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 Restoration of Georgia— The True Condition of the South— Universal 
 Amnesty the Remedy. 
 
 SPEKCH 
 
 HON. PETER M. BOX, 
 
 IN THE HOUSK OV KKPRKSENTATIYKS, JUNK 6, 1870. 
 
 The House having met for flebate »as iu Com- shall, with your p»>ruiin8ion and tliat of the 
 luittee of the Whole ou thestateof the Union — Ilourfe, «;rKlHav(.r to show from my iuformatioa 
 
 of the reaMispositionsofthepHopleofthe .South, 
 
 Mr. DOX said: ja^jj,l particularly of that Stat^ for which I claim 
 
 Mr. Speaker : What it is my purpose to say a right to speak, that no cause exists which 
 to. night will be in execution of a purpose i.s founded in justice or good .s»insM for treating 
 formed shortly after the passage through this any one of the southern States — whether it be 
 House of the bill for the restoration of ( Georgia Georgia or Tenuessen or Alabama — in a man- 
 to the place in the Union so long denied to that i^er ditierent from our treatment of ev-ery^other 
 State. It was my purpose to liave delivered State. 
 
 the remarks I shall now make upon tlie occa-' I propose, therefore, to speak in th** interest 
 sion of the consideration of the amendments of the State of (itjorgia and of tiie people of 
 made by the Senate to that bill. It is not tlie State which I have the honor iii part to 
 necessary for me to say to you, sir, or to any 'represent. In so speaking, I shall say what 
 one now present, that causes beyond my con-il conscientiously believe to be conservative of 
 trol have prevented the action of this House, the rights of every State and of the people of 
 and the action of the other branch of Congress every State of that Union which I have ever 
 upon that subject, uow so long unjustly de- sought to maintain. It was truly said by one 
 ferred. of the sternest and most faithful of the early 
 
 Mr. Speaker, what I conceive to be the true advocates of free government "that an a.-^sault 
 theory of the relation to the Union which is against the liberty of one citizen should be 
 sustained by the several States under the Con-rebuked as an assault against the liberties of 
 stitution, which was made to perfect and to every citizen." With equal truth may it be 
 perpetuate that Union, compels me to deny, on said'that whatever, luider a constitutional Gov- 
 the one hand, that iiny State can voluntarily ernment, impairs the rights of any member of 
 withdraw from that Union, and, on the other, that Government, not only threatens to impair 
 to assert that no just authority exists anywhere but is a direct blow which strikes at the rights 
 to exclude any State from the Union for a day of all the members of such Government. So, 
 or for a single hour. / likewise, in a luiion of ei^rial States, having 
 
 Such exclusion, if enforced against a State, rights guarantied by the .-sanctions of a written 
 is wrong not only to the excluded State, but is, constitution, whatever of wrong or of injustice 
 as I believe, iu violation of the Constitution, is done to one of those States, no matter under 
 When, therefore, Georgia applied on a former what pretense, must be regarded not only as 
 occasion for a recognition of her right to repre- violative of the c« nstitution, which is the com- 
 sentation in Congress I voted for such recogni- mon shield of all, '.)Utas a deadly assault against 
 tion without ••ondition or (lualification of any the very life of each iu whatever makes the 
 kind. A like vote I gave in the case of Vir- defiilitiou of a fre<- State. 
 
 ginia, and in the cases of Mississippi and Texati. Perhaps, for this statement of what were once 
 As I voted for the recognition of the unqualilied respecte<l as aphorisms of freedom the only 
 right of Georgia to representation iu Congress commentary in some quarters may l>e expressed 
 on a former occasion, so I shall vote at this by a smile o€ derision, and, possibly, of con- 
 time, tempt. Man3r min«i» are so constituted that 
 It will not be my purpose, Mr. Speaker, iu the baser passdons, when habitually indulged, 
 the remarks to which I am about to invito the will become so stron.zly interwoven in the very 
 attention of members, to conrine myself to the texture and fr: ime of thought ^s to corrupt and 
 legal proposition of the right of tlie State of debase, and tiu.aUy enslave it. so that, like the 
 Georgia to be represented iu Congress. Fol- distorted visio of the eye which can see only 
 lowing the line of remark already pursued on obliquely the (. »bject£>. ^fore it, it will accept no 
 tiiis subiect both here and in the Senate, I truth hWeyer ^aln»b1e, but will spurn alike> 
 

 as no longer wortliy of iesi-ect, tne wisest 
 maxims and tlii. I t-st lessons which have been 
 learned in tuope long stmgglps i y wuu ii was 
 won whatever is worthy of the name of free 
 dom, whether applied to Governments or to 
 peoples. But it is the reckless and the indif- 
 ferent who most need the admonition,-; ( t >i.Tn- 
 ger. Disobedience, the synonym ol sm, in its 
 largest sense is but t^ e violation of law 
 whether human cr divine, luiX is ever stimu 
 lated by repetition until rtrangled in the clutch 
 of the vices to which it has given birth, it 
 perishes in tt^vj catastrophe of a base and igno 
 ble ruin . 
 
