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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 013 744 650 9 
 
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 pH 8.5 
 
SPEECH 
 
 OP 
 
 HON. B. F. LOAN, OF MISSOURI, 
 
 OK 
 
 THE RELATION OF THE REBEL STATES TO THE GOVERNMENT, AND THE DUTY OF THE 
 GOVERNMENT IN RE-ESTABLISHING THE UNION; 
 
 DELIVERED 
 
 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, MARCH 3, 18G6. 
 
 WASHINGTON: 
 PRINTED AT THE CONGRESSIONAL GLOBE OFFICE. 
 
 1866. 
 

RECONSTRUCTION. 
 
 > 
 
 The House, as in Committee of the Whole on the 
 state of the Union, having under consideration the 
 President's annual message — 
 
 Mr. LOAN said: 
 
 Mr. Speaker : The absorbing question that 
 demands the attention of national authority 
 at this time, relates to national unity. Dis- 
 eord and civil war have divided our unhappy 
 country, and threatened its destruction. Guided 
 by an insane and malignant purpose, eleven 
 States, in violation of all law, formally re- 
 nounced fcheir allegiance to this Government 
 and organized for themselves separate de facto 
 governments, and attempted to achieve their 
 independence by war. After four years of civil 
 war 6uch as no other nation could endure and 
 live, the rebel armies surrendered and the con- 
 test upon the battle-field for the dismember- 
 ment of the Republic has ceased for the pres- 
 ent. The rebels yielded, not because they were 
 willing to surrender the cause for which they 
 fought, not because they repented of their trea- 
 son, not because they desired to return to their 
 allegiance, but because they were exhausted 
 and overwhelmed by an irresistible force. "De- 
 feated but not conquered, subdued but not sub- 
 jugated," their determination to destroy this 
 Government and to erect another on its ruins, 
 the chief corner-stone of which is to be Afri- 
 can slavery, remains as fixed and steadfast as it 
 was when they embarked in rebellion in 1860-1. 
 The decision of war to which they first appealed 
 having been given against them, they seek to 
 transfer the contest to the Halls of the grand 
 council of the nation, into which their chosen 
 agents are now demanding admission , and where 
 it is hoped, if they can once enter, they can by 
 diplomacy and fraud achieve that success which 
 they failed to secure by force. In relation to 
 this matter our action should be guided by the 
 utmost prudence; we cannot afford to make 
 any blunders. In the physical conflict the dis- 
 asters resulting from incapacity, cowardice, or 
 
 disloyalty, could be repaired. They only in- 
 curred the unnecessary waste of treasure and 
 the loss of the lives of a greater, or less num- 
 ber of our patriotic fellow-citizens, who were 
 freely offering themselves as sacrifices upon 
 the altar of their country's safety. But here a 
 mistake would probably prove fatal. We are the 
 chosen few to whom has been confided, under 
 God, the destiny of this great Republic, not 
 for a day, nor for a year, but for all time ; and 
 what we do is irrevocable and earns for us an 
 imperishable fame, or damns us to eternal 
 infamy. 
 
 If we have the intelligence and manhood to 
 act. in the interests of universal liberty and the 
 inalienable rights of man, untold generations 
 will bless ouf memories for having secured them 
 the liberty they enjoy. But if we suffer our- 
 selves to yield to the seduction of' apparent 
 peace, and in our haste to restore the rebels to 
 amicable relations with this Government, we 
 forget the rights of humanity, and ignore jus- 
 tice in reestablishing the Union of these States, 
 we will only be remembered to be scorned and 
 despised as the betrayers of a sacred trust. 
 
 In the contest through which we have just 
 passed more than three hundred thousand of the 
 bravest and the best of our fellow-citizens have 
 willingly laid down their lives, that the Republic 
 might live. We owe it to their memories, to 
 their widowed wives and orphan children, that 
 the fruits of the victories that cost them and us 
 so much should not be carelessly or recklessly 
 thrown away. While our patriot dead have 
 given so much to their country in the discharge 
 of their duties, ought we to hesitate in the dis- 
 charge of ours, to make any sacrifice that the 
 interest of the country demands? The honors 
 of place, the blandishments of power, the suc- 
 cess of this party or of that, sink into utter 
 insignificance in the presence of such impor- 
 tant duties as those are which we are now 
 required to perform. 
 
