/% '-^m; /x : -I» : ^ ^ bP 5 Jvv / \ •> / // 7 THE POLICY OF THE ADMINISTRATION'. SPEECH OF 101. W. D. KELLEY, OF PEIN., Delivered in the House of Representatives, January 31, 1862. The House being in Committee of the Whole l the state of the Union — Mr. KELLEY said : The evils of the country, Mr. Chairman, are uch aggravated by the want of leadership, tie Administration would, in my judgment, doj fell to announce a policy, clear, well defined,; id thorough, which should address itself toj e suppression of the rebellion and the punish-; ent of those who are participating in it. Such course would reanimate the public mind and tart; it would inspire with invincible enthu- ism our army, now diminishing by desertion, sease, and death, and deteriorating from loug- mtinued inaction ; it would invigorate the lblic credit ; the people would again pour out tir money, with confidence that it would be iplied to the preservation of that portion of eir property which might remain in their )ssession. For more than nine months the people have lown that we are at war. Every family has, 5 it were, laid its first-born upon the altar of ie country. Every loyal State, save Maryland id Kentucky, hastened to send its contingent ito the field. Many of the people of Missouri •rayed themselves in behalf of the country, al- lough the authorities of the State were en- aged in and pledged to the rebellion. Every Dnstituency has instructed its Representative ♦ax their property so as to give the Govern. mt the most abundant means for this pri lary object of theirs and of the country. Nine louths and more have elapsed since Sumter ;11 — since the Secretary of War of the Davis anfederacy announced to the world his pur- ose of hoisting a traitor flag over this Capitol, ix hundred thousand men have been put into the field in behalf of the Republic. Yet Wash ington i3 beleagured and Richmond is not. When an exchange of prisoners is madp, give the enemy whoever they ask, and let t 1 at their own convenient season return to whom they will, and the enthusiasm of the pt- ple is expected to be excited anew each moi ing by the announcement that all is quiet o the blockaded Potomac. Equally prejudicial is the fact, sir, that t speeches made upon this floor for the last tw- or three weeks are well calculated to produce the impression throughout the country that there is a difference between the Pre.<-ilent of the United States and those who brought hin; into power ; that he is no longer to look for support to his political friends, but must expect it from those who opposed his election, and who hope for the resurrection of that party which was a close corporation ; the proprietors of which were Slidell, Mason, Davis, Cobb, and half a dozen other Southern gentlemen, to whom Franklin Pierce, James Buchanan, and other so-called Democratic leaders, belonged in fee ; nay, sir, belonged — as the old stories have it the men who are supposed to have sold their souls to the devil belonged to that personage — not only in fee, the most enduring temporal title, but by a right which should read' through eternity. The speeches of the gentle man from Kentucky, [Mr. Wadsworth,] of the two gentlemen from New York, [Messrs. Steele and Diven,] and of my colleague frou the Luzerne district, [Mr. Wright,] have all been calculated to create that impression. The} view things from different stand-points, but th .-■; tuned their melodies to the same key-note, suppose that this harmony was accidental. : In these speeches, M . . Chairman, the changes have been rung on the words fanatic and con- servative; ami the idea has been suggested that there is such a thing in the world as a demagogue, and that possibly one may have crept upon this floor. Sir, the words fanaticism and conservatism are much abused ; of the demagogue nothing too vile can be said. Fa- naticism is zeal and enthusiasm for a cause. The fanatic is frank and honest as he is earnest. Fanaticism swells the rolls of heroes and mar- tyrs. The despised fanatic of today is often the adored idol of the future. With the fanatic the demagogue cannot be compared ; they can only be contrasted. The busiuess of the dema- gogue is deception. Artifice, trick, and chicane are his means. His ways are devious and tor- tuous, and you track him by the slime he de- posits as he crawls. A fanatic may bless man- kind ; but a demagogue is an evil ever and everywhere. Of the apostles, eleven were des- ignated by the people of their time as fanatics — the twelfth was a demagogue. He spoke fair words and kissed, and increased his estate by thirty pieces of silver — the price of Him he kissed. It may be that we have fanatics and dem- agogues amongst us ; but the President be- longs to neither class. He is a