 The analogies of nature and of morals are 
 replete with illustration of the truth that no 
 wrong, however specious its disguises, will be 
 permuted to continue so long that it will not 
 at some time I o adequately redre.; f'I. There 
 is, no doctrine better s u.^ortixl than that which 
 insists on compensation joi iirury and retribu- 
 tion for evil. It is tin* doctrine o individual 
 responsibility, and it is, as I conceive, appli- 
 cable to all men in their largest aggregation, 
 however expressed by the simplest forms of 
 society or fortiiied by the powers which com- 
 bine to maii;e Governments. We may excuse 
 ourselves tor wrou--- i Hicted on others by the 
 imputation of uuw( ithiness, or even of crime, 
 against tl-ose w'.irm we select as the victims of 
 torture. 1. isregarding the lessons of charity, 
 which are aliMxe the inculcations of wisdom 
 and of just policy, we may hesitate at no ex- 
 treme ot rigorous and relentless penalty until 
 we ourselves in punishing wrong may outstrip 
 by our own offen es those of which we are the 
 unappeasable ii not the authorized avengers. 
 
 Because the penalty of death may l-e justly 
 denounced against the most heinous crin.es 
 none can justly claim that such penalty can be 
 rightly applied when preceded by protracted 
 and ingenious torture. All lawful human pow- 
 ers have their limits, justly and strictly defined, 
 if not by law, by the common conscience and 
 by the judgment of enlightened minds. Those 
 just limits are exceeded, as well 1 y persistence 
 in the imposition of penalties as l>y 1 1 eir sever- 
 ity . * 'Whip me, if I deserve it, ' * says the school- 
 boy; " but then stop, and give me a chance to 
 do better." This is every true man's sense of 
 justice, rightly administered. A disregard of 
 the rule, so well founded, which it suggests 
 will always make a revolt in the human heart. 
 It will do more ; it will excuse such revolt. 
 
 Now, Mr. Speaker, I appeal to the Repre- 
 sentatives of the people, in whose presence I 
 stand ; nay, I go further^ and I appeal to the 
 people who make up the great and intelligent 
 constituencies of these Representatives, and I 
 ask them whether there has not been in the 
 past legislation of the country, so far as the 
 same has sought by persistent, protracted, and 
 ever-varying penalties, to punis,h the great 
 offense of the late reb'^llion maintained by 
 
 many people residing in different States of the 
 Union, a great deal which would not bear the 
 !e?t r the just rules I have endeavored to ex- 
 press ? Is there not, I ask, in the spirit of 
 malice and hate which not here, so far as I 
 know, but in quarters which imperiously seek 
 to influence the legislation of the country, very 
 much which, if listened to, will vindicate the 
 justice and the truth of what I have spoken ? 
 
 For more than fifteen years I have lived in j 
 the State which I have tlie honor in part to 
 represent. When I first went among the peo- 
 ple of Alabama I was received by them with all 
 that cordial and generous hospitality which is 
 ever most grateful to the heart of a stranger. 
 I was welcomed as one who was entitled to be 
 recognized as an equal among them in the pur- 
 suit of whatever was worth winning of charac- | 
 ter and of honors in life. Never anywhere be- 
 fore in my experience, or under my observation, 
 had I received or seen more of kindness and 
 generous treatment unreservedly extended by \ 
 any people to one unheralded by large reputa- j 
 tiou or by reputation of any kind beyond that 
 which an honest man ever carries with him, 
 even though unaided by adventitious supports. ' 
 I went to my then new home with the opin- 
 ions, the habits, and perhaps with some of the 
 prejudices of the people among whom I was 
 born and with whom I had been reared. Not * 
 one of those opinions did 1 hesitate to express 
 in every proper way ; not one of my habits, so 
 far as they determined my personal deport- 
 ment, did I circumscribe or restrain ; not a 
 prejudice, if I had prejudices, did I surrender. 
 
 Educated in Democratic principles, though 
 not always a member of the Democratic party, 
 I avowed those principles. Taught to regard 
 the Union of the States, and its maintenance 
 by all the powers which could be exercised 
 within the just limitations of the Constitution 
 as the great conservator of peace and happi- 
 ness to the whole country, I proclaimed myself 
 its earnest though humble supporter. Taught, 
 also, ever to regard the just rights of the States 
 and their inviolable maintenance as indispens- 
 able to the preservation of fraternal feelings 
 among the people of different States of diver- 
 sified interests, springing from every variety of 
 climate and production, and needing as a 
 necessary condition of just development local 
 legislation of a different though not incongru- 
 ous or hostile character, I firmly avowed my 
 purpose to maintain those rights and to oppose 
 whatever threatened their invasion. 
 
 With such consideration and character as 
 these opinions and a faithful attention to my 
 own business gave me, I pursued the avocation 
 to which Providence assigned me unmolested 
 by any one, because I made it a duty then, as 
 I have ever striven to make it a duty, to do in- 
 justice to no one, however humble, and submit 
 to injustice from no oxe, however exalted. 
 When the ambitious political leaders of th*5 
 
^^ South, stimulated by what I considered as un- 
 ^T^warranted aggressions upon what had from th« 
 foundation of the (Government l^enu rt-garded 
 si as the peculiar and lawful institutions of tliosn 
 *^ States, were striving by earn<^st efforts to fir« 
 - *the hearts of the people of my adojttod State, 
 ^^and to compel them to attempt secession from 
 ^he Union as a remedy for the wrongs with 
 ^^ which th«y were threatened, I opposed those 
 efforts to the extent of my powers. I bailie ved 
 then, as I do now and shall always l)pliHve, 
 that the doctrine of secession was not author- 
 ized by the Constitution, that it was neithnr a 
 right reserved to the States, nor in any sense 
 the proper remedy for the wrongs to wliich any 
 State or number of States was then exposed. 
 And in this opinion I know that a large major- 
 ity of the people of the district which I repre- 
 sent then concurred, and, as I believe, still 
 concur. 
 
