THE DEMOCRACY AND ITS POLICY. 
 
 A New Rebellion Threatened—Frank P. Blair’s Treason. 
 
 SPEECHES 
 
 OP 
 
 50V, BQUIWELL, HU THADDEUS STEVENS and GEN, SCHENEK, 
 
 [Debate in the House of Representatives, July 11th, 1868, upon the 
 passage of the Senate Bill regulating the"Counting of 
 
 the Electoral Totes.] 
 
 Pullished by the Union Republican Congressional Committee , Washington, D. C. 
 
 Air. BOUTWELL. Mr. Speaker, the 
 purpose of this resolution is so apparent 
 from the reading that I presume the House 
 will be prepared to vote upon it without 
 any explanation. The object is, of course, 
 to provide that all those States which may 
 be admitted previous to November next 
 shall be entitled to vote for electors of 
 President and Vice President; and that 
 the States, if any, which shall not then 
 have been restored to the Union shall be 
 excluded from participation in the Presi¬ 
 dential election. The text of the resolu¬ 
 tion would exclude Tennessee, inasmuch 
 as she was fully restored to the Union pre¬ 
 vious to the passage of the original act con¬ 
 cerning reconstruction. The sole object 
 of the proviso reported by the Committee 
 on Reconstruction is to relieve Tennessee 
 from the terms of the resolution. 
 
 Mr. ELDRIDGE, (Democrat.) Will the 
 gentleman from Massachusetts inform the 
 House by what authority this House or 
 the Congress can undertake to exclude any 
 State from the right of representation in 
 the Electoral College ? Under what pro¬ 
 vision of the Constitution can Congress de¬ 
 clare that a State shall not be represented ? 
 The gentleman seems to think this a very 
 plain matter, and one on which, I infer from 
 his remarks, the House should vote under 
 the operation of the previous question; 
 and yet the gentleman has not undertaken 
 to give us the authority by which Congress 
 can exclude a State from representation in 
 
 the Electoral College. I would be glad to 
 hear from him on that point, and to under¬ 
 stand upon what he bases the authority of 
 this Congress to act in that behalf. 
 
 Mr. BOUTWELL. I cannot go at great 
 length into all the circumstances by which 
 these States, through the influence of the 
 gentleman’s political friends, lost their rep¬ 
 resentation in the Congress of the United 
 States; but it so happened that they did 
 withdraw seven or eight years ago and they 
 have not yet been readmitted to representa¬ 
 tion here. But I say to him that I suppose 
 the purpose of the majority here, and, I 
 take it, the purpose of the country, unmis 
 takably is to hold these States in the grasp 
 of the loyal people of the country until they 
 are reconstructed under loyal influences, 
 ■with loyal majorities, loyal State govern¬ 
 ments, and until loyal Representatives and 
 Senators are elected to Congress, but when 
 all those things have transpired, then, as I 
 suppose, these States are to participate in 
 the election of President and Vice Presi¬ 
 dent of the United States. 
 
 Mr. ELDRIDGE, (Democrat.) The 
 gentleman from Massachusetts has cer¬ 
 tainly not answered, if he has attempted to 
 answer, the question which I propounded 
 to him. I ask him for the authority by 
 which Congress may exclude States from 
 their representation in the Electoral Col¬ 
 lege, and he tells us that by the action of 
 myself and my friends these States have 
 ceased to be in arposition whereby they have 
 
2 
 
 4 
 
 a right to vote or to act in this capacity. 
 
 I say to the gentleman that every State 
 that, ever belonged to this Union is to-day 
 in this Union. 
 
 I say, that if the States are kept out at 
 all, they are kept out, as the gentleman as¬ 
 serts, by the grasp of what he terms “loyal” 
 men upon the throats of the States. I deny 
 that loyal men hold any States in their 
 grasp except the States in which they live. 
 The loyal men of Massachusetts have no 
 more right to hold the State of South Caro¬ 
 lina by the throat than the State of South 
 Carolina has the right to hold the State of 
 Massachusetts by the throat, and prevent 
 her from voting in the Electoral College. 
 
 T ask him again to answer to me and to this 
 House upon what he does base his right to 
 -exclude a State from representation in the 
 Electoral College and from its right to vote? 
 
 Mr. BOUT WELL. We do not claim any 
 such right, Mr. Speaker. All the organized 
 States of this Union are entitled to vote, 
 and will vote; but in 13G4—I believe the 
 gentleman from Wisconsin was then a 
 member of this House—we passed a reso¬ 
 lution unanimously—nobody contradict¬ 
 ing it—that the eleven States, as he calls 
 them, naming them, that had gone into re¬ 
 bellion in 1S51 should not vo*:e for electors 
 of President and Vice President. How 
 does the gentleman account for his neglect 
 to do his duty then? Why did not he 
 raise his voice then, and ask that his asso¬ 
 ciates and coworkers in the Democratic 
 party in the attempt to dissolve the Union 
 should come here and participate in the 
 Presidential election of 1804? The gentle¬ 
 man then was silent, as I remember. 
 
 Mr. ELDBIDGE, (Democrat.) I thank 
 the gentleman for the opportunity to say 
 that the country was then at war with the 
 people of those States; to-day peace exists 
 from one end of this Union to the other. 
 The armies of the Union have been suc¬ 
 cessful, the rebellion has been subdued, the 
 people of the South acknowledge the au¬ 
 thority of the Constitution, and their States 
 to-day have the right to be represented in 
 this Congress and in every other depart¬ 
 ment of this Government, as they were 
 represented before the rebellion. K they 
 •are excluded longer, it will he the gentle¬ 
 man and his party who will exclude them. 
 
