■a7h E 688 ■ C878 Copy 1 J HON, S. S. COX FORCE OR FREEDOM "Be not profligal or prorlisious in revenge. Make not one in the Sistoria horribilis. Supererogate not iu the worst sense, anil overdo not the necessities of evi]. Humor not the injustice of revenge, Let thy arrows of revenge fly short, or be aimed like those of Jonathan, to fall beside the mark. If thou must needs have thy revenge of thine enemy, with a soft tongue break his bones, heap coals of fl're on his head, forgive him, and enjoy it. CoraiaoQ forcible ways make not an end of evil, but leave hatred and malice behind them. If thou hast not mercy for others, yet be not cruel to thyself. 'Hath any wronged thee? Slight it, and' the work's begun ; forgive it, 'tis finished ; he is below himself that is not above injury. ' " Sir Thomas Browne. "We have conqucn-od them with arms; we will now conquer them with magnanimity." Abraham Lincoln. PUNISHMENT OR PARDON ; FORCE OR FREEDOM, FOR THE WASTED LAND. SPEECH HOTsT. S. S. COX, OF NEW TORK, IX THE j^ousE OF Representatives, Saturday, February 27, 1875, On the Bill (H. E. No. 4745) TO PKOVIDE AGAINST THE INVASION OF STATES, TO PREVENT THE SUBVERSION OF THEIR AUTHORITY, AND TO MAINTAIN THE SECURITY OF ELECTIONS ; The sections of which provide penalties of fine and imprisonment, suspension of habeas corpus, appointment of Federal Election-Supervisors in the Congressional Districts, etc. ^ WASHINGTON: GOVEKNMENT PRINTING OFFICE. 1875. SPEECH OF HOX. SAMUEL S. COX The Hone.- ii-iv!'!-: nii'i.-r p..i,ii.ip,.nri.->n The bill (H. E. Xo. 47-15) to provide against theiuvasinn ^ . • ,• ': -n.iiveisiou of thtir authority, aud to main- tain the si . : : , i.iiis of which provide penalties of fine and imprisonnn 1 I -i^ :,-;o u ■. (■.'.>•, appointment of Federal election super- visors in the Congressiouiu districts, vvc. — Mr. COX said : Mr. Speaker: I thank the gentleman from Indiana [Mr. Coburn] most cordially for the privilege of speaking in his time. It is with great embarra,ssment that I rise now to speak on this topic. Ob.serving old friends who have served with me in other days of trial, when kindred themes stirred ns to debate, (referring to Hon. George H. Pendleton, Hon. Mr. Bococke of Virginia, and others, who sat near,) and surrounded as I am by a score of members of the next Congress, I feel like one standing on an isthmus between two seas ; and the solemnity which comes with the shadow of memory is clouded by the portents of our future. If such bills as this are to pass, what is to be oiu- condition ? FORCE OR A.AINESTY. Expressed, not by its title, but by the name it has assumed among the people, it is a" force bill. The best way to antagonize it is by substituting- kindness and justice. Hence my notice of an amend- ment to replace its rigorous provisions of hate and coercion by a bill for general and generous amnesty; I "had the honor to introduce one among the first bills for amnesty here ; and it came within two votes of passing. That was as early as 18G9. Since then this House in moments of unimpassioned patriotism has indicated its preference in the same direction. The gentleman from Massachusetts, [Mr. Butler,] in December, 1870. introduced his bill " for full and general grace, amnesty, and oblivion." It was mainly copied from an old English statitte about the Scotch rebellion. I could not then help but characterize his bill for pains and penalties as a meager system of mercy. It was characterized as grace which was grudging, amnesty which was exceptional, and ol >livion f till of memo- ries. It was tingracious grace and punitory pardon. It was a rush- ing and tiu-bulent Lethe. I plead for mercy on the eternal plan : no eternizing of persectition ; no probing of the old wounds. That bill had in it what is omitted here, oblivion for the agents and officers of the United States engaged in reconstruction. I miss that here. No one liore and now offias to jiardou tlie Kelloggs, Durells, Packards, Slieridans, and others engaged iu fettering the State of Louisiana. But, sir, what more cau bo said of the unwisdom of further repres- sion by the Federal janissaries aud oppression by the ductile Federal usurpers 1 What more cau be said against the suspensiou of the writ of liberty? What now is its object? Who dare allege a state of affairs, south or uorth, which requires such suspension ? The Con- stitution (article 1, section 9) wisely prohibits such suspensiou, " unless in cases of rebellion or invasion, the public safety may require it." Who seriously pretends that there is any more "rebellion" in the legal aud adjudged sense, than there is "invasion" from within or abroad? This suspension of the great writ is the part of a plan hereafter to be dissected, which provokes to violence, with a view to fresh election complications. HISTORIC LESSONS ON GRACE. Can we not learn from history ? Must we again cite instances for civil guidance ? Must we go to Montesquieu to show that the busi- ness of statesmanship is not to destroy the rebel, but the rebellion ; or to Ossiau for the metaphor of many streams agaiust the enemy, but as a zephyr that moves the grass to the vaiu|uished f Have the les- sons of Eomau history, drawn from Cicero— to fortify the Republic with acts of kindness— no application to our condition ? Is there nothing in the refinement of the tournament which lifted up the knight of the lowered lance ? Is the history of England, in its rela- tions toward Wales, America, Scotland, Ireland, nothing to us for precept -and example ? Are the Hebraic, Grecian, Christian teach- ings — the bloom aud fi-agrance of all civilized iiolity — nothing? As summed up by a quaint English writer— whose thought I have adopted for my title page — the very genius of good government — after rebel- lion, or before to avert it — resides in the compact of concord. AVhy cannot we write our wrongs iu ashes ; draw the ciu-tain over injiuies ? Forgiveness is not forgiveness— if we only pray God to forgive our enemy and we do not ourselves pardon. We must forgive without reserve ; forgive wholly, as we hope for forgiveness. All bills framed in any other spiilt will fail as all your coercive bills have failed for conciliation. You cannot sow this land with di'agon's teeth aud expect other than a harvest of armed disasters. THE POINTS OF BAD POLICY— DISCONTENT. Whatever, therefore, Mr. Speaker, may be the outrages south, and whoever is responsible, the large and dominating fact remains, that tranquillity is absent. Its lack is the evidence and sign of bad rule. Grapes are not of thorns, nor figs of thistles. It is the good tree that Ijringeth forth good fruit. Let us test these acts of reconstruc- tion and force by their fruits. Unless we do so, our remedies will be inadequate, and the more bitter the future fruitage. MORAL TREASON AND SOCIAL ANARCHY. I speak to-day as I have often spoken before in this House, agaiust measures fraught with such consequences, aud therefore I speak against moral treason and social anarchy. My remarks are not made to grace the utterance and fervor of an hour, to vibrate for a moment in angry debate ; they have been pondered and repoiulered in the quietude of my I'oom, so that no sophistical reasoning should escape my own criticism. There is no merit, no intrepedity on my part, in challenging tlie wisdom or the results of that repressive and distrust- ful policy which has made chaos instead of order in the Southern States since the war. nv o\Mi:mioN and its uksults. At the begiiinmg ut i !ir ,v.,,nstructiou measures upon tlir l.ill i„- tioducert by Heury ^Mn,..v Davis in 1864, to reform Tenne.ss..,- n the plan of one-tentli rule of her people, I opposed with all the vehe- iiience aud illustratiou within my reach the rickety plan of com- mencing to build at the roof au.I not at the foundation The recon- ^ me tb'V'"";'";';" "''''■'! '""""'-^ ■'"■ '^^"■'^^ «^ the war have uiider- tl. 1- t ^V "/'""■'" ''^l,"''""''': tliat they are vitally deficient, W+l i n, *^' !