conservative man, alike loyal to the love of liberty, with which he is so plenteously imbued, and his duty to the Constitution, which he has sworn to preserve, protect, and defend. He is a con- servative man, not in the sense in which that word is used on the other side of the House — not a man who came into the world one genera- tion too late ; whose vision is from the back $ his head; who goes through the world as .he oarsman does his voyage, looking ever at the land he has passed, never at that which he is passing, or the point toward which he is mov- ing; who is so timid that he dreads a crisis that would jolt him out of the ruts of routine, and throw him upon his discretion, as the mariner upon a lee shore dreads the gales of March and November ; whose more generous instincts lie undeveloped, or are blunted or perverted ; who mistakes the sobs of the prison-house and the groans of the middle passage for the sweet voices of the angelic throng who hymn the beatitudes around the throne. Abraham Lin- coln, sir, is a truly conservative man, invested- with the power to preserve, and he will preserve i the Constitution and the integrity of our coun- try, although the army called into being by his words in doing it, crush out every iniquity which that instrument tolerates under its broad provisions. He will not permit the Con- stitution, laws, ordinances, or institutions of any State to stand in the way of the re-estab- lishment of the supremacy, entire and perfect, of the Constitution of the United States over all its territory. The sixth article of the Con- stitution says : "This Constitution, and the laws of the United States which shall be made in pursuance there"!', and all treaties made, or which shall be made under the authority of the Onfted States, shall be the supreme law of the land ; and the judges in every State shall be bound thereby, anything in the Constitution or laws of any Mate to the contrary notwith- standing." Sir, President Lincoln will enforce this provis- ion of the Constitution with all others. I caunot, as the gentleman from. New York [Mr. Diven] assumed to, speak for the President by special authority. He is a veracious man, and I pre- fer that he should speak for himself. I refer to his first general order as Commander-in-Chief of the army and navy. It rings with patriotic fervor : General Order in respect to the Battle of Mill Spring. Wak Department, January 22, 1862. The President, Commander-in-Chief of the army and navy, has received information of a brilliant victory achieved by the United States forces over a large body bl armed traitors and rebels, at Mill Spring, iu the State of Kentucky. He returns thanks to the gallant officers and soldiers who won that victory, and when the official reports shall be re- ceived, the military skill and personal valor displayed in the battle will be acknowledged and rewarded ia a lifting manner. The courage that encountered and vanquished the greatly superior numbers of the rebel force, pursued and attacked thetn in their intrenchinents, and paused not until the ene- my was completely routed, merits and receives commenda- tion, the purpose of this war is to attack, pursue, and destroy a rebellious enemy, and to deliver the country from the danger menaced by traitors. Alacrity, daring, cour- ageous spirit, and patriotic zeal, on all occasions and under every circumstance, are expected from the army of the United States. In the prompt and spirited movements aud daring battle of Mill spring the nation will realize its hopes, and the people of the United States will rejoice to honor every soldier aud officer who proves his coinage- by ch ing with the bayonet aud storming iutrenchments in the blaze of the enemy's lire. By order of the President : EDWIN M. STANTON, Secretary of War. Sir, while that order rings in our ears, may we not hope that General Order No. 2 will be addressed to the officers and soldiers of the army, prohibiting them from ursurping the functions of the deputy marshal and the com- missioners of the United States courts, and from — for fee, reward, or other consideration — sending a free negro into slavery, or per- forming such duties as the lowest type of a police officer shrinks from as degrading ? Some gentlemen may be disposed to quibble Uil^ /// about the intent of that order. If they do, I ask their attention to two facts. One is, that the theory of General James H. Lane, of Kan- sas, is that the only way to suppress this rebel- lion is to have two armies simultaneously in motion — a, white one moving South and a colored on-} moving North. The other fact is, that the President of the United States has just sent that general to lead an independent column through Arkansas and Texas. Mr. VOORHEES. Will