Author 
 
 Title 
 
 Imprint 
 
 GPO 16—7464 
 
 m 
 
A 
 
 riSfK 
 
AN APPEAL 
 
 TO ^IIE SENATE, 
 
 TO MODIFY ITS POLICY, AND SAVE FROM AFRICANIZATION AND MILITARY 
 DESPOTISM THE SLVTES OF THE SOUTH. 
 
 SPEECH 
 
 
 ON. JAMES Pi. DOOLITTLE, 
 
 OF WISCONSIN", 
 
 DeliVei-ed in the Senate of the United States, January 23, 1868. 
 
 .SPEECHES OF EON..HExNRY STANBERY, 
 
 ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES, 
 
 HON. J. S. BLACK, 
 
 AT THE 
 
 GREAT DEMOCRATIC BANQUET IN THE CITY OP 
 WASHINGTON, 
 
 ON ins EIGIITU OF JANUAUY, 1S68. 
 
 WASHINGTON, D. C: 
 
 PEINTED BY ORDER OF THE CONGRESSIONAL DEMOCRATIC JIXECUTIVE COJIMITTEE. 
 
 1868. 
 
. J. R. 
 
 
 The bill (H. R. Xo. 439) ad.litional and sup- 
 plementary to aa act entitled "An aet to 
 provide for the more etlicient government 
 of the rebel States," passed March 2, 1S67, 
 and tlie acts supplementary tlierelo, was 
 read the second time by its title. 
 
 Mr. DOOLITTLE said : 
 
 Mr. President: In moving the refer- 
 ence ot this bill to the Committee on the 
 Judiciary I desire to say that I shall 
 move to amend the ordinary motion of 
 reference by addina: certain instructions 
 which I shall send to the Chair. 
 
 Mr. President, there is more involved 
 in this measure than in any other, all 
 others, perhaps. I see in it a complete 
 overthrow of the Constitution id ten 
 States of the Union. I see in it a prac- 
 tical dissolution of the Union." I see a 
 Republio in form, at least, still remain- 
 ing north of the Potomac. I see an em- 
 pire rising south of it. I see in it»the 
 realization of the wildest dream of Cal- 
 houn— a dual Executive— a President to 
 execute the laws in the Repitblic of the 
 North ; a military dictator, independent 
 of the President, to make as well as ex- 
 ecute laws in the negro empire of the 
 South. My heart is oppressed with a 
 Sorrow too deep tor full utterance; and 
 yet, with the indulgence of the Senate, 
 I would make a last appeal to modify 
 this policy. I deem it a duty which I 
 owe to the country to do so now, before 
 this bill goes to the committee, for in 
 that committee I have no voice, and I 
 know when its report is once made, and 
 they are fully committed to the measure, 
 it will be too late. J fear I am already 
 powerless to influence the judgment of 
 the Senate. But as I love my country 
 and her republican institutions, as, 
 next to the God of heaven, I have wor- 
 shiped them from my youth up, and as I 
 verily believe, although I pray Heaven 
 I may be mistaken, they are now in 
 most imminent peril of utter destruc- 
 tion if the bill shall l>ecome a 'aw, I 
 know that Senators, if they do not 
 agree wit^ me, will pardon me for 
 giving expression to those earnest con- 
 A'ictions which I could hardly repress if 
 I would. 
 
 As I can have no hope that Congress 
 will wholly abandon its reconstruction 
 policy, for the purpose of asking the 
 Senate to consider the question of modi- 
 fying it so far as to limit negro suffrage 
 to certain classes, I submit the following 
 motion, which I now send to the Chair, 
 -and request the Secretary to read. 
 
 The Secretary read as follows : 
 
 Resolved, That the bill be referred to the 
 Coioimitlee ou the Judiciary, and that the 
 
 said committee be instructed, In said bill, or 
 in any otlier bill which may be reported by 
 them having reference to the question of 
 reconstruction, so-called, in any of the 
 States not represented in the present Con- 
 gress, to insert the following proviso: 
 
 Provided, nevertheless, That upon an elec- 
 tion for the ratification of any constitution, 
 or of officers under ttie same, previous to its 
 adoption in nny State, no person not liaviug 
 tlie q aliflcations of an elector uuder the 
 constitution and laws of sucli State previ- 
 ous to tlie late rebellion shall be allowed to 
 vote, unless lie shall possess one of the 
 followins, qualiticatious, namely: 
 
 1. He shall haveservtd as a soldier in the 
 Federal Army for one year or more. 
 
 2. He shall have sufficient education to 
 read the Constitution of the United States 
 and to subscribe liis name to an oath to sup- 
 port the same ; or, 
 
 3. He shall be seized In his own right, or 
 in tlie ri^iht of his wife, of a freehold of the 
 value of S2.50. 
 
 Mr. DOOLITTLE. Mr. President, 
 the question presented in the instruc- 
 tions proposed by me is whether Con- 
 gress is still resolved to subject the white 
 people of the Southern States to the 
 domination of the negro race at the 
 point of the bayonet, or whether Con- 
 gress, in deference to the recently ex- 
 pressed will of the American people,* 
 "wil now so far modify their policy as to 
 leave the governments in those St ut«s 
 in the hands of the white race and of the 
 moce civilized portion of the blacks? 
 That is the naked qttestion. Strip it of 
 all useless verbiage and specious argu- 
 ments about sustaining loyal men and 
 punishing rebels, it is nothing more or 
 less than this : shall the General of the 
 Army put the negro in power over the 
 white race iti all the States of the South 
 and keep him there? That purpose is bold- 
 ly avowed by some, and that will be the 
 effect of this Radical reconstruction as it 
 now stands, or as it will stand, if this 
 bill shall become a law. On the other 
 hand, the amendtnent which I offer, if 
 adopted, would leave the governments 
 in those States where they belonaf and 
 whera they ought always to remain — in 
 the hands of our own race — wl>ile, at the 
 same time, it would allow the right- of 
 suffrage to all those negroes who have 
 any claim to it by reason of intelligence 
 or patriotic services or estate subject to 
 taxation, namely : 
 
 1. To those who have served in the 
 Federal Army ; 
 
 2. To those wJqo have sufficient edu- 
 cation to read the Constitutigoi of the 
 United States and to subscribe their 
 names to an oath to support the same; 
 and 
 
 i3. To tho%6 who have acquired and 
 

 ■1\ 
 
 ^ 
 
 hold real property to the valne of $250. 
 
 But the questiou may bo asked, why 
 not apply ttie same tests to the Avhite 
 men oi'the South? The answer is plain 
 and twofold. First, by the constitutions 
 and laws of those States the right ef 
 Rulfra}2;e is already secured to thcai, and 
 wo have no rightful power to take it 
 away. 'J'o do so would trample under 
 our leet one of tho most sacred rights 
 reserved to the States. Ib-is by extend- 
 ing suffrage to the negroes that Congress 
 is overturning the constitutions of 
 thoso Stales. In my opmion, this 
 js a usurpation, which its advocates 
 justify upon tho ground of ne<*ssity 
 alone. I neither admit the power nor 
 the nect»<sity ; but, granting both, no 
 reiison can be given, and no neeessi-ty 
 but that of party iis^ndancy can be 
 urged, for going auy fin-ther in this rev- 
 oJutionary work Ihau to admit to suf 
 fragetlie classes of liegroes named in 
 this amendment. 
 
 The s6<-ond answer is, that the white 
 men have bt;ea accustomed for centuries 
 to v(Ue. They have borne all tiao re- 
 , spoiisibilities and discharged all the du- 
 ties of Ireciuen auioug iVeemon ; and it 
 is a very different thing to take away 
 from a freeman a privilege long exer- 
 cised by him and his ancestors, from 
 what it is to confer one never before en- 
 joyed upon ignorant, half-civilized Afri- 
 cans just released from slavery. Three 
 generations back many of them wore 
 cannibals and savages of the lowest type 
 of iiuinau kind. The only civilizntion 
 they have is that which they have re- 
 ceived during their slavery in»Ainerica. 
 
 To confer this great privilege upon 
 the more enlightened negroes might 
 tend to elevate the mass in the end. 
 But to confer it now upon their ig- 
 norant kordes can only degrade the 
 ballot and the republican institutions 
 which rest up<m it. 
 
 No answer to this view ha.s ever been 
 given, no answer can be given, by the 
 friends of universal negro suffrage, ex- 
 cept tliis: " Tiie ignorant foreigner is 
 allowed to vote, why not let tho igno- 
 rant negro vote?" Thus to compare the 
 civilized European, accustomed to free 
 labor, to self sujDj)ort, and self-govern- 
 ment, to all the duties and responsibili- 
 ties of a freeman, and who withal, be- 
 fore he is allowed to vote in most of the 
 btates, must appear in open court, and, 
 after live years' residence, prove by the 
 testimony of two citizens a good moral 
 cbjjracter, and that he is well disposed 
 toward the Govern ment and institutions 
 of the United States — to compare him 
 with the poor degraded mass of Afri- 
 cans, plantation slaves just set free, is 
 an atrocious- libel upou ourselves, upon 
 o.ur ancestors, upon the results of Chris- 
 tian civilisation, and upon theCaucasian 
 f-ace which for thousands of years has 
 ruled the world. 
 
 But suppose it to be true that too many 
 ignorant foreigners of our own race are 
 admitted to suffrage already, is that any 
 reason or any apology even for admit- 
 ting six hundred thousand half-civilized 
 men of another race — men whose natu- 
 ral home is in the tropics, who are ex- 
 
 otics here, transplanted, not by the natu- 
 ral laws of emigration, not by their own 
 free will, but by the cupidity of Old and • 
 New England, as slave=!, and whose 
 wholo education and civilization, so far 
 as they Lave any, have been derived 
 from slavery to the wdiite man? I do 
 not say there are not some ignorant 
 white men, foreign ancf native born, 
 who are not qualified to vote; Ijut they 
 are exceptions to the general rule. I do 
 not say there are not soms persons of 
 Indian, of Chinese, or of African de- 
 scent who are qualified; bat they are 
 exceptions to the gen»'ral rule also. So- 
 ciety must, in tliH main; be governed by 
 gcnoral laws. Whilo the general rule is 
 that wliite men are capable, and there- 
 fore suffrage may be made universal 
 a.m«)ug them, on the other hand the 
 general rule is that Indians, Chinee, 
 Csiolie;?, and nogroe-s aro incompetent; 
 and especially is tliis true of the negroes 
 in the plantation States. Tiierefore the 
 general rule should exclude them 
 from suffrage. At ail events it should 
 1)0 no farther relaxed than to admit tho 
 excej)ted classes:/ mentioned in this 
 amendment. 
 
 Tho effetit of the adoption of this 
 aniend ment would be to allow all who 
 have the qualifications required by 
 the constitutions of those States beforo 
 the rebellion,not specially disfranchised, 
 to vote; that is to say, tlio mass of white 
 men, and at the same time it would al- 
 low the most liberal negro sulli-age at ail 
 compatible with the mainteuauce of 
 civilized governments in those States. 
 
