Year: 1862

Speech OF Mr. r.sichardson, OF Illinois.


On the 2oth inst, the House being in commit
tee of the whole on the State of the Union, Mr.
RIcHARDsoN said:


And / think one of the most sensible procla-
nations that has been written sincs the com
mencement of the war was written by General
Grant when he entered Paducah, KY In that
proclamation he laid down this proposition: 81
have not come" said he, "tO fight opinions; /
have come to resist treason and Overwhelm 1t.
am not here to force opinions upon you. | am
here to sustain the Constitution and the suprem-
acy of the laws"


And one of the best signs during this whole
session is the Endorsement by my colleague of
Gen. Grant did not know that nv colleague
was prepared to indOrse that proclamationE But,
sir, it is one that l would like to written in
letters of gold upon the sky ITSELF so that all the
world could read. Ii is the only correct doctrine
that has been proclaimed by any of our Generals


Now, MIR Chairman, great deal has been
said about the objects and purposes of this war.
The gentleman from Massachusetts, remarked
that we stand in very different position from
what we did at the called session. Well. sir, so
do; but the only difference is that we now
have an army of six hundred thousand men in
the field. How did you get them thereI Did
they come there for the purposes of abolition
for overthrOwing the Constitution and the laws?
Not at all You would never have had this ar
my; you would never have won the victory at
Fort Donelson If it had been understood that
such were the objects of the war. Now, Mr..
Chairman, will not stop to present any argu-
ment upon this proposition / suspect that. out
Of the four thousand men from my Congressional
district who were in the fight al Fort Donels0n,
twenty five hundred of them v5ked for me at the
last election. | am inclined to believe that at
least that number of them voted for me- | did
not get the votes of many of the officers, laugh
teri but did get the rank and file.


81 will tell my colleague another thing. There
are footsteps of the Republicans in the army, but
the marks of their feet are all in one direction,
ard when the rank and file return TO their homes,
after the rebellion shall have been crushed out,
as the man tolls upon his farm, as he labOrs to
paw the taxation that is upon us. as he tolls to
support the old flag of his country, he will not be
very apt to try the experiment of Republicanism
AbolriOnism again That thing is about used
up. There is not much more of it. 1t is grow
ing beautifully small by degrees and elegantly
less as it goes along. Laughter.


Now, Mr.. Chairman, i will tell you the inev
table result of this war is you must hang good
many oft the traitors. could not 90 home to my
people If j was not in favor of that. When you
hang the extreme men in either section, those in
the other section will take warning by their fate.
The extinction of one will be the death of the
other.


ave have remained in this House. sir, and seen
strange things going on without being able to
help ourselves. One Of these men in the South
would ir fame his district by reading an Abolition
document from the North, speech delivered
here or elsewhere, it mattered not; and
Other up North would set his district in
blaze of excitement by distributing the print
ed rawlings of one of the fire eaters of the
South. They were like couple of calves in


Il Il
lick each other; and they are the only ones |
ever knew who got fat on it. Laughter. In
that way they have sustained two large families,
one at the North, and the South Now, we
might lave got along with them but for the un-
fortunate mistake in 1856 We then committed
sad mistake. We believed thirty or forty wears
ago that we could make good Democrat out of
an old Federalist; but il was a deplOrable error.
daughter. You may take sea-shel from the
sea-sh0re anywhere you may take it upon the
mountzlns, or into the forests still it will sing
the song of is ocean home. Mr. Buchanan re
manned the same at the end that he was i'm the be
ginning.


This revelation would never have broken out
bnt for two elements at the North, one the ex-
treme Abolition party, and another party which
was infinitely worse-a party made up Of James
Buchanan, Isa5c TOucey. Caleb Cushing. and
other like men. They were worse than Aboi-
ti0Bists because they were smarter. Laughter.
| give that as my opinion.


The ChairmaR-Tbe gentIeman's time has ex-
pred


Mr. RiehardsOn-I am very sorry for that.