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 pHSJ 
 
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 X J El "T "T El JEL 
 
 T O 
 
 HON. ROSCOE CONKLINa, 
 
 Senator of the United States, 
 AVASJIWCtTON. 
 
 by one of his constituents. 
 
 '•Kioht irs the Soverei^'U of the World" 
 
 MIEABEAU* 
 
 "There is Power in the Honest Sense of Men." 
 
 CONKLINU 
 
u 
 
 
tlOX. ROSrOE COXKLTNG. 
 
 xj^siTED st^ilIer spi:isr^vroK, 
 
 SiK :— If yon were a niau of loss note ; indeefl if yon did not 
 ITOSsess capacity eqnal to Seiiatol-ial dignity, and weix^ not snfB- 
 eiently versed in statesmansliiiJ to know the teachings aiid the ten- 
 dencies of history ; and again, if it was not conceded that yon were 
 familiar with the Constitution, and its jurisprtidence, I should not 
 now address you. But, sir, this, as well as the fact that the destiny 
 of the nation and the future of your own fame are at stake, i)rorapt 
 me to the exercise of my right as your constituent, and my judg- 
 ment as your peer, to warn, to entreat and to advise yon. 
 
 That you may be at no loss to understand the object of my so- 
 licitude, I will state to you at once that I deny the oratorical asser- 
 tion of the managers of Impeachment in presenting themselves to 
 the Senate, that they came there to represent and as representa- 
 tives of the Peoi^le of the United States. The assertion, sir, is a 
 monstrous lie, to bridge over a monstrous fraud. Those who made 
 it knew it to be false as a fact, infamous as an assertion, and unwor- 
 thy of beUef even hj the willing ears which listened to the loose 
 eloquence of Bingham or heard the bottled thunder of Butlei*. For, 
 lio'w'ever much you may gild a fraud, or jiaint a lie, the sober truth 
 will rub away the varnish, for 
 
 " The eternal years of God are hers." 
 
 It has been well said, that, to overthrow a Stat^, the crime must 
 be wrought in the name of the State, and that to enslave a people 
 the tyranny must be in the name of the peojile. 
 
 Impeachment, sir, is not the work, or the demand of the y>oo- 
 ple ; its origin can claim no such vaunted paternity, but, Minerva - 
 like, it .sprung fully armed from one, who, whether he may be 
 
 "The wisest, brightest, meanest of mankind," 
 
rules like a king and reigns like a despot. If, like Lovd Bacon, lie 
 has not dazzled the world by brilliant contrasts between his good 
 and bad qualities, it has not been for want of the latter, for slime 
 has been mingled in every cup of his life, whether you find him in 
 the arms of the negress who has so long ministered to his passions, 
 or follow his trembling steps from the gambling Hell from which he 
 adjourns to his seat in Congress to ci-ack his whip over the heads of 
 his Kepubliean puppets. 
 
 It was not the Hero of Little Bethel, nor the jurist of Ohio. 
 No, it was neither New England nor the giant West, which gave the 
 command, "Vote to Impeach Andrew Johnson — true such a vote is 
 your own stuUification — but it is mine to command, yours to vote," 
 "Then," says the great commoner, "select -your managers to pre- 
 sent my decree to the Senate of the United States, swearing with 
 solemn oath that you are there in the name of all the People of the 
 rniied States." 
 
 Congi-ess obeyed the command . Stevens was King — Andrew 
 Johnson was impeached. 
 
 The Athenians, influenced by demagogues, drove Pericles, even 
 after all the services he had rendered to his country, and all the 
 glory he had conferred upon Athens, to defend himself before the 
 tribunals of Greece. 
 
 Aristades, too, was accused that the partisan behests of The- 
 mistacles might prevail . 
 
 Did the leader of the Athenians say "I demand that Aristades 
 shall be ))anished, that I may obtain power in Athens" ? No— under 
 a plea of the public good, he accused his rival of high crimes and 
 luisdemoanors, that lie might lie alile. like Senator Morton, to over- 
 ride "all arguments, all prejudices, all theories," and thus reach 
 political power. 
 
