SPEEC HES
OF
HON. MONTGOMERY BLAIR.
1. On the Monroe Doctrine.
2. Defence of the People of the Southern States.
H.. Polkinhorn & Son, Printers, D street, between 6th and streets4.








THE MONROE DOCTRINE.
S PEE C IH
OF
HON. MONTGOMERY BLAIR,
AT HAGERSTOWN, MD., ON 12th JULY, 1865,
Exposing the alliance of the American Secretary of State with
Louis Napoleon to overthrow the Monros  Doctrine and
establish a despotism on this Continent.
FELLOW-CITIZENS. I join heartily in thanks to the Almighty for the
success which it has graciously pleased tim to give our efforts in maintaining the Government ol our fathers, and I share fully in the gratitude
and affection which swells the nation's heart towards all the gallant men
who have been His instruments in this great work. I am more especially
grateful to the soldiers of Maryland, some of whom we have met here to
grasp by tVre hand and to welcome home. They have been our special
representatives in those great and ever-memorable fields, some of which
are so close about us, on which the battles which have decided our fate
and preserved our Government and liberties have been fought. Well may
we be proud of our share in these great struggles, when we can say, with
truth, that oaall these trying occasions the men of Maryland have nobly
performed their duty. The empty sleeves, the shattered limbs, the pallid
faces here to-day, show that our blood has flowed freely in this cause.
And then our absent ones, some of whom still languish in hospitals, but
how many more, whose sufferings are over, sleep beneath the sod of those
fields already so renowned in the world's history! We will never forget
them, and their absence here to-day speaks yet more eloquently to our
hearts of the sacrifices our brethren have made for us and our children,
and the cause of free government, than the scars and shattered limbs of
the bronzed veterans who surround us. Terrible indeed have been the
conflicts through which they have gone. It has been a contest in which
the prowess, courage, and talent of men-all nurtured by our free institutions-have been tried upon each other. It has been " Greek meeting
Greek," with the most formidable weapons ever invented, and hence the
world never witnessed such combats, and the European world has looked
on with mingled fear and astonishment. Never before wag there such
destruction of life-so many prolonged and indecisive battles. Never before so great a military force raised, or such enormous outlays of money,
without subjecting to military despotism the people by whom they were
raisen.
This fact, which the Count de Montalembert says more surprises Europe
than even our military operations, surprises no one here, where all feel




2
and know that our soldiers were only our best citizens, straggling to preserve our institutions and to put down usurpation, and that they would
have to change their entire natures before they could be perverted by any
military leader and made instruments to destroy that which they undertook at such sacrifices to preserve. The fact that our veterans are returning to their homes to pursue their more congenial pursuits, after having
successfully resisted the attempt to subvert their Government; having
maintained the Federal Union as it was, its basis unaltered in any respect, and our Federal Coustitution unchanged, save in the amendment
whicih forbids slavery within the Union; whilst it is taken as a matter of
course here, because we know that any other result would be impossible,
must revolutionize European opinion as to the instability of the Federal
republican system. In the end, therefore, our own country will not alone
be indebted for its freedom to the valor and patriotism  of the noble band
we greet here to-day with thanks and blessings. I feel how feeble anywords are to express the deep feeling which not only pervades this assenmbly, but which lives in the hearts and speaks in the eyes of every lover of
the human family throughout this world, towards any man who has borne
arms in this cause for the love of it. To their unexampled bravery, to
their patient labor, to their endurance of cold and heat, hunger and
thirst, to their sufferings from wounds and disease, do we owe it, under
God's providence, that we have not now, and possibly in perpetuity, a divided and distracted country, and, consequent thereon, the introduction
here ok that accursed European system of mercenary standing armies, in
whose presence all liberty vanishes like mist. Long may the survivors of
this noble band live to enjoy the honors they are entitled to from the people for their services, and that choicest of all pleasures to such men-to
witness the prosperity, tranquillity and happiness they have senured to
their countrymen. Perhaps there are some of them, some of the younger
sort, who would like also the smiles of their fair countrywomen, ad might
even prefer to see themselves mirrored in a fair of soft eyes to obtaining
the homage of all the rest of us. That may seem to be irrational to some,
but I confess that a man must be older than I am to be astonished at the
preference, especially when the lasses of Washington, our fatnous highland
beauties, are before him.
After the display of such irresistible power by the American people, with
our well-known disposition to deal justly with all nations, we ought to expect to enjoy a long peace. No for eign nation would wantonly provoke a
conflict with us, for, however powerful, it cannot hope for any but a disastrous issue; and yet, but for my confidence in the courage and prudence
of President Johnson, I should have serious apprehensions of a war with
France, growing out of the ill-judged course hitherto adopted by our foreign department in relation to the intervention of France in Mexico. No
one acquainted with the subject can have failed to observe that this department of our Government has hitherto pursued, and continues to pursue, a
course in this matter strangely at variance with the feelings of our people
and with the recognized principles upon which our Government has uniformly acted.
The presenit ruler of France has exhibited, throughout our late struggle
for existence, a most unfriendly spirit, and availed himself of our difficulties to invade our sister republic of Mexico, subvert her government,
and establish there a military despotism, under the nominal head of an
Austrian prince. Would the crowned heads of Europe submit quietly to
similar intervention on our part to establish the republican system in
IHungary, Italy, or any other European country where revolutionary
movements have arisen from time to time? We know that such an act




on our part would combine every one of them against us as an aggressor,
seeking to overthrow  their regal governments-the political system  of
tlhat continent.  Is the invasion of Mexico by France, in the interests of
absolutism, any less an act of hostility towards the United States and a
war on the republican system of this?  Certainly not.  The proposition
is too obvious to require argument or authority to support it.  This is the
gist of the Monroe doctrine, as the manifesto made to preserve ourselves
against this mode of subverting our popular institutions has been called,
ever since'reside'nt Monroe declared his purpose to resist such design
when broachedl by the  Ioly Alliance in 1823.  ile states the preposition
to which I have alluded in this language:'The political system of the
allied powers is essentially different in this respect from that of America.
And to the defence of our own, which has beeTi achieved by the loss of so
much blood and tleasure, and matured by the wisdlom  of their most
enlightened citizens, and under which we have enjo eyed unexamplled felicity,
this whole nation is devoted.  We owe it, therefore, to candor and to the
amicable relations existing between the United States and those powers,
to declare that we should cotsid, r anl attempt on their part to extend their systemr to anly portion of' this hellisqpere as dangzerous to our peace,u:d satfetq.."
Again, in 18'4, he said: " It is impossiile for the European governments
to interfere in thesi concerns, (the affaires of our neighbors,) especiailly in
those alluded to, (their systems oLr governmuent,) which are vital, without
affecting us; iideed, the nlotive which migyht induce such ilterferencei in the
present state of the war between the parties, if a war it nIiiay be called,
would appear to be equally applicable to us."  Could lalglage be fralnied
mlore appropriate to portray thle designs of the etrench ixovernment in
their intervenltion in Mexico, and the feelings of our people in reg;ard to it?
-— and the representatives of the people, in the session before the last,
adopted a declaration of the same purport, even at the risk of bringing
French recognition and open alliance, to the rebels whilst our contest was
at the hiilghest.'Iheie is no blinking the tact, that the Frenich war oiu
Mlexico was the Einmperor's cohtingent in aid of the- rebellion againsit free
governmennt, and the rebellion has not ended whilst French bayoniets maintain a despotisml there.
1'o I propose, then, to send our veterans to put it down at once?  I do
not.  1 believe it will not be necessary.  Bat it is neceissary, to prevent
war, that the French Empelor should be no longer deceived as to (he feel,'
ings of the Amlerican people in regard to his position there.  We ileet not
Pay what we are able to do.  He has seen that we are able to hold the'territory which our fathers bequeathed us.  We should make it maliftest
also, in a becoming manner, that we nmean to maintain the Government
which they framed for us; and the principles whichll they asserted as
necessary to preserve it-asserted, too, when they were comtparatively a
feeble power, in defiance of. the allied powers of the whole contineunt of
Europe.
The course of our Foreign Secretary and War Secretary will warrantthe
French Emperor in asserting that the policy he has adopted to engraft
French power on the institutions of this continent, which are cut down to
nlake a stock for its support, is approved by our Government.  See how
both our State and War Departnlents have been subordinated to Napoleon's
poicyv.  Our House of Represeltatives re-echoed the -oice of the CoLnvention that. nominated Lincoln and Johsnson as candidates, pledged, if elected
to the Presidency, to reassert and maintain, even in the midst of the rebellion, the Monroe doctrine, as a protest against the invasion of France to
overthrow  the republican system  established as that of our continent,
taken from  the type of that of the United States.  The State Department




