IlIBRARY OF CONGRESS. I 
 
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 1 UNITED STATES UF AMERICA. | 
 
RECONSTRUCTION AND NEGRO SUFFRAGE. 
 
 SPEECH 
 
 OF 
 
 GOYERNOR 0. P. liORT 
 
 AT RICHMOND, INDIANA, 
 
 ON THURSDAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER 29th, 1SC5. 
 
 • At a meeting of tile citizens of Wavne connty, Indiana, at 
 Riclimond, on Thursday evening last, to receive a flag presented 
 to tliem in belialf of th6 State, for liaving made the largest con- 
 tributions of money and supplies to the Indiana Sanitary Com- 
 mission, Governor Morton spoke as follows : 
 
 Mr. President and Ladies and Gentlemen — Some six months 
 ago this banner, which it is proposed to present to you, should 
 have been given to the citizens of Wayne county, and especially 
 to the citizens of Wayne township, as a testimonial of great es- 
 teem for the contributions they have made in behalf of the soldiers. 
 The distinguished honor has fallen on Wayne count}^ of having 
 contributed more for the relief of the sick and wounded soldiers, 
 in the field, to the Indiana State Sanitary Commission, than any 
 other county in the State, and it was promised a long time ao-o, 
 that to the county contributing the most, a banner should be pre- 
 sented as a testimonial of regard from the soldiers and the Sanitary 
 Commission for such liberal contributions. As I have something, 
 however, to say in regard -to the general politics and condition of 
 the country, I have been advised, upon consultation with my 
 friends, to speak first of these subjects, and, at the conclusion of 
 what I shaU have to say, the presentation will take place. 
 
 FAVORABLE CONDITION OF THE COUNTKr. 
 
 ^ I desire, in the first place, to remark that to me the general con- 
 dition of the countiy is most promising and favorable. I know 
 there are those who take gloomy views of what is called the work 
 of reconstruction, but to me the prospect seems highly encour- 
 
2. SPEECH OF GOVERNOR MORTON. • '\ B'9 
 
 aging- The war terminated suddenly, and tlie submission on fhe 
 part of the people of the Southern States has been more complete, 
 and sudden, than I had expected. From all I can learn, I believe 
 that all ideas of secession and fm-ther resistance to the Govern- 
 ment of the United States, or the continuance or re-establisment 
 of the institution of slavery, are efiectually and forever banished 
 from the minds of tlio great majority of the Southern people. 
 There is much cxaspenition of feeling down there, and there will 
 be for months to come. There are many persons who take narrow 
 views of this war, who, ^^marting under the humiliation of defeat, 
 arc deeply exasperated, :;nd are uttering dL-^loyal speeches, and 
 making threats for the fut;ire ; but for the gi-eat body of the South- 
 ern people, and especially that class of men who control Southern 
 pontics, I believe all further ideas of secession, or the establishment 
 of the Southern Confederacy, are efiectually banished, and that 
 there is now no more danger of secession in South Carolina or 
 Georgia, than there is in the State of Indiana. 
 
 We cannot expect that the people of the rebel States have come 
 to love us, or that they will come to love us in a few years. We 
 cannot expect that a people who have been so completely subju- 
 gated, that have so nearly lost everything they had, should come • 
 to love us, and live in harmony with us, in the length of time that 
 lias elapsed since the close of the war. But the great point nov.^ 
 to be considered is the question whether there is any longer in the 
 Southern States an intention to secede from the Union and resist 
 the authority of the Government of the United States, or to estab- 
 lish a Southern Confederacy. I say I believe that that idea has 
 been extinguished forever. Things have changed very much in 
 the South from what they were before the war, and if there are 
 those in the North who expect that parties will resimie their old 
 relations — that one of the parties of the North can ever sustain 
 again to the South the relation which it sustained before the war 
 began — if such expectations are cherished, they had better be ban- 
 ished at once and forever. Slavery, the tie that bound that party 
 together, North and South, has gone, never to be restored, and in- 
 stead of being but one party in the South, substantially as we had 
 before the war, we shall hereafter have di\dded parties in the 
 South, as hitherto we have had in the North, and I should not be 
 surprised myself, if, in the course of a few years, the Southern 
 States, such as South CaroUna, Georgia, Alabama, and other States 
 I might mention, should become the most radical States in the 
 Union; and I should not be at all surprised if even the State of 
 South Cai'olina should grant the right of sufi"rage to her colored 
 population before Indiana does to hers. 
 
 PRESIDENT JOHNSON. 
 
 Mr. JohnBon was elected by the Union party of this nation, 
 
SPEECH OP GOVERNOR MORTON. 3 
 
 and is entitled to have that party support his Administration, un- 
 less he shall commit some important error, or shall depart, in some 
 important and vital particular, from the principles upon which he 
 was elected. An impression has gotten abroad in the IlTorth that 
 Mr. Johnson has devised some new policy by which improper 
 facilities are granted for the restoration of the rebel States, and 
 that he is presenting imj^roperly and unnecessarily hurrying for- 
 ward the work of reconstruction, and that he is ofl'cring improper 
 facilities for restoring those who have been engaged in the rebel- 
 lion to the possession of their civil and political rights. It is one 
 of my purposes here this evening to show that so far as his pohcy 
 of amnesty and reconstruction is concerned, he has absolutely pre- 
 sented nothing new, but that he has simply presented, and is 
 simply continuing the policy which Mr. Lincoln presented to the 
 nation on the 8th of December, 1863. Mr. Johnson's Amnesty 
 Proclamation ditiers from Mr. Lincoln's in some restrictions it 
 contains, which ^Ir. Lincoln's did not contain. His plan of re- 
 construction is absolutely and simply that of Mr. Lincoln, nothing 
 more or less, with one difference only, that Mr. Lincoln required 
 that one-tenth of the people of the disloyal States should be willing 
 to embrace his plan of reconstruction, whereas Mr. J ohnson say's 
 nothing about the number, but, so far as it has been acted upon 
 yet, it has been done by a number much greater than one-tenth. 
 
 I believe the one thing that has contributed more to cast suspi- 
 cion upon Mr. Johnson's plan than anything else, is the fact that 
 it has been, to a great extent, iudrosed by the Democratic party. 
 That may be regarded by very many as a suspicious circumstance, 
 but I am sure Mr. Johnson is not responsible for it. The Demo- 
 cratic party could not live another year upon the policy on which 
 they have been acting — the policy of opposition to the war, and 
 against the suppression of an insurrection aimed at the life of the 
 Government. ]^ow that the cause of.»the Union has triumphed, 
 the Democratic party finds that it can no longer stand upon its old 
 ground; and hence in !N^ew York, in the recent Democratic con- 
 vention, they not onl}' adopted a Union platform, but with one 
 single exception they nominated Repubhcans for the offices, and 
 that exception was John Van Buren, who had been everything by 
 turns and nothing in particular. 
 
 JOHNSON AND LINCOLN COMPARED. 
 
 I propose for a few moments to contrast the plan of reconstruc- 
 tion adopted by Mr. Johnson ■s%uth that proposed by Mr. Lincoln 
 in 1863, and we vshall find several very important consequences, 
 at least so far as the public mind in concerned, to flow from this 
 comparison. Mr. Lincoln, in his policy of reconstruction pre- 
 sented to Congress in his message of December 8, 1863, prescribed 
 an oath of allegiance to be taken liy those who were entitled to 
 take it under the proclamation. I propose to read that oath, and 
 
4 SPEECH OF GOVERNOR MORTON. 
 
 coutrast it with the one which Mr. Johnson's proclamation re- 
 quires. It is in the following language: 
 
 " I do .solemnly swear, in the presence of Ahnighty God, that I 
 will henceforth faithfully support, protect and defend the Consti- 
 tution of the United States, and the Union of the States there- 
 under, and that I will in like manner abide by and faithfully support 
 all acts of Congress passed during the existing rebellion, with 
 reference to slaves, so long and so far as not repealed, modified or 
 held void by Congress, or by decision of the Supreme Court, and 
 that I will in like manner abide by and faithfully support all pro- 
 clamations of the President made during the existing rebellion, so 
 long and so far as not modified or declared void by the decision 
 of the Supreme Court, so help me God." 
 
