The Waynesburg Republican. [volume] (Waynesburg, Pa.) 1867-18??, 1867-08-07
SPEECH OF HON. SCHUYLER COLrAx
A Defense Of Congress and Clear Expos
itfon Of the Political situation - The
Presidents Last Veto Message Dissectet

Inc Hon, schuyler COliaX was seren-
AIDED at the National Hotel, Washing
ton City, at the close of the last session
Of Congress. After several choice airs
by the band, the honorable gentleman
came to the balcony and respondents
follows, being frequently interrupted
with loud expressions of approval:
FeNow- Citizens Congress sincerely
desired to avoid this midsummer ses-
sion. They passed the Military Re
construction bills last March. The
President vetoed them on the explicit
ground that they made the military
commanders supreme and absolute ov-
er the people of the late rebellious
states. Congress accepted his construc-
tion of them, and rcpassed them over
his veto. They were cordially endors-
ed by the people of the North, and ac-
quiesced in more readily by the people
of the South than had been expected.
Soon it became apparent that under
them loyalty would triumph in most
of the Southern States, and then the
President vetoed his own veto, and
promulgated a decision of his Attorney
General that under these laws the mil
itary commanders were mere police
men, subordinate to the Provisional
Government over which they had been
placed; the army but a posse comitatus,
to enforce the decrces of the rebel Gov
ernors and Mayors, and that every reb-
el was to be his own registrar. The
people, surprised at these decisions, APP
pcaled to Congress, in which they plac-
cd such deserved confidence, to reas-
semblc, and from Maine to California
they came hithcr to resume their lcgis-
lativc authority, and to so declare the
meaning Of their legislation that no
legal sophistries of any Attorney Gen
cral could mystify it. Vetoed again,
they repasscd the statute book as one
of the laws which the President, by
his constitutional oath, must take care
to have faithfully executed. Some, |
know, condemn Congress for having
done too much in its past legislation,
and some for having done too little
but | think it has struck the golden
mean, firm and yet prudent courage
Gus without undue excitement, inllexi-
bic and yet wise. The President in
his last veto denounces the military
dcspotism, as he calls it, and declares
that Congress has subjected the South
to tyranny most intolcrable. We
have heard these charges of military
despotism before, during the war, from
the party which so bitterly opposed his
election three years ago. Every act
tending to strengthen the Government,
such as the suspension Of the habeas
corpus, trials by court martial, &C.,
was denounced as military despot-
ism but the people rendered their
verdict, and it could not be reversed.
Instead oftyranny, the key note of the
Congressional policy is protection to
all, and the vindication and triumph
of loyalty, oad God helping us we shall
stand by it until it crowned with
triumph. [Applause.] l will use no
word of disrespect toward the Presi-
dent, for although differing with him
in policy as wide as the polls, respect
the office which he fills, and prefer
argument toinvective. When 1 listen
ed yesterday to Mr.. Mcpherson, the
Clerk of the House, as he read the bold
and defiant message of the President, l
could not but feel that in the whole of
it he arraigned himself far more than
the Congress which he addressed. All
parties agree that he spoke correctly
when, in his North Carolina proclama-
ton of May, 1865, he declared that
all the civil governments of the South
had been destroyed by the rebellion.
He then, without calling Congress to-
gether, went on with the work of re-
construction in the absence of all law
upon the subject. Has Congress made
State governments subordinate to the
military power So did the Presi-
dent. Has Congress provided for the
callingof State Conventions So did
the President. Has Congress au-
thorized the ratification +? So did the
President !? But he ordered conven-
tions by his executive fiat, and recog-
nized their constitutions without their
being submitted to the people. Con-
gress required the people, the register
ed voters, to call the Convention Them