The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1866-12-03

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WASHINGTON, December 8. - Congress was
formally welcomed to-day at the Capitol by the
respective Republican organizations OF the
cepital.
The following is Judge Cartter's address of
welcOme:-
1t is made my pleasure and duty, by the loyal
citizens OF the District of Columbia, under their
various organizations, to tender welcome to
the Union members of the Thrty-ninth Con-
gIess. In their name l now welcome YOU one
and all, to their hospitality; and the welcome is
given as an expression OF respect for your wis
dom and patriotism, and national Lawmakers, as
we'll the municipal legislators of this District.
Yielding all honor to the nations defenders in
the field, and without rejecting upon the other
branches of the Government, or the integrity
of the distinguished functionaries who occupy
the seats of Executive and Judicial power, and
with no disposition to fattery. we may be per-
mitted TO say that nation save ii bears testimony
that we have no mistaken regard. nation
saved from the coDspiracies of the European
s--saved from the parricidal efforts of
domestic foes-saved from bankruptcy-saved
from slavery.
nation saved not in its sins, but from its
SINS nation saved in all its liberties at home
to be and to continue the prophet of liberty for
the world, and that nation transferred in the
catalogue of nations, by the very process of its
trials, from an experimental TO a permanent
and paramount power. These results made
painfully clear by the national trials
fresh in the memory of all, through which
the republic has passed, and is passing to
certain triumph, together with our knowledge
of your unintimidated fidelity to prn-
cipal and Roman frmness in its defence com
mend the homage OF our political and personal
regard. Much has been done, much remains to
be done.
1t has been not inaptly said that this is
Government ''of the people, by the people, for
the people," That people have spoken at the
balotboX. In our theory of government the
source of power in tbeir electoral judgments
they have demanded that the ways of the nation
shall be readiusted in such WISE to assure per-
sonal liberty to all, without regard to color or
condition.
In the light of this deliberate and emphatic
verdict. of the people, made invIolable by the
memories of sacrifice and h bleed by Ia s1%S m % the
nations defenders and in the spirit.
Well, they command, and Congress and Presi-
dents must obey. We return them to these
halls TO carry out and enfore this decision of
| the rulers of the nation, the people No man
can misunderstood their will. Four points have
been settled by them beyond all CONTROVERSY
FIRST. That the work of reconstruction must
be in the hands of those who have been the
friends and not the enemies of the nation; that
it must be based on the granite of loyalty, and
not the quicksands of disloyalty; and that those
whose wicked leadership and guilty repudia-
ton of solemn oaths plunged peaceful coun-
try into the bloody conflict of civil war shall
not be clothed with power to legislate for the
widows and orphans, the kith and kin of the
men they have slain IN their attempt to slay
the nation itself.
Second. That the promise of Abraham Lin
coin, In his immortal proclamation, that the
| freedom of emancipated millions should be
| maintained, must be fulfilled, both in letter
| and in spirit, and guaranteed beyond any
power of abridgment in our supreme law, for
| bidding interference by any untriendly State,
| with the privileges and immunities of the
liberty granted by the whole nation to all It's
people.
! in this republic on account Of their race, and
| vet have their numbers counted to confer in
creased political power on those distranchising
4. That the national debt, the cost of our
| national existence, shall be forever sacred
and that all debts or claims growing out of the
Rebellion or the breaking of fetters that
| ended it, shall be forever held null and void:
and the people also declared as their desire and
| will that Congress should enforce this decision
| of theirs by appropriate legislation.
Free as these few but vital points were,
| from every consideration of revenge and
| malice, looking only as they did to public JUS
tice and public safety, and even more generous
| than just it was certainly 10 have been expected
that If there was in the regions whose people
| had warred on our country so bitterly
| for years, still existing any lingering
love for the Union, any sorrow for their
| crimes, these essential requirements would have
| been assented to promptly, or, II not promptly,
| at least as soon as the elections had manifested
the nations will; but, on the contrary, they are
spurned and scOrnfully rejected by those who
control public opinion and WELD political power
| in the South.
The recent elections of the most conspicuous
seeessioniste in North Carolina, Alabama,
Arkansas, etc., with their Gubernatorial mes
sages, is the defiant reply. Rejecting the Con
stitutional amendment, they insist on represen.
tation in Congress and the Electoral College
for all but four millions of their former slaves
| thus ascending 10 enlarged and increased law,
making power in consequence of their rebellion
while at the same time they not only ds.rau
chise them, and refuse them the rights and the
protection of citizenship, but by dsgraceful anC
oppressive laws, pretending to regulate labol
contracts and to punish vaerancy, reduc thosC
whom the nation made free 10 a condition o
subserviency and seridom but little, if any, bet
ter than slavery itself.
Yet, while we cannot compel them to approve
the Constitutional amendment, our duty to tht
nation, TO Justice, to liberty, and to humanity
is none the less, Exponents of the popular will
as we are, we cannot avoid that duty; indeed
we may see in 1t the finger of Providence. Likt
our fathers, we have in the past few YEAR
builded better than we knew.
In the earlier stage of the war, how willingly
would an overwhelming majority of thu
people have consented to perpetual slavery il
| the republic, if Southern traitors had takel
from our lips the bloody chalce OF civil war
which they compelled us to drain TO its YER
dregs But God willed otherwise; ana at last
when every family altar had been crimsonet
with blood, and every cemetery and church
ward crowded with patriot graves, the nation
rose TO higher plane of duty. and resolved
IN these halls, that slavery must die.
When the storm cloud Of war passed away
Gods smile shone on our banners. Victory afte
victory blessed our gallant armies, and thu
Gro v nlng triumph was won that gave salvation
to the Union and freedom to the slave.
Sir ce then we have been earnestly STRUGGLING
for reconstruction on some enduring and loya
foundation. nbling-blocks have impede'
our progress, and when at last mild AM
maenanimous proposition Is made, embodyin