 That is Mr. Lincoln's oath, as prescribed in his proclamation. 
 I will now read Mr. Johnson's oath, and you will find it is more 
 stringent than Mr. Lincoln's, inasmuch as he leaves out this clause: 
 "So longandso faras notmodifiedor declared void by thedecision 
 of the Supreme Court." Mr. Lincoln's oath was objected to be- 
 cause it was said it might perhaps leave room for mental reserva- 
 tions referring to the action of Congress and the Supreme Court. 
 Mr. Johnson's oath says : 
 
 " I do solemnly swear or afiirm, in the presence of Almighty 
 God, that I will henceforth faithfully defend the Constitution of 
 the United States and the Union of the States thereunder, and that 
 I will in like manner abide by, and faitlifully support, aU the laws 
 and proclamations which have been made cluriug the existing re- 
 bellion with reference to the emancipation of slaves — so help me 
 God." 
 
 Mr. Johnson required that oath to be taken, leaving out the pro- 
 vision Mr. Lincoln made, whieh was said by many to weaken it. 
 Mr. Lincoln excluded certain classes of persons from the benefit 
 of his amnesty. I shall read in your hearing the classes of per- 
 sons whom Mr. Lincoln would not permit to take the oath, nor 
 have the benefit of amnesty, except as they might first receive spe- 
 cial pardon from him. They were : 
 
 "1. All who are, or shall have been, pretended civil or diplo- 
 matic ofiicers or otherwise, or domestic or foreign agents of the 
 pretended Confederate government. 
 
 " 2. All who left judicial stations under the United States to aid 
 the rebellion. 
 
 " 3. All who shall liave been military or naval officers of said 
 pretended Confederate government, above the rank of Colonel in 
 the army or Lieutenant in the navy. 
 
 '•' 4. All who left seats in the Congress of the United States to 
 aid the rebellion. 
 
 " 5. All who resigned or tendered resignations of their commis- 
 
SPEECH OF GO^^;RNOR MORTON. 5 
 
 sions in the army and navy of the United States, to evade their 
 duty in resisting the rebellion. 
 
 " 6. All who have engaged in any way in treating otherwise than 
 lawfully as prisoners of war, persons found hi the United States 
 service, as officers, soldiers, seamen, or in any other capacity." 
 
 Mr. Johnson, in his Amnesty Proclamation, first makes the same 
 exceptions that Mr. Lincoln does, and in the same language, and 
 he afterwards goes on to specify eight other classes whom he ex- 
 cludes from the benefit of the Amnesty, which I \\Hill now read. 
 I will commence in JSIr. Johnson's Proclamation where he leaves 
 ofi" quoting from ]Mr. Lincoln's : 
 
 " 7. All persons who have been or are absentees from the United 
 States for the purpose of aiding the rebellion. 
 
 " 8. All military or naval officers in the rebel service who were 
 educated l)y tlie Government in the military academy at West 
 Point, or at the L^^nited States Naval Academy. 
 
 "9. All persons who held the pretended offices of Governors of 
 States in insurrection against the United States. 
 
 "10. All persons who left their homes within the jurisdicrtion 
 and protection of the United States, and passed beyond the Fed- 
 eral military lines into the so-called Confederate States, for the 
 purpose of aiding the rebellion. 
 
 "11. All persons who have engaged m the destruction of the 
 commerce of the United States upon the high seas, and all persons 
 who have made raids into the United States from Canada, or been 
 engaged in destroying the commerce of the United States upon 
 the lakes and rivers that separate the British Provinces from the 
 United States. 
 
 "12. All persons who, at the time when they seek to obtain the 
 benefit thereof, by taking the oath herein prescribed, are in mih- 
 tar}^ or civil confinement or custody, or under bond of the military 
 or naval authorities or agents of the United States, as prisoners 
 of war, or persons detained for offienses of any kind, either before 
 or after their conviction. 
 
 " 13. All persons who have voluntarily participated in said rebel- 
 lion, and the estimate value of whose taxable property is over 
 twenty thousand dollars. 
 
 " 14. All persons who have taken the oath of amnesty as pre- 
 scribed in the President's proclamation of December 28, or the 
 oath of allegiance to the Government of the United States since 
 the date of said proclamation, and who have not thenceforward 
 kept and maintained the same inviolate ; provided, that special ap- 
 plication may be made to the President for pardon by any person 
 belonging to the excepted classes, and such leniency will be liber- 
 ally extended as may be consistent with the facts and the peace 
 and dignity of the United States. 
 
 " The Secreta,ry of State will estabhsh rules and regulations for 
 
6 SPEECH OF GOVEBNOR MORTON. 
 
 administering and recording said amnesty oath, so as to insure its 
 benefit to the people, and to guard against fraud. 
 
 " In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused 
 the seal of the United States to be affixed. " 
 
 MR. LmCOLN's PLAN. 
 
 So that Mr. Johnson has restricted from taking the oath eight 
 classes permitted by Mr. Lincoln, and so far his plan is more strin- 
 gent than Mr. Lincoln's was. Mr. Lincoln, in his plan of recon- 
 struction, declared all persons should have the right to vote for 
 delegates to the conventions which might be called in the States to 
 form State constitutions, who had taken the oath prescribed by 
 him, and who were lawful voters according to the laws of the State 
 in which they resided before the passage of the ordinance of se- 
 cession. Mr. Johnson has made precisely the same condition. IVIr. 
 Lincoln provided for the appointment of Provisional Governors, 
 givmg to them the power of calling State conventions, with a view 
 of forming State constitutions, for the purpose of being received 
 back into full j)ractical relations with the GoYenmaeut. Mr. Lin- 
 coln did the same. Each requu*ed that the constitutions thus formed 
 should be republican in form. Mr. Lincoln put forth no require- 
 ment or condition that was not equally contained in ISIr. Johnson's 
 proclamation. Their plans of anmesty and reconstruction cannot 
 be distinguished from each other, except ui the particulars I have 
 already mentioned, that Mr. Johnson restricts certain pereons from 
 takmg the oath, unless they first have a special pardon from him, 
 whom Mr. Lincoln pemiitted to come forward and take the 
 oath without it ; and in the further difference before mentioned, 
 that Mr. Lincoln required one-tenth of the people of the State to 
 show a willingness to take the oath, while Mr. Johnson has said 
 nothing whatever about that. This was Mr. Lincoln's favorite 
 policy. It was presented by him to Congress, on the 8th of Jan- 
 uaiy, 1863, accompanied by a message. In the course of the 
 next year, 1864, on several occasions, Mr. Lincoln distinctly pre- 
 sented, again and again, this policy of amnesty and reconstruction, 
 to the people of the South. It was his settled and favorite 
 policy at the time he was nominated for re-election by the Union 
 Convention at Baltimore, last summer ; and in that convention 
 the party sustained him, and strongly indorsed his whole policy, 
 of which this was a prominent part. Mr. Lincoln was trium- 
 phantly and overwhehningly elected upon that policy and soon 
 after his election, in December, 1864, in his last annual message 
 to Congress, he again brings forward this same policy of his, and 
 presents it to the nation. And again, on the 12tli of April, only 
 two days before his death, he referred to and presented this 
 policy of amnesty and reconstruction. That speech may be 
 called his last speech, his dying words to this people, and I desire 
 to refer to it. You remember the occasion. It was after Illch- 
 
GOVERNOR Morton's speech. 7 
 
 mend had been evacuated. It was the day after they had re- 
 ceived the news of Lee's surrender. Washington Citj was 
 ilhirainated. A large crowd came in front of the Wliito House 
 and Mr. Lincohi spoke to them from one of the windows. He 
 referred to the organization of Louisiana under his plan of 
 amnesty and reconstruction, and, in speaking of it, he gave the 
 history of his pohcy. He said: 
 
 " In my annual message of December, 1863, and accompanying 
 the proclamation, I presented a plan of reconstruction, as the 
 phrase goes, which I promised, if adopted by any State, would be 
 acceptable, and sustained by the Executive Government of the 
 nation. I distinctly stated that this was a plan w^hich might 
 possibly be acceptable, and also distinctly protested that the 
 Executive claimed no right to say when or whether members 
 should be admitted to seats in Congress from such States. 
 