 Let Congress now pause, and modify 
 its course in aceordan<-e with tlip provi- 
 sions of this ameuflment, audi have 
 every reason to believe the people of 
 those States would at once take part in 
 the work of reconstruction, a solution of 
 our diflfictil ties would be attained, and 
 p^ace restored to the country. 
 
 But if Congress will insist upon itg 
 suicidal measures, if Congress is still 
 determined to establish those govern- 
 ments upon negro supremacy, then 
 chaos comes again ; a war of races is in- 
 evitable at the South. 
 
 Mr. Alexander H. Stephens, one of 
 tho ablest living men of the South, and 
 who speaks from long and actual ob- 
 servation, can — , 
 
 "See notlilug in the policy of reconstruc- 
 (ion but the operation of a fearl'til scheme, 
 whose ultimate result will be thodestruoiioa 
 of eitlier the black or the white race. Eve- 
 ry day, it I ecoines more painfully evident 
 that the estrangement between the races la 
 wideniug— on the part of tlie negroes from 
 the efTecis of sucii instrucTiou as teaches 
 them to nistrust and oppose the whites, and 
 on the part of the latter from an aljhorreiice 
 of the negro leaders andan instinctiveaver- 
 siou to be ruled and legislated for f)y igno- 
 rance and seiMi-barbarism. From what fell 
 under his own observation In GRorgia, ho 
 was unable to detect anything Iikenspirit 
 on either side tending to mntual sympathy 
 of sentiment and interest. R-tdlcal emissa- 
 ries from the Nortli have sown the sewls of 
 evil dissension with a terril)le earnestness, 
 and the diametric opposition of tlie races 
 now visible «ll over the South must, in the 
 very nature of things, lead, at soiae time or 
 other, to fearlal coUislons. This inevitable 
 result, as a dispassionate observer, forces 
 itself irresistibly on his attention. A war 
 
of races, desired by somo, and Indifferently 
 heeded by others, is, to bis riiiu(i,a cotise- 
 qneiice assure to happen, under tbe Radical 
 method of reeoastruutioii.asir is impossible 
 to avoid, li the prenedeuts of liistory or the 
 iijipiilses t'liat control human nature be 
 talieu into account." 
 
 And such is the united testimony of 
 the intelligent men of the Sonth. 
 
 But, sir, wh^ i^ress this nej^ro supre- 
 macy over the whites? What reason 
 can you give? I have heard three dis- 
 tinct answers to this question worthy of 
 notice: 
 
 First, Because (he States of the South 
 rejected the constitutional amendment 
 submitted by Congress; 
 
 Second. Because the negroes are loyal 
 and the whites disloyal; and 
 
 Third. Pljcause it will secure parly 
 ascendancy. 
 
 Let us consider the first, answer, that 
 the States of the S^'Uth have rejected 
 the constitutional amendment submit 
 ted by the last Congress as, the basis of 
 reconstruction. 
 
 . I admit the Legislatures of all the 
 Southern States rejected that amend- 
 liient Willi great unanimity; Initisthat 
 any sutflcient reason for the adoption of 
 this hai.sh policy? I think not. In the 
 first place, thatamendment contains one 
 provision which made its adoption im- 
 possible by the Southern people, at least 
 until you change t^he human heart and 
 destroy the sense of personal h'mor. It 
 disfranchises from holding office all the 
 men of the South in whom they had 
 ever placed any public confidence— all 
 who had ever held any ofHce, State or 
 Federal. And' disfranchises them for 
 what? For simply doing what they 
 themselves had d*^ne. 
 
 I can understand how one may say 
 in argument that the leaders should be 
 disfranchised. But how any man of 
 common sense, or common "manhood, 
 could ever suppose it possible for the 
 people of the South to vote to disfran- 
 chise men (esteemed by them as equal to, 
 if not better than thernselves, for an of- 
 fense of which they themselves w'ere 
 equally guilty, is beyond my compre- 
 hension. You ask the Southern j>eople 
 to betray the m n whonj they trust. You 
 ask them to dishonor tiiose whom they 
 honor, to uproot the affection of years 
 from their hearts. You ask. them to 
 strike vv^ith a serpenVs tooth the liosom 
 ofafrien-d. Until haman nature shall 
 cease to be what God has made it, honor- 
 able men could not do it; honorable 
 m^n, to save themselves, to save evpn 
 their lives, would not incur the guilt of 
 such uniiiAtural treachery by votinijr for 
 such a provision. When it wari pending 
 before the Senate, June 8, ISG'J, I urged 
 and implored Senators to allow the sev- 
 eral provisions of that amendment to be 
 separately submitted and "voted upon, 
 and I warned the friends of the measure 
 Uiat this provision would inevitably de- 
 Ujat its adoption by every Southern 
 Stat-e. But, sir, the majority were deaf 
 to all appeals. The caucus had resolved ; 
 the de'-'d was to be done; and it was done. 
 On account, mainly, of that provision, 
 the amendment was rejected almost 
 unanimously by every Southern State. 
 
 Asrain, when exa?nined morn ciosoly, 
 we find that provision lequired thorn to 
 vote to disfranchise Miou ands who had 
 received pardon and amnesty, and a 
 restoration to all their rights a''; citizens 
 under the proclamations of President 
 Lincoln and President Johnson, by vir- 
 tue of a law of Congress, whi.h you 
 yourselves enacted, which expressly 
 authorized them to grant such p irdoii 
 and amnesty jipon jiust such t-^rms as 
 they th>u^ghl. proDpr. An atnendmont 
 offered bv me in the Senate tlu! ."Ist of 
 May, ISiiB, to except those men who had 
 "duly received pardon and ainnosty 
 under the Constitution and laws," was 
 voted down by an unyielding mijority. 
 I can never view this provision in any 
 other light than a most palpable viola- 
 tion of the plightwl faith of this Govora- 
 mont given to tiJbso persons in the most 
 solemn form. - ' 
 
 If the Emperor -of Tlussia, by procla- 
 mation, wc^re to grant a full pardon to 
 such Poles as would tak^ an oatji of 
 allej^aiico to hi.s crown, and if ho should 
 af erwards deliberately biji^ak his word, 
 what denunciations ' would be, and _ 
 ojight to l)e, heaped upon his ]ie;ad by* 
 th) civiliz':>d w-orld ! ' The periidy of 
 surh an action would only be equaled 
 by its folly as a muasuro of pacili';ation 
 to Poland. Congres-! authoriziil the 
 President to give pardon avid am siesty 
 to thousands whom Congress now calls 
 upon the people of the South to vote to 
 disfranchise. 
 
 Again, sir, there is another feature of 
 that pi-ovision which no sentiment of 
 justice sjjould tolerate or excuse. lu 
 that sweeping disfranchisement no dis- 
 tinction whatever is made between th*se 
 who voluntarily engaged and those wh9 
 were compelled to engage in the .reijel- 
 lion ; no distinction v/hatever between 
 the innocent and the guilty. 
 
 The Senate will ronionil)er that when 
 this amendment was pending I olTered 
 an amendment to restrict that disfran- 
 chisement to tho.se who had voluntarily 
 engaged in the rebellion; ami it was 
 voted down by the same unyielding 
 majority. 
 
 Partisan zeal and party necessity may 
 account fi:)r many thing.^. Bat"v;he"n 
 the history of these times shall be writ- 
 ten it wilt seem incredible to our pos- 
 terity that learned men and al)le Sena- 
 tors could evpr for ono moment bring 
 thcm.siel vos to believe it possible that the 
 people of the South would vote for such 
 an amendment. 
 
 Itcontiiins still another pbjectionffble 
 feature in violation of an imp'U-tant 
 print^iple in every good government, 
 confounJing executive with legislative' 
 duties. If there bo any prerogative 
 which more than another pertains to 
 the executive -in all Governments, an- 
 cient and modern, that prerogative is 
 the power of j^ardon. 
 
 This amendment proposes to change 
 tho Constitution so as to take that power 
 away from the Executive and confer it 
 upon the two Houses of Congress. It is 
 revolutionary, and worse than that. It 
 vetoes the power of clemency in ad- 
 vance. It uof only takes that power 
 
from the President, but it takes it away 
 from a rniijority of Con2:i'ess. It re 
 quires two-tiiirds of both Houses in or- 
 der to exercise the power of pardoji, the 
 same niHJority which is necessary to 
 pass a law over the Presidential veto. 
 In wliat civilized Government upon 
 earth was there ever su(;h a restriction 
 upon tlie power of pardon? Can it be 
 found even amont? the savage tribes? 
 
 Sir, this aniendmont makes it impos- 
 sible for a majority of the people of the 
 United States, by the choice of a Presi- 
 dent or by the election of the Houses of 
 CongYess, to grant pardon and anniesty. 
 
 I speak with all becoming respect f()r 
 the opinions of others and for the sin- 
 cerity of (heir motives. 1 know it never 
 could have been intended, but judging 
 this provision l)y its own words, stand- 
 ing in its own light, it seems to be born 
 of distrust in the intelligence and mag- 
 nanimity of the people ; the offspring of 
 coj\'ar<bce and revenge, of unforgiving 
 bate and lust for political power. 
 
 Ana is it because tbe Legislatures of 
 •tbe South rejected such a proposition 
 that Congress should now enforce tlifs 
 policy and establish a combined negro 
 and niiiilary desp<^)tism in ail the States 
 of the SMith, and under its iron, heel 
 tramijle in the dust our own race and 
 kindred and people? 
 
 Mr. President, Congress has proposed 
 from t line to time many schemes, but 
 they may all be resolved into two dis- 
 tinct policies, radically opposed to each 
 other. 
 
 First. Rc^construction by the consti- 
 tutional amendment on the white basis. 
 
 Second. Reconstruction by negro suf- 
 frage and military force. * 
 
 The lirst assiimed that peace had come; 
 that the States were in the Union, with 
 govern 'nents organized, with Legisla- 
 tures having power to ratify or reject 
 constitutional amendments ; and, fur- 
 thermore, that those governments were 
 in the hands of white men, with power, 
 as in ail the other States, to admit or to 
 exclude negroes from suflrage. And, in 
 case the amendment were adopted by 
 three- fourths of the States, the only ef- 
 fect of admitting or excluding negroes 
 irom tlie ballot, in any State, would be 
 to change its number of votes in the 
 other House of Cougre&s, and in tae 
 Electoral College. 
 
 The second assumes that we are still 
 at war ; tljat the Southern States are not 
 States in the Union at all, but conquered 
 provinces, with no Legislatures which 
 c:vi either ratify or reject a constitiation- 
 al amendment ; that the white people of 
 these States shall no longer have nny 
 power over the cjuestion of suffrage; 
 that C^ingress by the bayonet will dis- 
 franchise the whites and enfranchise the 
 Vilacks ; and thus by military power and 
 negro votes compel the adoption of a 
 , new Union and a new Constitution. Be- 
 cause tiiey rejected the constitutional 
 amendment Congress now resorts to the 
 bayonet and negro suffrage to compel 
 its adoption. 
 
