Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1874-06-19
COLONEL. EAMAR,S SPEECH
Extracts from tSae speech of Col.
E.aMar, ST mississippi, Delivered
in the House OF Representatives
at Washington, On Monday, the
sta OF .Vuste, 1874


Mr.. Speaker, in 1860 the Presider-
tial election, for the first time In the
history of this country, placed the
Federal Government in the control of
a party whose organization, candl-
dates and voters were all confined to
one section of the Union. and ami
mated by a common sentiment OF hos
tility ty the slavery institutions of the
other section, whose leading policy
was not only to exclude those instltu-
tions from the Territories, but also 10
use the powers of the Federal Govern
ment to the extent of their constitu
tional authority to effect their ex
tinction in the States throughout the
Union. There is no proposition better
settled than that the overthrow of the
civil and domestic institutions of
people ag inst their will, by power
external and paramount to their own,
is, in effect, the subjugation and con-
quest OF that people. To the Southern
people, therefore, was presented one
of two alternatives: either to submit to
the overthrow OF their civil and politi-
cal institutions, or to change their po-
litical relations.
Early in 1861 seven of those States,
by tho action Of the people thereof,
withdrew from the Federal Union,
and bv the same authority es ablished
q common government, styled the
Confederate States Of America.
With this controversy between the
two sections about the relations OF
race and labor, other questions arose,
among which was the one relating to
the reserved powers Of the several
States, and their relations to the Fed
eral authority. One school asserted
the doctrine of State sovereignty, and,
as an incident, its right to secede from
the Union. The other theory is that
the nation, the United States, is the
sole indivisible sovereign, and that the
Federal Government is charged with
he duty OF using all its powers to
maintain the national integrity and
unity Of the national domain. This
last question antcdated the foundation
OF our Government and remained uu-
settled till 1860, when it WAS adiudl
Gated by Il tribunal from which there
is no appeal.
Such were the issues st.led on the
result of the war. Sir, can it be said
| that in such Il conflict Gin which ques-
| tions as old as the Government he'd
| passed from theory into fact) between
! two great sectional organizations,
! whose armies, larger than those Of the
| first Napoleon, stretching their line Of
! battle across the continent and main
tanning war OF four long years of al
| teruate victory AMI defeat, the crime
| of treason could attach to either bel
! ligerent ? do not mean the techni-
cal treason that the fortunes of war
! give you the power TO record against
| the southern people, but the moral
| guilt that hes Ill reasonable intent
! They certainly did not conspire or at
! tempt to subvert your form of govern
ment or to destroy your Constitution
! or to depOSe your rulers. When their
| secession was cOnsummated they left
! the United States the United States
still, q great and powerful nation, with
( its extended sea-cOast, its teeming
/ population, its vast extent of territory,
/ its mechanic arts, its commerce., its
/ Constitution safe, It's laws unobstruct-
/ ed, its administration unem Darrassed,
/ its magistracv, Federal, State, and 10
/ cal with Unimpaired authority. Do
not say, then, that We attempted to
/ overthrow your Government; for there
/ it stood, after we left you. one Of the
| greatest and most powerful nationali-
! ties upon the face OF the earth.
There was no dispute between the
/ two sections about the form of govern
ment. Devotion to the Constitution,
! to the prime pies OF American freedom,
was the fountain at which both sec
/ tons drank in inspiration for the stu
/ pendous wtr hich they maintained.
! And when thai war cioacd with defeat
| for the South and victory forth North
! q al
result Of that victory has been to EN-
| body III the Constitution two great
| principles the legal indissolubility of
| the American Union and the unlver-
! salty OF human freedom on the Ameli-
/ can continent.
! But sir, the North was not sat SIZED
with these results. Holding that hay
ing plnc!,el the black race from the
! shelter as we'll as the restraints Of ex-
listing institutions, protection to that
race was an Imperative duty; ana bold
ing that they were further b0und to
fo1tify the results OF the war against
further disturbance and reaction into
the organic law OF the l:epuhiic, they
adopted the thirteenth amendment,
which vas followed III quick and logi-
cal succession by the fourteenth and
fifteenth amendments, for stricter en-
, forcement of which were superadded
your reconstruction measures, whose
pitlless provisions sunk the iron deep
. INTO the soul Of the Southern people.
L refer to them not to complain or to
arraign your policy, but simply to re
mind you how completely and etiectu-
ally the logical results of the war have
been interfused in the very elements
of your national life. You have never
cOmprehended how entirely the South
realized that the fate Of her labor sys-
TEN and her creed of separate State
sovereignty were staked upon the
issues Of the war. From the day of
the surrender of her armies 20 the
present moment, in no part of her vast
territory has one single hand of ;nsur-
rect;on been raised against the author
ity of the American Union. Nowhere
i'll the limits OF your great empire has
the national supremacy been main
tanned with such sabsoIute omnipo-
tence. Is not this fact of itself, I'M
preceedented in the annals of civil
war, occurring among a brave people,
sufficient gage Of their fealty to your
Constitution and laws? Have they
not abided in good faith by your poll
cles as you have successfully establish
ed them?
By persistent Misrepresentation a
majority III Congress was made to be-
lieve that the presence Of the United
States Army would be necessary not
merely to put these governments in
force, but to keep them in operation
and to keep them from being snatched
away and worked to the oppression
and ruin of the black race and the few
loyal men who we've there attempting
to protect their rights. Thus was IN
troduccd into those so-called recon
struction civil governments the Fede-
RAJ military as an operative and pre-
dominant principle. Thus, with
quick, sudden, and violent hand. these
men tore the two races asunder and
hurled one IN violent antaeonism upon
tho OTHER, and to this day the negro
massed into an organization hostile to
the whites IS an instrument of abso-
lutte power III the hands of these men.
These governments are in external
form civil bat thnv ara II, fbair oooo,,