 REBELS CAN NOT HOLD OFFICE. 
 
 I want to make one remark right here. It is said, that under 
 INIr. Johnson's pohcy of reconstruction, the men who originated 
 and carried on the rebellion can be returned to seats in Congress 
 as Senators and Representatives. The gentlemen who talk that 
 way forget that on the 2d of July, 1862, Congress passed an act, 
 which has never been repealed, and is now in full force and eiFect, 
 prohibiting any person from holding any Federal office, high or 
 low, great or small, who has directly or indirectly been concerned 
 in this rebelhon, and there is no danger of the rebel leaders going 
 into Congress, unless the members of that body shall prove re- 
 creant to their trust and fail to enforce a law now unrepealed 
 upon the statute books. Mr. Lincoln referred to the act of Con- 
 gress, and said distinctly, that he claimed no power to influence 
 the admission of members of Congress, and no power to bring 
 forward a man and put him in office who had been disfranchised 
 and rendered ineligil)le by an act of Congress. Mr. Johnson 
 has never for a moment claimed that he could do such a thing. 
 The act of Congress was binding upon Mr. Lincoln, and it is no 
 less binding upon Mr. Johnson, and it has not been proposed by 
 the plan of either to interfere with the operation of a statute, oi 
 bring any man into Congress or into the possession of any Fede- 
 ral office wdio has been made ineligible by law. 
 
 MR. LINCOLN- AGAIN. 
 
 " This plan," says Mr. Lincoln, speaking of his plan of reco!i- 
 st ruction — 
 
 " The plan was, in advance, submitted to the Cabinet, v.ml 
 approved by every member of it. One of them suggested that T 
 should then apply the Ejnancipation Proclamation thereto, ex- 
 
8 GOVERNOR Morton's speech. 
 
 cept in parts of Virginia and Louisiana, and that I should drop 
 the suggestion about apprenticeship for freed people, and that I 
 should omit the protest against my own power in regard to ad- 
 mission of members of Congress, but even he approved every 
 part and parcel of the plan which has since been employed or 
 touched by the action of Louisiana." 
 
 Here Mr. Lincoln, just before his death, gives the history of 
 his plan of reconstruction. He says it was submitted to every 
 member of his Cabinet — and who were the members of his Cab- 
 inet at that time ? Chief Justice Chase, Edwin M, Stanton and 
 William H. Seward were among them, and surely the indorse- 
 ment of such men as these must give additional weight to any 
 measure. Mr. Lincoln goes on : 
 
 " The new Constitution of Louisiana, declaring emancipation 
 for the whole State, practically applies the proclamation to that 
 part previously exempted. It does not adopt apprenticeship for 
 freed people, and is silent, as it could not well be otherwise, 
 about the admission of members to Congress. As it applied to 
 Louisiana, every member of Congress fully approved the plan of 
 the message. I received many commendations of the plan, 
 written and verbal, and not a single objection from any professed 
 emancipationist, until after news was received at Washington 
 that the people of Louisiana had begun to move in accordance 
 with it, from about July, 1864." 
 
 In conclusion, upon this subject, he used the following language : 
 
 " Such has been my only agency in the Louisiana movement. 
 My promise is made, as I have previously stated, but as bad pro- 
 mises are better broken than kept, I shall treat this as a bad 
 promise, and break it whenever I shall be convinced that keep- 
 ing it is adverse to the public interest. But I have not yet been 
 so convinced." 
 
 Now vv e find Mr. Lincoln, just before his death, referring in 
 warm and strong terms to his policy of amnesty and reconstruc- 
 tion, and giving it his indorsement, giving to the world that 
 which had never been given before — the history of that plan and 
 policy — stating that it had been presented and indorsed by every 
 member of that able and distinguished Cabinet of 1863. Mr. 
 Lincoln may be said to have died holding out to the nation his 
 policy of amnesty and reconstruction. It was held out by him 
 at the very time the rebels laid down their arms. 
 
 Mr. Lincoln died by the hand of an assassin, and Mr. Johnson 
 came into power. He took Mr. Lincoln's Cabinet as he had left it, 
 and he took Mr. Lincoln's policy ofamnesty and reconstruction as 
 he had left it, and as he had presented it to the world only two days 
 l:)eforo liis death. Mr. Johnson has honestly and faithfully at- 
 tempted to administer that policy, which had been bequeathed by 
 that man around whose grave a whole world has gathered as 
 raournei's. 
 
SPEECH OF GOVERNOR .^lORTON. U 
 
 I refer to these facts for the purpo.so of sliowing that Mr. 
 Johnson's pohcy is not. a new one, but that ho is simply carrying 
 out the pohcy left to him by liis lamented predecessor — a pohcy 
 that liad been indorsed by the wliole nation in the re-election of 
 Mr. Lincohi, and had been promulgated to the whole world 
 nearly one year before the time of his last election. 
 
 THE HENRY WINTER DAVIS BILL. 
 
 I want to remark one thhig more upon that subject. I want 
 to refer to the action of Congress in reference to the question of 
 reconstruction. You will remember that some time in the month 
 of April, Henry Winter Davis, a very distinguished Congressman, 
 from Maryland, introduced a bih called the Winter Davis bill. It 
 provided a plan for the reconstruction of the rebel States, to 
 bring them back into practical relations with the Government. 
 It differed from the plan of ^Ir, Lincoln's in some important 
 respects, one of which was that, in electing delegates to the State 
 Convention that was to reorganize the State Government, he al- 
 lowed no man to vote who had been concerned in the rebellion in 
 any way. I want to call your attention very briefly to that bill, 
 and show you how far Congress was committed by its own direct 
 action to the main points in Mr. Johnson's policy of reconstruc- 
 tion. This bill, a copy of which I have here, provided for the 
 appointment of Provisional Governors in these States, just as 
 Mr. Lincoln's plan had done, and as Mr. Johnson now does. It 
 provided that these provisional governors might call State Con- 
 ventions for the purpose of forming State Constitutions, and in 
 this particular, also, it conformed to Mr. Lincoln's plan. It then 
 went on to define the cj[uestion of the right of suffrage for dele- 
 gates to these conventions. It provided that the delegates shall 
 be elected by the loyal white male citizens of the United States of 
 the age of twenty-one years, and resident at the time in the coun- 
 ty, parish or district, in which they shall offer to vote. 
 