■' '"""■ i" """'^"■'■^•"l- all will agree who look be- ion the Mipei-hces ot our social and political order. Thev have failed otism government, peace, security, nationality, and patri- HISTORY OF RECONSTnUCTION— COERCION. The history of reconstruction is a painful one-" infamhnn ,hIorem." from thebegiuniug of President Johnson's proclamation on the ythof May, 1H<,... as to \ iigiuia, and continuing down through the contest witn L.ougicss and by the veto, one idea seemed prominent with the ff fl^lf 7 ''T\ "''''1 '■"l'i»f''--a"ine8ty. It was partial and limited at hrst; but it .-xa-fd as a ron.ponsation certain .■(.nr..,si,ms which were promptly m-.ulr I,y thr Stafs. President .b.lsnsn,, di,l not how- ever, coerce the Starrs in,., dcf-rmining any ,,u!„.y as lo suffrage. 1 he plartormsntth...l,Mnn,a.,r party denied to tl,us..|atrlv in rebellion any iKirr.cipation m ivlnruiiu.- rhe .States. They l,a.ti(t men of all religions in their conscientious con- victions, government should protect men of all classes against rai>ine and spoliation. Government should assure the man who sows, the privilege of reaping. His harvest is his to use as he pleases, subject only to those exactions which are indispensable to the maintenance of the government which protects his industry. What a satire on these organic in'incii)le,s is tlie recent misgovernment in the South, I wilIi)V(-sri]tly (Icrri'iiiiiic. Tlic (inostiou is not as to whether the State orthe Fci'uial (Jovcrnin.iit is r.'spun.sible, or which is most responsible. The fac! ivinains that in tlie eit'ort to restore States, to relmild their dismanllcd sik ial order — contentment, the object of all government, has been waiitiiiu. Military compression and civil oppression have made large bodies of men reckless of the old divisions of power. DESPEKATION SOUTH. IMen in their desperation, who once had just and elevated views of our polity, liave cried out sometimes for imperial jiower, sometimes for military rule, and sometimes for revolution. Civil convulsions, sometimes marked with blood, and sometimes taking the form of race conflict, have accompanied this discontent. It is no longer a question of political union so much, for all discontented men South have been willing to be innned to the Union even by an honest bayonet, or held to it by a mailed hand, or shackled to it by an iron gyve. Nor will it be doulited that tlnougjiout this decade of discontent and convul- sion there has Vieen an asjjiratiou for civil discipline and patriotic al- legiance. This has been chilled by our conduct on its every demonstra- tion. And yet without this aspiration no State can be permanent. When that protection, which is the consideration and correlative of allegiance, fails so signally and constantly, all history teaches that then the bond of allegiance becomes thin and weak, society decUues, and tyranny supervenes. It may be a question whether in such a con- dition foreign conquest may not be a blessing. I assert that under- lying all the trials and troubles, fi-auds and oppressions, whether by judicial decree or military proclamation, this is the capital crime of the party just retiring from j)ower. ALLEGIANCE AND PROTECTION. A French philosopher has said that " in all forms of government the feeling of allegiance or loyalty is the condition of contentment." There must be in the constitution of the state something which is settled— unquestionably permanent— which cannot be dispensed with, secure against aU vicissitude and change. This is the sacred some- thing in our system of Federal and State'goveruments which is above discussion, and which is founded upon the sovereign will of the people. That sacred something is found not nieiolv in the Fedeml mnoi to i,,ijoi liberty, property, and Ifo. Nations anciejt iml ^s^A^s-s.^^S!^^-'^-^ ^' *^^^^-« co^^rhridT; point or another. When at Appomattox Court ^01^ tixe buSes sounded the great truce it was hoped that the conditions of See tranquil government, and a contentid people wouhrCZerved^ that wivwfd tcL''""''?"'"'^''^'^^ *^^'* magnanimity wouLrcoiquer lovP^LnT; !. wi *i"''^'?"™ ^'^ ^'^'^ ««^«iie dynasty of peace and of death aid thSot^'^''""?''" '''^^^ ^^''•'^^•^ land, and over the scenel W^hltT^/lfJ^'^^' ""^ ^""™i"fe^ tlie lethean wave would flow, of dinaii and e.^^ T^ ""^^ repose has been that ^L+1,^^1-1 and death. It was all Lethe except its sleep ; it was all eSed r.rl '*' 'T'l- ^■^"^'^^ ^^^^« ^^^^^ lasted, priperty confis- cated and destroyed, enterprises ruined, cities burned, a whole coun- ^aStsthaV h?h"f "'" i"^"- ^'''' '''T' '-^"^"^ '^''^ immeasu^aWe calamities that the hates and griefs would not be perpetuated ; that the new generation should not wear the rancor iA their hearts tUl children to perpetuate the hate of theii- fathers. TEN YEARS OF MOCKEKY. mo^kertV°rf/h^f/^\*?'''^''r'^''^.^"^^"^ ""^^^^^5 and what a S,^u,d t^oLp+W JT,?^^^^ ^'^ creatures in this fair land in habitations bound together by the same rivers, mountains, lakes, and skies. He has fixed m their hearts the ennobling principles of peace. He ha' sent to this star the very Prince of Peace, as an exemplir and Saviom We had good right to believe that the truce would have been kept Seethe war '^'"^ """''"^ '"'"^' ^^ ^"^""''^^ ^'^"* himself shortly GENERAL GRANT'S TESTIMONY IN 1865 AS TO SOUTHERN SENTIMENT AND CONTENT .Jit^^l ™"^'* ''^ i^"" 'Y!T ''''■'''^^ "^^"^^ *^«^ outrageous Louisiana usur- S f 1 ■'' ^'""sed and the various arguments employed to defend as well as denounce it, one simple connection of circun/stances seems to i^Z\t''^ ''" '"'^3^ overlooked. Logically considered, it indicates that the President's views have undergone an alarming modification since he was made President, in the interest of perpetrating himself poUtfcal affaks'''' '"^ "" ""^ ^'''^'''^^^ '°'^^*''''^ interference in The inconsistency as revealed by his own official papers is so o-ross that no explanation can be made without attributing motives of dangerous ambition. I do not refer to his portentoSs chanoe of opinion as to Ai-kansas since