Lewistown gazette. [volume] (Lewistown, Pa.) 1843-1944, 1867-08-14
= O L I II I Q a L
SPEECH OF MIR. COLFAx

SPEECH OF MIR. COLFAX.
On Saturday evening after the ad
journment Of Congress Speaker Colfax
among others, was serenaded, at the
conclusion Of which he delivered the
following address -
Fcli0w There are two kinds
Of serenades in Washington; the first
when members arrive, to enter on the
discharge Of their duty, and the last
when, after the close of their labors
they are about to return to their homes
As Holy Writ declares that he who
! taketh off his armOr has more right to
/ be proud than he who putteth it on, |
value this mark of your regard more
/ highly because, our work being com
| Ipleted, you mean by it we'll done good
and faithful servants Congress sin.
ccrely desired to avoid this midsum
mer session. They passed the militia
|ry Reconstruction bills last March.
/ The President vetoed them on the cX-
plicit ground that they made the mill.
/ tary commanders supreme and abso.
lutte over the people Of the late rebel
llous States. Congress accepted his
construction of them, and repassed
them over his veto. They were cor,
daily endorsed by the loyal people of
the North, and acquiesced 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
ern States, and then the President We
toed his own veto, and promulgated a
decision of his Attorney General that,
under these laws, the military com
manders were mere policemen, subor
dinate to the Provisional Governments
over which they had been placed, the
army but Il posse c0mitdtus TO enforce
the decrees Of the Rebel Governors and
Mayors, and that every Rebel was to
be his own register. The people, sur
prised at these decisions, appealed to
the Congress in which they placed
such deserved confidence, to reassem-
bic, 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
repassed it by vote of four to one,
and it has gone on 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 it's past leg
islation, and some for having done too
little, but | think it has struck the
golden mean-frm and yet prudent,
courageous without undue excitement,
infieXible and yet wise. The Presi-
dent, in his last veto, denounces this
military despotism' as be calls it, and
declares that Congress has subjected
the South to tyranny most intolera-
BILE.
We have heard these charges Of mil
itary despotism before during the war
from the party which so bitterly op-
posed his election three years ago
Every act tending to strengthen the
Government, such as the suspension Of
the h1beos corpus, trials by court-mar
tial, &c, was denounced as military
despotism. But the people rendered
their verdict, and it cannot be revers,
ed. Instead of tyranny, the key note
of the Congressional policy is protec-
ton to all, and the vindicatiOn and tri.
umph of loyalty, and, God keeping us,
we shall stand by it until it is crowned
with triumph. | will use no word of
disrespect toward the President, for,
although differing with him in policy
as wide as the poles, | respect the of
fee which he fills, and prefer argument
to invective. When | listened yes
tcrday to Mr.. Mcpherson, the Clerk of
the House, as he read the bold aud de-
fant message of the President, | 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
in his North Carolina proclamation of
May, 1865, he declared that ali the
civil governments of the South had
been destroyed by the rebellion. He
then, without calling Congress togeth-
er, went on with the work of recon
struction, in the absence of all law
upon the subject. Has Congress made
State Governments subordinate to mil.
itary power? So did the President.
Has Congress provided for the calling