The times demand the highest patriotism, the 
 most utter abnegation of all personal considera- 
 tions, the greatest intelligence, and the utmost 
 care. Our gallant armies have well and faith- 
 fully performed the part required of them, in 
 the contest waged against the nation's life ; it 
 remains for us to perform our part with equal 
 ability, and the same fidelity. To do this suc- 
 cessfully requires of us a thorough knowledge 
 of "the situation;" and to this end T propose 
 to add, to what has already been so well said, 
 on the condition of affairs, a few suggestions 
 upon some points which, in my opinion, have 
 not been sufficiently elaborated. 
 
 It is very desirable that we should ascertain, 
 if possible, the precise relation, in fact, as well 
 as in law, which the revolted States bear to the 
 Government. At a time prior to the rebellion, 
 they were in law, and in fact, States in this 
 Union, with all the rights and privileges, and 
 under all the obligations that pertain to any 
 and all the States in the Union. Afterwards, 
 they formally, as States, renounced their alle- 
 giance to this Government, surrendered all 
 their rights and privileges under it, and declared 
 themselves absolved from all obligations to it. 
 They then proceeded to organize independent 
 governments, State and confederate, and en- 
 tered into compacts with each other for mutual 
 defense and support, and announced their de- 
 termination to maintain their independence by 
 acts of war. Had our Government acquiesced 
 in what they did, and "accepted the situation"' 
 and "letthemalone," as they desired we should 
 do, the rebellion they inaugurated would have 
 becom e a successful revolution. The separation 
 of the rebel States from the nation would have 
 been final and complete, and the confederate 
 government would have been as thoroughly 
 established as was ours when Great Britain ac- 
 cepte#the result of the seven years' war of the 
 Revolution. Dismemberment, or war, was the 
 alternative that the action of the rebels otfered 
 to the Republic; Hence it appears that the only 
 rights that the Government could assert over 
 that part of the national domain, which was in- 
 cluded within the rebel States and over the in- 
 habitants there, were just those that it could 
 acquire by force of arms. The rebels had effected 
 a dissolution of the Union in fact, but not in law. 
 
 In ^iis connection it becomes material to 
 inquire whether a dissolution of the union of 
 the States would, as some contend, neces- 
 sarily destroy the Government. On this point 
 I am inclined y to think that many are led into 
 serious error in supposing the phrase "the 
 Union" and "the Governmant" to besynony- 
 mous.to express the national authority. Such is 
 not the case. They are very different and dis- 
 tinct things. The Union is subordinate to the 
 Government, and the Government may exist 
 independent of the Union. The union of 
 States in 1800 was not the same union of Stales 
 that existed in 1820, nor was that the union of 
 
 States that existed in 1840. During each period 
 new States were added, but the Government 
 remained the same, onlj' enlarged and increased 
 by its growth as the boy grows into manhood, 
 and yet retaining the same individuality. The 
 Union may be enlarged or diminished. States 
 may be admitted into it or taken out of it, as 
 by the conquest of a foreign Power, by treason 
 or otherwise, without necessarily destroying the 
 Government or our existence as a nation. Con- 
 sequently when eleven States entered the chaos 
 of rebellion, withdrew their representatives from 
 the Halls of Congress, and inaugurated civil 
 war, the Union of these States was, de facto, as 
 much dissolved as it would have been if the 
 rebels had proved victorious in the war and we 
 had acknowledged their independence. Since 
 the revolt of these States they have held no 
 political relations to the Federal Government 
 other than those of rebellious subjects. The 
 Government exists without them. The Exec- 
 utive of the nation administers the law in the 
 appointed forms. The supreme judicial tri- 
 bunal of the nation holds its regular sessions 
 as prescribed by law, and the Legislature of 
 the nation holds its regular sessions and makes 
 laws for the Republic entirely unaided by any 
 representatives from the revolted States. At 
 the time appointed by law the loyal people 
 elected a President and Vice President for the 
 nation. It having been previously declared 
 by law that participation on the part of the 
 States in rebellion in the formation of the 
 Electoral College was not necessary for a valid 
 election of those officers, and our President 
 to-day holds his office in consequence of<in 
 election by a college of electors formed in pur- 
 suance of that law. The dissolution of the 
 Union effected by the rebels in 1861 continues 
 to this day. The political relations of those 
 States to the Government have not been re- 
 stored, and their right to representation in 
 these Halls is not yet recognized. But this 
 dissolution of the Union, however disastrous 
 it may prove to the traitors and rebels who 
 effected it, did not in the least impair the right 
 of the nation to exercise its authority over all 
 its territory and over all its subjects. The 
 thief who steals a horse and runs off with him 
 changes de facto the possession of the horse 
 from the owner to the thief, but such change 
 does not impair the owner's right to pursue the 
 thief and recover possession of his property, 
 nor will it avail the thief when tried for the lar- 
 ceny to deny that he stole the horse, because 
 the theft was in violation of law and is therefore 
 a nullity. 
 
