„4 q. 
 
 
 J^ b 
 
 r$ D - *£" 
 
 °^ " , * .. ^ 
 
 W* V.'" pS S 
 
 
 V 
 
 *o 
 
 
 
 
 
 ,v 
 
 W 
 
 
 
 > ° 
 
 »* N 0° 
 
 o V 
 
 
 % 
 
 v^-% 
 ,' ** 
 
 
 *0 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 ■> 
 
 V 
 
 ->..-v 
 
 '/ ^ ^ 
 
 A 
 
 <, 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 > 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 r 
 
 * O AT <V o - o *^- a^ <^ A u 
 
 o° *« v ^ ^ 
 
 c 
 
 "o^ 
 
 ,■:- 
 
 
 
 
 o 
 o 
 
 O .0' ^* - * 
 
 fc * J 
 
 <\ 
 
 ** 
 
 
 c v - 
 
 
 o 
 o 
 -2- 
 
 : > ^ 
 
 
 <. 
 
 "^-0^ 
 
 
 \d *; 
 
 
 ,\ 
 
 '\ 
 
 o 
 
 ^ 
 
 
SPEECH 
 
 HON. CHARLES SITGREAVES, 
 
 OF NEW JERSEY, 
 
 RADICALISM AND RECONSTRUCTION; 
 
 SATURDAY, JUNE 16, 1866. 
 
 WASHINGTON: 
 PRINTED AT THE CONGRESSIONAL GLOBE OFFICE. 
 
 1866. 
 
t_Q>£8 
 
< 
 «4 
 
 kOF 
 
 RADICALISM AND RECONSTRUCTION. 
 
 Mr. SITGREAVES. Mr. Speaker, from the 
 hour that the guns of Fort Sumter inaugurated 
 "the great rebellion," through the alternate 
 defeat and success of our arms on a hundred 
 battle-fields, when the capital was beleagured 
 by hostile armies, and, in the apprehension of 
 many patriots, the sun of our national exist- 
 ence was about to set in darkness forever, I 
 never doubted for a moment the final triumph 
 of the Union. I saw the freemen of the North 
 united as one man in a firm resolve to main- 
 lain the compacts of the Constitution. I heard 
 the declarations of the press that the Union 
 must remain one and indivisible forever. I 
 heard the representatives of the people in Con- 
 gress declare by solemn resolution — 
 
 "That this war is not waged on our part in any 
 spirit of oppression, nor for any purposo of con- 
 quest or subjugation, nor purpose of overthrowing 
 or interfering with the rights or established insti- 
 tutions of those States, but to defend and maintain 
 the supremacy of the Constitution and to preserve 
 the Union with all the dignity, equality, and rights 
 of the several States unimpaired." 
 
 I saw the Democrat and Republican, the 
 farmer and mechanic, the professional man and 
 the laborer, gather from every hill and valley 
 of the North and march side by side to the res- 
 cue of the imperiled Republic, bearing "the 
 old flag," determined that not a star should be 
 lorn from that glorious symbol of the Union, 
 and resolved to maintain its entirety or to die 
 in its defense ; but above all I felt that the God 
 of Washington smiled upon our cause, and that 
 
 the same holy fire of 1776 which He implanted 
 in the bosoms of our fathers still glowed in the 
 hearts of their sons. Such were my feelings 
 through that long and bloody war and up to 
 the time that I took my seat on the floor of 
 this House. Imagine, then, Mr. Speaker, my 
 feelings of astonishment and sorrow when I 
 heard the majority of this House, and mem- 
 bers on this floor, professing to represent the 
 people, declare that the Union was not restored, 
 and never should be unless upon conditions so 
 degrading as could be adopted only by a peo- 
 ple whose servile necks were fitted for the yoke 
 of despotic power. Sir, when I heard mem- 
 bers talk of reconstruction instead of restora- 
 tion ; when I see week after week during this 
 long session amendment after amendment pro- 
 posed to the Constitution ; when I see the most 
 important constitutional questions affecting the 
 rights of the States and the dearest interests 
 of the people passed with less discussion than 
 an ordinary measure of finance at a town meet- 
 ing, or an alteration of the rules of a debating 
 club ; when I see the influence of radical ideas 
 among the people, I would tremble for my 
 country and despair of the perpetuity of the 
 Republic had I not an abiding faith in the wis- 
 dom, justice, and mercy of the God of our 
 fathers. 
 
 Mr. Speaker, why is this? Why is it, when 
 from the outset of the rebellion our whole peo- 
 ple have declared with one voice that no State 
 
could or should put itself out of the Union, 
 either by peaceable secession or force of arms ? 
 Why is it that when to maintain this declara- 
 tion our soldier-sons have poured out their 
 blood as no soldiers have ever poured out their 
 blood in the history of nations? Why is it 
 that when the people of the insurgent States, 
 defeated in the trial by battle to which they 
 appealed, yield up their theories of secession 
 and ask to take their old place under the flag 
 of the Union ? Why is it that when that in- 
 corruptible patriot, Andrew Johnson, wielding 
 the executive power of the Government, de- 
 clares that the rebellion has ended, resistance 
 to constitutional authority ceased, and recom- 
 mends the immediate admission of their rep- 
 resentatives that we may be once more a uni- 
 ted people, with one Constitution, one interest, 
 one destiny, that this Congress says " No?"' 
 
 Let us examine some of the principal rea- 
 sons alleged for this strange, unnatural re- 
 sponse. 
 
 1. We are told that " they have committed 
 treason ; that they still nourish the heresy of 
 secession in their hearts, and therefore they 
 cannot be intrusted with the ballot, for the 
 ballot in their hands would be used to destroy 
 the Constitution and the Union." 
 
 Mr. Speaker, this objection states two facts 
 or truisms with which I most cordially agree : 
 first, that the South has committed treason; 
 and second, that heterodox ideas are danger- 
 ous. Sir, ideas are everything in a republic. 
 Ideas make and repeal laws and constitutions. 
 Ideas make wars, rebellions, and revolutions, 
 both in Church and State, and every true pa- 
 triot and Christian will denounce heterodox 
 ideas as the foes of God and man. The idea 
 of sectionalism promulgated by radicals North 
 and South for different reasons, but to effect 
 the same result, has been the curse of this Re- 
 public ; for thirty years the accursed idea of 
 secession, the daughter of sectionalism, was pro- 
 mulgated by the southern radical until it grew 
 strong enough to bathe the land with fraternal 
 blood. 
 
