we in this section of country intend and will sec that all ttiieves shall be punished to the extent of the law, and in cases where the law cannot reach them the party that released the man in Greensborough will give them all they deserve, and perhaps a little more. Yours, truly, &c., K.^Y.V. To the Editor of thk x\rgu3. P.S. — The writer is a subscriber to your paper, and would be pleased to see this and an additional article by you in your next issue. K. Alabama, January 31, 1871. COMMENTS. "Our version of the affair at Greensborough was based upon the statement of the Greensborough Bea- con, and the reports telegraphed to tlie press. The author of the above letter c irrects our errors. Mc- Crary was only guilty of 'killing' a negro and 'tak- ing' a horse. The object of the disguised men was not to release a horse-thief, but to lynch a probate judge. This is the version of one who claims to have been of the party of disguised men whoso conduct on the occosioa in question was an example of law- lessness and has already brought evil upon the inno- cent victims of the incendiary fires provoked by it." The Courier-Journal, of Louisville, Ken- tucky, the ablest Democratic paper of the South, only this week boldly and patriotically said, in speaking of the Ku Klux: "They have usurped the powers of government; made murder their pastime and terrorism their scep- ter; conferred ujion their adherents the right of pri- vate vengeance, and assumed to protect lliem from the penalties of outraged law. No home is safe, no place is sacred from their invasions. Tt) show their strength and their utter contempt for all departments of the State government they fill the vicinity of the capital during the brief !)eriod of the legislative ses- sion with deeds of i)lood, and carry their lawless violence witli insulting defiance to the very doors of our legislative halls. Tliisstain upon the escutcheon of Kentucky, this humiliation of our proud State, hiis culminated under a, 'Democratic State adminis- triition; and yet thoL?si:;Iature, so prompt to resent 17 a newspaper censure, has afTectcJ to ignore the facts and disresard the dissrnce." * * * * * * :i: * * * "A few dayssince wc observed thatthelaekofviffor on our part tends to eneourasie lawlessness. Is this not an example in point? Do we not sec that our outlawry is enlarging its sphere and growing more enterprising .as we fail to meet it with acts propor- tioned to its force and extent? But a fortnight ago it rode down upon the postal service of the Federal Government in broad daylight, and one of our most public highways narrowly escaped a wanton mur- der. A train guard of soldiers is the consequence. Now, it rides into the capital of the State, overcomes Ihc police that watch the rest of our legislators, our Uovernors, our judges, and all our Commonwealth authoritie', seizes a prison, releases a murderer, and rides off in triumph." The Rome (Georgia) Commercial recently deprecates the bold acts of the Ku Klux, and says their outrages will lose the Democratic party thousands of votes in 1872. It therefore advises quiet for the present. It says: " Remember, brothers, that the strength and power of any secret organization rests in the attribute of mystery and hidden force, and in the fact that upon the thousand hills of our country a legion of brave hearts that are throbbing quietly can bo called to- gether by a tiny signal, and when the work is done can melt away into shadowy nothing. Every time you act you weaken your strength. Then, bo quiet. If an inexorable necessity calls for action, act promptly, with decision, and do nothing more than is absolutely necessary." The military committee of the present Ken- tucky Legislature proposed that $500,000 be appropriated "to ferret out the perpetrators of the cowardly outrages perpetrated by un- known and disguised parties;" and its chair- man pledges "every confederate soldier to speak with a voice that cannot be mistaken, that law and order, and the peace and dignity of the State must be maintained," that "out- lawry must be wiped out, even if in the blood of the perpetrators." And here a painful contrast is suggested to my mind. While the confederate general, Breckinridge, before a Senator, denounces the Ku Klux as murder- ers and outlaws, the Federal general, now a Senator from Missouri, has uttered no word of disapproval. The Senator from Ohio [Mr. Tiicrmax] did utter these brave, useful words ; and I honor him for so doing, notwithstanding his harsh words about my party : "Mr. President, I have never uttered one word of defense in favor of Ku Klux organizations. The Senate will bear me witness that no one spoke more strongly against them than I did at the last session. If I were looking at tlic subject simply in a partisan point of view, I am not so stupid as not to know thatevery outbreakof that kind only injures the party to which I belong, only furnishes the mate- rial for our opponents to excite the passions of the people and excite the passions of Congress. I know it full well; and if my voice could reach every man who violates the l,aw in the South, and could have potential influence with him, it would be addressed to him in three simple words, "obey the laws.' Such are my feelings; such are my natural instincts; and such is my interest and the interest of the party to which I belong. There is nothing to be gained by us by outrages, which only furni^h our adversa- ries with pretexts for passing acts of legislation that but a few years ago would have shocked every sense of liberty, of freedom, aiid of constitutional law that had an abiding place in the American heart." If all the Democratic Senator.