The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-12-03
% hear' against h, as IpexplIoabIe as it seens

OF hear against It, as inexploable as it seems
| removable,
Does IL not seem as Il again The Creator Is
ieh1lng US in His wav rather than our own2
AND, as we turn for light does it not fash upon
it's preiudicesi
,1156n And a; He, SO far above u.s. has put all
tne divine law, and called them all His children,
ne demands that we shall put all under an
e9ua;Ityu ecu ;I u before the human law, SO that every
one IN sll tne regions poisoned by the influence
OF slavery and the principle of treason shall be
clothed with all rights necessary for the fullest
ana ana surest seli-protection against tyranny, out
rage, and wrong, and not left defenseess to the
mercy OF those who 30 long extended no mercy
TO the Government they sought to DESTROY
y The question naturally arises, How can this
oe ooneE SuTrounded by these able jurlsts,
patriots, and statesmen returning here as they
90 crowned with an unparalleled popular en-
dOrsement, II might not be lifting to anticipate
their arguments on these vital themes in the
session ustopening; but, when the Constitution
declares in IFS opening sentence that "all Legs-
latlye powers herein granted, shall be vested i'm
a Congress of the United States F" when it
solelnnly enjoins 'that the United States shall
guarantee to every State in the Union a repub-
llcan form OF government ~ and when IL gives to
Congress full authority to make all laws which
VIII be necessary and proper for carrying into
execution all the powers vested BY the Constitu-
tion in the Government of the United States or
in any department or Office thereof the duty
and It's excuse seemed to have been specially
W.
Since President Johnson declared, in MAY
1855, that the Rebellion had destroyed all civil
government in the'trebellious States, Congress
has recognized none of the Governments estab-
lshed there under the authority of military law.
except the Rebel-disfranchisng Government of
the State OF Tennessee. 1t has yet TO settle the
question, under the oaths of its members to sup
port and defend the Constitution, whether these
provisional and unrecognized Governments, in
which those who have been the bitter enemies
of the republic are dominant In their executive,
legislative, and judicial departments where to
have been soldier of the Union, dead or dying,
is reproach; where devotion to the lost cause
of treason Is openly avowed and is the guar
antee OF popular favor; where the colors and
the heroes of the Rebellion are enthusiastically
hailed, and where citizenship is refused to the
only people in their midst who, as a class, have
been loyal, are or are not republican forms
of government. l repeat, it Is the duty of
the United States to guarantee and protect,
leaving this and kindred questions to those who
will so ably discuss them. Can we not all say,
as loyal patriotic, and justiceloving citizens as
forsus and our children, the vow VIII ich we have
given for justice and humanity is registered in
heaven.
"No black laws in our order,
No pirate on our strand;
No traitors in our Congress,
No slaves upon our landn
Speaker Colfax replied to Judge Cartter's ad-
dress as fOlOws:-
Fellow-citizens: - Only four months have
passed awav since the first session of the Con-
gIess closed, and the members whom you now
greet with such generous and earnest welcome,
returned to their homes, to render an eccount OF
their stewardship to the people, and to discuss
| before that tribunal, from which there Is no
rightful appeal, the gravest issues ever sub
m!tted on the battle field, to which treason in
Yited the nation.
Our heroic defenders, amid the storm of shot,
and shell and a%e eofes on sea fh S OUR star
banner should never become the winding sheet
OF the worlds best hopes, but after their con-
flicls and other sacrifices, it remained for the
anTNIn nDft thn hall ~ hTy and hn lafG
tors and Representatives in these halls of eglsla
ton to guard tue country against another
rebellion deluging the land IN blood, and after
this terrible contest for national existence to
reconstruct on such enduring corner-stones that
posterity would realize to the latest syllable of
recorded time" that our fallen heroes had not
died in vain.
But iour months since We left this Capitol and
ye how crowded with events 4 he bloody and
wicked massacre at New Orleans. the very week
after our adjournment, and toe extraordinary
speech OF the President Rt St. Louis, pallatng the
guilt oil the murderers, and charging its grave re-
spOnsioility on the Congress of the Omitted states.
The two great Philadelphia Conventions, memora.
Bile for the frank Acknowledgement that those who
denounced Congress ele really arm with the
men who, trampling on broken oaths. have sought
to destroy the nauon's ne ana the other honored
the storm OF treason swept their State refused
to bow the knee to Baal.
The expulsion from office of thousands trusted
and commissioned by our martyred President,
to whom more than any other equal number of
men the president Administration was indebted
fer the power it welded, their only CRIME being
inAexible fidelity to the principles professed by
the successful candidate for Vice-PresidenCy in
| the canvas of 1864. The hundreds of speeches
OF the Presidential tour throughout the land,
and their republication in millions of copies tn
all our prominent papers bring the issues to the
! hearthstone OF every voter.
! The significant response of the people from
! ocean to ocean, condemning the policy of which
! thhey had heard so much, and attestiug their
! unshaken confidence in the Coueress which had
stood so fearlessly, so faithfully, and so inn
! Our Republic has been making history in these
| past four months. Thank God, in this land the
! people are the only rulers. Every year they
! resume their power, and at the ballot-boX,
! given TO them by the dead of the Revolution,
| they make and unmske Congress. They rebuke
! or condemn administrations.