 It is quite unnecessary, sir, for me to toll you that there are 
 many men in Congress who voted for Impeachment, who, if they 
 were asked to give a reason for their vote, would have no better one 
 to give than the ignorant Athenian, who, meeting Aristades durino' 
 his trial, stopped him and asked him to write the name of Aristades 
 on liis ballot. "Has he done you any wrong ?" says Aristades.— 
 
•' No," replietl the Athenian, " I cTo not so mudi as ]vno^^' liim. l)iit 
 I am tired of licariug everybody call liim the Ji'.str 
 
 These occun-enees happened in the proudest days of Athenian 
 civilization, showing that i^arty i^assion propogated slanders and 
 manufactured "high crimes and misdemeanors" then as easily as 
 we propogate them now. 
 
 Having thus ai^pri.sed you of my ojiinion, that The People do 
 not demand, and never have demanded the impeachment of Andrew 
 Johnson, I now jiropose to call your attention to a fact you are quite 
 too well informed not to know, but which, I am frank td say, I mean 
 to have so clearly understood that he that runs may read ; and that 
 neither you, nor any other Senator of the United States, shall here- 
 after be able to deny the fact. It is that the impeachment of Ak- 
 DHEW Johnson is attempted fob Party pukposes. That it is en- 
 tered I'PON, NOT to SECUEE CONSTITITTIONAIi JXTSTICE, BTTT SOLELY AS A 
 MATTER OP PARTY RE^'ENGE. 
 
 For, sir, it seems to be conceded that the Senate, even, is so 
 thoroughly dragooned under the lash of the " old commoner" who 
 has so long been trembling on the brink of the grave, (who doesn't 
 wish he had long since ceased trembling, in it ?) that the men who 
 are already committed to the final sentence are as easily counted as 
 the black sheep in a flock — and that, too, even l^efore the charges 
 on which the President is to be tried are settled, or the evidence of 
 a single witness has been heard. 
 
 Monstrous as this idea is, to every candid and honorable mind, I 
 ask you. Senator Conklin, is it not true '? I do not believe that you 
 have as yet put yourself on the procrastrian bed of the "old com- 
 moner." I do not believe that you have taken the oath to fairly and 
 impartially try Andrew Johnson with a lie in your heart, with per- 
 jury on your lips, with damnation on your soul. 
 
 You are of the opinion, it is said, that Andrew Johnson has 
 been sincere in his convictions, and honest in his belief that he was 
 supported by the constitution — for you have said so, and often re- 
 peated it ! 
 
 Now, sir, I do not propose to so far belittle your intelligence as 
 to debate the articles of impeachment. T shall content myself witli 
 a brief outline of their import. 
 
The licad and front of his oflbndiuft — so far as this trial is eon- 
 eornetl — is, that he has turned ont— or attempted to turn out — Ed- 
 win M. Stanton, from the confidential position, in his cabinet, of 
 Secretary of War, in defiance of the recent act known as the Tenure 
 of Office Law. 
 
 Before I refer to the Law, let me state some general facts and 
 conclusions which ciAilized society, and all honorable men, regard as 
 estabhshed. 
 
 First, among these, is the fact that the President has at all times 
 since the formation of this government, had the selection of his own 
 cabinet. 
 
 Second, That it has been no less a part of the estabhshed law, 
 that he had this right, than the established fact that he has univer- 
 sally exercised it. 
 
 Tldrd, That it has been the uniform practice of the President 
 to relieve any cabinet officer from his portfolio, whenever such offi- 
 cer ceased to be in perfect accord with him. 
 
 FvitrtJi, That in the United States, as in all other governments 
 pretending to be controlled by principles of honor, it has never been 
 questioned but Avhat it would be dishonorable and imj)ertinent for a 
 cabinet officer to decline to resign when ho ceased to co-operate with 
 tlie power appointing him. 
 
