The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-03-22

Ny Fellow Citizens: THANK God those words
tonight are full of meaning. My ellOw-citizens,
l come with less pleasure before you TO
address you tonight than i have done any
time since lS40 and that for the reason that
you, who during all that time we're nothing,
were between persons and things, are to-day q
political power in the country-(applause) and
may, ere long, reward the men who served you.
(Appause) He who defends your cause hence
forth must prove by other means than mere
words his devotion to the cause OF right ana
Justice When Wade Hampton courts the freed
men of South Carolina, and compromises with
them and they pat him on the back and pro-
mise that II he will only do as we'll IN the future
as he was doing on that day, they viii
have his disabilities removed, then the DdrFey
hanover in the land. applause and laughter.)
And yet the afternoon papers tell me tnat
that thing happened two or three days ago in
South Carolina. Yes, before ten years, you will
fud the blue-eyed, llght-halred red.cheeked
politicians swearing that there is large intu-
sion of African blood in their veins. Jap
plause.) That point has already been reached.
The Thirty-ninth Congress-and that IS my
themc-was elected chiefly in the fall of 1864
The members from our own grand old State
grand in her resources, and grand in the part
which, under Providence, she has been able to
Dlay In the recent political contests of the
Country-the representatives of our State
were elected in October, 1864, by the terms of
the Constitution of the United States. That
Congress could not meet until the first Monday
in December, 1865, unless summoned in special
session by the President OF the United states.
II tn mRst terminate on the 4th of March,
1867 From October, 1864, to March, 1867, a
period of about twenty-nlne months, how brief
a period in the life OF nation Aud yet, my
friends, if it be, as Tennyson has it, that
fifty years OF Europe was better than a cycle of
Carthage" we have enjoyed and endured, during
that brief period, ages OF ordinary life.
More of political influence has been embodied
and quickened in that brief period than you
find in in any age or history that you may con-
For the work we have done here Is not finished
Nor is the destiny OF our country complete, tor
ample as are its dimensions, countless as are to be
its people and their generation upon a theatre
broad enough for the action of the principles
that have been quickened into life. These
principles rock the British monarchy to-day,
and they will surely traverse and be accepted in
all the nations Of Europe, or they will swell
the population of the tree republic of America,
by the emigration Of the best citizens OF every
land.
Twenty-nine months cannot do justice to
the subject have indicated nor will it soon be
done. Statesmen will con it, orators will dis
cuss it, Historians will narrate 1t, and Gods
providence, as it rolls on, will develope the
work to the view Of men. l come rather 10 en-
tertain you for an hour by refreshing your
memories than to impart to you any special
knowledge, or to point moral by what am
10 say.
When the election for the Thirty-ninth Con.
gress occurred IN Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana,
and two more Western States, the work of re-
construction was not the subject of political
consideration. The issues in this election were:
HAS the war been tallure?o Can the South
be conquered ~ "ls is not the duty Of the North
forthwith to grant an armistiCe, the Conse-
quence of which must be the establishment of
military Confederacy upon our Southern bOr-
der, and the convection that the hundreds of
thousands slain and manned in our cause have
been victims to delusion or tanaticism ?"
These were the questions upon which ! went
into the campaign. These were the questions
that pOuaOC0 the minds Ot voters and ha /
engaged more intensely the minds OF you tax
paying but nOn-vOting citizens, who, with a
God.given instinct, saw that your rights, and
the rights of humanity in some way or other
underlaid the issue, insignificant as it seemed
to be upon its surface. Upon these issues the
Thirty.ninth Congress was elected.
Abraham LncOln-name ever to be blessed =
(applause)- elected President, and was esta.
bhshed simply, to our view, to preside over the
destnes of the country, and to influence them
tor veal or woe by his great character, and
the immense patronage belonging to his Office,
with the councils OF that Congress, He was
inaugurated. He exercised his high office in
his second term for period but little over
a month: and, you know the story-he was
succeeded by Andrew Johnson.
1t would be curious to speculate upon what
would have been the course Of events had not
the assassin's hand removed Abraham Lincoln.
1t would, however, be idle. That hand did
remove him, and Andrew johnson became
President, and ere q little week had closed
those long used to read the designs of Prov.
dence in the occurrences of the dav. said
Abraham Lincoln had ftly closed his immortal
career. 1t was for him to bring the war to
successful conclusion. But with his gentle
hand, we would not have been stern enough i'm
enforcing lust measures against penitent
Rebels, and in his successor we have one
schooled In the inlquities and the hardness Of
the nature of the people of the South, familiar
with their ways, familiar with their social life
familiar with the great powers they exercise
and the source of that power in their large
tanded estates, IN their maintenance of ipno-
rance as the law Tor the multltudes, and with all
the other great powers which they exercised
and by which they maintain their power.
HIS utterances justified such conclusions.
Loyal men were to reorganiZe the Southern
States, If few such could be found. treason
was to be made odiOus, and traitors were TO he
punished. They were unlerlall circumstances.
10 De mace 10 take back seats. Their lands were
to be conhscated, and divided amoug the SOL
diers of our army and the poor whites whom
they had oppressed There was no concenfion
OF Northern mind which demanded guaran-
tee for the future punishment of the wrong.doar
which his language did not fulfil.
Members OF Congress who had been leaders
of opinion before, felt that their duty was "a
put down this intense radical, this man who
might perchance degrade the nation Inv the
violence of the punishments he was disposed "a
infict upon WrOngdOers. Wendell Phillips
early took a stand against punishment, and foI
wise reconstruction. Horace Greeley echoed
his noble and philanthropiC utterances, and the
bravest OF the members of either House of Con
gress, who had come over from the Thirty
eighth, said IN ansWer-We may have to bridl
this man somewhat, but his impulses are right
and his motives, ,twithin proper restraints, ar
the ones that will give ultimate and perpetua
peace TO the country
will not detain you, for it is not within tn
purVew of my subject, at least at the presen
time, to take even a rapid glance of what too
place from the date of his inauguration to tn
assembling of Congress. You know them all
you know as well as do that by brief ute
ances, he summoned the radicals toIhis summon