Fayette County herald. [volume] (Washington [Washington Court House], Fayette County, O. [Ohio]) 1860-1???, 1876-11-02
blaine ON southern Domination.

Hon. James G.. Blaine, in a recent speech
in New York, drew the following picture
of the last House of Representatives
It was my fortune, either good or i'll
at least it was my fate-to have entered
Congress some fourteen years ago, and
the first winter that took nv seat in the
House we had under discussion bill to
prescribe a test oath for persons who
should thereafter hold office under the
Government of the United States. That
oath has since become historic and is
popularity known as the iron-clad oath.
Its design was to prevent men rebelling
against the Government of the United
States holding Office under the Govern
ment afterward. And l well remember
one day being in the Senate when the bill
was under discussion, and a pleasant
faced, agreeable gentleman, then a Sena-
tor from Indiana; Mr.. Thomas A. Hen
bricks, of whom I always speak kindly in
a personal sense, was occupying the floor,
and well remember, also, that he said to the
Senate: s'Fhis oath you are now about to
prescribe is useless; nay, it is misehiev-
Gus. It is useless because, let me assure
you, " said he, with a certain spirit of
prophesy which no one but modern
Democrat could ever put on-s'let me as
sure you when this rebellion is ended Lee
and Beauregard, Sidnell and Mason, and
all their associates will be busy in seek
lug their personal safety by flight, and
they will not bother you in seeking or
holding Office under the Government of
the United States.' Well I thought for
once that Mr.. Hendricks was right.
thought, indeed, that it would be a pre-
sumptuOus piece of arrogance and impu-
dence, that l should not live to see, that
men then engaged in rebellion should ev-
er come back and claim to aid in the ad-
ministratiOn of this Government; and [
| r9oa .+oSY III oh Il
dreamer of very wild dreams if / could
then have thought that [ should myself
remain in the House of Representative
long enough to see, as [ did see on the
first Monday of December last, seventy of
the associates of Lee and Slidel and Ma
sons-Captains, Colonels and Brigadiers
of the Confederate Army-seventy of
them, stand up at the bar of the House of
Representatives to be sworn in as Demo-
| cratic members-sworn in under the
modified oath, for we Republicans, who
are accused of such hard-hearted and
cruel policy toward the South have
always modified that oath to adapt it to
the tender consciences of rebels. And
whereas, and every other loyal man that
| takes his seat from the North is compelled
to swear that he never did rebel and nev-
er wished to rebel and never intended to
| rebel, and that he takes the oath without
any mental reservation or evasion under
the pains and penalties of perjury in this
world and future damnation in the enext--
while we are compelled to take oath these
seventy Southern scamps [cheersl they
took their seats on the simple prom
ise that they would try. to behave we'll
hereafter [laughterl, and they came in
under that oath and took their seats, and
took off their hats, and hung up their
coats, and sat down, and made themselves
at home, and took command of the house,
and the ITO Northern Democrats who
were their associates were content to sit
at their feet and take the policy of the
Democratic party of the Union from the
seventy Southern rebels that were sworn
in under this modified oath; and [ say
here that never in the days of the most
arrogant Pro-slavery regime that -four
ished under Pierce or Buchanan was
Southern domination in the House of
Representatives so absolute and uncon-
tradicted as it has been in the Forty
fourth Congress.