Year: 1866

Z SNEIGuQEE6E INTO Al6 Ha0OS OF NlOSG VINO
have just been defeated in a war waged to
destroy 1t. If we are not startled at con-
templatlBg such a question as this, it is
not because this is not the exact issue we
shall decide In our next election, but be-
/ cause IN the last few years the American
mind has become Injured to the cOutem-
platiOn Of the most appalling dangers
No longer at the North or South do the
leaders or the journals of the Northern
or Southern Democrats " disguise their
set purpose-by revolution and war, if
that shall be necessary-tO force back in
to the next Congress, the very men who
IN the Ihlrty-siXth Congress perfected
the plans for their traitOrous war. and
who from thence sent out its eigUals 10
begin the devastation and murder And
the same men and organs which for the
last eight months have pressed the Pres
ident to dissolve by the sword the present
Congress, demand that its successor shall
never be permitted to make laws unless
it shall include In its body the represent
atives of States and constituencies which
L shall show you are as intensely rebel
as they we're during the darkest hours of
the rebellion and which represen tatives,
aided by their Northern allies, they thus
expect to make a controlling proportion
of che next Congress. They base their
ubHAduu tAlaL Lllb p4CeEut OuuBi6eS sudli
be dissolved by the sword, and that its
successor shall not be permitted to ma ke
laws unless organized as they demand,
upon the fact that it is incapable of max
ing laws. They allege that however in
tense and universal the treason of any
State and constituency may be, still it has
a right to elect the rulers of the nation.
and that to exclude from Congress those
whom the organized rebellion elect, de-
stroys the constitutional power Of Con-
gress to make any laws.


Let US look for a moment at this new
arrogance of rebellion. I will not insult
your intelligence by arguing much about
lt. l shall not try to demonstrate aXi-
oms by showing that if an overwhelming
dislOyal people whom rebellion had de-
prlved of all civil government, and which
had no legislation except one sworn to
support the rebellion, could not elect
Senators or a President of the United
States owing to the war, neither can they
now if equally disloyal and disorganized
What [ want to do is to ask attention to
the audaeity of the claim that the loyal
constituencies of a country have no power
to govern it. l want to ask what that
people is whom we are told BY these reb-
els are incapacitated by reason of their
treason from electIng any President or
Congress? 1t is the Congress Of that en-
tire people who elected that man Vice
President who declares now that they
could not elect a Congress. 1t is the
Congress of that entire people who have
pledged the nations faith for the debt
whose proceeds saved the nation Tt is
the same Congress and people which have
given those who came back from the war
hmbless and Scared, and to the widows
and children Of those who came not back
again, all which the nation hath to pledge
to these-its honor, gratitude and sup
port. II is the Congress of that entire
people who gave to the Republic for his
second Inauguration A Abraham Lincoln,
for whose fame the good of earth met to
weave the chaplet, and whose ashes are
treasured aud guarded by the affections
of all christeudOm. It Is the Congress of
that entire people who sustained by a
hFmness and patriotism beyond the eX-
amples of history, the burdens of the war,
amounting In one year, in taxes alone, to
near five hundred millions of dollars. 1t
Is the Congress of that entire people who
have just delivered the Republic from a
rebellion the most stupendOus and goddess
in history. 1t Is the Congress of that
people which changed the Constitution
by proposing amendments from being
slave to free, and which presented the
new nation-thus transformed-tO God
and civilization. more beautiful than a
bride adorned for her husband. 1t IS
that same people who sent to the armies
of the Union three millions of men. 1t
Is the Congress Of that people who
have, asleep, now, in soldiers graves, near
Eve hundred thousand of her children.


1t is this people and this Congress whom
these leaders, organs and instruments OF
a buffeted and infuriate rebellion are to-
H1v hot p 4l,nM 4 Of hn


demanding shall be dissolved by the Pres
ident in blood or if he will not dissolve
it thus, then that he shall inject by mill
tary force into its successor, now to be
elected, such a number of the represent
atives of traitor constituencies as shall
have a controlling power In the Govern
mont.


Such, gentlemen, is a merest glance at
one of the pOrtents of the immediate fu-
ture Whether these dangers can be
averted at all, and if so, how, are ques-
tions of as much grand importance to US
as the lives of our children, the duration
of government and the maintenance of lib
erty among men are. values higher than
individual life. And, fellow citizens, these
dangers can be averted alone by an over
Whelming, universal and irresistible voice
of the American people pronounced in
electingthem.


I have said that the issue we are about
to try is, whether this Government has,
under the Constitution, any control over
the reorganization of loyal and republi-
can governments in the late rebel States,
and to demand from them any evidences
of loyalty and guarantees against another
rebellion before they shall resume con-
trolling power In the Government of the
Republic. For Congress to assert the
right to demand such evidence and guar
antees Is denounced by the President and
his new admirers as rebellion at the
other end Of the line"


Will you permit me to make as con-
| deused a statement as L can of what IS the
true position of the Union party, and the
true theory of the Constitution upon this
/ vital question. That party maintains that
whilst the Constitution did not cOntem-
I plate, permit or provide for the possibil
| ity of any State or Of any of Its people
going out from the Union, it did fOresee
and provide for the calamity of a State


ceasing to have republican government
/ and against that calamity it provided by
requiring that the United States shall
guarantee to each State a republican
| form Of government" /" It is maintained


by that party that the rebellion did in fact


deprive the rebel States Of all civil
/ government, so that they had none under


or loyal to our Constitution, and that


thereby thevery contingency arose which


was foreseen and provided for by the
| Constitution, when it became the right


aud duty of the United States, not Of the


President alone, to guarantee to these


States, not Territories, republican gov


ernment. These precise propositions were
explicitly declared by Congress upon the
10Th day of February, A. d. 1866, by the


decisive vote of 119 to rs. The irresisti-


Bic truth of these propositions secures