Ashtabula weekly telegraph. [volume] (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1853-1873, 1868-02-15
tBy House Reporter }
Speech of Hon. w. III. Eames.
OF a shfabuIa, on the Reconstruction Reso-
luton Of Mr. Jcwett, in the House of
Representatives, Feb. 8, 1S6s. ~.
Mr.. EAMEs said
AIr. Speaker.

Mr. EAMEs said - ''5.'---E
'a7' ID .aai Dane Mr.. Speaker.
l had not prepared myself for any ex-
tended remarks on tthese resolutions,
but would ask the forbearanee of the
House for few moments. The intro
duction of these resolutions places us in
8 very peculiar position, as Legislative
body. ~, .-.-.,-,.. 81 .-...-- .-'
An accidental majority, representing
but minority of the voters Of Ohio, seek
to instruct or dictate to Congress, i'll ref
crence to questions which were not at is
sue when the members of this body were
elected, and issues which were approved
by more than 4O, 600 majority at the last
Congressional election in Ohio. These
reconstructive measures were enacted
solely for tue purpose OF protecting the
union and loyal men of the South, and
restraining southern rebels from vicious
and brutal acts. The Democratic party
oppose these measures, because they con-
slider them, as they say, unconstitutional
and subversive of the peoples rights"
When did that party ever approve the
acts of Congress, which tended to re-
strain the aristocracy of the South /
venture the assertion, that no act of Con
eress which looked to the suppression of
the rebellion, or the contiscation ofrcbel
property, or the abolition OF slavery, dur
ing the war, or the restoration of the
Union, with reasonable guarantees for
future good behavior, since the war, ever
escaped the opposition of this party.
We can all remember W hen at the very
beginning of!the war, that embodiment
of Democracy, the helpless, imbecile ''old
public functimacy" who presided as Chief
Magistrate, insisted that he had no pow
er to coerce the South, when it was levy
ing war before his eyes, and how he then
gave the key note to the senseless, and
oft repeated Democratic refrain, which
has so often been sounded in our State,
and hissed at us on this floor, that it was
unconstitutional to restrain tie iSoaah.-
That party declare, without the slightest
hesitation, that every thing is unconstitu-
tional which does not accord with their
ideas OF propriety. They consider them
selves the especial guardians of the Con
stitution, and express the utmost solici-
trde lest it should he amended or viola
ted; but all this pretended love & solici
tude are manifested, not because of their
deep affection for that instrument, but
because of their sympathy with the South
and its institutions. -,.-. $500
When the South was planning its Sc
cession ordinances, and getting its sol
ders into the field to strike down our
Union-when the constitution was viola
ted in every clause, and the old flag was
dishonored aid trampled under, foot, our
democratic friends were i'll favor of let
ting her 90, without one solitary word
of lameItation over a broken COnstltu-
ton. They said, 'wayward sisters de-
part in peace" ......
MIR. hughes, of Butler asked, "what
Democrat said that %
Mr.. Eamcs. cannot enumerate all who
expressed such desires, but if | am right
ly Informed, the gentleman from Butler
was one cf them, and if opposition to ev-
cry measure to preserve the Union or re-
store it, is any indication, | am confident
that the whole party who sympathised
with Valandigham in giving ''not
man or dollar" TO carry on the war,
were of that opinion, from the very COM
mencement of the war. The Democratic
party in solemn convention, declared in
their platform Aug. 29th 1864, that the
wal. to restore the Union was failure.
and we had abundant reason to believe
that the wish was father to the thought.
MIR, Hughes of Butler, 81 will ask the
gentleman, if he considers the Union as
restored now"
Mr.. Eames. The Union has not been
destroyed, thanks to its brave defenders,
but no thanks to the Southern wirg OF
the Democracy, or to their sympathisers
North. They did all they could to des-
troy it, and for many. long and dreary
months, we feared they would succeed.
They did succeed in destroying every
State Government in the South, i'll sever
ing every bond of Union, that could be
severed by malignant hate and tanati-
cism, backed by thousands of muskets,
and in reducing the whole South to pow
erty, anarchy and ruin. When the
war closed, it was like sick man, whose
mind and body were broken by disease,
needing aid to restore it to health, and a
normal condition, or like vile criminal
arrested in the commission of some hor-
rid crime, with every right ara ps@xilege
forfeited ; waiting for pardon and reseOra-
tien. cannot believe with the gentle
man from Shelby, that the Union would
necessarily be destroyed, if the South had
seeded, and thenbeen forced back again.
1t is true that the South did virtually se-
ccde, the States voluntarily gave up ev-
cry right and privilege in the Union, and
destroyed as they supposed the last ves-
tige Of their connection to this govern
ment, and unified thenselves to the full