4
instantly dispatched a disclaimer to the Emperor of the French, through
our minister at Paris, containing the assurance that the opinion of the
House was not that of the Government, and giving him to understand that
the Executivb would not co-operate with the House.  The War Office confirmed this intimation of the State Department immediately, by its action.
An order was entered against the exportation of arms, which were essential to enable the Mexicans to defend themselves, while the French were
allowed forage and transportation, which were all they wanted.  WVe had
an equal right to stop the means of supply, which were as essential to
maintain the Emperor's army in AMexico, as to stop the export of arms, lest
they might fall into the hands of the invaded Republicans, who, thus disarmed, were compelled to hubmit to an enemy that came accoutred with
the best the armories of Europe could furnish. The Mexicans sought, and
might have obtained but for this order, the arms exported from Europe
and rejected by our army as not equal to the Springfield gun, but our
War Secretary, in complaisance to France, played the part of the dog in
the manger, and denied the contractors and merchants the right to re-export what he had refused to receive. This interdict was continued even
to the last of June, for so late were the refuse arms purchased by the
Mexican agents in San Francisco withheld, although President Johnson ordered its removal within one week after his accession to power. Nevertheless, the revocation was not communicated to our officers in that quarter,
and hence the Mexican arms were seized, and continue so to be held
even now.
But the Emperor of the French is not left to infer the acquiescence of
our Government in his policy in reference to this continent from even these
pregnant facts. He has it coupled with a justification in the handwriting
of our Minister, under the authority of our Secretary of State.  Louis Napoleon's Minister of State, M. Rouher, read to the French Legislative body
this extract from an official communication of our Minister, Mr. Bigelow,
containing an assurance of our submission to the establishment of his
Mexican Empire, with a view to disarm opposition to it from the representatives of the French people, and to quiet their discontents.  The Jloniteur, the Government official paper of France, reports Mr. Bigelow's words
thus: " We (our Government) do not like of course to see a monarchy established in Mexico; we prefer, of course, republican institutions; but we
respect the will of the people; we canll understand how Mexico, that was
for a long time ruled by a monarchical government, would like to return
to that form  of government, and we would not go to war for the sake
of a form of government."*
~*NoTB.-The following reply of Mr. Seward to this statement appeared as a despatch
to the Associated Press:
1"THE INTERVIEW BETWVEEN OIJR MINNISTER AT PARIS AND TIlE FiEN:CI{ MINISTER FOR FPORPEIX
AFFAIaS RELATI\G'0 MEXICO.
WASHINGTON, July 20. —Mr. Bigelow, our Minister at Paris. so soon as he saw the version which had been given by M. Rouher, Secretary of Statr, in France to a conversation which had previously taken place between Mr. Bigelow and M. Druyn de L'Huys,
the French Minis:er of Foreign Affairs, concerning MIexico, atldressed a note to that
gentleman denying the statements made by M. Rtouher. M. Druyn de T1'I1uys answered, admitting AMr Bigelow's statement to be correct, and the statement of M.
Rouher incorrect. This correspondence has been long since received at, the State
Department, and in due time w-ill be submitted to Congress.'
Why is not Mr. Bigelow's correction of Mr. )Rouher's sialement, referred to as long
since in the liepartnient, given thie public now. The correspondence of the Department with Fransce communicated to Congress at its last session, is not yet published, I
believe. The course of events will, no doubt, render Mr. Bigelow's correction (which
is probably not on a very material point) of very little importance this time next year.




5
Now, here is not only acquiescence against our inclinations to the conspiracy which seeks the surrender of Mexico as the prey of tne French and
Austrian potentates, but assigns as reasons for it falsehoods, which are
made to give it the appearance of a submission to an honest, democratic
principle.  While all the world knows that republican institutions were
put down in Mexico by French bayonets, neither the party of Miramon nor
Juarez, at war for the Presidency, consenting to surrender their form of
government, our American Minister is made to say that they were put
down by the people theiiselves! And yielding submission to this flagralt
act of war upon the Mexican Republic, and our own, of which it was the
effspring, we are told is but respect to the will of the people! And thus
it is argued that the Mexican people, having consented to relinquish their
independence te the mandate of a foreign usurper, the people of the- United
States must abandon the time-honored policy of our fathers, which the
public opinion of liberal Europe so sanctioned as to compel even the Holy
Alliance to respect it.
Our Minister in Paris next gives the assurance to the French Emperor
and the legislative body, " Th'at we (speaking for our Administration)
can understacd how lMLexico, that was for a long time ruled by a?monarchical
9+overwnnent, would like to return to th/atJorm of yoverlment."  Might not the
representative of our country at thle French or English Court apply the
same remark with equal truth to the people of this country as to the people of Mexico?  If the French usurper should conquer us and set a Hapsburg over us as a Viceroy, doubtless some sycophant to ambition and power
among us would give the world to understand how the American people,
as well as the Mexicans, as they were for a long time ruled by a monarchical government, would like to return to that form of government! It
would be just as true of the first as the last.
The missive to France having performed its function for the Emperor
there, the State Department employs its organ, the Nvew York Times, to
subserve the purposes of the usurper and maker of thrones here, by advocating his cause before the American people. Three columns and a-half of
that journal, conducted by Weed and Raymond, well-fed favorites from
the drippings of the State and War Offices, are employed in arguing away
the Monroe doctrine, and asserting the lawfulness and justice of the policy
of the invader of Mexico. The article is ushered in b:gan editorial apprQval, and has the ear-mark of its Cabinet origin, by putting in the salvo
which makes a feature inrour Minister, Mr. Bigelow's communication to
Napoleon's Minister of State, M. Rouher, as read by him to the legislative
body. It has the very tone of our Secretary. It has his diplomatic cue
precisely as he gave it to Mr. Bigelow. " Of course (says the Titmes in its
colonnade article) the people of the United States would prefer to see Mexico flourish under the republican institutions which sealed their independence in 1808. But it must be admitted that the experience of republicanism in Mexico has not been, on the whole, flattering. Had the case
been otherwise, the occasion would never have arisen for the European intervention of 1861."  From this position everything done by France in regard to Mexico is vindicated, and the violation of the Monroe doctrine,
sanctioned by so maugy years of tacit admission, is justified. The article
insists that as juarez did not pay the debts due the subjects of France,
had " no material means of honoriAg his signature, in which case he represented only an illusory or inadequate government; or he did not mean
to honor it, in which case it was proper to punish. Upon this, the European governments broke relations with himu and united to obtain redress.
Such, in a few words, was the origin of the Mexican expedition. It had
but one object-the recovery of sums due to France, and security for
French citizens."




6
Now, this is the ground upon which the overthrow of Mexican independence, and of the Monroe doctrine, is justified. England and iipain, we
are told, united with France to obtain redress for the grievances complained.of.  I admit it.  But did they unite with France in making the
independence of the country and the liberties of the people a forfeiture
because Juarez had no material means of honoring his sygnature or did niot
i e,,In to honor it?"  England and Spain, on the contrary, renounced the
alliance and turned their prows homeward when they ascertained the
French Emperor's design was not to exact payment of a debt or indemnity for injury to his subjects, but to overthrow a republic with the
liberties of a people. iNeither England nor Spain  nclderstood, as the despatch from our State Department authorizes our Minister at Paris to declare to the French Minister of State "'e e understood,' that this sudden
anJ bold consummation of an enterprise begun under pretence of obtaining justice, but ending in conquering a nation, was simply the result of
respect for the will of that nation.  What can be more humbling to the
pride of our country than to witness its Premier, through our highest
functionary abroad, making the degrading declaration that his countrymen
believe that the Mexican people invited and brought in the foreign master,'while the very allies of France in, the origin of the attempt turn their
backs on it as soon as the real design of conquest was disclosed by Napoleon?  Indeed, he himself had the frankness, when fairly embarked on
its expedition, to despise such subterfuges and to avow his real purpose to
the world, proclaiming through the press of Europe that his object was
"to give the ascendency to the Latin race " throughout the southern section
of our continent. This was an appeal to all of French or Spanish lineage
holding possessions in the regions washed by the Gulf of Mexico to join
his standard.  It was in the spirit of the design of the Holy Alliance,
when the arbiter of thrones, after settling affairs in Europe, it proposed to
re-establish its viceroyships. which the popular power on this continent
had repudiated   The British Minister, Canning, saw in the restoration of
European potentates on this continent a renewal of colonial bondage and
commercial monopoly. The American President, Moniroe, saw in it a war
upon Nepublican commonwealths which inevitably involved our own.
Upon these cpnsiderations, the American and British Cabinets concurred
that it was wise to confront the design of the Holy Alliance with the Monroe doctrine.  It was this concurrence of the Anglo-Saxon governments,
looking to the preservation of the free institutions on which they were
founded, that arrested the steps of the Holy Allies tending to the reestablishment of the Latin race with its imperial absolutism in all the
Gulf regions.  Louis Napoleon renews the attempt, making the principal
membei- of the Holy Alliance his colleague in the undertaking.  Will the
north of Europe —-will England, espesially-see with indifference this
second marriage of France with Austria, meant to give the Bonaparte
dynasty the mines and men, and the vast commercial material of SpanishAmerica to agrandise its powers in Europe as well as America, and to
render it more than it was under the first Emperor-the arbiter of both
continents.
The present Emperor is ambitious to restore in his own person the reign
of those great Cmesars whose occasional advents, he assumes in his history,
are essential to the progress of the human race. England, it is certain,
did not contribute to build up the power of the last of them, nor as yet does
she seem willing to assist the grand schemes of his successor. She would
not countenance his Mexican conquest, nor listen to his repeated importunities to recognize the States late in rebellion against our Union-States he
sought to cut off from our Republic and bring under his wing as consum