 Notwithstanding the rebels had effected a dis- 
 solution of the Union of the States, the vitality 
 and the energy of the Government remained. 
 and it was the national authority that opposed 
 war to rebellion, not, as has been frequently said, 
 lor the maintenance of the Union, not to com- 
 pel the revolting States to accept and enjoy the 
 
rights and privileges of States In the Union, but 
 for the maintenance of national supremacy and 
 to preserve the integrity of the Republic. Na- 
 tional safety imperatively requires us to pre- 
 serve our national boundaries intact. We could 
 not safely permit a foreign flag to float over the 
 peninsula of Florida nor over the mouth of the 
 Mississippi river — that great outlet to the mar- 
 kets of the world for the inhabitants of those 
 great States that lie in and around the basin of 
 that river. And therefore the nation purchased 
 those provinces with the common treasure for 
 the national benefit, and not for the especial 
 convenience and advantages of the inhabitants 
 thereof. So, when the rebels undertook to 
 divide our territory, change our boundaries, 
 and establish a foreign government on our boar- 
 ders, it was to prevent them from succeeding 
 that induced us to make war upon them, and 
 not a desire to whip them into the Union for 
 their good. After four years of war success 
 crowned our efforts, and the flag of the Repub- 
 lic floats in triumph over every foot of terri- 
 tory that ever belonged to the national domain. 
 Organized rebel armies have all been dispersed, 
 and organized rebel governments have disap- 
 
 E eared, it is to be hoped, forever. It would 
 ardly seem possible that any question could 
 arise as to the authority that should control the 
 future political destiny of these rebel districts ; 
 but strange as it may appear, it is considered 
 by some whose opinions are entitled to great 
 weight, to be a debatable question whether the 
 subdued rebels or the lawfully constituted legis- 
 lative authority of the Republic that still holds 
 those districts in the iron grasp of military 
 power, shall determine their relations to and 
 their rights under the Government. 
 
 There are those who insist that the relations of 
 the revolted States to the Eederal Government 
 are of such a mysterious and wonderful power 
 that they cannot be destroyed ; that the Federal 
 Government is powerless to change them ; that 
 the war they made upon the Republic had no 
 effect upon them ; that the ordinances of seces- 
 sion passed by them and the establishment of 
 a de facto rebel government did not in the 
 least impair the rights and privileges of these 
 States as members of the Union. In effect, 
 they maintain the indestructibility of a Stale 
 which has once been admitted into the Union 
 of States. Once a State always a State is a 
 favorite phrase with such persons. They do 
 not hesitate to tell us that a State in the Union 
 may have a beginning, but that it can never 
 have an end ; that its vitality may be impaired, 
 but it cannot be extinguished ; that its func- 
 tions may be suspended, but not destroyed ; 
 that its component parts may all be annihila- 
 ted, yet it wi.ll still exist; that all the inhabit- 
 ants may be hung for treason without working 
 the destruction of the State; all of which I 
 consider to be absurdities so gross and glaring 
 that to attempt a refutation of them would be 
 
 to oppose argument against unresisting im- 
 becility. 
 
