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SPEECH 
 
 OF 
 
 ^ 
 
 MAJOR GEN'L JOHN A. RAWLINS, 
 
 CHIEF OF STAFF U. S. A. 
 
 General Grant's Yiews in Harmony with Congress. 
 
 AUTHENTIC EXPOSITION OF HIS PRINCIPLES. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY THE UNION REPUBLICAN CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE, V/ASHINGTON. D. C. 
 
 Major General John A. Rawlins is known to the country as the able Chief of Staff 
 of the Army of the United States, and the accomplished and contideutial Staff Officer of 
 General U. S. Grant himself. General Rawlins has been in the closest relations with 
 liis great Chief, the Republican Presidential nominee, ever since the war began, and 
 knows the opinions and policy of General Grant better probably than any other person. 
 Hence the significance whish attaches to this speech, made at Galena, Illinois, June 21st, 
 1867, on tlie occasion of General Rawlins visiting that city, his former residence. It 
 was undoubtedly prepared with General Grant's knowledge and submitted to him 
 before delivery : 
 
 Fellow- Citizens : When a boy, bring- 
 ing the produce of my father's farm — of 
 his forests and of his quarries — to your 
 market, I always met with favor and kind- 
 ness. When grown to be a man, as a 
 student of law I had your words of en- 
 couragement. When a practitioner of 
 law, 1 had your support and patronage; 
 and when the roU-ca!l of the nation 
 sounded to arms, witfi your fathers, your 
 sons, husbands, and brothers, I went out 
 from among you, with your blessings and 
 your prayers, to aid in maintaining the 
 supremacy of the Constitution and the 
 Union ; and after four years' participa- 
 tion in the bloodiest war ever waged among 
 men, and two years' cognizance of the resto- 
 ration of civil authority and constitutional 
 government from its wreck and ruin, I 
 come back to you and meet wit ha welcome, 
 that, were it not for the friendship you 
 have always evinced toward me, I should 
 attribute wholy to my long, intimate as- 
 sociation with that most sui f.essful of the 
 world's military chieftains. General U. S. 
 Grant, and the great cause in which he 
 
 achieved success. For this welcome, friends 
 of my boyhood, friends of my manhood, 
 friends of my whole life, accept my sincere 
 thanks. 
 
 Many of those who went from among 
 you have not returned, and many who have 
 are battle-scarred and maimed. This glooms 
 yoar homes, and over your reception hangs 
 like a pall. Where are those uareturned 
 braves? Their bodies sleep in death on 
 every battle-field and in every patriot ceme- 
 tery in this broad land; but their souls 
 awake in Christ — have found peace with 
 the God of Washington and of Lincoln. 
 
 In no spirit of partisanship, buc from the 
 eminence of our nationality, let us review 
 the cause of the war; the acts of the Gov- 
 ernment to prevent it, and, while it was 
 racing, to induce its abandonment by those 
 who controlled it; its effects upon the Con- 
 stitution and the people of the United 
 States, and upon the governments of the 
 States that made it, and the acts of the 
 Government to restore, to their proper 
 efficiency and relation, everything effected 
 by it. They are the questions with, which 
 
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 Mve are dealing to-day, nnd it is the part of 
 ■wisdom to consider well the orobable effect 
 of this dealing on the future of our country 
 and of mankind. 
 
 The Constitution adopted by onr fathers, 
 although the word slave or master does not 
 appear in it, recognized their existence in 
 the States, and provided for the protection 
 of the master in his right to his slave in 
 the apportionment of representatives and 
 direct taxes, and in providing for the de- 
 livery up of persons held to service or labor 
 in one State, who might escape into another, 
 on a claim of the party entitled to such ser- 
 vice or labor. In accordance with public 
 opinion at the time, the Constitution was 
 so forraf'd that any one or all of the Stages 
 might abolish slavery without any other 
 effect than the increase of the representa- 
 tives and taxes of the State or States abol- 
 ishing it. It was thought by a majority of 
 the distinguished statesmen who formed 
 the Constitution that slavery would grad- 
 ually and in time disappear from all the 
 States. 3Iassachusetfs had abolished it, 
 and it had been forever prohibited in the 
 Northwestern Territory. Seven others of 
 the States abolished it, but the increased 
 value of slave labor put a stop to its 
 abolition in other States, and there legis- 
 lation tended to strengthen the title of 
 the master and degrade the slave and free 
 persons of his race. All sources of educa- 
 tion were denied to them, and the right of 
 suffrage, which free persons of color en- 
 joyed in some of them, was taken away, 
 and they were prohibited from coming iato 
 and settling in these States. In the free 
 States, too, public opinion In support of 
 compromises in the interestof slavery, that 
 Southern threats of secession and disunion 
 had forced them into, underwent a change, 
 and in many of them disabilities were im- 
 posed U[)on free persons of color nearly, if 
 not quite, as severe as in the slave States. 
 The repeal of the Missouri Compromise, 
 which, lo get Missouri into the Union as a 
 slave State, forever prohibited slavery in 
 the territory nortn of 3(i deg. 39 miu. north 
 latitude, aroused the people of the i'rei^ 
 States upon the subject of slavery in thp 
 Territories, and made a decided change in 
 public opinion. But the decision of the 
 Supreme Court in the Dred Scolt case — 
 that those of the enslaved African race, 
 thougli free men, were not, nor could not 
 be, citizens of any State, in the sense in 
 which th:it word was used in the Consiitu- 
 tion, and could not be parties to suits in 
 any Federal court, not even to those in- 
 volving their rights, under the laws, to 
 freedom; that neither the enslaved African 
 race nor their descendants, whether free or 
 not, were included or intended to be in the 
 Declaration of Independence, and formed 
 no part of the people who framed and 
 adopted the Constitution — returned public 
 opinioiv in the free States to the point of 
 
 its departure from the opinion of our fathers. 
 
 The correctness of this decision, which 
 involved the right of slavery in the Ter- 
 ritories, as well as nesrro citizenship, was 
 the main issue in the Presidential election 
 of 18G0. 
 
 Against its correctness and justice, and 
 in favor of Congressional prohibiiion of 
 slavery in the Territories, was recorded a 
 majority of the popular vote, in all the free 
 States, of 293,767 in favor of Mr. Lincoln, 
 and the electoral vote of every one of them, 
 except four from New Jersey. From the 
 slave States there were recorded acrninst it, 
 and in favor of Mr. Lincoln, 2G,4oO. Mr. 
 Lincoln had 180 of the electoral vote, to 
 123 for all others. The result was held by 
 the slave States as destructive of their rights 
 in the Union, and especially endangering 
 their title to their slaves, notwithstanding 
 the fact that in both branches of Congress 
 they had a majority in their favor; that the 
 decisions of the Supreme Court were in 
 their interests, and that Mr. Lincoln, on 
 the popular vote, was 930,170 in the minor- 
 ity. With this apprehended danger as a 
 pretext, eleven of the States withdrew their 
 representatives from Congress, and, in hos- 
 tility to the Union, organized a gov- 
 ernment which they styled the Con- 
 federate States of America, in which 
 slavery was to be forever perpetuated. 
 Alexander H. Stephens, the Vice Presi- 
 dent of this rebel government, in his expo- 
 sition of its constitution, and constrasting 
 it with the Constitution of the United 
 States, declared that the prevailing ideas 
 entertained by Jefferson and most of the 
 leading statesmen at the time of the 
 formation of the old Constituiion, were 
 that the enslavement of the African was 
 in violation of the laws of nations; that it 
 was wrong in principle, sociably, morally, 
 and politically; that it was an evil they 
 knew not well how to deal with, but the 
 general opinion of the men of that day 
 was that somehow or other, in the order 
 of Providence, the insiitution would be 
 evanescent and pass away; tliat this idea, 
 though not incorporated in the Consiitu- 
 tion, was the i,>ravaUiug idea at the time; 
 that those ideas, however, were funda- 
 mentally wrong. They rested upon the 
 assumption of the equality of races. This 
 was an error. It was a sandy foundation, 
 and the idea cf a government built upon 
 it! When the storm came and the wind 
 blew, it fell. "But our new government," 
 he said, "is founded upon exactly the op- 
 posite idea. Its foundations are laid; its 
 cornerstone lests upon the great truth that 
 the negro is not equal to the white man; 
 that slavery, subordination to the superior 
 race, is his natural and normal conUition. 
 This, our new government, is the lirst in 
 the history of tiie world based upon this 
 great pliysicul, philosophical, and moral 
 truth." 
 
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^ _ 
 
 ^^ Upon tbe issues so clearly stated by Mr. 
 \d Stephens war was made Ujion the United 
 "v Stales, and for more tlian lour years the 
 ^ , lawful authority of the Union was resisted. 
 Everything was done that could bo done to 
 induce tlie States and the people in rebel- 
 lion to lay down their arms and return to 
 their allegiance. The Territories of Colo- 
 rado, Nevada, and Dakota, comprising 
 nearly all our remaining territory', were or- 
 ganized without any prohihilion of slavery. 
 President Lincoln in his inaugural address, 
 March 4, 18G1, denied tlie purpose or lawful 
 right of the Government to interfere with 
 slavery where it existed, and declared that 
 lie would enforce the provisions of the 
 Constitution for the surrender of fugitive 
 slaves ; that the Government would not 
 assail the South, and that they could have 
 no conflict without themselves being tlie 
 aggressors. And Congress resolved, by 
 an almost unanimous vote, on July 23, 
 1861, that the war was not waged on our 
 part in any spirit of oppression, or for the 
 purpose of overthrowing or interfering 
 with the rights or established institutions 
 of the Si;ates in rebellion, but to defend and 
 maintain the supremacy of the Constitu- 
 tion, and to preserve the Union with all 
 the dignity and equality of the several 
 States unimpaired, and that as so<m as 
 these objects were accomplished the war 
 ought to cease. But all these acts, declara- 
 tions, and resolutions had no etl\3ct upon 
 lliose in rebellion. They strengthened, 
 however, our hold upon the border slave- 
 holding States, and made many in the free 
 States, who seemed to hesitate active sup- 
 porters of the war measures of the Govern- 
 ment, and answered the arguments of 
 confederate agents to the crowned heads 
 of Europe for recognition, that we were 
 making war upon them with a view to their 
 subjugation and the destruction of their 
 individual rights. No nation ever before 
 BO literally obeyed the scriptural injunc- 
 tion, "that ye resist not evil, but whosoever 
 shall smite thee on the right cheek, turn to 
 him the other also." It was not until the 
 seceding States opened their guns upon 
 Fort Sumter that the majesty and manhood 
 of the nation was aroused to resistance — a 
 resistance the magnitude and grandeur of 
 which was only equaled by the good re- 
 Bulting from it to the human race. 
 