th.. s..ssinn began, but to his wide depart- ure from his own just observatimis ,>i iso,-,. '■ General Grant in liis official ivim.i1 to tlie President of his southern btate inspection, under date December 18, 1865, writes : I am satisfied the thinking men of the South acceptthepresentsituatiouof affairs in good faith. * * * There is such universal acquiescence in the authority of the- General Government throughout the portions of the country visited by me, that the mere presence of a militaryforce without regard to numbers is sufficient to main- tain order. If such was the condition of the South, and especially of New Orleans, where General Grant made his longest stay duimg his tour of inspection in 1865, what must have been the maladministration there since to produce a revulsion of sentiment which seems to call for the present repressive course ? Who is responsible for it ? The President and his fi'iends have had a free rein, and the result accord- ing to their own showing is a condition of present anarchy in con- trast with that he reported nine years ijrevious. The following extracts from an official letter to the President by General Grant, under date October 24, 1866, indicate the views of the latter relative to the employment of troops in political contests The letter is the most statesmanlike I have read from Genera. Grant, as the following extracts may show : The conviction is forced on my mind that no reason now exists for giving or promising the military aid of the Government to support the laws of Maryland. The tendency of giving .such aid or promise would be to produce the very "result intended to be averted. So far there seems to be merely a very bitter contest for political ascendency in the State. Military interference would be interpreted as giving aid to one of the factions, no matter how pure the intentions or how guarded or just the instructions. It is a contingency I hope never to see arise in this country while I occupy the postition of General-in-Chief of the Army, to have to send troops to a State in full relations with the General Government on the eve of an election to preserve the peace. If insurrection does come, the law provides the method of calling out the forces to suppress it. How are General Grant's oiunions of the condition of the Southern States, including Louisiana, and his views of the impropriety of employing the military forces of the Government in politics, reconcil- able with his late acts, except upon the hypothesis that he ignores fact and patriotism for some ambitious end f If our countrymen patiently abide this usurpation, a great barrier to empire will have been destroyed, and the third term and future terms be at the behest of one whose views, under the exercise of power, have sustained the change I have represented. I hope the issue may not be confused. MR. LDJCOLN'S policy. It will not be denied that ten years ago, when reconstruction was first broached, there were men or fiends who talked utter extermina- tion. Mr. Lincoln did not share this execrable spirit. He proposed to reach the South by friendly means ; with him charity predomi- nated ; in his death the South was crucified. His policy, as indicated in his messages and in the dispatches of Mr. Seward, would at once have filled the vacant seats of southern members without convulsion and without discontent ; and whatever changes had taken place under the new order created by the war, they would have accorded easily, naturally, and in the interest of harmony and peace. And the colored race, to-day lying des])oiled. stricken, and cast ort', even from the pater- nal Government, would liave bct-ii elevated, cared for, and their labor made more remunerative under 1)etter oondit ions of freedom and inde- pendence. Mr. Lincoln had not read history in vain. It was an open book to him ; and what did it not reveal ? The pitiless destruction of the Moors of Andalusia by the second Philip, the merciless slaughter of the French in La Vendue, the sanguinary pursuit of Claverhouse after the Scottish covenanters, the stained 'and cadaverous cheek of Ireland, the maddening history of Poland, the history of all subjected and despoiled provinces and countries, and, sir, the terrible reaction upon those who desjioiled and subjected them. In the place of the Lincoln policy of charity and peace, ay, even in the place of sud- den calamities, radical reconstruction has given us prolonued torture. The fruits of that policy are not seen in the strcni;th, srability, gran- deur or progress of our nation, nor in the condition of our business and our labor, of our commerce and our credit. They are seen in the wast- ing of revenues, or in fact the non-collection of revenue through im- poverishment. SPOLIATION OF THE SOLTH. The Mississippi is still ours to the Gulf, but where is its commerce ? Charleston looks out upon Sumter, and Sumter has nothing to pro- tect. The sea islands no longer echo to the music, the exultation and hope of an industrious people. There is onlv heard there the discourse of mangy politicians of all grades of degradatif)n, worship- ing their radical fetich. Some of these States were happily rescued before being thorouglily impoverished— Georgia, Tennessee, Viro-inia. They received an infusion of new life, because the weapon'Vith which tliey were struck was not entirely lethal Beneath this rule of men entirely bad, whose consciousless course had much to do with their maladministration, there was a vicious heresy. It was the fountain of bitter and poisonous waters. That heresv held that cer- tain States had sacrificed their corpf>i ate existence ; it held that they wen- IK. longer comp(mciit members of the Union ; it contradicted thf .l.M l.iiv.l object and principle of the war. It transferred the right to gi>v.rii ilicm to a Congress which was not omnipotent. Hence, wlun reconstruction began through Congress, it assumed that an oli- garcliy of one-tenth should reform the States. Hence distiualifying amendments, and odious conditions ; hence agents to govern who were not selected by the people of the States; hence a large field was opened for executive bashaws and adventurous rascals; and hence by a natural sequence the source of power which should have been in the States was lixed at the Federal capital. And wherein does such a government differ from tlie rankest orientalism ? Con- quered provinces and oligarchical States, in place of the constituted local State governments, an- both a solecism and a weakness. Such a condition could not give comcnt. It put in jeopardv the liberties and goveniments of tlic i.copjf X..rth ; it became an image, part brass and part clay ; and the intolerable oppression upon one-half of the country became a burden and a reproach to the other. PATEKNAL GOVEKXIIEXT. It was not in the nature of things in this country, it was not in accordance with our traditions or our organic laws, that the duties of the Federal Government should be p;itcrnal. It was not possible in nature for agovernment to love its ^iil,jc, ts us a father his childi-eu. Show me the government, or the agcnis .li a -o\ .