 These same persons also tell us that a State 
 cannot commit or incur any forfeiture ; that it 
 is only a corporation, and as such "has nobody 
 to be hung or soul to be damned ' ' for the crimes 
 it commits ; that its powers, rights, and priv- 
 ileges are self-existent and indestructible ; that 
 they may be held in abeyance, but they are ever 
 ready to be called into action by the loyal peo- 
 ple of the State without regard to the smallness 
 of their number, and that they can exercise all 
 the powers and perform all the functions be- 
 longing to such States; that, unaided by any 
 other authority or power, they have the right 
 and the ability, at their option, to resume their 
 relations with the Federal Government, even 
 against its consent. All of which all loyal men 
 know to be as false and heretical as were the 
 doctrines of State-rights and the other like fal- 
 lacies that culminated in rebellion. We know 
 that the States, as such, owe allegiance to the 
 Federal Government as the paramount author- 
 ity ; that as States they are represented in the 
 Senate as the people are in this House of the 
 Congress of the United States. If the States 
 that joined in the rebellion had remained faith- 
 ful as States in the Union, we know there could 
 have been no organization of the people in the 
 interests of treason ; and we also know that they 
 formally, as States, renounced their allegiance 
 to the Federal Government, re-called their Sen- 
 ators from the Congress of the United States, 
 and then entered the portals of organized rebel- 
 lion and disappeared forever. 
 
 On their ruins the traitor inhabitants there 
 erected eleven rebel States and they estab- 
 lished a central government, known as the con- 
 federate States of America, all of which they 
 claimed to be independent of and entirely dis- ■ 
 connected with this Government. They de- 
 clared that they had severed every tie that 
 bound them to it, and for more than fourycars 
 waged a war against it which, for gigantic pro- 
 portions, savage barbarity, and wanton cruelty, 
 has no parallel in modern times. In the pro- 
 gress of this war, to enable us to oppose it, suc- 
 cessfully, and to maintain our just authority 
 over our national domain, it became necessary 
 to proclaim the freedom of all the slaves in the 
 rebel States and to call large numbers of them 
 into our armies. Finally, we succeeded in dis- 
 persing the rebel armies, and the confederate 
 government was dissolved, and the armies of the 
 Republic took possession of and still hold all 
 the rebellious territory. The mil it ary authorities 
 
 deposed the rebel governments found there and 
 established military, or. as they are more pops* 
 larly known, provisional governments, in their 
 places. On the consummation of these happy 
 results the popular mind greatly rejoiced in 
 
 the fond belief that the war of the great rebel- 
 lion was closed and the nation saved ; and the 
 people hoped for a speedy return to peace, with 
 
6 
 
 al I its attendant joys and blessings. Never was 
 there a greater mistake nor a more delusive 
 hope. Like the spider, whose web is suddenly 
 swept away, the rebel chieftains, shrewd, wily, 
 and irrepressible, on the dispersion of their 
 armies realized the utter and irretrievable fail- 
 ure of their attempt to divide or destroy this 
 Republic by force, and at once comprehended 
 the necessity for changing their plans. Fraud 
 is the inevitable alternative of those who find 
 themselves too weak to succeed by force, and 
 the rebel leaders have transferred the contest 
 which they waged for the division of the Re- 
 public from the battle-field to the political 
 arena. There, in the guise of friends, in the 
 name of loyalty, in the avowed cause of peace, 
 harmony, and union, they have assumed to 
 organize in the late rebellious districts civil 
 State governments, and demand for them the 
 recognition of political relations with the Fed- 
 eral Government as States in the Union, 
 their real object and purpose being to secure 
 a position which will enable them to form po- 
 litical combinations by which they can, as for- 
 merly, control the policy of the Government, 
 that they may direct it to national destruction ; 
 for they have found it to possess a power that 
 they cannot resist, and one that will control 
 them unless they can destroy it. 
 
 Recent events give to these demands and pur- 
 poses a significance and importance which show 
 them to be more dangerous to the safety of the 
 Republic than were the rebel armies in the days 
 of their most brilliant victories. In this hidden 
 danger, which cannot be seen and appreciated 
 as could the rebel hosts in battle array, lies the 
 greatest peril of the Republic. The utmost 
 caution, the highest statesmanship, and the 
 most devoted patriotism are required to guide 
 safely the ship of state through these impend- 
 ing dangers. A mistake here would probably 
 prove fatal. There is no opportunity for exper- 
 iment; our action in the premises maybe final 
 and conclusive. Let us once permit any of 
 these reconstructed rebel States to resume their 
 political relations with the Federal Govern- 
 ment and our power over them as disorganized 
 communities will cease. 
 