 True, I admit they did reject the 
 
 They could reject it in no other way, for 
 it was only to their Legislatures that 
 Congress submitted the question. But 
 how could their Legislatnres reject it it 
 they had no Legislatures at all? If they 
 had Legislatures which could reject it 
 they had Legislatures which could rati- 
 fy it. To do either is tlie highest act of 
 a' State Legislature, for it then acts upon 
 the fundamental law not only of its own 
 State and people, but of all the States 
 and all the j^eople of the United States. 
 Conceding they had power, as you 
 claim, to reject your amendment, by 
 what shadow of right do you deny to 
 those Legislatures power to choose Sen- 
 ators in tliis body? As well deny to a 
 living body the right to breathe. 
 
 But perhaps you say if they had ratifi- 
 ed the amendment, then they had Legis- 
 latures which had the right to vote. But 
 as they voted to reject it they had no 
 Legislatures, and no right to vote. In 
 other words, if they voted with you they 
 had a riglit to vote ; if they voted against 
 you they had no right to vote at all. 
 
 Again, sir; all the world knows tbe 
 whole object of the war was to put down 
 the rebellion and to maintain the union 
 of States under the Constitution. Every 
 ax:*t and resolve of Congress, every dol- 
 lar spent, every blow struck, every drop 
 of blood shed, was to coiTipel the [feople 
 and tbe States of the South to live in the 
 Uni(.>n and obey the Constitution. And 
 now that we have succeeded, now that 
 the people and the States of the South 
 have surrendered to the Constitution 
 and lavi's, you say they shall not live in 
 the Union under this Constitution at all. 
 They shall lirst form another Union, and 
 come into flsat Union under another or 
 amended Constitution. 
 
 Mr. President, having thus shown that 
 this lirst answer to that question is un- 
 reasonable, inconsistent, and absurd, I 
 repeat the question a second time. Why 
 press this negro domination over the 
 whites of the South? What reason can 
 you give? 
 
 A second answer is, because the 
 negroes were loyal and the whites dis- 
 loyal. Let us examine this bold asser- 
 tion. Is it true? Were the negroes 
 loyal during the rebellion? Recall the 
 faffts. Who does not remember that at 
 least three-fourths of all the negroes in 
 those States during the whole war did 
 all in their power to si;stain the rebel 
 cause? They fed their armies; they 
 dug their trenches ; they built their for- 
 tifications; they fed their women and 
 cliildren. There were no insurrections, 
 no uprisings, no effort of any kind any- 
 where outside the lines of our armies 
 on the part of the negroes to aid* the 
 Union cause. In whole districts, in 
 whole States even, where all the able- 
 bociied, white men were conscripted into 
 tho rebel army, the great mass of 
 negroes, of whose loyalty you boast, 
 under the control of women, decrepid 
 old men and boys, did all they were ca- 
 pable of doing to aid the rebellion. 
 Again, sir, the assumption is equally 
 groundless that the whole of the white 
 
 amen(bncnt. But how did they reject | population, or a majority even, ever 
 it? By the votes of their Legislatures, voluntarily engaged in the rebellion. II 
 
Is true, the great ranjority ip the end 
 ■were compelled to acquiesce ; but it was 
 not until after the Fednal Government, 
 speaking through President Buchanan, 
 had abandoned the loyal people of the 
 South and declared that neither the 
 President nor Congress had the power to 
 make war to compel the States to re- 
 main in the Union; in a word, it was 
 not until after President Buchanan, in 
 bis messay-ecf December, ISOO, declared 
 that this Government had neither the 
 right nor the power to defend itself 
 from overthrow at the bauds of the radi- 
 cals of the South that a majority of the 
 Soulheju people- were disposetl to con- 
 sent to fctcesbion, nor did they even then 
 acquiesce in rebellibn unlil hostilities, 
 actually begun, bad organized an irre- 
 sistible military power over them. Then 
 the majority were compelled to suc- 
 cumb. 
 
 It should not bo forgotten that alle- 
 gianco ou the part of the citizen and pro- 
 tection on the part of tho Governiusnt 
 are correlative duties. Has a Govern- 
 ment the right bo demand the one if it 
 do not atFord the other? Has;; it the right 
 to punish tho ciiiz'»n for yielding to a 
 superior force against which it makes 
 no attenjpt to protect birr.? Such si 
 claim vv(;uld be monstrousl3' unjust. 
 
 _W(^ know very wctl that the radicals 
 of the S>uta had a, powerful organiza- 
 tion. They were as bold, as earnest, as 
 reckless of consequences and as restive 
 under Constitutional restraints as the 
 boldest oi the present Radicals of the 
 Nortix. 
 
 Mr. NYE. With the permission of 
 the honorable Senator from Wisconsin, 
 I should like to know what he means by 
 "the RiUJicals of tho South?" 
 
 Mr. DOOHTTLE, I mean the seces- 
 feionists. 
 Mr. IIYR. Ah ! 
 
 Mr. DOOLIITLE. I will not leave 
 you to mi;^ui:derstand, sir, to whom I 
 reler. 
 
 Mr. SU:.IN"ER. I should like to ask 
 the Senator what is his authority for the 
 esprei-sion ? 
 
 Mr. DOO LITTLE. As I perceive that 
 my honorable friend from Massachu- 
 setts proposes to enter upon this) discus- 
 sion, I trtist he will alhnv nje to finish 
 what I have to say, and then he will 
 have an;pie opportunity tQ be heard. 1 
 shall reler to several things ])efore I get 
 through that will perhaps attract his 
 attention. 
 
 I was speaking of the radicals of the 
 Soutft and the extremestK;idieals of the 
 North, and I say they are similar in all 
 the main elements of charaetei-, cher- 
 ishing eveii to fanaticism opposite ex- 
 tremes of opinion, equally removed 
 from the trutii. Had they'exchanged 
 places and educatio>,s, in all human 
 probability the Radical of the 'North 
 would have been a most violent radical 
 at the South, and the radical of the 
 South au equally violent Radical at the 
 North. 
 
 Mr. President, it is a striking fact, 
 showing how easily extremes sometimes 
 meet, that the radical cry of the seces- 
 sionis,t3 of IcuO is identical ''with that^f 
 
 the Northern Radical of to-day, name- 
 ly, "The Union is broken; tho Consti- 
 tution in all the States of tho South ia 
 gone. Down with the old Union, down 
 with the old Constittition ; wo are out- 
 side the Union and outside the Consti- 
 tution ; we will have a new Union and 
 a new Constitution to suit ourselves or 
 we will have none at all." Tho cry was 
 the same, the purpose the same— ooliti- 
 cal power. The radicals of the South 
 raised that cry to build un their power 
 upon negro slavery ; tho Radicals of the 
 North to build up their powt-r upon ne- 
 gro supremacy, upheld by the bayonet. 
 And, sir, shall we make no allowance 
 for the great mass of the Southern people 
 who, by force, by terror, bv persuasion, 
 by the abandoumentof the Government, 
 and by all the excitements, passions, 
 and necessities of actual war, were 
 ■plunged into that terrible conflict by the 
 radicals of the South, as by a power 
 they could not control? We all know 
 tho induence over any party or commu- 
 nity of asmall, well organized minority, 
 strong in will and reckless of conse- 
 (Tuences. What have wo seen in the 
 Republican party itself within the last 
 three years? 
 
 We have seen a comparatively small . 
 number of earnest Radicals reverse 
 and absolutely overturn from its foun- 
 dations the policy of reconstruction 
 adopted by Mr. Lincoln before his re- 
 election, and sustained by theconventioa 
 which renominated him and the party 
 which re elected him in 1804. Hispolicy 
 was reconstruction upon the white basis. 
 The negro was excluded altogether. 
 _ Even the Wade and Davis reconstruc- 
 tion bill, which passed Congress by Re- 
 pubjican votes, and which xMr. Lincoln 
 refused to sanction, but not for that rea- 
 son, confined reconstruction to the white 
 basis alone. It excluded all negro suf- 
 fryge. It left that question, where it be- 
 longs, to tho white race to determine in 
 each State for itself. 
 
 Upon this subject I quote and adopt 
 tho language of the Senator from Indi- 
 ana [Mr. Mof.TON] while Governor of 
 that State : 
 
 "I call your ntfention to the 'act that Cou- 
 s;ress uiself, wh«ri it assimiMi to tal;o the 
 whole question of recon.stri' jtlou out of the 
 lip.iids of the President, expressly e.'Jcluded 
 the ue^ro from the rii;htot snffrage in vo- 
 tmg tor tho men who were tofsame tlie new 
 consiiratioiis for th« rebel Suites." 
 
 * * * * S: il: *:!»** 
 
 "If Mr. Lincoln had not, refused to sign 
 that bill there woulil today be an act of 
 (-'ongiess ou the staiute-books absolutely 
 prohibiting ne:;roes ironi any participatioa 
 in the work of reoi-ijanization, and pled-iing 
 the Government in advance to accept of the 
 constitutiouH ttiat mig t 1)g formed uuder 
 the bill, iilthouiih they made no provision 
 tor the negro beyond the lact of his personal 
 liberty." 
 
 I repeat, we have seen a little handful 
 of Radicals, by their boldness^ persist*, 
 ency, and force, persuade, cajole, or drive ' 
 the great majority of tho Republican 
 party away Irom their own avowed pol- 
 icy of reconstruction upon the white 
 basis, and compel them to adopt thcpol- 
 icy,of universal negro suffrage, to estab- 
 lish negro governments, and now, at 
 
■< 
 
 last to propose in the bill on your table 
 an absoliue military dictatorbbip in all 
 the States of the Soulb. I shall say no- 
 ihiug unkind of the Senator from Indi- 
 ana ; I admit his patriotism and emi- 
 nent abilities and liis almost incompar- 
 able services during the late war to put 
 down the rebellion. But if anything 
 were wanting to demonstrate the power 
 which these Radicals have had over the 
 mass of the Republican party in chang- 
 ing their opinions and reversing their 
 policj', we have only to point to theable 
 Senator Irom ludiijna himself, once 
 among the most powerful advocates of 
 the Lmcoln Johnson policy ol restora- 
 tion upon the white basis, now bound 
 hand and foot, and dragged in ohaina 
 at the victorious chariot wheels, to grace 
 the triumph of Wendell Phillips and the 
 Senator from Massachusetts, [Mr. Sum- 
 mer.] Even his great mind now lends 
 its powerful inlluence to favor the estab- 
 lishment of governments leased upon 
 viniversal negro suli'rage, to hold, it may 
 be, the balance of power in this Repub- 
 lic under the control of the bayonets of 
 the regular Army. 
 
 I well remember the effect produced 
 by the speech of the Governor of Indi- 
 ana in 18G5. It carao at a lime to be 
 most gratefully remembered by me, for 
 I was engaged in a struggle at that time 
 against ihe Radicals m my own State, 
 to ijrevent them from changing the 
 creed and reversing tl^e policy upon 
 which the Union party fought and mas- 
 tered the rebellion, and by which alone 
 their. victory was achieved. I endea- 
 vored to demonstrate the same truths 
 set forth in tliat great speech, and wheo 
 it came, with its irresistible eloquence 
 and unanswerable force of 'argument, I 
 rejoiced to lean upon his strong arm for 
 support. Like him, I had on more than 
 ov.e occasion attempted to prove that 
 Mr. Johnson inherited and was faitk- 
 fally carrying out the policy of his pre- 
 decessor. We did not then have the 
 positive testimony of General Grant and 
 of Mr. Stanton to prove that Mr. John- 
 son's North Carolina proclamation was 
 drawn by Mr. Stanton and read over in 
 Mr. Lincoln's Cabinet. Had those facts 
 then appeared it might have saved that 
 honorable Senator and myself the labor 
 of proving tho identity of the policy of 
 Mr. Johnson with that of Mr. Lincoln, 
 which the Governor of Indiana demon- 
 strated in a manner so complete tha* iio 
 man has ever been able to answer him. 
 I do not doubt his patriotism nor his 
 sincerity. But of all surrenders to the 
 Radical negro-suilrago policy of recon- 
 struction, none filled me with so much 
 surprise, none gave me so much pain, 
 as vbat of the honorable Senator from 
 Indiana, except one. I refer to General 
 Grant. 
 