 These propositions are too self-evident to be argued, and yet, it 
 is to overthrow the common sense, and the established justice on 
 which these axioms in political government are based, that Congi-ess, 
 drunk witli power, and nauseous with its "Loyal" disloyalty, 
 undertook to overstep the constitution, that it might add new 
 force to its usurpations, and take from the President the right arm 
 of that power with Avhich lie was defending the rights of the People 
 against the aggressions of Congress and the tyrannies of its military 
 governments. 
 
 Senator Conkling : Had you been President when such a bill 
 ns the Tenure of Office Act was presented to you for approval, would 
 you not have vetoed it ? 
 
7 
 
 Senator Conkling— Had j'ou bccu President, and liad Edwin M. 
 Stanton been your Secretary of War, and you knew he had com- 
 bined and confederated with your enemies to overthrow and to dis- 
 grace you, would you not have dismissed him from your cabinet V 
 
 Senator Conkling— Had you been President when the Tenure 
 of Office liill was presented for approval, and you had consulted Ed- 
 Aviu M. Stanton, as one of your confidential advisers, ui>on its con- 
 stitutionality, and he had agi'eed with you that it Avas not only un- 
 constitutional, but opposed to the dignity, character and resi^ect- 
 ability of the Presidential oihce, would you not have regarded him 
 as no better than a perjured spy, if, after that bill became a law, you 
 had asked him to resign, and he had unrolled the parchment on 
 which it was inscribed, and defied and insulted you ? 
 
 Senator Coulding— Had you been President, and had you re- 
 moved Edwin M. Stanton, as your personal and political enemy, 
 and accompanied that removal by a clear and candid exposition of 
 your reasons, addressed to the Senate of the United States, with a 
 view of testmgthe constitutionahty of the Tenure of Office law, do 
 you believe that Congi'ess would decide that you had com- 
 mitted a crime, by making such removal and attempting to test 
 the constitutionality of the law, such as to subject you to national 
 Impeachment '? 
 
 One more tpiestiou, Senator Coulding, and I shall i^rooeed to 
 recall to your mind the history of other political impeachments in 
 the past ; it is this : Do 2iot you and Congress believe that the 
 Tenure of Office Law is so clearly opi^osed to the constitution that 
 there is imminent danger in submitting it to the test of judicial de- 
 cision, and was it not the clear conviction that the Supreme Court 
 of the United States would decide it to be unconstitutional, which 
 led Congress to repeal the law by which that Court had jurisdiction 
 of the McArdle case, knowing tliat if that Court should so decide, 
 that Andrew Johnson would stand justified in law, as w:ell as in fact, 
 before the civilized world ? 
 
 I ask these (questions. Senator Conkling, not for you to answer, 
 but as questions which posterity will ask, and Avhich posterity will 
 ausAver. 
 
 Impartial history will record that President Johnson has fol- 
 loAvcd the liuc of policy matured and inaugurated by Presidcut Lin- 
 
\ 
 
 culu. It A\'ill c(iiuilly record the fact tluit Senator \N'iiac uud Wiuter 
 Davis iuauguratcd an opposing policy ; tliat the policy of the mar- 
 tjTcd patriot Avas one of charity, of conciliation, of justice and of 
 peace. It -will proclaim that his name is forever to be venerated be- 
 cause he passed from earth to heaven with the prayer yet warm from 
 his lips for '"Chaiutv to all axd malice to none." The opposing 
 policy is one of disfranchisement, revenge and hatred. The dead 
 Patriot was not yet cold in his grave before his policy was murdered 
 and placed by his side— and yet Andrew Johnson, true to the dead, 
 tnie to the living, true to himself, has fearlessly sustained it. It is 
 for this he has been impeached. 
 
 It may be true that the world moves slowly towards wisdom ; 
 1-tut it is consoling to believe that it moves. 
 
