Year: 1871

the South, and take it honestly p


Ever body says that ninety nine ont o


every hundred of the white people cal


not take it there, and say that nine
ty- nine out of every hundred of tht
! black people, can not take it there


honestly. Why, sir, this world never
Saw such devotion Of slaves to 'theil


masters as characterized the black
/ people of the late war. In nrtAe.greaI


civil wars In italy, one of thesgreatest


breads, one Of the greatest tqrrors


that the Government had, was thai
the slaves would rise candf the. SLAVES


did rise but theresMas no insurEestioa


of the blacks 'ip this country in the
] late civil war. On the contrary, they
stayed on tfie plantations they worked
Under the control Of woman where


there were no men to control them


they furnished food for the the insur.


gent armies; they supported their


masters who were in the field, and the


families of their masters who were left


at home and in all. history there is


no instance of such devotion as they


had for those with whom they lived
and whom they had been. accustomed
| to obey. 70


Sir, there is not one out of hun


dred of them who could honestly take
that oath and sit in a jury box. And


that law now is to be preserved. That


law which has no parallel, that law


which has no precedent, that law
which shocks human reason, that law


which only serves as an irritant, that


law which is in plain contradiction to


to the spirit, if not not the letter., OF
your Fourteenth Amendment, that


law which iswholly inconsistent with


what our Republican friends SO often
herald as the great, liberal progressive,


and free spirit of their party, that law


this Conference Committee insists
shall remain in force. 7r-


Mr.. President, In6ver can vote for


any bill that .perpetuates that law


The House of Representatives cover


ed. itself with honor, it covered itself


with glory, when it proposed to repeal


that law in the bill which it sent to US,


and all honor is due to that House for


that repeating clause. Here we will


not either accept the action of the


House nor will-Ne wholly dissent from
it; but we have sort of middle
ground which takes away the first. sec


ton of the act, but leaves the irrita-


ting and provoking second section,


more detrimental to justice, more vio-


lative of reason, more provocative of
discomfort than even the first section.
For that reason, sir, if for no other,
1 never could have S 'ignedthis report,
and never can vote for bill that thus
leaves that section in full force. No,
Senators! You had before you a
glorious opportunity. Outrages have
been committed at the South, magni-
fed a hundred fold, it is true; but still
outrages that nc. man can justify
Every member of the Senate wanted
to see them suppressed; every mem
Der of the Senate wanted to see them
put down; every member of the Sen
ate was willing to exercise all the con.
powers of this Government,
as he believed them to exist, in order
to put them down. You had the op-
portunity when you passed law for
that purpose to couple with it the re-
peal of this jury act and you had it
also in your power to pass that gener-
al amnesty act which almost every
Southern Senator on this floor has i'm
plored you to pass, and which almost
every one Of Them has told you would
do more to put am end to these outra
ges than all the penal laws that ever
Draco penned. or that ever Dionysius
of Sy4acus executed. But you have
spurned every thing like Cancellation.
You utter not one word of concilia-
lion toward the South. The amnesty
dill is rejected; the jury test-oath is
retained. You still go upon the theo-
y that-was practiced by England for
'ix hundred years toward Ireland
hat was practiced by Austria for three
toward Hungary. You still
20 upon the idea that there is no virtue
except in force; that there is no balm
n kindness and conciliation.


Mr. President, every day that 1
lave lived since this measure was in
reduced in the Senate, every word
hat I have heard in the debate, has
me more and more of the
ruth Of what 1 said to the Senate
vhen Iifirst spoke upon the subject.
The whole substance of the bill is in
he third, and fourth sections. The
Thole substance ofesthis- bill is that
which makes tho President Of the
United States the absolute dictator
Yer the people of America. The
,hole substance Of this bill is in the
ections which enable him to declare
var against the people of the United
states, to suspend the writ of habpas
orpHs, and to institute martial law,
here civil law under the Constitution
ught to prevail. Conceal 1T as you
aay, all these contrivanecs for judicial
emedy and judicial redress, are mere
leather and prQnel! ia, This bill de- s
Lares that the laws have. ceased and .
lust be silent, and that arms have ,
aken their place. 1 do not know how 8
le President of the United States
ill execute these mighty powers that. ,
re vested in him. l pray God that i
,r his own reputation, as well as for G
le sake of my country, he may exer. I
se them with discretion. / would t
islike, political opponent as L am, '
lat that. great name which be has s
in the history Of his country, o
1d which must go down to posterity \
; long as time shall last, should be a
under the provisions OF b
lis bill which you are now about to V
lss, and that the exercise of the
,wefs that you thrust upon him :,
lonld be the grave of his reputation. u
cd forbid that it should be so; but Il
repeat that on no man who ever1 q
,ew, the breath of life would confer a