UNITED STATES dr AMERICA. SPEECH EICHAED H. DANA, JE., AT A MEETING OF CITIZENS HELD IN FAMUIL.HALL, JUNE 21, 1865, TO CONSIDER THE SUBJECT OF RE-ORGANIZATION OF THE REBEL STATES Mr. Preaident, — It was hoped by those who have summoned us together this morning, that a voice might go out from Faneuil Hall, to which the people of the United States would listen, as in times past. We deprecate, especially, anything like political agitation of the questions before us ; but a calm con- sideration of them by the people, is a duty and a ne- cessity. For, Mr. President and fellow-citiztns, the questions pressing upon this country are the most vast and momentous that have ever presented them- selves fe solution by a free people. We wish to know, I suppose, first. What are our powers. That is the first question — what are our just powers ? Second — What ought we to do? Third — How ought we to do it? With your leave, I pro- pose to attempt an answer to these three questions. What are our just powers? Well, my friends, that depends upon the answer to one question — Have we been at war, or have we not? In what have we been engaged for the last four years? — has it been a war, or has it been something else and other than war? I take it upon myself to assert, that we have been in a condition of public and perfect war. It has been no mere suppression, by municipal powers, of an in- surrection for the redress of grievances. It has been a perfect public war. The government has a right to exercise, at its discretion, every belligerent power. [Applause.] We are not bound to exercise them; the enemy can not compel us to do it; but, at our discre- tion, we may exercise every belligerent power. Do you doubt it? Does any man doubt it? [Voices — «'No."] I will tell you why you must not doubt it. In the first place, the Supreme Court of the United States has, by an unanimous decision, held that we are in a public war, and that the government can exercise, every belligerent power. The court differed as to the ^ time when we entered upon such a war, and whether recognition of war by Congress was nec3ssary,but that we came to a war at last, was their unanimous de- cision. The Prize Courts, like the Temple of Janus, are closed in peace, and open only in war. The Prize Courts have been thrown open, and every prize that has been condemned in this country has been con- demned upon the principle of a public war. Con- gress gave us no rules for municipal condemnation, but left the Prize Courts to the rules which govern public international war. We have condemned the prizes upon the same rules, and no other, than those by which we condemned them in the war with Great Britain in 1812. This course of the Prize Courts has been sustained by the Supreme Court, acted upon by the Executive, and recognized by Congress. The stat- utes, too, have called it a war, in terms. The soldiers that are enlisted — what are they enlisted for? Why, they are enlisted "for the war," are they not? How is it at this moment? Is not the Executive holding those "States by military occupation? Are wo not holding them in the grasp of war? You cannot justify the great acts of our government for the last tlnee years upon any other principle than the existence of war. You look in vain in the municipal rules of a constitution, to find authority for what we are doing now. You might as well look into the Constitution to find rules for sinking the Alabama in the British Channel, — to find rules for taking Richmond. You might as well look there to find rules for lighting General Grant's cigar. [Laughter.] No; we stand upon the ground of war, and we exercise the powers of war. Now, ray fellow-citizens, what are those powers and rights? What is a WAri ? AVar is not an attempt to kill, to destroy; but it is coercion for a purpose. When a nation goes into war, she does it to secure an end, and the war does not cease until the end is secured. A boxing match, a trial of strength or skill, is over when one party stops. A war is over, when its pur- pose is secured. It is a fatal mistake to hold that this war is over, because the fighting has ceased. [Applause.] This war is not over. We are in the attitude and in the stnlus of war today. There is the solution of this questitm. Why, suppose a man has attacked your life, my friend, in the highwa}-, at night, armed, and after a death-struggle, you get him down — what then? When he say? ho has done tight- iftg, are you obliged to releafe him? Can you not hold hira, until you have got some security against his weapons? [Applause.] Can you not hold him until you have searched him, and taken his weapons from him ? Are you obliged to let him up to begin a new fight for your life ? The same princii)le gov- erns Avar between nations. When one nation has conquered another, in a war, the victorious nation does not retreat from the country and give up pos- session of it, because the fighting has ceased. No; it holds the conquered enemy in the grasp of war until it has secured whatever it has a right to require. [Applause.] I put that proposition fearlessly — Thr conquerinr/ party mny hold the other in thr. ijraxp of war, until it has secured whattver