 The only legislation in 1861 affecting 
 slavery, after the war began, was to de- 
 clare the forfeiture of the master's claim to 
 his slave it he permitted him to be employed 
 in any military or naval service against the 
 Government. April 16, 1863, slavery was 
 abolished in the District of Columbia. July 
 13, 1863, Congress passed a law declaring, 
 among otlier things, that all the slaves of 
 those engaged in rebellion thereafter, or 
 were in any way giving aid and comfort 
 therein, coming within the lines of the army 
 and the control of the Government in the 
 
 manner therein described, should be deemed 
 captives of war and forevcu* free; and 
 authorizing the employment and enlistment 
 of negroes m the army of the United States, 
 ml authorizing the ['resident at any time 
 Ihereafier by jtroclamaion to extend 
 pardons and amnesty to persons who might 
 ha-T participated in the rebellion, with such 
 exceptions, at such limes, and on such con- 
 ditions as lie might deem expedient for the 
 public wellare. September 23, 1863, the 
 President issued hia preliminary ])roclama- 
 tion of emancip It ion, in which lie proclaimed 
 that on the 1st d;iy of January thereafter 
 all persons held as slaves within any State, 
 or part of a State, to be then designated, 
 the people whereof should then be in re- 
 bellion, should be then thenceforward and 
 forever iree; tliat the fact that any State, 
 or the people thereof, should on that day be 
 in good faith represented in Congress, 
 should, in the absence of strong corrotiora- 
 tiug testimony, be deemed conclusive evi- 
 dence that such State, and the people 
 thereof, were not then in rebellion against 
 the United States, January 1, 1863, Presi- 
 dent Lincoln issued the emancipation 
 proclamation as promised. The organi- 
 zation of negro troops was begun, and 
 carried on with great success. Dur- 
 ing tue war we had in the army over 
 300,000 of them, who, by their i^ravery and 
 good fighting, proved the wisdom of the 
 Government. They hurt the enemy by 
 leaving his plantations, as well as by the 
 deadly aim of tlieir muskets. April 24, 
 1863, Mr. Htanton, Secretaiy of War, pub- 
 lished to the country what the United 
 States held to be the laws of war between 
 them and a belligerent, which admitted of 
 slavery, which was that if any person held 
 in bondage by that belligerent was cap- 
 tured, or came as a fugitive under tho pro- 
 tection of the military forces of the United 
 States, he was immediately entitled t j his 
 freedom, and that a person so made free by 
 the law of war was under the shield of the 
 law of nations, and the former owner or 
 State could have by the law of post liminy 
 no belligerent lien or claim of service. 
 December 8, 1863, President Lincoln is- 
 sued a proclamation to the States and peo- 
 ple in rebellion, extending amnesty and 
 pardon to all, except certain classes therein 
 specified, who would take an oath to sup- 
 port the Constitution and Union and the 
 acts of Congress and the proclamations of 
 the President relating to slaves during the 
 rebellion, so long and so far as not repealed, 
 modified, or made void by the Supreme 
 Court, and promising the guarantee of the 
 United States to any republican govern- 
 ment in 110 wii^e contravening said oath 
 that one-tenth or more of the voters therein 
 mentioned as qualified to vote might es- 
 tablish. This was with the view of form 
 ing a nucleus around which the loyal pco 
 pie could gather for protection. Teiiues. 
 
see organized under tbis proclamation, and 
 abolished slavery. Arkansas and Louisi- 
 ana commenced but did not complete their 
 organization to the satisfaction of the Gov- 
 ernment. 
 
 On the 18th day of July, 18C4, President 
 Liu coin gave no' ice to the people in rebel- 
 lion that any proposition embracing the 
 restoration of peace, the integrity of the 
 ■whole Uuion, and the abandonment of 
 slavery, and coming by and with an au- 
 thority that could control the armies then 
 at war against the United States, would be 
 received and considered by the Executive 
 of the Government of the United States, 
 and would he met by liberal terms on sub- 
 stantial collateral points. The ^30uth still 
 persisted in the maintenance of the rebel 
 government, and the perpetuation of 
 slavery. Sherman bad not yet taken At- 
 lanta, nor made his famous march to the 
 sea. Early had not yet been defeated by 
 Sheridan, nor the Shenandoah Valley so 
 stripped of supplies that, in the words of 
 Gram's order, "Crows flying over it 
 would, for the season, have to carry their 
 rations." Thomas had not broken to 
 pieces Hood's army; nor had Grant de- 
 stroyed and captured the army of Lee. 
 Enough hundreds of thousands of men had 
 not yet fallen victims to the fury of the re- 
 bellion, or been sacrificed upon the altar of 
 freedom. The rebel government still 
 maintained its pover and authority, and 
 sent forth its edicts of war, bitter war, from 
 the gates of Kichmond. It still persisted 
 not only in not giving freedom to the 
 slaves, hut in not recognizing them as 
 prisoners of war, when captured in our 
 service, in our uniform, and under our flag. 
 It coQtiuued in its ranks tens of thousand 
 of orisouers who had been captured and 
 paroled by us, without giving the equiva- 
 lents required by the cartel agreed upon 
 for the exchange of prisoners. To redress 
 this gross injustice and violation of the 
 laws of war, ad exchanges were suspended, 
 and continued suspended until the cry of 
 our prisoners, '' We starve, we starve," 
 cime to us from Belle Isle, Andersonville, 
 and Salisbury. February 3, 186.">, found 
 Sherman moving from Savanuah north- 
 ward through the Carolinas ; the forts at 
 the entrance of Mobile and Fort Fisher, 
 commanding the entrance to Wilmington, 
 in our possession ; and troops moving irom 
 Thomas' army, both east ami souih, by 
 rail and river, to complete the capture of 
 these important cities. The iragments of 
 Hoi>d's army moving to joiu the force 
 uudtr Hardee, that had fled from Savan- 
 nah to iuterpose between Sherman and 
 Kichmoud ; and rebel commissioners, 
 iiea-ded by their Vice-President, Alex. H. 
 Stephen^, in conference with President 
 Linculu and Mr. Seward, Secretary of 
 Slate, in Hampton Euads, on the subject 
 yf peace. Mr. Lincoln still insisted upon 
 
 the integrity of the whole Union, and the 
 abandonment of slavery, and promised 
 great liberality upon all collateral issues. 
 But the representatives of the rebellion de- 
 clined to accede to these terms. In March 
 the rebel Congress authorized the enlist- 
 ment of negro slaves in the Confederate 
 service as soldiers. This was the first in- 
 road of the rebel government upon the 
 ideas on which it was founded. It was a 
 concession that there was enough of the 
 man left in the slave for a soldier, and en- 
 titled liim to be treated, when captured, as 
 a prisoner of war. It went far, too, to- 
 ward removing the prejudice against him. 
 
 The war for the perpetuation of slavery, 
 however, continued — the earth's thirst was 
 still slaked by freemen's blood until the 
 glittering bayonets of Grant's army flashed 
 the sunlight in the face of Lee's, as they 
 interposed between him and all hope of 
 escape at Appamattox Court-House, and 
 Johnston surrendered to Sherman, and 
 Dick Taylor and Kirby Smith to General 
 Canliy, and all the conditions of the laws 
 of Congress and of war, as announced by 
 the Government, entitling the slave to free- 
 dom, were complied with, and the great 
 emancipation proclamation of President 
 Lincoln obtained throughout the land. 
 The rock upon which the confederate gov- 
 ernment was founded w^as calcined, and 
 the base fabric it supported sunk from the 
 sight of men. 
 
 The South was one vast camp of paroled 
 prisoners, and the four millions of slaves 
 constituted as many millions of their free 
 population, and the military authority of 
 ths United States alone afl'orded it protec- 
 tion. If the African or enslaved race had 
 no Moses to lead them from the land of 
 bondage, through the Red sea of deliver- 
 ance, they had masters whose hearts were 
 hardened by the Almighty, through the 
 agency of tne Liberty party, to inaugurate 
 a civil war that made the very land in which 
 they dwelt a sea of blood, which, when it 
 arose sulliciently high to slacken their 
 bonds so that they slipped from their limbs, 
 Liberty's God bade the earth drink up, and 
 lett them free. 
 
