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 SPEECH 
 
 HON. J. K. MOORHEAD, 
 
 OF PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 DELIVERED IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 
 
 MARCH 26, 1804. 
 
 WASHINGTON, D. C. : 
 
 McOILL it WITHEROW, PRINTERS AND STEEEOTTPERS. 
 1864. 
 

SPEECH 
 
 The House being in the Committee of the Whole on the state of the Union — 
 
 Mr. MOORHEAD said : 
 
 Mr. Chairman : My colleague from the 21st district [Mr. 
 Dawson] has math' confessedly the ablest speech on the other 
 side of the House, and has stated with great frankness ami clear- 
 ness the grounds of his opposition to the war. Although it was 
 well answered by my colleague from the 19th district, [Mr.'Sco- 
 FIELD,] I feel it iiicuinhent upon me to give it some attention, as 
 our districts adjoin, have like interests and feelings, and as spe- 
 cial efforts have been made, by the circulation of his speech, t » 
 affect the political sentiment of Western Pennsylvania. We both 
 live at the head of the great channels of trade formed by the 
 Ohio and Mississippi rivers, and their tributaries, down which the 
 coal, lumber, and agricultural products, and the manufactures 
 of glass, steel, iron, copper, wood, &c, of our people, were 
 accustomed before the rebellion to float safely and without let or 
 hindrance, to the inhabitants of thirteen States, and on through 
 the Gulf to foreign markets. Valuable as the Federal Union is 
 to the people of other States, it is beyond all price to Pennsylva- 
 nia, and especially to his constituents and mine, who alike love 
 their country, are proud of its history, believe in free government, 
 hate slavery, are ready to die rather than see their national 
 flag dishonored at home or abroad, and will not permit the de- 
 struction of their Government by aristocratic slaveholders, who 
 treat and speak of northern people — Democrats as well as Repub- 
 licans — with more scorn, than they feel for the slaves on their 
 plantations. The blow of the traitors who made this war, fell 
 first and heaviest on our constituencies, when they closed the navi- 
 
gation of the Mississippi, seized and confiscated property, and 
 destroyed trade more than sixty years enjoyed, and for restoration 
 of the right to which our people have been vigorously fighting for 
 nearly three years. I do this, Mr. Chairman, the more readily, 
 because the doctrines he announces, are the very same which 
 brought on the war, and if not condemned by the people, would 
 make the southern rebels our masters forever. 
 
 My colleague began his speech by reminding us in glowing terms 
 of the happy and prosperous state of the country " about eight 
 years since," when he left these halls. He left two years before 
 Mr. Buchanan became President. What was its condition when 
 Mr. Buchanan handed the Government to Mr. Lincoln 1 Why is 
 my colleague silent as to the pregnant fact, that when Mr. Buch- 
 anan retired, the gloom of that awful period was such that its 
 mere remembrance comes like an evil shadow over the heart of 
 every patriot 1 
 
 It has been suggested he has been in a deep sleep during the 
 eight years he was absent from political life. His speech furnishes 
 strong evidence of it. Let me then inform him what he should 
 know, and what many of his constituents do know, that not merely 
 are we now " in the midst of a revolution," but the country was 
 in the midst of a revolution when Mr. Buchanan retired, and has 
 been on the brink of a revolution at different times, for thirty 
 years. 
 
 Jackson suppressed treason in 1832. Jeff. Davis and his fellow- 
 conspirators made some signs of beginning a revolution, under old 
 Zach. Taylor in 1850, when California was admitted as a free State, 
 but the hero of Buena Vista squelched it by announcing that he 
 would hang the first rebel who dared to lift a hand against the 
 Union, and Jeff. Davis knew well he would doit. They prepared 
 for it, while Pierce lived in the White House, and Davis governed 
 the country. They persevered while Buchanan was President, 
 and Floyd controlled the army, until, between the 4th November, 
 1860, the day Lincoln was elected, and the 4th March. 1861, the 
 day he was inaugurated, every southern fort except Pickens and 
 Sumter, every armory and arsenal, all the ordnance, arms, and 
 ammunition, all the custom-houses, post offices, and mints, in a 
 word all the property of the Federal Government in every sece- 
 ded State were seiz m! by slaveholding traitors, without a blow 
 being struck or a shot being fired in their defense ; and thirty days 
 before Buchanan's term expired, eight slaveholding States had 
 openly rebelled against the Government, cast off allegiance to it 
 and excluded its authority, hauled down its flag, captured its 
 troops, arms, forts, ships, munitions of war, assembled a con- 
 gress at Montgomery. Alabama, adopted a constitution, elected a 
 President, prepared to raise armies, and organized a confederacy 
 
as a foreign and I rnment, all nnder that 1 1 
 
 rule which my colleagn , and all done by 
 
 Democratic What did Mr. Buchanan do to prevent I 
 
 great crim What did the Democratic party do to 
 
 ottheml Nothing! What did they propose to do 1 Nothing! 
 ( )n the other hand, they resisted i ver] thing that looked like 
 the public property, ami preserving the nation's 1 
 