 For thirty years sectional ideas, in conse- 
 quence of slavery, sustained by British emissa- 
 ries and British gold, have been promulgated 
 by the northern radical until it culminated in 
 the same bloody result. The fires of secession 
 in the South have been quenched in that blood. 
 The fires of sectionalism in the North are still 
 fanned by the northern radical in hate, and fed 
 by the fuel of vengeance in the vain hope that 
 he may succeed in kindling a flame which may 
 destroy the Constitution and Uniozi of our 
 fathers. The ideas now so dangerous to the 
 constitutional rights of the States, to personal 
 liberty, and the perpetuity of the Republic is 
 northern radicalism. Let radicalism control 
 the ballot and obtain a permanent lease of 
 political power, and republicanism will be au 
 empty name. 
 
 Mr. Speaker, in my discussion of this sub- 
 ject I shall use radicalism and fanaticism as 
 convertible terms. The radical is always fanat- 
 ical and the fanatic is always radical. I also 
 beg leave to state that my remarks on radicals 
 and radicalism are not intended to apply to any 
 member of this House. I have expressed sim- 
 ilar views long before this Congress was elected. 
 
 Mr. Speaker, there is no man on this floor 
 detests treason and traitors more than I do, 
 but I do not limit my detestation to southern 
 treason and southern traitors. While I de- 
 nounce the doctrine of secession taught in the 
 South as leading to treason, I denounce the 
 doctrine of the northern radical as equally 
 damnable and leading to treason, rebellion, or 
 revolution. 
 
 I cannot see the justice of denouncing south- 
 ern traitors and loading northern traitors with 
 honors. I never could see why assemblages of 
 " Union men and women" should greet with 
 applause the orator who declared that " for 
 twenty years he had tried to destroy the Union 
 of the States and gloried in the fact," while at 
 the same time they applauded the most bitter 
 denunciations of southern traitors. Sir, I am 
 for meting out equal and impartial justice to all 
 traitors. The southern traitor declares his 
 
repentance, the northern traitor never has. 
 The late unnatural war was brought about 
 by radical fanatics, and every intelligent man 
 knows it. The southern radical and the north- 
 ern radical both aim for a dissolution of the 
 v Union, and both aided each other with fuel to 
 fire up the hearts of the people. The northern 
 radical taught the people of the North to hate 
 the people of the South with a moral and po- 
 litical hatred, the southern radical taught the 
 people of the South to hate the people of the 
 North with a' moral and political hatred ; and 
 this teaching produced its legitimate results. 
 
 Sir, the testimony of all history and our own 
 knowledge alike teach us that radical fanati- 
 cism should be dreaded as the arch enemy of 
 God and man, but most especially to be dreaded 
 in a republican Government where the press 
 
 - and speech are free. Radicalism is the same 
 
 in every age, in every clime, and in every hu- 
 man heart. It is a master passion, beneath its 
 sway every principle of humanity, every finer 
 feeling of the heart are burned and destroyed 
 as the flowers of the earth are destroyed be- 
 neath the burning lava of a volcano. Let us 
 look at the page of history for the portrait 
 of radical fanaticism ; we shall find it identical 
 
 • on every subject. Look at the persecutions by 
 
 the Roman Emperors against those who de- 
 nied the divinity of Jupiter, refused to bow at 
 his shrine, or to offer sacrifices to the Roman 
 * gods ; for this, thousands of men and women 
 
 were tortured with the most cruel tortures, 
 were sewed in the skins of wild beasts and torn 
 to pieces by blood-hounds, were crucified, were 
 covered with wax and set on fire to light the 
 imperial gardens of the palace. 
 
 Look at the history of Mahomedanism ; im- 
 bued with the fanaticism of their chief, the 
 Mahomedan proclaimed death to the infidel ; 
 he marched to exterminate the world or con- 
 vert it to the creed of his prophet, and his 
 path was marked by tears and blood and mil- 
 lions of human skulls. 
 
 Look at the history of Jesus, He who went 
 about doing only good. Religious radicalism 
 
 cried out not to release him, but Barrabas ; radi- 
 calism nailed him to the cross and gloated over 
 his dying agonies. Look at the persecution of 
 God's ancient chosen people, the Jews, by the 
 Christian radical ; in every nation for ages per- 
 secuted, robbed, tortured, put to d,eath in the 
 name of Him who taught "love your enemies." 
 Look at the old French Revolution ; in the sa- 
 cred name of liberty Frenchmen were turned 
 into human tigers thirsting for human blood. 
 France was filled with spies, informers, and 
 provost marshals ; men were murdered by tens 
 of thousands ; blood and carnage rioted through- 
 out the whole land ; the rivers became putrid 
 with human carcasses, and the streets of Paris 
 were flooded with human blood. Religion, life, 
 liberty, were all sacrificed by these radical 
 monsters, and France became an earthly hell. 
 The world beheld with astonishment deeds of 
 horror that had no parallel in history committed 
 by the gay and polite Frenchmen, and a nation 
 boasting of the highest civilization transformed 
 into incarnate devils ; and all this wag. done 
 under the plea now urged by our modern 
 American radicals of "liberty, fraternity, and 
 equality." 
 
 Look at our own land. The Puritans fled 
 from religious persecution and sought these 
 shores that they might worship God according 
 to the dictates of their own consciences. They 
 landed on the rock-bound shores of New Eng- 
 land and there erected their altars ; they mul- 
 tiplied and held the sword of civil power, and 
 they sheathed that sword in the bosoms of those 
 who worshiped God in a different creed ; they 
 fined, imprisoned, banished, tortured and exe- 
 cuted the inoffensive Quaker for daring to 
 worship God according to the dictates of Ms 
 conscience ; and continued their persecuting, 
 bloody work until it was suspended by an or- 
 der of the King. Th$,Massachusetts radical, 
 foiled by the order of the crown, but still thirst- 
 ing for human blood, commenced and contin- 
 ued a persecution of old men as wizards and 
 of old women as witches until no one felt safe. 
 A single mistake in the recital of the Lord's 
 
6 
 
 Prayer was sufficieut to consign a rnau or 
 woman to imprisonment, trial, and death ; and 
 not until the radical began to fear that he might 
 fall a victim to his own accursed devices did 
 reason resume her empire, and the people saw 
 with grief that they had been used as the bloody 
 tools and executioners of radical fanatics ; and 
 all this was done and sustained and defended 
 as the cause of "right and justice," and in 
 the name of the Lord of Hosts. 
 