■rnmeut, distinct and irresponsible as the Federal Government is from the States, which for purposes of honest and wise rule is as superior in intelligence to its people as a father is to his child. Such a paternal affection is as irrational and certainly more dangerous than the figment of the constitution which Locke ma^50 to 1860 is in sad contrast with the decrease from l-^eO to 1870, under the policy of hate and spoliation. The tables will show the percentage of decrease. They will also show what would have been the prosperity of these States under orderly rule. The loss on tol>acco is seventy-five millions, on cereals one hundred millions, on cotton four hundred millions, on stock four hundred and eighty millions, and on farms four thousand millions. But to the table : Productions in the States of Virginia, West Virginia, Korth Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Tennessee, Mississippi Louisiana, Texas, and ArJcansas. Products. ISoO. 1S60. 1S70. Cereals §316, 344, 306 2, 4;i2, 321 90, 965, 429 191, 327, 756 793, 342, 168 §339, 960, 320 5, 333, 867 203, 142, 103 381, 778, 601 2, 012, 708, 493 '2,478,844,459 56, 833, 154 9, 867, 268 11, 501, 963 44, 584, 501 59, 642, 527 $236, 069, 16S 3, 008, 033 73, 113, 048 280, 284, 912 1, 088, 746, 888 612, 075, 308 49, 567, 628 7, 976, 981 2, 305, 988 23, 236, 788 44, 571, 545 Tobacco Talue of live stock Talue of farms "Value of personal property ^cres improved . 42, 684, ge.') Q 337 ■503 Wool Peas and beans... J Potatoes 7. 371, 700 39. 846, 301 34, 606, 394 Percentage of increase from 18.50 to 1860 and decrease from 1860 to 1870. Products. is Cereals n? 123 99i 33 18 5(> 72 44 43i 64 26. Cotton Tobacco Talue of live stock Acreage Wool 19 79 47 25 Peas and beans Potatoes Butter Had the wealth of these States increased from 1860 to 1870 as it did fi-om 1850 to 1«60, there would have been in 1870 — C'^reals §3<;4. ^:iii. 743 iiKt.aii of s-j:;(; oiW ii;8 Cott^ni ll,i;-l, ih- i,ist,.;i,l ,,r " :;'(io-'i,:j3 Tol)acco 453, (1(11,. --'1 in-t.,i(l of ::: ii:!(i-i,-i Value of stock 7{il>l- :;ii- m^i, ,i,t ,,i' -iId ..-'i .,|.i "Value of farms 5, 102. 1.". j l-: 1 Acres improved ' 75, .■)--'((;( 1 1 The value of all farm productions in 187ii w ,is of 1860 is not given in the census of 1860, hnr tli< the crop, comparing quantities shows a lo.^.s as coiiiiiarcd with those of 1860 of 45 per cent. If the values of tli<» producti.^iis by given quantities are the same, the cro]) of ls(')0 wa.s .•^ttls,ut-i,-^v!it, and that is greater than the crop of 1870 by s-2S4.1).-,t;.:j'.l4. Wliar a coimuentary is here on .such policies as this bill intrndt-s upon The eoujitry! Xow, if we compare the crop of l-<60 with what the crop of 1870 a. I of 1, 08<<, 746, 88rf .»\ of 49,567,628 ■..•J:]6,435. That aiititics are and 12 ought to hare heen by increase of population and labor, we find tbat it fell over four huncli-ed millions below wbat it ought to have been. Who is responsible for these losses? Ah! but it may be said, "this is the consequence of the war that ended in 1865." Let us see if it is so. How are we to account for the fact that in 18,59 these States raised 282.626,000 bushels of corn, and in 187.3, fourteen years after- ward, and eiu,ht years after the war, with a million additional popu- lation, thev Only raised 217,741,000 bushels. How is it that they raised 31,441,826' bushels of wheat in 1859 and only 24,574,000 in 1873 ? How is it that Louisiana in 1859 raised 230,982 hogsheads of sugar and in 1873 89,498 ? What do these figures mean since the war : 187(} 144,881 ; 1871, 128,461 ; 1872, 108,520 ; 1873, 89,498. Do they not mean reconstruction ; that the blight did not exhaust itself at the end of the war, but points its skeleton hand to a lower deep yet to be touched by a wretched and distracttMl people? If bills like these are to pass to harass and vex industries and people, who can tell the lowest depth of that deep with which the South is tlireatened? As the aggregate of these Southern States shows a falling ottin acreage,^ it may be thought this depression in agriculture arose from the farms destroyed by the armies in the field during the war. To show that this is error, we will take the State of Texas, to whose distinguished representative [Mr. Mills] I am greatly indebted for these economic observations. Texas is by far the most prosperous of all the Southern States ; because thereVas no Federal army during the war, and no (b'struction of farms by armies. Besides there is an increased aci«;iiii' liy reason of the heavy immigration of whites since the war. We find, liuwever, the same nielancholy prostration of farming interests, as follows : Losses in Texas. 1860. 1870. 12, 650, 781 88, 101, 320 6, 250, 452 5,143,635 42, 825, 447 325, 698 63, 334 601, 540 172, 492 2, 761, 736 753, 363 1, 371, 532 1, 478, 345 111, 860 16, 500, 702 985, 889 67, 562 1,349 26,031 97, 914 431, 463 1, 493, 738 341, 961 2, 020, 794 14, 199 .5, 850, 583 275, 128 5,099 520, 770 594, 273 $2, 964, 836 60, 149, 950 3, 396, 793 4, 835, 284 37, 425, 194 424, 504 Mules &c 61, 132 428, 048 132, 407 2, 933, 588 Sheep 704, 351 1, 202, 445 415, 112 j?ye . 28, 521 20, 554, 538 Oats . 702, 663 44, 351 44 Rice . 63, 844 59, 706 Cotton 350, 628 •Wool 1, 251, .328 42,654 Potatoes . .. ... 2, 396, 424 Wine 6,216 3, 712, 747 Cheese . 34, 342 2, 020 420. 571 Honey 275, 169 13 NATIONAL WEALTH IN ALL THE STATES AND ITS DECREASE UNDER RECONSTRUCTION. 1Q50 17,135,600,800 1360 16,159,616,668 i87o::"" :::::"]" !!!-!■; "!■■";■".;; -26,967,281,172 Increase in wealth from 1850 to 1860, 1.28 per cent. Increase in wealth from 1860 to 1370, 6S per cent. The material wealth of 1870 is reduced to gold at IIU, the pre- mium on gold 30th of Juue, 1870, to make comparisou with the gold value of 1850 aud 1860. . The same remark applies to the next succeeding table on agricult- The censuses of 1850 aud 1860 do not, like 1870, give the value of all farm productions, but they do give the qiianiities. Mr. Grosvenor,. in his work on pr.litical economv published in 1868, says the vahie of all farm productions in 1860 was about 8ti,(;00,000,000, and that it in- creased 100 per cent, from 18.50 to 1860. By looking at the quantities produced, as shown in the census, he is fully sustained in his esti- mate. . ^^_^ Then we have in 1860, 163,110,720 acres in cultivation; in 18/0, 188,921,099 acres. From my best information, I estimate that it will cost |10 per acre on an average of crops to cultivate them; but if this is not correct as an estimate, it will not aifect the result, as it will be applied to both jieriods and will affect them equally : 1860. 1870. Cash value of f ami.s ami f armino- implements Cash value of ijnxluctions on estimate of Grosvenor Cost of production at $10 per acre S6, 891. 263, 148 2, 600. 