The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1866-08-10

Speaker ColfaX, in his speech to his
friends and neighbors at South Bend,
Ind, "vindicated" Congress and its
acts generally at the recent session, as
follows, and afterwards took up the
principal measures in detail, particu-
tutional amendment, explained them
at length, and asked the approval ofhis
constituents =
come before you to-day to Vindicate
the Congress of the United States from
the aspersions to which it has been sub
jected, and in taking up this subject, l
will say that have been there as YOUR
representative for eleven years. md i'm
all that time have never sat in a council
of men so imbued with the spirit of
patriotism, so unseltish in their views
SO anxious to devise the best measures
for the good of our country, as that
body of men recently adjourned, It
is the ableSt Congress have ever seen
assembled in our national capitol. It
has been tainted by it's enemies with
the charge of excessive deliberotion,
1t was deliberate in it's action. We, thew
say, elaborated for months. 1t was a
time when we should. We knew that
we were laying foundations which were
TO last for ages-endeaVoring to recon-
struct the Union on Il basis eternal MS
the stars, and, therefore, we made haste
slowly. 1t was u Congress moderate in
its demands; there is not one demand in
the constitutional amendment which we
submitted for ratification which should
not be approved by every man in the
land. II was Congress firm in its de-
termination as the eternal granite
Not all the appeals of the Chicago
Times and other papers in sympathy
with rebels, to drive them from the
capitol with the bayonet; nor all the
Nlllhcatlon poured out on their heads
by traitors and friends oftraitors, caus-
ed them to finch moment, but they
stood firmly for the right. The party
of rebellion ut the South called it n
"Rump Congress-" and their friends
North, as during the war, echoed their
epithets. 1t is an indecent name to use,
yet 1 speak of it because it has passed
into the literature of the democracy.
1t is singular to observe that while they
apply this epithet to Congress-, thew at
the same time eulogiZe the President,
If this is trump Congress, then Mr..
Johnson is certainly a "rump" Presi-
dent as we'll. daughter and applause.l
He was elected by the same voters in
the same districts of the same States as
this Congress-. Indeed his claim was
not so good in that respect, for when
we closed we had one more State inside
the Union than Mr.. Lincoln and Mr..
Johnson received the vote of in 1864,
Tennessee. We welcomed her, as she
came with what we deemed n bond or
guarantee of her future good behavior,
and amid applause on all sides on the
floor of Congress, that erring sister re-
turned once more to the family, the
wandering planet was again installed in
its orbit. : When they thus attack Con-
gress, on this ground, they also attack
their President. He represents no peo-
pie as the executive than Congress does
as the legislative power. At the time
of his election to the Vice Presidency
and with the speeches he then made,
they would rather have voted him a
rope in the eleven States which we do
not represent, than have voted him a
place in the government of the coun-
try. We come now with the same old
flag, the same principles, the same de-
votion to the country, that we exhibit
ed as an organization in the dark hours
of the war. Then we wrote on that
banner as our watchword, "Liberty to
all men" and it sounded round the
world. God blessed that motto and
written another motto under the form
er one, which is also to be sanctioned
by popular apprOVal-it is, "Justice to
all men," Applause. Then indeed
shall we have a nation of whose char
acter and purposes we may be justly
proud. Administrations and Presi-
dents and Congresses may die, but the
deeds of the Union party will live in
history forever, Frightening under the
eye of posterity as age after age rolls
away, becoming more and more glori-
Gus as their mighty influence for the
good of humanity and the prosperity
of our country is learned and appreci-
ated by experience.