Year: 1864

efecsuany, not by paper proclamations and paper
contscations and bureass Of freedmen's affairs,
but by battles siegez. strategy and all the high
est skill and power of war on land and sea.


But, sir, there is power which in the expert
ence Of history. ever has proved and ever will
prove more potent than armies and navies to
quiet discomfort, to restore order, establish law
and give TO a government lis strongest and best
foundation IN the lore Of its peoPle-tkat Is, the
power OF right: and by right mean not alone
justice, but equity. charity, mercy. kiBdness-
all those noble attributes of humanity which
unite men in the bonds of mutual respect and
affection.


Sir. have we no faith in Sod, no faith in the
olvlne religion OF Christianity, faith in the
KIND charities whose golden threads interlaee,
ike nervous flores. even the most rugged human
natures II we viii but feel for them with ten.
der baud, that We. as legislators. should declare,
as majority Of this House have declared, upon
the resolution of the gentleman from Kentucky
Mr., Smith, that


/" The only hope Of saving thus country IS by
the power of the sword, and that we oppose any
arn'slice or Intervention or mediation or propo-
sipon Tor peace from any onarsA-. L.se as
there shall be found rebel in arms against the
Government Z"


Is that, sir, the spirit in which this Union was
formed and waxed great in power and glory un-
der the benign influence of peacer Is that the
spirit by which the Union is to be restored and
preserved Far from it. In sober reason ask,
sir, shall the foolhardiness or wickedness Of one
rebel in arms be enough to silence the myriad
r voices pleading for peace, and continue upon this
nation the curse of disunion and civil war 2
trust II is not so. Will the world scorn US,
viii history reproach US. will wise and good men
doubt our wisdom or our manhood, If, while We
maintain our armies, as We should, to defend our
States and our supreme law from the power Of
the armies of the rebellion, we also use. all the
while, IN every way, by arguments, by appeals.
by forbearance, by concessions, il need be, the
power and influence of peace to bring back, as
wiling freemen, not as relunctant slaves, to the
common shelter and fold, the wanderers from our
fathers house of Federal Union I


Sir, while love the Union and the Constitu-
ton, and repudiate secession and denounce it as
suicidal foley, and its acts as an enormous
public crime, and while l long for the overthrow
of rebellion and in6deity TO the Constitution of
my country, | will also say, regardless of the mo-
uves that may be imputed TO me, that indulge
no malice nor hate to any man, woman, child
in the States in rebellion, and far rather would
win them to our cause by words of peace than to
destroy or subdue them by the power of war


Sir, let this Administration give some heed
aud Difference TO the opinions and arguments Of
the mutitudes of faithful Union men in all the
Union States, and even in rebellious States, who
ditfer with its4olicy, and rise above and aban-
don the extreme dogmas and policy of party. and
repudiate emancipation and confscation and
patriation determination by Federal power.
and try with earnestness and in good faith in any
form or in any way--I care not what, SO long
it neither degrades nor dishonors US, nor thoss
we would win back to us-the power of tender
OF the Union under the Constitution as il is,
with full amnesty and pardon for the past. to the
rulers and people in rebellion; and if do not
gain our cause by the offer, we at least do not
weaken il nor strengthen that Of the enemy BY
such effort to deal with them in the spirit and by
the methods of the Constitution. 81


Sir. il the President needs arguments aud pre-
cedents for such an effort of magnanimity and
true craftsmanship, let him consult the history of
his own country Let him turn TO the records
and precedents referred to in the able and elo-
quent speech Of the gentleman from New York.
Mr.. Fernando Wood.I Let him 90 beyond
those records to those of the British Parliament
in the days when the elder and Younger Pitt and
Burke and Fox and Camden and their compeers
appealed for justice, for the principles of the
British Constitution. for liberty, for law, for
peace in behalf of the rebels in the American
Colonies, instead of urging against them the ven-
geance and havoc of war. Let him, and let
other men, too, learn from such great exemplars
in true statesmansbp and lofty patriotism, that
to plead for just and honorable peace. even
with rebels in arms, is not treason 10 the Union
and Constitution, nor sympathy with rebellion,
any more than were the pleadngs of Pitt and
= Burke treason to the Crown and realm of Eng
land. Fl 49,