Baltimore daily commercial. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1865-1867, 1865-11-20
F ROM WASHINGTON
SPEAKER CoLFAx sEREN AIDED
His Remarks on the Admission of the
Southern Members.
HIS VIEWS ON THE STATE OF THE COUNTRY.

| WASHINGTON, Nov. 1S-Tbis evening Il large crowd
OF friends of Speaker CofaX repaired to his quarters
and complimentcd him with sercnadc. In response
to earnest calls the honorable gentleman appeared
and addressed them, as follows:
~ friends II thank you for this pleasant sere-
uId.le WIN winch you welcome me my return to
thls sphere OF public duty. Since left here have
travelled, as you are well aware many thousands of
mies over plans and mountains to the Pacific slope,
ana up that coast to the British Possessions in the
extreme northwest. But will not detain you with
any illusions to its scenery or incidents as have al
ready promised to speak in regard to them in this
| city next month.
, My thoughts more naturally turn this evening to
Ile auslcloIs condition of country now as com
pared with the closing of the last Congress Then an
aigh i ana hostile flag waved over cities and ports
| SI SIu giiups ana regiments, and went home in
aI1n Z? assist ~ raising more troops called for by
the presldent Now there is peace over all the land
anu the nag OF the Republic waves unqueStioned over
| every acre OF our national domain. fCheersl We
never knew the value of our institutions until the
hour OF ther peril If 1T had failed there would have
! been no resurrection from the tomb of nations but
thanks to our heroic defenders, Gibbon will write
| the history Of our decline and fall. Applause |
shall hail the day when all the States shall revove in
their appropriate orbit around the Central Govern
hment, and when we can behold them distinct as the
poWs put one as the sea. Butwc cannot forget that
history teaches us that it eight years after the
| surrender at orktown in the Revolutionary war
thoush our fathers were of one mind TO its neces
| sIty-be!Ure the Constitution was adopted and the
| Union thus established Wv
II Is auspcious that the ableSt Congress that has
sat here during my knowledge public affairs meets
next month TO face and settle the momentous ques-
tions which will be before it, II will NOT he 90
erned by any spirit ofrcvenge but solely by the duty
| to the country, ! have no right to anticipate its
| action nor do bind myself to any infexible un-
aterable policy; but these ideas occur to me and
speak them with the frankness with which we should
always express our views Last March, when Con
| represented in hostile Congress and Cabinet de-
vsing ways and means for the destruction of this
country. 1t may not be generally known but if was
repeated to me on the testimony Of members of the
| s9-cal!ed Confederate Congress, that General Lee
the military head OF the rebellion, declared last Feb
Tuary m ms Oihclai character that the contest was
literally hopeless, but their Congress and Cabinet
deteTnined to continue the struggle: seventy hous
and lell after that TING both sides in the battles
| around Petersburg Richmond, Five Forks and on
| other battle fields. "
Since the adjournment of the United States Con-
greSS, not single rcbelous State voluntarily sur
| rendered Not an army laid down its weapons Not
| regiment abandoned their failing cause But thc
| Union armies conquered peace not by conpromisc
or voluntary submission, but by force OF arms some
OF these members of the ca..ed Confederate Con
| greSS, who. at our adjournment last March, were
struggling to blot this nation from the map of the
world, propose, understand, to enter Congress on
the opening day OF ITS session next month, and re-
sumo their former business of governing this country
| they struggled 50 earnestly to run. They say they
| have lost no rights 1t seems as if burning the Sns
OF our commerce on the ocean, starving prisoners on
| land, and raising armies to destroy the nation, would
impair some Of these rights till these new govern
| ments were recognized by Congress. iArpause.i
| The Constitution, which seems framed for every
emergency gives to each House the exclusive right
to Judge OF the qualifications election and return of
ITS members, and apprehend they will exercise that
right: Congress having passed no law on recon
StructiOn President johnson prescribed certain ac-
ton for these States, which he deemed indispensable
to their restoration to their former relations to the
| Government, which | think emuently wise and pa-
| trotc. First-That therconvcntUns should declare
| the various ordinances of secession null and void
| not as some have DONE merely repeating them, but
absolutely, without any force and effect. Second
That their Legislatures should adopt the Constitu
tional Amendment aboshng slavery. that this cause
| pated. Third-That they shall formally rcpudiate
the rebel debt though by its terms it will be long
months after the recogniton Of tho oOntederacy by
THIS reminds me of an old friend in Indiana, who
SAID he liked to give his notes payable ten days after
| convenience daughter and applause, and cries of
good,). But there are other terms which think
| there Is no division among the loyal men of the
Union. First that the Declaration Of INDEPENDENCE
must be recognized the law of the land and every
man, alien native, white black protected in the
inalienabe and od-giving rights of life liberty and
the pursuit OF happinesSi Mr.. Lincoln, in that Eman
cpation Proclamation, which is the prOudet wreath
in his chnpet ofame, (appause,) not only gave free
dom to the slave, but declared that the government
would maintain that freedom, (applause). We can
| They must be protected in their right of person
| and property, and these freemen must have the
right to sue in courts Of justice for all just claims
and testify also, so as to have security against out
| rage and wrong. call them treemen nGt freedmen.
