Year: 1879

| duced by starvation. No sooner is the


order given than the whole Democratic


party, North and South, leap into the
J trenches at the rallying cry of a self
chosen leader, who tells them that "he


who dallies is bastard, and he who


doubts is damned" Thus is the siege
| begun, and thus is it prosecuted, and


with the air of Defiance smacking a little


of Southern domination, we are told that


the issue is laid down: that the gage of


battle is delivered lift it when you


please. Is it so? Then this is my an


swer: That it is our supremest pleasure


to lift it now. Applause on the Repub-


lican side And as we are prepared to


make good the appeal, we accept the


challenge in no spirit of boastful AFRO


gance, but with uufinching purpose and


the'sublimest courage, awaiting the issue


with the utmost confidence and compo


sure 1t is not the first time that we
| have encountered a Solid South, conspir-


ing against the life of the Nation and
| Undressing the Democratic side of the


House) although your force may be


somewhat augmented by your Northern
allies, yet | see nothing in the increased


array to cause a heart to faint or a cheek
to blanch. AS you failed then you will


now. AS you could not kill, you shall
| =
though you should withhold all supplies
for the support of the Government, pos


sibly it might not yet be surrendered?
Did it ever occur to you that, although
you should protract the siege until this
Congress shall have died by virtue of its


limitation. there will possibly be no sur


render2 Withhold support from the Ex-
ecutive, and are you quite sure that there
will be no remedy? Refuse to feed the
army are you entirely certain that


there will be no food for it? Deny to
your navy to keep it afoat; are you GER


tain you will force it to anchor? With


hold support from the judiciary; is it
clear that you will have no Courts? Re-


fuse needed supplies for maintaining the
Legislative branch of the Government;


are you confident that there will be no
Congress2 Why, gentlemen, you are as


impotent to overthrow this Government
by starvation as you were to annihilate
it by the sword. You may distress, but
you cannot destroy. Vehement ap-
plause on the Republican side For let
me tell you that when that time comes
there will come loyal people from
the same loyal States who took their
lives in their hands and went forth to do
battle for the defense of the Republic,
enduring the weary march, protracted
siege, the smoking hell of battle and
more horrible hell of Southern prison
pens. Taking it from the dark waves of
rebellion, they bore on broken arms and
lacerated breasts the bleeding form of
the Republic and planted her feet on the
steady rock of constitutional Govern.
ment and civil liberty, who, animated by
the same patriotism, when you attempt
to starve the Republic, will fly to her
side at the first cry of her distress, and
there will stand in ceaseless vigil, not
with a sword, but with sustenance; not
with implements of war, but with un-
measured wealth; not with shotted can
non, but with unlocked Golfers; not with
bandages, but with plenty; and bending
over her PROSTATE form they will succor
and sustain Ler, ministering to her ne
cessitIes until in the fullness of time
they can wrench from her throat the
cowardly hand that clutched it, and then
thrilling with new life she will spring to
her feet and the very altar which you
had builded for her immolation shall be
come throne on which she shall stand
clothed in the majesty Of her power, the
receptred and recrowned Goodies of Lib
erty. Enthusiastic applause.


Mr.. Gibson, replying to quotations
made by Mr. Burroughs from Senator
Tellers report, stated that the citizens
of Louisiana had been arrested and
charged with offenses, as stated in that
report; that they had been conveyed 400
or 500 miles from their homes to the city
Of New Orleans, to learn that they had
been tried before iurles to whom the test
oath had been applied, and before judges
who were in sympathy with the RepublI
can party, and they had been fully and
hoDarably acquitted


Mr.. Burroughs-Who were acquitted?


Mr. Gibson-These citizens


Mr.. Burroughs-That is an old trick
down there. Laughter


Mr. Gibson-If it was a trick, it was a
trick played by men who could take the
iron clad oath as jurors; a trick played
by the very men whom the gentlemen
would now invoke to the elections in
that State-Deputy Marshals. Supervis-
ors, Judges and jurors, who could take
the iron clad oath that they had never
had any sympathy even with the South
ern people in the late war. l should
like to know why it is that the gentle
man should speak here so disrespectfully
of the Judiciary of the United States
Has the Judiciary come so low as to no
longer be entitled to the respect OF this
body? Although the gentleman has
male defamation against this side of
the house, and called US conspirators,
had hoped that decent respect for his
own party, if not for the amenities of the
House and Constitution of the country


derisive laughter on the Republican
side would have kept him from assault
ing a jury and calling Judges tricksters.


Mr.. Burroughs--There is certainly no
occasion for the warmth exhibited by the
gentleman, because l only quoted from
the report of the Senate Committee show
ing that intimidation and murder were
practiced in Louisiana during the last
election. l made no accusation against
him nor any officer of the Courts. If the
gentlemen on the other side of the House
are earnest in desiring a fair election,
why did they not say something in re-
gard to the last election in Louisiana,
when it was a notorious fact that in the
Parish of Caddo, extending thirty-fve
or forty miles, the ballot box was placed
at the northern extremity of that parish,
and voters were compelled to make
journey of twenty miles and back again
in order to reach the ballot-b box? 1t is
notorious fact that three hundred black
men made the march and deposited their
ballots and it also is a notorious fact
that an armed body of ruffians seized that
ballot box, after the ballots had been de-
posted in it, broke it to pieces, and de-
stroyed the ballots 1t is also admitted,
and can not be denied, that in another
parish, Natchitoches, where there was
large Republican majority, there was not
one solitary Republican vote cast; and
why? because the leaders OF the Repub-
lican party were driven from that par
ish.


Mr.. Spurgeon, in walking little way