mating his darling project of " the Latin race ascendency " in all regions
around the Gulf of Mexico. England will not favor it. She has too deep
a stake in the Anglo-Saxon race and their free institutions.  Is it not
strange that an American statesman should be found willing to establish
the colossal power of France and Austria in our midst-ready to carry out,
on any opportune occasion of new sectional discontents, the cherished
scheme of destroying our Union? It is certain, if the Latin race gains the
ascendency aimed at, it must absorb Central America and hold the isthmus
and separate us from our Pacific States by the ocean route. Already, in
advance, we see France planting colonies of rebel refugees, under the
auspices of a California traitor, in Sonora, to rob us of our sister Republics
of the far West; and the French Government has already carried a vote
in the legislative body providing for transporting a new army of 10,000
men to effect these objects; and this immediately followed the concession
of our State Department, which was read in the Chambers.
To take the French side in the Mexican contest in such a crisis as this, its
originator a Bonaparte, avowing designs hostile to republican governments
and directly subversive of our rights as a nation in the region around the
Gulf of Mexico, is a daring course in, one holding high station in our Government and looking to the highest. Does he expect to mount by appealing to the love of peace aind dread of war with France? Does he expect
to gain the support of the holders'of the public debt, who may prefer to
run up their stock by submission to France, rather than elevate the glory
and preserve the free institutions of their country and of the continent by
patriotic sacrifices? Cowardice, it should be remembered, invites oppression, because it falls an easy prey. Courage averts war, because it makes
peace the interest of an enemy. Remember that the rebellion itself, suppressed'without bloodshed by the courage of Andrew Jackson, was fostered
into war by the cowardice of James Buchanan and his advisers.
Fortunately, we have at the head of our Government a man of courage,
judgment and constancy-of patriotism-whom  we may well hope neither
the fear of France, nor the corruption of stockholders or jobbers, nor the
blandishments of political aspirants, nor their party machinery, can swerve
from the maintenance of the long-settled, well-approved policy of his
country.
NoTE.-The proposition, out of which originated the Hampton Roads conferences between the President, with his Secretary, Seward, on one side, and Jeff. Davis' commissioners on tie other, was made by my father on his mission to Richmond. Its purpose
was to close our civil war, by inducing Davis to carry such of his followers as wished
to withdraw fromn the impending overthrow which the approaching combination of
Shernan's army 4With Grant's rendered inevitable, to Mexico, and there employ them
in expelling the French and restoring the republic. Davis eagerly embraced this idea,
but wanted an armistice between "the two countries " Hle was told by my father, that
he had an armistice in the last annual mes-age of Mr Lincoln, in which he said, in
effect, that'if the Confederates would cease to fight him, lie would not fight them.' On
this understanding he sought ant interview for his commissioners. It was granted, but
its object deflated by his instructions to his representatives, Stephens, Hunter and
Campbell, to insist on an armistice between "the two countries," notwithstanding the
President's note of invitation prescribed as the condition of the interview, the admission that allegiane.to "Our One Common Country" was the basis of it. The President's
communication to Congres& gave this true and simple aspect of the proceeding, thus
ending the matter. Mr. Seward inrnediately wrote, and the next day published a
letter to our Minister in England, in which he stated that the Confederates favored
some "extrinsic enterprize orplan," and left the impression that the rejection of this
wse the cause of the failure to attain peace; and his confidential man's paper, "The
Press," in printing the letter, expltains this "extrinsic plan " to have been the seizure
of the Canada. instead of the liberation of Mexico. The effect oi this in France was
imnmediately to induce the Emperor to offer his aid to England to defend her possessions, and to get tp the nmost notable debate in Parliament on the question of arming and
fortlfing and defending Canada. Nothing was better calculated to increase the entente
cordialc between France and England, and direct their united force against us, than




8
this false report; and the feeling'against us was aroused still more by a letter of Mr.
Seward to Mr. Wells, a;surming, I have no doubt without authority, to direct cur
cruisers to insult the British flag by refusing tile usuai court'esy. John Bright, by a
noble speech, exhibiting the true interest and feeling w% hich aniruna-ted the.omrmonal;ty
or both isEnland and the United States, arrested the ierment in Parlinment; and Mr.
Whitte, another friend of our country in Paliiament, who seemsn to have had informatiou eniiblno himn to confrolt and confound the, ifhle a.spect gkven to the conibrenees
at 1tl:rnlpton lRoads by the commentary of 1Mr. Seward's official exponent ill the Press,
Mr. Forney, took the pairs to unravel for us the nuysieries which were. hidden in our
Secretary's amlbiguous latnguage about "extrinsic enterprizes."'  As Mr. Wnite's brief
steiecl is flll of tnsttuntion to us, as well as Europe, about'tHE Mo.xacE Do);RINi;, I
subjoin it:'r 3r. WHITE felt compelled, by the remarks of the hon. baronet the member for
Ayr antd his hon. friend t!e member for HIrlsham, to asl those gentlemen what they
propo.ied to do for tile delence of canada, inm  whether they were prepared to sanction
atl amount of exuorlditul'e whilch would,son double the National Debt, obliging theil
illeallwliile to foreo  iall hiope of the. reduction of the mait duty (" Hear, ilear," and
ltLugilter), aid setndn(l    u! the income-tax irnmmediately to Is. Every one acquainited
witil tile geograpcllal position of Canada and the extent of frontier to be defenied
would knuw thtat these thlngs mlust le looked plainly in the tace if Enghlld undertook
to hold thait country against a hostile atempt onl the part of the Americns. The right
hon. ge.itlenian the merlber for Calne represent:d the opinion of every one whose
opinion waitS worth having wxhen he spolie of the utter impossibility of holding ICanada
without an expenditure of' rioney and ollood on the part of GrCeat Britain wihicl  was
iearful to contemplate. As to the alarn. ceteatd by the recent conlference betwseen the
IN orthern tiend Conifederatte Commnissionerss,   and the corl-esponltence between Mr. Seward
and -Mr. Adamns, it would be suti-cient to state that tlh  proposal for joint action on thie
part of tile present billigerents had refere nce to a suggestion that the iFrellnch should be
expelled fiom Mexico. Any onl.- conversant with the tone of Americtan politics wouldi
see that this was the most termpting bait which  the Confederates; as they thougt,
could otier to the North. The righit hoii. lnember for Calne had inentiolled tfle Monroe
doe ritie; lie muchll  ished he had explained its nature to the House. Everybody acquainted with English and American hil;tory knew that the doctrine in question was
essentinally of British origin, and had  been suggested by Mr. Canning. Fra iee, having
put downci the constitutional principles which pievailed in Spain, entertained the notion
of tie'raying herself for the expenses inculrred in so doing by acquiring portions of the
Sipanilh colonies in South Anierica, and England,  na tually  indignant at conduct so
detrimiental to her interests, and with the aversion xxwhich Mr. Canning had ever shown
fioit tile principles of the Holy Alliance, induced f'resident Monroe. to enunciate the
doc trie which had since become so fatnous. Lest an American authority upon this
point rnight be received with some mistrust, lie had referred to a work whliici was in
the library of almost every gentleman, and from the last edition of the Encyclopioedia
Britannicca took thle follow-ing extract:"Jamties  onroe succeed Madison in the Presidency, and retained it eight years (181W
to) 1825). Towards the close of his administration (1823), in compliatnce witlh the sugt"stion of his Secreltary of Sta'te John Quiney Adamln, he introduced into his Message
to Congress-adverting to the purpose of the European allies of Spain to assist. her in
subduillg her revolted,-olonies in Central and South America-the tassertion of'a prineiple in whichl the rights and( interest of the United States are involved, that the Amori-.an continents, by thle fiee and independent position which they have a:sumned and
iitaiutained,- re henceforth not to be considered as subjects for future colonization by
tiny Elropean DPower.::  *  - With the existing colonies or dependencies of any
Ilnuropean Power,' contintites the Message,'we have not interfered and shall not interf-re. Biut with the Goverlnments who have declared their independence and maintained it, aud whose independence -we have on great consideration and on just principles
ai-knowled'ed, we could not view any interposition for the purpose of oppressing
them, or controlling in any other manner their destiny by any Europen Power, in any
other light than as the manilfestaticon of an unfiiendly disposition towards the United
States.'
Congress took no action upon this, but the spirit of that body and of the nation was
in favol of the KMonroe doctrine. Lord Brougham, itn referring to -the President's
declaration, state I that it had diffused joy over all free men in Europe; and Sir J.
Mackintos;: spoke of it in the following terms:" cThis wise Government, in grave but determined language, and with that reasonable
but deliberate tone which becomes tirue courage, proclaims the principles of her policy
atid mrtkes known the cases in which the care of her own safety will compel her to
takle up arms for tle defence of other States. I have already observed its coincidence
with the declarations of England. which indeed is perfect, if allowance be made for
the deeper or at least miiore immuediate interest in the independence of South America
which near neighborhood gives to the United States. T'his coincidence of the two
great English commonwealths-for so I delight to call thom, and I heartily pray that
they may be for ever united in the eause of justice and liberty-cannot be contemplated without the utmnst pleasure by every enlightened citizen of the earth."