 They are now without the protection of our 
 Constitution, placed there by their crimes delib- 
 erately perpetrated, and we can lawfully deal 
 with them in any way that in our opinion the best 
 interests and the safety of the country may 
 demand. Therefore, before we conclude our- 
 selves by any action in the premises, we should 
 know that the political power in the State seek- 
 ing recognition is confided exclusively to loyal 
 hands, and that equal privileges and exactjustice 
 have been secured by law alike to all loyal eili- 
 zens. I think 1 can safely say that Congress could 
 not in the faithful discharge of its duties in rela- 
 tion to those districts recognize thepolitical rela- 
 tions of any States organized therein to the Fed- 
 eral Government until the inhabitants thereof 
 
 give some evidence of their hatred of treason 
 and of love for their country and its republican 
 institutions, nor until rebel sentiments, rebel 
 flags, re' >el generals, rebel valor, rebel mem- 
 ories, and rebel debts are repudiated ; nor until 
 the love of justice, law, and order is so firmly 
 ingrafted in the minds of the people as to 
 give unquestioned assurance of an enduring 
 peace. 
 
 Timid peace men who are afraid to do right 
 for fear they might do wrong, and the apologists 
 for traitors and rebels, insist that they have done 
 enough to entitle them to be restored to their 
 rights and privileges in the Union. Such men 
 tell us that the rebels have laid down their arms, 
 that they are disposed to acquiesce in the re- 
 sults of the war, and that they are willing to 
 accept the situation. It is true, the rebels laid 
 down their arms when they had no power to 
 retain them any longer ; that they are disposed 
 to acquiesce in the results of the war, because 
 they are powerless to do otherwise ; and they 
 are willing to accept the situation, because they 
 have no option to refuse it. It is said that the 
 rebels are disposed to be loyal, and are willing to 
 return to their allegiance, but when they come 
 they come in the interests of treason. Without 
 authority of law, conventions were called to 
 organize State governments in the rebellious 
 districts ; at the elections held to select delegates 
 to these conventions nearly all the loyal peo- 
 ple there were excluded from the polls, and 
 candidates were voted for and elected because 
 of their services in the armies of the rebellion, 
 and of their assured fidelity to the cause of the 
 traitors. In the constitutions they adopted, the 
 political and nearly all the personal rights which 
 this nation stands pledged to guaranty to its 
 colored soldiers and its colored citizens — the 
 only considerable portion of the inhabitants 
 there that is or has recently been loyal to the Re- 
 public — are ignored ; and standing armies and 
 martial law are yet required to enforce national 
 authority and to protect the loyal people against 
 rebel violence and outrage. In violation of 
 common decency and in contempt of law, these 
 reconstructed rebels have, in many instances, 
 elected as Representatives to this Congress, 
 notorious, defiant rebels, whose infamous career 
 in treachery and crime renders it impossible for 
 them to take the oaths of office prescribed by 
 law without committing perjury. 
 
 The allegiance they oiler is not based upon a 
 thorough and heartfelt repentance of their 
 treason, nor does it arise from a patriotic de- 
 votion to their country, nor from a just pride in 
 its glory and greatness and power. But it is 
 offered in the hope that it will prove the means 
 of affording them another opportunity to again 
 betray the country, and, if possible, to effect its 
 destruction. 
 
 Let no one suppose, that in expressing these 
 views, I am opposed to the speedy restoration 
 of the rebel States to their places as States in 
 