 Look at radicalism within the memory and 
 knowledge of every member of this House. 
 Who has not for years previous to the rebel- 
 lion seen and heard sectional hate inculcated 
 at the public meetings of the people, in the 
 pulpit, the press, the rostrum, the school- 
 book, and in the Senate and House of Rep- 
 resentatives, by radicals, North and South? 
 Who has not heard the Constitution of his 
 country denounced as "a covenant with death 
 and a league with hell?" Who has not heard 
 of the applause with which Wendell Phil- 
 lips was greeted by radical assemblages while 
 he denounced undying hostility to the Union? 
 Who has not heard of radical petitions pre- 
 sented to the Senate praying for a dissolution 
 of the Union? Who has not heard of "the 
 Helper Book," written by radicals, indorsed by 
 sixty members of Congress, and scattered by 
 thousands as a campaign document through- 
 out the length and breadth of the land ; a book 
 intended to inculcate sectional hatred, stir up 
 civil war in the South, and dissolve the Union? 
 And, lastly, who does not know that radical- 
 ism, to promote the interest of southern trai- 
 tors, pointed the pistol and nerved the arm of 
 the assassin against the life of the lamented 
 Lincoln? 
 
 Ah, Mi-. Speaker, if the ballot is dangerous 
 in the hands of the radical of the South, over- 
 thrown and repentant as he is, is it not doubly 
 dangerous in the hands of the radical of the 
 North, buoyant and unrepentant ? Yet I would 
 not, if I could, deprive him of it. Bad as the 
 result of his teachings might be, it would be 
 preferable, rather than to crush the freedom 
 
 of speech and the press, for that would end in 
 despotism. While, therefore, radicalism is the 
 greatest and most dangerous foe to our institu- 
 tions — for the mission of radicalism is, ever has 
 been, and always will be, to destroy, never to 
 conserve — I would combat it with the weapons -f 
 of truth. I would enlist the patriot, the Chris- 
 tian, the pulpit, and the press to expose and 
 render it odious to the people, until it should 
 sink, as its predecessors in history have sunk. 
 beneath the scathing reprobation of honest 
 men. 
 
 2. They tell us that the white man of the 
 South shall not have the ballot unless his vote 
 can be neutralized by the ballot of the black 
 man, or, in other words, that the votes of dis- 
 loyal men may be neutralized or controlled 
 by the votes of loyal men. By what right do 
 members assume that the southern men are 
 disloyal how ? The southron fought for an idea, 
 that his paramount allegiance was due to the 
 State ; an idea in the truth of which he was 
 educated, and in support of which he appealed 
 to the fearful hazard of the sword. The decis- 
 ion was against him. He acknowledges his 
 error ; he abandons his theory. He is willing 
 to accept our -understanding of the allegiance 
 due from the citizen ; that the allegiance to the 
 General Government is paramount, and is 
 willing to seal it with an oath. What more 
 have we ever required of any citizen? What 
 more can we require? Will gentlemen pre- 
 tend that they have an eye of Omniscience to 
 scan the secret recesses of the human heart 
 and read the thoughts of their fellow-man? 
 
 By what right do members assume that black 
 men of the South were loyal to the Union ? 
 Sir, the evidence is overwhelming that they 
 were loyal to their masters; we were told dur- 
 ing the war that without them the rebellion 
 would collapse, and this was urged as a reason 
 to proclaim emancipation. That proclamation 
 encouraged the effort of the slave for freedom, 
 and forbid any attempt of any one in the ser- 
 vice of the United States to prevent that effort : 
 yet three millions of slaves made no effort. I 
 
believe during that long war, when large dis- 
 tricts of country could at any time be devas- 
 tated by the slaves, outnumbering as they did 
 the whites in many places two to one, there 
 was not a single servile insurrection. That was 
 a time when we should have supposed that the 
 slaves would have struck for freedom. I do 
 not denounce the black man for this ; I honor 
 the amiability of his nature, the Christian for- 
 bearance which prevented him from imbruing 
 his hands in the blood of the white man, al- 
 though urged to do it by northern radicals ; to 
 that amiability and forbearance the white man 
 intrusted his properly, his wife, his children, 
 all he had dear on earth, and he was not disap- 
 pointed ; confidence was met by confidence ; 
 and this magnanimity of the black man will 
 make the white man of the South his fast friend 
 forever; this magnanimity of the black man in 
 the hour of the white man's peril will do more 
 to make the white man of the South give him 
 the rights of ' ' a man and brother ' ' than all 
 the legislative theories and denunciations of 
 radicalism. 
 
 The home of the black man and his posterity 
 will be in the sunny South, side by side with 
 the white man and his posterity, and the man 
 who strives to excite animosity between them 
 on account of race or color is an enemy to 
 both. True patriotism, true philanthropy, will 
 pour into the South the healing oil of love, not 
 the bitter waters of strife. 
 