 Mr. BOUT WELL. The gentleman docs 
 well to remind the House and the country 
 that these States, as he calls them, were 
 excluded in 18G4 on account of the war. 
 And three of them are excluded to-day on 
 account of that war, the effects of which 
 have not yet ceased. 
 
 In 18G0 and 1S61, as the gentleman very 
 Well knows, the Democratic party of the 
 Country entered upon a crusade to break 
 up this Government and attempted to 
 wrest eleven States from the control of the 
 Constitution and to separate them from the 
 Union. Under the lead of the loyal men 
 in the South we have substantially restored 
 eight of these States of the Union against 
 
 the protests made by the forty-five gentle¬ 
 men who sit on the other side of the House. 
 
 And now, under the lead of that protest 
 and of the platform laid down by their can¬ 
 didate for the Vice Presidency, they pro¬ 
 pose to again involve tlais country in a war 
 for the purpose of thrusting those eight re¬ 
 stored States our of the Union. 
 
 This is exactly the position the Demo¬ 
 cratic party now occupies. For the purpose 
 of destroying the Union they brought upon 
 this country one war, which cost four thou¬ 
 sand million dollars,and three hundred thou- 
 'and lives; and now, when we have nearly 
 restored it, without the sacrifice of a single 
 life, so far as the restoration is concerned, 
 the Democratic party proposes to engage 
 in another war, under the lead of an aspi¬ 
 rant for the Vice Presidency, who is, in 
 fact, a conspirator against the Government 
 of the country, and this for the purpose of 
 driving out of the Union the eight States 
 that have already been restored under our 
 lead and under the power of peace. 
 
 “War for the destruction of the Union”' 
 is the motto under which the gentleman’s 
 friends and former associates have rallied 
 during the last eight years; it is the motto 
 which he and they now emblazon on their 
 banner for this Presidential contest, and for 
 the next four years. 
 
 Oar motto is “peace and the restoration 
 of the Union.” And so soon as the other 
 three States can be restored by tbc instru¬ 
 mentality of peace and under the lead of 
 loyal men, they will be restored. We work 
 under the ensign of peace, for the restora¬ 
 tion of three more States to the Union. 
 The gentleman and his associates raise the 
 banner of war for the expulsion of eight 
 States that we have already restored. 
 That is the issue on which we now go to 
 the country. 
 
 Mr. ELDBIDGE, (Democrat.) The 
 gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Bout- 
 well) cannot fasten any such position as 
 he has stated upon me and my asso¬ 
 ciates ; no such position has ever been 
 taken by us. We have never been 
 opposed to a restoration of this Union; we 
 have never been opposed to the return of 
 these States. There has fcever been a mo¬ 
 ment since the war was inaugurated, or 
 since peace came, or as it ought to come to 
 bless this land, but which it has not, there 
 has not been a moment when we would not 
 cheerfully have received all those States 
 back into the Union. 
 
 But, sir, there has, during the last three 
 or four years, been no war except the acts 
 of war which this Congress has perpetrated 
 upon that people and upon those States. 
 The people of those States are broken down, 
 crushed, trampled into the dust by the usur¬ 
 pations by the, I had almost said atrocious, 
 acts of this Congress. Sir, the gentleman 
 from Massachusetts knows well that the 
 only reason why those States are held in 
 the grasp of despotic power which he calls 
 “loyal power” is that he and his associates 
 
3 
 
 fear that those States, if left, as they ought 
 to be, free to act, would act in accord with 
 the Democratic party. The gentleman 
 knows that all this continuation of the acts 
 of war upon that people is designed to co¬ 
 erce them into the support of the Republi¬ 
 can party and its candidates. lie knows 
 that he and his associates and the party 
 with whom he acts would never have 
 thought of subjecting those States to the 
 control of the ignorant negroes there but 
 for the purpose of extending the lease of 
 nower of the party to which he belongs. 
 He dare not, upon his conscience and be¬ 
 fore his God, deny that that is the sole pur¬ 
 pose for which this whole scheme was inau¬ 
 gurated and for which he now seeks to pass 
 this bill. I challenge that gentleman to join 
 with us and place those States, as the Con¬ 
 stitution places them, upon terms of perfect 
 equality with his State. I say again that if 
 this doctrine upon which gentlemen upon 
 the other side have been acting is still to be 
 carried out, the day will come, which I with 
 'those gentlemen would deplore, when Mas¬ 
 sachusetts may be upon her knees begging 
 for the rights which the Constitution guar¬ 
 antees her and all the States, which are 
 now denied to the States of the South. 
 
 Mr. BOUTWELL. Mr. Speaker, no 
 State that is true to this Union will ever 
 have occasion to go upon its knees begging 
 for its rights. If the Democratic party had 
 been true to this Union, as Massachusetts 
 was true, during the last eight years, none 
 of these States would now be here 
 suppliants for restoration to the benefits of 
 a Government which a few years ago, un¬ 
 der the lead of the gentleman’s friends, 
 they then spurned. 
 
 Now, sir, one word more, which I would 
 be glad to address to the people of the 
 Soutii. In 18G0 and 1861, Democrats of 
 the North—suck men as Franklin Pierce, 
 of New Hampshire—encouraged the rebels 
 of the South to engage in war, telling them 
 that in the event of such a contest blood 
 would How in the streets of the North, in¬ 
 tending it to be understood that the Demo¬ 
 crats of the North would give the Radicals, 
 as we were called, plenty to do at home, 
 so that the twelve or fifteen States of the 
 South would have an opportunity to set 
 up governments of their own in defiance of 
 the national authority. The rebels of the 
 South were deceived. The Democrats of 
 the North had not the courage or the heart 
 to make good the pledges which they had 
 given to their traitorous allies in the South; 
 and the Southern men were sacrificed—in 
 an unholy enterprise, to be sure—because 
 they were deserted by the men in the 
 North on whom they had relied. 
 