 Again, sir, if it were true that the 
 whites were disloyal during the rebel- 
 lion, they are not rebellious now. Re- 
 bellious cannot exist or continue with- 
 out real or supposed cause. Slavery, 
 the cause and the pretext for the lato re- 
 bellion, is gone forever. It can never 
 be revived. Nothing can incite another 
 rebellion at the Soatti, for ibey have uo 
 
 power to organize one against the Gov- 
 ernment, and will not have for many 
 years to come. 
 
 upon this point allow me to r^ad an 
 extract from a letter of Hon. Benjamia 
 Fitzpatrick, formerly the Presidiug Of- 
 ficer of tliis body, and known by all the 
 older Senators as being opposed to se- 
 cession, a gentleman of the highest 
 honor and undoubted integrity. Hear 
 what he says : 
 
 "It is said by some that it was made to 
 ke'p down rt-bellion. What have tlie people 
 ot t lie Soutli to C'Miimenee »i- carry oa a. re- 
 bellion willi? Our slaves are all set free- 
 onr fields barely cultivated under the new 
 syrnteiu of labor, and many of thera grown 
 up in briars und weeds since i-mancipalion, 
 and almost everytliins in a state of uilapi- 
 datioii aud decay. The cry for bread wluch 
 comes up from ahnost every hill and valley 
 in the Slate has scarcely ceased ririgin^ m 
 our ears, and it was only hushed ny the lib- 
 eral donations from thebeuev(jlent of me 
 North aud West. No people of the Old 
 World in auy of their long aud desolating 
 wars ever lons^ed for peace more than we 
 do We want peace, but not degradation. 
 We wish to 1)6 left free to act for ourselves, 
 and free from the intermeddling of those 
 who do not live among us, but come here 
 to fomeiat discord and speculate upon our 
 troubles." 
 
 Sir, this is the language of one who 
 knows the white people of the South 
 aud speaks for them. 
 
 And why, sir ; why should they not 
 desire peace? For that rebellion, into 
 which in an evil hour the radicals of 
 the South plunged them, they have been 
 punished already by the sacrifice of aii 
 their slave property, valued at three to 
 four thousand miilion dollars ; by the 
 saci-ifica of more than three-fourths of 
 all other personal property, probably 
 two thousand millions more; by the 
 sacrifice of their public and private 
 credits— at least a thousand millions 
 more; by the depreciation of the value 
 of all their real estate at least seventy- 
 five per cent.— amounting probably to 
 more than two thousand million dollars 
 inore— making ki all a sacrifice of prop- 
 erty, credits, and values in the Southern 
 States alone of at least nine thousand 
 million dollars. 
 
 But there is another blor dy and terri- 
 ble page in this account— a page in ac- 
 count with death. It is estimated there 
 have perished in battle, by disease, ex- 
 posure, or other cause incident to the- 
 war, at least three hundred thousand 
 able-boilied men of the South. I take 
 uo account of the unutterable anguish 
 of millions of crushed and bleeding 
 hearts. No language can express, no 
 figures measure that. For that rebel- 
 lion the whlto men of the South have 
 been most terribly punished! Nino 
 thousand millions of values, are gone- 
 lost Ibrever 1 Three hundred thousand 
 able-bodied white men of the tlower 
 and strength of tho South now lie in 
 their bloody or premature graves ! 
 Greau (xod ! Is not this })unishmeufc 
 enougfi? Must we go further ? Must 
 we now punish the white men. of the 
 South bv placing them under the domi- 
 nation o'^f half-civilized Alricans? And. 
 in order to do that shall we punish our- 
 selves by giving over to stolid and 
 
brutish ignorance the political control 
 of one-fourth of the States, «nd, it may 
 be, under the control of the Army the 
 balance of power in the United States? 
 Shall we Aliicanize the South aod Mex- 
 icanize the whole Republic? 
 
 I know these measures of Congress 
 have done much to wound, nothing to 
 heal. Yet, notwithstanding all that 
 Congress has done to embitter their 
 hatred toward the Radical policv, tliere 
 is neither thought nor wish nor "hope to 
 restore slavery, nor to separate from the 
 Union, nor of rebellion against the au- 
 thority of the Government; all evidence 
 proves the contrary. 
 
 In the wliole rebel army which s\ir- 
 renderod I ciiallenge anv Senator to 
 point me to a single instance in which a 
 rebel oiiicer has violated his parole; or 
 to a single man, of any position or pro- 
 luiueuce at the South, who after taking 
 the oath of allegiance has violated bis 
 plighted iViitb. 
 
 ISO man can more deeply feel than I 
 do the great and monstrous folly and 
 crime of that rebellion, which iirought 
 so much of agony and of blood upoirall 
 parts of oar k)eloved land, which robbed 
 us of onr sons and dearest kindred and 
 tlirew a shade Of sorrow over onr hearts 
 which will never pass away until they 
 cease to beai. Bu't, now that blood has 
 ceased to fliow ; now that three years of 
 peace have elan'sed ; now that the whole 
 South has surrendered and every inter- 
 est they have or can hope for is to be 
 found ui tbo Union and under the Con- 
 stitution : now that they have in good 
 laith pledged anew their allegiance, and' 
 desire to join with us in reiniiming the 
 Avaste places overrun by this desola.ting 
 war ; now that they have, in fact, ceased 
 to be rebels, why shall we continue to 
 denounre them as rebels, anil do all in 
 our power to compel them to be rebels, 
 .'Hid to remain rebels and enemies for- 
 ever? !•* thf'.t the way to restore pros- 
 perity ? Is that the course of wise states- 
 mans, .ip? Will that bring permanent 
 peace ? 
 
 Sir, let me put the extremest case. 
 Suppor^e that these States of the South 
 betore the war had been foreign States, 
 and thcit we had conquered tliem bv 
 arms; would not wise statesmen adopt 
 the policy of conciliation? Would not 
 they treat them as friends and make 
 them teilow-citizens at the earliest pos- 
 sible moment? How much more earn- 
 estly should we adopt that policv be- 
 cause from the beginning we have al- 
 ways declared that our purpose was not 
 to subjugate but to maintain the Union 
 with the equality and rights of the States 
 unimpaired. 
 
 We had a war with Mexico, resuUiag' 
 in the ac(]iiisiiion of people and territo- 
 ry. By treaty the people were made 
 citizens at on<'e, wnlh all the rights of 
 citizens. We have had wars with Eng- 
 lishmen ; but when the bloody .strife 
 was over, when peace had conae, what 
 course did our great ancestors pursue? 
 We all know the war of the Revolution 
 was a civil war. During the strife, ci^n- 
 nscation and disfranchisement were the 
 order of the day. But when peace came 
 
 and they sought to lay the foundations 
 of the Republic broad and deep, what 
 did they do? Do you find in the Con- 
 stitution they formed or the laws they 
 passed under it any. test-oaths; any bills 
 of attainder; any ex post facto laws; 
 any military reconstruction bills? No, 
 sir. No; they were too great aud too 
 wise. They had too much laith in man, 
 and liberty, and truth, and God for that. 
 On the contrary, they declared that no 
 bills of attainde'r, no ex post facto law? 
 should be passed; no man not in the 
 military or naval service should l)e sub- 
 ject to military trials under the arbitra- 
 ry power of the bayonet ; and that even 
 for treason itself there should be no 
 corruprtion of blood or forfeiture beyond 
 the life of the guilty party; and, fur- 
 thermore, that no man should be con- 
 victed except upon presentment bv a 
 grand jury and after a fair trial, con- 
 fronting his accusers, by the verdict of 
 a jury of his peers. 
 
 In the Declaration of Indcpendehce, 
 also, even in the midst of war, reason 
 remained supreme over passion. They 
 ware equal to the grand ocoasiion. In 
 one of its sublimest sentences they de- 
 clared they would hold the people of 
 England, their fellow-countrymen, with 
 whom they were then engaged in civil 
 war, as they did the rest of mankind, ' 
 "enemies in war, in peace, frionds." If 
 we cannot equal them, may v/e not en- 
 deavor to follow their example? 
 
 What do the great examples o-f history 
 teach us in dealing with rtbRllions if 
 not that, after force has been subdued by 
 force, magnanimity is more j^owerful 
 than revenge; that love conquers wJiat 
 hate never can— the hearts and atfections 
 of a people? 
 
 When Latium, one of the Roman pro- 
 vinces, revolted, and the revolt was put 
 down by arms, the question arose in the 
 Roman Senate, what shall be done with 
 Latium and the people of Litium? 
 There were some then who cried, "dis- 
 franchise them ;" others said, •'coutis- 
 cate their property." There were none 
 who said, "subject them iti vassalage to 
 their slaves." 
 
 But old Camillus, in that speech which 
 revealed his greatness and made his 
 name immortal, said: "Senators, make 
 them your fellaw-citizons, and thus add 
 to the power and glory of Rovno." In 
 this high place, in this Senateofth-> great 
 Repv'.blic of the world, outgrowth of the 
 civilization of all the ages, cannot we. 
 Senators, rise to the height of that great 
 argument? 
 
 To descend to humbler examples, 
 may wo not even take lessons from some 
 of our Indian tribes? It is well known 
 that the civilized tribes of the Indian 
 territory took sides in our terrible con- 
 flict. Civil war hi ils direst and 
 most savage form raged through all 
 their country. Their dwellings' were 
 sacked and burned ; their hands were 
 red in each other's blood. Ynt they have 
 made peace. Tfiey have reorganized 
 their governments, They now live 
 side by side in perfect tran,quility. Pros- 
 perity is once more smiling upon tbeil 
 beautiful land. Cannot Christian states- 
 
men have equal faith in magnanimity — 
 equal courajie to forgive and to believe 
 that loTt' is the power by which to reach 
 the hearts ot our late enemies? 
 
 But, sir, .suppose the statement be 
 true ibat the nej^roes are loyal and the 
 whites disloyal in heart, have we even 
 then the iv^iii to degrade the whites in 
 vassalage to the negroes? I answer no. 
 For then- criminal acts we would liave 
 the legal right to try and convict and 
 sentence to imprisonment and to death 
 even. But now, without trial, l)y what 
 operates as a sul>stantial bill of attain- 
 der and (Xpust facto at that, to subject 
 them to negro governments is a crime 
 against the Constitution, against our 
 own race, and against civilization itself. 
 It is to iuiiiose upon them against tlieir 
 Afill a di gradation which every Siate 
 of the North would reject, and one ten- 
 fohi greater than has ever been attempt 
 eii in any Northern State. It would 
 nialie Ihem unfit to be our fellow-citi- 
 7.ens, and place the States of the South 
 iipon a footing inferior to that of the 
 otner Slates in the Union. 
 
