Year: 1866

southern people tuat We claim the right
to compel their surrender. We did it
in the name of the Constitution, and
standing under the shadow of the ma
jesty of the law. They surrendered to
the law.





Mr.. President, l do not believe, can
not believe, l will not believe now. stand
ing over the graves of two or three hun
dred thousand American citizens, fallen
in the strife OF the L nion, that there can
be no Union. What conceivable interest
has anv man TO disseminate this doctrine
among our people? Why is it that men
go about from day to day trumpeting the
unfitness of the Southern people for
Union, and yet calling themselves Union
men? Who has made the people of the
North believe that this breach has been so
widened, that this gulf is so impossible
that we can never be friends again with
our Southern brothers?


Who is it that does it? Are they Union
men? | ask In the case of a quarrel
between two men, what kind of union
friend would he be who would go from
the one to the other and say, He hates
you, he hates YOU in the very innermost
recesses of his heart and then go to
tue oiueT ana say, ne WOult staD you
behind If he had chance" Would that
be to make union, reconciliation, between
these partiess And who does this thing?
1t is not the President who does it. 1t
is not Mr.. Seward who does it. 1t is not
the Army who does it. 1t is not the
Navy who does it. Who does do it? l
will tell on, Mr. President, it is a fac
tion in power here, tasting the sweets of
fhnvr
tell YOU that these people are unfit to
come in; and why? Because, come in as
they may. there can be no reconciliation
with them. That is disunion again.


What was said the other day in the
House which sits at the other end of this
Capitol? without some measure like
a reconstruction measure, when we come
back again these halls will be filed with
yelling rebels and hissiag Copperheads."
What then is to be done? Usurp, grasp
power yourselves, remodel the Constitu
ton, remodel the laws, so that the few,
not the many, can hold on to power
We may just as well come to it first as
last; that is exactly what it means. Are
YOU afraid the Democrats will get the
power: If YOU are, that is disunion. A
man is afraid of the other party comm g
in, and who believes that that other party
will destroy the Government. is dis
union man, because he believes that
which is fatal to the very Foundation of
the fabric. / do not believe it, and
never did believe it.


We have no terms to offer We ought
to have no proposals to make, except
this: Obey the Constitution and the
laws That we can compel them to do
but you cannot compel them to adopt
new propositions and give new guaran-
tees; and ] should say that we have no
right to do it, unless this Government is
to be entirely changed in its nature, in
the nature of its machinery, and in the
rights which are to be conferred upon it;
and il it is. in God's S name, why not
let us know it? If there is to be no such
thing as State rights, if there is to be a
consolidated Government, an actual de
fdcto Government, administering the laws
and justice among the people as the
State governm ents now administer them,
why not bring in that proposition and
let US see it, let US meet itr If, however,
it is to be such government as the one
we have been proud of so long, let us
preserve it; and instead OF trying to
patch it and mend it, and change it, and
pervert it, for a mere temporary pOliti
cal purpose, let US all stand by it proud
" AMI strongly, and hand it down to our
children with the same Injunction with
which we received it from our fathers,
and then we shall have fulfilled our du
ties. and we shall have performed the
functions of American citizens.