Year: 1878

The William and Mary College Bill


Throwing open the Treasury Doors 10


Southern Claimants,


In the House of Representatives Friday
while the report Of the committee on education
and labor in favor of reImbursing the college
of William and Mary for property destroyed
during the war of the Rebellion was under con.
sideratiOn in committee of the whole, in reply
to the speech of the Hon. George B. Loring of
Massachusetts in support of the committees
report. the Hon. Thomas B. Reed spoke as
follows:


Mr.. Chairman, white join as heartily as any man
upon this floor in congratulations to the eloquent
orator who has addressed for the last hour and
| while appreciate as fully as any other man the
graces with which he has surrounded this subject,
yet confess have listened to him with feeling of
sincere regret While any man who was concerned
in the great rebellion. any man who lives in the
South, surrounded and overmastered by local feel
ing, or by the similarity of the cases which he
himself has in hand to the one which is now pre-
sented to the House, may be in some measure ex-
cusabe for advocating proposition Of this nature
and character, yet am entirely satisfied that in
future not distant the eloquent gentleman from Mas
sachusetts himself will join with in regret that
he had aided and supported bill which, IL it passes,
will In its far-reaching consequences, be of moro
transcendent Importance to this government than
any bill which is before Congress at this session.
OF course this is fair-seeming claim 1t presents
Itself to our consideration with modesty of de
meanor which almost disarms resentment. 1t does
not come a claim upon hich this House is called
to adjudicate. 1t is studiously denied that any
claim is proposed to be paid. 1t does not come be-
fore with the stern and rugged aspect of demand
founded upon law and appealing to the reluctant
justice of men. That expedient tried years ago.
for this is by manner of the first time this
claim has been presented for the consideration of an
American Congress. Time after time it was before
the Committee Of Claims, and time after time it
was rejected Its friends found it necessary then to
seek some other cogne of vantage. Hence 1t comes
before us to-day disguised as a charity.


To-day it may be a charity linked to our senti-
mental souls by the hallowed memories Of Washing
ton and Of Jefferson, and of Milton and of Sir
Harry Vane. But If you pass it, to morrow it
will stare you in the face bill of rights for the
whole list of Southern war claims. 1t s always in
this way that matters are presented. Always the
rugged sense Of right is covered up. Always the
knife is placed under garlands. 1t never happened
that claim like this was not advocated by most
eloquent men. 1t never happens that claims like
this not disguised by classical illusions and by
references to history, English and ancient. must
say that it seemed to me strange when Washington,
and Jefferson and Sir Christopher Wren were brought
in to decide the question whether we should pay
s65,OOO for burned building; but when it came to
the Introduction Of Milton, and for aught know to
Luther and Locke, confess was astounded. Zap
plause and laughter.] We heard Of Sir Harry vane
and Cromwell Why, said Cromwell, "The Lord de-
liver me from Sir Harry Vane," and + say, upon
question Of this kind the Lord deliver the Congress
Of the United States from Sir Harry Vane and Crom
well too" [Laughter]


Now, Mr.. Chairman, desire to call this assembly
back to questions not of oratory but of statesman
ship. desire this American Congress to consider
this question in the light of reason not in the light
of rhetoric


I cannot promise that shall be as interesting as
the gentleman who preceded me- for that would
transcend my utmost powers; but do promise that
If you will listen to me will give you sound reasons
which Will appeal to each side OF the House, why
such claim as this should be rejected now and for
ever. The greatest barrier In this world is use and
wont. To say that thing has never yet been done
among men is to erect barrier stronger than rea-
son, stronger than discussion. Such q wall only
pluck, perseverance, and in most cases, only right





yesterday is to strengthen the thing we want to do
to-day 1t appeals to sense Of fairness, reason
and Justice We say that ii this proper yester-
day why not do it to-day and the evil of course in
creases as you 60 on,


1t is with profound knowledge Of this weakness
human nature that this matter is presented for the
consideration of the House now. 1t Is not merely to
obtain S65,0OO for William and Mary college, it is
to establish precedent. "Oh!" they say, "this is
not to establish precedent; there can be nothing
like 1t ag sin the face of the earth" OF course
not, for there was other institution that ever
graduated Washington; there was no other building
in this country that Sic Christopher Wren
ever built; there is no other institution In which
Jefferson was educated and certainly none around
which the shades of Milton and Sir Harry vane and
Cromwell cluster to this late date. But all these
matters are immaterial; they are the ornamental
fringing; they not the real solid facts of this
case.


NOW desire to ask the attention Of this House to
this question Of precedent. What is precedent? Is it
thing which Is just what we are considering? I
venture to say to this audience, composed as it is,
almost entirely of lawyers. that in all your searches
Tor precedents in your business you never found in
all thousands OF volumes of law reports case pre-
cisely like the one you were considering. But every
one OF those cases in all those reports no matter
how Insignificant it was established some principle
which had tendency to affect all cases in all future
time. Now I ask what principle this ease will es-
tablish. Let me briefly call your attention to the
facts In the first place this college was occupied by
our troops; our troops were dislodged from it and
then retook the building and according to state
ments before the committee drunken straggler be-
longing to our forces fired the building. That is all
there is of it. believe the statement that our peo-
plo doot Nxradfk L., r
can be produced showing that it was not so, but
prefer to argue the case on the facts as they are
stated by the committee, and no Others therefore
leave the question to future investigation.
uyou pass this bill what precedent do You estab
hsh upon these facts? You establish precedent
that the Government of the United States proposes
to pay for the loss and unauthorized destruction of
those objects deemed sacred by the laws OF war If
you pass this bill you establish that principle moth
ing more, nothing less.


will not undertake to say that you win establish
the principle that all the Incidental damages of the
war are to be paid for although think that is in
volved But I wish to be candid and make NV
statement no broader than the example. Now,
If you establish this principle, you estab-
lish principle that no other nation ever
had the inconceivsbe folly and imbecility to estab-
lish since the beginning of time. know that Louis


~~>>SS SA"SS 10 hoosOk VI pVuCy W please an ally
TO repair in some slight manner this college. know
that General Washington gave fifty guineas as COM
pensaton for an accident which occurred at Prince.
ton, but does any man argue the question on imsy
basis like that? Why the whole world has been
searched through and through for the like of it in
vain. The graceful learning of Massachusetts has
twined itself wihihe rugged persistence of Virginia.
in Its search for parallel but to no purpose what
soever. You may bridge together Bunker Hill and
Yorktown, Massachusetts and Virginia, and tie them
together with all the flowers OF rhetoric that ever
bloomed since the Garden OF Eden, but you cannot
change the plain, historical fact that nation on
earth imbecie and idiotc as to establish
a principle that would more nearly bankrupt its
treasury after victory than after defeat.


Now If you are going to establish a new princi-
pie Of this kind have you any peculiar reason for tq
Was the war carried on so cruelty was the destruc-
ton of property malicious to call for exceptional
action on our part? Why sir, the very man who
brings this petition here. President Ewel, declares
that no war of equal magnitude was ever conducted
with equal mildness and he is corroborated in that
statement by General Joseph e. Johnstone. whose