 But we are told that the Constitution guar- 
 anties "a republican form of government," 
 and therefore every man should have the right 
 of suffrage "without distinction of race or 
 color" as a condition-precedent to the admis- 
 sion of the southern States. Now, according 
 to thi3 theory of the radicals we have never had 
 a republican form of government, and "the 
 great Republic" of which we boasted is a delu- 
 sion and a lie. I have always been taught that 
 suae degree of intelligence as well as virtue is 
 necessary in the elector under a republican 
 Government, but the radicals have told us for 
 years that the body and soul of the black man 
 
 have been imbruted by slavery, that education 
 was prohibited to the black by southern laws, 
 and he had intelligence very little beyond the 
 brute creation. Horace Greeley, in his Tri- 
 bune of June 2, says that "dissimulation and 
 treachery are the natural vices of slaves," and 
 we heard from the lips of a prominent member 
 of the dominant party on this floor very re- 
 cently, [Mr. Donnelly,] while he eloquently, 
 and, I think, with great ingenuity of argument, 
 urged a national Department of Education, 
 that — 
 
 "We cannot make bricks without straw; we can- 
 not build a republic without intelligence ; we have 
 found ignorance and rebellion everywhere associated 
 together as parent and child. If popular ignorance 
 has plunged Mexico into poverty, anarchy, and ruin, 
 what shall it do for the United States? Can the same 
 cause yield one result west of the boundary line of 
 Mexico and an entirely different set of results east 
 of that line?" * * » * "then let us 
 eliminate that which is more dangerous than slavery, 
 ignorance." 
 
 Yet with the knowledge of all this, that we 
 cannot build a republic without intelligence, 
 the radical would put the ballot in the hands 
 of millions imbruted by slavery, with intelli- 
 gence but little beyond the brute creation, pos- 
 sessing the vices of treachery and dissimula- 
 tion, and by so doing give them the political 
 power, in some States the actual numerical 
 majority, in almost all, the balance of power, 
 and yet profess that he does so "to guaranty 
 a republican form of government." 
 
 Now, Mr. Speaker, I do not agree with Hor- 
 ace Greeley, that "dissimulation and treachery 
 are the natural vices of slaves. ' ' The slave was 
 not treacherous to his master during the late 
 rebellion. Not treachery, but faithfulness, is a 
 characteristic of the African race. I do not agree 
 with my honorable friend [Mr. Donnelly] 
 that "popular ignorance has plunged Mexico 
 into poverty, anarchy, and ruin." I think if I 
 had time I could convince him that the admis- 
 sion to citizenship at the Revolution, without 
 " distinction of race or color," and the misce- 
 genation of the Castilian, the African, and tin- 
 Indian has been the foundation of her "poverty, 
 anarchy, and ruin.'' And I think I could con- 
 
8 
 
 vince my honorable friend [Mr. Donnelly] 
 that there maybe something in arepublic more 
 dangerous than either slavery or ignorance ; 
 that is, educated intellect without the education 
 of the heart. The educated intellect of a vicious 
 man only makes him potent for evil. Educated 
 intellect made France of the last century a 
 nation of infidels ; educated intellect told the 
 people that there was no God but reason, and 
 they bowed down to the incarnation of reason 
 in the person of a naked prostitute. Educated 
 intellect paved the way for a reign of terror and 
 blood. But I do agree with him that a republic 
 could not be built or exist without intelligence ; 
 and while I would not. object to the ignorance 
 of the few, as not dangerous to free institutions, 
 I would object to the ignorance of the many. 
 
 I have no prejudices against the black man ; 
 I never had. I have always found him obli- 
 ging, polite, friendly, of an amiable disposition, 
 and with the simplicity of a "grown-up child." 
 I would rejoice to see him an intelligent free- 
 man. He now has the power, under God, to 
 work out his own destiny. He is, when edu- 
 cated, capable of self-government. But with 
 these views, I would be false to my constituents 
 and false to the Republic to give the control 
 of entire States to masses of ignorant men, 
 black or white. 
 
 3. But we are urged to pass the several bills 
 submitted to this Congress disfranchising the 
 white man of the South and putting him under 
 political control of the black man as "a punish- 
 ment." 
 
 Honorable gentlemen on this floor have 
 advocated these bills on this ground almost 
 entirely. Sir, I deny the power of Congress to 
 pass any law for the punishment of treason or 
 any other crime heretofore committed by south- 
 ern men. The Constitution which gave Con- 
 gress its powers, and which we have all sworn 
 to support, says, in language impossible to be 
 misunderstood, that — 
 
 "No billof attainder or ex post facto law shall be 
 passed." 
 
 By what authority, then, do members on this 
 
 floor urge the passage of ex post facto laws as 
 a punishment for crimes? By what authority 
 do members on this floor introduce bills which 
 are in spirit and effect bills of attainder in their 
 most odious forms? 
 
 "Bills of attainder are such special acts of the Legis- t 
 
 laturo as inflict capital punishment upon persons 
 supposed to be guilty of high offenses, such as trea- 
 son or felony, without any conviction in the ordi- 
 nary course of judicial proceedings. If an act inflicts 
 a milder punishment than death it is then called a 
 bill of pains and penalties. 
 
 "The punishment has often been inflicted without 
 calling upon the party to answer, or without even 
 the formality of proof, and sometimes because the 
 law in its ordinary course of proceeding would acquit 
 the offender. Tho injustice and iniquity of such acts 
 in general constitute an irresistible argument against 
 the existence of the power. In a free government it 
 would be intolerable; and in the hands of the reign- 
 ing faction it might and probably would be abused 
 to the ruin and death of the most virtuous citizens. 
 Bills of this sort have been most usually passed in 
 England in times of rebellion or of gross subserviency " 
 
 to the Crown or of violent political excitements, 
 periods in which all nations are most liable — as well 
 the free as the enslaved, to forget their duties and 
 to trample upon the rights and liberties of others."— 
 3 Story on the Constitution. 
 
 And yet members in contravention of these 
 constitutional safeguards of the liberties of the 
 citizen, advocate bills in which the Congress, as 
 a judicial tribunal, disfranchises citizens as a 
 punishment for crimes heretofore committed, 
 and not even restricting this judicial act to 
 cases of individuals by name, as in England, 
 but to large classes of the people without 
 designating names. < 
 
 Mr. Speaker, perhaps the proceedings of no . 
 Congress that ever assembled under the Con- 
 stitution have been watched with more intense 
 interest by the people ; every one felt when this 
 Congress assembled that its proceedings would 
 be for weal or for woe to the unborn millions 
 who will live and die under our national flag. 
 The States, the people felt that it would be a 
 struggle between a written Constitution, guar- 
 antying the rights of the States and guarding 
 the rights of the citizen, on the one hand, and 
 the centralization of despotic power in the Gen- 
 eral Government on the other hand. It had k 
 been announced by the principal organ of the 
 
9 
 
 radicals that this Government would be recon- 
 structed under "the form of a republic but 
 with the strength of a monarchy." No won- 
 der that our proceedings should excite intense 
 interest, for no more momentous subject could 
 
 \ engage the thoughts or enlist the interest of a 
 free people. 
 