 Again, in 1865, when Andrew Johnson 
 came to the Presidency, the men of the 
 South trusted to his professions and the 
 professions of the Democratic party, that 
 they would be sustained in their attempt 
 to reorganize rebel white men’s govern¬ 
 ments and to trample under foot the loyal 
 
 white and black men of the South. In that 
 they were disappointed; and they are now 
 reaping the bitter fruits of their reliance 
 upon Mr. Johnson and the Democracy of 
 the North. 
 
 TV~hat does the Democratic party by its 
 late action in New York promise the South? 
 It says,“If we can electa Democratic Pres¬ 
 ident and Vice President, a “white man’s 
 government” shall be reestablished in the 
 eight States of the South.” Thus the De¬ 
 mocracy would again deceive the men of 
 the South, whom I warn no longer to put 
 trust in that party. Whatever may happen, 
 the Senate will be Republican for the next 
 two years. We have already relieved 
 twelve or fifteen hundred men of the South 
 who participated in the rebellion from the 
 disabilities imposed by the fourteenth 
 amendment to the Constitution. Our pur¬ 
 pose is, as far and as fast as they bring 
 forth “fruits meet for repentence,” to 
 liberate them all. But if by accident 
 or by a fatality which seems outside the 
 range of providential influences, the De¬ 
 mocracy should succeed in the election of 
 a President, what can they do for the 
 South? Nothing—nothing. We shall be 
 obliged to stand upon the defensive and 
 hold all these men for four years where 
 they now are, and the Democracy will be 
 powerless to redeem a single promise they 
 now make. The interest of the South, of 
 the men who have been in the rebellion, is 
 to stand fast by the Republican party, 
 which has shown a disposition to be just 
 and generous to every man who was en¬ 
 gaged in the rebellion when we can do so 
 without danger to republican institutions. 
 
 But, sir, look at the letter of Frank Blair. 
 [Cries of “Read it!” from the Republican 
 side of the House. ] Yes, sir, let it be read. 
 It cannot be read too often in the presence 
 of the forty-five men who signed and pre¬ 
 sented a protest here against the admission 
 of members from the State of Arkansas, 
 upon the same grounds substantially as 
 those presented in Blair’s letter. 
 
 The Clerk read as follows: 
 
 Washixgtox, June SO, 1868. 
 
 Dear Cocohel : In reply to your inquiries I 
 beg leave to say that I leave you to determine, 
 on consultation with my friend3 from JLissouri, 
 whether my name shall be presented to the Dem¬ 
 ocratic convention, and to submit the following, 
 a3 what I consider the real and only issue in this 
 contest: 
 
 The reconstruction policy of the Radicals will 
 be complete before the nest election; the State3 
 so loeg excluded will have been admitted; negro 
 suffrage established and the carpet-baggers ini 
 stalled in their sea's in both branches of Congress. 
 * here is no possibility of changing tho political 
 character of the Senate, even if the Democrats 
 should elect their President and a majority of the 
 popular branch of Congress. V7e cannot, therc- 
 lore, undo the Radic il plan of reconstruction by 
 Congressional setion; the senate will continue a 
 bar to its repeal. Must we submit to it? How 
 can it be overthrown? It can only bo overthrown 
 by the authority of the Executive, who is sworn 
 to maintain the Constitution, and who will fail 
 to do his duty if he «l!ows tne Cons.itutlon to 
 perish under a series of Congressional enactments 
 which are ia palpable violation of its funda¬ 
 mental principles. 
 
 iithi President elected by the Democracy en- 
 
4 
 
 forces or permits others to enforce these recon- 
 »truction acts, the Radicals by the accession of 
 twenty spurious Senators ana fifty Representa¬ 
 tives will control both branches of Congress, and 
 his administration will be as powerless as the 
 present one cf Mr. Johnson. 
 
 • There is but one way to restore the Government 
 and the Constitution, and that is for the Presi¬ 
 dent elect to declare these acts null and void, 
 compel the Army to undo its usurpations at the 
 South, disperse the carpet-bag State govern¬ 
 ments, ailow the white people to reorganize their 
 own governments, and elect Senators and Repre¬ 
 sentatives. The House of Representatives will 
 contain a majority of Democrats from the North, 
 and they will admit the Representatives elected 
 by the white people of the South, and with the 
 co-operation of the President it will not be diffi¬ 
 cult to compel the Senate to submit once more to 
 the obligations of the Constitution. It wMl not 
 be able to withstand the public judgment, if dis¬ 
 tinctly invoked and clearly expressed on this fun¬ 
 damental issue, and it is the sure way to avoid all 
 future strife to put the issue plainly to the 
 country. 
 
 I repeat that this is the real and only question 
 which we should allow to control us: shall we sub¬ 
 mit to the usurpations by which the Government 
 has been overthrown, or shall we exert ourselves 
 for its full and complete restoration! It is idle to 
 talk of bonds, greenbacks, gold, the public faith, 
 and the public credit. What can a Democratic 
 President do in regard to any of these with a 
 Congress in both branches controlled by carpet¬ 
 baggers and their allies! He will bo powerless 
 to stop the supplies by which idle negroes are or¬ 
 ganized into political clubs—by which an army is 
 maintained to protect these vagabonds in their 
 outrages upon the ballot. These, and things like 
 these, eat up the revenues and resources of the 
 Government and destroy its credit—make the dif¬ 
 ference between gold and greenbacks. We must 
 restore the Constitution before we can restore the 
 finances, and to do this we must have a President 
 who will execute the will of the people by tramp¬ 
 ling into dust the usurpation of Congress, known 
 as the reconstruction acts. Iwishto stand before 
 the convention upon this issue, but it is one which 
 embraces everythig else that is of value in its 
 large and comprehensive resuts. It is the one 
 thing that includes all that is worth a contest, 
 and without it there is nothing that gives dignity, 
 honor, or value to tho struggle. 
 