 Sir, so widespread was ti Presid 
 
 ail hope was exl pt the single one that bis term • 
 
 expire before all Thank God ! Abraham Lincol 
 
 came President before the run-' of the Union was totally i 
 and then the work "1" rescue began. 
 
 My colleague, in a speech of twenty-nine] oot a word 
 
 in denunciation of these rebel insults and outrages, nor do 
 any sympathy with those of his neighbors whose blood ha 
 riched every battle-field in defense of their country, and ■ 
 bones are before Richmond and Charleston, at Antietam, << 
 burg, Vicksburg and Chattanooga, and whose heroic vali 
 protected bis home and mine from threatened invasion by hie lato 
 political friends. Nor has he any charges to make against any- 
 "madness and folly" against the people, and 
 railing against the Government, the Quakers and Abolitioi 
 The rebellion is tenderly mentioned as an " ill -judged rebellion " — 
 
 no crime in it — do bl 1 on the rebels' hand.- ; only a mistake of 
 
 judgment, a had guess as to time and result ! Sir, I do not think 
 my colleague has allowed bis good feelings to fin I n in 
 
 his Bpeech ; but as it was made to aid in restoring the Democratic 
 rule, its errors and fallacies si, .mid be pointed out. 
 
 My colleague Bees no prospect of the end. He says " nearly 
 three years of civil war have now discharged their relentless fury 
 upon our unhappy country, and we art irently as i 
 
 from any satisfactory adjustment of our differences as when wo 
 first flew to arms." Sir, I broadly deny this extraordinary - 
 ment. It is the policy of the rebels, and those who sympathize 
 with them, to undervalue the results already accomplished, and t<> 
 discourage the public feeling of the North. Jeff. Davi 
 South cannot be conquered, and my colleague deliberately .-huts 
 his eyes to the astonishing results already attained. The r 
 lion is in its last agonies; immense regions have been reclaimed, 
 
 i • returning to their allegiai 
 there is hut one indication, and that of the increasing 
 the Union and the increasin of the rebellion. My col- 
 
 league should see this; but there is none go blind as he who will 
 not see. His doctrine trueoharacl ' 
 
 ■ ecimen brick of the genuine Calhoun mould. He M ti:. 
 difficulty in a divided allegiance," and he " holds that 
 
to bind the citizen in equal degree to the government of the State 
 and to that of the nation, both proceeding from the same source — 
 the people of the several States." This doctrine has deluded 
 multitudes into treason, has undermined the Federal Government, 
 brought on this war, and sacrificed the lives of thousands of our 
 people. General Jackson in his day denounced it, and warned 
 the country against it; and even Mr. Buchanan, in his last An- 
 nual Message, declared it "to be inconsistent with the history as 
 well as the character of the Federal Constitution." It means that 
 we have no national Government ; that under the Constitution 
 there is no Union, but only a knot of States that may be tied or 
 untied at pleasure ; that there is no such thing as a citizen of the 
 United States, and no national flag to shelter him. 
 
