Indiana State sentinel. (Indianapolis, Ind.) 1861-1865, 1862-07-14

and elect members of Congress and
members of a Legislature. We can not do that;
bat we can do this-and that is the object of this
bill-we can say to them, until you do that, We
will enforce as against yourselves your own con-
s~titutions and laws: we will execute upon your
selves the laws you have made and the constitu
tons you formed when you were in the Union
That is the object of this bill and nothing else.
Whenever, being conquered, rebellion being sup
pressed, they are ready to hold a convention, or
ganize themselves, and comeback into the Union.
we are ready to receive them, and then this law
will have spent its force. 1t will be no longer
operative as a law. But this contemplates that
temporary state of things, and, as / said before,
it will be very short in its duration, when the
State is subdued, and yet the people are not ready
10 surrender their present form of government
under an alien power, but choose to say to US,
"though YOU have conquered US, still we belong
to another kingdom; we do not belong to the
United States. We belong to the Confederate Gov
eminent; and if you will let US have our way, we
will stay there; we will not go back into the
Union"
Mr., Cowan-Mr. President, suppose the case
as put by my honorable friend should occur, sup
pose that we succeed in SURPRISING the rebellion
in South Carolina, and alter we have dOae so,
everybody is quiet and submits, but they take no
steps whatever to resume their old State Govern
ment or TO establish anv Government in subordi-
nation to ours, then | ask the honorable Senator
what is he to dor Is this Provisional Govern
ment to remain over the State of South Carolina
forever? Is it TO be permanent And If it is to
be permanent, ! ask whether that is not conquest
and subjugationl What is conquest; what is
.subjugation? Conquest simply means the over
running of a country and the assumption of its
political power on the part of the conqueror, and
maintaining it as against the will of the people.
What is suSjugation? Making that people 60
under the yoke, after the fashion of the ancients,
who made the yoke the symbol OF subsection.
AS l understand, and as | thought we all under
stood, that is not our object. Why did we invade
TENNESSEE Because when the will of the people
of Tennessee was fairly expressed according to
the laws then prevailing and under our COnStitu-
ton, there was a majority against the rebellion.
So it was in Maryland; so it was, | believe, in
North Carolina; so it was in Kentucky; and so
il would have been in Louisiana, if the poll had
been fair. Then we were in duty bound to inau
gurate this war; we were in duty bound to go to
the rescue of those loyal people, and we SO de-
cided it ut first. They mightnot have been com
batants, but they were loyal people, and we had
guaranteed 10 them a republican form of govern
nient. We have gone there; | trust we have
gone there as men ought to go, in pursuance of
the stipulations of our Government, ana if it
turns out by some accident or other that in the
meanwhile they have all changed their minds and
are all now unanimously against us, then our
labor is lost. We cannot subjugate any people
who are unanimously against Us. particularly I'M
der circumstances OF this kind. If that be so,
as l said before, our labor is lost, because we
have no constitutional machinery by which TO
seize upon and take hold of an exterior province
and govern it by virtue of our conquest. No
man desires it, no man wishes it, because that
itself would be the overthrow of our COnstitu-
tion-by the admission that the seeded States
had gone out, were out; and that being out we
could make a valid conquest of them.
/ have no doubt these are gentlemen here in
Evor of subjugatiOn, and were from the very
first, because almost everything that they have
done since then has indicated that that was their
original idea; but / say that WAS not the original
idea of the American people; it was not the orig
inal idea OF the American Congress-. because they
declared otherwise; and If they declared what
was not their real opinion at that time, so much
the worse for those who did SO, and it will come
to naught. We, as a nation, are responsible be-
fore God and before the world and to ourselves
for the honesty of our motives and the correct
ness of our Intentions. Ii we expect that We can
violate the right, trample it under foot, regard
less of ANYTHING except our own desire for ven
geance, we shall be taught bitterly and mourn
fully the truth of the text: vengeance is mine,
saith the Lord; | will repay" And that text is
not only Il revealed truth, it is a truth in nature
tndt ne WIZ seems uHl duNdIbdBt, hbcJucT al IL
dividual or a nation, for the mere purposes of re
venge. will fail; he will never get vengeance; the
recoil will be upon himself; it will be engineer
hoist by his own petard." The world is full of
examples of it. Its not an arbitrary law because
it was revealed, but it was revealed because it was
in nature from the beginning. The experience of
every man in private life who has ever tried M
experiment of that kind ought to have taught
him so. Trample upon the weakest for purposes
= - - Il ,rItl-.- 10 ill E.l
that he has sown the sorrow and reaped the pro-
duce of it.
Mr.. Wilkinson-I should like to ask the SEN
ator from Pennsylvania a question aud that is
whether the Government of the United States has
not the right, and whether it is not its duty, to
prevent any separate and independent govern
ment from being established within its borders,
even if the whole people within a certain area de-
termine so to do?
Mr.. Cowan-That is another and entirely diff
ferent question, not a question OF constitutional
law, but a question of policy; and how far it can
ever be a question in this country is yet to be de-
termined, because it has never arisen. 1t can
not arise readily. according to the principles upon
which we established our Government, and | am
very free to say that, guided by these principles,
it would be Il violation of them upon our part to
seize upon any contiguous territory, or even TO
subjugate and make conquest of territory within
Jul OOiAOact "a We CtCfN ~ "ONi1
add to our security or our convenience. 1t is the
doctrine of European politics unqueStionably,
and il has been attempted to be established as
the doctrine in this country on the part of the
Southern secessionists, that if Cuba was neces-
sary to our safety, and if it would contribute to
our defense in the future, we ought to seize it,
right or wrong.
Mr.. Wilmot-Will my colleague answer this
question: have we a right to preserve the integri-
tv of tho rpnuhlip aOaiuSt all qnQmIQsf
Mr.. Cowan-My whole speech has been to an
swer that very question. We have a right TO
maintain the integrity of the Republic, of course,
under certain conditions; but as nobody supposes
the Republic will be eternal, that it will last
always, and that it can last as against the will of
the people who created it, my colleague will have
TO consider the question as answered
Mr.. Wilkinson-If have understood the Sen
ator from Pennsylvania correctly, his argument is
this: that if all the people of South Carolina
choose to 60 out of this Union, and to set up a
separate and independent Government, the Gov
eminent of the United States has no right to pre-
vent them. Nv question was, whether the Gov
eminent of the United States was justified in per-
hitting a separate aud independent Government
to be established with its borders, although the
entire people OF a certain area determined to do
so? and that leads directly to the argument in the
case. III every man, woman, and child, within
the borders of the State Of South Carolina,
should determine to set up a separate and indie
pendent Government antagonistic to that of the
United Stares, is this Government justified in sit
ting down Quietly and permitting il to be donel
Mr.. Cowan-We have solemnly and unani-
mOusly decided here that we were not seeking to
conquer and subjugate the people Of the Southern
States. but to rescue and restore to them the Gov
ernment displaced by the rebellion. That we do
by virtue oil the Constitution and of our rights
II N-.--1 f. H.