 The restoration of the States that had 
 been in rebellion to their proper relations 
 with the Government required the actioc 
 of both the President and Congress. Presi- 
 dt-nt Johnson, who had succeeded to the 
 Presidency upon the death of the lamented 
 and immortal Lincoln, entered at once 
 upon this important duty, and, had the 
 Southern Stales filled their offices with 
 men of the most approved loyalty among 
 them, recognized not only the settlement 
 of the question of secession, but also the 
 settlement of the citizenship of the emanci- 
 pated race among them, and their right to 
 the benefit of all ihe laws for the protection 
 of life, liberty, and property equally with 
 white inea, and extended to such as could 
 
read or write or paid a certain amount of 
 taxes the right of suffrage, as sugirested to 
 them l)y the President, and chosen repre- 
 sentatives to CoDgresswhose loyalty during 
 the war was above question, with what 
 they did do in the ratification of the consli- 
 tutional amendment abolisliing slavery 
 and the repudiation of the rebel debt, it 
 might have been concurred in by Congress 
 and approved by the people. IBut as they 
 did not do this, Congress through a joint 
 committee of fifteen, known as the Com- 
 mittee on Reconstruction, instituted an in- 
 quiry into the character of their laws and 
 governments, and their manner of admin- 
 .'stering justice, pending which their repre- 
 sentatives were refused admission into 
 Congress. At this time none of the prom- 
 inent citizens in these States, or officers of 
 the army and civil departments of the 
 Government, thought it practical to with- 
 draw the military force, for both whites 
 and blacks mutually required its protection, 
 and it was so reported ofiicially to the 
 Government. 
 
 On the 12th of January, 1866, official in- 
 formation from the South made it necessary, 
 to protect officers, soldiers, and others, who 
 had been connected with the army, and 
 persons charged with offences done against 
 the rebel lorces during the rebellion, and 
 the occupants and custodians of aban- 
 doned lands and property, to issue an order 
 from the headquarters of the army direct- 
 ing, where it had not already been done, 
 orders to be issued by local commanders 
 prohibiting the prosecution of these classes 
 for acts done under proper orders, or against 
 the rebellion, in the State and municipal 
 courts, and also to protect colored persons 
 from prosecutions for offences for which 
 white persons were not punished in the 
 6ame manner and degree. 
 
 April 2 President Johnson issued his 
 proclamation declaring the end ("except 
 in Texas") of the insurrection which had 
 existed in the seceded Slates, and that it 
 was thenceforward to be so regarded. On 
 the 1st ot May, in an order relating to 
 military courts aud commissions in these 
 States, the President directed that there- 
 after whenever offences committed by civil- 
 ians were to be tried whei'e civil tribunals 
 were in existence which could try them 
 these cases were not authorized to be, and 
 would not be, brought before military 
 courts, but would be committed to the 
 proper civil authorities. The result of the 
 Congressional inquiry into the character 
 of the laws and governments of the se- 
 ceding Slates, aud the manner of admin- 
 istering justice there, was to satisfy Con- 
 gress that the governments in those States 
 were illegal or anti republican in form, and 
 that the emancipated race was not afforded 
 the equal protection of the laws with the 
 governing class; that many of the disabili- 
 ties that attached to them when slaves had 
 
 not been removed, and that in fact in soma 
 districts they had no protection at all, 
 owing to the prejudice of the gov- 
 erning class against them, and the ne- 
 glect of the civil authorities to arrest 
 and punish those who committed the 
 crime of murder or other offences against 
 them. Whereupon Congress, by virtue of 
 the constitutional obligation guaranteeing 
 to each State within the Union a republi- 
 can form of government, and the provision 
 that no person should l)e deprived of life, 
 liberty, or property without due process of 
 law, and i's duty to settle the questions 
 growing out of the war, passed the civil 
 rights bill, and proposed an amendment to 
 the Constitution known as "article four- 
 teen." And as the rights of States in this 
 Union to representation in Congress is 
 not greater than their right to republican 
 forms of government, and in fact depends 
 upon the existence of such forms of gov- 
 ernment. Congress determined to withhold 
 fronf the States lately in rebellion the en- 
 joyment of the right of representation until 
 they returned to their republican charac- 
 ter, or ratified the proposed amendment to 
 the Constitution, which, it was believed, 
 would in the end result in their return to 
 such character of government without 
 further action or interposition of the Gen- 
 eral Government. This amendment was 
 at once ratified by Tennessee, and her re- 
 presentatives, all of whom were loyal dur- 
 ing the war, were admitted to their seats 
 in Congress, and she has since extended 
 the elective franchise to her colored citi- 
 zens the same as her white ones. The civil 
 rights bill met with great opposition in the 
 South. The provision therein that citizens 
 of every race and color, without regard to 
 any previous condition, should have the 
 same right in every State and Territory in 
 the United States to the rights therein 
 enumerated, among which was the fuU 
 and equal benefit of all laws and proceed- 
 ings for the security of person and pro- 
 perty, as is enjoyed by white citizens, and 
 to be subject to like punishment with the 
 white man and none other, instead of se- 
 curing to colored persons the protection 
 intended, seemed to increase their 
 danger, in exciting and intensifying the 
 prejudice of certain classes against them, 
 and also against the ofiicers of the army 
 and of the Freedmen's Bureau, and those 
 who were Unionists during the war. They 
 were frequently murdered, and no attempts 
 were made to arrest their murderers, al- 
 though they remained quietly in the neigh- 
 borhood. This failure to enforce the laws 
 was sometimes from fe ir on the part of the 
 better class of the people that their own 
 lives and property would be endangered 
 thers'oy, but more frequently from indif- 
 ference on the subject. And when arrested 
 and tried, they were generally acquitted, 
 or the punishment inflicted was but trifling. 
 
6 
 
 To remedy this condition of things, an 
 Drder was issued from the headquarters of 
 tlie army, June Gih, 180G, directing the 
 military commanders there to arrest all 
 persons who had heen, or might thereafter 
 be, charged with the commission of crime, 
 when the civil authorities failed, neglected, 
 or were unable to arrest and bring ihem to 
 trial, and to hold them until a proper judi- 
 cial tribunal might be willing to try them. 
 August 20, 1866, President Johnson issued 
 his proclamation, in which, after repiiing 
 among other things that adequate provi- 
 sions had been made by military orders to 
 enforce the execution of the acts of Con- 
 gressj (o aid the civil authorities, and se- 
 cure obedience to the Constitution and 
 laws, if a resort to military force for such i 
 purpose should at any time become neces- j 
 sary, he declared the insurrection that had j 
 existed in Texas at an end, and was thence- j 
 forth to be so regarded as the other btates, | 
 and that peace, order, tranquihty, and 
 civil authority then existed throughout the 
 whole of the United States. 
 
 The Constitution provides that represen- 
 tation and direct taxes shall be apportioned 
 among the several States which may be in- 
 cluded within this Union according to their 
 respective numbers, which shall be deter- 
 mined by adding to the whole number of 
 free persons, including those bound to ser- 
 vice for a term of years, and excluding In- 
 dians not taxed, three-fifths of all other 
 persons. The "all other persons" were 
 slaves, and numbered, at the breaking out 
 of the war, nearly four miUions. They 
 were regarded in tbe mixed character of 
 person and property. Each one was 
 three-filths a person and five-fifths a chat- 
 tel. He was a peculiar kind of property, 
 and hard to hold, yet subject to taxation as 
 any other kind of property. He was there- 
 fore invested with three-fifths of the hu- 
 man character, which was represented in 
 the person of his owner. This enabled his 
 owner to securely hold and enjoy him iu 
 the full character of a chattel, two-fifths of 
 which was exempted from taxation. This 
 was a compromise between those in the 
 interests of slavery and those who desired 
 its extinction. The provision for the re- 
 turn of fugitives from service to their mas- 
 ters was incidental to this, and applied as 
 well to those bound to service for a term of 
 years. The result of the war was the free- 
 dom of all the slaves, who, with the free 
 persons of color, constituted more than 
 two- fifths of the inhabitants in the eleven 
 States in rebellion, and to render surplus- 
 age the words, '-three-fifths of all other 
 persons" in the Constitution, and settled 
 the question of their right to citizenship 
 adversely to the decision of the Supreme 
 Court, as well as the right of secession for- 
 ever. These were questions directly in- 
 volved in the contest. These were the 
 auxiliaries to slavery for which the seced- 
 
 ing States made war, and with it slavery 
 ended. 
 
 To hold otherwise, what would be its ef- 
 fect upon the States and citizens and their 
 rights expressly derived from the Constitu- 
 tion? We wculd have four millions of peo- 
 ple, each one a free agent to come when ho 
 pleases, and go when he pleases, at least in 
 the State where he resides, Iree to enter 
 into contracts with States and citizens, 
 cDntracts that may become subjects of liti- 
 gation. Yet he could not be made a party 
 to any suit in any court provided for by 
 the Constitution, nor could any suit in a 
 State court in which is brought in question 
 tlie validity of any statute of the United 
 States be carried to any of these courts. 
 He is not a citizen of any foreign Power. 
 JSTo citizen or State can enforce any rights 
 they may have against him in any of these 
 courts, no matter wliat the magnitude of 
 their interests. Tbis perhaps was a small 
 matter when there was only a few thousands 
 of these people, but when you increase 
 them to millions it becomes a grave and 
 serious one to the States and white citizens, 
 but still more so to the colored race. 
 Should not as niauy rights be accorded to 
 liberty, under the Constitution, as were 
 accorded to slavery? When the slave 
 escaped into another State the master 
 could follow him into that State, no mat- 
 ter what its laws might be, and carry him 
 back to servitude. Ouglit not the freeman 
 now, that was the slave then, to have the 
 right of a citizen of the United States to 
 go to any State, and remain there, no mat- 
 er what its laws? 
 