 But, Mr. Chairman, the most cruel feature of my colleague's 
 speech is that which, openly proclaiming his approval of Mr. 
 Buchanan's course, impliedly censures that of the great old patriot 
 whom lie and I, once and again, but vainly, labored to make Pres- 
 ident of the United States — General Lewis Cass ; whose patriot- 
 ism and statesmanship revolted at the truckling policy of Mr. 
 Buchanan, and who, when his proposition to garrison the southern 
 forts and maintain possession of the public property was refused, 
 promptly tendered his resignation and withdrew from the Cabinet. 
 If Mr. Buchanan's policy was wise, General Cass's was unwise; 
 if Mr. Buchanan was faithful in his high position, General Cass 
 was mistaken in judgment ; if Mr. Buchanan properly met the 
 great duties of the hour, then General Cass utterly failed to appre- 
 ciate the difficulties. But not so. I can never subscribe to such 
 a sentence of condemnation against an old friend whom I have long 
 admired ; whom I now revere as among the worthiest statesmen 
 the country has ever had, and whose claim to the love and grati- 
 tude of posterity rest, in my judgment, more firmly upon his un- 
 shaken fidelity when treason was so general, than even upon his 
 brilliant records of both civil and military service. About the 
 time he retired from the Cabinet he was filled with gloom and 
 anguish at the threatening aspect of public affairs, as he fully 
 comprehended the great and growing dangers which threatened the 
 ship of state. His impressive exclamation at the time, in my 
 presence, was: " We are lost, we are destroyed; our great and 
 glorious country will be ruined. It might be saved — it might be 
 saved. I have tried to save it, but can do no more." Glorious 
 words ! betokening the great heart of a brave, clear, patriotic 
 Statesman, who would have saved the country, the public property, 
 and subdued the rebellion had HE been President in place of Mr. 
 Buchanan. As he was not, and the President would do nothing, 
 he left the Cabinet. Yet my colleague indorses Mr. Buchanan 
 and his policy, thus impliedly casting censure and blame upon 
 
General Cass. I resent the imputation, and appeal with confidence 
 from his words to the judgment of a free people, who will be taved, 
 despite the open treachery of Buchanan, or the covert treachery 
 of his allies and friends. 
 
 I have alluded to the fact that rebellion is n<>t a new thing in 
 American history; all remember how promptly Jackson put down 
 one, and Taylor nipped another in the hud. Lincoln has aroused 
 the loyalty and patriotism of the country to aubdue the last and 
 worst ; and we who are thus this day engaged, are hut following 
 
 the teachings of those departed patriots around whom :i united 
 country threw its protecting arms, and upon whose memories it 
 continues to lavish its praise. "The Union: it must ami shall be 
 preserved," was the motto of Jackson ; it is the heart-work of 
 Lincoln. The rebellion of 1832 was invoked against existing 
 legislation ; this, much less justifiable, and more wicked, was in- 
 augurated in the absence of offensive legislation, in fact at the 
 moment when all legislation was not only harmless, hut harmoni- 
 ous on the late disputed territorial question, when by the confes- 
 sion of the ablest of their leaders, the slaveholders of the South 
 had no cause to justify secession,* and when by the truth of his- 
 tory, there was no actual grievance whatever. This is most vigor- 
 ously and clearly presented by the following extract from a speech of 
 
 *The first question that presents itself is, shall the people of the South se- 
 ccile from the Union in consequence of the election of Mr. Lincoln to the 
 Presidency of the United States? My countrymen, I tell you frankly, candidly, 
 and earnestly, that 1 do not think that they ought. In my judgment, the election 
 of no man, constitutionally chosen to that high office, is sufficient cause for 
 any State to separate from the Union. It ought to stand by, and aid still in 
 maintaining the Constitution of the country. To make a point of resistance 
 to the Government, to withdraw from it because a man has been constitution- 
 ally elected, puts us in the wrong. AVe arc pledged to maintain the Constitu- 
 tion. Many of us have sworn to Bupport it. Can we, therefore, for the mere 
 election of a man to the Presidency, and that, too, in accordance with the 
 prescribed forms of the Constitution, make a point of resistance to the Gov- 
 ernment without becoming the breakers of that sacred instrument ourselves — 
 withdraw ourselves from it? Would wc not be in the wrong ? Whatever fate 
 is to befall this country, let. it never be laid to the charge of the people of the 
 South, and especially to the people of Georgia, that we iv<:re untrue to our na- 
 tional engagements. Let the fault and the wiong rest upon others. If all our 
 hopes are to be blasted, if the Republic is to go down, let us be found to the 
 last moment standing on the deck, with the Constitution of the United States 
 waving over our heads. Let the fanatics of the North break the Constitution 
 if such is their fell purpose. Let the responsibility be upon them. I shall 
 speak presently more of their acts; but Lei nol the South — let us not be the 
 cues to oommit the We went into the election with this ] 
 
 The result was different from what we wished; but the election I 
 stitutionally held. Were we to make a point to the Govei 
 
 and go out of the Union on thai account, the ret ord would be made up her 
 against us — 9 //. Stephens^ Georgia, 
 
 I November 14. 1800. 
 