He trusted that the citation of such high authorities would dissipate the apprehlnsions which some seemed to entertain of the operation of the Monroe doctrine. Witn
respect to Canada, England had not such vast interests in-connexion with that country
as with the United States. By the last returns of the Board of Trade'he found that
the total value of the British exports to the United States last year was 16,'04,0001., exceeding by 5,000,0001. the exports to Australia, and being twice as much as the exports
to France, while the 150,000,000 of the Queen's subjects in India took only 3,000,0001.
more. The trade which this country carried on with Canada and the whole of British
North America did not amount in magnitude to one-third of the British trade carried
on with the United States, under the influence of a hlgh tariff and during the agonies
of war. He might mention that the vast immigration pouring into the United States
would really, in case of a conflict between England and America, impart to the struggle
almost the character Of a civil war. During the last seven years 3,152,794 foreigners
arrived in the port of New York, and of that number 1,816,566 were natives of England,
Scotland, Ireland and Wales. He considered that the tone and temper evinced by the
hon. member for Horsham was quite s'tisfactory, as contrasted with the tone and temper evinced in a speech delivered in another place by a noble lord, who, they were
taught to believe, was the hon.member's leader. The only consolation he derived
from the speech delivered elsewhere was that the noble lord did not regard h is advent
to power as very probable, or he would not have ventured on such inflammatory language as would cause his advent to power to be regarded by the Americans as a declaration of war. (" Hear," and cries of "Oh, oh!")"








THE REBELLION —-WHERE THE GUILT LIES,
S P EE C ]
OF TH1
HON. MO0NT(GOMERY BLAIR,
DELIVERED AT:
Clarksville, Howard County, Md., on August 28, 1865.
FELLOW-CITIZENS: It cannot be said that States or men loyal to the
tnion, that remained steadfast to it until vanquished by the superior
force of a victorious usurpation which reduced all the civil and military
authorities within the States to subserviency, became) rebels by submission. Much less can it be saidof such States or individuals, entitled by
their allegiance to the General Government to its protection, tut which
were surrendered to that usurpation without a blow struck in their de;
fence by it, became traitors by ceasing to resist when effectual resistance
was no longer possible. Now, this was exactly the case of the loyal people of the South. a-majority of whom were unquestionably loyal before
the fall of Fort, Sumter, but who found themselves at that momenlt absolutely at the mercy. of the coDspirators against the National Republic.
This state of things was the result of the connivance of the Government
of the United States with the traitors, who, by the aid of' secret societies,
had organized an overwhelming military force and secured by political intrigue the executive, legislative, and judicial power in the Slave States.
But mark, especially the part which the Federal. authority exerted in
establishing this usurping. power in the South. The President of the
United States, Buchanan, was their Executive. Every Cabinet officer appointed by him was of their dictation. They had a controlling majority
in both branches of Congress. The Supreme Court was at their devotion.
The lhead of the army, the venerable Lieutenant General Scott, stood
al6ne, of all Buchanan's. controlling functionaries, true to his country.
Every other head of administration, with the exception of this timetworn
patriot, contributed' to betray the South into the hands of its enemies.
ThVa Senate and House of Representatives, in their do-bate.-, were converted
into hot-beds of sedition to fire the Southern heart.. The Supreme Court
fulminated a decision,:meant, like the Papal Bull which once consigned
the newly-discovered conti'nent to, the yoke of Spain, to re-open all that.
part of, it which had been freed by State constitution or territorial compacts to slavery again.'
The President, declaed that if the Slave States seceded, as it was proclaimed by the RRepresqntatives in Congress, they would, if.-balked in their
designs,,that there: was po-pow.er in. the General Gayernment; to coerce
them to submit to thet C:.nfjtitution andl laws, and to defeat even the attempt at coercion. The ar-y was sent under General Twiggs to the Indioat border of Texas to be surrendered to the traitors there, and the navy
was: dispersed in all directions to the ends of.the earth. This was -the
situation at the opening of the Congress -which was to usher Mr. Lincoln
into his severed government.




12
But in the interim between the meeting of Congress and the accession of
Mr. Lincoln, the influential men in the Cabinet designated by him, and
those playing their last qards in Buchanan's Cabinet, were busied in intrigue with conspirators who were setting up their power over the Slave
States. Buchanan's Secretary of War was doing all he could to confirm it,
by stripping the armories of the United States, surrendering the army and
its arms,, and handing over all the munitions of war and forts in his power
to the enemy. Toucey did the same with everything'in his power, by
putting disaffected or imbecile officers in the navy yards and fortified naval
places in the South, to make the conquest of them easy. Almost all were
lost before Mr. Lincoln had time to organize his departments and look
about him.
Meantime, Mr. Seward, as the designated Premier of Mr. Lincoln's Cabinet, still retaining his place in the Senate of the United States, took his
part in the game-played for and against the, Union-the contest, until
war in the field broke odt, being confined to the halls of Congress. Mr.
Seward's policy then and since, and his motives, are still a mystery; but,
the result of his devious course was manifestly detrimental to the cause
of the Union. In resp6nse to the leaders of the rebellion, on the floor of
the Senate, and who in effect as the Executive power directed the conspira-'cy from its council chamber in caucus in Washington, Mr: Seward answered: " I have such faith in this republican system of ours that there is no
political good which I desire that I am not content to seek through its
peaceful forms of administration without invoking revolutionary action. If
others shall invoke that form of action to oppose and overthrow Governnlent, they shall not, as far as it depends on me, have the excuse that I
obstinately left myself tobe misunderstood. In such a case I can affordto
meet prejudice with conciliation, exaction with concession which surrenders no principle, and violence with the righthand of peace."  This declaration was justly construed to pledge him to sustain PreSident Buchanan's
programme, " not to coerce a State,'" and, therefore, not to resist the dissolution of the Union, the proclaimed purpose of the Senators and Representatives of the Slave States. who were about to leave their seats in the
National Legislature, and call a Confederate Congress to assume all the
power over the South, from which it was resolved that the Constitution of
the United States should be banished. The first step (the inauguration of
Mr. Lincoln, in March, accomplished) after Mr. Seward was confirmed as
Seclretary of State by the Senate, brought John Forsyth, Martin J. Crawford, and A. B. Roman, "commissioners from the Confederate States,"
who, to use their own language, "asked audience to adjust, in a spirit of
amity and peace, the new retations sprirnging from a manifest and accomplished
revolution in the government of the Unton.t'  This was on the 12th of March.
This application was not answered until the 8th of April, although Mr.
Seward's declination was prepared on the 16th of March; but a memnorandum at the close of it-adds: "A delivery of the same, however, was delayed
to Messrs. Forsyth and Crawford, as was understood, with their consent."  In
the interval, communication between Secretary Seward and the Confederate Commissioners was carried on by Judge Campbell of the Supreme
Court of -the United States, whose conversations with the Secretary of State
were witnessed by Judge Nelson, also of the Supreme Court, who sanctionedthe following note of the result given, on 15th of March, 1861, to Judge
Crawford, for information to the Confederate States:
" I feel entire confidence that Fort Sumter will be evacuated in the next five
days; and this measure is felt as imposing great responsibility on the Administration.
" 1feel entire confidence that no measure changing the existing status prejudiaiaKty to the Southern Codqederate States is at present eonfemplratd.