 Indejiendont ol all j)recedent, men are to form their opinions 
 ui^on this impeachment ; for freedom of oi)inion is the chief element 
 which constitutes the freedom of our government. The one is the 
 positive basis of the other. Not because opinion creates govern- 
 ment, but l)ecause it regulates it ; and because all government which 
 acts indej)endently of it is t\Tannical, and most likely to be opi^re'fes- 
 ive. To have a free government, therefore, is to have freedom of 
 opinion as to that government, and opinion which can not make 
 itself felt by action, or which acting follows the impulses of passion, 
 hatred and revenge, is alike dangerous to government and subver- 
 sive of liberty. 
 
 Congress has excluded the Southern States from any opinion, 
 or expression of oi)inion, as to the laws which should regulate their 
 reinstatement in the political power of the Union. It has not only 
 denied this right to the South, but it has deliberately disfranchised 
 a large class from the exercise of any political oijinions, and thus 
 constituted as absolute a system of political slavery as that system 
 of negro slavery the war has so effectually abolished. 
 
 If taxation witliout representation was just occasion for our 
 forofathei-s to Kevolutiouize the government, how much more occa- 
 sion has the intelligent and honest white man at the South to com- 
 plain at the tyranny of Congress, in not only passing laws to tax, 
 eontiscate, and punish by penal enactment, large and intelligent 
 botUta oi men. ^vitkcmt allyrding them the sliglitcst voice in tlie 
 
Legislature Avliich detennines this oppressive policy, but also at 
 that undisguised military dictatorshii^, which places them at the 
 mercy of calculating, ambitious and gTcedy sycophants of congres- 
 sional i)ower, on the one hand, and beneath the ignorant domina- 
 tion of a race on the other, which God and man has for all time 
 treated, as theij u-ere couteiit lo be (realed, as inferior in intellect, sub- 
 ortlinatc by nature and brutish by instinct. 
 
 It Avas, sir, as you well knu-\v, to .stay the tide of this IJepublican 
 lunacy, that President Johnson undertook to shield the South by 
 the Constitution. In doing this he may have become his own exe- 
 cutioner, but posterity will do justice to his motives. 
 
 Despotic power has ahvays aimed at disfranchisement of intel- 
 lect, and this has at all times, and in all governments, not only orig- 
 inated in a tyi'annical impulse, but has uniformly led to disaster, 
 bloodshed, revolution and anarchy. Indeed, no government ever 
 did, or ever will, siicceed in excluding intelligent i^ortiuns of the 
 body politic from iDolitical privileges enjoyed by the general popu- 
 lace, without oftering a reA\ard for heresy, and giving a premium fur 
 revenge. 
 
 Intolerance and proscription liaAc not only been preached from 
 the pulpit, and proclaimed on the stumj), as the mission and creed 
 of the dominant party, but prayers to God, from saintly Brownlows, 
 have been heard ascending, or descendlnfj, all over the land, echoing 
 the one cry of revenge, until the Eepublican mind has seemed to 
 become more intent upon devising how the whites of the South can 
 best be degraded, than in attempting to secure the perpetuity of the 
 government or the Avelfare of the people. It was precisely the same 
 clement in public opinion, which led all Europe to appeal to fire and 
 sword, to decide questions of religion upon which political control 
 was dependent. Protestants and Catholics burnt their adversaries ; 
 and England, France and Germany assisted in the bloodiest scenes 
 of intolerance. This, as you well remember, occurred at a period 
 when politics was the creature of the church ; when priests and 
 pi-iestcraft reigned ; when passion made fanatics, and fanatics made 
 laws. No crime stood in the way, if success demanded it. In 
 France, Huguenots practiced intolerance against Catholics, and 
 Catholics against Huguenots ; in England, Catholics promoted it 
 umlei' Mary, and Protcstauts under Cromwell ; and in educated 
 
10 
 
 New Eiiglantl it Avas the right arm of Presbyteriau power against 
 Quakers, and of Unitarian equity against Catholics, and was used 
 with all the bigotry, hatred so intensifies and ambition so inspires. 
 