000, 000 1, 631, 107, 200 S8, 509, 580, 529 2, 195, 101, 935 1, 889, 210, 990 968, 892, 700 305, 890, 945 Loss on productions of 1870 as compared with 1860,;r404,896,06o. Net profit in 1860, 14 per cent. Net profit in 1870, 3i per cent. But we see from the tables in the census that the productions increased 100 peV cent, from 18,50 to 18()0. If nothing had retarded the prospei'ity of our agriculture, it would have continued to increase at the same ratio of 100 per cent.: tlicii 1li.' |>i<>5.-J(i(MI(H),000 ; but it was only, .'=i2,rJ5,l(M»,;t:55, showing a loss nl .>;,iiiil.<;»-.(i65. Notwithstand- ing'^there were over twenty-tive million more acres in cultivation and over sixteen hundredmillions more money invested in farms and fann- ing implements and seven millions more people, tb.e croi> is over four hundred millions below the crop of 1860. Who is responsible? To illustrate the growth from 1850 to le60, I present the tollow- iuii statements : Products. 1850. 1860. 1870. $2, 469, 093 592, 071, 104 199, 752, 655 100, 485, 944 $5, 387, 052 838, 792, 742 434, 209, 461 173, 104, 924 13, Oil, 996 i^ 760, 944, 549 q, , 262, 735, 341 287, 745, 626 14 The census tables show an increase from 1850 to 1860 and decrease from 1860 to 1870: Products. i1 1 118 117 96 48 64 105 32 10 52 44 39 44 19 61 2 41 25 Se ::::::;:::::::::;;::":::;:::::::;::::;:::" 8 Wheat showed au inci-ease at both jieriods, but 6 iier cent, greater at 1860 than 1870. These facts from the census serve to illustrate the general ideas which apply to the underlying principle, or rather lack of princi- ple, upon which reconstruction was based. The principle necessa- rily involved perfidious and bad agencies to realize it, and conse- quently losses of proi)erty, direct, consequential, and otherwise. , VAGABOND AGENCIES SOUTH. Perhaps the crying sin of these agencies was their vagabond qual- ities. The great body of the men who undertook to carry out this reconstruction were vagrant peripatetics, having no fixed and abid- ing interest in the place where they sat down. They generally had two thoughts: first, to make all they could, and, second, to move off with what they had made. The right of locomotion without pass- ports or hiuderance is one of the most sacred rights which any fi'ee government can give. I applaud the proper and benificent offices of immigration, but I denouuce its counterfeit and abuse. Immigration is a part of the history of the last few centuries. All our people had ancestors who were scattered from the Rhine to the Liffey, from the Danube to the Thames. There is a utility and a beauty in this exo- dus from the Old World to the New. The value and grandeur such immense movements meau to this new hemisi>here all appreciate, and but for this movement from 1790 till to-day we would have but ten millions of people in our land at the present moment. No one objects to this movement, for it brings hundreds of millions of values as well in gold and silver as in industry, mind, and muscle. UTILITY OF INTERSTATE RELATIONS. But if any portion of such a movement came to overtirrn our at- tractive system of government, to change the form and the substance of our polity, we would at once cease to be attractive. We should at once close our gates to the exodus. Between our States this ex- odus is double that of any other country. Our Magna Charta gives us the right of free egress and regress. That right, like oiu' writ of haieas corpus, has contributed to our advancement. Even trees and plants improve by transplanting, but the transplanting should be rightly done. It should be suited to the soil and protected against winter frosts and adverse winds. We have the same right to go and come as to post our letters or otherwise commune with our friends. 15 When, therefore, adventurons rascalitj' travels only to despoil, and denunciation falls upon it, the denunciation is in faror of that rightful and healthy movement by which States are peopled, elevated, and energized. When the reconstruction measures began to be organized under such bad agencies, the very lethargy and devastation of the South attracted not merely good citizens who would build up, but a horde of the bad who would tear down. All desirable populations were welcomed at the South ; they deserved and received encouragement. They were not the jackalls to the lions of war, or hyenas among the graves of the dead. No man in Georgia objected to an artisan going there to help manufacture cotton ; no man in Louisiana complained if a stranger rescued a wasted sugar plantation fi-om the alligator ; no man in Texas complained of the German who went there to raise cereals, cotton, or cattle. The complaint and the grievance begins when the myrmidons of political power, the mercenaries and the suttlers. the bureaucrats and adventurers, who have no local habita- tion or name, make alliance with illiteracy, fan race prejudices, de- spoil railroads, and revel in inordinate taxations. These men not only discredited the bonds of their States in the markets, upon the ex- change, but dislocated by their devices the industries of the South. THE DISFRANCHISED— THE SUPERIOR RACE. Having no part in the honors and offices that belong to self-gov- ernment, the best men were powerless before such an alliance. These adventurers were the cuckoos Avho sat upon the eggs of other birds — the scum which rose to the top of political reconstruction. They were called carpet-baggers, not because they always carried one of those indispeiisalile art ides of travel, for many of them were not even provided with tiiat article, but they moved in a mysterious way, with no fixed mode of life or the animus manendi. The carpet-bagger had little to go on and much to get. He made out of negro credulity a living.and he made the negro his prey. He began as a siutriur and was- reconstructed as a statesman. He had a bayonet within call, and even before the liai)iiy days of " overflowed bacon,'' he had rations in abun- dance. He not only registered votes at pleasure, but became an organic law-maker and a legislator. The less he had at stake, the more he had of taxes. The county ;iiid State otlices at tiist tilh'd his ambition ; then he aspired, when pletlioric with funds, to be Congressman, Senator, and governor. He waxed fat and kicked. He kicked the negro, and by a beautiful law of nature t lie negro is just now beginning to return tlie compliment. His chief occui)ali<)n has been to count votes that were never cast, and count out wages which were never earned, and to make all who despise him appear as unrepentant rebels. How could reconstruction stand on such loose material 1 OTHER GRIEVANCES. One of the great grievances of our fathers was the creation of a multitude of new oftices and a swarm of officers from a broad to harass the pei)]i]e jind eat of their substance. Our fathers complained of the establisluuent of a foicign jurisdiction. The (piartering of armed troops com]>leted tlie work of desolation and tyranny. Every one of these complaints find their comiterpart in the gospel of anarchy preached through bills like the present one, and in the