the gentleman per- mit me? Mr. KELLEY. Only for the purpose of explanation. I decline to yield for anything else. Mr. VORIIEES. I rise for explanation my- self. Mr. KELLEY. In some of the speeches I have referred to, it is stated to be the purpose of a majority of this House to Africanize Amer- ican society. Sir, that is not the object of any gentleman on this floor. The Republican par- ty did not advocate the reopening of the slave trade. Republicans never boasted that a newly imported African was tha " noblest Roman on their plantations." They have resisted, I un- dertake to say, every attempt to Africanize this country. The gentleman from Kentucky, [Mr, Wads- worth,] in the course of his remarks, said : "You have tried, and what success have you met, in winning away to freedom the negro? You bave bad your missionaries among them endeavoring to instill some ideas of freedom, &c., into the negro mind. His idea of freedom is that of a state in which he will be exempt from labor." I will not answer that proposition ; but will let one of the most distinguished men of our navy, himself a native and a citizen of a slave State — one whose name will stand as high upon the scroll of American patriots as any other — auswer it for me. I hold in my hand an ex- tract from a private letter of his, in which, after speaking of the important information in the possession of the commanders of the military and naval portions of the expedition at Port Royal, in a letter dated January 1, 1SG2, he says : " Much of this knowledge comes from a higher order of ' contrabands,' wh > arc coming i" us daily — many of them skillful pilots in these inland waters. Xhey s irvo us with zeal, make no bargains for their remuneration, go under tire without the slightest hesitation ; and, indeed, m our cause, are ' insensible to fear ' as Governor Pickens. Seme of thorn are very intelligent. One, now on board the Wait i b as pilot, who took our boats up the Beaufort and Cheraw rivers, through brick-yards and I do not know what, paid his mastor thirty-live dollars a mouth for his time ; and on being asked why ho cared to be free, asked his inquirer if he had ever read the fable of the dog and the fox. This beoiu.i a little too bright to be true ; but if you were to seo the man , you would not find it difficult to believe it quite possible.'' * * ****** "Then, again, the possession and occupation are com- plete and thoro b n irl ore repaired ; intrenchments on a very large soalo about finished ; great store-houses have gone up; immense stables erecting, causing a I to the bean of the poor contraband, who contrasts the com forts ofa Northern horse with his own in past lite ; wharves are building ; the channels are buoyed ; surveys going on ; and the waters, as if touched by some Ithuriel'a spear, are teeming with the life of the Northmen." The gentleman from Kentucky, in the course of his remarks, made use of many phrases, and some arguments which I think he will re- consider before the session is over. I quote only two or three brief paspages : " Now, sir, I do not give in to any such interpretation of the Constitution as that. Not one dollar will I vote, not one man will I grant for any such purpose, or to sustain any such interpretation. N~ay, more, sir, I will give all that my people have, their cattle on a thousand hills, their slaves. lh> ir lands and tenements, their lives, even to the last one of them, to i- fist any attempt to enforce such a construction of See Consti- tution as that to the ruin of the pen-pie of this count //." * * * * " The gentleman from Ohio is disposed to treat this as a rebellion — to treat it as a war — (1/ it can be called a ivar at all) — against insurgent citizens whose du- ties and whose rights arc bounded by the Constitution." I grant that it does not seem much like war here on the Potomac, but in the gentleman's own Kentucky my constituents find it to be war, for they are there with muskets on their shoulders, and uuder commanders who believe in motion. The gentleman says further : " After Kentucky has remained firm, notwithstanding that ton of her Southern sisters have gone with South Carolina, clinging to sister States for strength, we want to know of the people of the North if they are going to unclasp the loving arms of Kentucky, and fling her into tltat vortex which has swallowed so many kindred States." * * * * " The worst course that you can pursue, in my humble judgment, is to attempt to confiscate the slaves or other property of the inhabitants of the rebel States. I declare thai confiscation, without emancipation, is odious to me in all ils forms. To strike down the ownership of property in eleven States is monstrous ; to proscribe the multitude and millions Is gigantic