the Union. I am as anxious as any one can 
 be to see harmonious relations existing be- 
 tween every part of this country. 1 will allow 
 no feelings of vengeance, or any memories of 
 the past, to interpose to prevent the restora- 
 tion of amicable relations between the Repub- 
 lic and the States lately in revolt. When the 
 war of the rebellion is closed and peace is pro- 
 claimed ; when the order establishing martial 
 law in those States shall have been revoked 
 and civil authority established ; when loyal cit- 
 izens from overy part of the Republic are pro- 
 tected there by the civil law as distinguished 
 from the military ; when the leading traitors 
 who sought the division of the Republic and 
 the destruction of our Government are scorned 
 and despised ''for their treason, and loyal men 
 ■tire" honored and trusted for their fidelity to 
 their country ; when these States are organized 
 in the interests of loyalty ; when the rights of 
 all citizens are alike protected by the law ; 
 when there is no exclusion of any from the 
 ballot-box who may have borne or who are 
 liable to bear arms in defense of our common 
 country — in a word, when they come as loyal 
 States, organized and controlled by loyal men, 
 I shall be ready and willing to receive them 
 into the sisterhood of States, without inquiring 
 how or by what authority they were organized. 
 But they will never come as loyal States so 
 long as unrepentant rebels are permitted to 
 control their political destiny and rule the 
 loyal people there. "Conciliation and kind- 
 ness" have ever been thrown away when be- 
 stowed upon rebels. " Extending confidence 
 to them does not beget confidence in return." 
 The ordinary motives that govern human ac- 
 tion have no application to the rebels. The 
 demon of slavery has corrupted their natures, 
 and they are no longer under human influences. 
 In the war they prosecuted for the destruction 
 of this Government, they disregarded all laws 
 human and divine. Assassination and murder, 
 arson and robbery, were recognized by them 
 as legitimate modes of warfare. Who does not 
 remember the massacre at Lawrence, where [ 
 they surrounded at daybreak a peaceable town 
 remote from the theater of actual hostilities, 
 and murdered the citizens by hundreds in cold 
 blood, and then sacked and burned the town ? 
 And the massacre at Fort Pillow, where the J 
 garrison, after having surrendered, were delib- 
 erately murdered, some of whom were cruci- 
 fied by nailing them to a cross, and were after- 
 ward, while alive, thrown into the flames of 
 burning buildings? Or those still more cruel and 
 heartless atrocities perpetrated at Salisbury, 
 Andersonville, and l.ibhy prisons, where our 
 soldiers by thousands and tens of thousands 
 
 were compelled to endure the lingering tortures 
 
 of death by starvation and exposure to the ele- 
 ments ? These were not the rash and incon- 
 siderate acts of irresponsible subordinates in 
 the confederate service ; but they were the 
 
 deliberate and well-considered acts of the con- 
 federate government, and were authorized and 
 permitted by the general officers in its armies ; 
 in many instances the same men who have re- 
 organized the rebel States, and who now con- 
 trol them, and who are asking for them recog- 
 nition as loyal States in the Union. They 
 assert that they are loyal now, and as a proof of 
 their loyalty they propose to swallow as many 
 of what they facetiously term "our iron-clad 
 oaths" as will satisfy us of the fact. . 
 
 Bitter experiences in my State have taught 
 the people there the impolicy of trusting to the 
 loyalty of a rebel who offers no better evi- 
 dence of com ersion from treason to loyalty 
 than can be found in the virtue of an "iron- 
 clad ' ' or any other oath. 
 
 The late President, whose excellent judg- 
 ment was frequently warped by the kindness of 
 his heart, fondly believed that a people whom 
 civil war and rivers of blood had divided could, 
 by merely being placed in juxtaposition, be 
 reunited in bonds of amity and friendship, and 
 he determined to try the experiment, and se- 
 lected our State as the place for the trial. 
 
 By his amnesty proclamation, appended to 
 his annual message to Congress in December, 
 1863) he had invited the rebel soldiers to lay 
 down their arms and return to their homes, prom- 
 ising that they should be protected there on 
 taking the oath prescribed in the proclamation. 
 As the war had been conducted in Missouri 
 with more than ordinary cruelty and outrage 
 on the part of the rebels, those of them who 
 availed themselves of the President's procla- 
 mation of amnesty were not received by the 
 Union men on their return home with the ut- 
 most kindness ; in fact it was dangerous in some 
 localities for them to remain at home, even 
 under the President's promise for their pro- 
 tection. When informed of this fact the Pres- 
 ident was very desirous that they should have 
 the protection promised them. He therefore 
 perin it ted the Union men, who at the risk of 
 all that was near and dear to them had been 
 for years, as soldiers under the Union flag, 
 
 exposing themselves to the bullets of their rebel 
 
 neighbors in the character of rebel soldier*, 
 bushwhackers, and guerrillas, to be disarmed 
 and the flag taken from them and given, with 
 their anus, to their rebel neighbors who had 
 
 taken the amnesty oath. When, in the name 
 
 and on behalf of my outraged fellow-soldiers, I 
 
 expostulated with him for allowing this great 
 wrong to be committed, he replied that it v. as 
 b aece isity, thai there must come a time when 
 the rebels and the Union men would have 
 to live together in harmony and on terms of 
 friendship, when they would have to go to the 
 
 same mill and the same post office, and to meet 
 at the same ballot-box. and the sooner that time 
 should come the easier it would be tor them to 
 