 With these opinions the late war, at its com- 
 mencement, found me. I maintained tliem 
 consistently throughout that long and unhappy 
 struggle, and I maintain them to its tHrmina- 
 tion in the triumph of the cause of the Union. 
 As I foresaw and predicated that the abolition 
 of slavery would be the logical, if not the ne- 
 cessary conserjuonce of such termination, I 
 also unreservedly accepted tbat consequence, 
 and down to this moment I accept it, without 
 respect to the sacrifices it may have imposed 
 upon me personally. In justice to maoy an 
 honest original secessionist — indeed it is my 
 duty to say in justi<!e to a large and controll- 
 ing majority of the leading secessionists of the 
 South, that they, to«, a('cepted in good faitli 
 all that the war bad accomplished, whether 
 for the just maintenance of the Union, for the 
 overthrow of the heresy of secession, or for the 
 abolition of slavery. And, as Clod is my judge, 
 I believe that at no time since the surrender 
 of the armies of the confederacy has thn thought 
 been entertained or the purpose conceived by 
 any considerable Humber of intelligent men,' 
 even among those who wer^^ original seces- 
 sionists, whi<"b pointed in ;i different dire<?tiou 
 from that which I have indicated. If any sudi 
 there be it lias not been my fortune to meet 
 them even in the confidence 
 
 A thousand times rather would I that honest 
 men aniong my political opponents, and I have 
 no doubt tht^re are many such in the country, 
 should be intrusted with the powers of admin- 
 istration in (iovernment, no matter in what de- 
 partment, than that one of niy own party, 
 hyi)Ocritically professing its principles only a.s 
 a cloak to cover his knavish purposes of self- 
 aggrandizement, should be intrusted with such 
 administration. If, tht-refore, after the latw 
 war, wheTi meeting an original secessionist, 
 one who believed in that her»;sy as a ri^'ht, 1 
 had reason to think or to know that be ha i 
 been honest in the profession of that belief . 
 that so believing he had bravely an<l fairlv 
 fought for its maintenance, and that he had n- 
 bravely surrendered it when to li^ht longer w.i~ 
 hopeless, all I asked of such an one, all, in 
 deed, that any party or individual hati a rij^L' 
 to ask of such an one was, '• Are you ready t.> 
 support the (jovernment of tlie Union und-r 
 the Constitution which defines its powers, aban- 
 doning forever your doctrine of secession, and 
 accepting in good faith the abolition forever v' 
 slavery?" If to that question he answer.-.! 
 "Yes," I had nothing further to say, and, W- 
 lieving him to be an honest man, he and I wer-- 
 thereafter as Itrothers, who might differ, as all 
 honest men may and sometimes do differ, on 
 subjects presented for their acceptance or rejec- 
 tion, wheth<;r upon politics or religion, or upon 
 whatever other subjects enter into the affairs 
 of men or of nations. 
 
 It is, therefore, from my own personal expe- 
 rience, from my observations made with the 
 best opportunities for observation, and from 
 the experience and observation of others in 
 whose judgment and integrity I confide, that I 
 unhesitatingly assert that had the j>eople of 
 the southern States l)een re« »-ived back into the 
 Union in the spirit which these remark-s indi- 
 cate the war of tlie rebellion would by this 
 time have been remembered aud in all future 
 time would have been remeniV>ered only as a 
 struggle bravely maintain«'d by people of differ- 
 ent sections, contending for what each side re- 
 garded as its iust and lawful rights, and there- 
 fore its duty to support with whatevj-r of rero- 
 uureservp of'lution an<l power it conld command. There 
 
 social life, and to that confidence I have been 
 admitted by the people of the South as fully as 
 I ever was by the people of the great aud noble 
 Stata of New York, in which I first saw the 
 light. 
 
 The truth is, Mr. Speaker, the distance which 
 separates honest men and brave men of oppo- 
 site political parties is not so great as is often 
 supposed. Much nearer together kre such men 
 than they themselves sometimes believe. A 
 common sincerity of purpose, a common hou 
 
 ^vonld, indeerl, have been many a widowed 
 heart and mauy an orphati to be comforted ; 
 but " He who tempers th»' wind to the shorn 
 lamb" wonl<l have furnished in the kindly and 
 fraternal tempers of the whole people, in the 
 new life which, under the auspices of peace 
 and love, would have Wen infused into all, 
 many consolations which a legislation marked 
 by a different spirit, and too often vindictive- 
 and cruel, has forbidden. 
 
 Even now, after an expenditure of untold 
 
 estv, is and should be a much stronger tie of | millions of dollars most unnecessarily wasted 
 union among all honest men than anv politi-isince the war in the work ol restoring to the 
 cal, or than any religious tenet, except in those 'Union, States which ha I never succeeded m 
 cases in which vital principles are involved, leaving it ; notwithstanding this great addition 
 
to our overwhelming national debt made in tlie 
 interest of imposture and wrong ; notwithstand- 
 ing the many falsehoods detailed with all the 
 circumstance which ingenious malice or a base 
 and ignoble ambition could conceive, imputing 
 to the people of tlio South purposes which have 
 never intermitted of hostility to the Union, 
 crimes of the iQost flagitious character against 
 Union men, whether living in the South or go- 
 ing to the South from other parts of the coun- 
 
