Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1876-01-14
Amnesty.

of the previous question. Mr.. Blaine
protested, and tried to get in his
amendment excluding jeff. Davis
from the general amnesty, and requir-
ing all persons VINO desired the re-
moval of their disabilities, to first
take the oath of allegiance. But the
overbearing majority would not con-
sent, and the previous question was
ordered by l59 yeas to 95 nays. A
vote was then taken on the bill, which
failed to pass for lack of the required
two-thirds majority. just at this
point came into play Mr.. Blaine's
parliamentary skill, which proved
more than match for the brute
force of the Democratic majority
Purposely voting in the affirmative,
no sooner was the result announced
than Mr.. Blaine rose to move a re-
consideration, and this gave him the
opportunity to make most telling
speech upon the subject matter Of the
bill. He traced with mastery effect
the magnanimous record of the Re-
publican party regarding amnesty;
showing that Of the $4,000 disfran-
chised by the Fourteenth Amend
ment it has relieved from their dis
abilities all but $50. He declared
himself willing that those that re-
naming, with one single exception,
shall receive amnesty tor their trea-
son, upon the condition that they take
an oath to become good citizens. He
alluded to the fact that Robert Toombs
has repeatedly boosted that he would
not ask the United States for citizen
ship, and said that if Toombs is not
prepared to 60 into United States
court and take the oath Of allegiance,
then he could stay out. Mr.. Blaine
said he would except one rebel from
the operation of the amnesty law, and
that one is Jefferson Davis. He
would do this not because Davis was
the chief rebel or more guilty in this
regard than others, but because "he
is the author, knowingly, deliberate
ly, guilty, wilfully Of the gigantic
murder and crime ut Andersonville."
He thcrcupon proceeded to character
ize in fitting terms. the atrocities per-
petrated upon Union prisoners i'll that
loathSome slaughter pen Of the Con
/ federacy, and with terrible force
brought home to Jeff. Davis the re-
sponsibility for ermitting the bar
barous crimes there committed. He
charged, and proved by official docu-
ments, that Davis knew of those in
human atrocities, tacitly approved OF
them, and sustained their perpetra-
tors. Mr.. Blaine closed his speech
with an imprisoned declaration that
he would never consent to declare
the man primarily responsible for the
inhuman crimes worthy ard eligible
to the highest office in the gift Of the
people.
Sunset Cox, of New York, at the
close of Mr.. Blaine's speech, got the
floor and attempted to answer it, and
apologize for the rebel chief. Cox's
speech was in his usual coxcombical
style, and consisted mainly of per-
sonal offensive digs at Blaine, and at
tempts to be witty, but Oh the whole
was q weak affair, and in no way i'm
paired the impression caused by
Blaine's speech.
The next day, the notorious ex-rebel
Ben. Hill, of Georgia, took up the
cudgels on the Confederate side
He undertook to eulogize and defend
JEFF: Davis, classifying history by the
declaration that the frighttul atroc-
tiles at Andersonvillc were of no
graver character than those which he
charged had existed at Elmira
and Rock Island His speech was
full of the old plantation swaggel
and of hate for the party that killed
slavery and preserved the Union
He announced the purpose OF the
South to do within the Union what it
attempted to do by secession, namely
take possession of the government
He said that the South had been
driven out of the Union by fanat:cism,
which never kept pledge or obeyed
a law, but now the South was going
to compel fanatlcism to obey the law,
and live in accordance with the Con
stitution. Here is specimen Of his
utterances: when the South went
out Of the Union, she went hugging
the Constitution to her bosom, and
she comes back bringing it with her.
With an effrontery, only known to
the Southern politicians Of the slave
driving era, he said he could "for
give" that was the word-thc sol
diers for what they had done to the
South, but could not forgive the poll
ticians. Was there ever greater
anomaly? Here was Ben. Hill, a
malignant, unrcpcntant rebel, the au-
thor of Il proposition in the Confed-
crate Congress, to declare every
Union soldier who set foot on the
soil OF the South, after the Emancipa-
ton proclamation, q murderer, and to
treat him accordingly, standing up in
his place in Congress, which he is
permitted to occupy by a magnan-