 Sir, we claim to have fought for liber- 
 ty and against slavery. The issue of 
 ISGO was the extension of slavery into 
 the Teiritories, By the election of Mr. 
 Lincoln the peojile of the United States 
 oecided tigainst that. The radicals of 
 the South, another name for the seces- 
 sionists, lebelled against that decision 
 '..nd eu(ica\ orcd to reverse it by arms. 
 Tliat reheliion raised another and greater 
 issue — the existence of the Government 
 itself. It als'o ]>laced at stake slavery iu» 
 all the States. By the re-election of Mr. 
 Lincoln. i;i 1SG4 the people decided in 
 favor of a vigorous prosecution of the 
 war until every rebel should lay down 
 bis arms, and also in (avor of an amend- 
 ment to-, the Constitution to abolish 
 slavery in all the States and Territories 
 forever. * 
 
 At present, what do we behold ? Now 
 that the war is over, how that every re- 
 l)el has laid down iiis arms, now that 
 the people of thfc South have unani- 
 inoijsly agreed to abolish slavery for- 
 ever, to obey the Constituti(in and di.'^ 
 charge every duty as citizens of the 
 United States, the Radicals of the North 
 have nioially begun a new rebellion 
 against the Union and the Constitution ; 
 for, raisinjc anew the old cry of the radi- 
 cals of the South, they now declare tliat 
 the States of the South are outsido the 
 Constitution, and that Congress, acting 
 outside the (.Jonstitution, has unlimited 
 power ov( r them as over conquered ter- 
 ritories. In their blind zeal for the ad- 
 vancement of the negro they propose to 
 overthrow the Consiitution in order to 
 practically sul>ject the white race to the 
 aominatiun of the negro. 
 
 As men who claim to be the friends of 
 liberty, we have no right to do that. 
 
 As Chrisiifius who claim to have 
 learned something of forgiveness from 
 the tea(;hing.s of our gjaviour, we have 
 no right to do that. 
 
 As members of that great Caucasian 
 race which has given the world its civ- 
 ilization, Vvc have no right to do that. 
 
 As state !!rnsa who desire to restore the 
 
 blessings of peace, we have no right to 
 do that which would inevitably make 
 eight millions of our own race and kin- 
 dred in our own land eternal enemies of 
 the Government. 
 
 As states.men who, with ordinary sa- 
 gacity, should look to the future and to 
 possible wars with foreign Powers, we 
 ought to make haste to restore senti- 
 ments of affection and patriotism in all 
 that vast region, larger and richer by 
 far in natural resources than England, 
 France, and Prussia all combined. 
 
 And I ask, Mr. President, with all the 
 earnestness of which the soul is capa- 
 ble, can any human being c/mceive of a 
 measuro so well ctlculated to make the 
 whole white people of the South, men, 
 women, and children, hate and loathe 
 our Government, to hate it with a per- 
 fect hatred, to gather around the family 
 aktar upon their bended knees to curse 
 it, and in the agony of prayer to call 
 upon God to curse it, as this Radical re- 
 construction which seeks to disfranchise 
 the heart and brain of the South, and to 
 subject at the point of the bayonet the 
 white race to the dominion of their late 
 half-civilized African slaves? Instead, 
 of peace it gives them a sword ; instead 
 of hope it tills them with despair; in- 
 stead of civil liberty it gives them mili- 
 tary desiDotism. V/hite disfranchise- 
 ment and negro domination was the 
 idea which inspired and prov^oked the 
 riot at New Orleans. It has arrayed 
 everywhere the blacks and whites in 
 hostility to each other, often resnltiug 
 in bloodshed all over the South. It 
 tends directly to bring on that war of 
 races which in the West ladies enacted 
 scenes of horror to sieken and appal the 
 world. 
 
 That war is now impending over all 
 the South — it is only the presence of the 
 Federal Army which prevents its out- 
 break upon a gigantic scale — a war 
 which, once begun, will end, I fear, in 
 the exile or extermination of the blacks 
 from tho Potomac to the Rio Grande. I 
 know the Senator from Ohio, [Mr. 
 Wade,] in a speech in. the late canvass, 
 had no fears of such a war or of its re- 
 sults. Ho is reported to have said, "let 
 that war come; let them fight it out." 
 God grant that war may never come! 
 Rirt, if it doe^ come, no amount of mil- 
 itary discipline can compel the white 
 men of the North to take part in the 
 massacre of their own race and kindred. 
 Mr. President, having considered at 
 .some length the second ausv.rer to my 
 question, and finding that it is not sus- 
 tained by the facts', that it is bad in 
 principle and worse in policy, I repeat 
 the question a third time— why press 
 this negro supremacy over the whites 
 of the 'South? What reason can you 
 give ? 
 
 The leader of the Radical forces— that 
 inexorable Moloch of this new rebellion 
 against the Constitution, 
 " The strongest and the fiercest spirit 
 That f(jui;Lii iu heaven, now fiercer by de- 
 spair," 
 answers with holdness, anjl in plain 
 English gives the true rea.son namely, 
 to secure party ascendancy. This is the 
 
10 
 
 third and last answer which I propose to 
 consider on this occasion. On the 3d of 
 January, 1867, Mr. Stkvenp, in the 
 House of Representatives, used this lan- 
 guage, which I find reported in the 
 Globe : 
 
 "Another good reason is, it would insure 
 the ascendancy of the Union party. Do you 
 avow the party purpose, exclaims some hor- 
 ror-stricken demagogue ? I do." 
 
 The party purpose is here avowed in 
 the Honse, In his sj^eeches and letters 
 elsewhere Mr. SxEVJiNS again and again, 
 in stronger language, avows the real 
 purpose of this legislation, to them I 
 mainly refer. The negroes, under the 
 tutillage of the Freedmen's Bureau, led 
 by Rgxlical emissaries, or pushed by 
 Federal bayonets, must take the politi- 
 cal control of these States in order to ob- 
 tain their votes in the Electoral College 
 or in the House of Representatives ih 
 the election of the next President. Hefe 
 is a reason, and just snch a reason as the 
 bold Radical wonld give. It is in keep- 
 ing with his revolutionary measures, 
 and in keeping with his own revolution- 
 ary history. 
 
 The letter of General Pope, when in 
 .command of one of tl^e districts, recent- 
 ly published, draws aside the vail aud 
 discloses the fact that the same party 
 purpose seeks to control the bayonet 
 also. 
 
 This argument, for party ascendancy; 
 all can understand. It is bold, clear, 
 and logical. It is the argument of ne- 
 cessity addressing itself to unscrupulous 
 ambition. One syllogism contains the 
 whole of it: " We must," says the Rad- 
 ical, "elect the next President. The ne- 
 groes, under the lead of our Bureau or 
 the control of otir bayonets, will vote 
 for our candidate. The whites, outraged 
 by our attempt to put the negro over 
 them, will vote against him. Therefore 
 the bayonet must place the negro in 
 power in these iStates to give us seventy 
 electoral votes for President, twenty 
 Senators and fifty members of the 
 House," 
 
 All honor to the Radical chief, the 
 
 ;5reat Commoner,- who, with all his faults, 
 
 . is too gr 3at a man to resort to subterfuge 
 
 or shams, or attempt to conceal this real 
 
 purpose in this legislatiou. 
 
 Some who favor these measures do not 
 admit his leadership. But the truth is, 
 in somfe way or other he does lead or 
 drive the Radical party in the end into 
 the support of all his revolutionary 
 schemes. Now and then one shrinks 
 back. More than once T have seen the 
 "galled jade wince," but never fail at 
 the last to obey the lash of her master. 
 Would to heaven it were otherwise! 
 Would to heaven that the Radical 
 party could patise and modify its sui- 
 cidal policy ! But I fear the majority 
 have become bound to it— bound hand 
 and foot with chains they cannot break ; 
 that, however much some may regret it 
 or strive to conceal regret, political ne- 
 cessities compel yott to go on, and right 
 on to the bitter end. You have staked 
 your all upon it. You must live or die 
 by it, » 
 
 The Senator from Massachusetts, [ Jlr. 
 
 Wilson,] as if by authority, says, " We 
 will take no step backward." Mr. ' 
 Colfax, in his recent letter, re-echoes, 
 "Not a hair's breadth." Such, I fear, 
 is the fatal resolution taken by the ma- 
 jority. 
 
 The result of the recent elections, 
 showing that a majority in the Northern 
 and Western States is opposed to that 
 policy, so far from changing a resolu- 
 tion from which the Radical party daro 
 not retreat, is pushing it on to the mad- 
 ness of despair. It sees that its majori- 
 ty in the North and West is already lost 
 It dare not exclude the South in the 
 next election. The South mtist be 
 forced at the point of the bayonet, by 
 white disfranchisement and negro sitf- 
 frage, to vote for the Radical candidate, 
 or he will be beaten. The majority i^ 
 the Northern and Western States against 
 him must, therefore, be overcome by 
 the negro votes of the South, 
 
 Sir, we shall see if the people of the 
 United States will allow the rogular 
 Army, which now controls this ignorant 
 negro vote iu the South, to hold the 
 balance of power in the Reptiblic and 
 to elect to the Presidency the candidate 
 of negro supremacy, upheld by military 
 despotism. Shall Pretorian bands con- 
 trol the Presidency, as in the degenerate 
 days of Rome they set up the empire 
 for sale ? I am no prophet ; taut, if not 
 mistaken in the signs of the times, the 
 American people are not yet prepared 
 for that. The Democratic party, every- 
 where freeing itself from the errors of 
 the past, planting itself upon the living 
 "issues of the hour, welcomiug into its 
 ranks all who are opposed to this Radi- 
 cal and barbarian policj"- of sttbjecting 
 the States of the South to negro supre- 
 macy by military dictatorship, all who 
 are in favor of maintaining the integri- 
 ty of the Union, the rights of the States, 
 aijd the liberties of the people under 
 the Constitution, and all who neither 
 admit the doctrine.of Southern radical- 
 ism which brought on this rebellion, 
 that a State may secede from the Union, 
 nor admit thai other doctrine of the 
 Northern Radical, no less revolutionary, 
 that Congress may exclude or disfran- 
 chise ten States from the Union, are 
 now coming together upon the platform 
 of the fathers of tbo Constitution, and 
 in the same fraternal spirit iu which it 
 was formed, and by which alone it can 
 be maintained. 
 
 Sir, there are times when public opin- 
 ion is like a placid stream gently flow- 
 ing within its banks, when slight obsta- 
 cles may for a time arrest or change or 
 divert its course. Then, it may be said, 
 the voice of the people is the voice of 
 politicians; the voice of the people is 
 the will of a party. But there are other 
 times when the "heavens are overcast, 
 the rains have descended,. and the floods 
 have come, tliat its majectic current rolls 
 on, emblem of wrathand power, when 
 resistance maddens its fury and in- 
 creases its strength. Then it overflows 
 its banks. Tho'l^arriers of party cau- 
 cusses and politicians are all swept away 
 and become mere flood-wood on the 
 surface of the troubled waters. The 
 
11 
 
 voice of the people then is no longer the 
 voice of politici'aus ; then it is ti^at tiie 
 voice of the people is the voice of God. 
 