 munity there was not to be found any of the 
 
 blood which coursed in the veins of the heroes 
 who withstood British tyranny at Bunker Hill, 
 at Concord, and at Lexington. The picture I 
 have drawn of the condition of the people in 
 many parts of the south but faintly protrays 
 the reality. The patient endurance with which 
 it is borne excites alike my suprise and my ad- 
 miration. For, with much of error to be 
 atoned for — alas ! bitterly and in humiliation 
 
 try ; and especially imputing to the people of j atoned for—what has been already inflicted on 
 
 the South outrages of the vilest character, that people and is daily inflicted— utterly sur- 
 
 against the poor colored man who never can 
 find a better friend — one indeed who will feed 
 him when hungry, clothe him when naked, or 
 administer to him in sickness more cheerfully 
 than will his old master ; notwithstanding all 
 these and a thousand other calumnies, the 
 foundation and excuse of as many persecutions, 
 if the national legislation shall ceane to find its 
 
 passes not only my conceptions of the largest 
 penalties for political offenses, but as I would 
 in charity believe, far exceeds in its degrading 
 results anything conceived by those who 
 framed the legislation which, if pursued to the 
 end to which it would logically lead, will cer- 
 tainly effect the utter ruin, in all the higher 
 attributes of character of, it may be a some- 
 
 inspiration in the sources of uncharitablenessj times erring, but always a brave and noble 
 and hate, my word for it in a very short time ; people. One of the most alarming symptoms 
 there will be a different condition of things, I of deterioration in any people oppressed . and 
 looking to the interests of all classes, white and! humiliated by prosecution is, to my mind, an 
 
 colored, obtaining in the South than that which 
 lias obtained under the domination of the po- 
 litical adventurers who, going there from the 
 Lord alone knows what remote corner, have 
 had placed among them, by the aid of the Fed- 
 eral military power, official trusts which in the 
 vast majority of cases they are utterly unable 
 to execute with credit to themselves or with 
 
 uncomplaining submission to such prosecution. 
 
 A truly wise Government will sometimes 
 punish, but it will never persecute. 
 
 I confess, almost with shame do I confess it 
 Mr. Speaker, that no matter how vile may be 
 the calumnies with which tue southern people 
 are pursued, no matter how successfully such 
 oalumnies are employed in invoking renewed 
 
 benefit to any one. Bad laws are being con- [persecutions by the instrumentality of hostile 
 stantly enacted by the strange dynasties which! legislation againsL the people of my State and 
 govern in the South, while good laws are badly 'other southern States— I repeat it is with 
 
 administered. Men are elevated by the votes 
 of poor, ignorant, innocent negroes to the high 
 est judicial positions who would not dare to 
 aspire in any northern State to the office of a 
 cross-roads justice ; sheriffs are chosen who are 
 incompetent to make an intelligible return ol 
 the service of x^rocess, and offices of all kinds, 
 through all the grades of ri-'sponsibility, are 
 occupied by men utterly incompetent to the 
 proper discharge of the commonest official duty. 
 Indeed, incapacity and the grossest ignorance 
 are the rule (to which there are exceptions, but 
 exceptio prohat regu/um) among not only the in- 
 ferior officers in my State, bat with those of 
 high judicial position ; and thus is there gen- 
 erally violated a fundamental principle of 
 Magna Charta, ' ' That no man should be an 
 officer of justice without knowledge of the law. ' ' 
 And yet, with such a condition of things gen- 
 erally prevailing, with everything like official 
 qualification branded and ostracised, it is ex- 
 pected that crime will not exist nor outrage be 
 perpetrated 1 
 
 Why, Mr. Speaker, the most orderly oorn- 
 munity of Puritans in New England would re- 
 volt in open rebellion against such a rule as is 
 to-day imposed upon many parts of the South. 
 If I should be mistaken in this it would be be- 
 cause among those who composed such com- 
 
 shame that I confess to a disposition to be 
 silent under the recital of those calumnies and 
 the avowal of such intended persecutions. It 
 may be that we of the South have received so 
 many shocks that our sensibilities have become 
 deadened ; that we are in the condition of the 
 poor culprit, who, when broken on the wheel, 
 was, alter the first dislocation, utterly insensible 
 to the supposed agonies of the next in the series 
 of his tortures. If such should ever become 
 the condition of the South, then will the white 
 man" of that unhappy section have become 
 more despised iu his ])ondage and more help- 
 lessly a slave than were the innocent and half- 
 civilized race 'so recently panoplied with the 
 great privileges and the greater responsibilities 
 of freemen — privileges which white men were 
 centuries in extorting from the iron hand of 
 tyranny, responsibilities so momentous that 
 that our ability to bear them with the largest 
 benefit to ourselves and the smallest harm to 
 others is still a problem needing the salution 
 of a larger experience than any which our 
 history can furnish. 
 