it has a riyht to rennire,. But, what have we a right to require? We have no right to re(iuiro our conquered foe to adopt all our notions, our opinions, our systems, however much wo may bo attached to them, however good wo may think 1 them; but we have a right to require whatever the public safety and public faith make necessary. [Ap- plause.] That is the proposition. Then, we come to this: — We have a rijhl to hdd the rebels in the grasp of war until we have obtained whatever the public safety and. the public faith require. [Applause and cries of "good."] Is not that a solid foundation to stand upon? Will it not bear examination? and are we not ujion it today? I take up my next question. We have settled what our just powers are. Need I ask an audience, in Faneuil Hall, what it is that the public safety and the public faith demand ? Is there a man here who doubts ? In the progress of this war, we found it necessary ^to proclaim the emancipation of every slave. [Applause.] On the first day of January, 1863, Abraham Lincoln, of blessed memory, declared the emancipation of every slave. It was a military act, not a civil act. Military acts depend upon military power, and the measure of military power is the length of the military arm. That proclama- tion of the lirsD of January did nut emancipate the slaves, but the military arm emancipated them, as it was stretched forth and made bare. [Applause.] District after district, region after region, State after Stat', have been brought within the grasp of the military arm, until at last, today, the whole rebel territory lies within and beneath the military arm. [Loud applause.] Therefore, in State after State, region alter region, the slaves have been eman- cipated, until at last, over the whole country, every slave is emancipated. [Renewed applause.] I would undertake to maintain, before any impartial neutral tribunal in Christendom, the proposition that wo have today an adequate military occupation of the whole rebel country, sufficient to effect the eman- cipation of every slave, by admitted laws of war. Whatever dilTerences of opinion there may have been as 10 the manner in which^the proclamation operated, there is no doubt left as to the result; because we have all the ground the slaves have stood upon within our military occupation. The slaves are emancipated. In form, this is true. But the public faith stands pledged to them, that they and their posterity forever shall have a complete and perfect freedom. [Prolonged applause.] Not merely our safety; no, the public faith is pledged that every man, woman and child of them, and their posterity forever, shall have a complete and perfect freedom. [Applause.] Do you mean to "palter with. them in a double sense"? Are you willing that the great republic shall cheat these poor negroes, "keeping the word of promise to the ear, and break- ing it to the hope"? Then, how shall we secure to them a complete and perfect freedom ? The constitu- tion of every slave State is cemented \-\ slavery. Their statute-books are full of slavery. It is the Corner-stone of every rebel State. If you allow them to cume back rt once, without condition, into the exercise of all their State functions, what guar- anty have you for the complete freedom of the men you have emancipated. There must, therefore, not merely be an emancipation of the actual, living slaves, but there muse be an abolition of the slave system. [Applause.] Every State must have the abolition of slavery in its constitution, or. else we must have the amendment of the Constitution, rati- fied by three-fourths of the States. Yes, that little railroad-iidden republic. New Jersey, must be shamed into adopting the amendment to the Constitution. [Applause ] New .lersey, whose vote, seventy years ago, alone prevented the adaption of Jefferson's great ordinance, making subsequently acquired territories free, and which now stands alone among the free States against this proposition of amendment — must be shamed into its adoption. [Renewed applause.] Louisiana will adipt it before her; KentucKy, perhaps, may adopt it before her. They may como into the kingdom, when the children of the kingdom shut themselves out. [Applause.] But, my fellow-citizens, is that enough? Is it enough that we have emancipation and abolition upon the statute books? In some states of society, I should say yes. In ancient times, when the slaves were of the same race with their masters, when the slaves were poets, orators, scholars, ministers of state, merchant.s, and the mothers of kings, — if they were emancipated, nature came to their aid, and they reached an equality with their masters. Their chil- dren became patricians. But, my friends, this is a slavery of race; it is a slavery which those white people have been taught, for thirty years, is a divine institution. I ask you, has the Southern'heart been fired for thirty years for nothing? Have these doc- trines been sown, and no fruit reaped? Have they been taught that the negro is not tit for freedom, have they believed that, and are they converted in a day? Besides all that, they look upon the negro as the cause of their defeat and humiliation. I am airaid