 Sir, we have passed through such 
 crises in our day. You well remember 
 ■when a feeble minority in this body 
 raised its voice against that overbearing 
 majority which, under the dictation of 
 Southern radicals sought to force a 
 State government, with negro slavery, 
 upon the people of Kansas against their 
 will. That monstrous wrong atirrnd the 
 Ijearts of the people* to their very depths, 
 and party lines unci party names were 
 forgotten. Party ties were sundered 
 like flax at the touch of Are. You re- 
 member that, sir. 
 
 Again, when these same radicals of 
 the South, bocauso the people of the 
 North mdignantly refused to sanction 
 the subjuizatiou of Kansas, rose in arn^s 
 to destroy the Union and the Constitution, 
 what become of party then. The peo- 
 ple rose as one man. Largo masses of 
 the Democratic party gave their political 
 support to the administration of Mr, 
 LXrcoin, forming the Union Republi- 
 can party ; and to their eternal honor be 
 it said that the great mass of the Demo- 
 ci-atic party, with some exceptions, gave 
 to his war measures a hearty and un- 
 flinching support. Without that sup- 
 port the war would have been a failure. 
 
 In the actual prosecution of the war, in 
 the camp and on the field of battle, in the 
 rank and tils, as well as in command, 
 we found no distinction whatever. 
 Shoulder to shoulder Democrats and 
 Republicans stood together like brothers 
 on every battle-tield from the beginning 
 to the end of the rebellion. To defend 
 the Union and the Constitution against 
 overthrow by Southern ladicalism,. in 
 arms against them, they braved every 
 danger and endured every hardship. 
 Together they stood in the day of the 
 conflict, freely bared their bosoms in 
 each other's defense : together often 
 their life's blood gushed and mingled, 
 and side by side they now sleep their 
 last sleep in their honored graves. 
 There they will sleep together till Heav- 
 en calls them to their reward. 
 
 And now, sir, what do wo behold? A 
 dominant majority in this Senate and in 
 Congress, under the lead of Northern 
 Radicalism, at the point of the bayonot 
 lurcing negro suffrage and negro gov- 
 ernments upon ten States of the Union 
 and six million peopleagainsttheir will. 
 What WHS the outrage upon Kansas 
 compared to that? Wo see therii prac- 
 ticiiliy dissolving the Union by exclu- 
 ding ten States from the Union, thus 
 doing what the rebellion could never do 
 and v,iiat we spent §5,000,000,000 and five 
 
 hundred thousand lives of our best and 
 bravest to prevent. For long months 
 wo have se<?n them encroaching steadily 
 and persistently upon the just rights of 
 tho Executive ; and now, to rivet their 
 chains upon us and to crown the whole 
 of their usurpations, they propose to 
 subjugate the Supreme Court ; to over- 
 turn justice in her sacred spat in this 
 tribunal of last resort. They would 
 compel the court whose office it is to 
 hold an even balance between the States 
 on the one hand and the Federal Gov- 
 ernment on the other, and also between 
 the several. dpp.irtVnents of the Govern- 
 ment, to place false weights in the bal- 
 ances. They woiild make the weight of 
 the opinions of tluee judges in favor of 
 the usurpations of Congress more than 
 equal the weight of the opinions of tive 
 judges in favor of the rights of other 
 departments, the rights of the States, 
 and the liberties of the people. 
 
 Sir, we are in the midst of a new re- 
 bellion, bloodless as yet, but which 
 threatens to destroy the Constitution, 
 and with it the last hope of civil liber- 
 ty for the woild. But let us not despair. 
 Let us not surrender our faith in the 
 people aor our faith in republican insti- 
 tutions. The people everywhere are 
 coming to the rescue. They are again 
 rising above party and the clamors and 
 denunciations of partisans. Hundreds 
 and thousands of the earnest Republi- 
 cans who supported Mr. Lincoln's Ad- 
 ministration have already severed their 
 relations to this revolutionary party. 
 Hundreds ov thousands more are ready 
 todpsoandto strike hands with the 
 great mass of the Democratic party to 
 rescue the Constitution from this new 
 reliellion against it. 
 
 Yes, sir, they are organizing every- 
 where, from Maine to California, not 
 upon the dead issues of the past, for in- 
 glorious defeat. There is too much at 
 stake, and they are too terribly in ear- 
 nest for that. But with living men,' 
 upon the living issues of the present, 
 they will organize for a victory so com- 
 plete and overwhelming that the votes 
 of the negro States of the South cannot 
 hold the balance of power and decide 
 the election against them. That same 
 patriotism which led hundreds of thou- 
 sands of Democrats to sustain the. Re- 
 publican party in putting down the re- 
 bellion of tho Southern radicals will 
 now lead hundreds of thousands of Re- 
 publicans to act with tho Demooratic 
 [larty to overcome the no less dangerous 
 (lot!lrines of the Radicals of the North. 
 They are fighting in the same cause oi' 
 of the Union and the Constitution, and 
 for the spirit which gives them life. 
 
HON. HENRY STANBEEY 
 
 Hon. HENRY STANBERY having 
 been called ou to respond to the following 
 toast : 
 
 "The Constitution : Acompact of perpetual 
 Union; wlieu disturbed ir, needs n« recon- 
 struction, but only the removal of an ob- 
 struction." 
 
 Spoke as follows : 
 
 Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen : I feel 
 to-night something of the j«ove)ty and 
 excitement of a new .situatiou. For the 
 first time in mj^ life I lind myself an in- 
 vited guest at a Democratic celebration. 
 [Laughter.] I find my;?c]f here, not 
 merely as one of the convives, bwt se- 
 lected by the committee to respond to 
 one of the regular toasts. I am remind- 
 ed of tho old adage, that "politics, like 
 poverty, sometimes brings us acquaint- 
 ed with strange bedfellows." [Great 
 laughter and cheering.] I trust, Mr. 
 Chairman, that I may escape the charge 
 of egotism if I takoafew mometits to ex- 
 plain how it has happened that I never 
 have been at a Democratic celebration in 
 times past, and how it happens that I 
 am here now. 1 feel that I do not speak 
 for myself onlv, but for thousands of 
 others, whose past and present political 
 associations have been and are the same 
 as mine. 
 
 For more than thirty years I belonged 
 to the Whig party, and fought in its 
 ranks so long tliat I was cflassed as one 
 of its "old guard." I was with it in its 
 successes, which were few, and still con- 
 stant to it in its reverses, which were 
 many. I never deserted it while its or- 
 ganization existed, and only ceased to 
 be a Whig when the party itself ceased 
 to exist. My last vote was given to that 
 party in the Presiolential contest of ISGO. 
 Then came tho rebellion, and with it a 
 new is&ue, which overshadowed all for- 
 mer party issues. I lost sight at once of 
 all fornier political associations, and 
 joiMed that great Union party which 
 saved tho Republic. [Applause.] 
 
 When that great fact was accomplish- 
 ed, when the work of the soldier was 
 done, and the work of the statesman was 
 to bo resumed, a new question arose, 
 only less in magnitude to that of the 
 preservation of the nation, and that was, 
 in what spirit and accodring to what 
 policy the victorious North should deal 
 •with those Southern States and that 
 Southern people who had been engaged 
 in insurrection. Thoy gave up the 
 contest, and all tho issues of the con- 
 test; they repealed their ordinances of 
 secession ; they abolished the institu- 
 
 tion of slavery; they repudiated the 
 debt which they incurred in waging 
 war, and again asked to come under the 
 protection of the old Hag, to bo restored 
 once more to the rights and privileges of 
 American citizens. 
 
 It did seem, at first, that the policy of 
 forgiveness and restoration would pre- 
 vail. It was inauRurated under the 
 leadership of Mr. Lincoln, and he pro- 
 posed in good faith to carry oat the 
 jiiedges and hopes held ottt to tho South 
 during the struggle — that the object of 
 the war was not to destroy, but to pre- 
 serve; that Southern States hud never 
 lost their places in the Uni->n, but were 
 only temporarily out of their proper re- 
 lations, and that as soon as the war was 
 over these constitutional relations should 
 bo resuaied. But even before the death 
 of Mr. Lincoln tbere was developed in 
 the Republican party a formidable op- 
 position to that policy ; and a new party 
 was soon formed, which held that we 
 had waged a war for conquest, and not 
 lor restoration; that we had not n}ere!y 
 put down an iustirrection, but that we 
 had conquered provinces, not States, and 
 a foreign jieople, not American citizens; 
 that these States, instead of being re- 
 stored, were to be reconstructed ; that aa 
 conquered territory, Congress was to 
 legislate in all their domestic concerns, 
 and if ever they were again to become 
 States of the Union, they v.' ere to come 
 in by a new title, pre<'isely as in some 
 future day we may choose to make a 
 State of the newly acquired territory of 
 Alaska. 
 
 Gentlemen, the Constitution lathe text 
 of the sentiment to which I have been 
 ciilled upon to respond. Let usstopoue 
 moment to look into that sacred instru- 
 ment, in order to .solve the question 
 which arises here. The case which has 
 occurred is not, in the language of a 
 lawyer, a casus emissus. The Constitu- 
 tion is not silent. It has anticipated 
 what has happened. It provides for in- 
 surrection, whether small or great; 
 whether of a part of a Slate or an entire 
 State ; whether in one State or in naany. 
 It provides for insurrection against the 
 laws of a State, and for insurrection 
 against the laws of the United States. It 
 gives power in both case.? ; the power in 
 one case to put down insurrection 
 against the State by enforcing obedience 
 to tho laws of the State ; and the- power 
 in the other case to put down insurrec- 
 tion against the laws of the United 
 States by enforcing obedience to those 
 laws. So, too, the Constitution gives 
 
18 
 
 the power of protection against foreign 
 enemies, and the power to declare war, 
 and, as incidental to that, the poorer to 
 make cono.utsts. 
 
 Where, in this instrument, providing 
 for the very case of insurreciion and for 
 the very remedy to be applied — where 
 do you tind power to put down insur- 
 rection in a State, and then to destroy 
 the State, and hold it and its people as 
 conquered and subjugated ? And yet; 
 gentlemen, this is precisely what has 
 been done, not by a change of our Fede- 
 ral Constitution, but by a Congress who 
 must tind for every act a warrant and 
 authority in the provision of that Con- 
 stitution. The reconstruction acts passed 
 by Congress have converted ten of these 
 States into a lower condition than that 
 of mere Territc ries, have destroyed every 
 vestige of State government, and have 
 stripj.ed millions of their people of ev- 
 ery cjjaraclerjstic of an American cit- 
 izen. Under this extiaordinarj' legisla- 
 tion, the vast territory covered by these 
 ten States, and the millions of unhappy 
 people which reside there have no more 
 protection under our Federal Constitu- 
 tion than if they occupied so much ter- 
 ritory in the interior of Africa. Their 
 State constitutions— made by these peo- 
 ple under the auspices of President Lin- 
 coln and President Johnson — are declar- 
 ed (o be ilJt^t^al, and, in cflect, abolished 
 and in placo of them Congress has pro- 
 vided a military despotism. Certainly, 
 if no valid State law protected these peo- 
 ple, there was, at least, Federal law 
 which ought to have protected them, for 
 over every footof that territory andevery 
 individual that inhabits it, the greatfnn- 
 damental law of the Constitution of the 
 "United Slates prevails in all its vigor, 
 and gives to every one of them evA-y 
 I^riviloge and every immunity which it 
 extends to the American citizen any- 
 where and everywhere. 
 