 CONGKESS OPPOSED TO NEGRO SUFFRAGE. 
 
 call your attention to the fact that Congress itself, only a little 
 over a year ago, when it assumed to take the whole question of 
 reconstruction out of the hands of the President — expressly exclu- 
 ded the negro from the right of suffrage in voting for the men 
 who were to frame the new constitutions for the rebel States. 
 Not only that, but it went on to state what the constitutions should 
 contain, and provided that if the constitutions to be formed by 
 these conventions should conform to the provisions of this bill, 
 then those States should be entitled to come back at once. Wliat 
 were these conditions ? They only required that the constitution 
 should contain three things : first, it shall contain a provision to the 
 effect that no person who has held or exercised any office, civil or 
 
10 SPEECH OF GOVERNOR MORTON. 
 
 iriilitaiy, except offices merely ministerial, and military offices below 
 tlie grade of Colonel, State or Confederate, under the usurping 
 po'.vor, shall vote for, or be a member of, the Legislature, or Gov- 
 ernor. In other words, the bill required that these conventions 
 should exclude from the right of suffrage in the South all persons 
 who had been in the rebel army above the rank of Colonel, thereby 
 ('onceding, very plainly, that they might give the right of suffrage 
 to all persons below that rank. The bill provides, secondly, that 
 involuntary servitude must be forever prohibited, and the freedom 
 of all persons guaranteed in such States ; and that no debt or obli- 
 gation created by or under the sanction of the usurping power, 
 shall be recognized or paid by the State. 
 
 These were all the conditions that were miposed upon the con- 
 stitutions to be framed under the Henry Winter Davis bill. It 
 simply required, if you please, that the constitution of South Car- 
 ohna should not give the right of suffrage to any man who had 
 held office in the rebel army above the rank of Colonel ; that in- 
 voluntary servitude should be abohshed, and that they should not 
 assume any Confederate debt ; but it did not require that any pro- 
 vision be made to confer the right of suffrage upon the negro at 
 any time. It did not require that they should make provision for 
 the education of the negro, or for giving him the right of testify- 
 ing in courts of justice, or for preserving, in any particular way, 
 what may be called his civil rights. Mr. Lincoln, as you remem- 
 ber, refused to sign that bOl. He put it in his pocket. Though 
 it had received a majority in both Houses, being passed in the 
 House by a vote of seventy-four to sixty-six, and by a much larger 
 vote in the Senate, it failed to become a law. Some of you may, 
 perhaps, remember the angry manifesto put forth, in consequence 
 of Mr. Lincoln's course in that matter, by Mr. Davis and Mr, 
 Wade, and you will not forget that the result was to create strife 
 and division in the ranks of the Union party. 
 
 JOHNSON AND LINCOLN AGAIN. 
 
 If Mr. Lincohi had not refused to sign that biU, there would to- 
 day be an act of Congress on the statute books absolutely prohib- 
 iting negroes from any participation in the work of re-organization, 
 and pledging the Government in advance to accept of the consti- 
 tutions that might be formed under the biU, although they made 
 no provision for the negro beyond the fact of his personal hberty. 
 K that bill had become a law, and the rebel States had formed 
 their constitutions under it, simply guaranteeing the negro his per- 
 sonal liberty, but making no provision for suffrage or any other 
 rights, they could present their members of Congress and you 
 could not keep them out, except by trampling on one of the acts 
 of Congress. But Mr. Lincoln refused to sign it, giving his reason 
 for doing so, and it is only another act for which we ought to thank 
 him. So that while Mr. Lincoln did not require negro suffrage in 
 
SPEECH OF GOVERNOR MORTOX. 11 
 
 liis plan of reconstruction, we here have a solemn act of Congress 
 absolutelv prohibiting the negro from any participation in the re- 
 construction of the Southern States. Now, how is it with Mr. 
 Johnson? Mr. Lincoln required th^it they should come back to 
 the Union with constitutions free from slavery. Mr. Johnson has 
 said so time and again — he said it to the South Carolina delegation. 
 He said to the Freedmen's delegation: "It is one condition of the 
 re-admission of these States that slaver}^ shall bo forever extin- 
 guished, and that the rights of the freedmen shall be preserved 
 and respected. " I am very glad to see that many of the Southern 
 States are making commendable progress in this matter of the 
 abohtion of slavery. I see that the convention in Alabama has 
 adopted, by eighty-three to three, a provision forever abolishmg 
 and prohibiting slavery in that State — and nc!^ only ro, but requir- 
 ing the Legislature to make provision for the protection of the 
 freedmen in the enjoyment of their civil rights. [Applause.] 
 
 NEGRO SUFFRAGE. 
 
 I come now to speak more properly on the subject of negro 
 sufirage. The Constitution of the United States has referred the 
 question of suifrage to the several States, This may have been 
 right, or it may have been wrong. I merely speak of the subject 
 as it stands, and say that the question of sufirage is referred by 
 the Constitution to the several States. It first provides that such 
 persons as had a right to vote by the laws of the State for a mem- 
 l3er of the most numerous branch of the State Legislature, should 
 have a right to vote for members of Congress. It then, in another 
 provision, declares that the State may, in any manner they may 
 see proper, appoint or elect theii' Presidential Electors, so that the 
 whole question of suffrage has, by the Constitution, from the be- 
 ginning, been referred to the several States. Now, it has been 
 proposed by some to avoid the operation of this provision by ex- 
 cluding members of Congress from the Southern States until such 
 time as they shall incorporate negro suffrage in their State consti- 
 tutions — to say to them — -'"We will keep you out of your seats 
 until such time as the State from which you come shall amend its 
 constitution so as to provide for negro suffrage. " 
 
 " CONQUERED PROVINCES. " 
 
 This is one v,'Q.y m which to avoid the force of the constitutional 
 provisions. There is another plan, and that is the theory which 
 regards these States as being out of the Union, and holding them 
 as conquered pro^'inces, subject to the jurisdiction of Congress like 
 unorganized territory; saying that Congress has the power to pro- 
 ^-ide for caUing conventions in these States just as in the Territory 
 of Dacotah, and may prescribe the right of suffrage, and determme 
 who shaU vote in electing delegates to these conventions, just as in 
 
12 SPEECH OF GOVEKNOR MORTON. 
 
 the Territory Dacotah ; that it may then determine whether it 
 will accept the constitution offered, as might be determined in the 
 case of any other Territory. 
 
 I will not stop to argue this question at length, but I will say 
 >this, that from the beginning of the war up to the present time, 
 every message of the President, every proclamation, every state 
 paper, and every act of Congress, has proceeded upon the hy- 
 pothesis that no State could secede from the Union ; that once 
 in the Union, always in the Union. Mr. Lincoln in every pro- 
 clamation, went on the principle that this war was an insurrection 
 — a rebellion against the Constitution and laws of the United 
 States ; not a rebellion of States, but a rebellion of the individuals, 
 the people of the several Southern States, and every man who 
 went into it was personally and individually responsible for his 
 acts, and could not shield himself under the action or authority 
 of his State. He went on the principle that every ordinance of 
 secession, every act of the legislatures of the rebel States in that 
 direction, was a nullity, unconstitutional and void, having no 
 legal force or effect whatever, and that as these States were ac- 
 cording to law, in the Union, their standing could not be affected 
 by the action of the people — that the people of these States were 
 personally responsible for their conduct, just as a man is responsi- 
 ble who violates the statute in regard to the commission of 
 murder, and to be treated as criminals, just as the authorities 
 thought proper — that the people of a State can forfeit their 
 rights, but that so far as their action is concerned, in a legal point 
 of view, they had no power to affect the condition of the State in 
 the Union. Every proclamation and every act of Congress have 
 proceeded upon this hypothesis. Mr. Buchanan started out 
 with the proposition that this was a rebeUion of States. He said 
 we could not coerce a State. Our reply was, we have nothing 
 whatever to do with States, we will coerce the people of the 
 States, holding every man responsible for his conduct. 
 