 The next question following that of citi- 
 zenship is, have the se.;eding States any 
 equitable constitutional right to represent- 
 ation for the persons made free by the war, 
 without granting to them the right of suf- 
 frage ? Had slavery been abolished by an 
 amendment of the Constitution while their 
 relations with the Government were un- 
 disturbed — or had they themselves peace- 
 ably, and in obedience to the laws and 
 Constitution, abolished it, and made proper- 
 provision for the protection of the emanci- 
 pated, and their rights of life, liberty, and 
 p.ropert>' — their equitable constitutional 
 right to this representation would not-have 
 been questioned. The greatest considera- 
 tion the pari_i to that compromise in the 
 Const ilutiou that desired the extinction of 
 slavery had, after the securing of the Union, 
 was tne hope that the increased representa- 
 tion it would give would induce tne States 
 to emancipate their slaves. Bui the eman- 
 cipation contemplated was peaceable, r»nd 
 in accordance with law, and not the re- 
 sult of violence and wrong. It may be 
 said that these States have ratified the con- 
 stitutional amendment abolishing slavery 
 peaceably and in conformity to law. To 
 this we answer their ratification of the 
 amendment was after their slaves had beeu 
 
freed. It was only a confirmation of that 
 freedom which they were powerless to pre- 
 vent, and advanced them one step nearer 
 the restoration of their proper relations 
 ■with the Government; and this advanced 
 f-tep in that direction is the only con- 
 fcidcration they are entitled to for their 
 ratification of it. The consideration to 
 the Government was that it put the 
 adoption of the amendment beyond all 
 possible question; but aa the destruction of 
 this compromise, in the freedom of the 
 slaves, was the result of their own wrong, 
 they not only can have no equitable claim 
 under the Constitution to any benefits 
 flowing from it, however great they may 
 be, but should forfeit to the persons of these 
 freedmen the right to the three-fifths rep- 
 resentation they had for them when they 
 were slaves; and while they withhold from 
 them the right of suffrage they not only are 
 not entitled to representation for them, but 
 they render questionable their republican 
 lorm of government. These persons are 
 no longer subjects to be bought and sold; 
 their owners no longer pay the taxes as- 
 sessed upon three fifths of their value to the 
 General Government, which entitled them 
 to represent their three-fifihs human char- 
 acter. But they are now free, and pay 
 taxes for themselves — all the taxes that are 
 assessed, too, upon the full value of their 
 property. And above and beyond all this, 
 they furnished two hundred thousand sol- 
 diers, who freely shed their blood side by 
 side with the two million heroes of our own 
 race in the maintenance of the Union and 
 the Constitution. If ever it could have 
 been plausibly argued that they were not of 
 the people who framed the Government, 
 it can never be said that they were not of 
 those who saved it. In view of these facts, 
 and the further fact that the representation 
 the States had for them was used as a means 
 to secure and perpetuate their enslavement, 
 ignorance, and degradation, now that they 
 are free, in the name of justice and all that 
 is honorable among men, are they not en- 
 titled to representation to preserve that 
 freedom and to subordinate the soil they 
 cultivated in slavery and ignorance to taxa- 
 tion for the culture and enlightenment of 
 their children and the elevation of their 
 race ? If their ancestors had been freed in 
 the war for independence, and fought side 
 by side with our revolutionary sires in de- 
 nial of the right of taxation without repre- 
 sentation, what would our fathers have 
 done ? Why, sirs, tbey never would have 
 questioned their right to representation, 
 fchall we, their sons, then, after having 
 fought the great battle in support of the 
 idea of man's equality, upon which our 
 Government is founded, which they fought, 
 over again, refuse to avail ourselves of the 
 opportunity we now have to invest the de- 
 scendants of the enslaved race so far as is 
 within our power with all the rights they 
 
 would have had if their ancestors had all 
 been free at the formation of the Constitu- 
 tion? When the compromise of human 
 rights made by our fathers to secure the 
 Union has been swept away by the 
 very party in whose interest it was made, 
 in its mad attempt to destroy the Union, 
 will we any longer withhold from 
 those whose iiherties and human character 
 were involved in that compromise the in- 
 alienable rights of man? No; we will re- 
 store to them these rights, as our fathers 
 would were they living. James Madison, 
 one of the authors of the Constitution and 
 its ablest expounder, in discussing the sub- 
 ject of representation said : "It is only un- 
 der the pretext that the laws have trans- 
 formed the negroes into subjects of property 
 that a place is disputed them in the compu- 
 tation of numbers, and it is admitted if the 
 laws were to restore the rights which have 
 been taken away the negroes could no 
 longer be refused an equal share of repre- 
 sentation with other inhabitants." Their 
 right to representation when free was un- 
 questioned. It was admitted by all the 
 leading statesmen of that day. It was a 
 right to be enjoyed by themselves, and not 
 by the other inhabitants for them, and at 
 the time of the adoption of the Constitution 
 in at least five of the States they were en- 
 titled to and did enjoy the right of suffrage, 
 and were represented in the convention 
 that framed tliat instrument in the persons 
 of every delegate from the States of New 
 Hampshire, Massachusetts, New York, 
 New Jersey, and North Carolina, and were 
 of the people who, for themselves and their 
 posterity, ordained it to be the Constitu- 
 tion of the United States of America. By 
 the first section of the constitutional amend- 
 ment now pending, citizenship of the United 
 States and of the States is clearly defined, 
 and not left to the discretion of the several 
 States, or decisions of courts. It provides 
 that all persons born or naturalized in the 
 United States, and subject to the jurisdiction 
 thereof, are citizens of the United Slates and 
 of the State wherein they reside, and that no 
 State shall make or enforce any laws which 
 shall abridge the privileges or immunities of 
 citizens of the United States, nor deprive any 
 person of life or property without due pro- 
 cess of law, nor deny to any person within 
 its jurisdiction the equal protectio.u of the 
 laws. The second section, intended as a 
 settlement of the question of representa- 
 tion, apportions representation among the 
 several States according to their respective 
 numbers, counting the whole number of 
 persons in each State, and excluding 
 Indians not taxed, but when the right to 
 vote is denied to any ot the male inhabi- 
 tants, citizens of the United States, and over 
 twenty-one years of age, except for crime, 
 the basis of representation shall be reduced 
 in the proportion which the number of such 
 male citizens shall bear to the whole num- 
 
ber of male citizens, twenty oae years of 
 age, iu tlie State. This secures the equal 
 political power of voters iu the Govern- 
 ment. In deference of the acknowledged 
 right of the State to regulate the question, 
 suffrage was not expressly conferred upon 
 the emancipated race, but, constituting so 
 large a body of the people of many of the 
 States, and affecting to such an extent as 
 they do the representation, there was but 
 little doubt that the States would extend to 
 them that right. The Constitution defines 
 treason against the United States to consist 
 only in levying war against them, or in 
 adhering to their enemies, or giving them 
 aid and comfort, and empowers Congress 
 to declare the punishment of treason, but 
 provides that no attainder of treason shall 
 work corruption of blood or forfeiture, ex 
 cept during the life of the person so at- 
 tamted. Congress declared the punishment 
 of treason to be death or imprisonment for 
 not less than five years, and by a tine of not 
 less than ten thousand dollars, the freedom 
 of slaves and inability to hold office under 
 the United States. Under the Constitu- 
 tion any one charged with treasjn has a 
 right to a speedy and publiff trial by 
 animpartial jury of the State and district 
 wherein the crime may have been commit- 
 ted, which district shall have been pre- 
 viously ascertained and fixed by law, and 
 to be informed of the nature and cause of 
 the accusation by presentment or indict- 
 ment of a grand jury. They cannot be 
 tried in any other place or manner. The 
 war embracing as it did the great mass of 
 the people in the States and districts where 
 it was mostly carried on, and the preva- 
 lence of the belief of the people there in 
 the lawful right of secession, together with 
 the conspicuousness of the principal lead- 
 ers, and the notoriousness of their partici- 
 pation in it, in effect put a bar to all punish- 
 ment for the crime of treason, under the 
 Constitution. All the provisions of the 
 Constitution for its punishment were ren- 
 dered inoperative, as it were, there was 
 no such thing as jurors, such as the Con- 
 stitution contemplates, in these States and 
 districts, to sit in cases of treason. All had 
 made up their minds on the question of 
 treason and secession, and those believing 
 in the right of secession would not, of 
 course, fiud one guilty of treason w io had 
 only attempted secession; and the notori- 
 ousness of the participation of the princi- 
 pal leaders, the ones that ought to be pun- 
 ished, was such that few, if any, of those 
 who believed levying war against their 
 Government was treason, when examined 
 as jurors could siy they had not made up 
 their minds as to the guilt or inuocence of 
 the accused. Besides the great majority of 
 ihcm were themselves guilty, and one 
 would scarcely expect them to render ver- 
 dicts of guilty that m'ght he pointed to as 
 precedents against their own lives, liberty, 
 property, and eligibility to ollice. 
 
 The result of the war upon the Constitu- 
 tion, then, in so far as it relates to treason 
 and its mode of punishment, was to render 
 the infliction of punishment so uncertain 
 as to destroy its usefulness as a preventive 
 of treason almost entirely, as well as to 
 render the Government in a measure pow- 
 erless to inflict any of the pains and penal- 
 ties prescribed for it upon the leaders of the 
 rebellion; for unless conviction for the 
 offence could be had no punishment what- 
 ever could be imposed. No one could be 
 put to death for treason, no matter how 
 much the safety of society demanded it; no 
 one could be imprisoned or fioed for it; no 
 confiscations of property or forfeitures of 
 real estate lor the lifetime of the person 
 convicted, the constitutional limitation to 
 such forfeitures, could be hid, nor could 
 any one guilty of treason be held in- 
 capable to hold office under the United 
 States. These convictions could only be 
 asked for from the communities most 
 deeply stained with treason, and their re- 
 fusal was almost certain. 
 