 With the Constitution, then, fu/ly in 
 force over all that territory and all those 
 people, where does Congress tind its 
 warrant for supplanting a legal State 
 government with a military despotism? 
 W^here does Congress find its warrant, 
 in time of peace, to suspend the habeas 
 corpus, to take away the inestimable 
 privilege of Iho trial by jury, to remove 
 ■ the civil officers of a State, and substi- 
 tute Federal olljcers in their places ; 
 and, tinally, to try, to condemn, to pun- 
 ish, to inaprisou, to hang these people 
 for civil oilences, or pretended offences, 
 by thejudgmeut of a military cotirt? 
 Where does Congress find its warrant in 
 the Cinsiitution to cjuit the domain of 
 Federal law, and to make a constitution 
 for a State by voters of its own creating 
 — to pass a suffrage law 'or o Stale? 
 Where does ii tind authority to say who 
 shall vote and who shall not vote in 
 State elections? Lastly, where does it 
 find authority to make a new class of 
 citizens, and to give to that class of citi- 
 zens greater rights than were ever con- 
 ferred before by the Constitution upon 
 any class, and to ty,ke away from tliose 
 who always enjoyed the rights of citi- 
 zenship the most precious of those 
 rights ? 
 
 Gentlemen, I have been at the bar for 
 nearly half a century, and have been a 
 constant student, not only of the com- 
 mon law, but of our own constitutional 
 law, and I do not hesitate toiyay tliat the 
 whole of these reconstruction acts of 
 Congress, from beginning to end — tirst, 
 second, and third, in the series— are un- 
 constitutional and void. There are 
 times when to be silent is to be unfaith- 
 ful. There are times when men viust 
 speak out. I will not attempt to sch(X>l 
 myself into reticence upon these great 
 questions, and I could not if I v.'ould, 
 , And now, my Democratic f; lends, you 
 see the reason why I am here, and why 
 your committee has contided in me so 
 far as to ask mo to respond to one of the 
 sentiments on your programme. [Ap- 
 plause.] It is enough for uie to know 
 that, upon the great questions of the 
 day, and upon the great issues that are 
 to be fougbt during this year, we have 
 at last come together. Twenty years 
 ago, if I had been told that the time 
 would come when I would take an ac- 
 tive part in a Democratic celebration, 
 that the time would come in which I 
 should rejoice at a Demecratic victory, 
 I could scarcely have believed it possi- 
 ble. In those forrner contests I thought 
 the Democratic party always wrong, and 
 the Whig party always right. But, 
 gentlemen, the issues of those daj's were 
 not like those that are belbre us. Doth 
 parties fought under tl^e Constitution,^ 
 md as yet we had no party outside of 
 ihe Constitution. Not so with this new 
 and dangerous party that now confronts 
 us, old Whigs and old Democrats, under 
 the name of Radicals. The time has 
 come when we must strike hands, and, 
 shoulder to shoulder, face the ommou 
 enemy. We must meet that enemy to- 
 gether and united, or the battle will be 
 lost. [Cries of " We will," and great 
 cheering.] 
 
 I see that a distinguished Senator 
 from Indiana, a few days ago, in an ad- 
 dress delivered in this city beiore the 
 Soldiers' and Sailors' Union, volun- 
 teered to give a name to those who op- 
 pose the Congressional policy, and to 
 state of what materials the party was 
 composed, and to fix tip t«bo issues for 
 which the3^ were to contend in the ap- 
 proaching Presidential contest. As lo 
 the name, ho gives it under an alias, a3 
 the Democratic or Conservative party; 
 and he says it is composed of the North- 
 ern Democrats who sympathized with 
 secession and rebellion, of the Southern 
 rebels, and of a "few recruits from the 
 Republican party." Now, if he means, 
 as I sup[)osohe does, that the recruits 
 from the Republican party are those 
 who voted with that party in the last 
 Presidential election, how will the hon- 
 orable Senator explain the last election 
 which has taken place in Ohio, a Staie 
 that lies so close to Indiana that lie can- 
 not fail to have heard the result ? There 
 were i)o, 000 Republican majority in that 
 State in the Pr.esidential election of 18(M. 
 There was only 3.000 Reptiblican major- 
 ity given in that Slate at the last elec- 
 tion for Governor, in 18G7; so that there 
 were fully 45,000 recruits in that State 
 
14 
 
 RloTie. But this is not all. To these 
 45,000 must be added 26,000 more who 
 voted against the Republican party at 
 the same election upon the vital ques- 
 tion of uuiversal negro sutfrage. So that 
 we have here somewhere about 70,000 
 recruits in one single State; and more 
 than that, the recruiting service is still 
 in full operation in that State, and every 
 day is adding to its swelling numbers. 
 
 I have not time toenumeratethewell- 
 known result in other State,s which have 
 recently held elections. We know that 
 reci'uiting offices have been opened in 
 California, in New Jersey, in Pennsyl- 
 vania, in New York, in Connecticut, and 
 even in Massachusetts, and that, in fact, 
 the recruiting service is now in full 
 operation all over the United States, and 
 that the people are coming forward with 
 the same alacrity to vote for the restora- 
 tion ot the Union as they did to fight for 
 its restoration. [Hearty applause.] 
 
 Now, observe, gentlemen, that Sena- 
 tor Morton says this new party is com- 
 posed of just three elements: the North- 
 ern Democrats, who sympathize with 
 rebellion ; the Southern rebels, and the 
 recruits from the Republican party. Of 
 course we must drop out the Southern 
 rebel element in considering the results 
 of the elections in the Northern States, 
 leaving only, according to Senator Mor- 
 ton's classification, the Northern Demo- 
 crats, who sympathized with secession, 
 and the recruit^ from the Republican 
 party. Now, if the Senator b.e right, and 
 only a few recruits left the party, the 
 50,000 anti-Republican majority in New 
 York must have been almost altogether 
 carried by sympathizers with secession. 
 
 Surely the honorable Senator could 
 scarcely mean this, unless, indeed, he 
 too mean that not to vote the Republican 
 ticket is to be a rebel and a secessionist. 
 
 The honorable Senator, however, does 
 not stop with giving a ui me to the new 
 party, and with stating its component 
 parts, but he is kind enough to make up 
 the issues upon which it is to contend 
 in the apptoaching campaign. He says 
 these issues will be : Fi rst, the payment 
 of the rebel debt; second, payment for 
 emancipated slaves; and, third, pen- 
 sions for the widows and orphans otthe 
 rebel soldiers. I do not know by what 
 authority the honorable Senator under- 
 takes to make a platform for a party to • 
 which he does not belong. He is cer- 
 tainly v«ry capable of making a plat- 
 form for the party to which he does be- 
 long ; but he fails to .tell- us what the 
 platform of his party is to be. [Laugh- 
 ter.] 
 
 The platform which he projects for our 
 party could not command a corporal's 
 guard in any of the Northern States. 
 It is upon no such issues as those that 
 the great popular reactionary move- 
 ment was begun Ijist fall. The issues of 
 1868 will be the issues of 18G7 : The Con- 
 stitution as it is : the limitation of Fed- 
 eral power within the justand well-de- 
 fined boundaries of the Constitution ; a 
 restoration of all 'the St.ates under the 
 Constitution, and not outside of the Con- 
 stitution ; civil law instead of military 
 law ; free elections, and constitutions 
 formed by the people of the Statiis, and 
 not by the people of the other States, 
 whether in Congress or out of Congress. 
 [Great cheering.J 
 
 SPEECH OF HON. J. S. BLACK. 
 
 Hon. J. S. Black beuig called upon 
 to respond, spoke as follows: 
 
 Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen: My 
 modesty is a good deal shocked at being 
 called upon to speak on this occasion 
 before anybody else, except our greitly 
 respected friend and excellent chair- 
 man. I suppose, however, that I am ex- 
 pected to say only the few words that 
 are necessary to start the business of the 
 evening. That is all I intend to do. 
 There is no day in the year, except the 
 Fourth of July, that ought to be kept 
 so sacred as the 8th of January. [Ap- 
 plause.] And, except the Father of his 
 Country, there is n.o name known 
 among men that is entitled to a higher 
 reverence than that of Andrew Jackson. 
 [Applause.] I put Washington first be- 
 cause the place which he occupies in 
 history, as the foremost man of all this 
 world, has never been disputed. [Ap- 
 plause.] It was always admitted that 
 he stood alone, without a peer among 
 mortals. Competition gave way_ before 
 the acknowledged greatness of his char- 
 acter, and rivalry itself conceded the 
 palm to his pre-eminent virtue. I know 
 
 not how it may be with others, but his is 
 a name which I never was able to pro- 
 nounce without emotions of respect and 
 reverence which I have no form of words 
 to express. 
 
 But the reputation of .Jackson has not 
 been so fortunate. His life was one long 
 battle with the enemies of constitutional 
 freedom. [Applause.] They assailed 
 him with OA'ery species of slander, and 
 e^en at this day the foul birds that 
 streamed around him in his lifetime, and 
 others hatched in the same bad •nest, 
 light whenever they can upon his tomb- 
 stone to defile his tomb with their ob- 
 scene droppings. [Loud applause.] One 
 of the most injurious of these aspersions 
 IS that by which the Radical party have 
 attempted to make him authority for 
 their own attempts to trample upon 
 liberty and law. [Great applause.] If 
 that be true ; if he is authority for them ; 
 if he has set the example for their mis- 
 conduct; if they are travelling upon a 
 path which has one impress of his foot- 
 step, then he is wholly and utterly un- 
 worthy of the honor which the Ameri- 
 can people all through the country are 
 