 Your friend, FRANK P. BLAIR. 
 
 Colonel James O. Bbodhead. 
 
 Mr. BROOKS, (Democrat.) If the 
 gentleman will go on and have the Demo¬ 
 cratic platform read it will then be com¬ 
 plete. 
 
 Mr. BOUTWELL. We have had it read 
 already. 
 
 Mr. BROOKS. I mean the platform 
 adopted by the Democratic convention. 
 
 Mr. BOUTWELL. Mr. Speaker, it is 
 worthy of observations that the Democratic 
 convention at New York sat four days, 
 differing, I suppose, judging from their 
 votes, as to who should be their candidate 
 for the Presidency, and after the disposi¬ 
 tion of that question, on a single ballot and 
 with perfect unanimity,they nominated the 
 writer of this letter to he their candidate 
 for the Vice Presidency of the United 
 States. Now, what does he propose to do? 
 He proposes that the President of the 
 United States, without law, and of course 
 without constitutional authority, shall take 
 the army and drive out of this House and 
 out of the Senate the members entitled 
 by operation of law and under the 
 provisions of the Constitution to seats in 
 this House and in the Senate ; and not 
 only that, but to proceed with the army to 
 the eight States in the South and disperse 
 
 the Legislatures thereof, set up new Legis¬ 
 lative Assemblies to be elected by the votes 
 of rebel white men only, and Senators and 
 Representatives are to be elected by those 
 men to the Congress of the United States, 
 and by the military power to be put into 
 their seats. It is distinctly declared by 
 Frank P. Blair, jr., that it is the duty of 
 the President of the United States, a Dem¬ 
 ocratic President of the United States, to 
 usurp the powers of the Senate and of the 
 House and to annihilate eight States by 
 arms and to set up military governments in 
 those eight States. 
 
 Mr. MUNGEN, (Democrat.) Will the 
 gentleman let me ask him a question? 
 
 Mr. BOUTWELL. Yes, sir. 
 
 Mr. MUNGEN. I ask the gentleman 
 where he was when Frank Blair was fight¬ 
 ing the battles of his country? 
 
 Mr. BOUTWELL. I was in the service 
 of the country; but one thing I never did 
 —I never professed to serve under a com¬ 
 mission as a general in the army, and to 
 serve in this House as a member of Con¬ 
 gress, exercising civil functions and mili¬ 
 tary authority at the same time, in viola¬ 
 tion of the Constitution and the theory of 
 the Government of the Uuited States. 
 
 [Mr. Brooks made a somewhat leDgthv reply, 
 after which Governor BouTWiix resumed the 
 floor, and yielded it to Mr. Stevens.] 
 
 Mr. STEVENS, of Pennsylvania. I 
 merely want to inquire of the gentleman 
 from New York (Mr. Brooks) whether he 
 recollects that in 1864, before the last 
 Presidential election, this Congress passed 
 a law similar to the one now before us, to 
 regulate the opening and counting of the 
 electoral votes; and by that law we ex¬ 
 cluded from the count all the States in 
 rebellion, thus showing at least the juris¬ 
 diction of Congress upon this subject? 
 
 Mr. BROOKS. Let me ask the gentle¬ 
 man from Pennsylvania whether the exist¬ 
 ing state of the country now in 1868 is not 
 very different from what it was at the time 
 to which he alludes? 
 
 Mr. STEVENS, of Pennsylvania. Not 
 a bit. [Laughter,] 
 
 Mr. BROOKS. Are we iu a state of re¬ 
 bellion? 
 
 Mr. STEVENS, of Pennsylvania. You 
 are in a state of rebellion, and Frank Blair 
 so declares. He declares that the only 
 course for the Democratic party is to elect 
 a President who shall send the armies of 
 the Union to uproot all we have done in 
 reconstructing the South, forcibly deprive 
 of the right of suffrage about half of the 
 legal voters, reestablish the institution of 
 slavery, reorganize the “white man’s gov¬ 
 ernment,” and enforce as the law of that 
 country not what Congress pays shall be 
 the law, but what he and the Democratic 
 party may determine. Is no>i that rebel¬ 
 lion? 
 
 Mr. BROOKS. Sir, tln» Democratic 
 party is always in rebellion a# sunst tyranny 
 and tyrants. 
 
5 
 
 Mr. STEVENS, of Pennsylvania. So 
 it is; and anything but a “white man’s 
 Government”—a “Democratic” Govern- 
 men t—is with that party “tyranny.” They 
 are always in rebellion against everything 
 but “Democratic,” pro-slavery rule. For 
 slavery is as the apple of their eye; slavery 
 they “roll like a sweet morsel under their 
 tongues.” And when the Republicans 
 have stricken slavery from the institutions 
 of this country, declaring every man as 
 free as air, the Democracy call upon the 
 people to elect a President who shall re¬ 
 establish the old Government, (those are 
 the very words, I believe,) a President 
 who shall exclude from the ballot a large 
 part of the present voters, and allow the 
 right of suffrage to those only who enjoyed 
 thehaght under the old slave system. 
 
 But, sir, I rose simply to show that 
 Congress possesses jurisdiction of this sub¬ 
 ject, which the gentleman from New York 
 denied. We exercised jurisdiction before 
 Mr. Lincoln was elected the second time. 
 We passed a law to exclude in the Presi¬ 
 dential election the votes of the rebel 
 States. That settles the question of juris¬ 
 diction. So that the only question is as to 
 the expediency of the proposed law. 
 