 Mr. Speaker, no man will deny that this con- 
 flict has commenced. Sir, it will be "an irre- 
 pressible conflict" until centralization is tram- 
 pled into the dust under the indignant heel of 
 a free people determined to maintain the com- 
 pacts of the Constitution, or until the States, 
 shorn of their strength, are yoked to the car of 
 Federal power, and then a Constitution would 
 be a mockery. 
 
 The people of the United States have never 
 indicated their desire for a change of the or- 
 
 » ganic law by a reconstruction of the States. 
 Sir, this Congress was not elected upon such 
 an issue, and when, knowing this, I see a ma- 
 jority of this House voting in favor of propo- 
 sitions to change the fundamental law upon 
 subjects always held sacred by the people ; 
 when I see these changes of the fundamental 
 law submitted to Legislatures elected without 
 reference, to such changes, I tremble for my 
 country. I feel if I could by so doing change 
 the purposes of a majority of this House to 
 centralize power, I would do what I never 
 would do to mortal man, except for my God 
 
 • and for my country. I would kneel as a hum- 
 
 ble suppliant to my colleagues and pray them, 
 for the sake of God, for the sake of a generous, 
 confiding people, to pause until that people 
 could be heard ; that they would attach to 
 every, bill of amendment a requisition that 
 it shall be ratified by conventions instead of 
 Legislatures. Sir, as it now is, a Congress 
 elected without reference to amendment of the 
 Constitution may propose amendments, and 
 these amendments may be ratified by Legisla- 
 tures elected entirely on other issues ; thus the 
 fundamental law maybe changed, not only with- 
 out the knowledge, but against the will of a vast 
 majority of the people. It will be according to 
 
 the forms of the Constitution, but in violation 
 of its very spirit and essence. 
 
 Sir, that this bold attempt to override the 
 rights of the people is contemplated by the 
 champions of arbitrary power, and will be 
 made, I have the proof. I read the follow- 
 ing notice, published in the public presses : 
 
 "Pennsylvania.— Governor Curtin has taken upon 
 himself the duty of sending letters to the 'Governors 
 of all the loyal States,' urging them to convene the 
 Legislatures of their respective States, in order to 
 take action on the proposed constitutional amend- 
 ment which has lately been submitted to the country 
 by Congress. The Governor of Massachusetts is re- 
 ported as eager to respond, and is ready to call an 
 extra session of the Legislature any Saturday after- 
 noon." 
 
 No doubt, sir, every loyal radical Governor 
 is " eager to respond," while at the same time 
 he will prate about the duty of Congress to 
 "guaranty a republican form of government." 
 
 From the number and character of the bills 
 introduced as amendments of the Constitution, 
 some members seem to think that two thirds 
 of the Congress and three fourths of the States 
 have omnipotent power to change the funda- 
 mental law in all its parts. Sir, I deny that 
 power. There are reserved rights of the peo- 
 ple that were never surrendered, even under 
 the power of amendment; among these may be 
 enumerated the right of every mau to worship 
 God according to the dictates of his own con- 
 science — it is the inalienable right of every cit- 
 izen now and forever — and to this may be added 
 the right of suffrage. No State that ratified 
 the Constitution ever contemplated a grant of 
 power under an amendment of the Constitu- 
 tion, to pass bills of attainder, ex post fado 
 laws, to impose a tax or duty on articles ex- 
 ported from any State, or to establish a mon- 
 archy. Sir, if the Constitution when submitted 
 to the States had contained a provision au- 
 thorizing two thirds of Congress and thr^- 
 fourths of the States to so amend as to deprive 
 a citizen of the right to worship God, or to take 
 away the right of suffrage, or to pass bills of 
 attainder and ex post facto laws, or to impose 
 a tax on the exports of a State, or to establish 
 
10 
 
 a monarchy, does any sane man believe for a 
 moment that it would have been ratified by a 
 single State of " the Old Thirteen." Sir, our 
 lathers felt as we should feel, that there are 
 reserved rights which are inalienable ; that con- 
 stitutions bind posterity, and that we have no 
 right to bind posterity in the chains of arbi- 
 trary power. Yet, sir, we have a bill pending 
 for some time giving authority to Congress, by 
 an amendment of the Constitution, to authorize 
 the levy of a tax or duty on cotton, an amend- 
 ment which, if passed, would repeal that sec- 
 tion of the Constitution which was intended 
 by our fathers to protect commerce and to pre- 
 vent sectional legislation by the passage of 
 acts which might injure or destroy the staple 
 productions of a State in order to promote the 
 interests of another State, a power which 
 would array the cupidity of one class of our 
 citizens against the interests of another class, 
 the cupidity of the manufacturer against the 
 producer, the commercial against the agricult- 
 ural interests, and vice versa, to end in dis- 
 content, rebellion, or revolution. 
 
 Yet we have heard on this floor, in colloquial 
 debate, from the lips of a member of the dom- 
 inant party, a gentleman who, in cultivated 
 intellect, respectability, and eloquence, ranks 
 as high as any other member, the right of two 
 thirds of Congress and three fourths of the 
 States to establish a monarchy, under the plea 
 that when the people were ready to make such 
 a change they would be so demoralized that a 
 republican government would not be worth 
 contending for. Representatives of Illinois, 
 Indiana, Ohio, Missouri, New York, Penn- 
 sylvania, are you prepared to sanction this doc- 
 trine? Are you willing to admit such a lati- 
 tudinarian construction of the Constitution that 
 your constituents could have the fetters of a 
 monarchy riveted on their necks whenever 
 three fourths of the States become so demor- 
 alized as to require it by an amendment to the 
 Constitution? Are the rights of your constit- 
 uents to be governed by the demoralization of 
 others? Is that a condition in the compact. 
 
 either express or implied? Would your con- 
 stituents submit to the wrong, or would they 
 assert their inalienable rights by revolution ? 
 Yet we have heard the right of Congress as- 
 serted in bills and by members in debate to 
 regulate suffrage. You know that the power 
 to give includes the power to take away— a 
 power to disfranchise the people at the arbi- 
 trary will of a majority of Congress. Who can 
 doubt that the power would be exercised in 
 times of high political excitement? Are you 
 prepared to give this sacred right of your con- 
 stituents — the right of ballot — to the control 
 and keeping of a majority of Congress? 
 
