Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1872-01-24
WAsHNGToE, January 2s.
6ERAFE.

Senator Trumbull presented pett
tiOns from citizens of Illinois, Michi
gan. Iowa and Wisconsin for the re
duction of the tariff and the repeal o
the duties on coal, salt and pig iron
Senator IrumbulI also reported thS
amended apportionment bill. H'
hoped the bill would secure an early
consideration.
Senator PomerOy, from the commit
tee on public lands, reported bill set
ting apart certain lands near the head
Waters,Of the Yellowstone river for q
public park.
| Senator Sherman, from the commit.
tee on finance, reported bill to allow
the importation, free OF duty, OF Ger.
tain machinery designed for expert
ments in mining in Louisiana, which
was passed.
The expiration of the morning hour
brought up, as unfinished business,
the amnesty bill, but it was laid aside,
to take up the bill for the relief of the
Chicago sufferers.
Senator Chandler proposed an
amendment, extending the provis-
ions of the bill TO certain towns in
Michigan. This threatening to give
rise to debate, Senator Morton called
for the regular order-tbe amnesty
biII-and addressed the senate upon
it. He declared himself opposed
to universal suffrage, and char
scterized arguments in favor Of
1t as based upon sickly senti-
mentalism and spurious generosity.
He thought there was g good deal Of
misapprehension in regard to the dis
abilities now resting upon those who
engaged il the rebellion. 1t was per.
haps not generally known that Jefer-
son Davis and all his followers had as
much right to vote as any man who
served in the Union army. He re-
viewed the history Of the fourteenth
amendment, and argued that the pro-
vision in 1t authorizing congress to re-
move disabilities by tWO-thirds vote
was not designed to authorize the re-
moval of disabilities from classes, but
only from individuals 1t seemed,
therefore, to be straining the four
teenth amendment to pass the amnes-
ty bill as il came from the house.
He was willing, however, to vote for
that bill, but he never would vote for
it with the exceptions stricken out.
The disability proposed by that
amendment upon the Southern lead
ers was the last remaining legal mark
of disapprObatiOn of the rebellion, and
he could never consent to its removal,
because to do so would be to acknOWl-
edge that rebellion was not wrong
that 1t was merely a difference Of
opinion, and that the leaders of the
rebellion have the same right as
loyal meu to hold the highest Off
ces in the gift Of the government.
The question of amnesty had gen.
orally been argued heretofore On
grounds Ofexpediency and experience,
but he wished to consider it upon a
higher plane. He thought there was
a great principle involved--a princi-
pie of consistency, of duty to the gov
ernment, and especially principle of
the greatest Importance to posterity.
It was argued that amnesty would
cOnciliate the people of the South, but
he believed that the leaders could no
more be cOnciliated in that way than |
rattlesnakes could be cOHciliated by |
restoring their extracted fangs. They |
would die as they had ived-rebels. |
Whstever Of dignity history might |
give to their characters must depend |
upon their consistency in maintaining |
that attitude, therefore, they could not |
be conciliated by this measure, and if |
it would cOnciliate the masses of the |
southern people, it would be by their |
taking 1t as an admission that they /
were always In the right, and that the /
North were in the wrong. II uniVer-
sal amnesty were to be granted now,
it would be impossible to convince
the next generation that there was
anything wrong in the rebellion, and
that the Republican party could not
cOncede the gIiitlesSuess Of the
rebellion without fslsifying its
whole record and disgraeing it.
self before the whole world.
The consequences of the rebellion
were far greater than the conse-
quences of all the other crimes COM
mitted in the United States up to this
time.
Senator Morton predicted that il
genela al amnesty be granted, the next
step viii be to pension rebel soldiers;
the next, to pay rebels for their prop
srty taken by the Union armies ia the
war, including slaves, and the next, to
pay the Confederate debt. In conciu-
sion, Senator Morton said he would
vote for Senator Summers amend
supplementary civil rights
bill. He agreed with Senator Sumner
In putting justice before generosity or
spurious N lgnanimity. What might
be mercy to the individual amnes-
he'd would, in his opinion, be cruelty
10 future generations; and while he
vas willing to vote for general am
lesty, he believed universal amnesty
would be inhuman and immoral, be-
,ause it would be an admission Of the
innocence o. rebellion, whose conse.
IueDces will linger in the country for
centuries.
Senator Thurman said that he was !
II loss to comprehend the senator {
rom Indiana, M0rtonl that the
enator asserted that universal am
lesty would be ''inhuman and inn {
nOral," and that he was prepared to {
7ote for this bill Of universal amDes- {
y, provided Senator Summers amend
nent should be adopted.
Senator Morton explained that
What he had denounced was univer.
al suffrage, He would vote for the [
louse bill because il made exceptions :
4 persons who might be regarded as I
.mOng the authors OF the rebellion.
Senator Thurman said that If the
loUse hill were SO satisfactory to SEN I
tor Merton, he was at q loss to ae- {
cunt for his denunciation of univer- Z
al amnesty on this occasion, as no {
ne had proposed TO amend this bill 9
o as to make 1t apply universally. He /
hought there was only one way to | d
count for 1t, and that was that the =
enstor from Indiana had seized this G
pportunity to make speech which 7
7Ould strike the keynote of the COM
1g campaign. That function had so d
ften devOlved upon him or been as 4
1med by him that ii had passed into &
be common law of the Radical Q
arty that he should be the man to do y
his at the beginning of every cam Y
sign, and the only regret he Thur a
nan had on the subject was, tnat in Z
II the years during which that SEN Q
tor had been studying that music, r
e had not discovered a new tune, or Z
ven single note. Laughter. 1t s
1as the same old story about the a
of the rebellion and of the L
democratic party, and the same old
rray Of terrible results which would .
blow If the Democrats should get /,
lto power, and which were to be 1
'und nowhere else but in tbat SEN |,
tors imagination. {
Senator Blair suggested that IL was 4
OF the same note that Senator Nor. a
)n struck in 1885 when he made a q
peech in favor Of President Johnson. d
Senator Thurman - / leave that d
} be settled betWee the senator d
ON Missouri Blair and the senator &
ON Indiana MortORJ. The senator n
ON Indiana makes the same old &
horOa 0001ncf tha nopnOaraffo Marty q