Year: 1866

ere :he opportunity Of tyrants and


mad, inipracticable innovators. He


who wishes TO mount to imperial pow.


er on the ruins of civil liberty, or by q


change in the form Of the Government


to carry out schemes Of private hate


or Utopian. speculation, would en-


brace the month of April, 1865, in


American history, as the point from


which to deal destruction. But start


ing from that point, wat direction


did the President pursue9 There are


many mat ers Of minor detail for


which subordinate officials are mainly


responsible. which / might wish wide


ly different but / am now dealing


with the main question of restoration.


Upon his first utterance he gave notice
of the dootr ne, then as now, thatthe
American Union had never been bro


ken, and that its States had never
ceased to exist. This gave assurance


to the country at once that he was a
conservative and not destructive,
n restcrer of an ancient order OF
things and not destroyer in the name
of progress and reform. How can |
fail to support him in this position,
when my own language, March 9,


1864 in the midst of the sound OF
arms, was as follows? i quote from
speech delivered by me in this House:


''The great leader of the admins
tration on this floor, the gentleman
from Pennsylvania Mr.. Stevens, has
deliberately here announced, after oil
our sacrifices, sorrows and loss, that
the Union Of our fathers is dead, aud
and that he who attempts its resur-
rectlon is n criminal instead of pat
riot. He goes further and admits all
the seeded states have ever claimed


their nationality. They have sought
in vain in all the four quarters of the
earth for recognition. They find it at
last at the hands of those who speak
for the administration on this floor.


"Sir, ! deny this doctrine. l plant
myself on the Constitution, which rec
ognizes an unbroken Union. i shall
stand there in every vicissitude of for
tune, and if | fall it will be when the
people themselves abandon their own
Constitution. BY the principles of
this mighty instrument, expect finally
a restoration of the Union of the
States. Every hour which the party
in power prolongs its control of affairs
postpones the auspicious day but as
L behold the future il will assuredly
come. Material and indestructible in
tercsts unite every section except that
which prospers on fanatlcism. And |
here to-day, in the spirit Of one Who
expects and desires his posterity and
theirs to live together in the ancient
and honorable friendship of their faith
ers, warn the Southern people not to
look forward to separation and indie
pendence, but to embrace every oppor-
tunity for corporation with the con-
servative men of the North, who will
aid. with their lives, if need be, to se-
cure them all their rights and institu-
tons as free and equal citizens Of tho
United States"


This doctrine is the chief corner
stone of the message, and has invited
the attack of theoretical reform, but
practical disunon. Shall | stop at
this day and hour of American his
tory to to discuss the right or power
of State to secede ? / never enter
tanned such principle, nor did even
many of the principal leaIers Of the
late attempt to establish the confed-
eracy Of the South They asserted
the right of revolution, and used the
organization of State governments i'll
aid of that movement. But who now
requires an argument on this point :?
DO we not all understand and know
that this theory of dead States is now
proclaimed simply because its adop-
tion would give better scope TO ulteri-
or designs of vengeance and revolu-
tionary destruction !?


1t is true that the gentleman from
Pennsylvania Mr.. Stevens has been
consistent in his devotion 10 it when
he stood almost if not quite alone but
that simply proves that he could fore
see a. greater distance than his fell
low laborers the means which would
be required to accomplish their party
ends when the war ceased. He knows
that dead carcasses,' in his own
striking language, are more easily
carved to pieces, torn limb from limb,
and devoured by the hungry nav of
conhscation than living States. The
dead can make no protest when the
mutilating knife is applied. Certain
beasts of prey, we are told, prefer to
find their quarry already slain, in or
der to feast upon it in comfort and re-.
pose. And so the radical party of the
country would find it easier far to
make its unnatural banquet on the
rights, privileges, laws, liberties and
property of the South by declaring at
once that there is no living political
community in all the wide region to
exclaim against the epormity. Its
reasoning on this point is that it is
easier and safer to rob corpse than
is to pick the pockets of the living
This is the highwayman's doctrine of
convenience, introduced here now as
a party platform. 1t is more and
worse. 1t is an assertion that the
American Union itself is dead. While
it claims that the Southern States have
destroyed themselves, yet it admits
that like blind Sampson of old, in
their dying agonies .siezed hold
of the pillars and tore the temple in
ruins to its very foundations, and that
they, in their desolation to-day, are
only a portion of the general wreck.
1t is notice to the world that the war
TO restore the Union was an utter fail
ure--that the war is over and yet the
Union is rent in twain. We have in
Cured debt which would absorb for
its payment now one-fourth Of all the
A. n =