Alexander IT. Stephens, delivered in the secession convention of 
 Georgia, in January, 1861 : 
 
 "This step (of secession) once taken can never be recalled; and all the 
 baleful and withering conseqaences that must follow will rest on the con- 
 vention for all coming time. When we and our posterity shall see our lovely 
 South desolated by the demon of war, which this act of yours will inevitably 
 invite and call forth, when our green fields of waving harvest shall be trodden 
 down by the murderous soldiery and fiery car of war sweeping over our land, 
 our temples of justice laid in ashes, all the horrors and desolations of war 
 upon us, icho but this convention will be hi hi responsible for it .-' and who but him 
 who shall have given his vote for this unwise and illtinied measure, as I hon- 
 estly think and believe, shall be held to strict account for this suicidal act by the 
 present generation, and probably cursed and execrated by posterity for all coming 
 time, for the wide and desolating ruin that will inevitably follow this act you 
 now propose to perpetrate. Pause, I entreat you. 
 
 What right has tit. .\ ' ' What interest of the South has been in- 
 
 vaded? What justice has been denied, and what claim founded injustice and 
 right has been withheld? Can either of you to-day name one governmental 
 act of wrong, deliberately and purposely done by the Government at Wash- 
 ington, of which the South has a right to complain ? I challenge the answer. 
 * * * * * * * * * * 
 
 " We have always had the control of the General Government, and can yet 
 if we remain in it, and are as united as we have been. We have had a ma- 
 jority of the Presidents chosen from the South, as well as the control and 
 management of most of those chosen from the North. We have had sixty 
 years of southern Presidents to their twenty-four, thus controlling the Execu- 
 tive Department. So of the judges of the Supreme Court, we have had 
 eighteen from the South, and but eleven from the North : although nearly 
 four-fifths of the judieial business has arisen in the free States, yet a majority 
 of the Court has always been from the South. This we have required, so as to 
 guard againBt any interpretation of the Constitution unfavorable to us. In 
 like manner we have been equally watchful to guard our interests in the legis- 
 lative branch of Government. In choosing the presiding presidents {pro tern.) 
 of the Senate, we have had twenty-four to their eleven. Speakers of the 
 House, we have had twenty-three and they twelve. AVhile the majority of the 
 representatives, from their greater population, have always been from the 
 North, yet we have so generally secured the Speaker, because he, to a greater 
 extent, shapes and controls the legislation of the country. * * * 
 
 Attorney Generals, we have hadfourteen, while the North have had but five. 
 Foreign ministers, we have had eighty-six, and they but fifty-four. 
 
 * * We have had the principal embassies, so as to secure the 
 
 world markets for our cotton, tobacco, and sugar, on the best possible terms. 
 We have had a vast majority of the higher offices of both army and navy, 
 while a large proportion of the soldiers and sailors were drawn from the 
 North. Equally so of clerks, auditors, and comptrollers, filling the Executive 
 Departments. The records show for the last fifty years that of three thousand 
 thus employed, we have had more than two-thirds of the same, while we have 
 but one-third of the white population of the Republic. * 
 
 A fraction over three-fourths of ie collected for the support of the 
 
 Government has uniformly been raised from the North. Pause now while you 
 can, gentlemen, and contemplate carefully and candidly these important 
 items. ********* 
 
 " For you to attempt to overthrow such a Government as this, under which 
 we have lived for more than three quarters of a century, in which we have 
 gained our wealth, our standing as a nation, our domestic safety, while the 
 elements of peril arc around us, with peace and tranquillity accompanied with 
 unbounded prosperity, and rights unassailed, is the height of madness, folly, 
 and wickedness, to which 1 can neither lend my sanction nor my vote." 
 
Sir, this rebellion was a cold-blooded, premeditated, infamous, 
 attempt of ambitious, desperate, and wioked conspirators to de- 
 stroy the Union, overthrow free Government, establish a Beotional 
 one over the southern portion of it, and thus prepare the way by 
 European intrigues for an aristooratio or monarchic form on this 
 land of freedom. The man who in the loyal States tolerates, sym- 
 pathizes with, or fails to cluck this movement, would, in revolu- 
 tionary times, have been denominated a traitor. The man who 
 halts in his fidelity, who quibbles about this technicality or that, 
 who aids the rebels by decrying the power of the Government to 
 suppress the rebellion, and by decrying its finances, Bhould be 
 ranked and despised as an Arnold who would sell bis country. 
 
 But it is said by these sympathizers with treason, that it is the 
 fault of this Administration and its friends that this war exists ; 
 that it is an unholy war and should be stepped, and that Mr. 
 Buchanan's policy was one of peace and conciliation, whilst that 
 of Mr. Lincoln's has been one of usurpation and tyranny. 
 
