Year: 1868

security of life and property, then it be came apparent to all men of intelligence that reconstruction 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 power, or we must use such machinery up on such new basis as would enable loya republican State governments to be raised up; and ill the last resort, and I will say Congress waited long, the nation waited long, experience had to come to the rescue 1 of reason before the thing was done-in the last resort, and as the last thing to be done, Congress determined to dig through all the rubbish dig through the soil and the shifting sands, and go down to the eternal rock, and there upon the basis of everlast- ing principle of equal and exact justice to all men, we have planted the column of re- construction; and, sir, 1t will arise slowly but surely, and 'sthe gates of hell shall not prevail against it." Whatever dangers we apprehend from the introduction of the right of suffrage of 100000 men, just emerged from Slavery, were put aside in the presence of great danger. Why, Sir, let me say frankly to my friend from Wis consln that 1 approach universal colored suffrage in the South reluctantly. Not be- cause l adhere to the miserable dogma that this was the white mans Government, but because l entertain fears about at once in trusting large body of men just from sla- very, to whom education had been denied by law to whom the marriage relation had been denied, who had been made the basest and most abiect slaves, with polti- cal power. And as the Senator has referr ed to speech which made in Indiana in 1865, allow me to show the principle that then actuated me, for in that speech I said:

 ' In regard to the question of admitting the freedmen Of the Southern States to vote, while I admit the equal rights of all men, and that in time all men wi have the right to vote without dstinc- tion of color or race vet believe that in case of 4,COo,000 of slaves just freed from bondage there l should be period of probation and preparation before they are brought to the exercise of political | power"

 Such was my feeling at that time for it had not then been determined, by the bloody experience of the last two years that we could not reconstruct upon the ba- sis of the white population, and such was the opinion of the great majority of the people of the North; and it was not until 8 year and a half after that time that Con- gress came to the conclusion that there was no way left but to resort to colored suf- frage, and suffrage to all men except those who were disqualified by the commission 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 Constitution. It is said that in the Reconstruction measures of Congress we have some outside of the Constitution, and the remark of some dis tlngulshed statesman of the Republican party is quoted to that effect. Sir, if any leading Republican has ever said so, he spoke only for himself, not for another. l deny the statement in t0to. I insist that these Reconstruction measures are as fully within the powers of the Constitution 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 vio lation of the Constitution, and who pre- tend to be the especial friends of that in. strument? The great mass of them only three years ago were in arms to oyerturn the the Constitution and establish that of Montgomery in its place, or were their Northern friends, who were aiding and sympathizing in that undertaking. I had occasion the other day to speak of what was described as a constitutional Union man--a man living inside of the Federal lines during the war, sympathizing with the Rebellion, and who endeavored to aid the Rebellion by insisting that every war measure for the purpose of suppressing it was violation ot the Constitution of the United States. Now, these men who claim to be the especial friends of the Constitrl- ton arc the men who have sought to des- troy it by force of arms, and those through out the country who have given them aid and comfort. Sir, you will remember that once 8 celebrated Frenchwoman was being dragged to the scaffold, and as she passed the statue of Liberty she exclaimed: ''How many crimes have been committed in thy name?" and can say to the Constitution, how many crimes against liberty, humani- ty and progress, are being committed in thy name by these men who, while they loved not the Constitution and sought it's destruction, now, for party purposes, claim to be it's especial friends. My friend from Wisconsin yesterday compared what he called the Radical party of the North to the Radicals of the South, and when he was asked the question by some Senator ''who are the South," he said, ''they are the &c., cessionists. Sir, the Secessionists of uthe South are Democrats to-day, acting in har- mony and concert with the Democratic party. They were Democrats during the war who prayed for the success of McClel- Ian and Pendleton, and who would have been glad to vote for them They were Democrats during the war, men who sym pathized with the Rebellion, who aided in bringing it on. These are the Radicals of the South, and my friend from Wisconsin, after all, is acting with that Radical party. The burden of his speech yesterday was that the reconstruction measures of Con- gress are intended to establish negro su- premacy. Sir, this proposition is without any foundation whatever. I believe it was stated yesterday by the Senator from Hi nois MT. TrumbulD that in every State but two the white voters registered out numbered the colored voters; and the fact that in two States the colored voters out number the white voters, is owing to the simple accident that there are more color ed men in those States than there are white men. Congress has not sought to establish the supremacy of any class or party of men. If 1t had sought to establish negro supre1n- acy 1t would have been an easy matter by excluding from the right of suffrage all men who had been concerned in the Re bellion, in accordance with the proposition of the distinguished Senator from Massa- chusetts MT. Sumner), in his speech at