 THE CONSTITUTIONAL AilENDMENT. 
 
 Thus, at the end of the most gigantic 
 civil war that ever attempted the destruc- 
 tion of a nation, the Government found 
 itself powerless to punish those who in- 
 augurated and directed it iu its fell pur- 
 pose. The third section of the consiitu- 
 tioual amendment, now pending, in a 
 measure gets over the obstacles the rebellion 
 has placed in the way of punishing treason, 
 and makes its punishment certain to the 
 extent it goes. It provides that no person 
 shall be a Senator or Representative in 
 Congress, or elector of President and Vice 
 President, or hold any office, civil or mili- 
 tary, under the United States, or any State, 
 who, having previously taken an oath as a 
 member of Congress, or as an officer 
 of the United States, or as a member 
 of any State Legislature, or as an ex- 
 ecutive or judicial oflEicer of any State, 
 to support the Constitution of the United 
 States, shall have engaged in insurrection 
 or rebellion against the same, or given aid 
 or comfort to the enemies thereof; but Con- 
 gress may, by a vote of two-thirds of each 
 House, remove such disability. This is not 
 only magnanimous to the people in rebel- 
 lion, but it is a wise precaution against trea- 
 son ; it renders none ineligible to office except 
 those who had, previous to their rebellion, 
 held office under the United States or 
 States, and taken the oath to support the 
 Constitution of the United States, which, 
 by the Constitution, they were expressly 
 required to take. To this exception, it 
 seems to me, no reasonable objection can 
 be had. To those included iu it was once 
 intrusted the power of the Governuieut, and 
 had they been true to their offices and tiieir 
 oaths, there could have been no rebellion; 
 aod had it been attempted, the Govern- 
 
y 
 
 ment could have given that protection to 
 the people in the rebellious States they 
 were entitled to; but the unfaithfulness of 
 these officers rendered the Governmtnt 
 powerless to prevent the rebellion, or to 
 protect those of its people who would have 
 been loyal could they have had protection. 
 Those rendered ineligible to hold office are 
 not disfranchised, but all the rights apper- 
 taining to citizens are theirs to enjoy, save 
 that of holding office. Every other citizen 
 of the United Stales who has the requisite 
 qualifications, no matter how conspicuous 
 he was in the rebellion, no matter how hard 
 he fought against the Government, is eli- 
 gible to any office, civil or military, State 
 or Federal, even to the Presidency. If 
 this is not magnanimity, what is ? 
 
 This amendment empowers Congress, by 
 a two-thirds vote, at any time to remove 
 the disability it imposes. Let the persons 
 to whom the disability attaches pursue a 
 wise course in support of the Government, 
 and they may look forward to a time, and 
 that, too, at no distant day, when their dis- 
 ability will be removed, and all the rights 
 of citizens restored to them. 
 
 THE PUBLIC DEBT. 
 
 Another result of the rebellion upon the 
 people of the United States was the entail- 
 ing upon them of a public debt of two 
 thousand five hundred millions of dollars, 
 and obligating the payment of large sums, 
 for pensions and bounties, for services in 
 suppressing it. The rebel government and 
 States, in aid of the rebf^llion, hatl an out- 
 standing indebtedness of about two thou- 
 sand millions of dollars, and obfigations 
 for pensions, too, in aid of it, and the claim 
 of payment for emancipated slaves was un- 
 settled. 
 
 Who could say that there might not be 
 danger at some time of the repudiation of 
 our public debt and of our obligations for 
 pensions and bounties, or assumption of 
 the rebel debt and its obligations, and pay- 
 ments be made for emancipated slaves? It 
 is hard to tell what a people who had lost 
 so much by the war as those of the rebel 
 lion lost might not be stimulated to do to 
 avoid the payment of a debt and obliga- 
 tions directly incurred in producing that 
 loss, or what two thousand millions of 
 money, aided by the millions claimed for 
 emancipated slaves, might not effect in the 
 Legislatures of the secedsng States, or even 
 in the Congress of the United States. 
 
 THE REBEL DEBT AND PAYMENT FOli EMAN- 
 CIPATED SLAVES. 
 
 The purposes of the fourt'h section of the 
 constitutional amendment is the settlement 
 of these questions. It provides that the 
 validi'y of the public debt of the United 
 States authorieed by law, including debts 
 incurred for the payment of pensions and 
 bounties for services rendered in sup- 
 
 pressing insurrection or rebellion, shall 
 never be questioned; but neither the United 
 States nor any State shall assume or pay 
 any debt or obligation incurred in aid of 
 insurrection or rebellion against the United 
 States, or any claim for the loss or emanci- 
 pation of any s'ave, but all such debts, ob- 
 ligations, and claims shall be held illegal 
 and void. 
 
 It may be said that this amendment is 
 unnecessary, that no one would think of 
 repudiating our national debt, or our obli- 
 gations for pensions and bounties; that if 
 they did, the amendment would be no pre- 
 ventive; they would only have to elect a 
 Congress that would refuse the necessary 
 appropriations to meet them; and that it 
 was idle to think of either the United States 
 or any of the States assumiug the rebel 
 obligations or the payment of claims for 
 emancipated slaves. To this it may be 
 replied that it will be difficult to find any 
 one to go before the people and advocate 
 the repudiation of an obligation expressly 
 declared in the Constitution, when, hut for 
 its being so declared, they might be found. 
 And as to the rebel obligations and the 
 payment for emancipated slaves, it not 
 only settles them forever, but will make 
 men cautious about giving credit to such 
 rebellions in future. 
 
 Of the necessity of these amendments to 
 settle the questions that had been involved 
 in the war and resulting from it there can 
 be no doubt, yet all the seceding States, 
 excepting Tennessee, rejected them as 
 an infringement upon their constitutional 
 rights, 
 
 REPUBLICAN STATE GOA^EBNMENTS IN THE 
 SOUTH. 
 
 Was Congress correct in its decision that 
 the States lately in rebelMon have illegal or 
 anti republican forms of government ? Of 
 the want of protection of the persons and 
 property of freedman there is no question. 
 James Madison, in discussing the con- 
 formity of our Constitution to republican 
 principles, in answer to the question, 
 "What, then, are the distinctive characters 
 of the republican form?" which he put, 
 said : "If we resort for a criterion to the 
 different principles upon which different 
 forms of government are established, we 
 may define a republic to be, or at least may 
 bestow that name on, a government which 
 derives all its powers directly or indirectly 
 from the people, and is administered by 
 persona holding their offices during plea- 
 sure, for a limited period, or during good 
 behavior. It is essential to such a govern- 
 ment that it be derived from the great body 
 of the society, not from an inconsiderable 
 portion, or a favored class of it; otherwise 
 a handful of tyrannical nobles, exercising 
 their oppressions, by a delegation of their 
 powers, might aspire to the rank of repub- 
 licans, and claim for their government the 
 
10 
 
 honorable title of republic." This we hold 
 to be the true definition of a republican 
 form of government in the sense in which 
 that term is used in the Constitution. Do 
 the forms of government in these States 
 come up to this definition ? It may be 
 replied that these States had republican 
 forms of government under tbe Constitu- 
 tion and Uaion before tbe rebellion, or the 
 willidrawal of their representation from 
 Congress, and that their rights under the 
 Constitution and Union were not affected 
 by these acts; tliat they are still in the 
 "Union, and never were out. To the propo- 
 sition that they are still in the Union and 
 never Avere out we subscribe, and shall 
 continue to subscribe, while we remember 
 the dead heroes whose eyes, before they 
 were glazed in death, mirrored all the stars 
 upon our flag, and who in their hearts be- 
 lieved, iiefore they had ceased to beat, that 
 they represented freedom. Union, and the 
 indestructibility of States. 
 
 But tbe republican character of their 
 State govtrnmeuts was affected by these 
 acts in so far as they resulted in admitting 
 a class of freemen into, and constituting 
 them a part of, the society or people of 
 these States, so long as the right to partici- 
 pate in the affairs of State is withheld 
 from them. It is only to States in the 
 Uuioa that the Constitution guarantees 
 "republican forms of government. In 
 discussing this provision of the Constitu- 
 tion, James Madison, in answer to the 
 questions that it was not needed, and that 
 it might become a pretext for alterations in 
 State governments without the concurrence 
 of the Slates themselves, said : "If the in- 
 terposition of the General Government is 
 not needed, the provision for such an event 
 will be a harmless superfluity in the Con- 
 stitution; but who knows what experiments 
 may be produced by the caprice of par- 
 ticular Slates, by the ambition of enter- 
 prising leaders, or by the intrigues and 
 influence of foreign Powers. To the sec- 
 ond question it may be answered that if 
 the General Government should interpose 
 by virtue of this constitutional authority, 
 it will be of course bound to pursue the 
 authority. But the authority extends no 
 further than to a guarantee of a repubhcan 
 form of government, which supposes a 
 preexisting government in the form which 
 is to be guaranteed. As long, therefore, as 
 the existing forms are continued I)y the 
 States they are guaranteed hy the Federal 
 Constitution. VVheuever the Slates may 
 choose to substitute other repubhcan forms, 
 they have a right to do so, and to claim the 
 Federal guarantee for the latter ; the only 
 restriction imposed on them is that they 
 shall not exchange republican for anti-re- 
 publican coustitui ions, a restriction which 
 it is presumed will hardly be considered as 
 a grievance." 
 