 Whilst the answer to these allegations, full and ample as it is, 
 may be important to the future historian, I will not stop to make 
 it here as the war is upon us, and our present duties are to sup- 
 press it and its cause. It is waged for the purpose of dissolving 
 this Government. It is enforced by vast armies, which are kept 
 in the field by a military despotism of the most relentless charac- 
 ter. The great question of the day is, not by what process this 
 condition of things has been reached, but how to suppress the re- 
 bellion, how to beat back our rebel foes, how to save our people 
 from spoliation and slaughter, our country from division, our Gov- 
 ernment from overthrow — duties in whose presence every other 
 political duty " hides its diminished head." I have, Mr. Chair- 
 man, uniformly observed that the men who waste their energies 
 in discussing the past, are the least willing to meet the responsi- 
 bilities of the present, and rise to the stature which it demands of 
 all loyal citizens. 
 
 Still, sir, I am not willing to let so much of that part of the 
 charge remain unanswered, as fixes upon the loyal North the 
 responsibility for this war. The imputation is wholly false. The 
 slaveholders were the aggressors. They were stimulated to the 
 heinous crime by hatred of the progress of free communities, by 
 jealousies of their rising power, by envy of their great superiority 
 in every art and pursuit of life, and of the higher civilization 
 which paid, intelligent and free labor has conferred upon the free 
 States of the Union. Does any one doubt this? If so, let him 
 read the debates in Congress of the last ten years, but especially 
 during the sessions of 1859-60 and 1860-61 — debates to which I 
 was compelled to listen, and which abounded in the most malig- 
 nant expressions of hatred, scorn, contempt, ond disloyalty, plainly 
 
10 
 
 foreshadowing the base revolutionary schemes then fairly entered 
 upon, and hurling defiantly at Northern Representatives the vile 
 and untenable doctrine of the right of secession. One class of 
 northern members, I regret to say, encouraged these declarations, 
 sympathized with their authors, and abetted their designs, be- 
 lieving that they saw in them the material of successful political 
 influence. But for this, there would have been no secession. An- 
 other class boldly denounced the falsehoods, resented the insults, 
 and hurled back the threats of secession, declaring that under no 
 circumstances would they consent to a separation of these States, 
 or permit the mere result of an election to be made the pretext 
 for revolution. Sir, I firmly believe that had all the northern 
 members joined in these clear declarations of fidelity to the Con- 
 stitution and the Union, and announced their determination to 
 maintain the existing Government at all hazards, the secession 
 movement would never have risen to formidable proportions, or 
 given cause for serious alarm. But everywhere over the South 
 secession was proclaimed to be a peaceful remedy for alleged griev- 
 ances, and it was publicly and constantly proclaimed that any 
 attempt to coerce the South, would be followed by a division in the 
 North, that blood would flow in northern streets and a civil war 
 among ourselves would render secession safe, certain, and com- 
 plete. It is too true that many northern Representatives in that 
 critical period, misrepresented their constituencies, fearfully de- 
 ceived the rebel leaders, and thus covered themselves with a guilt 
 scarcely less deep and infamous than belongs to Jeff. Davis him- 
 self and his traitorous cabinet. While this was the position of 
 members on this floor, what was the attitude of Mr. Buchanan 
 and his Administration? He cowered before the storm. Floyd 
 shared his confidence until he had transferred a largo portion of 
 the arms to southern arsenals, without interference, until arrested 
 in his treasonable attempt to remove the cannon from Allegheny- 
 Arsenal to pretended forts in Louisiana, by the determined patri- 
 otism and courage of my constituents at Pittsburg, and then 
 resigned because Mr. Buchanan refused to order Major Anderson 
 back from Fort Sumter to Moultrie, and thereby maintain the 
 promise previously given to South Carolina by Floyd, with Mr. 
 Buchanan's consent, " that the status of affairs should not be dis- 
 turbed in the harbor of Charleston." Cobb remained in the 
 cabinet until by his financial management the credit of the Gov- 
 ernment was so low that money could scarcely be borrowed at any 
 rate even to pay the necessary expenses of the Government, and in 
 that time of peace, temporary loans could not be made except 
 at most exorbitant rates of interest. Thompson, whilst hold- 
 ing a seat in the cabinet, journeyed to North Carolina to aid in 
 switching the old North State out of the Union, and continued 
 
