Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1862-08-06

! AAAA dAA| III ll4CA BClAOd c4AAC6 TIE aQODIl
; Of the Federal Constitution. This Con
greSs, Is the legislative branch of the Gov
: ernment, has had to meet those question
! and discharge those duties, and histor,
: VIII record IN the main that 1t has met it
responsibilities and performed its dutie
wisely and vel. From the | ersisten
opposition of my colleague Mr.. Cox ant
those who act with him politically, TIM
} Congress has failed to do some thing
) which it should promptly have done, anC
, what he most complains of will live or
the historic page as among its most nobls
and benefcent acts.
This Congress found the Government
in debt Sl2O, ,0O0, 900, caused by the frauds
stealings, and imbecility of Democratic
Administration, which my colleague help
ed 70 elect, and which he supported
II found its Navy scattered to distant
seas By the orders of that Democratic Ad-
mlnlstra'.on. 1t found its munitions OF
war, arms, and ordnance, and most of Its
treasure, IN the hands of traitors and re-
bels by the conniVance and treachery o,
the members of the Cabinet of that Ad-
minlstration. 1t found many of the Gov
ernment forts, arsenals, dock-yards, navy
yards, custom-houses and mints in posses
SION OF armed rebels, q large majority OF
whom were members of the party to which
my colleague belongs. The Government
securities were selling at a discount OF
sixteen per cent; public confidence
abroad in the integrity and stability OF
the Government was gone, and at home il
was materially weakened and we'll nigh
destroyed, and nearly all the Democratic
party in the slave States. and many of it
members IN the free States, were openly
or secretly conspiring to overthrow the
Government and destroy the unity of the
nation. A majority of the army officers
who were Democrats had turned traitors
and had basely deserted their flag, and
were in arms against the Government
which had educated them. .....
The foregoing is a general and brief
statement of the condition of affairs when
the Thirty Seventh Congress, on the call
Of the President, on the 4th day of July
last, was summoned to discharge of it,
duties. So energetic. prompt, thorough
was the action of the Thirty Seventh Con-
gress at the extra session, that If inspired
hope and revived confidence throughout
the loyal sections of the country. Laws
were promptly passed, on the recommen-
dation of the Executive and the Cabinet.
TO provide ways and means to raise an
Army and provide Navy and forthwith
in response to these measures, six hun
dred thousand citizen soldiers were in the
field, armed, equipped and supplied with
all the requisite munitions of war. The
new and improved vessels of war were
built the Navy was re-organized, and its
glorious acchievments at Hatteras, Roam
oke, Forts Henry, Donelson, Pulaski, Phil
ips, jackson, at Island No. 10, at New Or
leans, Memphis, and at other places. in
cooperation with the Army, are the grand
results. The action of Congress was but
the echo of the patriotic voice of the peo-
pie. On the authority of law, money flow
ed into the Treasury at the call of the |
Secretary sufficient to meet all those ex-
traordinary expenses, and to-day the Gov |
ernment securities are selling at premi- |
um. So far as the raising of money, means,
materials, and munitions of war is con-
cerned, the success in the same length OF
time is without parallel in the history |
of any nation. The Government of Eng
land, in 1896, under the administration
of Mr.. Pitt, effected loan, known in his
tory as the I" Loyalty Loan" being raised |
as the voluntary subscription of loyal per-
sons of EIo,000,00U. The fact has been I
proudly chronicled by English writers as
a remarkable instance of the patriotism |
and of the exhaustless resources of the !
English people. The loyal American cap
italists as quickly responded to the amount
of Sl50,000,000! Napoleon. in the zenith
of his power and in the pride of his mil
itary success, and in the height of his
military glory, never raised and put into
the field an army of six hundred thousand
men as promptly as did the President of
the United States on the authority of the |
legislation of the Thirty-Seventh Congress. |
The nations of Europe have beheld these
results with wonder and amazement, and |
some of them with chagrin. Our national
symbol, the American flag. with no star
obscured and no stripe erased, will soon
float in triumph over every rood of the
Republic, and it will again command re-
spect on every sea and at every port where
commerce, enterprise, and civilization
have a habitation and a name. What
ever has been found defective in the ieg-
islation of the extra session has been cor
rected and is being corrected, at the pres
ent session. Congress has matured a sys-
tenn of taxation commensurate with the
high duties which it has been compelled |
to discharge. This has been a most ar
duous and difficult task. There are,
doubtless, defects in this system which
experience will develope and which fu-
ture legislation will correct. The patriot
ism of the people has been tested in sur
rendering the flower of its population for
the defense of the Government, and the
croaking of demagogues and traitors at
the tax bill will not swerve them from
their integrity or frighten them from their
patriotism. The soldiers must be paid
their families must be provided for. This
Congress has had to act upon embarras-
sing questions, some of them without pre-
oedent in the history of the Government.
There has been occasion for honest differ
ence of opinion among loyal and patriotic
men as to the legality and policy Of GER
tain measures. Upon many questions
each member, in obedience to the judg-
ment of the whole, has been obliged to
Weld up, to some extent, his individual
opinions and the individual ideas of
members of what is right and proper can
not always be carried out. a---
In discharge of those high duties which
this rebellion has devolved on this Con-
gress, il has freed the capital from the dis
grace and the crime of slavery and look
ing upon slavery in the States as the i'm
mediate cause of this wicked war against
the Government, on the recommendation
Of the President, Congress, in liberal and
friendly spirit, has proposed to aid by pc
cuniary compensation such States as may
desire to rid themselves of this terrible
incubus. AS punishment for crime, as
means of putting down the rebellion, Con-
gress is proposing TO confscate the prop
erty ofrebels, and 70 deprive them Of their
slaves. Following the teachings of Jeffer-
son, and the example of the Congress of
1887, this Congress has forever prohibited
slavery in the Territories acquired and to
be acquired. .....
Against these and other kindred meas
ures of obvious policy and justice, my col
league of the Columbus district protests
oy voice and vote, and because Congress
entertains them, he hurls at it his bitter
est denunciations. I am grateful to my
constituents for an opportunity to vote
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