Fremont journal. [volume] (Fremont, Sandusky County [Ohio]) 1853-1866, 1866-03-16
MISREPRESENTATION OF SOUTHERN
STATES.
SPEECH OF
HON. HENRY WILSON,

HON. HEN RY WILSON,
In the Senate Of tie United States, March
9, 1866.
The Senate having. under consideration
the following resolution:
RESOLVED; By the House of Representatives,
(the Senate concurring,) That in order to close
agitation upon question which seems likely to
disturb the action of the Government, as well as
to quiet the uncertainty which is agitating the
minds of the people of the eleven States which
have been declared to be in insurrection, no
Senator or Representative shall be admitted in
to either branch of Congress from any of said
States until Congress shall have declared such
State entitled to such representation.
Mr.. Wilson said:
Mr.. PRESIDENT: A stranger from the
Old World listening to-day to honorable
Senators might come 10 believe that eley-
en- "wayward sisters" robed in the gar
ments of humility and penitence, are
pleading in tender accents for re-admis-
sion into this sisterhood of States, and
that their supplicating appeals are sternly
and rudely repelled by the other mem
bers of the family. But that stranger,
though unacquainted with American af-
fairs, would quickly discern that these
"'wayward sisters" are not seeking the pro-
lection of the laws, for they are already
completely subject to the rules and regu-
lations of the household; but they are
seeking for power, for authority to form
rules and regulations for the government
of their loyal sisters. He would speedily
dieooyar tbat tbo ,ot,o,, =. LII 49,
two classes; that the one class imperiously
demands the immediate and unconstitu-
tional admission into these Halls of legis-
lation of the rebellious States, rebel end
foremost; that the other class seeks their
admission into Congress at an early day
loyal end foremost. He would hear, too,
the blended voices of unrepentant rebels
and rebel sympathizers and apologists
mingling in full chorus, not for the restor-
alton of broken Union, for the unity and
indivisibility of the Republic has been as
sured on bloody fields of victory, but for
the restoration of these vacant chairs to
the natural leaders" of the South. I'd
Politicians here and elsewhere may de-
eeiye themselves-they may affect to see
what cannot be seen with the clear vision
of intelligent patriotism, but the people
who have given two and half million
men, the blood of six hundred thousand
heroes, and $4,000, 600, 600 for the unity
of the Republic and the liberties of the
people, clearly comprehend the issues. A
loyal people instinctively see, amid the
turmoil and excitement of the present,
that this is not a struggle for the read
mission of the rebel States into the Un-
ion; but struggle for the admission of
rebels into the Legislative branches of the
Government; not a struggle to put rebels
under the laws of the country, but strug-
lyle to enable rebels to frame the laws of
the country. A loyal people see that the
Ieonfederate States reconstructed since the
Surrender of the rebel armies are as COM
pletely in the hands of rebels now as on
the day JEFF. Davis was incarcerated at
Fortress Monroe. 4
Mr.. President, we have indeed fallen
upon eventful, exciting and sad times
! Unrepentant rebels, rebel sympathizers,
and apologists-the men whose hands are
stained with the blood of more than halt
a million loyal heroes; who starved the
country's defenders at Andersonville,
Salisbury, and Belle Isle; plotted in the
dark and troubled night Of civil war in
the secret lodges of the "Knights of the
!. Golden Circle" and the "Sons of Liberty"
for the overthrow of their struggling
country; lighted the fires of riot and ar
son in the city of New York, and planned
the assassination of Abraham Lincoln,
are leaping with joy and shouting with ex-
ultation over the present deplorable aspect
Iof national affairs Rebel presses boast
that they have published nothing since the
victory at Manassas so gratifying as the
Presidents veto to the bill for the Freed
mems Bureau. Rebel leaders bear them
selves toward Northern men, officers Of
the Army, and the tried and true loyal
men of the South more insolently than
ever. Returned rebel soldiers and kind
red spirits are avenging themselves for the
humiliations of defeat by insults, outrages,
barbarities, and murders of harmless
freedmen.
i Politicians in the loyal States, who re-
joiced over the disasters of their country
and sorrowed over the victories of its he
roes on land and wave, are inspired anew
! in the work of fvituperation and detraction.
William B. Reed, the Democratic leader
lin Pennsylvania, gives as a sentiment to
be drank in flowing bowls by the elite Of
the Democracy of Philadelphia, ''Our j.
llustrious statesmen incarcerated at Fortress
Monroe" Vallandigham, who kept watch
and ward in the summer of 1854 over the
border for the development of ineipient
treason in the great Northwest, now flies
his flag Returned rebels and men Of
questionable loyalty desecrate Washing
toms birthday here in the national capital.
Presses that one year ago sneered at Alb
raham Lincoln as an Ignorant rai[split-
ter" and at Andrew Johnson as a 'boor-
Iish tailor" now pour their malignity upon
1.-THE Congress of the United States, and
Imore than hint at the dispersion of the
representatives of the people by the hand
of lawless violence or executive usurpa-
ton. All that is disloyal from the Sus-
lquehanna to the Rio Grande, and the
champions of slavery and caste every
where, are exultant, defiant, aggressive.
The poor freedmen, who few months
ago were leaping and laughing with the
, 10y of new-found liberty, invoking the
blessings of Heaven upon the Government
that had stricken the CALLING manacles
from their limbs, are now trembling with
apprehension, everywhere subject to in
dignity, insult, outrage, and murder. Du
ring the past four months, in Alabama
alone, fourteen hundred cases of assault
, upon freedmen have been brought before
the Freedmen's Bureau. Thousands and
tens of thousands of harmless black men
from the Potomac to the Rio Grande
have been wroDged and outraged by vio
lence, and hundreds upon hundreds have
6 been murdered. The offices and the