 Mr. BROOKS. Let me ask thv gentle¬ 
 man a question. From what provision of 
 the Constitution, unless it be that with re¬ 
 gard to suppressing insurrection and rebel¬ 
 lion, does he derive the authority to pass 
 such a bill as this? 
 
 Mr. STEVENS, of Pennsylvania. I de¬ 
 rive it from the provision giving Congress 
 authority to open and count the electoral 
 votes. Of course we are to provide tke 
 means by which that shall be done. Should 
 Canada be allowed to send in electoral 
 votes? And on the same principle have 
 we not the power to exclude the rebel 
 States? Yet they were always in the Union, 
 they were always entitled to be represented 
 here, according to the doctrine of the gen¬ 
 tleman and his slavery tribe, for it is nothing 
 better. The Democratic party! Why, sir, 
 it is the slave party. It is nothing but a 
 slave party, and it will be a slave party 
 until we grind them to powder under our 
 heels, and Freedom, with the flapping of 
 her wings, shall blow the dust out of ex¬ 
 istence and consign them to everlasting 
 oblivion. God grant that day may soon 
 come! [Laughter.] 
 
 [Mr. Boutwell having twelve minutes left 
 yie'ded five to mr. Beck, (Democrat,) of Ky., who 
 followed ] 
 
 “Mr. BOUT WELL. I now demand the 
 previous question, and after it is seconded 
 I will reply to remarks made by gentlemen 
 on the other side. 
 
 Mr. ELDRIDGE, (Democrat.) I ask 
 for a division on seconding the previous 
 question. I do not think the House is pre¬ 
 pared to second it. 
 
 The question being then taken, there 
 were—ayes 81, noes 22. 
 
 So the main question was seconded. 
 
 Mr. ELDRIDGE. I only wanted to see 
 how many Democrats were out of their 
 places. [ Laughter. ] 
 
 Mr. STEVENS, of Pennsylvania. Every 
 one is out of his place that is here. 
 [Laughter.] 
 
 The main question was then ordered. 
 
 Mr. BOUT WELL. I do not wish to oc¬ 
 cupy much time in debate. The House 
 will bear witness that I was brought into 
 the political discussion by the question or 
 series of questions which were put by the 
 gentleman from Wisconsin, (Mr. El- 
 dridge.) But now I have a few observa¬ 
 tions to make upon those matters which 
 have been introduced during the discussion 
 on the one side and the other. 
 
 The gentleman from New York (Mr. 
 Brooks) was pleased to speak of me per¬ 
 sonally and of gentlemen on this side of 
 the House as having in times past disre¬ 
 garded the laws of the land. Sir, I know 
 of no such case. And when I speak of 
 myself personally I speak also of the party 
 to which I belong. We have obeyed the 
 laws at all times and under all circum¬ 
 stances, when, as I am free to confess, 
 those laws were disagreeable in their char¬ 
 acter and of doubtful constitutionality. 
 But can the gentleman say as much for 
 himself and for his associates? In 1860, by 
 the strictest observance of the Constitution 
 and laws of the country w r e elected Abra¬ 
 ham Lincoln, of Illinois, President of the 
 United States. Three months before his 
 inauguration that State which was the 
 champion of the ancient, pro-slavery, se¬ 
 cession, disunion Democracy passed an or¬ 
 dinance of secession from the Union in vio¬ 
 lation of the laws and of the Constitution 
 of the country, and followed by ten other 
 of these eleven States, they for four long 
 years under the lead of the Democracy of 
 the South, and with the sympathy, coopera¬ 
 tion, and support of the Democracy of the 
 North, carried on a war aggressive always, 
 and sometimes formidable, against the laws 
 and Constitution of the country. 
 
 (Mr. Marshall (Democrat) then obtaining tho 
 floor, denied emphatically that the INorihern 
 Democrats were in any way or at any place 
 justly chargeable with sympathising with South¬ 
 ern rebellion. To this Mr. Boutwell replied:] 
 
 Mr. BOUTWELL. I resume the floor. 
 The gentleman cannot have forgotten the 
 letter of his leader, Franklin Pierce, of the 
 16th of January, 1861. He cannot have 
 forgotten the letter of his associate upon 
 this floor, when Mayor of the city of New 
 York, to the authorities of Savannah, in 
 the State of Georgia. He cannot have for¬ 
 gotten the resolution of the convention at 
 Chicago in August, 1864, declaring the 
 war a failure and demanding a cessation of 
 hostilities. He cannot have forgotten the 
 riots of the 2d and 3d of July, 1863, in the 
 city of New York, when his candidate for 
 the Presidency addressed the rioters ot 
 that city who had kindled the flames of 
 war in the commercial metropolis of the 
 country and murdered children and unof- 
 