11 
 
 to possess himself of cabin to be transmitted south 
 
 for the benefit of rebels, until bis sensitive honor oould not 
 endure the alleged concealment from him of Mr. Buchanan's tardy 
 effort to provision Fort Sumter. Meanwhile the President, tremb- 
 ling with fear and overcome by the threats of rebels, was dragooned 
 first into a modification of his last annual message so as openly to 
 abandon the doctrine of coercion, which greatly corrupt* 1 north- 
 ern opinion and contributed vastly to southern acceptance of the 
 rebel programme ; ami then for week-, as if struck with paralysis, 
 when it was proposed to do anything in assertion of the rightful 
 ami inherent power of the Government to preserve itself — this 
 weak and timid old man performed a> role which has covered his 
 name with infamy, and will forever load it with the nation's con- 
 tempt. Such is my estimate of the reputation of Jam.- Buchanan, 
 (once, I regret to say, known as vk Pennsylvania's favorite son,") 
 as finally left For the judgment of posterity. 
 
 General Cass, in his expressions referred to before, erred in 
 one point. lie miscalculated the extent of the evil done by Mr. 
 Buchanan, and overestimated the influence of his imbecility ami 
 treachery upon the loyal masses. Yet at the time, so dark and 
 portentous were the clouds, so general was public suspicion, so 
 wide-spread and powerful the conspiracy, that it seemed to be 
 hoping against hope to have any cheerful anticipations when look- 
 ing into the dark and gloomy future ; and it is not surprising that 
 his patriotic heart was overwhelmed with grief. On every hand 
 the enemy was busy, the Government silent and indifferent, bound 
 hand and foot by its Attorney General, wdio narrowly paring down 
 the power of the Government to protect itself, advised the Presi- 
 dent : " That the Union must utterly perish at the moment when 
 Congress shall arm one part of the people against another for any 
 purpose beyond that of merely protecting the General Government 
 in the exercise of its proper constitutional functions." Such was 
 the chosen and deliberate phraseology within which lurked the 
 fallacious and destructive error that our fathers had constructed 
 a Government without power to preserve itself or enforce its laws. 
 to assert its unquestioned and inherent rights, to suppress in- 
 surrection, and save its own existence from active and armed 
 treason ; and in my opinion, Mr. Chairman, to the enunciation of 
 this legal opinion, more than any other cause, are we indebted for 
 the open outbreak of war. When, however, the overt act was 
 committed, the long impending blow struck, the dignity of the 
 Government insulted, its rights invaded, its power deiied, and the 
 stars and stripes fired upon in Charleston harbor, the patriotism 
 of the people, long dormant, and by some supposed to be extinct, 
 was electrified into life with the power of a giant, their instincts 
 stripped off the wretched sophistries of the ex- Attorney General, 
 
12 
 
 the heart of the people burst into life, burning with the sense of 
 shame, injustice, and wrong which timid and faithless counsels had 
 too long invited, and the cry of stern judgment upon the traitors 
 rang throughout the land. The Union, plotted against, and deemed 
 not worth preserving, or not capable of preservation, at once as- 
 serted its supremacy over the national heart, and, safe from the 
 intrigues of the pliant, and the expedients of the cowardly, it 
 became a national divinity, which from that day to this has called 
 forth the willing sacrifices of every true American heart, and will 
 continue to do so until its enemies are extirpated, and its false 
 friends consigned to a just sentence of scorn and contempt. 
 
 The progress of events has been steadily onward. The military 
 power of the rebels greatly weakened, the territory once held by 
 them vastly reduced and cut in twain by our rescue of the Mis- 
 sissippi river from their grasp, gradually they are being beaten 
 back, their supplies being exhausted, their available forces con- 
 stantly reducing, and the disaffected elements rapidly increasing. 
 Upon the ruins of their original structure of government, a mer- 
 ciless military despotism has been erected, which vigorously strikes 
 down every opposing right and privilege, which has broken every 
 contract made with the people, has practically repudiated the en- 
 tire currency, has conscripted the entire arms-bearing population, 
 and their officers shoot down all who will not willingly obey their 
 summons ; broken up courts, and, in a word, has erected a mili- 
 tary organization the most concentrated and vigorous the world 
 has ever seen. Such are, as I believe, our enemies, while our 
 Administration has been ever scrupulous of public and private 
 rights, and has never unjustifiably invaded either. No man ever 
 exercised summary power more cautiously than Mr. Lincoln, 
 none more honestly, none ceased it more gladly than he will, when 
 the public interests may justify. They who denounce him as a 
 usurper, know little of his high conscientiousness, and regard but 
 little that public interest which is with him the pole-star of duty, 
 and which now calls so fondly for his re-election. Meanwhile, 
 under the unparalleled financial management of the Secretary of 
 the Treasury, our Government loans are taken with eagerness, the 
 taxes are paid with promptness and cheerfulness, the army is 
 being filled by re-enlistments, the heart and voice of the nation is 
 rallying more closely and bravely around the Administration — 
 insuring us against triumphs of our foes in the field, or our polit- 
 ical foes at home. Sir, amongst the people of my district there 
 are few, very few, who are not faithful to the nation in this great 
 cri/i< uf its need. The defection there, as elsewhere, is confined 
 to extreme pro-slavery men, who uphold it not only for its own 
 sake, but as a means of achieving partisan success, in shameless 
 disregard of their solemn duties to the country. Why should 
 
