Year: 1863

to consummate policy which the people
have condemned, and to put the people be-
yond the means of redress. The remedy,
and the sole remedy, is by reversion. by re-
tracing our steps, and make this again ma
tiousl war. Then you will not want this
| bill, nor will you want draft. You will
have volunteers enough. I do not speak
rashly, because you had volunteers enough,
and more than you knew what to do with,
when you stood upon that ground. But you
choose to change that ground. Political
abolitionists thought the time had come for
them to introduce the sword and the spear
into the public arena and to make use OF
this war to carry but ends which they have
long cherished-the abolition of slavery.


These, Mr.. Speaker, are my views of the
discouragements which now exist in the
country, and these are my views of the rem
edy, and the only remedy, which can be eff
6cacous. This bill would have done well
enough at the time the resolution / offered
here passed. 1t would have passed, not
with all the provisions which now accom-
pany it, but the principle would have been
adopted, and the whole power of the nation


would have been placed in the bands of the
Government to be used, if necessary, for the
defense ofthe country. But the disease as
sumed another shape The political body
has become infected with poison, and the
mind of the people, poisoned with distrust
of US, disapproves of our measures. There


is disease, and there is no mortal remedy


for it but one. We must administer that


remedy to ourselves; we must change our
steps. We must no longer be Democrats,
no logger be abolitionists; but we must, If
we would save our country and save our
selves, be patriots merely, aud not hesitate
or falter about undoing what we have already
done whenever we discover that its opera
ton and effect has beea different from what
we anticipated. Have not your anticipa-
aions failed in regard 20 the measures you
ave heretofore adopted? Have not your
acts been such as to make the people believe
that VIII atever may have been the principles
upon which this war was begun, it is now
used for the overthrow of slavery. AS can
did men, is not that the object of the war?
There is a little tweedledum and twee-
dledee about this matter. One says the war
is not to overthrow slavery-it is to save the
Union. Another says, If you do not destroy
slavery the Union is worth nothing. The
argument here is exactly the argument OF
the ] Jesuit-fx your mind and attention up


on one object which you think lawful one,
and then all the means are lawful. One
object is the abolition of slavery; but that is
not lawful. No. says one, but the salvation
of the Union is constitutional. Direct your
attention to that and you may abolish slavery
/ This is the doctrine which makes the end
justify the m cans. One says that abolition
| is his object, and that he goes for it because
abolition is necessary for the salvation of
| the Union. Have we found it SO? Has 1t
couduced in any way to save the Union?-
Will your three hundred thousand black
men tend to save the Union? Have you
brought them out as soldiers? We know
L Ill
not during this war make soldiers of them.
capacity as a military people, or what they
lay become by course of education; but
you cannot in two, three, or ten years, make
efficient soldiers of them.


Again: will your white soldiers serve with
them? The whole country suspects that
this is an abolition movement. You do not
know what to do with the runaway negroes
which invest you, an are calling upon you
for the bread which they left behind when
they left their homes and families. You
do not know what to do with them. You
can have some color for feeding them or for
setting them free, but when you hold ont
the pretense that you mean to make soldiers
of them, is all delusion. 1t is pretense


for abolitionism. 1t is a pretense for placing
negroes on an equality with your OWE white


soldiers. 1t will either raise to an equality
with white soldiers those whom they regard


as an inferior race, or else it will level them
down to an equality with negroes. That is
the whole effect of it. 30
1 do not know that differ with my honor
able friend from Massachusetts, MIR. Thomas
| as to the principle which be advocates, that


this Government has right to the employ


ment of all the force it can command in this


exigency and peril. l will not say that this


bill, so far as it regards the enrolment of
the men liable to military duty in the coun-


try and subiecting them to be called out for


military service, does not come within the


power given to Congress to raise and support


armies / Twill not ntestthat4uestionw with


him here at any rate. But do not think


that the Constitution intended at all, as my
i friend from Massachusetts, seemed to think,


that Congress should have the power of en-


listing negroes. They were regarded as pro-


perty, and it was not intended that mans
property should be taken from him. They


fall within another category. The gentle-


man says they may be employed if it be
necessary to save the Republic. He post
penes the employment of Negro soldiers un-
> til the last. l differ with him in this.


believe that that time not only has no


come, but that it never can come. 1t neye
can be expedient in this country to raise an
army of negroes so long as we remain of tht
proud free race to which we belong. Instead
:, of being a source of power, the negro in yeu
: Army would be a source of weakness AM
: discomfort. and his presence would driv
: from the field men a thousand times NOR
, capable of defending the country than p
: himself can be made. The principle 10
:. which the gentleman contends, therefore e
II can never apply here; Dor does he apply is
q want to show that it has no aPpioation.-
II A negro army is weakness to your country
9 It unnerves the white mans hand; u nn