6 
 
 fending persons—addressed those men, 
 then reeking with the crimes from which 
 they had just come, as—“my friends.” He 
 cannot have forgotten the hostility which 
 his political associates throughout the North 
 manifested to the enforcement of the draft. 
 He cannot have forgotten the sympathetic 
 speeches that were made upon the floor of 
 this House in the Thirty-Eighth and 
 Thirty-Ninth Congresses. He cannot have 
 forgotten the declarations of the press 
 in various parts of the country rep¬ 
 resenting the Democratic party, de¬ 
 nouncing every measure for the prosecu¬ 
 tion of the war and holding up the gene¬ 
 rals of the army and the men intrusted with 
 civil affairs to the odium of the people of 
 the country, and to the anathemas of the 
 world. More than this, to day the party 
 with which he cooperates is in sympathy 
 with rebels. They demand the prostration 
 of the loyal people of the South, black and 
 white, and the restoration to authority in 
 those States of the men who had been en¬ 
 gaged in the rebellion. Let me read; and 
 you, men who fought at Shiloh, you who 
 were encamped before Vicksburg in 1863, 
 you who returned maimed and wounded 
 from the bloody fields of Antietam and 
 Gettysburg, you who marched with Sher¬ 
 man from the mountains to the sea, you 
 who remain of that bloody band who fought 
 the battles of the Wilderness, and who 
 finally at Appomattox Court-house saw the 
 surrender of Lee and the end of the rebel¬ 
 lion, listen to what the organ of the Demo¬ 
 cratic party, on the 4th of July, 1868, under 
 the influence of the rebels assembled in 
 council at Tammany Hall, said to the peo¬ 
 ple of New York and of the country con¬ 
 cerning the men who inaugurated the re¬ 
 bellion, and whom you subdued in arms. 
 I read from the New York World , and first 
 the heading: 
 
 THE DELEGATES. 
 
 PERSONAL DESCRIPTION OF THE MEMBERS OF THE 
 CONVENTION. 
 
 THEIR RECORD OF SERVICES TO THE NATION. 
 
 THE MEN ON WHOM THE REPUB¬ 
 LIC RELIES FOR S A. L VAT ION. 
 
 lion. John A.. Winston is also an ex-Governor, 
 a merchant of Mobile, was an old-line Whig, sup¬ 
 ported Douglas in 1860; was colonel of the ninety- 
 first Alabama infantry, U. S. A. 
 
 Then comes: 
 
 James H. Clinton is chairman of the Democratic 
 State Executive Committee, an old-line Whig, 
 Douglas elector; during the war was a general of 
 cavalry in the conlederate service. 
 
 That is his “record of services to the na¬ 
 tion!” He i3 one of the men on whom the 
 Republic relies for salvation in the estima¬ 
 tion of the friends of the gentleman from 
 Illinois. 
 
 Hear still further from South Carolina, in 
 this record of men on whom the Republic 
 relies for salvation, the record of the ser¬ 
 vices of General Wade Hampton to the 
 nation: 
 
 Ho heads the delegation. He was one of tho 
 most prominent cavaLy generals on the Southern 
 8ide during the war. Jtio is unquestiona bly tho 
 
 leading man in South Carolina, and fills more 
 nearly than any other the place left vacant by 
 Calhoun in the Learts of tho white peo p 
 
 Mr. MULLINS. Will the gentleman 
 allow me to interrupt him a moment? 
 
 Mr. BOUTWELL. No, not now. These 
 are the men on whom the gentleman from 
 Illinois (Mr. Marshall) and his associ¬ 
 ates rely “for the salvation of the Repub¬ 
 lic.” Yes, they are the men on whom the 
 Democracy relies for the salvation of the 
 Republic, according to their ideas of salva¬ 
 tion. And they are as much in error in 
 regard to salvation in this world as I have 
 no doubt they are in regard to salvation in 
 another state of existence. 
 
 Mr. WASHBURNE, of Illinois. I hope 
 the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. 
 Boutwell) will allow another extract to 
 he read in regard to another distinguished 
 member of the Democratic party. 
 
 Mr. BOUTWELL. I will yield to the 
 gentleman for that purpose. 
 
 Mr. BROOKS. I hope the gentleman 
 will also allow to be read some extracts I 
 have from letters written by Governor 
 Holden, of North Carolina. 
 
 Mr. WASHBURNE, of Illinois. I ask 
 the Clerk to read the extract I send up to 
 his desk. 
 
 The Clerk read as follows : 
 
 ‘ : GENER4L N. B. FORREST. 
 
 General Forrest is the hero of the Tennessee 
 delegation, and divides attention in the conven¬ 
 tion with Wade Hampton. As a cavalry officer 
 he had no equal in the war, and even now as he 
 moves up and down the hall, his tall, handsome 
 figure looming up, and his fine face lit, the same 
 old soldier-spirit is strong within the man, and he 
 evidently mistakes the secretary’s voice for a 
 bugle-call, and his nature will not let him keep 
 still or steadfast in one place. The General, al¬ 
 though in the costume of a civilian, has about him 
 the look of one who wants to be occupied and 
 doing something. His manner is free and pleas¬ 
 ing, with a characteristic bonhommie which is 
 quite taking with all whom he is introduced to. 
 He does cot say much at present, and cannot sit 
 quietly because of his nature, but will be hoard 
 of, no doubt, before the convention closes.” 
 
 Mr. MULLINS. That is the hero of the 
 bloody massacre at Fort Pillow. 
 
 Mr. BOUTWELL. I have now said 
 enough to show that the Democratic party 
 were in sympathy with the men who inau¬ 
 gurated this rebellion ; that they were in 
 sympathy with the men who carried it on ; 
 that they are now in sympathy with the 
 men who propose to inaugurate another re¬ 
 bellion, of whom the leader is Frank Blair. 
 
 I say this to the people of the country: 
 When you look at the bills reported by the 
 Committee on Appropriations and find 
 $30,000,000 for pensions to the widows and 
 orphans of the dead, and to the wounded 
 and maimed of the living, know that it is 
 the Democratic party which has imposed 
 this responsibility of justice and benevo¬ 
 lence upon you. WUen the taxgatherer 
 comes and demands five per cent, of the 
 income of each man in this country, 
 know that that is the tribute which you 
 pay for the supremacy of the Democracy 
 up to the year 1861. When you are 
 called upon to appropriate $130,000,000 a 
 
year to meet the interest upon the public 
 debt,know that that is the penalty the people 
 of this country pay for having so long con¬ 
 fided their interests to the Democratic party. 
 When the figures are presented to your con¬ 
 sideration, representing the present amount 
 of tbe national debt, $2,500,000,000, then 
 remember that that is a burden upon you 
 and your posterity for the folly of your gen¬ 
 eration in intrusting the public interests to 
 the care of the Democratic party. 
 
