Nebraska advertiser., 1870-02-17


/ question no Senator's motives; i
concede to every one the same SINGER
I ity of purpose, the same honesty OF
intention which l claim for myself; I;
but must be permitted to say that
after the experience of the past eight
years, after the experience of the past
three years in the work of reconstruc-
ton, / have been amazed at what
has transpired in Congress during the
last week, and I am amazed at the
exceeding hot haste with which SEN
atOrs have attempted to crowd this
measure through Congress.
There is another feature of this de-
bate tn which / desire to call atten-
ton and which has been exceedingly
interesting to me. have remarked
that a portion of the members of this
body, those who belong to the Op-
pOsite political faith, have remained
entirely silent. / could not but mo-
tice the satisfaction which seemed to
settle upon their cOuntenances as this
debate progressed. They seem to be
as serene and composed as summers
morning or, to be still more poetic,
as calm and unruff1ed as the waters of
a moOn-lit lake. There has been
nothing except an incidental allusiOn
to the record of the Democratic party
to call forth the impetuOus elOquence
Ofmy honorable friend from Delaware,
| TMr. SALISBURY nothing to invite
constitutional dissertations from my
honorable friend from Kentuky. Mr..
DAVIS; ] nothing to invite a speech
from any Democratic Senator till to-
day.
wish to call attention to the fact,
] Within the remembrance of every
Senator. that from the day when the
first reconstruction bill passed Con-
gress down to the 1st day of January,
1870, whenever a measure came up
touching reconstruction in the south
ern States this Chamber, has run with
the denunciatiOns of Democratic
Senators against the usurpations and
violations of the Constitution which
the Republican were perpetrating.
They have argued from first to last
that no State was ever out of the
| Union when she had once been in /;
and in every Democratic convention,
! from the national convention down to
! county convention, in all the States
it has been set forth that no State was
out of the Union. What do we see
to-day? This same Democratic party
voting a State into the Union which
! has never been out. My honorable
friends from Kentucky, from Dele
ware. from California, and from Ohio,
and others are now all committed to
! the admission of State into the
Union which according to their own
! declarations from year to year has
never been out of the Union. Mr..
President, the world moves. The
Democratic party have come up to the
| doctrine of reconstruction and have
indorsed it. They are now committed
| to the provisions of our reconstruction
laws, for they are voting unitedly in
| favor of the adm! !ssiOn of Virginia. l
congratulate them
Mr.. SALISBURY. Will the Sem
atOr allow me to ask him question :?
Mr.. THAYER. Yes sir.
Mr.. SALISBURY. Does the Sen
antor understand the bill now before
the body as admitting Virginia into
the Union or simply declaring that
Virginia is entitled to representation
in Congress;
Mr.. THAYFR. Has she been en-
titled to it before?
Mr.. SALISBURY. I asked you a
question.
Mr.. THAYER. I understand very
we'll the purport of the bill which is
now under discussion. 1t is restoring
Virginia to representation in the
Union. Now, ask my friend from
Delaware if she has never been de-
prived of it?
Mr.. SALISBURY. Never at any
time that she chose to avail herself of
it.
Mr.. THAYER. The honorable
Senator admits the correctness of my
position. He is now voting a State to
be entitled to representation of which
she has been deprived.
Mr.. SALISBURY. No; I say she
never has been deprived unless she
chose voluntarily to deny herself the
privilege; she always had the right.
Mr.. THAYER. The Senator from
Delaware, then, claims that Virginia
has been entitled to representation
from the time she seeded until now
that she was entitled to vote for presi-
bdential electors in 1864, according to
his own reasoning, though waging q
fragrant war against the Government.
He must take one conclusion or the
other. If he is now voting her to be
entitled to representation, then she
has been deprived of it; if he is now
vOting'her back into the Union, then
she has been out of the Union.
The honorable Senator from Della
ware ( Mr.. SALISBURY thought pro-
per to present q vindicatiOn, as did
also the honorable Senator from Cali
fOrnia, Mr.. CASSERLY, of the record
of the Democratic party. / have
heard before during this session SINH
lar references to the Democratic party.
l have noticed the tauHt thrown out
before to-day dun ing this session that
the Republican party were RESPONSE
BILE for the debt which accrued in the
suppression Of the rebellion. Sena-
tors may vet come to claim that the
Democratic party was the party which
suppressed the rebellion, and that the
Republican party was the party which
| inaugurated treason. 1t is said that
| history repeats itself. According to
what is transpiring to-day it would
! seem as if history was reversing itself.
Sir, let me call attention-and
shall occupy but few moments of
the time of the Senate on this point
to the record of the DemOcatic party.
Let me ask the honorable Senator
from Delaware what party had pos
session of the Government for thirty
years prior to the Inauguration of the
rebellion? It was the Democratic
party. That party had directed and
shaped the policy of the country, and
was in possession of the Government
when the war commenced 1t had
possession of the executive, legisIa-
tive, and judicial departments of the
Government. 1t was under the poll
cy of the Democratic party that the
war commenced. 1t was by the
teachings and the doctrines of the
Democratic party that the South were
taught to rebel. 1t was the Demo-
cratic party which broke faith with
the nation in repeating the Missouri
compromise which had been a sacred
compact for thirty years between
slavery and freedom. That great
compact, which cOnsecrated forever to
. | 4.