 Before these States attempted secession, 
 
 and while their relations with the Govern- 
 ment were undisturbed, there were about 
 one hundred thousand free persons who, 
 on account of their race and danger to 
 slavery, were denied any voice in their 
 government. And there were of the same 
 race over three and one-half millions who 
 were, in the language of James Madison, 
 "by the compromising expedient of the 
 Constitution, regarded as inhabitants, but 
 debased by servitude below the equal level 
 of free inhabitants, which regarded the 
 slave as divested of two-fifths of the man." 
 Under the Constitution they were not re- 
 garded as a part of the society of these 
 States entitled to a voice in the Govern- 
 ment ; and while this compromise con- 
 tinued, denial of it to them did not atfect 
 their republican forms. But these States, 
 in their own caprice and the ambition of 
 enterprising leaders, relying, too, upon the 
 aid of foreign powers, withdrew their rep- 
 resentation from Congress, organized a 
 government of their own, declared hy them- 
 selves to be in direct opposition to the ideas 
 upon which ours was founded, and, by the 
 most bloody war that ever deluged a land 
 with blood, maintained it for more than 
 four years, forcing us, in order to overthrow 
 it and save tbe Union, for whi^h the com- 
 promise of the slaves' manhood was made, 
 to free the slaves, and restore to them their 
 manhood. At the close of this bloody 
 struggle, instead of one hundred thousand 
 free persons to whom is denied a voice in 
 their Government, we find nearly four 
 millions. 
 
 WHEN" SOUTHERN STATE GOVERNMENTS 
 CEASED TO BE REPUBLICAN. 
 
 The compromise of the Constitution that 
 saved to these States republican forms of 
 government, and exempted them from the 
 Madisouian definition of one, was swept 
 away in their mad attempt at secession. And 
 their governments, derived as they are iu 
 some of them Irom a minority of the people, 
 an inconsiderable portion of the society, 
 instead of from the great body of it, from 
 which it is essential to the republican char- 
 acter they should be derived, and in all the 
 others from a favored class of society which 
 is destructive of the republican character, 
 and who do not aff'ord to the other class the 
 proper protection of persons and property, 
 guaranteed to them by the Constitution; 
 when that class, too, from whom they are 
 not derived, was the only one iu many of 
 them who fought to maintain the Union 
 and the rights of States unimpaired, fall 
 far below the Madisouian defiuition of a 
 republican form of government in the sense 
 of that term as used in the Constitution. 
 In view of these facts, to hold otherwise 
 would be not only degrading of the char- 
 acter of republics, and violative of the laws 
 of nations under whose shield persons 
 made free by war are, but an outrage made 
 
11 
 
 upon the rights of those who helped to 
 fight for the Union and the rights of the 
 States under it; and we "would deserve 
 and receive the universal rebuke and repro- 
 bation of mankind." 
 
 OBLIGATION OF THE GENEHAt, GOVERN- 
 MENT TO GUARANTEE REPUBLICAN 
 STATE GOVERNMENTS. 
 
 The Constitution guarantees to each 
 S'ate in this Union a republican form of 
 government, and also provides that no per- 
 son within this Union shall be deprived of 
 life, liberty, and property without due pro- 
 cess of law. That is to say, if any State 
 in this Union, in its own wrong, ceases to 
 be republican in form, the Government 
 will restore it to a republican form; or if a 
 State fails or refuses to protect persons 
 within its jurisdiction in their lives and 
 property, the Government will give lliat 
 protection. The manner in which, and 
 tbe means to be used in executing these 
 constitutional obligations are for the Presi- 
 dent and Congress to decide, and if they 
 deem it necessary they may make use of 
 tbe army. In fact, ever since those States 
 withdrew their representation from Con- 
 gress, and organized a government in hos- 
 tility to tbe republican idea upon which 
 the Union was founded, it has been deemed 
 necessary by the President and Congress 
 to use the army — first, to break down and 
 destroy their governments in hostility to 
 the Union, and secondly, to enable them 
 to revive and put in motion the State gov- 
 ernments they had when they attempted 
 secession, and adapt them to the new con 
 dition of society. But as they, in their 
 adaptation of these governments to the 
 new state of society, failed to come up to 
 the requirements of the republican form, 
 and refused their assent to the amend- 
 ments of the Constitution where its provis- 
 ions had been affected or impaired by tlie 
 war, and failed to properly enforce the 
 civil rights bill for the protection of life 
 and property, it was continued there. 
 
 THE MILITARY RECONSTRUCTION BILLS. 
 
 The manner and means decided to be ne- 
 cessary for the execution of these constitu- 
 tional obligations, and the restoration of 
 these States to their proper relations with 
 the Government, are set out in what is 
 known as the military reconstruction bills. 
 They are divided into five military districts, 
 subjected to the military auihority as pre- 
 scribed in the bills, and each district is com- 
 manded by an oflicer of the army, whose 
 duty is to protect all persons in their rights 
 of persons and property, to pr^^serve order, 
 and cause criminals and disturbers of the 
 peace to be punished; and to that end he is 
 authorized to allow the local civil tribunals 
 to try otfonders, or when in his judgment it 
 is necessary he may organize military com- 
 missions to try them, but no sentence of 
 
 death can be carried into effect without the 
 approval of the President. 
 
 To enable tlie people of each of these 
 States to form a constitution in conformity 
 with the Constitution of the United States 
 in all respects, and extending the elective 
 franchise to their male citizens twenty -one 
 years old and upward, of whatever race, 
 color, or condition, who have been one 
 year resident of the State previous to any 
 election— except such as may have been 
 disfranchised for participation in the rebel- 
 lion or for felony at common law — and to 
 enable them to participate in the present 
 governments in those States until the new 
 constitutions shall go into effect, the right 
 of suffrage is extended to all male citizens, 
 irrespective of color or previous condition, 
 who can take an oath that they have been, 
 for one year previous to the election or 
 registration, residents of the State, and 
 tw-enty-one years old, and have not been dis- 
 franchised for participation in any rebellion 
 or civil war against the United States, and 
 have never been members of any State 
 Legislature nor held any executive or judi- 
 ci il office in any State and afferward en- 
 gaged in insurrection or rebellion against 
 the United States, or given aid and com- 
 fort to the enemies thereof, and have never 
 taken an oath as member of Congress or 
 officer of the United Slates, or as member 
 of any State Legislature, or executive or 
 judicial office of any State to support tha 
 Constitution ot the United States, and 
 afterward engaged in insurrection and re- 
 bellion against the United States, or given 
 aid and comfort to the enemies thereof; 
 and to all who cannot take this oath the 
 exercise of the elective franchise is denied, 
 but the moment the new constitutions go 
 into effect the denial of its exercise* 
 ceases. Because of their exercise of thft 
 offices they once held against the Govern- 
 ment and their unfaithfulness to their oathir 
 to support the Constitution, the right tc 
 exercise the elective franchise and to hole 
 office is withheld from them until the wit 
 of the people of the States shall be madi , 
 known through their constitutions respec- 
 tively. When these States respectively 
 shall have adopted their new constitutions 
 and organized their governments under 
 them, and the Legislatures of their new 
 governments shall have ratified the consti- 
 tutional amendment now pending, if Con- 
 gress approves of their new government as 
 republican in form, their representatives 
 will be admitted to their seats in Congress. 
 These acts and the disabilities they im- 
 pose are temporary, and are to end upon 
 the accomplishment of their purpose, 
 namely, the restoration to these States of 
 republican forms of government, secure 
 the protection of life and property, and 
 settle the questions of the war affecting the 
 Constitution and people of the United 
 Stales. 
 
12 
 
 THE ELECTIVE FRANCHISE 
 
 IS the on jy pure protection to person and 
 prol)ert3^ It gives one a voice in govern- 
 ment, secures to liim respect, and insures 
 liim tlie equal benefit of tlie laws. And 
 when these acts have accomplished their 
 purpose, there will be no male citizen in all 
 these States, of the age of twenty one years 
 or upwards, except such as are disfran- 
 chised tor rebellion, or felony at common 
 law, who is not entitled to this right of 
 suflrage, to this voice in their government. 
 The only disability attaching to any such 
 citizens will be that imposed by the third 
 section of the constitutional amendment. 
 
 THE RECONSTRUCTION ACTS CONSTITU- 
 TIONAL. 
 
 That the objects and purposes of the acts 
 are constitutional, there can be no reason- 
 able question, nor do I think the manner 
 and means adopted by the Government to 
 secure these objects unconstitutional. They 
 are in the nature of a writ or execution is- 
 sued by a court upon a judgment or decree 
 that it has arrived at after a full hearing of 
 the facts and examination of the law in the 
 case, in the hands of a sheriff to execute. 
 If it is for the possession of houses and 
 lands, he goes to the occupant, and if he 
 gives up the possession to the person en- 
 titled to it peaceably and in obedience to 
 the writ, that is the end of it; but if he re- 
 fuses to give up the possession, in virtue of 
 the authority of his writ of execution, he 
 calls in the posse comitatus, or power of his 
 county, and puts him out by force, and re- 
 stores the possession to the rightful person, 
 and that is the end of the writ and the au- 
 thority of the officer under it. 
 
