Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1870-04-06

them and reported to the committee, ear
one, that they found that all were sorI
that they were so great, but as for the
respective departments they could not CT
down their estimates.
| Well might he despairingly exclail
'TIere and here alone, upon this floor j
the needful word to be done, if done a
all. Economy is the word, it is true, bu
it is the work of promise to the ear, to b
broken to the hope OF an oppressed, over
burdened and long suffering people.
is the word of false prophecy and falls
teaching intended to prolong the reign o
profligacy, extortion and robbery. 1t
the pernicious prating of a widespread
and determined conspiracy to deceive anC
impose upon the people.
Having thus far pursued and exposes
fallacy, after fallacy and misrepresenta
ton after misrepresentation; having de
monstrated the shameless violation of law
and the blunder and extravaganza of thu
party in power; having pointed out thu
| impending ruin to the business of the
country which its policy is certain to in
flict, and the vast and indescribable inius
tice which it will forever establish ovel
the industries of the nation, here | would
gladly stop.
THE CONGRESSIONAL POLICY OF RECoNsTRUo-
TIoN DENoUNcED-MoRTON's CONTRADIo-
TIoNS.
There is one more field, however, which
/ must briefly explore with Senator Nor
ton. He has opened the gates and l will
enter it with him. He is now enamored
of that policy of reconstruction which a
few brief years ago he denounced with so
much force and ability. He now reviles
and calumniates the Democratic party be-
cause it has not been the same inconstant,
shifting changing on that subject that he
has been himself. He traduces the name
of his late distinguished colleague in the
Senate, because unlike himself he re-
fuses to become revolving weather cock
on a high eminence, whirling to every
point of the compass, in every capricious
movement of the winds. For five years
the system of reconstruction has been
lingering in the hands of Congress, and is
there unfinished now. Holding the South
ern States as conquered provinces, sub
ject to the jurisdiction of Congress
like unorganized territories, is the exact
embodiment of this system. Under this
claim of power Congress has treated these
States as wild territories on our Western
borders-has provided for the calling of
conventions, prescribed the right of suf-
frsge, determined who should vote in
electing delegates to these conventions,
and finally decided whether the constitu-
tons thus framed should be accepted and
the States admitted into the Union. This
is precisely the plan now embraced with
so much ardor by the Senator. Indeed,
since his conversion he has outstripped
most of his compeers, and has recently
new degree of grace. A short
time since he announced in the Senate
that, even after State had complied with
everything, aud been admitted once more
into the Union, she might be recon-
structed out again, and then back in again
as often as Congress saw fit to be dis
pleased with her conduct. This doctrine
embraces the destruction of Tennessee,
which is now threatened and impending
over her. 1t was once claimed that the
States had the power to dissolve the
Union. The war forever silenced that
pretension, but it now springs up in one
of the Federal departments. 1t is boldly
asserted that Congress has the power to
dissolve the Union by expelling States.
Were Southern Senators more dIsgnionists
in saying that States could 60 out, than a
Northern Senate for saying that Congress
has the right to put them outi Let us
turn, however, to the recorded opinions
of the Senator from Indiana on this sub
ject little more than four years ago. On
the Doth day of September, 1865, he spoke
as follows:
''There is another plan, and that is the
theory which regards these States as be-
ing out of the Union, and holding them
as conquered provinces, subject to the
jurisdiction of Congress like unor-
ganized territory; saying that Congress
has the power to provide for calling con-
ventions in these States just as in the
territory of Dak0tah, and may prescribe
the right of suffrage, and determine who
shall vote in eiecting delegates to these
just as in the territory OF Da-
kotah; that it may then determine wheth-
er it will accept the constitution offered,
as might be determined il the case of any
other territory. l will not stop to argue
this question at length, but will say this:
That from the beginning of the war up to
the present time every message of the Presi-
dent, every proclsmatiOn, every State paper,
and every act of Congress has proceeded
upon the hypothesis that no State could
secede from the Union; that once in the
Union, always in the Union. Mr.. Lincoln,
in every proclamation, went on the prin-
ciple that this was an insurrection, q re-
belliOn against the Constitution and laws
of the United States, not q rebellion of
States, but a rebellion of the midi
viduals, The people of the Southern States,
and every man that went into it was per-
sonally and individually responsible for
his acts; and could not shield himself un-
der the action or authority of his State.
He went On the principle that every ordi-
nance of secession, every act of the Legis-
latures of the Rebel States in that direc-
ton was a nullity, unconstitutional and
void, having no legal force or effect
whatever, and that as these States were,
according 10 law, in the Union, their
standing could not be affected by the ac-
ton of the people, that the people OF
these States were personally responsible
for their conduct, just as man is re-
sponsible who violates the statute in re-
gard to the commission of murder, and to
be treated as criminals, just as the author
tiles thought proper; that the people OF q
State can forfeit their rights, but that so
far as their action is concerned, in legal
point of view, they had no power to at
feet the condition of the State in the
Union. Every proclamation and every
act of Congress- have proceeded upon this
hypothesis. = = Upon this by
pothesis we have just put down the re-
bellion. But it is now proposed by some
that we shall practically admit that the
Southern States did secede; that they did
go out of the Union; that the work of
secession was perfect, was accomplished
that the States are out OF the Union. That
a Government de facto was established,
and that we now hold these States as
conquered provinces, just as we should
Canada if we were to invade it and take
nnssession OF it. That is what this doc
irine leads to. It leads to a thousand
other evils and pernieioUs things never
contemplated in the nature of our Gov
ernment.n
Never has stronger or more burning
condemnation of the present policy of re-
construction fallen from human lips than
the passage which l have just produced in
your hearing. He first states that policy
with clearness and exactness, and then
overwhelms it with wholesale argument
and denunciation. He establishes with
invincible force and power all that the
Democratic party asserts tO-day-that the
States were never out of the Union-that