 This was our answer to Mr. Buchanan. Upon this hypothesis 
 we have just put down the rebellion. But it is now proposed by 
 some that we shall practically admit that the Southern States did 
 secede — that they did go out of the Union — that the work of 
 secession was perfect, was accomphshed — that the States are out 
 of the Union, that a government de facto was established, and that 
 we now hold these States as conquered jDrovinces, just as we 
 should hold Canada if we were to invade it and take possession 
 of it. As a consequence of this doctrine, Jeff. Davis cannot be 
 tried for treason, not because he is not a traitor — not a violator 
 of the law, but the head of a government de facto — the ruler of 
 a conquered province, and we have no more power to try him 
 for treason than we would to try the Governor of Canada, for 
 such an offence, in case he should fall into our hands during a 
 hostile invasion of his territory. That is what this doctrine leads 
 
SPEECH OF GOVERNOR MORTON. 13 
 
 to. It leads to a thousand other evils and pernicious things 
 never contemplated in the nature of our government. 
 
 THE REBEL DEBT. 
 
 Another consequence which would flow from the admission of 
 that doctrine, (and I propose to argue that at some other time,) 
 would be that we would be called upon to pay the rebel debt. If 
 we admit that these States vv-ere out of the Union for one mo- 
 ment, and were to be regarded in the hght of belligerents, it 
 would be insisted upon at once that when we took them back we 
 took them with their debts, as we would take any other conquer- 
 ed pro\'ince or State. I do not propose to argue that question 
 any further at this time. 
 
 COLONIZATION. 
 
 ^ The question of negro suffrage is one which threatens to divide 
 us to some extent, and is surrounded with many practical difficul- 
 ties. I reject in advance all schemes of colonization, as they are 
 impracticable, whether upon this continent or any other conti- 
 nent. We have no right to insist upon colonizing the negro. 
 He is an American, born in this country, and he has no other 
 country. Wlien he desires to emigrate he has a perfect right to 
 do so, but his emigration must depend upon his own volition. I 
 beUeve that the tmie wiU come when every man in the country, 
 white and black, will have the right of sufirage, and that suiFrage 
 should not depend upon color — that there is nothing in that 
 which should make a distinction. I beheve that in the process 
 of years, every man, whatever his color, whether in Indiana or in 
 South Carolina, will come to enjoy political rights. [Applause.] 
 
 NEGRO SUFFRAGE. 
 
 The right to vote carries with it the right to hold office. You 
 cannot say that the negro has a natural right to vote, but that he 
 must vote only for white men for office. The right to vote car- 
 ries with it the right to l)e voted for. Wlien that right is con- 
 ferred, you can make no discrimination, no distinction against the 
 ri;^lit to hold office, and the right to vote in a State carries with it 
 iLo )-''.dit to vote for President and members of Congress, and for 
 all I'cilcral officers. The right of suffrage being conferred in 
 South Carohna, for State purposes, under our Constitution, as I 
 have before pointed out, carries with it the right to vote for Pres- 
 ident and Vice President and members of Congress. 
 
 THE CONDITION OF THE NEGRO. 
 
 In regard to the question of admitting the freedmen of the 
 Southern States to vote, while I admit the equal rights of all men, 
 
14 SPEECH OF GOVERNOR MORTON. 
 
 and that in time all men will have the right to vote without dis- 
 tinction of color or race, I yet believe that in the case of four mil- 
 lions of slaves just freed from bondage, there should be a period 
 of probation and preparation before they are brought to the ex- 
 ercise of political power. Let us consider for one moment the 
 condition of these people in the Southern States. You cannot 
 judge of the general condition of the freedmen and negroes upon 
 the plantations by what wo hear of the schools established at Hil- 
 ton Head, Norfolk and other places, where a few enthusiastic and 
 philanthropic teachers are instructing the negroes. I have no 
 doubt many of them are making rapid progress, but these are only 
 as one in many thousands. IS'lnety-nine out of every hundred of 
 the negroes in the South live on the plantations, and you cannot 
 judge of the condition of the great mass by those who live in the 
 towns. You must consider the condition of the whole mass. What 
 is that condition ? Perhaps not one in five hundred — I may say 
 one in a thousand — can read, and, perhaps, not one in five hundred 
 is worth five dollars in property of any kind. They have no prop- 
 erty, personal or real. They have just come from bondage, and 
 all they have is their own bodies. 
 
 Their homes are on the plantations of these men, and they must 
 depend for subsistence on the employment they receive from them. 
 Look at their condition. As I said before, only one in five hundred 
 that can read — many of them until witliin the last few months never 
 off the plantation ; most of them never out of the county in which 
 they five and were born, except as they were driven by the slave- 
 diivers. Can you conceive that a body of men, white or black, 
 who have been in this condition, and their ancestors before them, 
 are qualified to be immediately lifted from their present state into 
 the full exercise of political power, not only to govern themselves 
 and their neighbors, but to take part in the Government of the 
 United States. Can they be regarded as intelligent or independent 
 voters? The mere statement of the fact furnishes the answer to 
 the question. To say that such men — and it is no fault of theirs, 
 it is simply their misfortune, and the crime of the nation — to say 
 that such men, just emerging from this slavery^ are qualified for 
 the exercise of political powers, is to make the strongest pro-slavery 
 argument I ever heard. It is to pay the highest compliment to 
 the institution of slavery. 
 
 What has been our practice for many years ? We have mva- 
 riably described slavery as degrading to both the body and the 
 soul. We have described it as bringing human beings down to 
 the level of the beasts of the field. We have described it as iS 
 crime, depriving the slaves of intellectual and moral culture, and 
 of all the gifts which God has made the most precious. If we 
 shall now turn round and say that this institution has been a bless- 
 ing to the negro instead of a curse ; that it has qualified Imn for 
 the right of sufirage, and the exercise of pohtical power, we shall 
 
SPEECH OF GOVERNOR MORTON. 15 
 
 stultify ourselves, and give the lie to those declarations upon which 
 we have obtained political power. 
 
 INDIANA AND THE NEGROES. 
 
 Let me inquire for a single moment, in what condition is Indiana 
 to urge negro suffrage in South Carolina, or in any other State? 
 Let us consider the position we occupy. We have, perhaps, twenty- 
 five thousand colored people in this State. Most of them can read 
 and write ; many of them are very intelligent and excellent citi- 
 zens, well to do in the world, well qualified to exercise the right 
 of suflrage and political power. But how stands the matter? We 
 not only exclude them from voting, we exclude them from testi- 
 fying in the courts of justice. "We exclude them from our public 
 schools, and we make it unlawful and a crime for them to come 
 into the State of Indiana at any time subsequent to 1850. No 
 negro who has come into our State since 1850, can make a valid 
 contract; he cannot acquire title to a piece of land, because the 
 law makes the deed void, and every man who gives him employ- 
 ment is liable to prosecution and fine. I sent out the 28th Indiana 
 colored regiment, recruited with great difficulty and at some ex- 
 pense. It has been in the field two years. It has fought well on 
 irany occasions, and won the high opinion of officers who had 
 S'ien it. We got credit on our State quota for every man who 
 went out. Yet, according to the constitution and laws of Indiana, 
 more than one-half of the men in that regiment have no right to 
 come back again, and if they do come back they are subject to 
 prosecution and fine ; and any man who receives them, or employs 
 them, is also liable to punishment. Now, can Indiana, in this con- 
 dition — with twenty-five thousand colored men in her borders, to 
 whom she denies suffrage and political power, and almost all civil 
 rights — "w'ith what face, I say, can Indiana go to Congress and in- 
 sist upon gi^^Lng the right of suffrage to the negroes in the Southern 
 States? If her Congressmen ask to do this, they will naturally 
 be asked in turn, what have you done with these people in your 
 own State ? You have had them for many years. You have long 
 had an opportunity to make this issue as to whether they ought 
 to have these rights. Their mental and moral condition is much 
 superior to that of the great mass of the freedmen in the South- 
 ern States. 
 