 So the Government having, with a full 
 knowledge of the facts, and their constitu- 
 tional obligations, determined the neces- 
 sity of restoring to these States republican 
 forms of government, and of securing to 
 all the people thereof protection in their 
 persons and property, and of settling the 
 questions affecting the Constitution and 
 people resulting from the war, issued its 
 order, the purpose of which is fully set out 
 therein, and placed it in the hands of officers 
 of the army of the rank therein named, with 
 authority to exercise such military power 
 as was necessary to the execution of the 
 purpose of their order, and the moment 
 this purpose is executed their authority 
 ceases. That the use of the military au- 
 thority contained in these laws was neces- 
 sary to enable the Government to perform 
 its constitutional obligations, there is no 
 doubt. In all its efforts through the civil 
 authorities it had, we might say, wholly 
 tailed. And under the provision of the 
 Constitution authorizing Congress to make 
 all laws necessary and proper for carrying 
 out the powers vested by the Constitution 
 in the Government, the President and Con- 
 gress are the judges of the necessity, and 
 
 having determined it, the validity of their 
 acts, being purely political, cannot be ques- 
 tioned. The decision of the Supreme Court 
 n a case involving the constitutionality of 
 ihe charter of the United States Bank is ap- 
 tlicable to this. In that case the charter 
 p as sustained on the ground that the bank 
 I was a necessary fiscal agent of the Govern- 
 , ment, the court holding unanimously that, 
 { "If the end be legitimate, and witliiu the 
 ! scope of tihe Constitution, all the means 
 I which are appropriate, which are plainly 
 i adapted to that end, and which are not 
 I prohibited, may constitutionally lie em- 
 ployed to carry it into effect; that if a cer- 
 I tain means to carry into effect any of the 
 I powers especially given by the Constitution 
 1 to the Government of the Union be an ap- 
 propriate measure, not prohibited by the 
 Constitution, the degree of its necessity is 
 a question not of judicial cognizance." 
 
 THE EMANCIPATION AMENDMENT. 
 
 It may be asked what becomes of the 
 constitutional amendment abolishing sla- 
 very which the Southern States have ratified, 
 if they have illegal or anti-republican forms 
 of government. The answer is they are 
 governments de facto, nevertheless, and 
 acts of theirs, especially those directly tend- 
 I ing to the settlement of the questions in- 
 i volved in the war, or to render unques- 
 tionable the acts of the Government neces- 
 I sitated by the war, if accepted and ratified 
 by the Government, as their action in this 
 I case has been, are binding and valid to all 
 I intents and purposes. Besides, it is not 
 I admitted that the amendment was not valid 
 I without their concurrence. To hold that 
 I it was not would be to admit a weakness in 
 I our Constitution inconsistent with the na- 
 tional life it is intended to perpetuate. 
 
 WERE THE SECEDED STATES NECESSARY TO 
 ITS RATIFICATION? 
 
 At the time of the attempted secession 
 of the Southern States there were in this 
 Union thirty-four States, twenty-three of 
 which constituted the required two-thirds 
 to apply for a convention to propose amend- 
 ments to the Constitution. Had the eleven 
 who withdrew from Congress and made 
 war upon the Government succeeded in 
 getting one more to do so, which they 
 came near doing, one of the modes pro- 
 vided for the amendment of the Constitu- 
 tion would have been gone to us if we 
 held to the construction that those do who 
 insist that an amendment to the Constitu- 
 tion to be valid must be ratified by three- 
 fourths of all the States, no matter what 
 their relations or attitude to the Govern- 
 ment may be. And that is not all ; it would 
 render questionable the consti.tutiouality of 
 an amendment proposed by two-ihirds of a 
 Congress in which less than two-thirds of 
 the States were represented, and might 
 I even make questionable the validity of an 
 
13 
 
 amendment proposed by two thirds of a 
 Congress iu which only two- more than 
 two-thirds of the States were represented. 
 By this rule of construction, had one 
 more of the States gone into rebellion and 
 no new ones been admitted, the result of 
 the election for President and Vice Presi- 
 dent in 18G4 might have been such as to 
 have ended the Government under the 
 Constitution altogether. Had General Fre- 
 mont continued in the canvass and divided 
 the electoral vote between the three candi- 
 dates for President and Vice President, re- 
 spectively, so that no one had the required 
 majority to an election, as was the case in 
 1834, there would not have been a quorum 
 of two- thirds of all the States in the House 
 of Representatives, or of two-thirds of the 
 whole number of Senators in the Senate, 
 for the election of either President or Vice 
 President, as provided for in such cases. 
 And as Congress is only empowered to 
 provide by law for the case of removal, 
 death, resignation, A* inability, both of the 
 President and Vice President, and not for 
 the case of a failure to elect a President or 
 Vice President, on the 4th day of March, 
 186.J, the office of President and Vice Presi- 
 dent of the United States would have ex- 
 pired, with no authority in the Constitution 
 for tlaeir revival, and our Government 
 under the Constitution would have been at 
 an end. Even with the States that were 
 represented, had the election resulted as 
 supposed, by this rule of construction the 
 eleven States at war ar^ainst the Govern- 
 ment and their Senatorswould have counted 
 against the candidate having the highest 
 number in either House, getting a majority 
 of all the States, or of the whole number 
 of Senators. The Constitution should never 
 be construed so as to defeat itself, or the 
 rights of the people and States under it. 
 
 UKIVERSAL SUFFRAGE. 
 
 It is to be hoped that all the States that 
 have not conferred the right of suffrage on 
 the emancipated race may deem it the part 
 of wisdom, as well as justice, to do so at 
 the earliest practical period, and not by 
 delay in doing so compel an amend- 
 ment of the Constitution for that purpose — 
 an amendment which, with the aid of the 
 eleven Southern States, in which it is ex- 
 tended to them, would be sure to be 
 adopted. It may be thought by some that 
 these States could not be relied on for such 
 aid, because of the hope that may exist 
 among their white citizens of securing at 
 some time the disfranchisement of the col- 
 ored citizens, as was once done in North 
 Carolina and Tennessee ; but if there is 
 any such hope it will be forever dissipated 
 by a clause that I have no doubt will be 
 inserted in all of their constitutions, pro- 
 viding tbat no amendment to them shall 
 ever be made abridging the elective fran- 
 chise as therein declared. 
 
 NO DANGER PROJI EXTENSTON OF THE 
 ELECTIVE FllAKCIIISE. 
 
 There need be no apprehension of dan- 
 ger to our institutions from the extens-ion 
 of the elective franchise to the African 
 race on account of their great number and 
 ignorance. The love of liberty and of the 
 forms of free government are too n)uc,h a 
 part of the American character ever t) be 
 affected in any such way. The men of the 
 South who made the determiued und des- 
 perate fight for the enslavement of the 
 African because of his value as property, 
 nevertheless love and appreciate liberty 
 for themselves. And the African, ele- 
 vated from the degradation of slavery, 
 rendered respectable by his voice in gov- 
 ernment, admitteil to all sources of intelli- 
 gence, inspired by the same love of free- 
 dom, speaking the same language and 
 worshipping the same God, will rise 
 rapidly in the scale of knowledge and the 
 cloud of ignorance that envelopes him will 
 as rapidly pass away, and he will not fail 
 "to help to keep the jewel of liberty in the 
 family of freedom." And that peace so 
 long desired, but which can ucvtir be had 
 in a government like ours while a political 
 right accorded to one is denied to another, 
 will prevail through all the land. 
 
 NO DANGER FROM THE ARMY. 
 
 Nor need fears be entertained of danger 
 to the people' 8 liberties from the army. The 
 army is of the people, and has ever been 
 with the Government, and no one has been, 
 or ever will be, mad enough in their pur- 
 pose to destroy the liberties of the country 
 to rely upon its assistance. On the con- 
 trary, the first thing they would do would 
 be to get rid of it. What did the leaders 
 in the rebellion just closed do ? With the 
 Secretary of War, (Floyd,) the adjutant 
 general of the army, (Cooper,) the quar- 
 termaster general of the army, (Joe John- 
 ston,) and the chief of staff to the lieutenant 
 general commanding the army, (Lee) — allia 
 their interest, did they concentrate the army 
 in the neighborhood of Piichmond or Har- 
 per's Ferry, that they might at the oppor- 
 tune moment seize the capital and Govern- 
 ment of the United States? Far from it. 
 They placed it beyond the people's reach, 
 virtually abolished it, and sent our ships of 
 war into the furthest seas. They knew too 
 well, when the hour of trial came, on which 
 side the army and navy would be Ibnnd ; 
 that "Yankee Doodle," and not "Dixie," 
 would be the tune they would march and 
 fight to. 
 
 At the close of the retellion among no 
 part of the people of the country was there 
 a greater desire to be found than in the 
 army for the immediate restoration of the 
 people in the rebellious States to their rights 
 of civil government, and the withdrawal, 
 at the earliest practicable moment, of mili- 
 tary authority from among them. And to- 
 
14 
 
 day, -whatever may be said to the contrary, 
 there are no meu in all the United States 
 more anxious to have the people of the 
 Soutli comply with the requirements of the 
 Government, that they may be relieved of 
 the exercise of the authority that has bepn 
 imposed upon them, than are the five mili- 
 tary commanders there. And whatever 
 they may do, you may rest assured, is in- 
 tended by them to facilitate the complete 
 restoration of civil authority, and to end 
 their military power. 
 
 NO DANGEK FROM THE SUPREME COURT. 
 
 K'or need the people have fears of danger 
 to their liberties from the Supreme Court 
 of the United States. Its recent decisions 
 on the military commission and test-oath 
 cases, that seemed to create such uneasy 
 apprehensions in the public mind, were in 
 the interest of individual lil)erty and the 
 vindication of men's rights under the Con- 
 stitution, and not the imposing of disabili- 
 ties on them. They do not seek to deny 
 the validity of military tribunals in States 
 and districts where all civil tribunals were 
 suspended or destroyed by actual war, or 
 where, resultant from that war, the civil tri- 
 bunals had ceased to protect s^ociety by the 
 punishment of offenders against it. They 
 are far different from the decision in the 
 Dred Scott case, which, after denying a 
 man's right to a hearing in court on the 
 question of his freedom and remanding 
 him to bondage, sought to doom the very 
 earth to constitutional slavery. 
 
