Clearfield Republican. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1851-1937, 1876-02-09
EXCITING DEBA IE ON THE
GENERAL AMNESTY BILL.

EdCLllNu DEDA ~ ON l<AH
| GENERAL AMNESTY BILL.
During week before last there wa'
On exciting discussion in the House or
the amnesty bill. There was genera
good feeling when Congress met, and
it was arranged that the south would
support the appropriation to the Cen
tennial, and the north would aid in the
passage OF general amnesty bill. But
Blaine, Republican, who supported this
bill a year ago, now has tho Presiden
tial Doe in his bonnet, and made q
flaming and insulting speech against
tho south, and wanted to get in M
amendment excepting Jcff. Davis from
the amnesty bill. lie was followed by
Cox, Democrat, of New York. We
give below brief report Of the re-
marks by Mr.. Cox and others
Mr.. Cox then took the floor to reply
to Mr.. Blaine. He commenced by
saying that the gentleman from Maine
who by some dispcnsation of Provi.
dence or of the people, was no longer
Speaker of this House, had seen proper
in this Centennial year, to tear away
the plasters from the green and bleed
ing wounds of the late civil war and
had seen proper to attempt to justify
this conduct in the light Of history
He [Cox] vcntured to say that there
was no precedent in history and no
canon in political philosophy which
the party now in the minority on this
floor had not outraged by the rejection
of clemency and by its persistence in
making reprisals in time OF peace. The
gentleman from Maine had begun by a
reference to the Duke of Alva, and
there was no doubt that that gentle
man and his party had been, since the
war at least, quite familiar with that
history. The history of the Neither
lands under the Duke OF Alva, was the
history of radicalism, spoilation, muir.
der, death, and tyranny in the south
since 1868. [Derisive laughter on the
Republican side OF the house, and ap-
plause on the Democratic side.l He
would refer the gentleman 10 n prcce-
dent two thousand years old, and
would say that all history was filled
with such precedent TO the effect that
nations should not erect monuments TO
vengeance, that nations should not
erect monuments except TO foreign
conqnests--never monuments TO do
nestle calamity. II had been reserved
for the gentleman from Maine to fly in
the face of all history, Pagan history,
Christian history and Christian doc
trinc and to issue in this year Of Grace
and Jubilee, his anathcma maranatha
against the south. For such n purpose
(spoken with ironical cmpbasisl,
which purpose would appear as
he proceeded, ho Cox took issue with
the gentleman from Maine when he
said that the Republican party had
been clement and amncstical. II was
not true; it had not been true during
the war; and it was not true today.
Whenever that party had proposed any
element policy, it had boon sure to
spoil it by some small peddling opera
ton. [llaughter1
He (Cox) had the honor TO be a
member OF the House at the beginning
Of the war, and he had the honor TO
bring forward the first measure for ex-
change ofprisoners. lie asked whether
the record ofthc federal administration
was all right in the matter of exchange.
During the war he had il on the
authority OF some sixty gentlemen
present, who had been IN the Confed-
crate army, that no order had been
issued at any time in the south with
reference to prisoners Of war, as to
rations or clothing, which did not ap.
ply equally to confederate soldiers. Er
pdrte afiidavits, taken by that humbug
committee on the conduct of the war,
could not contradict the facts of history.
These facts were to bc determined on
q fair issue made. So far as the Con-
federate government was concerned,
the orders of that government, what
ever might be the bad conduct of GER
tain officers under it, had been couched
in spirit OF fairness and humanity.
He spoke sneeringlyin in reference to
the remark Of Mr.. Blaine that southern
gentlemen were now members OF the
House through the grace of the Repub-
lican party, and said, down on your
knees, gentlemen Of the south, before
His Majesty of Maine. He (Cox)
had labored in this House 10 mitigate
the severities of civil war. The Dem
ocrats then on the floor had been pow
crless to avert most of its calamitics,
but they had tried to mitigate its
severity. They had spoken against all
those means which had destroyed in
dustry and prosperity, which had
burned libraries, poisoned wells and
done anything but make the war the
ducllo between the fighting men in the
field.
Until Mr.. Lincoln's proclamation of
amnesty, the spirit had prevailed which
provoked retaliation and pcrpctuated
the war When the amnesty of Mr..
Lincoln was proclaimed, it was pro-
claimed in a spirit, oh how different
from that Of the gentleman from Maine
to-day. He had no doubt the spirit of
Mr. Lincoln looked down in sadness on
tho gentleman when he made his
speech to-day. Mr.. Lincoln's scnti-
mcnt had been "Malicc toward none,
Charitytoward all"-Jcficrson Davis
included. With him there wns no OK
ccption, no restrictions, no odious test.
The gentleman from Maine could not
have been rniscd In a Christian church