The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1867-02-05
r;...,.x or the n Republican Party.

reduced to $3.50 900. The COMMITTEES then iooo
without coming SO any CONCLUSION |
t,ousi.seuey Of the Republican Party
The charge of inconsistency is sometimes |
brouobt AGAINST the Republican party, because
its policy OF Reconstruction mas been modified
from time to time to suit the changing conGi-
t;ons of the great problem. The best expos
IRE of the weakness of this charge which we
have anywhere seen occurs in recent speech
of Gen. Scotield, of Pennsylvania, in the ma
tiona House of Representatives Mr.. Scofeld
spoke as follows:
Mr.. Speaker, sought to obtain the floor on
SATURDAY last to say few words in reply to
the gentleman from Illinois. [Mr. Ross.l He
CANNED that inasmuch as the Republican par
ty had voted for the Crittenden resolution in
the early part of the war, inasmuch as they
mad consented to the retention of members of
congress from those States during the time
Tor which they had been elected, inasmuch as
they enacted law apportoning the members
OF Congress among the several States, includ-
ing those States to which he referred, they
were now stopped from denying that the cont
federate States were States in this Union.
A gentleman who had witnessed the great
hire in Plttsburg some years ago, by which a
large portion of that city was destroyed, was
entertaining me some time afterward with
little incident of the calamity illustrating the
conduct of men under peculiar circumst ances
He said he noticed builder as the flames
were flying rapidly from block to block coolly
standing upon the pavement and watching
their progress. AS they passed into a block
in which my friend was largely interested. the
builder approached him and said: sWill you
rebuild TINS year = mo, sir" said my friend,
II hope to save my block with little repair"
But the fla mes ragged on and in little while
they were bursting from the roof The build
er approached him again and said, "Will YOU
use the walls in rebuilding?" Certainly"
said my friend, II intend to use the walls fl
can possibly save them" But soon the walls
began to fall one by one and those that did
not tall by the flames were demolished by the
fremen. The builder once more approached
my friend and said, "Will you rebuild on the
old foundationsT' And the man gave an, al
frmative answer. But when the confagra-
ton had spent its force and the owner of the
property came to remove the rubbish he dis
covered that the foundations were much in
jured, and as they were originally built partly
on sand or loose soil he determined to remove
them and rebuild ON the solid rock with hard
granite foundations.
NOW, Sill, ii when he was preparing this
work the builder had again come to him and
reproached him with duplicity because he had
said at one time he expected to save the build
ing, at another that he intended to save the
wall, and at a subsequent time that he would
save the foundation, he would have stood ex-
actly in the position where my friend from
Illinois MIR. Ross stood in his speech last Sat
urday. The parallel would be a little more
perfect it the builder had also, in the midst of
the fire, told the tremen that they had better
suspend their efforts as the city could not be
saved; and then when by redoubled efforts
after little time the flames were subdued he
had reprOached them with treating the mis-
guided confagration with unnecessary cruelty
MIR. Speaker, we had hoped to save these
States. 1t is not our fault that the fires Of the
rebellion ragged so flercely and so long, In
deed it was not our fault that the fires were
lighted at all. If anybody is at fault it is the
gentlemen who at that time represented the
party to which my friend from Illinois Mr..
Ross belongs, in this and the other House in
the winter OF 1860. ..i.s. .rIftl
If the members of Congress of that party
had appealed to their Southern brethI en- who
were leaving these halls to embark in re-
bellion, il they had risen in their seats and
SAID to them, Gentlemen, you have been our
political allies; we have served you we'll; we
ADDED Texas to this country in order to en-
large your power; We took upon ourselves a
war with Mexico as a consequence: we have
done all we could to get Cuba for you at the
risk OF war with Spain; Tor your sake we re-
pealed the Missouri compromise and gave you
an opportunity TO extend your peculiar insti-
tons over the unlimited soil OF the West; for
| your sake we passed a law by which the whole
North became slave huntins-ground, and
freemen turned out at your bidding to capture
your escaped bondmen Tree of cost but we
VIII go no further; we will never consent that
Ia no - A.
tory lying between the Atlantic and the Mis-
sisssippi, the Gulf of Mexico and the North
ern lakes with only the blazes OF the survey
or upon the trees TO mark the line between
them; II you now so tree we will join with
| the Abohtionists and Free-soilers of the
North, and we will fight this out on tn. field
| OF battles" if you had said that they would
| have remained. JOY etls
But ms cad of that you said to them, that
| the election OF Lincoln was an insult to their
| PRIDE, an assault upon their Institutions that
they had, if not perfect justification in seced-
ing, great proyocation therefor. You said to
them that while you did not advise them 10
| secede you would see that if they settled that
| question for themselves and determined it in
favor of secession there should be no coercion
on the part of the North. So on the 4th OF
| March, when Mr.. LINCOLN came to take the
oarn OF office, and The Republican party for the
AA'o 'iiAiS oOSoihS AS~PohSluiC iOI tut use Oh
power, we found the Republic divided; seven
large States had withdrawn and formed sep
arate republic, and seven more were preparing
to follow, four OF which finally succeeded and
Joined the rebel contederacy, the other three
being retained by virtue of military power.
NOW, SIT, we all propose to reunite this
whole territory. There is only this difference
in the manner ofdoing it you propose to take
the old foundation and the old walls and to
have new State governments built upon those
foundations. We propose to remove the old
sandy foundations and build upon the solid
rock. That is the only difference. You pro-
pose to annex the United States to the Con-
federacy and thus bring us together. We
propose to annex the Confederacy to
the United States. 1t has been
said that Governor Seymour was asked if he
had any objection TO The onfederate Cconsti-
teton then just formed at Montgomery, and
he replied, sit is better than the Federal Con-
stitution; why should we not adopt it at once ?"
That is sort of reconstruction winch the gen.
tlemen opposed to us are pressing upon us. il
f