Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1866-02-24
MR.. SEwARD,S SPEECH.

NM SEW AhD'S
Subjoined we give some of the important
points of Secretary Stewards admirable speech,
not fully reported in the kilograms from New
York:
There was, he said, difference of opinion that
reveals itself but too clearly between the ex-
ecutiye administration Of the President and the
legislative councillors of the nation The
President as we all see, is man of decided
convictions; the legislative leaders if we may
judge from their resolutions, are trying to de-
eide, not 10 coincide, with HIM in opinion. They
have appealed to us, outsiders as we are, to
pronounce between them.
Mr.. Seward proceeded with happy Illus
tratoR of the situation derived from the play
OF the "Neryous Man and the Man of Nerve"
The marriage they had secretly planned be-
tween their children had been effected clandes-
timely by the latter through runaway match,
but the nervous man was inconsolable since,
though having his own way he had not his
own way Of having it,
"Both have got The Union restored as they
originally planned 1t should be. They have
got it restored, not with slavery, but without
ii; not with secession, fragrant or latent, but
without 1t; not with compensation for emanci-
patton, but without il; not with compromise,
but without it; not with disloyal States or rep
resentatives, but with loyal States and repre-
sentatiyes; not with rebel debts, but without
them; not with exemption from our own debts
for suppressing the rebellion, but with equal
liabilities upon the rebels and the loyal men;
not with freedmen and refugees abandoned to
suffering and persecution, but with the freed
men employed in productive, self-sustaning
industry, with refugees under the protection of
law and order. The man of nerve sees that it
has come out right at last and he accepts the
situation. He does not forget that in this
troublous world of ours the most to be secured
by anybody is to have things come out right.
Nobody can ever expect TO have them brought
out altogether in his own way. The nervous
men, on the other hand, hesitate, delay, debate
and agonZe-not because it has not come out
had their own way in bringing it TO that happy
termination"
"There yer was and never can be any sue
cessful process for the restoration of union
and harmony among the States, except the
one with which the President has ayowed
himself satisfied. Grant it that the rebellion
is dispersed, ended and exhausted-dead even
al the root-then 1t follows necessarily that the
States sooner or later must be organized by
loyal men in accordance with the change in
our fundamental law, and that, being so or
ganiZed, they should come by loyal representa-
uyes and resume the places in the family circle
which, in a fit Of caprice and passion they re-
bellously vacated. All the rebel States but
Texas have done just that thing, and Texas
is doing the same thing just now as fast as pos
sible. The President is In harmony with all
the States that were In rebellion. Every exec
utiye department and the judicial department
are In operation, or are rapidly resuming the
exercise of their functions. Loyal representa-.
tiyes, more or less, from these Statesmen
whose loyalty may be tried by any constitu-
uonal or legislative test which will apply even
TO representatives OF the States which have
been loyal throughout-are now standing at
there for three months past, asking to be adj.
mitted to seats which disloyal representatives,
in violence of the rights and duties of the States
as well as the sovereignty of the Union, had
recklessly abandoned. These representatives
after lapse of three months, yet remain wait
ing outside the chamber, while Congress passes
law after law, imposes burden after burden
and duty after duty upon the States which,
thus against their earnestly expressed desires,
are left without representation. So far as
canGudge of human probabilities, feel sure
tha+ lnxa from fhoSo Stata
will, sooner or later, at this session or at some
other, by this Congress or some other, be re-
ceived INTO .he legislature of the nation. When
this shall have been done, the process OF res
toration will be completes; for that is all that
now remains TO be DONE"
All other plans and prospects Mr.. Seward
declared TO be not for reconstruction, but for
obstruction. No State had ever been or ever
can be kept out Of the Union, by joint resolu-
tions or any other means, he said. The Ameri-
can people had abolished slavery.
"Do i think, therefore, that we shall lack the
wisdom or the virtue to go right on and con-
tinue the work of melIoration and progress,
and perfect in due time the deliyerance Of
labor from restrictions, and the annihilation Of
cast and class We have accomplished what
we have done, however, not with an imperial
goyernment-not with a proconsular or terri
torlal system. We have done it in States, by
States and through States, free, equal, un-
trammelled, and presided over by Federal
restricted Government, which will continue to
the end the constitutional principles with
which we so wisely began
81 have not given prominence in these re.
marks to the conflict OF opinion between the
President and Congress in reference to the Blu.
reau for the relief OF Freedmen and Refugees.
That conflict is, in its consequences, compara-
lively unimportant, and would excite little in
terest and produce little division If it stood
alone. 1t is because it has become the occa-
sion for revealing the differences that have
already described that il has attained the i'm
portance which seems to surround il. Both the
President and Congress agree that, during
the brief transition which the country is
making from civil war to eternal peace, the
freedmen and refugees ought not to be aban-
doned by the nation to persecution and suffer-
ing. 1t was for this transition period that the
Bureau Of Freedmen was created by Congress,
and was kept, and is still kept in effective op.
GRAFTON. Both the President and Congress, on
the other hand, agree that when that transition
period shall have been fully passed, and the
harmonious relations between the States and
Union fully restored, that bureau would be not
only unnecessary but unconstitutional, demor-
alizng and dangerous, and therefore that it
should cease TO exist. The President thinks
that the transition stage has nearly passed, and
that the original provision for the bureau is all
that Is necessary to secure the end in view,
while the bill submitted by Congress seems to
him 10 give 1t indefinite extension in time Of
peace and restoration. He vetoed it for that
reason. He declines to accept, as unnecessary
and uncalled for, the thousand or ten thousand
agents, the increased powers and the augmented
treasure which Congress insists on placing in
his hands. Congress, on the other hand, thinks
that the Freedmen's Bureau not adeq uate
and that more patronage, more money and
more power would, like Thompson's door,
plate, purchased at auction by Mrs. Toodles,
be a good thing to have in a house agree
with the President i'm the hope that the extra
ordinary provision which the bill makes will
not be necessary, but that the Whole question
may be simplified by a simple reference TO the
existing law.
"The law of March 3, 1866, which created
the Freedmen's Bureau, provides that it shall
continue in force during the war of the rebel
lion and one full year thereafter. When does
that year expirel In the Presidents Iudg.