 Mr. Speaker, I have been pained to hear the 
 passage of bills urged in this House by an ap-. 
 peal to the prejudices of party and the revenge- 
 ful feelings engendered by the heat of the late 
 conflict of arms. Legislation induced by pas- 
 sion should never be the legislation of a free 
 people in a free republic. We legislate and 
 propose amendments to the fundamental law, 
 not for a year or a century of years, but for all 
 coming time. We seem to forget that when we 
 legislate against the South or for party we legis- 
 late for our own posterity. Suppose we should 
 succeed in giving an ascendency to party or in 
 crippling the South in her resources ; what is 
 the life of a man or a party when compared 
 with the life of an empire? Parties are ephe- 
 meral. The places that now know the men of 
 the South, the actors in the late conflict, in a 
 few years "will know them no more forever," 
 but the (Republic should and will (if sustained 
 by wise legislation) endure forever. God grant 
 that it may stand impregnable, in the future as 
 in the past, against the assaults of traitors 
 within and foes without. 
 
 It is folly to make an organic law giving the 
 power to promote the interest of one section 
 at the expense of another section, however the 
 interest of one section may be identified with 
 the interest of another section now. That 
 identity of interest will not continue. With 
 the settlement of our vast Territories and the 
 development of their vast resources, new com- 
 
11 
 
 binations of interest and power will be formed. 
 The God of nature has identified the interests 
 of the West with the South, and the men of the 
 West in the future will be the political allies 
 of the men of the South, whether the men of 
 the South are white or black. 
 
 I need not say that every addition to the 
 powers of the Federal Government, either by 
 an amendment of the Constitution or by un- 
 constitutional construction, is by subtraction 
 from the powers of the States, and destroys the 
 equilibrium of powers intended to check des- 
 potism, and would leave the dearest rights of 
 the States and the people at the mercy of a 
 majority of Congress, which in a country of 
 suck vast extent as ours, with such diversified 
 productions, would inevitably result in sec- 
 tional parties, sectional legislation, and hatred 
 
 k of the Union. 
 
 I need not say that constitutions are made 
 for minorities not for majorities. I need not 
 say with what fearful speed we are gravitating 
 to centralization of power. Witness the tax- 
 ation of State banks out of existence ; the pas- 
 sage of bills by this House in relation to rail- 
 roads ; the power assumed over the right of 
 suffrage ; the attempt to destroy the independ- 
 ence of the State judiciary under the penalty 
 of fine and imprisonment ; the interference 
 with and virtual repeal of State laws ; the power 
 given to swarms of officers (including the officers 
 
 y of the Freedmen's Bureau) to arrest and im- 
 prison the citizens of every State ; but above all 
 the conversion of the United States into a great 
 eleemosynary corporation by the passage of 
 the "act to enlarge the power of the Freed- 
 men's Bureau," districting the United States, 
 with the establishment of military authority 
 over each district containing freedmen or refu- 
 gees ; an agent in each county armed with mil- 
 itary power, and authorized to supersede the 
 civil power by trial and condemnation of citi- 
 zens under the rules of the War Department, 
 prescribed by the President, without trial by 
 
 > jury; the establishment of poor-houses; the 
 
 erection of school-houses, and the support of 
 
 millions of paupers at the expense of the peo- 
 ple. And this bill, which conferred imperial 
 power on the President, and laid the personal 
 liberties of the people and the independence 
 of the State judiciary at the feet of military 
 power, the greatest stride to centralization ever 
 dreamed or attempted under our Constitution, 
 was only prevented from becoming a law by 
 the firmness of Andrew Johnson. For this 
 act the name of Andrew Johnson will live in 
 the heart of every friend of popular rights as 
 a champion and defender of the rights of the 
 States and liberties of the people in their hour 
 of peril until the Eepublic shall cease to 
 exist. 
 
 The plan of reconstruction, embracing the 
 refusal to permit eleven States to be represented 
 in Congress, is a grand scheme to perfect cen- 
 tralization. This plan of reconstruction pun- 
 ishes the innocent as well as the guilty in the 
 southern States, the loyalist as well as the 
 traitor. Tennessee, who broke the chains of 
 secession and stood in the ranks of the loyal 
 States, with loyal representatives, is placed in 
 the same category with South Carolina, and the 
 powers of the loyal States are also to be cur- 
 tailed under this plan of reconstruction. Who, 
 sir, ever believed that the secession of traitors 
 would reconstruct our Government ? Why, sir, 
 Jefferson Davis, in the height of his success, 
 never dreamed that success would result in a 
 reconstruction of our Government, much less 
 that his defeat would effect that result. Mr. 
 Speaker, I am not surprised that this effort to 
 reconstruct should be urged upon us. Many 
 men have long waited for some fortunate chance 
 to occur that might enable them to reconstruct 
 our institutions. The great "Head Center" 
 of the dominant party in this House, [Mr. Ste- 
 vens,] with a candor that does him honor, 
 recently said : 
 
 " In my youth, in my manhood, and in my old age, I 
 have fondly dreamed that when any fortunate chance 
 should have broken up the foundations of our institu- 
 tions and released us from obligations the most tyran- 
 nical that ever man imposed iu tho name of freedom. " 
 
 But thousands have prayed with more fer- 
 
12 
 
 vency than my venerable friend ever dreamed, 
 that this fortunate chance should never occur. 
 Sir, the people neither demand reconstruc- 
 tion nor centralization. They want restoration. 
 The industry and business of the country de- 
 mand immediate restoration. Thousands of 
 farmers, mechanics, and capitalists are waiting 
 to go South. Their industry and enterprise 
 would in a few years make that fair and fruit- 
 ful land, now desolated by war, to "bud and 
 blossom as the rose," but they will not settle 
 in a " conquered province," governed by mil- 
 itary force. 
 
