Year: 1866

/


free and use and protect them and, in


deed, if force overthrows the local laws
J on which slavery rests they are free of
course. The same rules of was are Fe-
, quired in such a war as In any other, the
, same way of fighting, the same treatment
of prisoners. of combatants, of non-com-
batants, and of private property by the


Army where it passes. So also natural


Justice demands the same Yeracity and
faithfulness which are binding in the in


tercourse of all moral beings.


Nations thus treating rebels by no


means concede thereby that they form a


State, or that they are de facto SUCH


There is a difference between belligerents


and belligerent States which has been too


much overlooked.


when a war ends to the disadvantage


of the insurgents, municipal law may


clinch the nail which war has driven, may


hang, after legal process, instead of shoot
ing, and confscate the whole instead of


plundering part. But wise and civil


lied nation will exercise only so much of
this legal vengeance as the interests of
lasting peace imperiously demand"


These capacious powers are in our


hands. How shall we use them? l agree
|
! DeEing) that we need not apply the


strictiSSimu,n Jus to these conquered people.
We should do nothing inconsistent with
the spirit and genius of our institutions.


We should do nothing for revenge, but


everything for security; nothing for the


past, everything for the present and the


future. Indemnity for the past we can


never obtain. The four hundred thou
| oh sla fokb


and brothers, murdered by rebellion, will


keep their sacred trust till the angel of


the resurrection bids the dead come


forth. The tears, the sorrow, the unut-
| terable anguish of broken hearts can new


er be atoned for. We turn from that sad


but glorious past, and demand such Sc


curities for the future as can never be de-


stroyed.


And first, We must recognize in all our


action the stupenduous facts of the war.


In the very crisis of our fate God brought


US face to face with the alarming truth.


that we must lose our own freedom or


grant it to the slave. In the extremity


of our distress we called upon the black


man to help US save the Republic, and


amid the very thunder of battle we made


covenant with him, sealed both with


his blood and ours, and witnessed by Je-


hoVah, that when the nation was redeem


ed, he should be free and share with US


the glories and blessings of freedom. In


the solemn words of the proclamation of
emancipation, we not only declared the


slave forever free, but we pledged the
faith of the nation "to maintain their
freedom"-mark the words, to maintain
their freedom" The Omniscient witness
will appear in judgemnt against US if we
do not fulfill that covenant. Have we


done it? Have we given freedom to the


black man? What is freedom? Is it a
mere negation; the bare privilege of not


being chained, bought and sold, branded
and scourged? If this be all, then free
dom is bitter mockery, a cruel delusion,
and it may well be questioned whether
slavery were not better.


But liberty is no negstion- 1t is sub
stantive, tangible reality. 1t is the real
ization of those imperishable truths of
the Declaration "that all men are created
equal" that the sanction of all just gov
ernments is "tbe consent of the govern
ed" Can these truths be realized until
each man has right to be heard on all
matters relating to himself.


Mr.. Speaker, we did more than merely
to break off the chains of the slaves
The abolition of slavery added four mil |
lions citizens to the Republic. By the
decision of the Supreme Court, by the |
decision cf the Attorney General, by the
decision of the departments of our Gov
ernment, those men made free are, by |
the act of freedom made citizens. As
another has said, there must be flour
millions disfranchised, disarmed, un-
taught, landless, thriftless, non-produc-
ing, non-consuming, degraded men, or
four millions land-holding, industrious,
arms-bearing, and voting population.-
Choose between the two "'


If they are to be disfranchised, if they
are to have no voice IN determining
the conditions under which they are to
live and labor, what, hope have they for
the futurei 1t will rest with their late
masters, whose treason they aided to
thwart, to determine whether negroes
shall be permitted to hold property, to
enjoy the benefits of education, to en-
force contracts, to have access to the
Courts of justice-in short, to enjoy any
of those rights which give vitality and
value to freedom. Who can fail to foresee
the ruin and misery that awaits this race
to whom the vision of freedom has been
presented only to be withdrawn, leaving
them without even the aid which the
masters selfish commercial interest in
their life and service formerly afforded
them? Will these negroes, remember
ing the battle-felds on which nearly two
thousand of their number have
SO braVely fought, and many thousands
have heroically died, submit to oppress-
ion as tamely and peaceably as in the
days of slavery? Under such conditions
there could be no peace, no security, no
prosperity. The spirit of slavery is still Y
among rs; it must be utterly destroyed
before we shall be safe. i


The Pilgrim fathers proceeded on the Z
doctrine that every man was supposed {
to know best what is wanted, and had
the right to a voice in the disposition of
himself Is this Congress brave enough {
and virtuous enough to apply that prin-
ciple to every citizen, whqtever be the I
color of his skin The spirit of our Gov {
srnment demands that there shall be no
rigid, horizontal strata running across
our political society through which some
classes of citizens may never pass up to 7
the surface; but it shall be rather like
the ocean where every drop can seek the
surface and glisten in the sun. Until we I
ire true enough and braYe enough TO de- o
,lare that in this country the humblest, t
he lowest, the meanest of our citizens shall b
lot be prevented from passing to the +
highest place he is worthy to attain, we G
hal never realize freedom in all its glo- d
'ious meanings. / do not expect we can U
ealize the result Immediately. 1t may 70
,e impossible to realize it very sooD; but a
ct US keep our eyes fixed in that direc- #
ion, and march toward the goal. Ii


There is a second great fact which we d
must recognize, namely: that the seven n
million white men, lately in rebellion, e,
low stand waiting to hsve their case adj o.
have it determined what their rc
t1tus shall be in this Government. Shall to
hey be held under military power; shall
hey be governed by deputies appointed d
" the Executive; or shall they again re- it
ume the functions of self-government in p,
he Union-are some of the questions b.
rowing ont of this second fact bt