13
I feel an entire confidence that an answer to the communication of the
Confederate Commissioners will be- productive of evil, not good. I do not believe it ought now to be pressed."
~Mr. Seward, it seems,- made no direct reply to -a letter of Judge Camp.
bell referring to the pledges he communicated from him to the Confederate Commissioners, and stating to him that "the pledge to evacuate Fort
Sumter is less foicible than the words you employed.  These words were, before this letter Seaches you (a proposed letter by me to President Davis),SUMTsa
WILL HAVE BEaN EVACUATED."7  Mr. Seward did, however, in an authorized
statement made in the Albany Evening Journal, by Mr. Thurlow Weed,
admit it. Weed says that ".Governor Seward, c;onversed freely with Judge
Campbell we do not deny, nor do we doubt that in these conversations, at one
period, he intimated that Fort Sumter would be evacuated.  Hie certainly believed
so, founding his opinion on his knowledge ofl General Scott's recommendation."
Now, this mode of escaping the responsibility of his assurance to Jeff.
Davis that Sumter would be evacuated, is like that of Teucer skulking
from danger by shooting his rxrows under the cover of the shield of Ajax.
It is well known that General Spott, before Buchanan sent his non-coercion message to Congress, and as soont as preparation for revolt in the
South was seen, urged the President by letter to put all the forts in
Charleston harbor in a state of defence. In this he evinced the alacrity that
prompted him under Gen. Jackson's-orders, when he brought Charleston
and the rebellion into submission by bringing the guns of the army and
navy to bear upon that city when it hoisted the flag of nullification
against the Union in 1832. Scott meant to crush the rebellion in the egg
in this instance as in that; but Buchanan foiled it as his superior. When
Mr. Lincoln came in, and his Premier undertook to quell the revolt by
concession, Scott could only say, in the confidential letter he wrote when
acquiescing under the superiority of the civil to the military power. " Let
our erring sisters depart inpeace."  Yet I am confident, from the patriotic
course of the brave old man afterwards, that nothing could have- induced
him to acquiesce in Mr. Seward's course but the committals of Mr. Seward,
who had ardently supported him for the Presidency against Mr. Pierce,
and the' persuasions that his diplomacy would bring all right after surrendering our flag, and with it the authority of our Government in the
South, to that of the Confederacy. Thetdalliance of Mir. Seward with the
Confederate and the convention committees from Virginia, up to the fall
of Fort Sumter, was but a prolongation of the agreemeit made with Davis,
by order of Buchanan, under the signatures of his Secretaries of War and
of the Navy, that no act' of, war would take place on the part of the
United States during his term. This gave the Confederate General Beauregard, au opportunity to build batteries under the guns of Fort Sumter,
which could not have been done had not its cannon been muzzled by treaty
stipulation. Mr. Seward's acquiescence in this state of things rendered
tae preparation for the attack more complete, while the forbearance- to
furnish provisions or reinforcements to the garrison, on our part, effectually
made good Mr. Seward's pledge for its surrender.
It is apparent, from the whole course of public affairs, that Mr. Seward
acted in concert with Buchanan's Administration during the last three
months of its term. He was, no doubt, advised, through Mr. Stanton, who
was in Mr. Buchanan's Cabinet, of the policy it had adopted in: reference
to the seizure of everything that appertained to the nation in the South.
It was owing to the coalition then formed between Mr. Seward and Mr. Stanton
that the latter became Secretary of War to Mr. Lincoln. He apprised Mr.
Seward of this treaty of the War and Navy Departments, under Buchanan,
to make no resistance to the policy of dissolving the Union —to offer no eo



14
ercion to impede its march to independence-and Mr. Seward's course
shows that he approved ard adopted this policy.' Is it not strange that
Mr. Seward should have kept that paralysis on the country from the 4th
of Marc;h to the 13th of April, when the conflagration of- Sumter aroused
the people? Did Mr. Seward partake of the feelii'g Which prompted Mr.
Chase, his colleague in the Treasury, to exclaim, "Let the South go; it is
not wort!J fihtingfor? "  Is it possible that these ambitious aspirants, who
have shown such eagerness for the Pretiderucy, are willing to sacrifice that
vast, rich section of our Union to the petty object of personal aggrandize-.
ment-? 
Let me illustrate by example'how the boldest Union men were paralyzed
by the condition of things I have endeavotedoto portray. Judge Campbell,
of Alabama, of whom I have Spoken as transformed' into a rebel commissioner, had been a devoted Union man. 1 knew of his heroic resistance to
nullification. He had been the firs-t man to breast the storm in Alabama
in 1832, which threatened to, bring on the rebellion- then. I naturally
looked to him to meet the new danger, and his feelirigs were unchanged,
and he wrote and published earnest remonstrances ag4inst'the secession
movement. I begged him to go again before his people in person, as in
1832; he replied, that it would be of no'use. His private letters which
he read to me showed that the unsupported Union men were obliged to
succumb before the organized and arwmed conspirators. The circumstances
in thie,two eras, he said, were widely different. Then Jackson was here
asserting the authority of the Government, and he felt that he could with
such backing resist to some purpose, but no sensible man, however patritic, could think so now.
Nor was it Southern Union men alone whose natural promptings to defend the Union trere checked by the efforts of the existing and prospect ive
authorities in Washington who were co-operating in- this purpose. It was
through these influences that the movements throughout the North for
the armed defence of the Union were repressed, and the impression conveyed to the South that secession would be peaceful. Let me recall an
instance. The Pennsylvania Legislature met in Januiary, 1861, and a
resolution was immediately presented, which, I believe,- was unanimously
adopted;, declaring it to be the duty of the State authorities to raise,
organize, and equip'a military force for the defence: of the'Union. This
movement was stopped from  Washington, and among the means resorted
to for the purpose, ae I was informed bySpeaker Pennington at the time, the
Legislature were told by a distinguished member from Maryland, then believed to hold confidential relations with the incoming Premier, that Maryland would secede if the movement were persisted in. The movement
was abandoned, and it was abandoned undoubtedly through his counsels
and in reference to his position as the incoming Premier. Non-resistance
was, we have seen, his publicly declared policy in the Senate as it was in
the Cabinet. He agreed with Judge Campbell, the' rebel'commissioner,
for the surrender of Fort Sumter, and when the President came to a
different determination, he nevertheless made good'his'promise. He it
was, undoubtedly, who gave the notice by the telegram sent through Mr.
Harvey, then and still our Minister to Portugal, of the President's purpose to reinforce. But the suc,,or never came. Mr. Seward got an order
directly from the President withdrawing the Powhatan, the armed vessel
assigned to'the expedition by the Secretary of the Navy, withlout the
knowledge of the Secretary, and Iwithout the President's knowing that
the Powhatan.-was the vessel ordered to relieve: Sumter. The men and
provisions camrt. but not a sailor with them to put them in the fort, the
Powbatan having beenl withdrawn. It was in deference to him that Gen.




15
Scott recommended the surrender of the fort-because the General during
the previous A/dministration had wished to reinforce it, and had been
refused permission todo so by Mr. Holt, then Secretary of War.
Mr. Holt, now the head of the Bureau of Military Justice, was then also
a power in Washington.  Whilst Secretary of War, as already stated, he
refused to permit General Scot't'to reinforce Sumter, and he had, whilst
Postmaster. General, written and published a letter dated 30th November,
1860, justifying the rebellion. He says in that ledter, the people of the
North "have been taught that they,are responsible for the domestic
institutions of the South. and that they can be faithful to God only by
being unfalthful to the compact they made with their fellow-men. Hence
those liberty bills which degrade the statute books of some ten of the free
States, and which are confessedly a shameless violation of the Federal
Consstitution in a point vital to her honor.  We have here presented from.year to year the humiliating spectacle of free and sovereign States, by a
solemn act of legislation, legalizing the theft of their neiyghbor's:property.  I
say THiEPT, since it is not the less so because the subject of the despicable
crime chances to be a slave,, instead of a horse or a bale of goods." After
much to the same'purport, he says: "I am still for the Union, because I
have yet a faint, hesitatinq hope that the North will do justice to the South'
and save the Republic before the wreck is complete. But the action must
be prompt. Iffthe free'States will sweep the liberty bills from their codes,
propose a convention of the States, and offer guaranties which will afford
the same repose and safety to Southern homes and property enjoyed by
those at the North, the impending tragedy may yet be averted, BUrT NOT.otherwise."  Simultaneously with his refusal to permit succor to Fort
Sumter and' his armistice with the rebel Secretary, he refused his sanction
to a bill introduced into the Senate, by Mr. Preston King, t), authorize the
Union men in the South to organize themselves under the authority of
t'he United States-refusing thus to allow them to defend themselves.
Mr. Stanton, now Secretary of War, then Attorney General, was in full:sympathy with the leaders in Congress. who dragged the South into rebellion.  He met Senator Brown, of Mississippi, at the door of the Supreme
Court as he passed from the hall of the Senate, after taking leave of it as
a secessionist forever.  He encouraged him; told him he was right; it
was the' only course to save the South; he must keep his constituents up
So it, &o. This is proved by MPIr. Brown, former Senator from Mississippi,
Who'mentioned it at the tinme to the Hon, James S. Rollins, of Missouri.
-Mr. Saulsluiy, Senator from Delaware, by a resolution offered to the Senate last winter, proposed to substantiate it before a-comnmittee of that body;
but the committee' was not granted.  The fact is confirmed, too, by the
known relations of ihe Secretary to parties at the time, and I have been
assured by one of his colleagues in. Bchanan's Cabinet that in his intercourse with his associates of that ilk he was most violent in denouncing
any attempt to maintain the Union by force, and continued his denunciation- till he entered Mr. Lincoln's Cabinet.
Is it not for this that. he was so lauded and glorifed by the Thad.
Stevens party in the resolutions of the recent convention at Harrisburg,
in which President Johnson'is substantially pronounced an usurper for
presuming to setup governiments in the -Southern States, instead of calling on'Congress, to take the subject in hand, to which they claim it belongs exclusively?'. They jdeclare also that these States should not be allowed State governments, and, their motive for claiming authority for
Congress is evidently beuause they believe Congress would not;-sanctiqn
the drgaiization of' stc'h governments. iMr. Stanton concurs with them,
and has been and is yet aiding thiemii effectively in their scheme.- This ex