 But I am met here by the charge of outrages 
 of difi'erent kinds — all, all, it is alleged, the 
 legacies of rebellion, all committed in the in- 
 terest and in the spirit of rebellion! To this 
 accusation of crimes, so fer as their conneo- 
 
tion with the late rebelhon is concerned, except tation of criminal pnrpofies generallr and es- 
 asthej are the necessary consequence and con- Ipeeially of hostility to th*. Government and 
 comitantot the misgoveinments which haveunion. A more unfounded a.cu8ntion than this 
 been forced upon the southern people since n.-ver was conceived or uttered. To prove this 
 the rebellion was suppressed, I give my distinct to be so I present to you the teatimonv of Gov- 
 
 and emphatic denial. Every crime in the cat- 
 
 alogue of oflfences occur ing in the States of the[ooypr^or of Alal 
 
 ernor W. IT. Swith, the present RMpublican 
 
 )ama. Governor Smith, on tlie 
 
 South 18 m these days tlippantly, and falsely as|„amH 14th of April, possibly in the verv hour 
 
 liippantly, attributed to the tamo spirit whi<-hji„ ^i^i^h the Senator from "Indiana eave ntter- 
 
 mvokedthe late rebellion. The calumniator ^n.-e to his a.<-nsations a^rainst the people of 
 
 of States is entitled to an equal place in thel Alabama, i.ssiied a proclamation from the capi- 
 
 caleudar ot mfamy with that which is held by Ual of that State, in which he aavs • 
 
 the destroyer of tlie liberties of a people. ,,mi t. • -, , . 
 
 These, like other calumnies, have generally . yi^« ^'Xecutive avails himself of this o....a- 
 
 originated with and been kept alive by those ^^^V" ^T?'^f ^'''^^''^*''^ ''^I'''''^''^-''^'" «^*^'* 
 
 who themselves make, and most need, the F"^'^ 'l^'?'^""^ "^^^^^,^'^''1''"^ <^^^ 
 
 largest drafts upon the charity of their fellow-''^ !^^'^.^^ ^^^^""^ order have been maintained, 
 
 j^g^ ^ "^ lerabraciug nearly all the conntie.'? and an over- 
 
 A person who once held a judicial position ; ^^''^^"^^"•^ "^^•''•'•'*^ ^'^ *^"^ P^^^P^^ ^^ the State.- 
 was assassinated but the other day at Decatur, j And I read only the otb.-r dav a statement 
 in north Alabama, by a personal enemy, to'that his honor, the district judge of the Ped- 
 avenge a conceived or real wrong committed 'eral district of north Alabama, discharged thn 
 several years since ; and behold! the telegraph grand jury summoned to in(]uire into offen.«<eg 
 was at once employed by one who occupies the committed in that portion of the State becan."*' 
 place of a Senator to inform his colleagues of | as he said, he was advised bv the pro.secutor 
 the crime, accompanied by the suggestion that for the people in behalf of the Unit.-d Stat-s 
 it was committed in the interests of the late re- that there was no occasion for their services : and 
 bellion, and instigated by a spirit of hostility then, turning to the andienee, the judge cor- 
 to the Government of the United States ! For gratulated them upon being a portion of a com- 
 what reason a suggestion so utteely fglf^e couldmunity in which peace and order so obtained 
 have been made I cannot conceive, uules.s it that he had known no community more worthy 
 was that an excuse might be given for forging; of commendation for pea«e and quiet and the ob- 
 the chains which are to bind Georgia and Ten- 'servance of law and order than were the peo- 
 ncssee, and possibly Alabama, in a more hu- 'pie of the district of nothern Ala})ama. Com- 
 miliating bondage than which already de- ing as this did from a judge whose prejudices 
 grades those once free and independent Com- were, if he had any, not in favor of that peo- 
 mon- wealths. About the same time, possibly 'pie, I ask those who now hear me, and those 
 on the very day in which this crime was com-, who may read what I say, to give heed to these 
 mitted in north Alabama, Colonel Winder was remarks, and to give them that weight to which 
 assassinated by a personal enemy in the hall the oflfloial character of their author entitles 
 of the court-house of Kansas City. Aboat the'tbem. 
 
 same time, also, an honest German citizen of' Now, I submit these contradictory .statements 
 St. Louis was killed by an unknown assassin, to the House and to the country without a sin- 
 in the twilight of the evening, almost on thejgle remark. Hut I re.spectfnUy suggest that 
 door-sill of his house, and had I the taste'the RepulOican (Governor of Alabama, living on 
 which caters for and would make a catalogue'the spot, i.s likely to know as much as any one 
 of crimes I have no doubt I could find oflfenseslin regard to the true condition of onr people. 
 more heinous, the motive which prompted! I am also satisfied that he is (juite as credible 
 them considered, and more numerons, in pro- a witness in any court as is the Senator from 
 portion to the population, committed in most|lndiana or any witness he has cited, thod^ 
 northern cities ami States than are committed that Senator may be onn of those exceptionallv 
 in the cities and States of the South, every one virtuous people who have the highest anthoritv 
 of which can, with just about as much reason, I for reckoning themselves in the cat.»gorv of 
 be called legacies of the rebellion, or imputedthose who are ]>ermitted to throw stones at 
 to the spirit of the rebellion, as was the mur- others. 
 
 der committed at Decatur, or any other crime Why, sir, only thi-; morning I .saw a letter 
 committed by southern offenders. from Colonel .T .1. Giers, of Morgan countv. one 
 
 On the 14th of April last past a Senator from of the three « ounties of Alambama in which 
 Indiana saw tit in his ph. -e in the Senate to outrages have Iven « ommitted, but not of a 
 characterize my State as the scene of outrages political character nor in any way connected 
 of the vilest character: and because murders with politi«^s. Colonel Giers, everybody knows 
 had been committed in two or three counties he 'who knows anything about him. has' alwavs 
 also saw fit to reflect upon the people of char- been a Union man and a Republican. And 
 acter and intelligence in Alabama by the impn-,what does he say f Why, he says that Mor- 
 
gan county is peaceable and orderly. And 
 Colonel Giers also shows in his own case how 
 untrue is the statement that a Republican can- 
 not be outspoken and live safely in Alabama ; 
 for a stronger and more outspoken Republican 
 and Union man I have never known. 
 