 What have you done? You have done nothing. I ask you, 
 what would be the moral strength of any politician presenting 
 these questions in Congress ? I ask how any member of Congress 
 from Indiana, who has not made the issue at home, can present 
 himself, and urge the right of Congress to enfranchise the negroes 
 in the Southern States? It may be said there are only a few of 
 them in Indiana, and it is not important. But if the few who are 
 here have a right, moral or natural, to the franchise, when you 
 refuse it to the few you refuse it to all. When you refuse it to 
 
16 SPEECH OF GOVERNOR MORTON. 
 
 twenty-five tlioiisand, yon violate sound principles just as mueli 
 as if you refuse it to five millions. I tell you, these jSTorthern States 
 can never command any moral force on that subject until they shall 
 fii'st be just to their negoes at home. 
 
 MR. SUMNER's views CONSIDERED. 
 
 I now come to the consideration of the question of the admis- 
 sion of negroes to the right of suffrage. I Avill consider more par- 
 ticularly the plan of Mr. Charles Sumner, a man of great ability, and 
 one whom I consider a ver}^ pure man. I will read from a speech 
 Mr. Sumner recently made at a State convention in "Worcester, 
 Massachusetts. I will read copious extracts from that speech for 
 the purpose of showing his position. I refer to his speech simply 
 because I regard him as the most perfect and able representative 
 of that class of men who are opposed to the policy of President 
 Johnson on that subject, and I refer to it for no other purpose. 
 He says: 
 
 "Meanwhile, we must follow Congress in the present exclusion 
 of all the rebels from political power. They must not be voted 
 for, and they must not vote. On this principle I take my stand. 
 Let them buy and sell ; let them till the ground ; and they may 
 be industrious and successful. These things they may do ; but 
 they must not be admitted at once into the co-partnersliip of our 
 Government. " 
 
 I do not like that word " co-partnership. " We are not a co- 
 partnership, but a nation. 
 
 "As well might the respectable Mr. Ketchum reinstate liis son 
 at once in the firm which he has betrayed, and invest him again 
 with all the powers of a co-partner. The father received the son 
 with parental affection, and forgave him ; but he did not invite the 
 criminal to resume his former desk in Wall street. And yet, Ed- 
 ward Ketchum, who had robbed and forged on an unprecedented 
 scale, is as worthy of tru^ in the old banking house as our rebels 
 in the Government of the country. A long probation will be 
 needed before either can be admitted to his former fellowship. 
 The state of outlawiy is the present condition of each, and this 
 condition must not be hastily relaxed. " 
 
 Then he goes on to discuss one or two other questions. Again : 
 
 "In obtaining guarantees we must rely upon acts rather than 
 professions, and light our footsteps by the ' lamp of experience. ' 
 Therefore we turn from recent rebels to constant loyalists. This 
 is only ordinary prudence. As those who have fought against us 
 should be disfranchised, so those who have fought for us should 
 be enfranchised, and thus a renovated State will be built secure on 
 an unfaltering and natural loyalty. For awhile the freedmen will 
 
dPEECH OF GOVEr.XOR MORTON. ' 17 
 
 take the place of the master, thus verifying the saj-ing that the 
 last shall be first and the first shall be last. In the pious books of 
 the East, it is declared that the greatest mortification at the day 
 of judgment will be when the faitliful slave is carried into Para- 
 dise, and the ^^^cked master sent to hell; and this same reversal 
 of conditions appears in the gospel when Dives is exhibited as suf- 
 fering the pains of damnation, while the beggar of other days is 
 sheltered in Abraham's bosom." 
 
 And again : " All these guarantees should be completed and 
 crowned by an amendment to the Constitution of the United 
 States, especially providing that hereafter there shall be no denial 
 of the electoral franchise, or any exclusion of any kind, on account 
 of color or race, l)ut all persons shall be equal before the law. At 
 this moment, under a just interpretation of the Constitution, three- 
 fourths of the States, actually co-operating in the National Gov- 
 ernment, are suflicient for this change. The words of the Con- 
 stitution are that amendments shall be valid to all intents and 
 purposes, when ratified by three-fourths of the Legislatures of the ' 
 several States, or, according to practical sense, by three-fourths 
 of the States that have Legislatures. If a State has no Legisla- 
 ture, it cannot be counted in determining this quorum, as it is not 
 counted in determining the quorum of either House of Congress, 
 where precisely the same question occurs. Any other interpreta- 
 tion recognizes the rebellion, and plays into its hands by conceding 
 its power, through rebeUious contrivance, to prevent an amend- 
 ment to the Constitution essential to the general welfare. " 
 
 In other words, Mr. Sumner's proposition is this, that all per- 
 sons who have been connected "vvith this rebeUion shall be excluded 
 from the right of suffrage and from all political power for an in- 
 definite time, and that the negroes of the rebel States shall be en- 
 franchised, and have full and equal political powers conferred upon 
 them. That is Mr. Sumner's broad proposition. I am sure I have 
 stated it fairly. Let us consider for a very few minutes what would 
 be the adoption of this pohcy. K you exclude from the right of 
 suffrage every man who has been concerned in the rebellion, you 
 will, except, perhaps, in the States of Tennessee and Louisiana, 
 exclude twenty out of every twenty-one white men in the South- 
 ern States. That will be about the average. In some the dispro- 
 portion would be greater, but we may safely say, that omitting 
 Tennessee and Louisiana, that pohcy would exclude twenty out or 
 twenty-one^ gi'^i'^g you only one white vote out of every twenty- 
 one male adult inhabitants of the Southern States. 
 
 COLORED STATE GOVERNIMENTS. 
 
 If you enfi'anchise all the negroes in these States, you wiU have 
 at least twenty negro votes to one white vote, and in the work of 
 reconstructing the States of South Carohna, Alabama and Florida, 
 
18 SPEECH OF GOVERNOR MORTON. 
 
 you would have a larger proportion — perliaps tliirty colored votes 
 to one white vote. Now, I ask you what is to be the effect of 
 that? The first efiect wiU be to erect colored State governments. 
 Under such a condition of things, the negro would no more vote 
 for a white man, than you' would vote for a black man. They 
 would no more elect a white man than you would elect a black 
 man. Human nature is the same, whether in a white or olored 
 skin. There could be nothing that would confer more pleasure 
 upon a man of that race, of course, than the elevation to political 
 power of a man of his own race and color. Having secured power, 
 they would retort upon us that which we have so steadily ]:>rac- 
 ticed upon them. If you give them the votes, they will elect men 
 of their own color. And v/e would have no right to blame them. 
 We would rather think badly of them if they did not. I would 
 ask you if the negroes of Ilayti, or any other place where they 
 are in the majority, have ever elected a wliite man to office? Un- 
 der Mr. Sumner's plan, you will give them an overwhelming ma- 
 jority in every one of these States, and you will give them the 
 political power of the South. That they v/ill exercise that power 
 by electing men of their own color, is absolutely certain. Believing 
 that human nature is the same under different complexions — that 
 the negroes are not differently constituted from ourselves, and that 
 they have like passions with us, we cannot doubt how this power 
 will be exercised. 
 
