US Presidency
1867

Then over all the vast and fruitful regions of the South peace and its blessings would have prevailed, while now millions are deprived of rights guaranteed by the Constitution to every citizen and after nearly two years of legislation find themselves placed under an absolute military despotism. A military republic, a government rounded on mock elections and supported only by the sword, was nearly a quarter of a century since pronounced by Daniel Webster, when speaking of the South American States, as a movement, indeed, but a retrograde and disastrous movement, from the regular and old fashioned monarchical systems; and he added: If men would enjoy the blessings of republican government, they must govern themselves by reason, by mutual counsel and consultation, by a sense and feeling of general interest, and by the acquiescence of the minority in the will of the majority, properly expressed; and, above all, the military must be kept, according to the language of our bill of rights, in strict subordination to the civil authority.