Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1865-11-20
Serenade 10 Mr.. COItax-He Wakes
n Speech. a

WASHINGTON, Nov. 18.-This evening a
large crowd of friends of Speaker Colfax
repaired to his quarters and complimented
him with serenade. In response to earn
est calls he eappeared and addressed them as
follows:
My FRIENDS: thank you for this pleas
ant serenade with which you welcomed me
on my return to this sphere of public duty.
Since left here have Travelled, as you are
all aware, many thousands of miles. MY
thoughts turn, this evening, to
the auspicious condition of our country
now as compared with the closing of the
last Congress-. Then a hostile flag waved
over cities and forts, and camps and regi-
ments, and we went home in March to
assist in raising more troops called for by
the President. Now, there is peace over all
the land, and the flag of the Republic waves
unquestioned over every acre of our ma
tional domain. Cheers. We never knew
the value Of our institutions until the hour
of their peril. 1T we hal failed there would
have been no resurrection from the
tomb of nations. But thanks to our
heroic defenders, no Gibbon viii write
the history of our decline and fall.
[Cheers.] l shall hail the day when all the
States shall revolve in all their appropriate
orbits around the central Government, and
we can behold them distinct as the pillows
but one as the sea. But we cannot forget
that history teaches us that 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 thus established.
1t is auspicious that the ablest Congress
that ever sat during my knowledge of pub
lie affairs, meets next month to face and
settle the momentous questions which will
be brought before it. twill not he governed
by any spirit OF revenge, but solely by duty
to the country. | have no right to antici-
pate its action, nor do pledge myselfto any
inflexible, unalterable policy; but these
ideas occur to me, and / speak Of them
with the trankness with which we should
always express our views. Last March,
when Congress adjourned, the States
lately in rebellion, were represented in
hostile Congress and Cabinet, devising
ways and means for the destruction of the
country. 1t may not be generally known,
but it has been repeated, on the testimony
of members of the so-called Confederate
Congress, that Gen. Lee, the military head
of the rebellion, declared last Februa-
ry, in his official character, that the
contest was utterly hopeless, but that
their Congress and Cabinet determined
to continue the struggle; and 10000 men
fell after that time on both sides, in the
battles around Petersburg and Richmond.
Since the adjournment of the United States
Congress not single rebellious State vel
UNFAIRLY surrendered, not an army laid
down its weapons, not regiment abandon
ed their falling cause; but the Union armies
conquered a peace, not by compromise or
voluntary submission, but by the force of
arms.
Some Of these members of the so-called
Confederate Congress who at our adjOurn-
ment last March were struggling to blot
this nation from the map of the world,
propose. l understand, to enter Con-
gress on the opening day of its session
next month, and resume their former
business of governing the country
they struggled so earnestly to ruin. They
say they have lost no rights. 1t seems
if the burning of the ships of our COM
merce in the ocean, starving our prisoners,
and raising armies to destroy the nation
would impair some of their rights until
their new governments were recognized by
Congress. Cheers.] The Constitution,
which seems framed tor every emergency,
gives to each House the exclusive right to
judge of the qualifications of the election
returns of its members, and | apprehend
will exercise that right. Congress hav-
ing passed no law on reconstruction, Pres
ident johnson prescribed certain action
for these States, which he deemed indis-
pensable to their restoration to their former
relations to the Government, which think
eminently wise and patriotic. First, that
their Conventions should declare the va
rious ordinances of secession null and void,
not as some have done, merely repeating
them, but absolutely without any forceand
effect. Second, that their legislatures should
ratity the constitutional amendment abol-
ishing slavery, that this cause of dissention
and rebellion might be utterly extripated.
Third, that they shall formally repudiate
the rebel debt, though by its terms it will be
a long while before it tails due. 1t was paya-
BILE six months after recognition of the Con-
federacy by the United States. [Cheers.l
This reminds me of an old friend in Indi-
ana, who said he liked to give his notes pay
able ten days after convenience. laugh
ter, and cries of "good," "good."] But
there are other terms on which l think
there is no division among the loyal men of
the Union. First, that the Declaration Of
Independence must be recognized as the
law of the land, and every man, alien and
native, white and black, protected in the
inalicnable, God-given rights of lire, liber-
ty and the pursuit of happiness. Mr.. Lin
coin, in that emancipation proclamation,
which is the proudest thing in his chapter
Of fame Icheersl, not only gave freedom to
the slave, but declared that the Government
would maintain that freedom. [kpplause.]
He cannot abandon them and leave them
defenseless at the mercy of their former
owners. They must be protected in their
rights of person and property, and these
freemen must have the right to sue incourts
of Justice for all just claims, and to testify,
also, so as to have security against outrage
and wrong. l call them freemen, mot freed,
before their freedom was fully secured, but
they should now be regarded as freemen OF
the Republic. -------. -..-.....
Here we had to go to press.]