moral treason which inspires their enactment. " REGULATE " ELECTIONS. A part of this programme of anarchy and tyranny is the power granted in this bill to petty Federal officers over elections. Have we^ 16 not had enough of these sickening examples ? Let ns have done with a set of men who can postpone " reguhir " elections or " correct " their returns, just as it best suits the purj)ose of the master, who with an unlimited executive police at his elbow, with unlimited powers, can levy taxes to pay them, collect taxes not authorized, declare martial law, suspend the habeas corpus, erect military commissions, try his subjects, and hang them — by your authority and in consequence of your enactment ! This is all your own work, gentlemen of the majority ! You want to repeat it for 1876, do you ? The verj^ fii-st act of "congressional usurijation was the prelude to all the drama, the key-note to the whole of this infernal chorus. When it became possible to do one thing outside or al»ove the Constitution, it became necessary to order all yoiu" actions on that plane. Every line must needs be longer than a straight line, and no action of yours outside the Constitution could fail to breed evil and prepare the way for misery. CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS. Am I asked whether these thoughts lead toward the repeal of the amendments of the Constitution which grew out of the Avar and its conditions? I answer, that these amendments, if rightly con- strued, as they have been by the United States Supreme Coui't, are only intended to deny powers to the States and not to grant or en- large the Federal powers. Under them the opposite party claim to do everything. We do not ask to undo the past, nor the work of the war. We take the country Avhere the war left it and its situation now. The Constitution remains to us, and its amendments remain ; but they furnish no authority for such bills as the present one. It is in the administration and legislation under the amendments that we tind the usurper and the reconstructer who are dangerous to peace and the fomeuters of anarchy. When we read in our authentic reports from both sides what has been done in Mississippi, Arkansas, find Louisiana, we can readily jierceive the di'ift of this arraignment of bad government. NO RETROGRESSION. Neither am I to be placed, as the gentleman from Ohio [Mr. Gar- field] intimated the other day, in antagonism to the colored race. I disclaimed being responsible for Judge Van Trump's clictmn in the minority Ku-Klux report. It is not a fair inference that I favored the abolition of colored suffrage and the oppression of the African. That protest Avas meant, so far as I know, to apply to the irrepressible social conflict between black and white, Avhich is lu-ged by iiarty tricksters to keep the colored A^oters with the radicals. I have alreadj^ said here that New York State, on motion of a demo- cratic Senator, anticijiated action here, under tlae thirteenth amend- ment, by removing the i^roperty qualifications upon negro suffrage in New York. The Cincinnati and Baltimore platforms meant no reaction on this subject of enlarged suffrage. No one on any com- mittee could or can reverse the action of our State and national con- A-entions, which accepted, with Horace Greeley, the situation. Hon- est men then united to foi-get the past and advance the democratic party to its present condition. To-day they are more sincere in caring for the real interests of the lowly and colored than those avIio use them to their hurt and to the distress, impoverishment, and dis- honor of southern people and State governments. The negroes will find out their friends. The democracy accepts the jiresent condition of affairs in order to better them. It does not propose any retro- gression. 17 The relations of slavery, the questions of civil war, the giief and grievancesof that vast conflict, areor should be buried. Out of their graves spring new conditions and fresh responsibilities. The fore- most duty is the satisfiiction of the people in the new order, and the replacement of those guarantees of public security North and South, without which government, like that in Louisiana, is little less than anarchy. The party in power obtained it by crying " Peace, peace," but they give no peace. They made their ricketty scafiolds of recon- struction. The South ventured on them. Eadicaiism has already, by fraud and force, tried to hack them down. The. South is to have no peace until it lays itself at the feet of radical spoliation and annoy- ance, and forgets all of its mauhood in its abject obeisance to the social Mumbo Jumbo. Unless it does so, the whole country is to be racked with the suspension of habeas corpus and the threats of civil war. In fine, and under specious pretexts, the war is to be renewed for ulterior purposes. What those purposes are, time will determine. What such bills as this mean the people of New York, who are, every election, blessed with Federal supervisors and their paid minions, know full well. It is my purpose now to enter my earnest protest as well against the swash and swagger of the military and its insolent domination over civil rights and interests, as against the espionage of paid Federal supervisors over all our elections. It was to be hoped that such discussions as this were long since over ; but, sir, the ques- tion reciu's : IS THE MILITARY SUPERIOK TO THE CIVIL AUTHOKllT ? One of the peculiarities of these times is that the conservators of the established order in this country are compelled to discuss and discuss again the fundamental questions, long since the foregone conclusions of our best men. We have to go to the alphabet of fieedom. In 1840 the whig party denounced Poinsett's scheme of a standing army, which, compared to our present armies, was as the mole-hill to the mountain. But no one objects to this jealousy of military power unless he be a despot or his tool. This jealousy of the supremacy of the military over the civil authorities took form in our constitutions. It springs from the training of the Anglo-Saxon mind for a thousand years. A distinct military order was always regarded by our ances- tors as dangerous in a land of libert5\ When, therefore, we are to have again scattered over the States where war does not exist hun- dreds of shoulder-straps and thousands of soldiers, in camp, in bar- racks, in hotels, what will follow ? It is easy to see that under this bill we shall have again those army sherifls, the provosts. They will again sneak into our assemblages to carry on an espionage for those in power. We aie to have in every congressional district extra con- stitutional commissioners or supervisors. Again civilians are to be dragged from quiet homes by soldiery to be tried by drum-head rules. In such a prospect, let us go back to the origin of civil liberty and reproduce the rudiments. It is laid down by certain writers that in absolute monarchies the safety of the prince requires a great military