The weekly North-Carolina standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 186?-1869, 1867-07-24


but it is simply the reason . rebel Irish
man gave to a loyal lrishman who
captured him on the field. Said the
Hibernian in blue to his rebel country
man, "Why, Jimmy, my boy, what are
you doing on that side 2" "That side,
indade,n answered Jimmy, |" and is
this not the Dimmercratick side ?''-
Laughter. The Irishman thought
that the rebel side must necessarily be
the Democratic side, and | guess that
my friend, the gentleman from Brook
Ign, has similar idea in his head yet.
Laughter.
Mr.. Robinson. Mr.. Speaker, I do
not attempt to answer the question
which the gentleman has addressed to
me, because I believe he does not wish
an answer. IF he does should be glad
to give it.
The Speaker. Does the gentleman
from Illinois Mr.. Logan yield to the
gentleman from New York Mr.. Rob-
inson] for reply2 ~. ,s.a
Mr.. Logan. | do not think that |
have said anything that he can answer.
Laughter. as.. 81.
Mr.. Robinson. IF the gentleman
wishes me to answer I am ready to do so.
The Speaker. The gentleman Declines as
the Chair understands to be interrupted.
Mr.. Logan. Now Mr.. Speaker, let us ex-
anime little further into this question. I
perhaps may not have stated all the reasons
that actuated these gentlemen in denouncing
this side of the House, and thereby denoun-
cling every loyal man in the country, every
man who has shown his loyalty by his efforts
to restore this Government on proper basis.
The recent rebellion while it was in progress
was led by men who belonged to the same
party to which the gentleman from Brook
lyn now belongs, and the same party to
which belonged until became so thor
oughly ashamed Of it that I left it, and is it
not little remarkable that the same disloy-
al stencil which drove me out seems to have
attracted my friend from Brooklyn into it 2
Oaughtcr)
The reason why these gentlemen desire to-
day to bring into disrepute the action of
members of this House. is because their ac-
ton is calculated to prevent portion of the
people of the southern country, who are in
full sympathy with them, from voting and
holding office. Who are they? Outspoken
rebels, who rose in arms against the Govern
ment the men who conspired to destroy
this glorious Republic. Because these men
are DISTINGUISHED and prevented from exer-
cising the rights of American citizens, gen.
tlemen on the other side object to our pro-
posed plan of reconstruction. Sir, they
would have the Southern States reconstruct
ed according to the plan of Andrew John
son, the gentleman who is so immaculate
that if we should attempt to impeach him it
will, according to the gentlemen from Brook
Ign, amount to national calamity. What
was the plan of Andrew johnson Why,
sir, that plan proposed to declare that those
States that had engaged in rebellion had
never lost any of their rights in the Govern
ment that neither they nor their citizens
had forfeited any of their privileges under
the Constitution of the United States In
other words, that treason was not crime;
that rebels we're patriots. Itproposed to in
vite the rebels to hold elections and send to
this Hall per Sc secessionists and traitors
In short, to construct new party in recon-
structing the Government in which the Sc
cession rebels of the South might unite with
the Copperhead rebels of the North, capture
the citadel of power here, make treason hon
orable and loyalty odious. There is nothing
that to regain its lost power the Democratic
party would not willingly do. If it could
not acquire tomorrow more power by crush
ing under its iron heel the South than it
could by succoring it, it would hurl at its
Southern brethren thick and fast
courses of hate and Kisses of scorn."
Their history well establish the fact that
"Their friendship is lurking snare,
Their honor but an idle breath,
Their smile the smile that traitors wear,
Their love is hate, their life is death"
Their sympathy with Andrew Johnson's
plan of reconstruction and their hostility to
the Republican plan of reconstruction is net
attributable to the merits or dement's of Ell
Their plan as policy for the country, but
solely as party policy. st3afa
Now, sir, maintain that the only true
plan upon which the Southern States ought
to have been reconstructed is by virtue of
an organization of military governments,
and the principle objection to which find
the bill now pending before this House OBJ
noxious, albeit shall vote for it, is, that it
fails to state sufficiently explicitly that the
governments of these States were entirely
overthrown and destroyed by the treason
and rebellion of the people, and that no le-
gal civil governments have existed there
since. would recognize no Governors or
other officers pretending to act there now
in an official capacity, but would remove
them instanter. / would insist that when
the fiery pillows of war rolled over the South
that they bore away into the broad ocean of
chaos their laws and constitutions as the
floods of their own mighty father of waters
sweep the drift-wood they gather into the
Mexican Gulf, and that according to the
laws of war they were subject only to mill
tary rule at the hands of their conquerors,
and so ought to remain until traitors shall
learn how to blush for their crimes, and
modestly decline Office instead of attempt
ing, as they now do daily, to thrust them
selves forward to grasp the reins of Gov
eminent that they hate in their hearts. I
would put the rebels on, probation, and
make their return to power. depend upon
the merits of their penitence.
But let us return to the gentlemen's grave
charges of outrage and wrong supposed to
have been committed by this Congress. To
be charitable, we will have to give the gen
tleman and his party credit for memory as
full Of treachery as their Southern brethren
were of treason. They seem to have forgotten
everything they ought to remember, and re-
member some things they certainly ought not
only to forget themselves but want every
body else to forget. They seem to have to for
gotten the scenes and events that mark the
historical epoch through which we have SO
recently passed, and they seem to have total
ly forgotten that these pet southern brethren
of theirs, when they did occupy seats on this
floor gave us practical illustrations Of dig
nifty in debate that made of this Hall "bear