 But to my subject. Disobedience of law, of 
 some kind, obtains wherever man may be. 
 Unrestrained by the enforcement of adequate 
 and just laws, crime, in its different degrees, is 
 but the consequence and the corollary of dis- 
 obedience. As I have already intimated, what- 
 ever of crime has since the war of the rebellion 
 been committed in the South in exee3s of for- 
 mer years, or in excess of what occurs in any! 
 nothern community, however peaceable, may 
 justly be imputed to the worthless character, 
 with rare exceptions, of the incumbents in 
 office in the South. It is to me a surprising 
 fact that sensible men should think that any 
 other result than an increase of offenses could 
 follow, when, by the disfranchisement effected 
 by the punitive legislation of the country, it is 
 a difficult thing to find any one who is not dis- 
 abled from hoMing any local, judicial,, or ad- 
 ministraiive office, however high or humble, 
 from that of tho judge down to the overseer of 
 highways and the constable. 
 
 My remedy for much of the disorder com- 
 plained of in the South is the immediate and 
 unqualified removal of all political disabilities 
 from all men everywhere to whom they have 
 been made to attach because of the rebellion. 
 Let this be done, and then, so far as my own 
 district and State are concerned, I am ready to 
 give the guarentee of what character I have 
 for intelligence or for patriotism that while res- 
 toring to OTir best men and ablest statesmen 
 the privileges and the powers of administration 
 in public affairs, in the affairs of government, 
 both State and na.tional, we ngiay reasonably 
 expert, and can justly exact from tlip-ro, that 
 which now can be neither reasonably nor justly 
 expected, to wit, an accountability for crimes 
 which it is not now in their power either to 
 prevent or to punish. 
 
 Mr. Speaker, I trust that whatever opinions 
 may be entertained by others on the subje^^t 
 which has suggestf^d th« remarks I have mad« 
 on f)ne will doubt that in what T have said T 
 have expressed my honest convictions. I have 
 little fondness for mere speech-making by any 
 one ; and I trust that the reserve which I 
 have maintained in that respect siuf'e I became 
 a member of the House will sufficiently attest 
 my reluctance personally to participate in such 
 displays. Whatever others may do, I cannot 
 afford to =?peak in the interest of party alone, 
 and for mere party advancement. On the sub- 
 ject which is now before us for consideration I 
 profess to speak not only in the cause of 
 G-eorgia, but in the cause of my State and peo- 
 ple, in behalf of other southern States and their 
 people, and in the interest of the people of the 
 whole country. I should cease to respect my- 
 
 self—the worst calamity which can befall any 
 man — if on such a subject as that to which I 
 am inviting the attention of the country I 
 should say aught which could be rightly 
 charged as springing from any other motive 
 than an earnest desire to further the cause of 
 truth, of jusfice, and of peace. 
 
 But it is often said that because no rebel has 
 been executed, therefore no G-overnment ever 
 treated with such clemency, with such magna- 
 nimity those who had unsuccesfully attempted 
 to overthrow it as our Government had treated 
 those who were in arms against it in the late 
 unhappy struggle. Admit this to be the case, 
 has not every other Government which pun- 
 ished with vindictive severity those who com- 
 mitted the offense of rebellion against its au- 
 thority always had reason to regret the exercise 
 of such severity ? Can a single instance be cited 
 from the pages of history in which such sever- 
 ity is recorded, where experience has not shown 
 that it was not unsupported by what a wise 
 policy would dictate, and the highest states- 
 manship approve ? Has not the judgment of 
 mankind stamped with its reprobation every 
 such instance of vindictiveness as alike inhu- 
 man and unwise ? Why then, in this day of 
 what is claimed to be an advanced civilization, 
 in this time when benevolence and charity are 
 claimed tor have asserted their ascendency in 
 the hearts and minds of men and women, as- 
 sume so much credit for magnanimity because 
 a few hundred, more or less, of the leaders of 
 the late rebellion were not executed iipon the 
 gibbet and their families made beggars by the 
 avenging edicts of the conqueror ? 
 
 It needs but little reflection to determine that 
 such boasting is alike ill-timed and foolish. I 
 give it, however, as my candid opinion that had 
 the principal offenders in the late rebellion been 
 unwisely executed there would not have been 
 half the provocation for complaint nor a tithe 
 of the irritation in the dispositions of the great 
 mass of the southern people which has been 
 caused by what they justly regard as the per- 
 secutions which they have been indiscriminately 
 pursued since the suppression of the rebellion. 
 If the administrations in power since the rebel- 
 lion had punished and not persecuted the 
 peace which our Presidsut invoked at his in- 
 auguration would long since have been assured 
 everywhere in the South. Not that I concede 
 that dispositions un friendly to the Government 
 rightly administered exist to any considerable 
 degree in the southern States, but I allege that 
 wherever found they are the result of causes 
 to which I have alluded, originating since the 
 war, and marking th« mistaken policy of re- 
 construction So far ■A.ii it has been followed by 
 acts of prose fiption, disfranchisements, and 
 similar penalties, those legacies of arbitrary 
 Governments of other days whose examples, 
 instead of being followed, should only furnish 
 for our admonition illustrations alike of the 
 folly and weakness of their supporters. 
 