« on tliis (Inor and the Democratic Representatives in the other House, instead of seeking to deny or palliate all intolerance and violence at the South, would boldly denounce them, they would do the country a service. The Senator from Ohio is the only Democratic Senator who has thus spoken. I wish the Senator from Missouri would use his mighty iniluence with his political friends at the South, not to excite and inflame passion, but to restrain and calm it down. His voice would be potent for peace as it has been for disturbance. If the Demo- cratic representatives in this Chamber and in the other House would with one voice boldly say to their political friends at the South, "You must stop this violence and proscription for political dilferences," they loould stop it. Their influence would be effective in aid of peace, and I hope it may be patriotically exercised in that way. While I do not charge the whole body of the southern people v/ith responsibility for these outrages, 1 do say that they are responsible for not crushing them out by creating a de- termined public opinion that shall make the civil law powerful to arrest and punish crim- inals. There is a great body of good men at the South who deplore this violence and pro- scription, but they have not yet made their influence effectively felt. I hope that all good men may come to the point of aiding to put an end to both. Sir, the language which I shall read, coming fi'om a man whom [ know to have been a brave Union soldier, and v/ho is an honest, good cit- izen, is enough to stir the blood of every hon- est American citizen. He writes me, under a very recent date: "I feel a little mortified, to say nothing of tho anger that rises, when I think that I. alter lighting for the 'old flag' when it was tottering, should bo forced to leave any portion of tho land over which it waves on account of my fidelity to her many stars and stripes. But such is the case : 'To leave or die' was their motto." I tell Senators from my personal knowledge that in the county in which he lived his life was not safe, and to save it he was obliged to leave. That is true of that county. It is not by any means true of all nor of a majority of the counties in the State of Alabama. He lived in the town of Eutaw, where the scene occurred which I described the other day, and where I was denied in 1868 the right of speech. If it ever happens to the Senator from Missouri, as I hope it never may, to experience the pain of being denied the right to express his political opinions, he will tind how hard it is for an American citizen, and particularly for one who has been a soldier, to subuiit to it. When I attempted to make a niild, calm, conciliatory speech, such as 1 always make, I found an armed mob who denied me the right; ind when, from a natural and just indignation which arose in my heart that I should be de- nied a right guarantied to me by the Constitu- tion of my country, I said that I would speak there if it took a thousand soldiers to protect 18 me, the mob told me I "Bring on your Federal soldiers and we will butcher them !" Sucli things are a shame and a disgrace to the coun- try. Does the Senator from Missouri agree with me? But, sir, the great difiiculty about this vio- lence in the South, as the committee and the Senate will find, is that it comes from an organ- ization which extends throughout the southern States. If we only had to deal with sporadic cases of crime, that occur from individual pas- sion or e.Kcitement, it would be comparatively a trifling matter. It is the fact that there is an organization made up of the worst material in the country, the same material out of which mobs are made everywhere, whose main object is to control elections, that makes violence so general and so audacious, and renders it im- possible to suppress it and to enforce the law against the perpetrators. It is not, let Sena- tors understand, the brave confederate soldiers who mainly cosnpose this organization. The best and boldest men of the confederate army have nothing to do with it. The editors of newspapers in the South, above all other men, are responsible for creating bitterness of feel- ing and for disseminating prejudices and ex- citing passions out of which comes violence, and they are not the men whom the Senator from Missouri and myself met upon the field of battle. They are either men who were not soldiers at all or who have no record as such of which they can be proud. PEACE. But, Mr. President, I want peace, and have preached it from the end of the war. I have steadily opposed all confiscation and proscrip- tion because of rebellion, and I have never said a word which could grate harshly upon the ears of an honorable confederate soldier. In a speech which I made at Huntsville, Ala- bama, last fall, and which was widely circulated by the Republican State committee, 1 said: 'But the bigoted sectionalism of the action of the Democratic oonvention shall not change my course. Beaten, baffled, and ruined, as is the Democratic party of Alabama and the Union, I can afford to overlook its illiberality, and I shall continue to labor zealously for universal amnesty as tending to the peace and prosperity of my country. Ttie high- est purpose of my heart is that all the citizens of my country shall have the i)eaceful enjoyment of equal rights and that they shall be bound together in the indissoluble bonds of fraternal love. " Proud, as I justly am, of the humble part which I bore in the struggle for the Union and liberty, I have never sought to punish the confederate soldier for the part he took against the Government. I havcbeenand am willing and anxious that by-goncs shall be by-gones, and want the Government to for- give all political ofi'enses, however unjustifiable. 