Year: 1868

Constitution of the United States.
and had afterward committed per-
jury by going into the rebellion, p
should be made ineligible to anv
any Office under the Government Of
the United States or of State. Tt
was very small disfranchisement.
1t was intended to withhold power
from those leaders by whose instru.
mentality we had lost nearly half q
million lives and untold treasure.
The justice Of that disfranchisement
could not be disproved. And what
was the fourth clause of the amend I
ment2 That this Government
should never assume and paw any
part of the rebel debt; that it should
never pay the rebels for their slaves.
This was bitterly opposed in the
North as well as in the South. How
could any man oppose that amend
ment unless he was in favor of tbis
Government assuming a portion or
all the rebel debt and in favor of
paying the Iebels for their slaves?
When the Democratic party North
and South opposed that most i'm
portant and perhaps hereafter to be
regarded az vital amendment they
were committing themselves in prin-
ciple, as they had been before by
declaration, to the doctrine that this
Government was bound to pay for


the slaves, and that it was Just and


right that we should assume and
pay the rebel debt.


This amendment, as have before


said was rejected, and when Con-


gress assembled in December, 1866,


they were confronted by the fact
that every proposition Of compro-


mise had been rejected; every half


way measure had been spurned by


the rebels themselves, and they had
nothing left to do but to begin the


work of reconstruction themselves;


and in February, 1867, Congress for


the first time entered upon the exc


cution Of the guarantee provided for


in the Constitution, by the passage


of the first Reconstruction Law. A


supplementary bill was found neces-


sary in March, another one in July,


and 1 believe another is found nee


essary at this time; but the power is


with Congress. Whatever it shall
Edcem necessary, whether it be in the


way of colored suffrage, whether it


be in the way of military power


whatever Congress shall deem nee


essary in the execution of this guar


antee is conclusive upon the courts,


upon every State, and upon the peo-


pie Of this nation.


Sir, when Congress entered upon


this work it had become apparent to


all men that loyal republican State


governmen could not be erected


and maintained upon the basis of


the white population. We had tried


them. Congress had ATTEMPTED the


work of reconstruction, through the


constitutional amendment, by leav-


ing the suffrage with the white men,


and by leaving with the white peo-


pie of the South the question as to


when the colored people should ex-


ercise the right of suffrage. if ever;


but when it was found that those


white men were as rebellious as


ever, that they hated this Govern


ment more bitterly than ever; when


it was found that they prosecuted


the loyal men, both white and black,
in their midst; when it was found
) that Northern men who had gone
down there were driven out by So
cial tyranny, by thousand annoy
!, ances, by the insecurity of life and


property, then it became apparent
to all men of intelligence that recon
struetion could not take place upon
the basis of the white population,
| and something else must be done.
Now, sir, what was there left to


do? Either we must hold these
people continually by military pow
er, or we must use such machinery
upon such a new basis as would en-
able loyal republican State govern
, ments to be raised up; and in the
last resort, and I will say Congress
waited long, the nation waited long,


experience had to come to the res
cue of reason before the thing was
done-in the last resort, and as the
last thing to be done. Congress de-


termined to dig through all the rub
=. bish, dig through the soil and shift
, ing sands, and to go down to the
| eternal rock, and there, upon the
basis Of the everlasting principle of
! equal and exact justice to all men,
i, we have planted the column Of re-
construction; and, sir, it will arise
slowly bat surely, and "the gates of
4 hell shall not prevail against it. %
Whatever dangers we apprehend
from the introduction to the right
e of suffrage of seven hundred thou
sand men, just emerged from slavery,
were put aside in the presence of a
t greater danger. Why, sir, let me
: say frankly to my friend from Wis
consin, that approached universal
e colored suffrage in the South reluct-
| antIy. Not because / adhered to
the miserable dogma that this was
the white mans government, but be-
[ cause 1 entertained fears about at
once intrusting SO large body of
men just from slavery, to whom edu-
cation had been denied by law, to
whom the marriage relation had been
5 denied, who had been made the bas-
est and most abject slaves, with po-
litical power. And as the Senator
has referred to speech which
made in Indiana, in 1865, allow me
to show the principle that then act
uated me, for in that speech I said:
In regard to the question of admitting the
? freedmen of the Southern States to vote while


! a.imit the equal rights of all men. and that


in time all men Will have the right to vote
without distinction of color or race, vet be-
lieEe that in the of fnir m ilinns of slaves