15 
 
 bestowing upon him at this moment. 
 [Applause.] Then I give him up. He 
 is their man ; he is not ours. If General 
 Jackson ever tlid anything in his life 
 Avhich can justify the murder, kidnap- 
 ping, and rubbery of innocent men and 
 women; if he ever used military force 
 for the purpose of enslaving any State, 
 North or South, [applause;] if he ever 
 used one atom of his powerful influence 
 for the purpose of subjugating his fellow- 
 citizens, or any portion of them, to the 
 domination of a negro government, [cries 
 of "good" and applause;] if there be 
 one single act of his whole life that can 
 be cited as an example for the coarse, 
 ffruel, and corrupt despotism which the 
 Radicals hare organized wherever and 
 whenever they could, then he don't be- 
 long to our communion. [Applause.] 
 In that case he is only fit to be set up in 
 the heathen pagoda which despotism has 
 established among us, as one of the di- 
 vinities to be worshipped beside such 
 Generals as Pope and J3aker, [loud ap- 
 plause,] and others of that class, where 
 the worshippers lay it down as part of 
 their creed that the Constitution is "a 
 league with hell and a covenant with 
 death," where the high priests that min- 
 ister at the altar have qualified them- 
 selves for holy orders by being hired 
 del,ators and purjured witnesses, and 
 where an act of worship which they 
 ofter consists in false affidavits against 
 the honor and rights of innocent people. 
 Gentlemen, Sir Walter Ealeigh once 
 said that the greatest temptation to which 
 a man could be subjected was the incli- 
 nation to speak when the people listened ; 
 but it is not a very great temptation 
 ■when they don't listen. [Applause and 
 cries of "Go on."] Well, I will pro- 
 ceed. I am not here to pronounce any 
 eulogy or to make any defence of Gen- 
 eral Jackson, but I do wish to refer to 
 one passage in his life upon wliich the 
 slander to which I have referred is based, 
 if it be based upon anything. When 
 General Jackson undertook the defence 
 ■of the city of New Orleans, in the fall 
 of 1814, he assumed a responsibility such 
 as had rarely been taken by anybody in 
 the world, and such as very few men 
 except himself would have taken under 
 such circumstances. The British army 
 was 14,000 strong ; composed of vet- 
 erans, ably commanded, thoroughly 
 trained, and fresh from the victorious 
 battle-fields of the Spanish Peninsula. 
 They had never known what it was to 
 be defeated. No hostile army of equal 
 strength had ever before landed in one 
 body upon the American shores.. To 
 meet them General Jackson had half the 
 number of raw levies, hastily collected 
 from the plough and workshop, not or- 
 ganized ; all of them imperfectly equip-, 
 ped, and some of them — ^k considerable 
 number of tliem — not armed at all. 
 With these fearful odds against him, he 
 was required to hold possession of an 
 unwalled and unfortified town, situate 
 upon an open plain, accessible upon 
 every side, and with absolutely no de- 
 fences, natural or artificial, except what 
 ■were to be erected upon the spur of the 
 
 occasion ; and he had not the assistance 
 of one experienced officer or engineer to 
 aid him in putting uj) his field-works or 
 mounting his guns. 
 
 This desperate game was to be played 
 for a stake of the most stupendous mag- 
 nitude. The possession of the whole 
 valley of the Mississippi depended upon 
 it; and if the city had been taken by 
 assault, we shudder, even at this dis- 
 tance of time, to think what must have 
 been its fsite. The very troops that were 
 then marching to the attack had com- 
 mitted the most atrocious cruelties only 
 a lew months before, at Badajos and St. 
 Sebastian; and here again they were to 
 be rewarded with bcmdy and booty. 
 The defence seemed like a forlorn hope, 
 without a particle of confidence in its 
 success — no one hadj except ^vhat was 
 inspired by the courage, genius, and 
 energy of their great commander. But 
 he was a host in himself. They wisely 
 determined that they would throw the 
 whole responsibility upon him ;_ that 
 they would put their fate entirely in his 
 hands, and they did so. Members of 
 the Legislature, officers of the city cor-, 
 poration, and judges of the courts came 
 and laid their powers at his feet, and 
 voluntarily' agreed that they would sur- 
 render and suspend their official- func- 
 tions until the danger was over. The 
 whole population, with one voice, be- 
 sought him that he would make the 
 city a part of his camp, and take the ab- 
 solute command upon himself of every 
 human being within its limits. He did 
 this at the universal request. Ho had a 
 right to do it. It was proper that he 
 should do it, for this simple and plain 
 reason, that the city luas in a state of 
 actual siege. It was no fiction. His act 
 bore no kind of resemblance to the wan- 
 ton outrage of declaring martial law, 
 which is no law at all, for the mere pur- 
 pose of trampling down the law of the 
 land at a place where there are no mili- 
 tary operations going on. [Great ap- 
 plause.] 
 
 Jackson executed the authority thus . 
 bestowed upon him, "hot only moder- 
 ately, but benignly. He gathered the 
 people around him, and protected their 
 rights to the whole extent that he was 
 able to do so, consistentl.v with their'own 
 good and proper defence of the place, 
 as tenderly as a father would care for 
 his children. But he didn't allow him- 
 self to be trifled with. And that brings 
 me to the only fact in bis whole life that 
 has ever been criticised with reference 
 to this point. A gentleman named 
 Louallier, who had been a member of 
 the Legislature, became, in the course of 
 time, discontented. He was one of Gen- 
 eral Jackson's soldiers — that is, ho had 
 put himself under his command as much 
 as any volunteer ia his army. Hut he 
 became restive, and, after a while, he 
 published aiU address, and printed and 
 circulated it over the city, in which he 
 counselled disobedience to the General's 
 orders. That was simply mutinj', and 
 the punishment of mutiny was death. 
 But General Jackson only confined him, , 
 declaring at the time his intention to 
 
16 
 
 telease him tlie very moment that he 
 dould do so with safety. Then came 
 Judge Hall, another of his voluntary 
 subordinates. He undertook to inter- 
 fere with the discipline of General Jack- 
 son's camp; by issuing a habeas corpus 
 for the body of the mutineer. The 
 General, in order to save all trouble, sent 
 the Judge four miles up the river, with 
 directions tliat he should remain outside 
 of his picket-lines until it should be 
 known that the enemy had retired from 
 the coast. When the great battle had 
 been won, whew the invader had been 
 driven away, when the city was saved 
 ■with all its beauty and its booty, then 
 Judge Hall returned ; and so soon as he 
 got back he commenced a prosecution 
 against General Jnckson for — what do 
 you think? Contempt of court! 
 
 The General thought that was very 
 absurd. Nevertheless, although he had 
 a victorious army at his back ; although 
 he was surrounded by if popuhxtion that 
 adored him as their great deliverer, he 
 bowed his head to the lawful authorities 
 of the country, as lowly as the humblest 
 man in the nation. [Great applause.] 
 He not only submitted to the legal pro- 
 cess which was issued against him, but 
 he gave to the Judge the assurance that 
 the same arm which had defended the 
 city against a foreign invader would de- 
 fend him from the danger of a popular 
 outbreak. [Applause.] He appeared 
 before the court and made a defence 
 which was worthy of his character as a 
 lawyer, and perfectly consistent with 
 his high renown as a statesman and a 
 patriot. He pleaded that he was not and 
 could not, be guilty of any contempt of 
 court, because that court had, of its own 
 accord, relinquished its authority during 
 ^le siege, and had notified him of the 
 factv He said that even if his act was 
 illegal, he had committed not a contempt 
 of c^jurt, but a personal trespass against 
 the Judge, and to this he was willing to 
 respond' iu a personal action before a 
 court of competent jurisdiction and an 
 impartial jury. But he insisted that his 
 adversary had no right to sit in judg- 
 ment upon his own case. This defence 
 was overruled by the Judge, and it was 
 overruled in such manifest defiance of 
 reason and justice, that the Judge would 
 have been torn into pieces if General 
 Jackson had not redeemed his promise 
 to protect him. But he did. "When the 
 Judge faltered for fear of the indigna- 
 tion of the crowd with which he was 
 surrounded, the General rose in the 
 court and said, "Go on and perform 
 what you think your duty." [Applause.] 
 "I have fought-for the liberties of this 
 nation, and 1 will not permit the civil 
 institutions of the country to be dishon- 
 ored." [Applause.] The Judge fined 
 him a thousand dgllars, and then his 
 friends fiocked around him to pay the 
 fine for him; but he declined all such 
 offers. "No," said he, "I will not 
 evade the decision of a lawful tribunal." 
 
 [Applause.] " I will pay the fine my- 
 self. It becomes me to suffer whatever 
 has been inflicted, rightfully or wrong- 
 fully. And now," said he, " I am square 
 with the law, even as Judge Hall ex- 
 pounded it." 
 
 Now, if General Jackson had systematized 
 robbery and murder by means of mililary 
 commissions, [applause and crics^f "Good,"] 
 if, instead of using liis army to flght the 
 common enemy, lie had scattered his sol- 
 diers over the country, hundieds of miles 
 away from his post, to kidnap liis political 
 opponents for expressing their honest con- 
 victions; if he lia* ordered an upri.ijlit judaie 
 to be dragged from the bench by ruiiiiins, 
 beaten upon the head witli the butt ends of 
 their pistols, and carried away to prison, 
 because lie had ivdminist ered j astice accord- 
 ing to law; and if, finally, he had estab- 
 lished a military despotism upon the ruins 
 of a free Government; then I admit that he 
 would have been fair authority, and they 
 miglut have quoted him as an example of 
 their misdectls. But in truth and in fact. 
 General Jackson was one of the ablest and 
 best defenders of the Constitution and the 
 laws that the United States ever had. Tnore 
 never lived a man within the limits of this 
 country who wouM go further io defencl 
 them, or more cheerfully shed his blood to 
 save them from violation. [Apv.lause.] 
 
 There are some persons here, I think, who 
 not only know the character of General 
 Jackson, but who have been intimately ac- 
 quainted with him. I ask of such what 
 they suppose General Jackson would have 
 thought of our " Bureau of Mililary Justice," 
 if such a bloody machine as that hau been 
 set up in his lime. [Great applause and 
 laughter.] I do not knovV ; 1 can only con- 
 jecture: I think he would have shattered it 
 "into a tiiousaud atoms with one blow of his 
 ponderous hand, [applause;] and the first 
 impulse of his noble and generous nature 
 would have been to take that lawless crew 
 by the throats and pitch them into the Po- 
 tomac. [Applause.] I do not say he would 
 have done it any more than our honored 
 Chief Magistrate would. [Tremendous ap- 
 plause. Three cheers for the President.] 
 Let me tell you the reason why 1 think he 
 would not have done it. He ivas a perfectly 
 luiv-abidinc) man. He Would have waited his 
 time. He "would have curbed his fiery tem- 
 per ; he would have chastened down, (as he 
 always did,) in a proper way his impetuous 
 passions. Hut sooner or later he would 
 have done what will be lione yet. [Gr^at 
 applause.] He would have made tiiose mis- 
 creants feel the majesty of legal justice; 
 
 The Spaniards have a proverb, that the 
 mill of God grinds slowly, but it grinds 
 dreadfully fine. [Laughter.] And now, 
 don't you think the people of this country 
 are about to let the water on ? [Great laugh- 
 ter] 
 
 I said that I had no eulogy or defence to 
 make of General Jackson ; but I do say 
 now, in conclusion, that if the people of this 
 country will appreciate his character truly, 
 and remember well the lessons that his acts 
 and his precepts havelnrnished them, they 
 will have such a Government as that which 
 he described in his protest to the Senate — 
 not a despotism, surrounded by the prid^ 
 ponrp, and circumstance of military sho\^ 
 ■but a quiet Government, wliicli will pro- 
 tect their liberties and tlifu- rights, a Gvov- 
 ernment distributing its blessings like the 
 dews of Heaven, unseen and unfelt, save in 
 the beauty and-freshness they contribute to 
 produce. As long as we keep our eyes upon 
 his history, as the pole-star by which we 
 are to beguided, we will be wise ; aud when- 
 ever we quit it we will be otherwise. [Great 
 applause.] 
 
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