 To-day the cry of "Loyalty" is the Ked Cross to the new cni- 
 sade. Every twaddling sycophant, every aspiring cheat, every big- 
 oted collector of the basely cheated revenue, and every Ueiah Heef, 
 counts np his frauds in i:)rayers for confiscation, and consummates 
 his worship in singing Ralhi Round Ihe FIliq, Bo>js, with the secret 
 army of the " G. A. R." organized to take by force what they cannot 
 secure by fraud. 
 
 Cromwell had brains enough to keep England quiet while 
 hhe weaned herself from the insolvence of her Bare Bones Par- 
 liament ; but saintly arrogance yielded to courtly Monk, and 
 Charles the Second ascended the throne welcomed by a peoi^le 
 wear led wi/h the despoti>iin of Libert y. But Charles the Second could 
 not satisfy himself with the good will and prosperity of his subjects, 
 he had to inaugurate an era of revenge, such as Stevens and Butler 
 would prepare for the South. The policy culminated in Jeffcries, 
 and ended at Fever^ham. 
 
 France, filled by an inspiration for Libert}' and Equality never 
 surpassed, commenced a Eevolution to estabUsh human, and iierfcct 
 political rights ; but the vei'y excess of her zeal has stained her his- 
 tory Avith the blood of victims, which will plead with endless elo- 
 qiiencc against the bigoti-y of that fanaticism which, when maddened 
 into partisan hatreds, overrides all barriers and is blind to all 
 reason. 
 
 There is much in the history of that Ivevolution which oiu' peo- 
 ple, and the Senate, can reflect upon with profit. Let mo recall to 
 your mind some facts connected with the Impeachmest or Louis 
 
 THE SiXTBEXTH. 
 
 It was inaugurated by that baud of philosophical scholars known 
 as tlie Girondists. Educated in Grecian and Boman statesmanship 
 and polity, they were animated by as lofty precepts, and inspired 
 by as divine sentiments as ever impelled men to action. They had 
 the wisdom of Condorcet, the learning of Bailly, the eloquence of 
 Vergniaud, the passionate devotion of Brissot and the inspiration 
 (jf that divinity of her sex, Madam Bolaud. J 
 
 Commencing with, the Girondists lost the support of the execu- 
 tive, as Cougresy eommcncc'-Ii^itliandlosltlic support oi tke President 
 
11 
 
 They sought to intimidate the King, as ('ougrcss h:is sought to in- 
 timidate the President. They resorted to the passions, and to the 
 mob, as Congress has resorted to the passions and to th<- mob.— 
 They made inflamatory appeals to In-utes, and to brute force, until 
 they relished the cry "The Constitution or Death." •' Lomj /im lh<' 
 Sans Culottes," -with as much vehemence as Congress can now de- 
 mand Negro Suflrage at the South, aiul Impeachment at the. North. 
 They imposed a cabinet on the King, as Congrefs would iiu])os(' a 
 cabinet on the President. They crippled the executive power, and 
 subordinated it to Petion, as Congress has attempted to cripple it 
 and subordinate it to Grant. They impeached the King, as Con- 
 gi-ess has impeached the President. 
 
 The parallel thus far is complete. Let us prayerfully hope it 
 may go no further. 
 
 Now, sir, what was the fate of their constitution V It disaj)- 
 jieared hke a rope of sand. What was the fate of these pliilosophers ? 
 They were guillotined ! And wherefore such a fate '? With all 
 their love of Justice, they yielded to the jiassions of tlx^ houv, and 
 declared Louis XVI guilty. With all their humanity, tliey voted for 
 his death. 
 
 Bailly, sir, was more learned than iSumner, Yergniaud more 
 eloquent than Wilson, Condorcet a better jurist than Bingham, Bar- 
 baroux was as impetuous as Logan, and Gaudet as forcible as Bout- 
 well. 
 
