Year: 1866

leprous and every word hlled Will
contagion and death. Indeed, prior
to the meeting of Congress- as the
policy of the President was developed
in his treatment of the Southern States,
we beheld the Indications of an orgnn-
lied conspiracy to assail him with the
masked face OF friendship, but with
the treacherous sword of Joab. The
insidious kiss that betrays is neither
new nor respectable in strategic war
fare; and men and parties have often
heretofore made kindly salutation,
"How is it with thee, my brother p
when their poniard's point was seek
ing vital spot under the fifth rib.


We heard during all the summer
and fall the nnurmurs aud mutterings
of an angry dissent, as each new de-
velopment Of the Presidents plan n
restore the Government on its ancient
foundations, as nearly as now possible,
came before the country And when
my friend aud colleague, the Speaker
of this body, for whom I entertain
none but feelings of personal kindness,
came to this city as the acknowledged
heir apparent to the position which
he now fills SO well, what was his Ian
guage to the public? Did he give the
weight of his voice to the Administra-
tion? His words were carefully stud
led, and yet it would be hard to dis
cover from that famous serenade speech
that the Executive had done any thing
at all toward the pacificatiou of the
country. He laid down policy for
Congress, but as nearly as possible
ignored the policy and even the exis-
tence of the President. His position
was the sign and the forerunner of the
celebrated select committee, created
by the magic wand of the conscience
keeper OF the majority, the able and
veteran leader from Pennsylvania Mr..
Stevens that potent wand which has
evoked from the vastly deep of political
agitation more spirits Of evil and ma
lignant mischief than generations, l
fear, will he able to exercise and put
down. BY this movement the whole
question Of restoration, with entire
forgetfulness of the labors and achieve
ments of the Executive, was placed in
commission, and intrusted to the keep
ing of board of political trade at
whose head stands one who asserts
that the Union was destroyed by the
war, and that it remains so to this
day. BY this movement we are called
upon to transport ourselves back TO the
chaotic days of last April, and to take
no note of time or events since then.
We are asked to ravel TO pieces all
that the President has done, and to
commence the knitting process of re-
union for ourselves. The healing
principles of the Constitution are, in
my judgment, rapidly doing the need
ed work of restoration, and yet we
are at this stage of the process asked
to break again the once fractured
limbs, to tear agape the half closed
wounds, and TO cause the whole land
to bleed afresh. Sir, / shall stand 10y
the physician who is working the cure,
as against that blind and fatal empiri-
cism which first pronounces the pa.
tient dead and then commences giving
medicine.


Let us indulge ourselver in n retro
spect Let us lift ourselves to posi-.
ton which history will occupy some
years hence, and then ask and an
'swer the question which s involved in
the issue now made against the Pres
ident because of his conduct and his
policy. am in no sense his partisan.
/ did not support him for the office
which led to his present position,
dreaded the use he would make of
power when he attained it. l feared
the operations Of character which /
had heard represented as strongly te-
nacious Of sense of personal injury,
which l knew he had suffered. But
since the day on which he took the
oath of Office / have beheId the pub
lie magistrate, not the private man -
And who ever, in the tide Of time, be-
came the head of great nation under
circumstances more appalling TO the
stoutest heart and the most command
ing intellect than those which surround
him? A war whose tremendous blows
had shaken both hemispheres, had
Just closed, and night and chaos how
cred over the face of the deep. Bat
ties between brethren had been fought
which dwarf and belittle the warlike
exploits of all ages, and which star
tied the invisible world by the fight
of disembodied spirits. The people
and the States of the whole country,
weary, blood stained, and almost blind
from the fury of the conflict, had
paused upon an agreement to fight no
more. But in that disastrous contest
what ancient principles of the gov
ernment had escaped PROCLAMATION p
Who had stopped TO count how much
the object cost for which the wager of
battle was joined ? Laws, liberties
and constitutions had asserted them
selves in vain. And / confess that as
l saw the fierce lighting which civil
war engenders strike and shiver again
and again the household gods of fire.
side liberty, and American worship, i
had my hours of absolute despair
not despair over the unity of our ter
ritorial boundaries, but that when
those boundaries should be restored
they would embrace nothing but the
dead, cherries and cold ashes of the
former fires of freedom. l shrank
from the contemplation of ruined
republic and q triumphant despot-.
ism with more unfeigncd horror
than / ever shrank from the contem-
platioh of death and the grave. And
when the sound of the last cannon
died away, on the sorrowful and
stricken fields Of Virginia and the
Carolinas, he who, at the head of af-
fairs, would breathe into the expiring
form of legal liberty the breath of life,