establishment. This is required on the principle of fear. Monarchs govern more by fear than love. This seems to be the doctrine of the present Administra- tion. In England, when it was necessary to raise a force in time of war, the leaders were elected by the people, to make them responsible 2 c 18 to those whom if they iujured they could account unto for their mis- doings. Bhickstone says, (book 1, chapter 13 :) Because of their great power these officers were elected by the people in their full assembly or folkmote, in the same manner as sheriffs were elected ; following still that old'tundameutal maxim of the Saxon constitution, that where any officer was intrusted with such power as if abused might tend to the oppression of the people, that power was delegated by a vote of the people themselves. This custom was inherited from the Germans. Out of this custom sprang the militia, the citizen soldiery, a system by which the disci- pline was made general and easy and the soldier mingled freely with the people. It is this conservative element by which the spirit of the people was communicated to the soldier and foreign and standing armies were rendered useless and innoxious. We want no soldiery in our States except that which is of the States. The second amend- ment of the Constitution took care to guard the States and their militia : A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a State, the right of THE PEOPLE to keep and bear arms shall riot be infringed. The first article, eighth section, in enumerating the powers of Con- gress to call out the militia, expressly "reserves to the States the appointment of the officers." MILITARY C0MMISSI0N&— ENGLISH PRECEUEXTS. Springing out of this old jealousy of military authority was the distrust of military commissions, like those which will tossuredly follow the suspension of civil process and the suspension of habeas corpus. Blackstone calls all such elements of power "temporary excrescences bred out of the distemper of the State." This Adminis- tration and its servitors have sought in vain for pretexts to declare martial law, which, as Sir Matthew Hale said, was built upon no set- tled principles, but is entirely arbitrary in its decisions— in truth and reality, no law. The only justification for such a state of things is for discipline in the Army, 'it has no place in a community where courts remain and the civil law stands. Military commissions are the detestable fungus of a bad condition. The English people suffered from such creatures of despotism. The famous " petition of right," a part of the bible of English freedom, enacted that " no commission shall issue to proceed within this land according to martial law." They had felt the outrage of trying men other than by the law of the land and by a jury; and they even struck their kings down to break this infamous tyranny of the military. What is it but an unlimited power to create crimes and annex to them any punishments ? It is legislation. It makes the executive the legislature. It makes a. part the whole. The President is a part of the Legislature. He approves and vetoes laws ; he cannot make laws nor suspend laws. One of the chief crimes of this Administration is that it has under- taken to do, nay has done, what the kings of England undertook to do — to suspend laws. SUSPHNSION OF THfl LAW OF LIBERTY. Allow me to cull some examples from English history for our guid- ance. History is written for our instruction, and it but repeats itself. In England the laws of Parliament, unlike the laws of Congress, are paramount. Here the Constitution is the supreme law of the land ; and any law made by Congress or State inconsistent with the Constitution is void. In England it is otherwise. If the President 19 of the United States undertakes to legislate he usurps ; if he under- takes, as he did in Louisiana, to suspend any part of the Constitu- tion, from which he derives all his authority either as President or as Commander-in-Chief, he does just what James II did, and for which he lost his crown. The revolution of 16S8 was grounded on the breach of the English constitution by the attempt of the monarch to suspend certain laws concerning religion. These laws of Parlia- ment as to the English Chm-ch were intolerant, bad laws, and James sought to suspend them. On the 4th of May, 1688, he proclaimed that it was his " royal will and pleasure that from henceforth the execution of all and all manner of penal laws in matters ecclesi- astical * * * is hereby suspended." He ordered the bishops of the realm to have his proclamation read in all the churches. Seven bishops objected and protested — That the declaration is founded npon such a dispensing poiaer as hath often been declared illegal in Parliament and particularly in 1662 and 1672 and the beginning of your Majesty's reign, and is a matter of so great moment and consequence to the whole nation, both in church and state, that your petitioners cannot in i)rudence, honor, or conscience so far make themselves party to it as the distribution of it over all the nation. For writing these noble words the bishops were imprisoned in the Tower. On the 29th of June, 1G8S, they were tried. I hold in my hand the volume of State Trials of Howell containing this most re- markable trial. It might be well before stating further the results of the great trial to ask : Where will this authorized suspension of habeas cm-pus end, Mr. Speaker ? The right to criticise and protest against the arbitrary suspension of this writ may itself be regarded as a crime. The law- yers of the bishops. Sir Robert Sawyer. " old Pollfexen," Pemberton, and others, placed their defense upon the fact that no English poten- tate had the right to suspend the law. No more moral right has the Executive or Congress to suspend habeas corpus, to override the militia of the States by Gatling guns or Sheridan's orders, to abridge free speech, free press, right of trial by indictment and jury, or to establish military commissions and inflict unusual punishment. If there were no dispensing power in the King, there was no sediticms libel in the bishops. If a southern man tells the truth as to the tyranny of this Administration, he has been guilty of no crime. As Justice Powell said to the jury in the case of the bishops : If the King can dispense, it amounts to an abrogation and repeal of all laws. If this be once allowed, there will be no need of Parliament; all the legislation will be in the King, which is a thing worth considei-ijig, and I leave the issue to God and your consciences. The jury came into court on the 30th of .Tune and found the bish- ops not gnilty; wlKTcat, says tlie report, "there were great shouts in court and f hn.ngiiout Wostminst^-r Hall." The shouting was regarded by Judge Jeffries, of infamous immortality, as indecent. Such sliout- ing has not yet died away. The echoes of that shouting hailed Will- iam of Orange as the new King; and the same echoes are going on now and here,}(roclaiming, in answer to