 Government, in the exercise of its war 
 powders, may find it necessary sometimes 
 lo dciil arbiirarily with individual rights, 
 or in the tread of mighty armies they may 
 be iranii)led under loot, but they arc never 
 lost sight of by an independent and honest 
 judiciary. Much has been said of the power 
 of one of the judges of the Supreme Court, 
 in cases where the court is equally divided, 
 to declare unconstitutional and void a 
 statute or act of the United Stites which 
 has miit the approval of both the other de- 
 pariujents of the Goveruuent, or been 
 passed by the requisite majority in both 
 houses 01 Congress, who, equally with the 
 Supceme Court, are judges of tiic consiitu- 
 tionalify of iheir own acts. By the Con 
 stituiiou the people vested the cstablish- 
 menl of the Supreme Court in Congress, 
 and extended its jurisdiction to all cases in 
 law and equity arising under the Constitu- 
 tion, the Liws of the United States, and 
 treaties made, or which might be made, 
 under the authority of the Uuitjd States. 
 
 Suits are usually brought to obtain deci- 
 sions, and the simjiler and less dillicult the 
 mode of arriving at them is the better it is 
 lor the suitors. And Congress and the 
 President in its establishment, perhaps, 
 had more in view the iutcreslvS of suitors 
 than deereabing iho chauces of their own 
 acts being declared huU and void by re- 
 
 quiring the concurrence of a greater num- 
 ber of the judges in any opinion having 
 that effect. Otherwise they would have 
 gone to the Constitution and ascertained 
 what rule the people, whose agents they 
 were, adopted relative to the other depart- 
 ments of Government, or affecting the 
 Constitution, and applied the rule they 
 there found to all decisions of the court in- 
 validating any law or act of the United 
 States. 
 
 If the executive department of Govern- 
 ment disapproves of any law or resolution 
 of Congress requiring its approval, two- 
 thirds of both houses are required to con- 
 cur in its passage or adoption. To convict 
 the President in case of impeachment, two- 
 thirds of all the Senators present must con- 
 cur. To expel a member from either 
 branch of Congress, two-thirds of the 
 branch to which he belongs must concur. 
 When the choice of President and Vice 
 President devolves upon Congress, it re- 
 quires a quorum of two-thirds of the sev- 
 eral States to be represented in the House 
 of Representatives to enable them to choose 
 the President, and a quorum of two-thirds 
 of the whole number of Senators to enable 
 the Senate to choose the Vice President. 
 To propose amendments to the Constitu- 
 tion, two-thirds of both branches of Con- 
 gress must concur, or the Legislatures, or 
 conventions of twothirds of all the States 
 must join in proposing them. To enter 
 into any treaty with loreign uai inns, re- 
 quires the concurrence with the Presitient 
 of two thirds of the Senate. To require 
 the concurrence of all the judges would 
 enable any one of them to prevent any de- 
 cisions, and destrcj' the greatest constitu- 
 tional purpose of the court altogether. 
 
 FREEDOM OF SPEECH, 
 
 At the commencement of the rebellion, 
 in fifteen States of this Union, except in 
 one or two places, that provision of the 
 Constitution that Congress shall never 
 make any law abridging freedom of speech 
 or of the press was, when they related to 
 the subject of slaver}^ entiri-ly nubitied. 
 No one could speak or print anything 
 against the impolicy or evil of it, or in favor 
 O! its abolition, and in the other Stales and 
 Territories it was seriously impaired by 
 the same subject— the only one that ever 
 did seriously affect it. How that it is gone, 
 and the people whose rights it involved are 
 having those rights restored to them, may 
 we not reasonably hope that freedum of 
 speech aad of the jiress may obtain to their 
 pristine vigor iu all the United States of 
 America, never again to be impaired. 
 When the measures of the Government for 
 the restoration of the seceding States to 
 their proper relations in the Union are con- 
 summated, the supremacy of the Constitu- 
 tion will be maintained, and the Union 
 preserved with all the dignity, equality, 
 and rights of the several States unimpaired. 
 
15 
 
 There will be representatives in Congress 
 from every cue, and the State governments 
 of each will alone afford protection to per- 
 sons and property, and regulate in their 
 own way their domestic affairs. 
 
 "manhood suffrage" elsewhere. 
 
 And in our example "of a government of 
 the people and by the people" will be 
 echoed back to Ireland through the ex- 
 tension of the elective franchise to all 
 classes ot Englishmen, rich and poor alike; 
 her shout of "manhood suffrage" in her 
 recent but vain attempt to throw off the 
 yoke of the oppressor, and the land of 
 Burke, who fought in America for that 
 high boon to all, through it will be free. 
 
 The right of searching merchant ships 
 and vessels of neutrals in time of war, in 
 denial of which we made the war of 1813, 
 which ended in peace without its settle- 
 ment, has been settled in the ons just 
 closed, by Great Britain's t iking substan- 
 tially the same ground that we then held, 
 and still hold, in her denial of it in the 
 Trent case. The reason for this change 
 of ground was her impatience to see perish 
 from the earth the only Government whose 
 example, if a success, endangered the titles 
 of English peers and princes to their right 
 to govern, without its having been, in each 
 individual case, confirmed by the people 
 through the ballot-box. 
 
 THE MONROE DOCTRINE. 
 
 The practicability and effectiveness too of 
 the Monroe doctrine, which was regarded 
 by foreign powers as American electioneer- 
 ing buncombe, has been firmly established 
 by the result of the war, in Louis Napo- 
 leon's withdrawal, at our behests, of his 
 troops, and abandonment of his idea of em- 
 pire on this continent, although it left the 
 one on whose brow his hand had placed 
 an Imperial crown to be captured, and not- 
 withstanding our intercession, shot by the 
 people whose rights he had usurped. 
 
 OUR EUROPEAN NEIGHBORS. 
 
 Russia, in a spirit, of amity, has relin- 
 quished to us all her va;t possessions in 
 America, and England is quiutly preparing 
 for separation from the Canadas. Separa- 
 tion is what their Confederation means. 
 England, too, manifests a disposition to 
 settle the claims for damages done our 
 merchantmen by privateers fitted out in 
 her ports in aid of the rebellion; but should 
 she fail in properly adjusting them, it may 
 become the duty of the people's represen- 
 tatives to issue Iheii" writ in the form of a 
 declaration of war for the seizure of her 
 possessions in AmericJi in satisfaction of 
 these claims, an^ tbereby facilitate the de- 
 parture of the last foreign ppwer from this 
 continent. 
 
 WHITHER WE ARE TENDING. 
 
 "We are coming into the realization, of a 
 republican government, the grandeur and 
 
 glory of which was in the contemplative 
 minds of Jefferson and Madison, and had 
 the same state of society existed at the end 
 of their rebellion as existed at the end of 
 ours, the inheiitance of it and its blessings 
 from them would have been all that re- 
 mained to us to do. But as it unfortu- 
 nately was not the same, it has cost us 
 more than half a million of lives of the 
 flower of youth, intelligence, and energetic 
 manhood, and a national debt and obliga- 
 tions of nearly three thousand millions of 
 dollars. To meet the accruing interest on 
 this indebtedness, and the payment of pen- 
 sions, and bounties, and the current ex- 
 penses of the Government, whicb are large, 
 requires millions of revenue, which is de- 
 rived through taxes and tariffs. In view of 
 these facts, is it not the part of wisdom and 
 sound policy to aid in the settlement of the 
 questions now in process of settlement, 
 rather than put obstacles in the way? 
 When this is done the military force in tho 
 South can be with^lrawu, and employed in 
 the protection of the great routes across 
 the continent, and the settlement of our 
 Indian troubles, and exploration of our yet 
 unexplored mining regions, if their ser- 
 vices should be required there, and if not, 
 the army could be reduced to the standard 
 necessary to these purposes. The Freed- 
 mcn's Bureau would no Imuger be a drain 
 U()on the national treasury; the civil rights 
 bill would enforce itself. And Congress 
 could give its uudivided attention to our 
 financial policy, national economy, and 
 development of our resources. 
 
 Political economy would then become 
 the study of our representatives to the pro- 
 per discrimination of the articles to bo 
 taxed, or on which duties are to be im- 
 posed, tbat their burdens and benefits may 
 be extended equally to all sections of the 
 country, as well as to the best mode of 
 their reduction. 
 
 With a wise and economical administra- 
 tion of public affiirs, and all the energies 
 of this mighty people directed to the de- 
 velopmeot, and making available of our 
 unsurpassed mineral ami agricultural 
 wealtb, may we not c^nfi leutly hope tho 
 financial future of quv ccmntry will equal 
 the desires of its most ardent friends ? 
 
 OUR INFLUENCE UPON OTHER NATIONS. 
 
 Our geograpbical position, the develop- 
 ment ot our great military cdaracter and 
 resources, and our leniency totue subdued, 
 gipe us a power and ialliience among the 
 nations none other ever hud. And, if we 
 ure but true to the priuciples of our Christi- 
 anity and republican goyernmen' — making 
 honesty and virtue uucessiry p.iisports to 
 private and public fetation, we may hope to 
 see the "standard of our liepubiic sill high 
 advanced, "and thea?gls ofourp!)vver spread 
 over this contiiient protecting our sister re- 
 publics— grown strong in virtueaud self-reli- 
 
LIBRftRY OF CONGRESS 
 
 16 
 
 anco. ill our example — from the influence 
 and dangers of monarcbism. 
 
 And if our experiment of manhood suf- 
 frage to al), -witbout distinction of race, 
 proves the success we believe it will, we 
 
 013 785 658 fl 
 
 may hope to see 
 engrafted upon : 
 of the world, and the inalienable n.u^liTs de- 
 clared by our fathers, in Iheir Declaration 
 of Independence, enjoyed by all mankind 
 
 Chronicle Print, "Washington, D.O 
 
013 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 013 785 658 A 
 
 pennulfP^*