It would, indeed, be a remarkable thing if,: Grant, to whom,' under Providence, was ae- 
 besides all the other good things which conquer- signed the command of the armies of the Union, 
 ing the rebellion did for the southern States that I owed the opportunity of calling from the 
 and people, it should have killed or reformed military prisons of tlu- North, in anticipation 
 all offenders against the law ! And yet some of of the guneral order for their rt-leaae, many a 
 our indignant patriots at the other eud of the brave confederate soldier-boy, the victim per- 
 Capitol, and possibly some here, seem to pro- haps of an inexorable couHcriptiou, and of thus 
 ceed on the assumption that sucb a result was restoring to more than one widowed heart its 
 expected, for they certainly must believe that idol and its only remaining solace, and of giv- 
 almost every crime and every outrage commit- ing hack to mon- than one poor old father, 
 ted in the South would not have occured hut, stricken by the inlirmities of many years and 
 for the rebellion. How many murders and oppressed by the L.-avier weight of sorrow, hia 
 other great crimes have been committed from youngest, perhaps his only son, the stiff of his 
 the basest motives in New England since the declining days, which were again to be glad- 
 overthro'.v of the rebellion / How many such'deue<l by the assurance that he whom he best 
 offenses are daily committed in New York, in, loved had been spared to close hia eyes In that 
 Chicago, in Cincinnati, in St. Louis, and other sleep which we all feel, however vainly, cannot 
 great cities of the country ! And yet it would but need the watchful tenderness and the 
 justly siibject me to derision if 1 were to im-jkindly ministrations of natural affection, 
 pute these offenses to the teachings of the But, turning fri uj this not unplea.sing di- 
 dominant political parties of the places in which gression, made for the sake of the homage 
 they occur. So should sensible men scorn to which is but due to generous action prompted 
 believe the lying imputations which would as- by magnanimous motive, I come back to my 
 sign offenses in the South as a general thing tolsubject. Believing, Representatives of the peo- 
 causes other than tho.se which are everywhere, pie, that, by all the considerations of a sound 
 operative in inducing to such offenses. ipolicy, in the interests of meri.y and of justice 
 
 An announcement uas made the other day, the heavy hand of power which now oppresses 
 I trust, Mr. Speaker, with :,ome authority, that the people whom I represent should be lifted ; 
 the distinguished soldier who occupies the ex- believing, as earnestly as 1 believe the articles 
 ecutive chair of the nation would, in a contin- of that religious faith which I profess, that this 
 gency likely soon to occur, to wit, the restora-jcan be done with safety and the amplest secur- 
 tioH of the last of the too long excluded States jity for all interests and all ch'iases in the Soul' 
 to its proper placa in the Union, communicate for the white man and for the black man 
 to Congress his recommendation of universal knowing, as 1 do, that the stories which are 
 and unqualiUed amnesty to all persons to whom told you of wVong and outrage are, most of 
 
 disabilities attach by reason of complicity with them, the basest calumni«.-:, and wl •• -.re 
 
 the rebellion, lassignable to causes for whose . o 
 
 I trust, I believe, that this prediction will just lesponsibility can attach to the . .,, ..,,j 
 have a speedy fulfilment. 1 believe it because |or the chara(der of the Soutli, I beg, 1 implore 
 such recommendation would be characteristic you to unshackle that intelligence, to unloosen 
 of the magnanimous spirit which conceived and the chains which, if not remoted, will, I fear, 
 executed the armistice of Appomattox. 1 be- leave in the South nothing worthy of the name 
 lieve it because I know that the distinguished of character. Do this, and soon again will that 
 person to whom I refer delights, when permit- inviting and richly endowed State which has 
 ted to follow the impulses of his generous heart, given me a home more than recover, not only 
 in deeds of mercy and charity. And although in her material interests, but in her moral :is- 
 I am justly ;^okoned among his political oppo- pects, all that she had lost by the mistakes, or, 
 nents, I here in the presence of the Representa- if you please, by the folly of those who ambi- 
 tives of tL - xau.Lion acknowledge the sentiments tiously but vainly assumed that she coald be 
 of gratitude which I shall ever feel and would stricken from that once glorious constellation 
 with unfeigned grief be forced to abandon for of equal sovereign States wluch, as emblazon- 
 the many opportunities which through his in- ed on our flag, but emblemi/es our Union and 
 terposition were afforded me during the late proclaims its invincibility. 
 
 struggle of averting the asperities of war from Let this be done, and then will Alabama, in- 
 more than one stricken household ; of causing vitiug to her embrace and to her affections all 
 joy to be felt by more than one heart to which who come to her as citizens seeking a new 
 it had long been a stranger, and of illumining home, and drawing clo3«jr to her heart iho- 
 by the smile of happiness more than one face whom she has long cherished as her childre:., 
 which had long been disfigured by the pallor of by the development of the wondrous treasures 
 an almost hopeless sorrow. He and I may, by of her hidden wealth, make a joyous reality 
 the future antagonisms of pelitical sentiments for the beautiful poetry of her name. There 
 and opposing policies, be long and widely sepa- all will indeed rest in peace and happiness ; 
 rated. But never can I forget, never can I cease not only the new comer, but the old master and 
 to cherish among the dearest treasures of my i his former slave, now a fully enfranchised free- 
 heart the memory that it waa to Ulysses S-'man, with muoh of their ancient affection, an<» 
 
/; 
 
 *^C 
 
 more than their former prosperity. Each will 
 then be independent of the other, except in 
 those things in which we never can with safety 
 
 untrammeled expression of the will of her peo- 
 ple. Grive also to Georgia that equal place in 
 the Union to which she is entitled, and from 
 
 be independent of each other — I mean in the| which she has been so long unjustly excluded. 
 
 offices of charity, those golden ligaments which 
 never gall by their oppression. 
 