 Some will say that if they can find colored men qualified, all 
 right. There are enough colored men of education in the North 
 to go to the South and fill every office there, and I have no doubt 
 they stand ready to do it. Here we deny to them almost every 
 right, except that of mere personal fiberty, and it is so in Ilhnois 
 and some other of the Northern States; and when you present to 
 them the prospect of holding the highest offices in the gift of the 
 people of the Southern States, rest assured they will embrace it. 
 They will have colored Governors, and, colored members of Con- 
 gress, and Senators, and Judges of the Supreme Court, &c. Very 
 well; and suppose they do send colored Senators and Representa- 
 tives to Congress. I have no doubt you will find men in the North 
 who will be willing to sit beside them, and will not think them- 
 selves degraded by doing so. I have nothing to say to this. lam 
 sunply discussing the political efiect of it. In every State where 
 there is a colored State Government, a negro for Governor, and a 
 negro for Supreme Judge, white emigration will cease. There vn\l 
 be no more white emigration to any such State. You can't find 
 i:he most ardent anti-slavery man in Waj-ne county who will go 
 .md locate in a State that has a colored State government. You 
 will absolutely shut ofi:* at once, and effectually, all emigration from 
 the Northern States, and from Europe too, whenever that event 
 5hall happen. Thus they will remain permanently color-ed States 
 in the South. The white men who are now there would remove 
 from them, and would not remain under such dominion. 
 
SPEECH OP GOVERNOR MORTON. 19 
 
 COLORED BALANCE OF POWER. 
 
 Very well, say some, that is all very well, if we can get the ne- 
 
 fro to go there. But let me say that in such case the colored 
 tates would be a balance of power in this country. I ask, is it 
 desirable to have a colored State government? I say it is not. It 
 is not, for many reasons. One reason is, that such States would 
 continually constitute a balance of power. They would be bound 
 together by the strongest tie that ever binds men together — the tie 
 of color and of race — the tie of a down-trodden and despised race. 
 As three hundred thousand slave-holders, by a common tie, were 
 able to govern this nation for a long time, so four millions of peo- 
 ple, bound together by a much stronger tie — despised by the whole 
 world as they have been — would constantly vote and act together, 
 and their united vote would constitute a balance of power that 
 might control the Government of the nation, 
 
 I submit, then, however clearly and strongly we may admit the 
 natural rights of the negro — I submit it to the intelligence of the 
 people — that colored State governments are not desirable ; that 
 tlicy will bring about results that are not to be hoped for ; that 
 finally they would threaten to brmg about, and, I believe, would 
 result in a war of races. 
 
 TEE SOLUTION OF THE DIFFICULTY. 
 
 ISTow the question comes up, how can this thing be avoided, 
 and yet confer upon the negro his rights ? "Well, if I had the 
 power, I will tell you how I would avoid it. I believe it will be 
 the way in which it will be ultimately worked out, for I believe 
 the time will come when these rebel States will confer upon the 
 negroes the right of suifrage. If I had the power, I would ar- 
 range it in this way : I would give these men, just emerged from 
 slavery, a period of probation and preparation ; I would give 
 them time to acquire a little property, and get a little education, 
 time to learn something about the simplest terms of business, and 
 prepare themselves for the exercise of pohtical power. At the 
 end of ten, fifteen or twenty years, let them come into the enjoy- 
 ment of their political rights. By that time, these Southern States 
 will have been so completely filled up by emigration from the 
 Xorth, and from Europe, that the negroes will be in a permanent 
 minority. Wh}"- ? Because the negroes have no emigration — 
 nothing but the natural increase — while we have emigration from 
 all the world, and natural increase besides. Thus, l)y postponing 
 the thing only until such time as the negroes are qualified to enjoy 
 Itol'/dcal rights, the dangers I have Ijecn considering, would have 
 fully passed away. Their influence would no longer be danger- 
 ous in the manner I have indicated, and a conflict of races would 
 not be more likely to happen there, than it now is in Massachu. 
 
20 SPEECH OP GOVERNOR MORTON. 
 
 setts. In iMassaclinsett^i the iiogroes have exercise^' political 
 rights for tweuty-live years, and yet there has been no disturb- 
 ance there — no conflict of races. Why? Because tne negroes 
 have been in the minority. They can not elect a man of their 
 own color to any office, to bring up that prejudice of race. I be- 
 lieve what I have stated will be the way in which the question 
 will work itself out. But, under the policy of Mr. Sumner, we 
 are to exclude twenty out of every twenty-one white men in the 
 Southern States, and bring forward colored voters to fill the 
 places of those excluded. The inevitable results of that policy 
 would be to establish colored State governments, and a colored 
 balance of power in this Republic, a tiling which I think most 
 desirable to avoid. 
 
 REPRESENTATION ACCORDING TO VOTEKS. 
 
 There is another thing that will help to bring about this great 
 result; that is, another amendment to the Constitution, which is 
 easier to adopt than the one proposed by Mr. Sumner — one which 
 I believe will meet with the general concurrence of the people. 
 That is, to amend the Constitution so as to apportion the political 
 powers of the States, not by population, but according to the 
 number of voters, white or black. The eflect of that will be to 
 drive these Southern men by degrees to enfranchise their negroes 
 for the purpose of increasing their power in Congress. I would 
 like to see the politician that can stand up and oppose that amend- 
 ment. These negroes will not have political rights conferred up- 
 on them, and the ^orth will never consent that the white men of 
 the South shall exercise double political power, by reason of their 
 disfranchised negroes. There must be equahty of our political 
 power. Heretofore, three fifths of the negro population have 
 been represented in Congress. That clause was put into the Con- 
 stitution because of the existence of slavery. ISTow there is no 
 reason, political or otherwise, why representation and poli'tic-al 
 power should not be determined by the number of legal and ac- 
 tual voters. The proposition I refer to will drive these men to 
 confer suffrage on their negroes for the purpose of extending and 
 enlarging theu' political power. 
 
 POLITICAL PARTIES. 
 
 Perhaps I am extending my remarks upon general topics fur- 
 ther than I ought, but I want to say a few words in regard to 
 political parties. I want to say, first and foremost, in regard io 
 this party calling itself Democratic, that it is not entitled to the 
 confidence of the public in any respect. It is thoroughly tainted 
 and saturated with the virus of this rebellion. It broke the Na- 
 tional faith in 1854, by the repeal of the Missouri Compromise. 
 It took steps in advance, throughout the Administration of Mr. 
 
SPEECU OF GOVERXOIl -AIORTON. 21 
 
 BuchaDan, for the piirposo of bringing on this rebellion. JSIr. 
 Buchanan and his party supporters in Congress, in the winter of 
 1861, proclaimed to the world that there was no power to coerce 
 a State ; no power to suppress the rebellion. They declared that 
 these States might proceed without molestation in the work of 
 disintegration and destruction of the nation. This Democratic 
 party encouraged the rebellion by assuring rebels in the South 
 that there would be no resistance offered on the part of the North 
 to their work of secession. It opposed enlistments; it opposed 
 conscription; it opposed taxation for the support of tlie Govern- 
 ment; it depreciated the national currency ; it encouraged foreign 
 nations to intervene; it formed base conspiracies in the North, 
 and sought to introduce the horrors of civil war into our homes 
 here, and as the great crowning act of wickedness, at Chicago, 
 last summer, that party there proclaimed, in its National Conven- 
 tion, that the war was a failure, and called upon the Govern- 
 ment and the nation to abandon it. I ask if such an organization 
 as this is entitled now to receive public confidence ? They may 
 now attempt to change their professions, as they have in New 
 York. They made haste there to throw off the gray-back, and 
 put on the national uniform. They did the same thing in IMaine; 
 but the people very wisely showed their distrust of them l^y add- 
 ing six thousand to the Union majority. [Applause.] 
 
 That is the way I think they will do in all the States. I want 
 to say that, in my opinion, the preservation of the power of this 
 Union party is of the utmost importance to the people. Not to 
 the politicians of that party, but to the nation — to those who hold 
 the national debt, and love the national glory, and would preserve 
 and hand down this Government unimpaired to future genera- 
 tions. This party, which has done everything to defeat us in this 
 struggle, cannot be trusted. We can preserve the unity and 
 power of the Union party, and I submit that we can do it better 
 by preserving concord and harmony at home, than by seeking to 
 build up a southern wing of our party on the doubtful exped'ient 
 of negro suffrage. In attempting to do that, we are in great dan- 
 ger of being defeated at home, and destroyed. The people of the 
 loyal Northern States carried on this war, and put down the re- 
 belHon, and if they are true to themselves, and true to their great 
 principles, they can still preserve the power and control of this 
 Government, and it is their duty to do so. It is true, I believe, that 
 in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and, it may be, in other States, 
 the Democratic party, having refused to learn any sense, even by 
 experience, have gone back to the policy and resolutions of '98, 
 like a dog returning to his vomit. But it makes little difference. 
 The people will not trust them. 
 