wickedness. I declare that confiscation, with compensation, is doubly lions to me, and never can be acceptable to my people. They will resist it by all law- ful means, and to the death." Sir, the people of the North do not want to throw Kentucky off. The thousands of Penn- sylvanians who are in that State in arms are not there to drive her out of the Union, but to keep her in ; and under God and the Constitu- tion they and the men of the North will keep her in; and in this patriotic work they will, I believe, have, as they have now, the power ot Kentucky to aid them. She has no disposition to go ; and the time has gone past for threaten ing, in her name, to appeal to any other arbiter than the Supreme Court of the United S ates to decide upon the constitutionality, or validity, or perpetuity of an act of Congress approved by the President. I will not further animadvert upon the re- marks of the gentleman. I know his generos- ity and loyalty, and can make allowances for the heat and earnestness with which he spoke. I am sure that he is as willing, personally, to submit to the action of Congress and the decrees of the proper courts as any man upon this floor, notwithstanding the expressions which he drop- ped in the heat of debate. The gentleman from New York, [ Mr. Steele,] who does me the honor to sit near me, and whose fancy revels in "forked flames," "loaded magazines,' "lighted torches," the '• slackness of darkness," "giants," "pigmies," •'devils," and other such delightful objects, •jrew, to use his own exquisite phraseology, 'ferociously eloquent" upon these themes. mong other things, he told us how "sicken- er" it is to him to hear the "ravings of fa'nati- ism" suggest that the area of human freedom ly possibly be extended, and the prostrate I degraded rise to the stature of manhood, deplore, as much as any gentleman on thi3 )or can do, the vertigo and nausea which flict the gentleman. I do not think, however, .e case is a fatal one. I am no physician ; i it I think I can prescribe for the gentleman's [3. Let there be a little change in his mental uiiment. Let him avoid the dead Lippard and the living Cobb. Let him take, in small por- tions at first, the last prayer— I do not suggest prayer because I think death is approaching — he last prayer that Benjamin Franklin uttered the bar of the American Congress, about six- y days before the death of that great man. Let him, if this prove a tonic, superadd a little »f the will of George Washington, with a slight 1 inkling of some of his letters; and when he shall be somewhat invigorated, let him look into the writings of Jefferson, the speeches of ! 'rick Henry, and the speeches and writings other southern slaveholding leaders of the ;od old times to which we all look back with veneration, and I will guarantee that the fer- yor and frequency of his paroxysms will dimin- ish, and that he will get through the session with rolerable comfort. [Laughter.] He, too, sup- 3 the Administration. Th* gentleman from lentncky did so also ; he pledged himself, in all emergencies, to stand by it. The gentleman hi New York [Mr. Steele] says: " Let us trust in God, and the Administration which is ./iven us for this emergency." I hope God will t ike care of us ; but he adds : "No doubt, if we Stan 1 firm in our efforts to protect and Bei ■ " ' 1 Co titution and 1 mm ml in defl mce of e ravings of ma men,i ion and treachery ked ones, the Administration will help us. I will go | 1 if we ;u-e so facile as to yield I to the rushing tide of fanaticism, the Administration wil' still strive to save the Union iu spite of Congress." In like vein was the speech of my colleague, [Mr. Wright.] He begins by disavowing all responsibility for the Administration. He says: "As I have said, I had no part in the elevation of Mr. Lincoln to the Executive chair. He was not my nominee ; he did not receive my vote. I bad no hand in his elevation. I assert, however — and I speak it not only to the House but to tlie world — that I believe Abraham Lincoln has a patriotic heart in his body." The gentleman's Republican constituents will be grateful to him for that assurance. He continues : "I am one of those who think not only that he means well, but that he acts well " Did he mean to intimate that gentlemen on this side of the House did not think so, or had expressed doubts of it ? He tells us again : '•I came here elected upon conservative principles ; and I say to you , and I assure this House, that I have not cast a solitary vote, since I have been a member upon this floor, but what has accorded with my own convictions of what was right and proper to be done." My colleague endorses all the votes he has cast, and claims to stand by the Administra- tion. Did he stand by