Year: 1866

though they had forfeited their rights,
civil and political, all those rights came
back to them, and that they were as
fully restored, as July entitled to the
rights and privileges of American cit
liens in a representative as we'll as in
any other capacity, as any other peo-
pie in this land.


Now, my cOuntrymen, that seems TO
me to be a very strange doctrine. Let
us see where it would carry us if the
Rebels, the moment they laid down
their arms, had all their rights restor.
cd to them. If the mere fact of LAYING
down their arms would restore them
al! their rights, then | would ask you
what is there in treason? Suppose we
to-day just conclude here, while we are
assembled to celebrate the Fourth of
July, that we will array ourselves
against the State Government of ILL
nols. We go to work and commit
treason against it, We peril our lives
and our fortunes by our acts. Well,
we look abroad and see we are about
to be whipped. We cannot stand it
any longer; so we throw down our
guns, and send word to the Govern.
mcnt " We stole these old muskets,
they did not cost US anything you can
take them back we will be candidates,
and take part in politics and the affairs
of the State, just as we ever did"


What is the result? 1t. puts the
traitor III better position than the
loyal man. If be goes and makes him
self new constitution and new gov
ernment, and then loses, he loses moth
ing on top Of Gods earth Now that
is strange game to play at. That's
heads | win, tails you lose. TLaugh-
ter. The traitor loses nothing, the
loyal man loses all. His Government
loses all. 1t loses by the destruction
of property it loses by the destruction
of life; it loses the effect of the law of
the land; it loses the moral effect that
the enforcement OF the law has upon
the people. All these the Government
loses, but the traitor loses nothing.


| wish our triends-I Il will call them
friends because we call all our friends
unless we know they are our enemies,
or you may call them what you please,
the people who opposed the war are
now opposing the Union organization
in this land)-would tell me this: Why
is it that they are so anxious to have
these people represented in Congress
now as soon as they lay down their
arms, when these people declined for
four years themselves to be represent
ed? What is their anxiety? What
causes it? | cannot see why this peo-
pie on the Congress side Of the United
States should be in any hurry to re-
quire them to be represented. They
declined to be represented for four
years, but the very moment they laid
down their arms, they say, why, we
want members in Congress; we want
a apart Of the foreign missions we want
the officers Of the law to be distributed
among us; we want our rights. They
talk about rights! Laughter.1 We'll,
so might a horse thief at the very time
he is being tried get up before the
judge, after the proof had been given,
showing that he had stolen the horse,
and say, Judge, l want my rights p
The judge would say, My dear friend,
you will get them in few minutes. |
think that the jury will send you to
the Penitentiary for twenty years -
[Laughter.l


Oh, they want their rights, rights
that they forfeited, rights that they
are not entitled to; rights that they
denied to themselves by their own act
of treason. They tried to destroy the
Government, and denied it's authority
by their acts, and thus lost all the
rights that they had in this land And
now, instead of marching up with a
pardon in one pocket and certificate
of election in the other, demanding
what they call their rights, what ought
they to do? They ought to be on their
knees, imploring this great and glori
Gus Government to be magnanimous
and offer them that clemency which
our gallant, honest and faithful Presi,
dent, Abraham Lincoln, offered to
them SO often, and which they so often
refused.


/ L am willing that the people shall
/ have their property, or the little they
have got left, though think they have
/ good deal more than they ought to
have unless they behave better than
they seem to. But [ care nothing
about that. If the people are willing
! l have no objection. do not want tC
be their executioner; but do want tc
do few things as one of the American
people, as one of the loyal citizens ol
this land, as man who has as much
right as anybody else, and no more, tc
claim the exercise of certain right anC
privileges in this country that loya
men are entitled to. l want to be-
recognized in this land as a soldier O.
the Republic of the United States, anC
not disgraced man. want to bt