Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1867-07-31
SCHUYLER COLFAX.

SCHUYLER COLFAX.
Speech OF Mr.. COIIax In Response 70 a
Serenade, Saturday Evening, July
2oth.
FELLOW CITIzENs-There are two
: kinds of serenades in Washington
the first when members arrive to enter
on the discharge of their duties, and
the last, when after the close of their
lsbors, they are about to return to theiI
homes. As Holy writ declares that be
who taketh off his armor has no more
right to be proud than be who putteth
it on, / value this mark of regard more
highly because our work being com
pleted, you mean by it, well done,
good and fsithfulservant." Applause.
Congress sincerely desired to avoid
this midsummer session. They passed
the Military Reconstruction bills last
March. The President vetoed them on
the explicit ground that they made
the military commanders supreme and
absolute over the people of the late re-
bellious States. Congress accepted his
construction of. them and re-passed
them over his veto. They were cor
daily endorsed by the people of the
loyal North and scquiesced in more
readily than had been supposed by the
people of the South. Soon it became
apparent. that under them loyalty
would triumph in most of the South.
Tern States; and then the President
vetoed his own veto, and promulgated
Ia decision of his Attorney General that
under these laws the military comman-
fders were merely policemen, subordi-
nate to the provisional governments
over which they had been placed, the
army but posse eomitatls to enforce
the DEGREES of the rebel governors and
mayors, and that every rebel was to be
his own registrar. The people, surpris-
ed Sd these decisions, appealed to the
Congress in which they placed such
deserved confidence, to reassemble,
and from Maine to California they
came hither to resume their legislative
authority, and TO so declare the mean
ing of their legislation that no legal
sophistries of any Attorney. General |
could mystify it. Vetoed again, they |
passed It again by q vote of four to |
one, and it has gone on the statute
book as one of the laws which the Pres. /
idant, by his constitutional oath, must
take care to have faithfully executed.
Some, know, condemn Congress for
having done too much in its past leg
islation, and others for hAYing done too
little; but think it has struck the
golden mean; firm and yet prudent,
courageous without undue excitement,
inHexihle and yet wise. The President
in his last veto denounces this military
as he calls it, and declares
that Congress has subjected the South
to a tyranny most intolerable. We
have heard these charges of military
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 habeas cor
pus, trials by court-msrtial, &C., was
denounced as military despotism
but the people rendered their verdict
and it could not be reversed. Instead II
Of tyranny, the keynote of the Con-
gressional policy is protection to all,
and the vindication and triumph of !
loyalty, and God keeping US. we viii
stand by it until it is crowned with tri-
lmph. lApplause. will use no word !
1f disrespect towards the President,
ior though differing with him in policy /
ls wide IS the poles, respect the Of I
ice which he holds, and prefer argu-
nent to inVectiVe, When listened
to hr. McPherson, the Clerk !
If the House, as he read the bold and i
defiant message of the President, l )
,ould not but feel that in the whole I
If it he arraigned himselffar more than {
han the Congress he addressed. All '
parties agree that he spoke correctly
when in his North Carolina procIsmas O
ion of May, 1865, he declared that all 1
he civil governments of the South I
lad been destroyed BY the rebellion n
de then, without calling Congress to- q
,ether, proceeded with the work ofre- n
in the absence of all law I
lpon the subject. Has Congress made v
tate governments subordinate to the I,
military powerl So did the President. a
las Congress authorized the ratifca- 4
ion? So did the President. Has Con- n
ress provided for the calling of State h
So did the President. v
Iut he ordered conventions by his ex- n
cutive Eat, and recognized their con-
titutions without being submitted to h
be people. Congress required the a,
eople. the registered voters, to call n
be convention themselves, and then tl
D approve or reject their work by q a.
opular vote. Applause. Has Con- Of
ress required the ratification of con- r
fitutionh amendment So did the n,
resident. Has Congress established II
test oath? So did the PRESIDENT pl
ar crime is. 1 suppose, that we pro- P
ided that those whom the nation had
lsde free should have the freeman's
allot for their protection, while the fe
resident did not. But the results of Ii
Is policy strikingly contrasts with the te
ssults of ours. The nation looked on w
} see what fruits would result from his to
ction and what they were. In nearly eC
Fery state the rebel power resumed its as
1thority and became dominant i'll Ill
leir executive, legislative and Judi th
al departments. The vagrant and
Dor laws virtually re,enslaying the te
nancipated, followed BY murders, gr
itrages, riots, and massacres, crowned M
10 HuOl6. Loyal mou were unQeT u
ot, and the reviVified spirit of the re- tn
sllion was triumphant. With our du- pl
! to our country under our oaths, we Lii
'uld not affirm and legalize this poll
!, and hence the legislative action we M
sye taken. Approved in the past we as
I'VE been. L cannot doubt even q SCI
ore triumphant endorsement in the 81,
70 future. Applause. The Presi- us
mt appeals 10 the ballot box, SO do ril
,; and by its decision we are willing ast
stand or fall. In 1862, in the dark en-
t hour of the war, and disaster and he
verse, the ballot box sustained US otl
ID returned Republican majority TO go
'ngress. In 1864, we were compelled YC
accept all the odium of conscription yo
g heavy burdens of taxation neces- tai