 These learned men of Francs, like the learned men in Congress, 
 united forces as antagonistic to their tasks, and to their culture as 
 that which separates the erudition of Fessenden from the jirofane 
 vidgarity of Brownlow. So that the pure lioland and tlie bt^astly 
 Marat, the courtly Buzot and the butcher Couthon, united in tlu^ 
 demand for blood as affectionately as Snmner and Bingham madden 
 into the cry for Impeachment with Stevens and Butler. 
 
 With the death of the King, the Rubicon was passed. The 
 Girondists soon became as obnoxious to Robespierre as the King 
 had been to the Girondits. They followed their victim. Then came 
 Danton's time. He who, like Stevens, was audacity's self, a very 
 demon of eloquence and crime, like "the old commoner," cracked 
 the whip and was obeyed. (You can punctixate the last two senteu- 
 
12 
 
 ees to suit vonr own roatling). His head rolled into the basket of 
 revolutionary retribution. Blood, blood in torrents drowned hu-- 
 inanity, ■wisdom and justice. 
 
 Let Mr. Sumner look back upon the tumbrel wliich dragged 
 the ])hiIosophical Bailly in the wintry sleet, through the scoffing 
 crowds, to his execution. Let Thaddeus Stevens imagine himself 
 walking by the side of Danton, as he moaned his way to the scaf- 
 fold, weeping in guilt, over the retrospect of passions in the past, as 
 the world was about to close before his eyes, and eternity was the 
 abyss before his soul. And let the managers of Impeachment, at 
 \Vashington, recall the last night of the managers of the Impeach- 
 ment of Louis the 16th, and then follow them, in their brains, to the 
 radical guillotine, and pausing, as the scene is jiainted up in their 
 mind's eye, let them read the indictment of high crimes and misde- 
 meanors which were charged against the victims. Let them recall 
 the trial, and then ask themselves if an imitation of the Revolution- 
 ary tribunal would find advocates at Washington. 
 
 Let us profit by the past, while we weep over its passions, and 
 remember, before we strike, the exclamation which immortalized 
 the dying hour of Madam Boland, "Oh, Liberty, what crimes are 
 committed in thy name." The very goddess of the divine, as a 
 dcAotee to Liberty, she, too, was the victim of high crimes and mis- 
 demeanors : but she bent her head for the stroke which severed it 
 from her body, with the grace of a woman, and the spirit of an 
 angel. 
 
 An eminent historian has said that the leaders of a revolution 
 are constantly advancing before the fire which they themselves have 
 lighted ; the moment they stop they are consumed in the flames. 
 
 Bobespierre followed Danton ; Carrier followed BobespieiTe. 
 
 Every revolutionary step in France, from Sieyes to Hebert — 
 from Malesherbes to Marat— from '89 to '94— is filled Avith evangel- 
 ism to plead with mankind against the malignant moods in which 
 our heated zeal drives its victims in crime and maddens them into 
 murder. 
 
 .Tac(jues Clement was impelled by a sense of duty when he assas- 
 sinated Henry;; the Third— Catharine De Medici Avas prompted by 
 
religions politics when she lurauged the massacre of St. Bartholo- 
 mew. Indeed, in tlie long line of exeentions which blacken the pa- 
 ges of political history, puritanical motives, without exception, have 
 sanctified the crime. Koger Williams was driven from Massachu- 
 setts by the puritanical fathers of those New England saints who to- 
 day worship Sumner and give their suft'rages to Butler, for the en- 
 ergy with which he suriiassed Hayneau in cruelty and Botts in his 
 reputation for spoons. 
 
