Year: 1868

favor of this Government assuming poi
tlon or all of the rebel debt, and in fave
of paying the rebels for their slaves
When the Democratic party North an
South opposed that most important, ano
perhaps. hereafter TO be regarded as vita
amendment, they were committing them
selves in principle, as they had been befor
by declaration, to the doctrine that thi
Government was bound 10 pay for th
slaves, and that it was just and right tha
we should assume and pay the rebel debt


This amendment, as have before said
was rejected, and when Congress Assem-
bed in December, 1866, they were con
fronted by the fact that every proposition
of compromise had been rejected; ever,
half way measure had been spurned by tn
rebels themselves, and they had nothin!
left to do but begin the work ofreconstruc
ton themselves; and in February, 1867
Congress for the first time entered upol
the execution Of the guaranty provided fo
in the Constitution by the passage of th,
first reconstruction law. A supplementary
bill was found necessary In March, anoth
er one in July, and l believe another i,
found necessary at this time; but the powel
is with Congress. Whatever it shall deem
necessary, whether it be in the way o.
colored suffrage, whether it be in the way
of military power; whatever Congress shall
deem necessary 10 the execution Of lhis
guaranty is conclusive upon the courts
upon every State, and upon the people ol
this nation.


Sir, when Congress entered upon this
work it had become apparent 10 all men
that loyal republican State governments
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 leaving the
suffrage with the white men, and by leav
ing with the white people of the South the
question as to when the colorcd people
should exercise the right of suffrage, il
ever; but when ii was found that those
white men were rs rebellious as ever, that
they hated this Government more bitterly
than ever; when il 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 social tyranny,
by a thousand annoyances, by the insecure
ty of life and prorerty-then il became ap-
parent to all men of intelligence that re-
construction could not take place upon the
basis of the white population, and some
thing else must he done.


NDw, sir, what was there left TO do:
Either we must hold these people c~ntinu-
ally by military power, or we must use
slch machinery upon such a new basis as
would enable loyal republican State govern
nents TO be raised up; and in the last re-
sort, and will say Congress waited long,
the nation waited long experience had to
come 10 the rescue of reason before the
thing was dOne-in the last resort, and as
the last thing TO be done, Congress deter
mined TO dig through all the inbbish-die
through the soil and the shifting sands, and
go down to the eterual rock, and there up
on The basis of the everlasting principle OF
equal and exact justice 10 all men, we have
planted the column of reconstruction; and
sir il will arise slowly but surely, and ''the
gates ofbell shall not prevail against IT,
Whatever dangers we apprehended from
the Introduction 10 the right of suffrage oi
seven hundred thousand men, just emerged
from slavery, Were put aside in the pres
ence ofa greater danger. Why, sir, LEI
me say frankly to my friend from Wiscon





suffrage in The South reluctantly. Not be-
cause / adhered 10 the miserable dogma
that this was the white mans Government
but because entertained fears about al
once cntrusting large body Of men Just
from slavery, TO whom education had been
denied by law, TO whom the marriage rcla-
ton had been denied, who had been made
the most ahiect slaves, with political pow
er. And as the Senator las referred 10 q
speech which made in Indiana i'm 1865,
allow me to show the principle that then
aciuaicd me. for in that speech l said:


''ln regard TO the question of admitting
the freedmen Of the Southern States 10
vote, while / admit the equal rights of all
men, and that in time all men will have
the right TO vote, without distinction OF
color or race, yet believe that in the case
of four million of slaves, just freed from
bondage, there should be period of pro-
baton and preparation before they are
brought to the exercise Of political power. .


Such was my feeling at that time, for il
had not then been determined by the
bloody experience of the last two years
that we could not reconstruct upon the
basi. OF the white population. and such
was the opinion of a great majority of the
people Of the North; and it was not until a
year and half after that time that Con
grcss came TO the conclusion that there
was no way left but to resort to colored
suffrage and suffrage TO all men except
those who were disqualified by the COM
mission of high crimes and misdemeanors.


Mr.. President, we hear much said in the
course of this debate, and through the
press, about the violation of the Constitu-
lion. Ii is said that in the reconstruction
measures OF Congress we have gone out
side of the Constitution, and the remark OF
some distinguished statesman of the Re
publican party is quoted to that effect.
Sir. if any leading Republican has ever
said so, he spoke only for himself, rot for
another. deny the statement IN toto. |
insist that these reconstruction measures
are as fully within the powers of the Con-
stitution as any legislation that can be had,
not only by reason, but by authority.
And who are the men that are talking so
much about the violation of the Conslitu-
ton, and who pretend to be the especi:
friends of that instrument? The great
mass of them, only three years ago. were
in arms tn overturn the Constitution and
establish that of Montgomery in its place,



as were their Northern friends. who were
aiding and sympathizing in that underta-
king.


l had occasion the other day TO speak of
what was described as a Constitutional
Union mana man living inside of the
Federal lines during the war, sympathi-
zing with the rebellion, and who endeav-
ored 10 aid the rebellion by insisting that
every war measure for the purpose of sup
pressing it was violation of the Constitu-
ton of the United States. Now these men
who claim to be the especial friends of the
Constitution are the men who have sought
10 destroy il by force of arms, and those
throughout the country who have given
them aid and comfort. Sir, you will re-
that once celebrated French
woman was being dragged to the scaffold,
and as she passed the statue of liberty, she
exclaimed: "How many crimes have been
in thy name;" and can say to
The Constitution, how many crimes against
liberty, humanity. and progress are being
in thy name by these men,
who.. while they love not the Constitution,