 The financial interests of the country, the 
 tax-payers burdened with the largest national 
 debt upon earth, demand that their burdens 
 should be lightened by an immediate restora- 
 tion of the States, the industry, and produc- 
 tions of the South. 
 
 The friends of constitutional freedom demand 
 immediate restoration as a measure vital to the 
 preservation of the Constitution and perpetuity 
 of the Union. The Christian — not the radical 
 priest who preaches political " hatred and mal- 
 ice and all uncharitableness," who sees that 
 God is only a God of justice — not him, but the 
 Christian who believes that God is a " God of 
 love," ministers of the meek and lowly Jesus, 
 who taught His disciples to pray "Forgive us 
 our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass 
 against us," demand it. 
 
 Sir, the law of love and friendship is the 
 only law that can bind this Union in enduring 
 bonds. Sectionalism and sectional hate sooner 
 or later will rend it asunder. The policy of 
 statesmen should be conciliation, not vengeance. 
 I feel no hatred in my bosom toward the seces- 
 sion traitors of the South, or their allies the 
 sectional radical fanatics of the North, although 
 I believe, as much as I believe in my own exist- 
 ence, that they alike are responsible for the 
 blood of our sons. I would restore the Union 
 of my country in forgiveness and mutual con- 
 fidence. I would rest the foundations of the 
 Union on respect and love. 
 It is marvelous to me that statesmen cannot 
 
 see -that sectional denunciation and sectional 
 laws can never cement the Union of the States, 
 can never command or inspire the respect of 
 nationalities. Look at Ireland; centuries of 
 sectional oppression have not turned the spirit 
 of her sons or caused them to love their 
 ; ; union' ' with Great Britain. She was first ' ' a 
 conquered province," then England by bri- 
 bery and compulsion established "the Union," 
 a Union commenced in perfidy, and which 
 has been used by the British Parliament to 
 restrict her commerce, to load her with taxes, 
 and the result of which has been to drive 
 thousands of her sons to seek liberty and a 
 home under the flag of ' ' this great Republic. 
 Has sectional legislation, has the rule of force 
 instead of conciliation, made the Celt love the 
 Saxon and "the Union?" No! the wrongs 
 of the Irishman have been transmitted from 
 sire to son with undying hate, and at this very 
 hour one hundred thousand Irishmen now on 
 our soil stand ready to avenge their wrongs 
 and to give liberty to their fatherland. This 
 hereditary feeling of the Irish was "most elo- 
 quently expressed by President Roberts in an 
 address to the Fenians, as follows : 
 
 "The concentrated" wrongs of centuries are in our 
 hearts, and give strength to the perpetual longing for 
 Irish freedom which neither time nor obstacles can 
 quench." 
 
 Mr. Speaker, Ireland will yet be free, for — 
 
 "Freedom's battle once begun, 
 Bequeathed from bleeding sire to son, 
 Though baffled oft is ever won." 
 
 And where is the friend of human freedom 
 in this land that would not rejoice to see the 
 Irishman break his shackles and Ireland stand 
 a disenthralled nation in the family of nations ? 
 Yes, sir, Ireland will yet be free; "the green 
 flag" will again float over that beautiful isle, 
 and then, andr not until then, will the "epitaph 
 of Emmett be written" on bronze and marble, 
 as it is now written in every true Irish heart. 
 
 The soldiers who fought for the restoration 
 of the Union, who gave their blood to restore 
 the supremacy of the Constitution and the laws, 
 will demand that the Union conquered by their 
 
13 
 
 arms shall be restored. It will be folly to- tell 
 them that they fought in vain ; that they fought 
 to dissolve, not restore, the Union. If this 
 Congress fails to restore the Union of the 
 States (and Congress is the only obstacle to 
 that restoration) they -will say that radical 
 ideas have done what the armies of traitors in 
 the field could not do — prevented the restora- 
 tion of the Union. No glittering generalities 
 like the glittering veil of the false prophet of 
 KliOBQSsan can deceive them. You may talk 
 to them and repeat the stereotyped phrases 
 about "the right," "humanity," "indemnity 
 for the past and security for the future," 
 "brotherhood of man," "hands dripping with 
 human gore," &c, and you may frame bills 
 with titles proposing to facilitate the restora- 
 tion of the Union, while they in effect post- 
 pone it, but they will tell you that they fought 
 for immediate restoration, not for postpone- 
 ment. 
 
 The Democratic party demands to a man the 
 restoration of the Union. That grand old party 
 who always maintained the faith of compacts, 
 who always stood as faithful sentinels on the 
 ramparts of the Constitution, who never in 
 legislation knew any East or West or North or 
 South, who from the time the foundations of the 
 Constitution were laid warned the people against 
 sectional fanatics, and repeated the warning 
 until they were scoffed at as "Union savers;" 
 that old party by whose policy, under God, this 
 Republic marched steadily onward to a posi- 
 tion of power and resources that has placed 
 her in the van of nations, a party without whose 
 united aid in men and money during a rebel- 
 lion inaugurated by sectional parties the Union 
 would have been swept like chaff before the 
 whirlwind, that grand old party demands im- 
 mediate restoration, not reconstruction. 
 
 Mr. Speaker, there can be no evasion now 
 of the great issues to be tried before the tribune 
 of the people, union or disunion? the consti- 
 tutional rights of the States or centralization 
 of power in the General Government ? 
 
 Sir. if the southern States are out of the 
 
 Union, then is our flag, intended as the emblem 
 of the union of the States and power of this 
 great Republic, in truth what a radical once pro- 
 claimed it, "a flaunting lie," and you should 
 tear eleven stars from its glorious constellation. 
 Mr. Speaker, let this agitation cease, now 
 and forever. Let us heal the wounds of our 
 bleeding country. Let us restore the Union 
 before we adjourn. It can be done in an hour. 
 Let us do it, and the patriotic shouts of the 
 people will greet our return to our constitu- 
 ents, and an impetus will be given to industry 
 and enterprise which in its results will aston- 
 ish the world. 
 
 Let us repudiate all hatred, all sectionalism, 
 in our speeches or legislative acts. Let us act 
 on the principle of " malice toward none, with 
 charity for all," and we will bind the Union in 
 bands of iron. 
 