it, sir, when at the extra session he voted against direct taxation ? Did he stand by it, and wish to give it the means to carry on the war, when he resisted the tax on tea and coffee? Sir, the 15th day of January, 1862, was a dark and gloomy day in the life of our country. The public credit was prostrated ; the specie clause of the sub- Treasury bill had been suspended ; the banks of the country had suspended specie payments ; there had ceased to be harmony between the Secretary of the Treasury and those who had so ably co-operated with hiin; the manufacto- ries employed on Government work stood still ; the business of the cities was suspended ; the banking institutions of the large cities sent delegations here, and merchants, manufactu- rers, mechanics, and others, sent delegations to support them ; and these patriotic representa- tives of the wealth, industry, and enterprise of the country implored Congress to give, by res- olution or otherwise, an immediate assurance that taxes would be levied sufficient to afford the country $150,000,000 annual income, so as to revivify the public credit, and to en-rgize the army and navy and the Government of the country. Ou that, day, sir, thus impelled, the gentleman from New York, [Mr. Corning,] on behalf of the Committee of Ways and Means, reported a joint resolution pledging the two Houses of Congress to raise by tax- ation §150,000,000. ■ No- sooner was it read //f than the gentleman from Ohio [Mr. Vallan- dioham] sprarig to the floor and proposed to postpone its consideration until the next Tues- day week — to postpone for thirteen days, during which the credit of the country would have died. And how did my patriotic friend, who a week afterwards boasted thus of the patriotism of his course, vote upon that question? The twenty-sixth name of those who voted for the | postponement is that of my colleague. I won- der, inasmuch as he gave us a description of Jack Falstaff'a compauy, aud is, doubtless, familiar with the language of the worthless old knight, that when he had uttered this bit of self complacency he did not add: "There lives not three honest men unhanged in Eng- land ; and one of them is old and grows fat." [Great laughter.] Mr. WRIGHf . Will the gentleman indulge me a moment? Mr. KELLEY. I will not indulge my col- league unless it be for an explanation, which comes within the rule. The gentleman will want further indulgence before I am through, I and I would rather he would take my replies i all in one batch, after I shall have concluded. The CHAIRMAN. Does the gentleman yield to his colleague? Mr. KELLEY. I do not. Mr. WRIGHT. Why, I yielded to the gen- | tleman the other day when I had the floor, and not for explanation at all. Mr. KELLEY. I know the gentleman did, and I saw the discomforture that resulted from it, and took a lesson. Mr. WRIGHT. Well, I shall know better in future. Mr. KELLEY. The gentleman proceeded to quote the President's proclamation of the 15th of April, and to comment upon it. I had thought the language of that proclama'ion very direct and simple. The President says: " I deem it proper to say that the first service assigned to the forces hereby called forth will probably bo to repossess the forts, places, and property which have been seized from the Union ; and in every event the utmost care will be ob- served, consistently with the objects aforesaid, to avoid any devastation, any destruction of, or interference with, prop- erty, or any disturbance of peaceful citizens in any part of the country." Commenting on that passage, the gentleman " What did the President mean by alleging, when he called a military force into the field, that there should be no in- terference what -ver with property of any kind? Sir, if he meant anything, ho meant that this question of slavery agi- tation should b" et alone ; or, in his own language, that there should be 110 interference with property." Sir, that may have been the President's meaning. I do not think it was. That it was is, however, possible ; for genius has its eccen- tricities and literature its curiosities. But, sir, if such was his meaning, he ought to have bor- rowed the measure, as well as the logic, of the mad nursery rhyme : " Mother, may I go in to swim? Yes, my darling daughter ; Hang your clothes on a hickory limb, But don't go near the water." An army of seventy -five thousand men called out to repossess forts, to regain the largest and best cannon of the country, to use the heaviest guns that can be cast, the sharpest swords, the farthest-reaching rifles — called out for martial purposes, and pledged to injure no property. " Kill these men ; but take care that you do it without cutting their pantaloons, for they are property." " Break their arms ; but