 "A Government to be beloved must first be 
 lovely," is «, true and wise saying which it be- 
 comes all to heed. It inculcates a lesson by 
 not learning which the Government of England 
 has engendered in the generous hearts of Irish- 
 men a hate so intense as" to defy the efforts of 
 a better statesmanship to eradicate. There is 
 no hatred so defiant to the assaults of policy 
 as that which is traditional with a people. The 
 ;?.ther's quarrel is often strengthened and in- 
 tensified in the hearts of his children. This 
 can be accounted for by causes which are most 
 philosophical. Time will cure many things, 
 but there are some diseases too obstinate for 
 even the remedies so bountifully supplied from 
 that inexhaustible laboratory of cures. Among 
 these diseases are those chiefly whose chronic 
 character is confirmed by transmission to suc- 
 cessive generations. The old Carthagenian who 
 made his son to swear ever to hate and defy 
 the Roman power, understood how impregnable 
 is the stronghold of an hereditary hatred in the 
 human heart. Let us avoid these examples, 
 illustrating as they ever have, and ever will, 
 the criminality of those who so act as to in- 
 spire them, and the utter ruin of those who 
 are so unhappy as to be tempte,d to the indulg- 
 ence of the terrible passions which they in 
 culcate. 
 
 Mr. Speaker, in the character I have given 
 of the people of the State which I have the 
 honor in part to represent, you will find i 
 faithful portraiture of the people of Georgia 
 Alabama and Georgia are sister States, lying 
 side by side. The beautiful river which finds 
 its sources on the plains of northern Georgia 
 also fertilizes the valleys of my own State and 
 washes the bases of the hills in which reposes 
 her inexhaustible mineral wealth. The same 
 sun which quickens by his genial rays the seed 
 planted by the farmer of Georgia gilds with 
 beauty the mountain-tops of Alabama. The 
 people of the one State have all the generous 
 and noble qualities which distinguish the peo- 
 ple of the other. And as I speak what I know 
 when I say that by no State will the lives, the 
 property, and the civil and political rights of 
 all men be more inviolably maintained than by 
 the State of Alabama, if permitted to govern 
 herself through rulers chosen from her own cit- 
 izens of intelligence and moral worth, so also, 
 from the best information I have received in 
 regard to the true condition of Georgia, from 
 trustworthy sources outside of the circle of 
 
 But in welcoming her back to the Union, bid 
 her come clothed with all the insignia of free- 
 doiu and all the rights of a free State. Leave 
 not upon her a single n-emorial to tell of the 
 chains by which she has been too long mana- 
 cled. Efface, if possible, every memento of her 
 great offending and of her greater but unde- 
 served humiliation. 
 
 A single remark in reference to the partisan 
 aspects of this question, and I will have done. 
 It is my experience, Mr. Speaker, that if we 
 would arrive at just conclusions on subjects 
 as momentous as that under consideration, 
 our best sources of information are not to be 
 found with those whose personal relations are 
 too closely identified with such subjects. Al- 
 though I frankly confess that my views of the 
 policy w hioli it will best become us to adopt in 
 regard to Georgia are nearly a(;cordant with 
 those who oppose the purposes which the pres- 
 ent Governor of that State has labored so earn- 
 estly and by audi expensive methods to induce 
 Congress to adopt, it is neither to the many 
 folios of pamphlets issued by Governor Bul- 
 lock nor, in any controlling sense, to those 
 who oppose the views, sinister or otherwise, 
 of that person that I have looked for the in- 
 formation which has determined my judgment 
 of the facts which make up the record of this 
 case. It is chiefly upon information obtained 
 from private citizens of respectability and char- 
 acter residing in Georgia that I have formed 
 my judgment. Mr. Bullock I have never per- 
 sonally known, nor do I expect ever to know 
 him. But having read the pamphlets with 
 which he has so frequently regaled us from the 
 prolific press of his favorite though expensive 
 chronicler in Washington, I have come to the 
 conclusion that it is more than probable had 
 Mr. Bullock never seen the State of Georgia 
 the peace and happiness of the people of that 
 State would have been much better assured. 
 
 I believe that but for Governor Bullock, who, 
 though a Northern man, was, as I am credi- 
 bly informed, a rebel in the late war, and 
 therefore not unnaturally an intense Radical 
 if Radical at all since the war, not only would 
 Georgia long ago have been restored to the 
 Union and peace and order have been main- 
 tained throughout her borders, but millions of 
 dollars would have been saved to the people of 
 the whole country, now overburdened by debt ' 
 and taxation. Mr. Bullock may not be that 
 unscrupulous bad man whom we sometimes 
 encounter, who is a pest and a nuisance to any 
 community in which he may be placed, but I 
 
 politicians who are arrayed against each other hesitate not to say that it would have been 
 in this unhappy contest, I cannot doubt that better for Georgia, better for the whole country, 
 it is our duty to give to that State the repub-j better for everybody, better, possibly, for Bul- 
 lican form of government guaranteed by the|lock himself, had he never left the place of his 
 
 Constitution, which can only be assured by the j nativity. 
 
 Printed by H. Polkinhorn & Co .^ D et,, bet^ Gth and 7th sts,, Washrngton, D. C.