16
plains the retention so long of a vast and unnecessary military force, and
some of the remarkable movements made by portions of it, involving
enormous expenditures, as I believe, against the wishes of the General-inChief and the remonstrances of the Secretary of the Treasury. Besides
the corruption fund thus secured, it serves to bankrupt the Treasury, and
thus compel the call of Congress, a great point in the game of his associates.
I revert to these facts to prove that the Government of the United
States-the great functionaries entrusted with the administration —are
responsible for the subjugation of the Southern people to the usurpation
of the conspirators who plotted secession in the halls of Congress and in
the caucuses they held in the Capitol. It was here, from year to year,
that the scheme, was plotted and the missives and emissaries were sent
that got up the secret societies, that organized the military force under
the Knights of the Golden Circle, and provided arms from the arsenals of
the- Union. The Federal Government, which, from the time that Jeff.
Davis was Secretary of War, was in the hands of men secretly conspiring
against the liberties of the North and South, was constantly used to give
resurrection to the rebellion which General Jackson had suppressed. If
Mr. Buchanan had allowed the orders to be revived and acted on, given
by General Jackson to General Scott, and again recommended by the latter, the rebellion would have been strangled in its'birth. No navy yard
or fort would have been taken; no army surrendered; no arms provided.
Instead of this, the Government of the United States, as I have shown,
contributed the essential aid which enabled the conspirators to put down
the unarmed people of the South and compel them to suffer conscription
to fill their armies; impressment of every species of supply-horses, food,
clothing, wagons, everything-to surrender every vestige of protection of
law of their own States as well as the United States.
The scheme for the dissolution of the Union had been for more than
thirty years brooding in Washington. It had its origin with the slaveholding autocrats, sickened with the inferiority to which their section and
themselves were doomed by the servile institution, which inflamed at once
their vanity and ambition. The politicians who gathered at Washington
as the representatives of this class, constituted, as they thought, an order
of nobility destined to put down the popular government which subjected
them to an irksome dependence on the people. It was this Congress-bred
gentility from the South, flushed with the triumph of their intrigues in
bringing the Government under their control, that contrived, organized,
and directed the conspiracy. Like all conspiracies which have led to civil
wars, it was born and bred in the capital. Rome, London, Paris, through
successive ages, have been the centres where the plots were laid which, on
explosion, shook not only their home governments, but those of foreign
nations. The great body of the people of the soutl had no hand in the
concoction of the plot which has actually convulsed this country. They
were as innocent as the people of the North, yet in every shape in which
wretchedness can be visited, the South has been the victim. It was the
highest constitutional duty of the Government of the United States to have
warded off the blow which has prostrated this region. The arm was raised
to strike in its very presence. The men in the capital, in both halls of
Congress,-'the usurpers themselves, announced the fact that they had
given orders that it should be struck. They formally took their leave of
the Government whose authority they were about to prostrate in the devoted section they had resolved to rule or ruin; and they were told by the
head of the Administration going out, "Go ahead, we will not' coerce'
the usurped State power you have contrived to get in your hands." The




17
Premier of the incoming Administration says, also, "Go ahead, we wil
confront your revolutionary movements with concession, violence with
conciliation and the right-hand of fellowship."  The fall of Sumter immediately followed this, the'attempt to saccor it being turned aside by the
hand of the Premier, who had engaged that it should fall.  What were
the people of the South to infer from this?
An immense majority, some sixty or seventy thousand, of the people of
Virginia had given their voice for the Government of their fathers. In
those States farther south, where the Knights of the Golden Circle exerted
all their secretly armed police to dragoon and drag the people to vote to
throw off the Union and substitute the Confederacy, a majority of voters
could no where be brought to sanction it, But when Sumter fell, what
could individuals expect who were everywhere under the heel of the
usurpers?  Would the nation's Government defend them in any loyal
effort? Mr. Buchanan, the head of the Government, said, "It had no
right to do it," and Mr. Seward, the Premier of the new Administration,
had said, we uill not succor nor defend even the strongholds of Gorertnmentstrongholds built to keep rebellion and ususpation in check. What could
loyal men do under such circunmstances but submit?
They were pressed into the army by conscription. If they fled from their
lhomes and hid in morasses to escape, they were hunted down by bloodhounds, and put in the front of battle with the regulars of the Golden Circle in their rear. The property of everybody was a prey, and those only
who professed the utmost zeal to the military power could hope to have
any share in what belonged to them.
Is it not monstrous that our Government should hold a people, put in
this predicament, if we may not say by its own acts, yet certainly by its
supineness and acquiescence, responsible for the crimes of an usurpation
thus put over thenm?
And yet the Hon. Thaddeus Stevens takes this stard for the Governnient of the United States in the resolutions which he recently got up a
convention to pass at Harrisburg.  He thinks that as Peinnsylvania elected
Mr. Buchanan President, who devoted his administration to hatch the
treason which has trodden down the great commonalty of our own race i',
the South, so it has elected him as an agent to complete their destruction
and set up a foreign race to take their place in the National Commonwealth.
According to the programme of the Stevens resolutions, there are lno
loyal men in the South but the enfran hised blacks; the white man who
succumbed to the usurpation and obeyed its behests —and this every mall
was compelled to do-is disfranchised as disloyal. In logical sequence
from this state of facts, the National Legislature is to absorb all legislation, State and National, over the Whole South. It is to assume absolute
power over everything south of Mason and Dixon's line-and how is it to
be exercised?                                      t
Mr. Stevens, forgetting that our Government was bound by the Constitution to protect the people of every State from all domestic violence and
usurpation, as well as foreign'invasion, and in failing to do it might be
justly held to indemnify the loyal people who have suffered by the rebellion, has the hardihood to declare in his resolutions that the people of the
South, en masse, confounding the innocent with the guilty, are bound, out
of their substance, to pay the whole national de'bt incurred by the war.
This is somewhat like tying a millstone round the neck of every man of the
commonalty and throwing him  into the ocean. It certainly overwhel.fs
him in the flood from which he can hardly swim out with such a weight.
But this, it may be said, is only a life-long incumbrance of generations,'ightfully imposed on the poor white posterity dwelling in slave States, to