there is a feeling of hatred toward the ne- gro at the South today which has never existed be- fore? What are their laws? Why, their laws, many of them, do not allow a free negro to live in their States. When we emancipated the slaves, did we mean they should be banished — is that it ? [V^oices — ''No."] Is that keeping public faith with them? And yet their laws declare so, and may de- clare it again. That is not all! By their laws, a black man cannot testify in court; by their laws he cannot hold land; by their laws he cannot vote. Now, we have got to choose between two results. With these four millions of negroes, either you must have four millions of dis- franchised, disarmed, untaught, landless, thriftless, non-producing, non-consuming, degraded men, or else you must have four millions of land-holding, indus- trious, arms-bearing and voting population. [Loud applause.] Choose between these two! Which will youliave? It has got to be decided pretty soon, which you will have. The corner-stone of those institutions will not be slavery, in name, but their institutions will be built upon the mud-sills of a debased negro population. Is that public safety ? Is it pub- lic faith? Are those republican ideas, or republican institutions? Some of these neijroes have shed their blood for us upon the public faith. Ah! there are negro parents whose children have fallen in battle; there are children who lost fathers, and wives who lost husbands, in our cause. Our covenant with the freedman is sealed in blood! It bears the image and superscription of the Republic! Their freedom is a tribute which we must pay, not only to Ctesar, but to God! [Applause.] We have a right to require, my friends, that the freedmen of the South shall have the right to hold land. [Applause.] Have we not? We have a right to require that they shall be allowed to testify in the State courts. [Applause.] Have we not? We have a risht to demand that they shall bear arms as ;ol- diers in the militia. [Applause.] Have we not? We have a right to demand that there shall be an impar- tial ballot. [Great applause.] Now, my friends, let us be frank with one another. On what ground are we going to put our demand for the ballot for freedmen? Some persons may say that they will put it upon the ground that every human being has an absolute and unconditional right to vote. There never was any such doctrine! We do not mean, now, to al- low about one half the South to vote. [Applause.] Why not ? W'hy, the public safety does not admit of it. [Applause.] We put the condi- tion of loyalty on every vote. [Applause.] How have we done in this State? Half the people in this State are excluded from the ballot, — the better half, we are fond of calling tbem; no woman votes. We prescribe conditions for tlie men, — whatever con- ditions society sees fit; conditions of af;e; conditions of residence; conditii ns of tax-paying; and lately we have added, by a large popular majtsrity, the fur- ther high condition, that they shall have intelligence enough to read and write. [Applause.] Of course there is no s-uch doctrine as that every human being has a right to vote. Society toust settle the right to a vote upon this principle — "The greatest good of the greatest number" must decide it. The greatest good of sociciety must decide it. On what ground, then, do we put ii? We put it upon the ground that the public safety and the public faith require that there shall be no distinction of color. [Apjilause.] That is the ground upon which it can stand. To introduce the free negroes to the voting franchise is a revolution. If we do not secure that now, in the time of revolution, it can never be secured, except by a new revilution. [Loud ap- plause.] Do you want, some years hence, to see a new revolution ? — the poor, oppressed, degraded blaoli man, bearing patiently his oppression, until he can endure it no longer, rising with arms for his rights — do you want to see ttiat? [Voices "No."] Do you want to see them submit forever, and not rise for tfieir rights? [Voices — "No."] No, neither, you saj'. Well, my friends, who cry "no," if either of those things happens, it is (ur fault. If they iiever get their rights, or get them by a new revolution, it will be, ia either event, our fault. Do you wish to have that blame rest upon you? [Voices — "No.") No? Then "Now's the day, and now's the hour." [Loud applause.] They are in a condition of transi- tion; a condition of revolution; seize the opportunity and make it thorough! [Renewed and hearty ap- plause.] This, then, fellow-citizens, is what we have a right to demand. Now comes my third question — ilow do you propose to accomplish it? We know our powers, we know what we want to do, — how do we propose to do it? First, the right to bear arms, fortunately, does not depend upon the decision of any State. That is a matter which, under the Constitution, depends upon the acts of Congress. Con- gress makes the militia, and Congress must see to it that the emancipated slaves have the privilege, the dignity and the power of an arms-bearing papula- tion. But the right to acquire a homestead, the right to testify in courts, the right to vote, by the