 The cemeteries of the dead, South and 
 North, filled with the humble testimonials 
 there raised to the memory of the men who 
 fell in defence of the Union, are sacred and 
 affecting evidence of the penalty, O people 
 of America! which you have paid for in¬ 
 trusting the destinies of this country to a 
 party that acknowledged fealty to nothing 
 but the right of States to tyrannize over an 
 oppres-ed people and to enslave four mil¬ 
 lions of human beings. Those four mil¬ 
 lions of people, by the grace of God and 
 against the protest of the Democratic party, 
 have teen emancipated and made citizens 
 of the Republic. 
 
 And now, in this last struggle, we are 
 moving to the consummation of the great 
 work we have in hand, which is that those 
 whom we have redeemed from slavery 
 shall be endowed with. all the rights of 
 men, rights guarded by the power of forty 
 millions of people, who have learned the 
 lessons of truth and freedom in defiance of 
 the teachings of the Democratic party of 
 this country. 
 
 Mr. SCHENCK. Mr. Speaker, we 
 ’ accept that appeal to the people and to the 
 polls. Yv'e shall be there to meet these 
 threats made in 18G2, repeated in 1864, re¬ 
 hearsed again in 1866, and now revived in 
 1868—to meet them with the same result, 
 the putting down by the power of the 
 people of men who have assailed every in¬ 
 terest of the country and sought to betray 
 the loyal men of the nation into the hands of 
 the country’s enemies. Row, Mr. Speaker, 
 I am glad that this little preliminary dis¬ 
 cussion, to be followed hereafter by those 
 others to which the gentleman refers us, 
 has taken place. I am glad that the gen¬ 
 tleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Eldridge) 
 interrupted my friend from Massachusetts 
 (Mr. Boutwell) with his interrogatory, 
 -which elicited some allusion to the issues 
 now just made up again in new form before 
 the people of this country. What was that 
 interruption f The gentleman from Wis¬ 
 consin was opposed to the bill now under 
 consideration because he claimed that there 
 are no States which are in any sense what¬ 
 ever out of their normal relations to the 
 rest of the Union. He made the objection 
 because he claims that every one of those 
 States is now entitled to representation 
 upon this floor and in the Senate and to 
 votes in the Electoral College for President 
 and Vice President. Why, sir, this is only 
 in accord with what we have heard and 
 witnessed all along. These gentlemen, 
 
 short of memory, have forgotten that there 
 has been a war, and would have us, follow¬ 
 ing them, shut our eyes to that historical 
 fact and to the consequences of that war. 
 
 But let us take the gentleman upon his 
 own ground. Let us assume that these 
 States are now entitled to vote for President 
 and Vice President; and that the govern¬ 
 ments of these States are now to be recog. 
 nized. What governments of those States? 
 Gentlemen on the other side have failed to 
 tell us. Are we to recognize those govern¬ 
 ments which existed prior to 1861? An¬ 
 drew Johnson, in his celebrated North 
 Carolina proclamation and other papers of 
 like character, declared (and gentlementon 
 the other side have indorsed the declara¬ 
 tion) that all civil governmen within the 
 limits of those States had been destroyed. 
 Surely, then, the gentleman from Wiscon¬ 
 sin cannot mean that we should recognize 
 the State governments which existed prior 
 to 1861. Are we, then, to recognize the 
 civil governments set up by Andrew John¬ 
 son, assuming to be himself the United 
 States, and therefore authorized to carry 
 out the guarantee of the Constitution to¬ 
 ward States found without civil gov¬ 
 ernments? Gentlemen do not pretend that 
 now. We know they clo not mean to ad¬ 
 vocate the recognition of the loyal govern¬ 
 ments which have grown up under the 
 legislation of Congress; for against those 
 governments they are all the time array¬ 
 ing themselves. Then what governments 
 are they that are to send their Representa¬ 
 tives to Congress, their Senators to the 
 other end of this Capitol, their electors to 
 vote for President and Vice President? 
 Frank Blair has told us, and it will not do 
 for gentlemen now to attempt to throw off 
 that exposition of their creed, that declara¬ 
 tion of their position, which has been so 
 clearly defined for them before the country 
 by their candidate for the Vice Presidency. 
 
 The gentleman from New Yor.k (Mr. 
 Brooks) and others are uneasy. They 
 tell us that the letter of Frank Blair is not 
 their platform. What is their platform ? 
 Why, sir, on Monday, the 6th day of this 
 month, the Democratic party in their con¬ 
 vention at New York agreed upon a series 
 of propositions, many of them mere 
 axioms in politics against which nobody 
 will protest; other generalities and com¬ 
 monplaces about which no cpiestion is 
 likely ever to be made ; others a wrapping- 
 up of meaning in ambiguous phrase with 
 the intention of catching people of the 
 widest disimilarity of opinion, so that your 
 Chase men and your Pendleton men might 
 meet upon the same ground. And that 
 they say is their platform. That was on 
 the 6th of July. Three days afterward, on 
 the 9th of July, when, throwing aside all 
 others, they had taken Horatio Seymour as 
 their candidate for the Presidency, and the 
 question came who should be their second 
 bn the ticket, Frank Blair marched into 
 that hall, not in person, but through the 
 