 But, sir, what did England gain by beheading Charles the First ; 
 or France by guillotining Louis the Sixteenth V What did Louis 
 the Eighteenth gain by shooting Marshall Ney— or Napoleon by as- 
 sassinating Le Due d' Enghin ? In one word, what single political 
 execution in the past five centuries has accomplished a step in ad- 
 vance of the cause Avhieh demanded it V Indeed, what single polit- 
 ical execution lias not re-acted upon and forever stigmatized its 
 originators ? 
 
 Why, sir, Dickens has done UKire in a single book, by familiar- 
 izing us with the divine recomiiense of the charity of good deeds, 
 than aU the pohtical trials which have excited and maddened par- 
 ties since the flood. 
 
 Impeachment is the practical realization of the dogmas and 
 opinions of Thaddens Stevens and Benjamin F. Butler. It is the 
 culmination of their demands. This step taken, all others become 
 easy. 
 
 Agrarianism Africanized in the South, will follow, exclusion and 
 confiscation will end the white race, or the race will wash the land 
 with lilood. 
 
 Are men who boast of our free institutions, of our Kepublican 
 form of government, of our Liberty, so wedded to the cruelties of 
 Eevolutionists that they cannot accept the disenthrallment of the 
 Nation from Slavery ? that they cannot be contented with the splen- 
 dor of our achievement m arms — with the deathless glory of our na- 
 val victories, or with the matchless aim of elevating millions of a 
 race from a past of bondage to a future of citizenship, without again 
 baptising us in brotherly blood ? Does the hand of the very God 
 
11 
 
 demand more hetiaeombs at the Soiith, for tlie salvation of the 
 North ? Must States, ravaged by fire, phander, death, desolation 
 and niin, be confiscated in property, murdered in spirit, and bound 
 down still deeper in defeat beneath the yoke of puritan intolerance, 
 to insure the hellish demands of Stevens and the devilish nature of 
 Butler ? 
 
 For three years the insane battle for negro suffrage, to secure 
 permanent ascendancy for the EepubHcan party, has kept the South 
 in irons and the North trembling in the passions which the war 
 aroused, and which political madness has kept alive. 
 
 One week filled with the voice of the North, proclaiming " char- 
 ity to all and malice to no one," — one united and cordial declaration 
 of TJNi VERBAL AiiKESTY, shielded into strength by Impaetial Suf- 
 frage, would do more to command the whites, secure the rights, and 
 promote the education of the blacks, at the South, than has been 
 accomplished by the whole race of iiolitical huxters since the wai* 
 began. 
 
 I have digressed, Senator Conkhug, from the a\owed object of 
 my letter, but the spirit which stimiilated the digression will be as 
 apparent to you as the object of the letter itself ; and continuing in 
 the same spirit, I will recall to you one of your quotations from 
 Webster, to illustrate the tendency of the human mind. You quote 
 him as saying that " The lightning is strong, the whirlwind is strong, 
 the temjiest is strong, but there is something stronger than all these ; 
 it is the enlightened judgment of mankind ;" — and you added, "Yes, 
 iiiERE IS rowER IN THE HONEST SENSE OF MEN." To iniprcss this fact 
 u]ion your mind, I write this letter. 
 
 In concluding, I should do you, as well as myself, injustice, if I 
 did not say to you that no man in the Senate of the XTnited States 
 occuiiies a more independent position than you occupy. You are 
 one of its youngest members, from one of the oldest, and by far the 
 most i)owerful of the States of the Union. You possess abilities 
 which New York has recognized, and which the Nation respects. 
 You are stronger in yourself than you are in any party. This, sir, 
 is not WTitten either to flatter or influence you ; and the weight of 
 this truth has brought me to say to you that you can aftbrd to be 
 
just — auil yet you have ueitliei* position or geuius enough to alibrtl 
 to be unjust, for "Posterity will pass judgment on your judgment." 
 
 I am, sir, respectfully, yours, 
 
 A CONSTITUENT. 
 
 To HoK. EoscoK ComujIKu, 
 United States Senate, 
 
 Washington, D. C. 
 
^w 
 
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I TRRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
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