Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1865-12-16
.zA.s .R i E r.r Y
B Speech Of Ex-speaker Colfax.

naiea ut III the National Hotel, where he made
7 the following speech: @ s 81 /. !. / 4,
MY FRIENDs: "Ithank you for this pleas
( ant serenade with which you welcome me OH
my return to this sphere of public duty. Since
left here I have travelled, as you are oil
l aware, many thousands of miles over the plails
and mountains to the Pacific slope, ahdup
that coast to the British possessions in the
Northwest; but / will not detain you with
any illusions to the scenery or incidents, as L
! have already promised to speak inregard to
them in this city next month. & @
=" My thoughts more naturally turn this
evening to the auspicious condition of our
country now, as compared with the closing of
the last Congress. Then anaalien and hostile
flag waved over cities and forts, aud camps
and regiments, and we went home in March
to. assist in raising oreitroops, called for by
the President. Now thereis peace over all
the;land, and the flag of the Republic waves
unquestioned over every acre Of our national
domain. We never knew the value of our
institutions till the hour Of their peril. If we
had failed there would have been no rcsurrec-
ton from the tomb of nations but, thanks to
our heroic defenders, no Gibbon will write the
history of our decline and fall 4. IS E.|
~ shall hill the day when all the States
shall revolve in theirappropriatc orbit around
the Central Government, and when we can
behold them "distinct as the pillows, but one
as the sea-" But we cannot forget that his
tory teaches us it was eight years after the
surrender of Yorktown in the Revolutionary
war, though our fathers were of one mind as
to its necessity, before the Constitution was
adopted and the Union established. It is
suspicious that the ablest Congress that has
sat here during my knowledge of public affairs
meets next month to face and settle the mo-
mentous questions which shall be before it.
It will not be governed by any spirit Of re-
venge, but solely by duty to the country. i.
have no right to anticipate it's action, nor do
bind myself to any inAexible and any unal-
terablc policy. These ideas occur to ME, and
speak of them with the frankness with which
we should always express our views. Last
March, when Congress adjourned, the States
lately in rebellion were represented in q hos
tile Congress and Cabinet, devising ways and
means for the destruction Of this country It
may not be generally known, but it has been
repeated to me in the testimony of members Of
the so.called Confederate Congress, that Gen.
Lee-thc military head of the rebel ellion-de-
elared last February, in his official character,
that the contest was utterly hopeless; but
their Congress and Cabinet determined to con-
tinue the struggle, and $4,000 men fell after
; that time on both sides, in the battles around
Richmond, Petersburg, Five Forks, and on
other battle-felds.
Since the adjournment of the United
States Congress, not single ~rebcllous State
voluntarily surrendered not an army laid
down its weapons not regimenta abandoned
its falling colors; but the Union armies con-
fuered peaoe-not by compromise orlinvolun.
ry submission, but BY force of arms. Some
of these members of the so.called Confederate
Congress, who, at our adjournment last March,
were struggling to blot this Republic, as a
nation, from the map of the world, purpose, I
understand, to enter Congress on the opening,
day of,its session, next mouth, ana resume
their. former business Of governing this coun-
try they struggled 50 earnestly to ruin. They
say they have lost no rights. It seems the
burning Of tic ships Of our commerce on the
ocean, starving prisoners on the land, and
raising armies to destroy the nation, would
impair some Of these rights till their new gov
ernments were recognized by Congress- The
Constitution, which seems framed for every
I emergency, gives to each House heexclusive
right to judge Of the quali1cst the cleo
tion returns Of its menbeas, and / appreacnd
they wiilEexercise that right.
Congress having passed no law on recon
struction, President johnson prescribed Ger.
tain aofi0n for fhoen Stn+ ~ul L. \