Year: 1867

ling discovery that our Constitution is
threatened and liberty is in peril1


Is it not strange, | repeat, that the
same gentlemen who are so easily alarm
ed now about the perils that compass
about the Constitution of the country
and the liberties Of the people, while
peace is benignly smiling upon US, saw
no terror nor threat in the glitter Of
bayonets or the frown of batteries when
our beloved land was swarming with
millions of open enemies and the eartL
was trembling under the martial tread
Of serried hosts and the loud roar of an
cry artillery Then when there was
war--was no peace-they could raise
the cry of "peace, peace;" and when
peace has at last come they aver it has
not come, but that we are stillin the
midst of bloody war, war upon the
Constitution we fought to save, war
upon the liberties we bled to preserve.
Treat your Southern brethren kindly,
win them by Affection" is the cry of
the Democracy. Rather" said one
of them, "that jeff Davis and his coad-
tutors had succeeded than that the Pres
ident of the United States should be
impeached." Such language is worthy
only of a representative of South Caro-
lima, or some other rebel whose hands
are red with loyal blood No wonder
that in party boasting of such types
Of patriotism there should be many,
very many, enthusiastic followers, who
saw nothing reprehensible in the con-
duct of the open, avowed, defiant and
belligerent enemies of the Republic, but
who do find much to deplore and de-
noUnce in the adhesion now to principle
of those who stood like a wall of ada
mant around our flag while the waves
of secession threatened to deluge with
blood the eternal rock upon which our
fathers and their fathers had planted it.
Our dead, Isuppose, are to sleep in for
gotten graves, while the rebel slain
must be apotheosized, and we who
fought with and survive the brave boys
in blue


"Who fighting fell, and falling fought"


Are to be stigmatized with opprobrious
epithets, while the traitors who thirsted
for our blood are to be meekly and
sweetly called "our brethren"


GROUND OF CHARGES AGAINST THE RE-


PUBLICAN PARTY.


What | am anxious to learn, Mr.
Speaker, is, upon what foundation rests
this tlippant and gratuitous charge re-
peatedy made against the Republican
party on this floor, to the effect that we
are trampling liberty under foot and
destroying the rights and privileges of
portion Of the American people
Wherein have we violated the Consti-
tuition? Was it in crushing the rebel
lion? have no doubt every Copper
head in the North would say yes. We
did carry the emblem of our national
glory and greatness from the rivers and
lakes of the West to the bays and CULTS
Of the South, where it waves to-day,
and will wave forever; but in doing so
we innocently thought, hoped and be-
lieved then, and still honestly think,
hope and believe that we were erecting
around the Constitution impregnable
bulwarks, and laying for liberty deeper
and broader foundation in the graft
tude, confidence, and affections of our
people. We never dreampt that for
every rebel we killed in the South we
were to make an eternal enemy in the
North; and we do think it amounts to
a riddle beyond the comprehension of
mortal wits how it is that very many of
the brave men who fought us, and
whom we had to literally overwheIm
before we could conquer, yet now that
they are conquered are much more ready
to ask forgiveness and forget the past
and be friends, as we all ought to be
again, than are their allies, who, how
ever deep their sympathies with them
may have been while the war was rag
ing, took special pains to let the danger
pass before they gave it an airing.
God forbid that the day shall ever dawn
upon this Republic when the patriots
whose patriotism won them clutches
and wooden limbs shall have apologies
and explanations to make tor their pub
lie conduct, to patriots who boast of and
abuse the privilege Of eulogizing as
their brethren the men whose sabers
drank loyal blood and whose bullets
shot away loyal limbs. The truth is,
the great wrong that discounted Dem
ocracy feels deepest is that the people
at home neither feel nor think that there
ought to be Northern rebels enough in
this House to let the Southern rebels in.


WHAT DEMOCRATS COMPLAIN.


The next great wrong that they have
to complain Of is, that the men who had
the pluck to stand by those who in the
field had to fight our eountry's battles
presumptuously aspire to make our
laws. ] think thus far they have vim
dicated their claims to the worlds res
pect alike in the field and in the halls of
legislation. What is the basis upon
which they Fought Simply that re-
bellion was a crime, and they will tri-
umph again. The people will never re-
quire us to fight on one principle and
legislate on another. To shed our blood
on the field and then come here to make
nnnlnnina for IL To mon uhn rnniod M