last fall's verdict of the fi-ee people of America, that there is to-dav no cause or pretext to suspend our fundamental law, but that the Constitution " as it is" shall be regarded. INDICTMENT OF BISTORT— EXCE-S-^KS OF POWER. Mr. Speaker, these lessons of history as to the abrogation of funda- mental law and the establishment of military codes will be unheeded by this Congress, but not by the Ameiiciin people. This bill will 20 pass this House. It simply overloads our statutes with what Biu-ke called an exuberance of mischief, unknown even to despotism. This side of the House, aided by some thirty gentlemen opposite, have done all they could to avert the great evil. For this, the gentleman from Massachusetts [Mr. Butler] has arraigned these republican lovers of liberty, with merciless irony. He charged them with takmg their luxurious ease, while he and his band here struggled to fix upon the statute book this monstrous law of intermeddling and coercion. I trust gentlemen are not to be deterred, by such an attack, from their i;vhole duty to the end ! If this bill becomes a law, what is the dire consequence ? It will bring only a disorderly tyranny. The history of reconstruction, with its penalties and force, its frauds and spites, lias been dark enough. It has been a tissue of folly, tumult, ruin, vio- lence, and usurpation. It is a history "of eternal conspiracies worse than that of Greece." It does not banish Themistocles, but it banishes honesty. It does not starve Aristides, but it starves whole popula- tions. It does not force Miltiades into exile or poison Socrates, but it does worse, it destroys States, and it exiles the people. " All the violence and wickedness by which a beginning power must acquire strength and all the weakness by which falling States are brought to complete destruction, " are inaugurated in such measures as this. If I might change somewhat a paragraph in a recent article from an English statesman and apply it to this measure, I would say: "The m.tgistrate, after sacrificing order, peace, union— all the interests which it is his first duty to protect— for the alleged purpose of pro- moting liberty and justice, will be forced, after experience, to admit that he has really been promoting tyranny and wrong." The sounder the doctrines of such a magistrate the 'stronger are the arguments against the policy which deprives a good cause of its natural advau- tages. WHERE K THE REUEF ? Mr. Speaker, history, economy, philosophy— in fine, all results from the experiences of mankind point to the fatal effects of such measures of force as this bill, while they point to the beneficent consequences of the policy of conciliation. Where and when are these direful consequences to cease ? When and where are we to sound the glad tidings of individual brotherhood and State equality? Were our elections indeed a failure ? Do we who oppose this bill not repre- sent the moral though not the numerical majority of this House and in the grand total the voice and conscience of the people ? What relief, then, is there for the stricken South ? Is it only in the appeal which one of old made in his great distress and so apposite to this time ? I would seek unto God, and unto God would I commit my cause : which doeth great things and unsearchable ; marvelous things without number : He di*ap- pointeth the devices of the crafty, so that their hands cannot perform their enter- prise. He taketh the wise in their own craftiness : and the counsel of the froward 13 carried headlong.— /o&, v : 8, 9, 12, 13. But how long, O, how long, are we to wait for this divine relief, and for the undoing of the crafty and froward ? The voice of the people last fall remains unheeded. Radicalism still moves on here under the guise of legislation. She flaunts her black banner in our faces. She glories in her triumphs over the prosperity and happiness of our beautiful sunny South. The verses of one of our native poets 21 fitly, thougli quaiutlj', describes the desolation which hag followed her path : A WASTED LAND. Shn camo, and with hor hand. With her mouth, yea, and her ey&», She hath ravaged all the land; Its beAuty shall no more rise : She hath drawn the wine to her lip For a mere wanton sip ; Lo, where the vine branch lies; Lo, where the drained grapes drip. Her feet left many a stain ; And her lips left many a sting ; She will never come again, And the fruit of everything Is a ca:nker or a pain : And a memory doth crouch Like an asp^yea, in each part "Where she hath left her touch — Lying in wait for the heart. [Joaquin Miller. Bat the time is at hand wheu her career will be ended and tlio ravages of the spoiler shall cease. The wantonness of power is nearly over. The canker and pain, they too will soon cease. Patience, and moderation — moderation, moderation above all. Be true to these, gen- tlemen of the South, and before the gray dawn of the morning which ushers in the hundred years of our independence shall have passed, the States, all in unison and self-respecting and respected, will make according harmony. CONCLUSION. Ah, Mr. Speaker, it is the saddest of my reflections that the real remedy for the-se southern troubles, dangers, uncertainties — the one mode which yon did not and do not employ was yet so simple, so obvi- ous, so easy ! The small humanity of concession, the cheap generosity of conciliation, would have accomplished all that your repressions and coercions have so signally failed to accomplish. There w;is discontent at the South, but it would have vanished before a policy of kind- ness such as you might honorably have adopted ; or, if you could not be kind, if you had only let these stricken and brave people alone — severely, nay, even contemptuously alone ! What was it that blotted out of existence the non-jurors who had kept England uneasy with their intriguer and rebellions for five convulsive reigns 1 It was not repressive legislation, for that was the pabulum and the inspiration of their existence. It was not persecution, for it was that upon which they chiefly throve. It was the ce.ssation of persecution. It was the abandonment of pursuit. It was the complete, definite, final ignoring of restrictive laws, and the extension of amnesty so absolute as to be actually contemptuous that made voiceless these ancient and experienced trumpets of sedition. They had successfully held up againstall the powerof the Parliament and the Throne. They could ; not contend, they perished as suddenly as ephemera before the gentle yet withering zephyrs of contempt and silence ! How long would the^so misguided southern youth have iK'en likely to keej) up their childish Ku Klux masquerade, with its stupid ceremonial, its clumsy garb, and its night walking, but for the incontive of your frowns and the flattery of your restrictions ? One word more, sir, and I have done. We are not here any longer to ask, as we have so often done, for charity, for liberality, for mercy LIBRARY OF CONGRESS '"III II lllll 013 789 925 5 • LIBRftRY OF CONGRESS