Year: 1862

or made anendable to punishment
Hence your armies to-day occupy hun
dreds Of square miles of territory where
no rebel army can be found, but within
which the rebel armies are daily recruited
by the labors of decripit old meu, unchris-
tian ministers, and malignant women.
Hence you draw hay from Mass, and
meal from Wisconsin, to supply your ar
my on the Rappahannock, while the valley
of the Rappahannock supplies the rebel
hosts at Richmond Hence, one of YOUR
generals drew vehemently but a Short
time since upon the quartermasters de-
partment for horses, which the depart
ment could not supply, while the general S
command occupied a district of Virginia
the pastures of which swarmed with hor-
ses Hence, men and women, struggling
out of the abyss of rebellion, have been
caught up in your lines and thrust back
to work on rebel Notifications and feed
rebel hosts, for fear somebody owned them.
Hence, your friends are seen to fly, scared
and trembling, from under cover Of your
camps, while your enemies crowd thick
and snorting and noisy about them
Heuce, treason struts even when it has
ceased to fight, and loyalty still implores
when it ought to command


All this, | submit, sir, ought to be chan
ged. The bill | present to the Senate, if
presently enacted into law, will help to
effect the change. 1t aims to accomplish
but a part Of what ought, in my estima-
ton to be done, and speedily done. But
it Will afford a clear and distinct intima-
ton to all, that the first duty of every cit
izen is obedience to the Government of
the United States, that such obedience the
Government expects, and the promise of
it at least-a promise in the most solemn
and imposing form it can be giyen-the
Government will have from every one
within its reach. 1t viii teach that ODE
dience to any Government but this of
itself, is Il crime not to be countenanced,
but to be utterly condemned and severely
punished. 1t will instruct the whole Re
public that wherever our power extends
there your authority is supreme and must
be acknowledged, and that You will no
longer give protection to those who preach
and labor to raise and support armies for
you to support and conquer.


1t may be said that oaths are easily ta-
ken and often broken, and then it will be
easier TO obtain pledge of allegiance to
secure It's performance All this is true.
But 1t IS also true that when every per
son within the reach Of your power is the
publicly sworn friend Of your authority,
you Will have made long stride towards
establishing order and rightfui suprema
cy Treason, then, to be safe must be Sc
crct And whenever eoneuct is practiced
or opinions avowed only in whispers in
dark places, then it becomes the associate
Of conspiracy, of robbery, Of infamy, of
larceny, ana of all the other inf.mies that
society proscribes and the State punish
-. When every person in any communi-
ty is publicly sworn to be loyal, loyalty
viii be no longer hunted cut OF that com
munity as q feion Your soldiers viii
not be floutod with the ensign of rebel
lion. Your armies viii be no longer bul-
lied by unarmad traitors or menaced by
them with defeat Your friends will no
longer be openly threatened with robbery
and destitution. Mayor Monroe VIII not
again venture to compassionate the de
luslon' which binds your gallant officers
to your glorious service; nor viii he again
venture to stiGmatize a cheer to the AM
erlcan flag as an insult to American citi-
zens and when the Mayor of any town,
whether of Norfolk or Nashville, again
demand special security for liberty or
property, he viii be told, | trust, that
since the American Constitution was
adopted there has been no no security for
liberty or property but in the character
Of the American people; that until the
Constitution is abrogated there can lie no
other that whether that security be sat
isfactory or not, no general of the Repub-
lie can venture to promise protection that
the people choose to deny.