on your peril don't hurt their coats." " Get back this property ; but on your peril don't cause one of them to lose a pair of shoes by flight." Is not this going to swim while avoiding the water? The President was guilty ef no such absurdity. Earnest fanaticism, or honest conservatism, can put no such construction on the President's language. Proceeding on this disingenuous theory, the gentleman says : "I venture to say that there are hundreds and thou- sands, who compose the rank and file of that army, who would leave it just as soon as they wore informed that its mission was not to put down rebellion, but to emancipate slaves." And when, at a later period, he reiterated this suggestion, I could not abstain from ask- ing him — and I repeat the question here for a future answer — whether he believed that any one of the hundred thousand soldiers of Penn- sylvania would prove false to his oath and loy- alty if the result of this war would be to give some poor mothers the ownership of their own babes, or whether he believed that the people of Pennsylvania would repudiate the war if one of its results should be to give significance to the words parent, child, family, home, and country to some poor men whose Saxon fathers' spirit chafes under the servitude their darker skin entails upon them ? Sir, who on this floor has intimated that this war should be converted into a war of emanci- pation ? Who on this floor has suggested any other object for it than the crushing out of this rebellion? Gentlemen have differed as to the means of crushing it out; but no gentleman, not even my friend from Illinois, [Mr. Love- 6 jot,] about whom so much is often said, has suggested any other object for this war than the crushing out of rebellion. We have all said, and so the President understands, that the way to do it is to deprive the enemy of their resources, and to bring — as the commanders of the army and fleet at Port Royal have done — the services of every loyal man to the standard of his country, even though his skin should not be colored like our own. My colleague mis- represented grossly the majority on this floor when, by innuendo or assertion, he sent to the country the impression that we are endeavor- ing to convert the war into a war for emanci- pation. He subsequently said: " Gentlemen have gone so far — I do not stop to inquire whether or not they are in ibis House — upon this question of negro slavery, that if the question were put to them, whom will you have delivered to yon to-day? they would say, ' Barabbas,' the negro; crucify the white man." That is the suggestion of an impious fancy, uttered to slander a body of honorable men. No man on this floor has uttered a sentence from which such an inference could be drawn. But, sir, after all this, what became of the gen- tleman's theory? Why, sir, under the probing of half a dozen gentlemen, it leaked out reluc- tantly, and with slight explanation from him, that he, too, is in favor of confiscating the prop erty of rebels. I know not whether there was joy in heaven over the conversion of a repent- ant sinner at that moment; but I do know that a thrill of delight went through this House at finding the gentleman ready to come squarely and steadily into the support of what the Pres- ident has been doing, and of the view which seems to control a majority of this House. The honorable gentleman from New York [Mr. Divex] took a hand in this matter also. He told us what he need not have done, for we all knew it, that he was a "modest young man, and easily disconcerted." We saw, also, that he was under the fascination of some maiden, strong-minded or otherwise. He dealt gently with us. I will not recapitulate the gentleman's remarks, at this time, for two reasons: artists tell us that an unfinished picture should not be judged; and the gentleman promises the con- clusion of Li; address hereafter. It was very i ar that he was not exercising his full force. He dealt none of the bolts of Jove at us. He did not even puncture us with arrows from Cu- pid's quiver, which he evidently had at com- mand about that time. He gave us an illustra- tion of Hercules in the hands of Omphale. He played gently with her distaff. The blows he struck us were with the most delicately-tinted and perfumed flowers from the parterre of the fair Anna Ella; and when he comes to the more masculine portion of his argument, I will seek an opportunity to consider it. Sir, brief time is left me, and I hasten to the point of the Africanization of American society and American labor. I have said that the members cf the dominant party on this floor are not advocates of the reopening of the slave trade ; that we do not advocate the extension of the colored institution through the