Con- stitution, depend, not only in spirit but in the letter, upon the State constitutions. The right to vote in national elections depends on State constitutions. What are ynu going to do about it? You find the answer in my first proposition. We are in a state of war. We are exercising war powers. AVe hold each State in the grasp of war until the State does what we have a right to require of her. [Applause.] Do you say this is coercion? Certainly it is. War is cjercion, and this is part of the war. W^e have a military occupa- tion. What is the effect of that ? I appeal to the learned in the law of nations; I appeal to an authority that has spoken to you words of wisdom this morning [turning to Prof. Par- sons], whether it is not a principle of war that when the conquering party has a military occupation of the country, the political relations of its citizens are sus- pended thereby? That is true; suspended, I do not say destroyed. Let no man say that I overlook the distinc- tion between a civil or domestic war and a war between recognized nations. My duties and stud- ies and thoughts have kept my attention upon that. AVe have not been putting down an insmrection of pro- fessed citizens. We have fought against an empire un- lawfully established within the limits of this republic — a completed, de facto government, perfected iu all its parts; and if we had not destroyed it by war, it would have remained and stood a completed govern- ment. It stood or fell, on the issues of war. Nothing but war has destroyed it. This de facto empire had possession of that whole country. Why, from the Potomac to the Rio Grande, we had not one fort; not one arsenal ; not a court house, nor a custom house, nor a light-house, nor a post-office, nor a single magistrate, or a spot on which he could stand. They had foris, arsenals, light- houses, custom-houses, courts, post-offices, magis- trates, and were in complete possession. It happened — it hnpprncd — that those people preserved their State lines — did not obliterate them; but they might have done so. It happened that they did not change their constitutions, but they might have done it. They might have resolved themselves into a consolidated republic, or a monarchy. They did as they chose. Under such circumstances, if the parent government is not strong enough to hold possession of the coun- try, and a hostile, de facto government is established upon it, the parent government proportionately loses its claims tJ allegiance, for the time. Certainly it does — not absolutely, but for the time. AVhat follows from all this ? from a war fought over the continent and over every ocean, — their pri- vateers vexing our commerce at the antipodes; we fighting the battles of the republic in the m^uth of the British Channel [applause]; and over this whole vast republic, south of the Potomac and the Ojio, "Every turf Ijeneath your feet Has been a sulilier's sepulchre." If such a war leaves this people just as they were before; if no corresponding rights and powers have accrued to us, then I sav, it his been the most vast and bloody and cruel nullity that the woild ever saw. It is not so. We have a right now and a duty to execute those powers which belong to the condition of war. The political relations of these people to their State governments are suspended. Military oc- cupation exists, and the republic governs them by powers derived from war. You look in vain to the Constitution to point out what shall be done. The war is constitutional ; but the consequences, powers and duties, arise out of the nature of thinys. The Consti- tution may distribute functions, but all the powers which the President or Congress hold, or both, and are exercising, are derived from the condition of war. I ask, again, how shall we obtain what we have a right to require? The changes we require are changes of their constitutions, aie they not? The changes must be fundamental. The people arc remitted to their original powers. They must meet in conven- tions and form constitutions, an i those constitutions must be satisfactory to the republic. [Loud ap- plause.] I desire at this point to say a word with reference to President Johnson and his course, to which I ask your special attention. When President Johnson called the people of North Carolina and one or two other States together, he did not call the blacks as well as the whites to the ballot. That was a ques- tion of process, which requires great discretion and wisdom. The President and his Cabinet know a great deal more al)out the details, and means, and probable results, than we do. I believe President Johnson has the same end in view that we have hero today. [Applause.] Ue has his own mode of reach- ing it. Some may ask, why did he not ask the blacks to vote? I know nothing, personally, of his reasons; but I can ea^ily see that two embarra.ssmcnts might well beset him. They occur to us all, at once. The people of those States are to vote for the pur- pose of making their organic law. President John- son holds them by military power. Is H not a very serious thing, in a republican government, to dictate from the cannon's mouth the organic law for a great people? I do not