 BOWLES AND MILLIGAN. 
 
 I come now to a matter somewhat personal. I refer to the 
 
L^ SPEECH OF GOVERNOR MORTON. 
 
 cases of Bowles and Milligan, of which you have heard consider- 
 able in this quarter. They were sentenced, about the 10th of 
 December, by a military commission, to be hung, for being con- 
 cerned in a treasonable conspiracy. This sentence was com- 
 muted, in the month of April, to imprisonment for life, in the 
 Ohio State Penitentiary. I want to remark that tlie commuting 
 of the punishment, from death to imprisonment for life, was, by 
 some persons, treated as a novelty — as something very unusual. 
 Xow, I beheve, that in some six States of this Union capital pun- 
 ishment is abolished, and you can't hang a man for any crime. I 
 beheve there has been but one man hung in Indiana for six or 
 seven years, and I doubt very much whether, in this county of 
 Wayne, you can empannel a jury that will hang a man for any 
 crime whatever. 
 
 I remark, in reference to the history of this case, that these 
 men were convicted and found guilty, and sentenced about the 
 10th of December, 1864. The papers were immediately laid before 
 JNIr. Lincoln for his approval. He refused to take any action upon 
 them. I never had any communication with him on that sub- 
 ject, dhectly or indirectly, but he refused up to the time of his 
 death to take any action in the case, and gave assurance to the 
 counsel for the defendants that upon the return of peace he would 
 pardon them, and tm-n them out upon society. After Mr. Lin- 
 coln's death, these cases were brought before Mr. Johnson, who 
 issued an order for their execution. It was after the war was over, 
 after the mihtary necessity for their death had passed, and the 
 question now came up, what was my duty in the premises. 
 
 I was the man whose life they had sought. They had conspired 
 against me and against the State of Inchana, to seize the State ar- 
 senal and release rebel prisoners. They had appointed a commis- 
 sion of ten to dispose of n-3. All their schemes had been baffled 
 and detected, the ringleaders arrested and put in prison. I had 
 outhved it all. The rebellion had been put down. The great peril 
 had passed by. I felt that, if they had been executed, it would be 
 said that I might have saved them, and that, as I was the man 
 whose life had been imperilled, it would be becoming in me to ask 
 the President to spare their lives, and I did so. [Applause.] Those 
 who sought to excite feelings against mo in the public mind, be- 
 cause I asked the President to spare the lives of these men, did not 
 incur any of the dangers. They had not been' engaged in the 
 struggle that I was concerned in for two years, hand to hand, with 
 these men, and, so far as I know, in the darkest hours that Indiana 
 passed through — and she has passed through some dark hours — 
 having been for two years on the very verge of revolution — so far as 
 I know during all that time, I received no aid from these men who 
 afterwards found so much fault because Bowles and Milligan wore 
 not hung. If these men had died upon the scaffold, tlie very men 
 who now find fault because they were not hung, would liavc Ijgc:) 
 loudest in my denunciation because tliev vv^crc. 
 
SPEECH OP GOVERNOR MORTON. 23 
 
 It happened that I had been in Washington a few days before 
 the order for their execution was issued, and some persons sup- 
 posed from this fact that I had been instrumental in procuring its 
 issue ; and one of the men who has most bitterly denounced-^jie 
 because they were not hung, then said that if they were hung it 
 would be nothing less than murder, and that their blood would be 
 upon my head. My visit to Washington had nothing to do with 
 it. I did what I thought was my duty under the circumstances. 
 I had lived through it. Their schemes had been baffled. The 
 danger had passed, and I believed that so for as the example was 
 concerned, it would be quite as well that these men should expiate 
 their crime in prison. When the order was issued for their exe- 
 cution, application was made by the counsel of the prisoners for 
 me to unite in asking for a pardon. I declined, saying I would 
 not ask for a pardon with them. 
 
 As soon as they laid this application before Mr. Johnson, he 
 telegraphed to me a simple dispatch, saying the application for a 
 pardon had been made for Bowles and Millig^jn. That was all. 
 It seemed to me that it presented a Mr opportunity to give my 
 views, and that, I thought, was expected. I thought I could con- 
 sistently ask the President to spare the lives of those men, and I 
 did so. I beheve one of your city papers has made more complaint 
 about this matter than all the rest of the State put together. I did 
 not intend to say a word about it, but since coming into the hall 
 some of my friends have asked me to make this explanation. [Ap- 
 plause.] 
 
JOURNAL MAMMOTH STEAM 
 
 ^^TING HOUSE, 
 
 CORNER OF MERIDIAN AND CIRCLE STS., 
 
 INDIANAPOLIS, IND. 
 
 ♦ * ♦ 
 
 HOLLOWAY, DOUGLASS & Co,, - Proprietors, 
 
 •-•-« 
 
 Having latelj'' erected a building and purchased New Machinery and 
 material for 
 
 sTEi^EOT'X'iPinsra-, 
 
 We are fully prepared to Stereottpe in a superior manner, Books, Pamphlets, 
 Engravings, and Job Work of every description at short notice. 
 
 LETTER-PRESS PRINTING. 
 
 We have added to our Establishment all modern improvements in Type and 
 Machinerj', and employ only first-class workmen. These facilities enable us to 
 execute in a manner unequalled by any House in the country, all kinds of 
 
 BOOK PRINTING, 
 
 CATALOGUES, CONSTITUTIONS, ADDRESSES, BRIEFS AND PAMPHLETS. 
 
 Bills of Lading, Checks, Drafts, Notes, Receipts. Bill Heads, Letter Heac-s, 
 
 Envelopes, Circulars, &c., &c. 
 njL.i^'VKS OF ^LL. KIJVOS, IjEG.IL,, COMMERCIJIIj, Jn.lIjIT^R\\ 
 
 JOB PRINTING. 
 
 Our faeilities for Job Printing are unsurpassed, and our prices as low as those 
 of any other House in the West. 
 
 Posters, Show Cards, Business Cards, Labels, Programmes, Visiting Cards, 
 Address Cards, Handbihs, Wedding Cards, Tickets, 
 
 And in fact every description of 
 
 JOB PRINTING, PLAIN AND ORNAMENTAL. 
 
 THE JOURNAL BINDERY 
 
 Is one of the most complete and perfect Establishments of the kind in the State. 
 None but the most experienced and thorough workmen are employed, and the work 
 is done in the best manner possible. 
 
 FOR BANKERS, COONTY OFFICERS, MERCANTILE ROUSES, RAILROAD COMPANIES & OTHER CORPORATIONS, 
 
 Bound in a substantial and workmanlike manner. 
 
 Particular attention given to Ruling and Binding Blanlis of every Description. 
 
 MAGAZINES. REVIEWS. PERIODICAES, &C.. 
 
 Bound in a styleto suit customers, combining cheapness with durability,and elegance. 
 
 E,:EX)TJCTioisr OIF :pi&ic:e. 
 
 The "Weekly Jouknal has been enlarged, and reduced to $2 00 per annum. 
 
 Orders left at the JOUENAL Counting-Koom, or sent by mail, will be 
 promptly attended to. Address orders or inquiries to 
 
 HOLLOWAY, DOUGLASS & Co.,