expiate as the children the sins of their forefathers. But lest some men
who have considerable substance in land or other estate that has s arvived
the war may go to work and build up again an independence for themselves and theirl devoted country, Mr. Stevens has provided another
sweeping resolution, which cuts down at one blow all such aspirations.
The resolution is that confiscation, like our great reaping machines, shall
be driven like a steam engine of our absolute Government —absolute over
the South-and reduce all fortunes to $10,000 value. It does not say
whether the valuation is to be Confederate paper or greenbacks. Bat
whether it be one or the other, the stubble-field will be little worth the
gleaning when we shall have first extracted the war debt from the unhappy subjects of the rebellion.  To get a Government sufficiently
hardened to execute these decrees, Mr. Stevens appeals to the soldiers,
anti tells them that no tman is ever to be nominated for any office unless he
has served in the field. So they are to be the dispensers of all the spoils
of the stript, the- naked children. How little this veteran politician
knows the magnanirous patriots who fought their battles for the liberal
and merciful institutions of our country! They are the last men in the
world to urge to cruelty in cold blood. These men when hungry took the
bread out of their own haversacks and gave their canteens to their prostrate foes. Let them judge the South, and we are all brothers.
Mr. Stevents next promises the manufacturers unbounded protection if
they will olly help him to' strip the South and reduce it to utter ruin.
The manufacturers, so far from  doing this, will lend it their capital, at
least ere it, that they may cloth the South and enable it to produce fresh
miiaterial for their operatives, and rich markets for the result of their successlul industry. He appeals to the holders of the Government bonds,,aying the plunder of the South is to pay their debt. They will reply,
we will not kill the goose that lays the golden egg.
But who is to execute the Draconic decrees of Thaddeus and his omnipotent parliament? Who is to squeeze out the taxes from the desolated
South to pay the whole war debt? Who is to carry out the sweeping
conliscation throughout all rebeldom and divide the lands among the only
loyal people of the South-the negroes?'Ihe resolutions name the President as a proper sort of man; but he is
plainly told that his scheme of restoring the Union will not do. It is too
rose-water, milk-water, too lenient; and yet Mr. Stevens says the rebels
reject it. But Thaddeus knows a man who can do the business, who can
compile his doomsday book of conquests and confiscations. Who could
be better fitted for it than the man to whose prodigious energies and excellencies it would seem all our successes are to be ascribed? This man
has a resolution of extollation in the platform all to himself, exalting him by
name, in contrast with the poor cital made of the President, to make him
like " Hypeion to a Satyr."  The rest of the Cabinet are thrown in
the lump, not named but as " the colleagues " of Mr. Stanton. They are
worthy gentlemen that must pass.
Now this is not altogether an absurd distribution of parts in the Executive power, considering the work cut out for it by Mr. Stevens. He is
radical from the foot to the crown of his head. He is a root-and-branch
man, and could spare nothing of the Government but the body-the Congress-and that he would turn into a revolutionary club. He wants a
revolution-he wants a Marat to work it up. Who can fill the function so
well as.Mr. Stanton? He wants a guillotine. He wants a Santerre, the
butcher, to reign on its scaffold and ply its axe. Can any one doubt that
Mr. Stanton would take this part? And if Mr. Stevens would add peculiar bitterness to the execution of the process of his revolutionary tribu



19
nals in wasting the south and harrowing the feelings of its victims, could
there be a better selection of an agent to pour gall into wounds than Mr.
Stanton?  I have already referred to his urging on the rebellion. He was
the new member brought into the Cabinet, when Cass left on the ground
that it would not "oerce "~-especially that it voted Sumter should not
be reinforced and defended, which he considered as giving aid to the rebellion, and resigned. Now, if this manrI who was the pornpter, the
Cabinet adviser of the measures which contributed to carry the South out
-if this mall, who was appointed because of his full sympathy with Mr.
Buchanan in his whole connection with the Southern chiefs who conducted
its schemes touching the dissolution of the Union-if this mlan, who
brought them into the treason for which they are to suffer, is to stand
over them in mockery at the execution, it would certainly add bitterness
even to the agony of death.
The measures the President has adopted to invite the people of the
Southern States to resume their constitutional rights, now that the Government has at leigth discharged its duty in putting down the armed
force which subjectedt them, proceed upon the facts I have recited, and
the knowledge he, in common with every intelligelnt mall of the South,
possesses,that the people were at all times ready to do tlheir duty when the
(Government had performed the obligations imposed upon it by the Constitution.
We have also, in the abolishment of slavery, a sure bond fow the future
fidelity of all persons at the South to the Union.  Whilst it is true that
the hearts of the people were never alienated from the Goverlmcnt, it is
equally true that, by the constitution of society there, tle leaders were
enabled to drag them into the rebellion.  Slavejy was the leverage by
which this was effected.  But that great implement of mischi~ef, the source
of so many woes, and to which the fathers of the Government looked with
so much apprehension, is now forever gone.
The public judgment requires acquiescence in-the thorough measure of
universal emancipation as the condition of renewed. participation in the
(Governmeat.  This proceeds upon the ground that slavery weas the cause
of the rebellion, and that until it is blotted out, and the people surrender
it, there is danger ot a renewal of the struggle.  To this propos tion I
agree. But I ask of those with whom I have been associated in mlaintaining this proposition, that they should accept its logical'conselquences.
With what justice or reason can we inflict further penalties Upoi the peoFle of the South after we have eradicated what we agree was the sole cause
of their errors, and obliterated an institution which alone distiliguishied
them in their social condition from other American citizens. if this insti
tution had been one of their own creating, there might, indeed, he somecolor of reason in purisuing them further; but when, instead of thatt being
the case, history shows that it was forced upon them in the infancy of
their settlements by the policy of foreign despots, against the most earnest
protests of their forefathers we must admit that they are blameless for the
existence of the accursed thing in their midst. Neither by the Constitution nor by the rules of justice, having extirpated the cause and subdued
the rebellion, can we do more. So far from it, indeed, the dictates of humanity require that the Government should do all in its power to heal the
wounds wiich it has been necessary to inflict upon our brethren, who
have become the victims of an institution forced upon them by the tyranny of European despots.
And this was the spirit of Abraham Lincoln, and he but reflected that
of the American people. It is also the spirit of Andrew Johnson. He
wears, indeed, a stern and more commanding aspect in his dealings with




20
the rebels, and has thereby more suddenly and completely humbled and
subdued their fiery cavaliers.  But, like his stern old hero neighbor of the
Hlermitage1 in whose school he was educated, he is too brave to trample
upon the vanquished; no one ever had a gentler heart in his bosom than
Andrew Johnson, and yet no one was ever more fierce and defiant to those
now humbled and defeated cavaliers in the dlays of their power and pride.
To the incontrovertible fats I have recited establishing the practicability
and justice of aldhering to the plain letter of the Constitution, there is no
answer, but ambition backed by power will justify itself with very little
regard for right or even of appearances. Richard, when he ordered IaIstings to execution, showing his withered arm as evidence that he had bewitched hlim, did so to scoff at his victim; and the affected fears of the
crushed South, assumed by thi- ambitious leaders of the Nlorth to justify
the destruction of th.ir political rights, sounds not unlike the mockery of
Glostor.  But thie lust of dominion ifom which such actions spring is the
hmost unreasonihg, intolerant,   and remorseless passion of the human
bosom.l.  it knows no Constitution, andi does not listen to truth or justice.
\Ve will appeal in vain to the wor(ls of the Constitution to protect us in
our rights to leaders phrenzied with tile imperial idea of ruling the contineut by holding one-half of it without retsponsibility to its people, requiriln. a military force to do so, which would make them masters of the
wh-iole. In va1in we shall ask for justice to the Union men of the South
fiolo such Illll. They cannot forego their lofty aspirations to recognize
the existence of any such class. You cannot have forgotten how fiercely
my head-was demanded when I ventured to assert the rights of the Union
mnl11 of the South agalinst this form of imperialism when broached in 1863.
I hail been from early manhood an opponent'of slavery; I had assisted
my brother in organizing the first and only victorious emancipation party
which existed in the South prior to the rebellion; I was in favor of maintaining Fremnont's proclamlation; and, failing in that, I had recommended,
in writing, President Lincoln to make one himself in his annual message
of 186'1. 1 had defended Lincoln's emancipation proclamation when it
was mlade, in a speech, which Senator Sumner himself did me the honor
to quote with approbation.  I had lead in the emancipation movement in
Maryland, and never faltered till its success was achieved.  But, notwithstanding the fu, ore about emancipation by those people, this early, earnest,
ahd constant support of emancipation on my part did not satisfy them. So
far from it, I was, I believe, the most odious man to them on the continent. No, there was one still more odious, one still better abused by
Phillips, Chase, Davis & Co. I need not tell you that man was Abraham
Lincoln, the author of the emancipation proclamation; and to such an extent had these men poisoned the minds of some of our true men against me,
that I apprehended that my continuance in the Cabinet might affect the election, and therefore insisted upon withdrawing. Nor was it because I had
done anything to make myself personally offensive. My only offence consisted in asserting the equal rights of my people; and you see they would
not tolerate any Southern mafe in the Cabinet who stood for the rights of
the Union men of the South under the Constitution.
I have not referred to myself in this connection to give myself importance. I have done so because the example was required to illustrate
the true spirit of those who seek in the guise'of pre-eminent loyalists
and transcendent emancipationists to annihilate the States and destroy the
Constitution; and Mr. Raymond, the chairman of the committee by
whom the resolution relating to the Cabinet was reported in the late
National Convention, has publicly stated that the managers aimed thereby to give themselves authority for demanding my removal by the Presi