 resume friendly relations; that as the Union 
 men were not disposed to give protection to 
 
w 
 
 8 
 
 returning rebels, and in many instances were 
 inclined to drive them off by force, it was pru- 
 dent to disarm the Union men and thereby de- 
 prive them of the means of driving the amnestied 
 rebels from their homes. But as such rebels 
 were coming home at intervals and in compara- 
 tively small numbers, they would not probably 
 be sufficiently strong to resist the Union men 
 who, although disarmed, might be disposed to 
 drive the rebels out of the country; therefore 
 it was necessary to organize them as soldiers, 
 arm them as such and place them under the 
 
 {)rotection of the national flag, where he be- 
 ieved the Union men dared not disturb them, 
 and as they had laid down the ; r arms and left 
 the rebel armies, thereby manifesting ;> <1; ire 
 to live peaceably at home, there was no reason 
 to believe that they would iuterfere with the 
 Union men if they would behave themselves, 
 and thus peace would be secured to all par- 
 ties. 
 
 The theory was plausible and speaks well for 
 the kindness -of the heart that suggested it. 
 But in practice it proved to be only another 
 illustration of the folly of warming into life a 
 poisonous snake, under the delusion that with 
 returning strength its disposition to inflict in- 
 jury and death would cease. It is hardly neces- 
 sary to add that the experiment was a failure. 
 The State government approved of the Pres- 
 ident's plan of arming the returned rebels and 
 their sympathizers, and aided him in doing it. 
 The rebels were thus virtually supported by 
 the confederate, national, and State govern- 
 ments in their opposition to the Union men. 
 In this condition of affairs but one alternative 
 was left them. What they did in this crisis, 
 or how it was done, are matters not necessary 
 to be repeated here. Suffice it to say, that the 
 State and its government are now m the posses- 
 sion of loyal men, and that every rebel and every 
 rebel sympathizer within the Siate is perma- 
 nently disfranchised by provisions in its con- 
 stitution, and that peace, prosperity, and hap- 
 piness dwell within her borders. 
 
 In dealing with the revolted States, let us 
 profit by this experience, and let us also give 
 practical application to the statements so fre- 
 quently repeated, "that treason is a crime," 
 
 ' 'that none but loyal men must govern the coun- 
 try," and "that rebels must take back seats;" 
 to do this effectually, we must see that the dis- 
 loyal are permanently disfranchised. There 
 should be no understanding that their disabili- 
 ties might be removed in the future ; it is enough 
 for them that they are permitted to live safely 
 in a country, in which nearly every household 
 to-day mourns the loss of some dear relative, 
 whose death was occasioned by their infamous 
 crimes. All loyal men in those States must be 
 enfranchised without regard to color. Those 
 races who bear arms to defend a Republic must 
 be allowed to participate in its Government. 
 
 A military necessity required us to emanci- 
 pate the negro and accept his services as a sol- 
 dier that the Republic might be saved. We 
 all remember when victory after victory waS 
 crowning the rebel armies on almost every 
 battle-field and the armies of the Republic were 
 ingloriously retiring before the advancing ban- 
 ners of rebellion, that national peril compelled 
 us to proclaim the freedom of the slave and 
 call him to our aid. Before the ranks of our 
 armies had been swelled by two hundred thou- 
 sand of these colored soldiers the tide of vic- 
 tory was changed, the rebel armies suffered 
 defeat after defeat in rapid succession until 
 they were finally dispersed and the war ended. 
 The services of our soldiers are no longer re- 
 quired to defend the country ; it now becomes 
 a political necessity to preserve the fruits of 
 our victories and to secure a permanent peace 
 that we confide the ballot to the hands of all 
 our loyal citizens before we take from them as 
 soldiers the implements of war. 
 
 The bullet is the freeman's only safety in 
 this country when he is deprived of the ballot. 
 The ballot and peace or the bullet and war are 
 the alternatives between which the Republic 
 must choose. 
 
 In conclusion permit me to say that in all our 
 action relating to the restoration of the Union 
 of these States we should carefully avoid all 
 compromises with wrong, oppression, and in- 
 justice. We should resolve to stand firmly by 
 the right, and when the Union is reorganized 
 let it be on the basis of universal freedom and 
 universal suffrage for all loyal men. 
 
.C7f