13 
 
 slavery be upheld ? It deserves no such fate. It has long divided, 
 distracted, and troubled us. It was from the beginning, and has 
 gone on ever-increasingly to distract and embroil us. It has been, 
 and is, the great bone of contention, over which, at last, we have 
 come to blows. To save it, is to perpetuate this discord. To de- 
 stroy it, is to secure the present, and make peaceful and gloriou - 
 future. But it cannot be destroyed by proclamations alone; the 
 power of law should be invoked to make the destruction complete 
 in character, and perfect in extent, [t must be written in the 
 Constitution that slavery shall no more exist in any Jimei 
 State. Then, and only then, may we sing the requiem of Blavery. 
 At present it is wounded, deeply wounded, by the blows that were 
 given by its own friends. It bleeds, but its wounds may be 
 staunched, unless by a Btaggering blow the people utterly destroy 
 it, by force of public and unchangeable law. 
 
 The principle of slavery is the inspiration of the rebellion, and 
 it is yet so held and defended by the organs of public Bentiment in 
 the rebellious States. I quote one declaration: "So far from 
 believing that slavery must die,*' says the Richmond Whig y "we 
 have long held the opinion that it is the normal and only humane 
 relation which labor can sustain toward- capital. When the war 
 is over, we shall urge that every Yankee who ventures to put foot 
 on southern soil be made a slave for lit'- and wear an iron collar 
 as a badge f inferiority to the African. Shivery will stab itself 
 to death about the time the Yankees learn to tell the truth, and no 
 sooner." 
 t Sir, there is no safety for liberty on this continent, or for free 
 labor, without the suppression of the rebellion and the extirpation 
 of the pestilent aristocracy of opinion which sustains it, and the 
 complete conformation of our institutions to the principles of the 
 Declaration of Independence. I pity while I despis* the man in 
 the loyal North who sympathizes with this rebellion, for it is based 
 upon the narrowest and most exclusive ideas ; it is aimed as a 
 blow at the doctrines which underlie our whole system of republi- 
 can liberty, and if successful it is intended to be the lever by which 
 European systems arc to be introduced and established upon this 
 free continent, and by which the whole current of events, which 
 thus far has tended to the amelioration of human suffering and the 
 extension of human rights, shall be reversed and become assimi- 
 lated to the monarchical and aristocratic systems of Europe. The 
 man who is engaged in this work is a public enemy ; the man 
 who in this home of liberty aids and abets him, deserves the 
 execration of mankind. 
 
 But the object of those struggling for political power, under 
 this view of the case, can never be accomplished, because the 
 
14 
 
 Union cannot and will not be restored except through the success- 
 ful prosecution of the war. 
 
 The rebels remain or pretend to be sanguine of success. 
 They are bold, daring, and impracticable; they propose no terms 
 of negotiation, and will listen to none except with the fundamental 
 condition that this Government recognize their independence. 
 This done, they will then treat concerning the navigation of the 
 Mi-v-i.ssippi, international trade, the return of fugitive slaves, and 
 the thousand and one questions that would arise between citizens 
 of the contiguous governments. Who is prepared for this? None, 
 I trust, although the peace policy advocated by gentlemen on the 
 other side of the House leads inevitably to this result. The am- 
 nesty proclamation of the President has gone forth ; let the power 
 of the army and the vigorous prosecution of the war follow, until 
 the rebels are subdued and plead for terms. There is no other 
 hope for any one of us, or for any interest, outside of this. I have 
 no especial anxieties about reconstruction and the questions which 
 will arise out of it. I believe the President has skilfully escaped the 
 difficulties surrounding the problem ; and I believe that the people 
 of the South, removed from the pressure of the military power 
 of the rebels, and anxious to escape the tyrannical exactions "which 
 have been laid upon them, will rally around the old flag, and under 
 the inspiration of the great lesson that has been taught, will re- 
 construct their State governments, resume their relations with the 
 General Government, and make those relations stable and secure 
 by abolishing slavery, the cause of all the evil. Already Tennes- 
 see, Arkansas, Missouri, and Louisiana are treading in that direc- 
 tion. Alabama also shows signs of wheeling into line. The others 
 of our " erring sister-," redeemed and disenthralled, will indue 
 order cf progression follow, until finally we have a union of recon- 
 structed States, without a blemish or deformity, and every star 
 restored to more than its former brightness and glory. 
 