1 cannot justify, but I can forgive rebellion. "Ven- geance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.' I will forgive, and leave to ' llim who doeth all things weir to judge us, and to mete out to all their just deserts. I sympathize as deeply as any man can with the people of the South in those sorrows which the war brought upon them, and 1 wish to do all that lies in my i)ower to heal its wounds and repair its ravages. 1 cannot make full allowance for the feelings of wounded pride and deep humiliation which the leiiders in secession I'eir, at their defeat and ruin. All this 1 have considered and felt, and while I have been, and shall continue to be, firmly and steadfastly true to the great principles of Union liberty, and equality, which inspired our armies* and which it is the mission of the Itepublican party to make real and practical, yet I have spoken no word since AppoQiattox which could justly wound the tenderest sensibility of any honorable, brave confederate soldier. I fought under my country's banner for results — the results of Union, liberty, and peace, not for the gratification of any personal ani- mosity, for I had none. Union and liberty have been secured, and there remains to be obtained only peace and good-will. To this end all my ciforts have been directed since 18G5, and for this end I speak to-day. " I respect the bravery and skill of the confederate soldier, though deeming him in the wrong. He vin- dicated his sincerity with his heart's best blood. He fought a brave fight, and was beaten, as I think he ought to have been. The issues which arrayed us against each other have been settled by the God of battles. Under the stars and stripes I offer him the hand of fellowship and friendship, and would extend to him all the i>oiitical r-ights and privileges which I myself enjoy. I ask him to accept theolive-branch which I tender, and to join in giving equal rights to all, and in giving peace and prosperity to our State and country. "General Grant's administration ought to bo the pride of every American citizen. Honesty, econ- omy, and fidelity pervade every department of it. Why cannot we support it? Abandoning strife, accordingto all the rights we claim for ourselves, not seeking to turn backward on the dial of progress, or to reopen settled questions, only to get the same results after much strife and bitterness, why stand and rail at doom and fight destiny by seeking to hin- der the success of republicanifm? Why not leave the past to bury its dead, and turn our faces :indour steps toward the future, which beckons us so Iciudly, and which holds in its hands such rich gifts? " One word more and I am done. Crime and out- lawry disgrace some small sections of the State. Disguised men commit deeds of violence and mur- der, which cry to Heaven for punishment. These crimes paralyze industry, check immigration, keep away capital, and demand swift punishment: and I appeal to the solid good citizens of our State to rise in their might, and, through the majesty of adeterm- ined public opinion, enfVirce the law. Do uot allow the Slate or national Government to be tempted too far by the continuance of violence. These crimes must and will be stopped. The responsibility rests upon the substantial citizens of the State to create a public opinion which shall make the civil law effect- ive to protect life and property. Let no one be silly enough to think that any political party can be ben- efited by violence. It will ruin any party in any State that abets it. Elections carried by violence and terror are no elections, and will be so regarded. Let us agree to disagree on questions of political policy, but let us all preach ' peace and good-will to men,' standing on the grandest platform yet given, ' Do unto others as ye would others should do unto you.'" PEACE AND JUSTICE. Yes, Mr. President, I want peace, but with it justice. I would imitate nature. My path- way from my home to this Capitol lies over one continual battle field, nine hundred miles long, and I observe with pleasure that the rains and frosts atid dews are aiding the indus- try of man to smooth down the rugged outlines and sharp angles of forts and fortifications, while her vines and flowers seek to hide the evidences of strife. So would J, by kindly and liberal legislation toward the South, and by kindly words, seek to turn away wrath and make peace. The Union men and Republicans of the South only ask for toleratiou of political opinion a:id action ; and this we have a right to demand, and this it is t!ie duty