whole free Territories of the country ; and that we are in favor of opening means by which colored men can leave our country and find a happier home. Sir, nature works by invariable laws. It is by no freak of hers that the light of day paints the likeness of our loved ones. It is by no such freak that the wire bears the message of joy or woe over land and under water. He who traverses our continent finds on the Pacific slope of the Rocky mountains the grandest ar- boriferous vegetation of the world. On the eastern slope, divided thence by a narrow strip, which produces its effects on the clouds, you lose all arboriferous vegetation. You find only the red sage ; you find nothing larger growing there. The same skies are over; the same God watches; but He works through wise and in- flexible laws, and thus teaches men to look to Him through nature for guidance. On the Pa- cific slope the earth is refreshed by ninety inches of rain each year, while on the eastern slope but five fall. The negro is the creature of the tropics. Submit him to the guidance of his own instincts and volition, and he will find his way to the tropics, or lauds lying near them. Nature's unerring law will lead him there. The cruellest monument of "man's in- humanity to man " that I can point to to-day is that colony of fifty thousand American negroes living in the cold wilds of Canada. As well might you expect the tree of the Pacific slope to thrive in the region of the sage, or the sage to thrive under its broad shadow, and with ninety inches of rain falling in the year. The n ( groes will wilt, and dwindle, and prematurely die there. We all know, the gentleman knows, and those with whom he votes — who give kind words and hard blows to the Administration — know that the President and hi3 real friends on this /20 floor are in favor of the recognition of the re- 1 public of Liberia, of extending to Hayti com- mercial relations, of procuring within the Amer- ican tropics lands where the negro, made free by the crimes of his master, may go and dwell as nature intended him to. This the President recommends, and all this the majority on this floor intend to consummate. We are for re- taining for the Saxon, the Celt — the Caucasian family — that portion of this continent which was intended for them. They who misrepre- sent us are for infusing black blood into the veins of the country. Sir, I have opened a wide field for discussion. I care not now to enter into it. The hammer will soon fall. The President whom we support honestly — conserva- tively or fauatically as it may be — but whom we support, recommends us to pursue what has long been an object of interest to him and those with whom he has labored politically. I will allude to Liberia at the present time only far enough to show that it refutes the theory of the gentleman from Kentucky, [Mr. Wads- worth,] that the negro's only idea of freedom is relief from labor. There, to the western coast of Africa, where the white man cannot live, we have sent ten thousand freed bondmen, or the descendants of such. And what have they done ? Performed a miracle. They have created cities, towns, schools, universities, and churches. They have assimilated, civilized, and Christianized — those ten thousand poor, il- literate, freed slaves, and the descendants of such — have civilized and Christianized two hundred thousand heathen semi-barbarians. In view of this fact alone, will you tell me that God created negroes only to be trampled upon by another race, and treated as soulless cattle ? If it be true that there are parts of our own country in which the white man cannot live ; if it be so, then I say plant the negro there. Rice is wanted, cotton is wanted, to- bacco, and all tropical and semi-tropical pro- ductions are wanted. The laborer is worthy of his hire, and it is wrong to muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn. And if it be true that there are parts of our country in which the black man alone can live and labor, in God's name, if you want peace aud justice, give it to him ; but at any rate, stand by the Adminis- tration, and by President Lincoln, who knows that — " Tender handed stroke a nettle, And it stings you for your pains; Grasp it like a man of mettle, And it soft as silk remains." Give him all the means, all the arms, and all the men he calls for, and trust him to drive his generals onward. [Here the hammer fell.] WASHINGTON, D. C. BCAMMELl & CO., PRINTERS, CORNER OE SECOND & INDIANA AVENUE, THIRD FLOOR. 1862. kj > .V * e <. ° .•$* \ ".To' y o * ^ .hin ^ ,(V i ° ' ' A U ^ * o « ° ..$ a"&' *^40>C<" " c ^ K * r 6^J5"» ~<£ IK* ** *« W* ,/ ^ ^IK* j *fc V* .^ ^°<* <. ,40, * H °* iS ^ - «?^y^f' • .o ^ • - ^ 5^ -^Ea^r ,v^ sooKsiNiDix: H Jm .fee !989 B,WW, -