 Let us lighten the burdens of the sons of 
 toil by lifting the taxes from the necessaries 
 of life ; but above all, let us inaugurate the sys- 
 tem of "eight hours a day" for the laborer and 
 mechanic in the employ of the Government. 
 It would pioneer the way to a general intro- 
 duction of the system into all the departments 
 of industry. Let us give the laborer and me- 
 chanic time to cultivate his intellect, to study 
 the Constitution of his country, to commune 
 with his family and teach his children, to wor- 
 ship God, to relax his nerves. Ah! who can 
 tell, as has been eloquently expressed in song 
 by the gifted and respected wife of a laborer 
 in the city of Trenton : 
 
 " Who can toll what harps are hushed 
 By the roar of forge and wheel; 
 Or what mighty minds are crushed 
 'Neath oppression's iron heel? 
 
 " Masters ! count the gain, the cost, 
 Labor pays from every pore. 
 By the grand inventions lost, 
 
 Shrouded stars and buried ore. 
 Brothers, cast your bonds away, 
 Give the word, ' eight hours a day.' " 
 
 Let us remember that the stability of the 
 
 Republic under God depends on the working 
 
 men. They compose our armies : they man 
 
 our navies ; they pour out their blood in our 
 
 defense ; they are never defiled with political 
 
14 
 
 corruption. I solemnly believe that if the lib- 
 erties of this country are ever destroyed by for- 
 eign force or domestic treason that the last 
 hand that will uphold the last standard of free- 
 dom will be the hand of the working man, and 
 in his bosom liberty will find her last resting- 
 place. Let us do this, and we will bind the 
 heart of the working man to his country and 
 its institutions with ties that cannot be severed 
 by human influence or human power. 
 
 Let us double the pension of the soldier who 
 was maimed or disabled in the service of the 
 Republic ; give him at least enough to supply 
 his necessary wants through life. Do not let 
 us calculate his services by dollars and cents, 
 or the increase of the national debt. He was 
 the means of saving to the country the richest 
 territory on earth, which, without his services, 
 would have been lost to the Republic. Do not 
 let him wander through the nation, whose life 
 he was the means of preserving, in a condition 
 but little above the condition of a pauper. And 
 let us show to the living that we appreciate his 
 services by doing our duty to the memory of 
 the dead. Alas! we cannot give our thanks 
 to the gallant dead. Three hundred thousand 
 torn by shot or shell or bayonet, or destroyed 
 by disease, "sleep the sleep that knows no 
 waking" at Arlington, Andersonville, Gettys- 
 burg, and on the soil of a hundred battle-fields. 
 
 " The muffled drum's sad roll has beat 
 
 The soldier's last tattoo; 
 No more on life's parade shall meet 
 
 The brave and fallen foe. 
 On Fame's eternal camping-ground 
 
 Their silent tents are spread, 
 And glory guards with solemn round 
 
 The bivouac of the dead." 
 
 They cannot receive our gratitude, but let 
 us do what we can to honor their memory ; let 
 us double or treble the pension of his wife, 
 made a widow, and his children, made father- 
 less, by his devotion to the Union. 
 
 Let us do this, and we shall never want for 
 soldiers who will spring to arms against foreign 
 invaders or domestic traitors. Let us avoid 
 the exercise of all doubtful power. Let us 
 maintain the supremacy of the civil over the 
 military power. Let us maintain the independ- 
 ence of the judiciary; the freedom of speech; 
 the freedom of the press; the right of trial by 
 jury, as rights inestimable to the people "and 
 formidable to tyrants only." Let us foster and 
 promote public virtue. Let us establish a com- 
 mission before which the loyal and innocent 
 victim of the arbitrary power exercised during 
 the rebellion may prove his loyalty and inno- 
 cence, and thus save his name from the brand 
 of treason and his children from the humilia- 
 tion of being pointed out by the finger of scorn 
 as the offspring of a traitor. Let there be pro- 
 vided a redress for every wrong committed 
 within the limits of the Republic; then our 
 laws will be reverenced, and the proudest title 
 that a man on earth can boast, will be, "I am 
 an American citizen." 
 
 Let us do this, and the Republic will be per- 
 petual ; then we can look with an eye of faith 
 through coming ages and see our people the 
 most prosperous on earth ; united under one 
 God, one Constitution, one destiny, and oui 
 beloved Republic, standing immutable in hei 
 strength then as she now is, "the asylum of 
 the oppressed, the home of freemen." 
 
 • 
 
 KM 
 
 •*" *■ 
 

• 
 
 ' 
 

 
• 
 
p 
 

 
 v 
 

 ' 
 





 pl-p 
 
 A 
 

 
 ."V 
 
 
 
 
 
 * 
 
 
 
> : 
 
 U 
 
 £ r. » O . ^<S> 1 
 
 
 )V* . ^-o< 
 
 .0 
 
 y ^ 
 
 •«. *> . 'V. <* 
 
 o>S 
 
 <*v 
 
 
 
 
 o 
 
 
 
 \ 
 
 V 
 
 •7- 
 
 v * 
 
 V 
 
 \ y° > \ y *i 
 
 
 o 
 
 ^ 
 
 v-* 
 
 
 ^/° 
 
 
 
 j>^ 
 
 
 
 V, 
 
 V 
 
 / ...**. 
 
 -V 
 
 ^°* 
 
 A 
 
 o V 
 
 
 
 
 G> *• „ o ' 
 
 y 
 
 
 '<>• 
 
 
 ^ ^. 
 
 
 y .i^> ^ 
 
 
 
 
 . v /^ ^ ^ 
 
 >*• ° y 
 
 
 v 1 
 
 
 
 .-«* ^o y 
 
 

 <£>■ ''it 
 
 
 ^ *b K 
 
 V 
 
 ^ * 
 
 % 
 
 >* 
 
 iP-n*. 
 
 
 v 
 
 °^ 
 
 ■ ■> .r 
 
 t *' 
 
 ^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 > 
 
 V 
 
 ,* 
 
 
 *bv* 
 
 ^ o 
 
 
 
 
 o 
 o 
 
 o 
 
 
 N. MANCHESTER 
 INDIANA 
 
 
 O 
 
 -3 ^