21
dent. The people of the country may see in this that it is not Unionism
and emancipation they seek-and it concerns the people of the whole
country to mark it. They propose, indeed, to strike the South down first.
The Union men then must suffer with the rebels for the misfortune of
being born in the same region. Their most precious rights are to be
wrenched from them, regardless of their devotion to the Union, through
good and through evil report, for the crime of not being able to resist secession when enforced by color of State authority, sanctioned and acquie.-1ed
in by the National Government. Every one who raises his voice against
this flagrant injustice is denounced as an ally of Copperheads and traitors.
As it is proposed to treat all Southern men alike, it is necessary, to effect
this purpose, that the people of the North should be taught to regard us
all as criminals. All are in fact equally offenders in their eyes. It is the
claim for themselves and their fellows of their rights as citizens which
offends. It is the monopoly of power which is sought, and that desiign is
equally frustrated by allowing the Southern States their rights, whetliher
in the hands of Union men or rebels. All agree in discarding the shibboleth of the Imperialists. There are some, indeed, who give private assurances that they will work up to it by-and-by, and who, by joining in the
clamor against the dead rebellion, are co-operating with the Imperialists
in propagating the idea that the safety of the eountry requires the exc;lvusion from Congress of representatives from the South. and thus contributing to fix the conviction upon the public mind that it is necessary to subvert the rule of the white man in the South before that region can be
restored to a share in the Government. Swarms of hireling writers are
sent over the South, who go there as the English tourists come to
America, with a foregone conclusion against the country —most of them
in the pay of the War Department, but of the non-combatant species,
whose continuance in the service depends on making the impression that
secession is not dead but sleepeth.
The Southern man who joins in continuing this clamor against the
South is aiding in disfranchising the South, and the whole South, Maryland
included.  We may, indeed, have persons from Maryland filling seats, but
those who reflect the feelings of our people will be without power. Those
only who are elected as the member from the First District in the last
Congress and one of our present Senators were elected will find favor with
the Imperialists. That is, by the use of public money and military force
directly applied. Let me give some particulars. A regular Commissary
was removed from Baltimore last winter, as the Senatorial election was
comjng on, and a politician in the volunteer service, recommended for
the position by Mr. Davis to the Secretary of War, because of his being
an anti Blair man, was put in the place. This man and the Quartermaster assessed the merchants dealing with the Government heavily to
raise money to be used in the election against me and my friends. The
Quartermaster, I learn, raised $40,000. How much the Commissary raised
I do not know, but he has been heard to boast that it was by the money
he raised that I.was beaten. Some of the preliminary steps were taken
openly by the Department. A number of the Senators elected by the
people were arrested, and others threatened till compelled to resign, and
their successors were elected by the same use of military power as the
member from the First District had been in 1863. On that occasion the
most earnest Union men in the district were arrested-such men as Col.
Spencer, Jesse Hines, and others, who had boldly sustained Governor
Hicks, whilst Mr. Creswell their senatorial nominee was openly denouncing
him and demanding, by-his resolutions adopted at Elkton, that our rebel
Legislature should be called together, and pledging Maryland to go with the




22
South.  Mr. Clayton, who was Mr. Creswell's nominee for Marshal lately,
had blank warrants furnished hini without limit, signed by Don Piatt, to arrest any man lie should consider in the way of Creswell's election. It was
proved, also, I understand, before a committee of the Legislature, that some
time prior to this election Mr. Davis informed a gentleman oil the Eastern
Shore, believing him to be of his party, that all the necessary measures
would be taken to carry the election; that the order had been prepared
anc printed by General Schenck, but that it would not do to publish it
till within a few days before the election, because Blair would get Lincoln
te revoke it, and this proved to be the fact.  The order was revoked, but
the revocation, as had been well calculated, did not reach the Eastern
shore in time.  Membners so chosen represent Mr. Stanton, not the people
of Maryland, and' serve but to delude our happier and freer neighbors as
to our sentiments.  It would be far better and mnore consistent with true
dignity for us to share the absolute disfranchisemunt t of the other Southern
States, thian to have our seats filled by the nominiiees of Mr. Stantoh. And
this bhinos ime to c,nsider a measure adopted by the Legislature, as
elininlt.ed,  reiedldled, and corrupted by the instruments of thiis man,
which threatens to disturb:he harmonoiy of our people, and to plant' ranklin, anti bitterness in the heart of neighbors.  I allude to the law for the
recistr;ition (o, voters   By the terms of that law three members of tile
d.onmilnaLt party constitute a tribunal in each election  district, clothed
with absolute power to disfranchise whorm they please.  Tihus a penalty
which has heretolor'e been inflicted only upon persons convicted of infamous crimes, af'ter a fair and open trial by a court and jurty, may be imposed by a secret inquisition.  Tlat multitu(des of good citizens, against
whom li o:le would dare publicly to make ally dishonorable charge, will
thus be branded as felons is most probable.  Men who are earnest in a cause,
even when disinterestedl, are apt to doubt the patriotism of zealous opponent:.  But whenll they have a selfish motive to heat their passions,
toleration is almost impossible.'  But many of our registers are expectant
candidates for the sufirages they are deciding upon.  They are general!y,
too, the nominees of the county committees, who are made up for tile
niost part of standing candidates of tile party.  Nothing but a strong
public sentiment can prevent a partizan enforcement of such a law.  I
have been against it fromn the beginning for this reason.  Exasperation
against the rebellion affected most of those who voted for it, but it was
instigated, I fear, by partisanship.  It bears the stamp of a disfranchising
spirit which existed before the rebellion, the leaders in which taught the
rebels how to organize in secret to carry elections against the public will.
In my opinion there never was any justification for such a law, and'certainly there is none now.  The ostensible reason has passed with the
rebellion, and the maxim that the law ought to cease with the reason for
it applies in such a case undoubtedly.
Secession is not indigenous to Maryland.  Calhoun had not a half a
dozen friends in the'State in 1832. If Governor Hicks had yielded, the
State would have been forced into secession.  I doubt not but it would
have been recognized by the rebel Government thei installed in Washington,
of which as we have seen, Mr. Stanton was a most active and mischievous
member. We have held on to our allegiance since, I religiously believe,
against his wishes and constant efforts to drive us into rebellion, and we have
emancipated the State, and thus got rid of the only question which could
by possibility prevent us from being a prosperous and happy people.
Why, then, should we continue on our statute-book an act to pronounce
our political adversaries felons because of expressions and feelings which,
though wrong, were not reduced to act? Observe how the conduct of those
called rebel sympathizers in Maryland contrasts with the same people in




23
other border States.  No Union man as been murdered here in his house,
or his fields, although our lines run'or hundreds of miles along the lines
of Dixie, and the young men who have come and gone from amongst usmost of them driven away, I verily belie<e, by fear of arrest or passions
consequent upon the arrest of friends-have not imitated the ferocity so
frequently exhibited elsewhere before departing. This was not the temper
of our people. Considering the amount of property sacrificed in the slave
institution, and the feeling connected with it, nurtured through generations, and the harrying they have undergone, we may pardon sorimething
of angry expressions and feelings of resentment towards a Government
which they thought bore so heavily upon them.
But I am told the law is on the.statute-book, and the Executive and his
appointees are bound to enforce it.
It is an embarrassing state of things certainly.  But I am of the opinin;
myself that the act is unconstitutional.  It inflicts infamous punislilents
without a trial, in a State where public order is not disturbed, and is retrospective in its operation.
Is it just to disfranchise Mr. Creswell and the friends who voted with
him in pledging MIaryland to the South by public resolutions at Elkton in
1861? Yet, if this law is to be enforced, he cannot vote. The war was
then flagrant. The forts, arsenals, and other public property were being
seized everywhere in the South, and such resolutions from such a place
were most mischievous, and " gave comfort and aid to the enemly."  But,
notwithstandii,g this, I do not think Mr. Creswell or those who voted with
him, all of whom I have no doubt were and are Union men, ought to be
branded as felons and disfranchised, or can be, consistently with the Constitution of the United States.
The war is over. /rhere is no slavery to make a new one. The passions
connected with it are subsiding.  We have a great career before us. Our
struggle, bloodS and expensive as it has been, will impart a new life to the
country and new impetti. to industry.  Let us set the example of inlaugLurating an era of good feeling. If I have seemed, in the reflections I have
made in this address upon the distinguished men I have nanied, to be animated by a different spirit, let me assure you I have animadverted on their
acts only because they are the representative men of the unrelenting party
in the country, and I want to show them that their heroes have also need
of amnesty. I am willing they should have it. But, on the other hand,
I should like Judge Campbell and Mr. Stephens, and others who have
erred, to be forgiven-that our people should have real peace and a share
in the Government their fathers founded and which they have to maintain.
And I ask this, not out of any feeling that the section I was born in is more
my country than any other. I ask it for the sake of the whole country,
Free government cannot last long in either section with a practical dismemberment of the Union, or with the assertion by the General Government of
greater power over any one State than the Constitution allows or than is
claimed or would be tolerated in another. The military subjection of one
section entails in the end arbitrary government upon both. Our Eagle
must expand both its wings. Our National Republic must poise itself on
both sections, if it would move safely on its glorious mission.