of the Gov- ernment to guaranty us. While we pray for peace we are asked to pay too dearly for it. 19 Mr. President and Senators, I am for peace ; but if peace can only be had on condition of digging up and casting out the bones of our dead soldiers from the graves where the nation has buried them, and which have been strewn with flowers by a grateful people, and wet with the tears of widows, mothers, and orphans ; of not only forgiving the rebel, but of asking his forgiveness for having been a Union man; of putting the gray above the blue, the stars and bars over the stars and stripes, of repudi- ation of the national debt, of denial of free speech and freedom of political action, of put- ting I he negro in a condition of serfdom, then the old issues are raised, and I am not for such a peace. I am willing to bury the gray and I he stars and bars, and that their friends shall drop their tears on their graves without re- proach from me ; and I can add my respect for tlie courage of the brave men who died for these, and I can share my sympathies for the sorrowing widows, orphans, and maimed men with which the rebellion filled the whole land — with all, whether of the blue or the gray ; but buried must be the stars and bars, while the stars and stripes must float forever, and under them must be liberty and justice. If pictures are to be hung in legislative halls to conimemorate the heroes of the war and to suggest to the rising generation examples for tiiem to follow, they must be pictures of Thomas, not of Lee ; of the Virginian who stood by his country's flag in the hour of peril, not of him who deserted it. My land is the water-bound Republic; my gods are the gods of my fathers — Union, Lib- erty, Justice — and I can submit to no dismem- berment of the one, no dethronement of the others. The orange groves of Florida, the suov/s of Maine, the cotton fields of Texas, and the golden glories of California, as well as the great central heart of the country, are alike dear to me; and I embrace them all in a common love, and demand that every- where shall be maintained and secured pro- tection to life, property, and constitutional rights. To secure this result, without which free government is a failure, many of the State gov- ernments in the lately rebellious districts are powerless, because the agencies and organiza- tions which disturb the peace of society and defiantly trample upon tiie dearest rights of the citizen are sustained l^ the controlling public opinion of those States. This is as true of Democratic Kentucky as of Republican South Carolina. Alexander Hamilton wisely foresaw that the hope and safety of this coun- try were not in the power of its subdivisions or Stales, but in the whole people of the country as a nation. Hence lie favored givingstrength to the central General Government, and held that the rights of the people were al)ove State rights. His prediction has been fully verified by the events of the last ten years. The people of some of the States sought to subvert tlie Government and divide the country. The nation crushed rebellion and saved the Government and the country. And now, while crime and outlawry are able to hold high car- nival in some of the States, because supported by a local public opinion, which makes local governments powerless to check, the public sentiment of the country at large is sound and healthful, and the General Government is pow- erful to sustain and enforce its laws. Li these is now our hope, and to these I now appeal, in behalf of the loyal, law-abiding citizens of the States of North Carolina, South Carolina, Flor- ida, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Arkansas, Louisiana, Kentucky, and Texas for protection. We have given freedom and political rights to the late slaves of the South, and have thus robbed them of the sympathy and protection which self-interest induced their late masters to give them. They are now being ground between the upper and the nether millstone. Shall we fail to rescue them, and to protect them in the rights which the nation has given them? Shall we fail to protect the loyal white men of the South in their rights of life, prop- erty, and ballot? If we do, then reconstruc- tion is a failure and the rebellion has half triumphed. No, Mr. President, the people of this country will not allow it. Let Congress and the President act quickly, boldly, decisively, and make the flag guaranty to every citizen at home, that ample protection in his just rights which it carries on every sea, and con- tinent, and island of the globe, and the peo- ple will firmly and patriotically sustain their action. No man can clearly foresee all the evil consequences of failure to thus act. I can see plainly foreshadowed as the results of failure, the nullification of the fifteenth amendment, the reduction of the negro at the South to a serfdom nearly as bad as slavery, the repudi- ation of the national debt, the payment for slaves and of the confederate war debt either by the General Government or the States. Let us and the country be warned in time, that we may avert the evils which threaten us, and that the Republic, through justice and peace, may sweep on to its grand destiny of the future. LIBRfiRY OF CONGRESS 013 786 499 P \ LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 013 786 499 A