| The last phrase might have answered before their
freedom was fully secured, but they shoul be re-
| garded now as treemen of the Republic.
| Second-The amendments of their State constitu-
tons, which have been adopted by many of their
|
| dispatches from the President and Secretary of
State should be ratified by majority of their peo-
| pie. We all know that but very small portion of
their voters participated in the election Of delegates
to these Conventions and nearly if not all the Con-
| ventiOns have declared them in force without any
| ratification by the people.
| When that crisis has passed can they not turn
around and say that these adopted under duress
by delegates elected by meagre vote under PrOVi-
siona Governors, and military authorities and never
ratified by popular vote; and could they not turn
| OYER antI-LecOmpton arguments against Us and in
sist as We did that constitution not ratified by the
people may have tsgat effect, but no moral effect
Third, the President can, on all occasions, insist
that they should elect congressman, who could take
the oath prescribed by the act of 1862 but in defiance
ofths and insulting to the Presidenand the country
| they have III large majority OF instances voted
down, mercilessly. Union mon who could take the
not, would not. aye and would feel diSgraccd if they
could, Without mentioning names gentleman
his address to the people before this election that the
| iron pen Of history would record the emancipation
act as the most monstrous deed of cruelty that
| darkened the annals of any nation.
And another one who avowed that he gave all
possible aid and comfort to the rebellion, denounced
that Congress Of 1852 as guilty in cnacting such an
| oath. A vOice-"Put them ON probation" The
South is filled with men who take the oath; ii
| declares;
Il have not voluntarily taken part in the rebel
| lion. Every conscrpt in the Southern army can
take that oath. because he forced TO the ranks by
their cOnScrptiOn act, and every man who stad at
home and refused to accept civil or military official
positions could take that oath. But these were not
|
! Fourth-Whilc it must be expected that minori-
ty Of these States will cherish. for years, perhaps,
their feelings Of disloyalty, the country has right
to expect that before their members are admitted to
share in the government ofthis country. clear major
y of the people of each of these States should give
evidence Of their earnestand cheerful Oyaty-nOt by
speeches, as are 50, common, that they submitted
the issue to the arbtrament of war but that they
willing to stand by and fight for the ag of the
country against all its enemies, home and abroad.
| The danger is in too much precipitation, Let us,
| rather, make haste slowly, and can then hope
| government.
reconstructed on the basis of indsputable loyalty,
will be as eternal as the stars. LApplause.I
In President johnson have mistaken confidence,
and cannot forget that in the Senate at the opening
of the rebellion, he was the only Southern Senator
among the fat6loss found" Applause Nor can i
forget that when on his way from the Capital to his
| home-insulted though he was at many railway sta
tions-he iaercd in his devotion to the Union.
| Nor can forget his speeches. when Military Gov
ernor OF Tennessee to 4 mass meeting OF Golored
men at Nashville, in which he declared that he de-
sired that all men should have fair start and equal
chance in the of life, and let him succeed who
You will remember his speech to the colored regi-
ment of the District of Columbia. where he. repu-
white mans country Alone and inserted that it was
theirs also. You remember, also, his remarks to the
South Carolina delegation that the only right system
to protect all men, both white and black in their
persons and property; and that if they got general
principles, right details and coatuals would follow.
We all remember his earnest dispatches to these
Southern Conventions in setting aside the Richmond
elections, when disloyal Mayor and Common Coun-
warrant of every one who has been convicted of
spiracy.
The great Union organization of the country car
red 1t successfully, aided by heroic defenders,
through the perous crisis of the past four years
our beloved martyr President leaned upon it in the
darkest hour.
1t stood by the national cause unfalteringly; it
voted down the Chicago platform, which declared the
war to be failure and which demanded a cessation
| of hostilities.
The people have placed the whole power of the
| Government in its hands-eXecutive, legislative
| and Judicial-and re-assured it by the brilliant
| victories of this fall. Let emulate the exam
| pie of its friends in all the States, and let us
study unity in the light of duty, and | believe the
Executive and Legislative Departments of the Gov
| ernment, when they compare views together, will
cordially cooperate in the great work before and
so act that the foundations of Union, wisely and
| periodically reconstructed, shall be eternal the
| ages With hearty acceDtance by the South of the
new situation rejoice to believe that under asysten
ofpaid free labor and respecting the rights Offreemen
it will forward in prosperity wealth and progress,
| unequalled in its previous history. 1t has more
/, | genial cline than have in the colder North, a
wider range of productions, for it has cotton tobac-
co. rice and sugar, which command such high prices
in the markets of the world, and has boundess water
| power almost unimproved. Rid now of that shift
less system of slave labor il WILL with its oins girt
| anew, rival US in the OF prosperity
In conclusion, can but echo the last words of ou1
departed President in his last inaugural on the steps
of the Capitol with malice toward none with char
ity for all, but with frness to do the right God