8 
 
 representatives of himself and his posi¬ 
 tion, with a platform in his hand, which he 
 presents to these men, in which he not only 
 lays down distinct positive views, which 
 they by acclamation adopted with him, but 
 which he presents to them accompanied 
 with the declaration that all else they have 
 been declaring about is of no consequence 
 whatever, and this which he presents is the 
 only issue. Now, see whether I overstate 
 it. That is his platform thus presented. 
 They say it would be rather a sudden 
 change between the Gth of July and the 
 9th of July to have altered their whole po¬ 
 sition. Is there any change impracticable 
 to these men ? Do they not fight for Sey¬ 
 mour and Blair just as they would have 
 fought for Chase or Hendricks or for Han¬ 
 cock, had they been nominated ? If any 
 man thinks he can find a plank too short to 
 afford room to allow the Democratic party 
 to turn a somersault on in three days or one 
 day, or in three hours or one hour, he 
 knows less of the history of that party than 
 Ido. 
 
 Mr. JONES, (Democrat,) of Kentucky. 
 I ask the gentleman to let me put a ques¬ 
 tion to him. 
 
 Mr. SCHENCK. I cannot yield. They 
 cannot plead shortness of time, especially 
 they cannot plead it in the face of the re¬ 
 corded facts; and I repeat, therefore, al¬ 
 though they adopted that platform under 
 which they seek now to take refuge on the 
 Gth, by the decision of the 9th they virtu¬ 
 ally threw it aside when they nominated 
 this candidate, whom they accepted by ac¬ 
 clamation, who said there was one great 
 issue, and on that they meant to go to the 
 country. 
 
 I will have some of this literature re¬ 
 peated in order to- refresh the memory of 
 gentlemen on the other side, although it 
 has been read in full at the Clerk’s desk. 
 First, as to that platform. Here it is in a 
 few lines: 
 
 “There is tout one way to restore the Govern¬ 
 ment and the Constitution, and that is for the 
 President elect to declare these acts null and 
 void.” 
 
 Not submit them to the Supreme court. 
 Oh, no! the Democratic President elect is to 
 declare them by his first proclamation nul-1 
 and void. 
 
 “Compel the army to undo its usurpations at 
 the Souih, disperse the carpet-bag SState govern¬ 
 ments, allow the white people to organize their 
 own governments, and elect Senators and Repre¬ 
 sentatives.’* 
 
 Your way is to have the President sweep 
 aside all acts of the legislative power, and 
 to substitute creatures in the shape of 
 State governments of his own making in¬ 
 stead of those established by law. 
 
 “The House of Representatives will contain a 
 majority of Democrats from the North. ” 
 
 May be so! 
 
 “And they will admit the Representatives 
 elected by the white people of the South, and with 
 
 the cooperation of the President it will not be 
 difficult to compel the Senate to submit. ” 
 
 This is your platform, moved as an 
 amendment to the resolutions of July 6, and 
 you shalb hear of it everywhere, whether 
 you will or no. You will have to stand on it 
 and abide by it. 
 
 Let me go on with Genl. Blair: 
 
 “I repeat that this is the real and only question 
 which we should allow to control us: Shall we 
 submit to the usurpations by which the Govern¬ 
 ment has been overthrown, or shall we exert our¬ 
 selves for its full and complete restoration? It is 
 idle to talk oi bonds, greenbacks, gold, the public 
 faith, and tie public credit.” 
 
 Away with your generalities, common¬ 
 places, platitudes, and delusions in the 
 pretended platform which you adopted three 
 days ago. That is not the issue. There is 
 but one real, true issue; all those are of the 
 slightest possible consequence which three 
 days ago you thought worthy to be made 
 the declaration of your faith. 
 
 “I wis-h to stand before the convention upon 
 this issue t but it is one which embraces everything 
 else that is of value in its large and comprehensive 
 results. It is the one thing that includes all that 
 Is worth a contest, and without it there is\)o* 
 thing that gives dignity, honor, or value to the 
 struggle.’* 
 
 Mr. MARSHALL. I raise the question * v 
 of order that the gentleman is not discuss¬ 
 ing the question before the House. [Laugh¬ 
 ter.] Unless lie gives a chance on this 
 side I shall object to his proceeding. I 
 have no objection at all if he will permit 
 us to have one-fourth the time he occupies. 
 
 The SPEAKER pro tempore , (Mr. Sco¬ 
 field in the chair.) The gentleman will 
 confine himself to the subject of debate 
 
 Mr. SCHENCK. That is precisely what 
 I am doing. It is claimed that there are 
 or are to be certain Democratic State gov¬ 
 ernments established at the South by these 
 means, which, being establisned, will 
 obviate all necessity for passing this 
 bill. We disagree to that; and I com¬ 
 ment upon the character of those govern¬ 
 ments and the issue sought to be made 
 before the people by which those govern¬ 
 ments are to be thus made the law for the 
 Southern States. I say, therefore, there is 
 but one distinct issue, the issue which Gene¬ 
 ral Blair concludes his letter by claiming to 
 be the only “one that gives dignity, honor, or 
 value to the struggle.” It is to be found 
 in the secondary platform overriding 
 the first accepted by these gentlemen, and 
 it now presents the one ground upon which 
 they go to the people. Why, sir, how was 
 General Blair taken? How were any of 
 the candidates taken? Is there anything 
 in the selection of either of them which 
 would indicate that the gentlemen would 
 not have taken this as their position in re¬ 
 gard to these Southern States? 
 
 [At this point, Mr. Marshall persisting ia 
 his point of order, the Speaker ruled General 
 Schenck’s remarks as not pertinent to the hill, 
 and the discussion closed ] 
 
 CHRONICLE PRINT., WASHINGTON, D. C.