 What is to prevent this result ? and why should it not be at- 
 tained speedily 1 While Southern conscription has dragooned into 
 the army not only the able-bodied men of proper age, but old men 
 and boys have not been spared, and they have thus gone on until 
 nearly their entire force is exhausted, we on the other hand have 
 only fairly commenced, and not more than one- fifth of our availa- 
 ble population have been called to arms. While the Southern 
 finances have become exhausted, and the issues of their treasury 
 almost as worthless as the paper upon which they are printed, 
 oar financial success has become the wonder of the world, and 
 our own loyal citizens have freely and promptly purchased the 
 Government loans at par, thus furnishing the means necessary to 
 prosecute the war, without borrowing a dollar from foreign Pow- 
 ers. Whilst the Southern army and Southern citizens are famish- 
 
15 
 
 ing for want of commissary supplies, the granaries of tlic North 
 are filled with abundance. While commerce, trade, and agricul- 
 ture, in the South are almost totally destroyed, and by a rigid 
 and vigorous blockade they arc cut off from trade with the world, 
 the Northern States never were so completely prosperous as at 
 this moment. Agriculture, commerce, manufactures, and trade 
 of all kinds are working up to their fullest capacity ; the people 
 by honest industry and toil are becoming rapidly enriched ; the 
 ability to pay taxes sufficient to lay a foundation dee], and broad 
 enough to sir-tain the public credit should the public debt quadru- 
 ple its present proportions is ample; and with a loyalty of heart 
 and devotion of purpose, they are as willing as they are able to 
 pour their wealth into the public treasury until treason is blotted 
 
 from this continent.* 
 
 Why then should any one doubt or fear the result I With the 
 rebellion thus suppressed, all elements of discord removed by the 
 
 destruction of slavery, the national life regenerated, we may 
 
 safely anticipate an unbroken and prosperous future for the I Fnion. 
 Under the influence of its intelligent and educated labor wisely 
 
 directed, of the unparallelled productions of which it is capable, 
 
 of the wealth it will draw from the Old World, which shall he trib- 
 utary to it, this great country shall become, and remain, under 
 the smiles and protection of a kind and just Providence, the 
 favored spot of all the earth., and the asylum of the down-trodden 
 and oppressed of every nation, where honest labor and merit will 
 receive their full reward. There shall be no bound set in the 
 limitless future to the grandeur, prosperity, and power of the Uni- 
 ted States of America. 
 
 * The fourth volume of Macaulay's History of England, Chapter XIX, con- 
 tains ;i very interesting account of the ori?in and progress of the National 
 Debt of England. He says: "Such was the origin of that debt which has 
 since become the greatest prodigy thai ever perplexed the sagacity and con- 
 founded the pride of statesmen aud philosophers. At every stage in the growth 
 of that debt, the nation has set up the same cry of angui-di and despair. At 
 every stage in the growth of that debt, it has been seriously asserted by wise 
 men that bankruptcy and ruin were at hand. Yet still the debt went on grow- 
 ing, and still bankruptcy and ruin were as remote as ever." * * * 
 
 And again he says : "A long experience justifies 113 in believing that Eng- 
 land may, in the Twentieth Century, be better able to. bear a debt of sixteen 
 hundred millions pounds sterling, than she is at the present time to bear he- 
 present load. But, be this as it may, those who so confidently predicted tb 
 she must sink, first under a debt of fifty million pounds sterling, then un 
 a debt of eighty millions, then under a debt of one hundred and forty milli 
 then under a debt of two hundred and forty millions, and lastly under a;, 
 of eight hundred millions, were beyond all donbl under a two-fold nr_ e d 
 They greatly overrated the pressure of the burden ; they greatly uu J 
 the strength by which the burden was to be borne. ' : 
 
 
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