Year: 1870

~ S~
from Connecticut SAID, eight hun


dred thousand men, or all but fifty
thousand Of them, but a million


men at least in the States lately in


rebellion and in the States that


did not nominally 60 into rebel


lion; when I reflect that all these


boys and young men who never


had held an Office and who had no


political opinions save those that


they had absorbed from the at


mosphere which they had breathed
all their lives, are cut off from all
aspirations for Federal preferment
and Federal Office, I say the folly
Of man cannot conceive a more
laundering and stupid scheme than
the scheme of keeping that test
oath On the statute book.


We are now, in many localities
in the South, reduced to the ne
cessity, in order to get Federal ap-
pointments filed, Of selectipgth them
from ignoramuses or rascals; and
yet the senator from Indiana tells
us that we can select where we
will-that the fifty thousand loyal
men are amply sufficient to guide
the counsels Of the nation in those
States. Now, I wish to do all
credit to the men who were loyal
to the flag in the Southern States
II wish to give them all the praise
which belongs to men who resisted
a current that my friend from In
diana never had 10 resist-I wish
to give them all the laurels that
belong to them. Far be it from
me, who saw their suferings and
their sacrifices through that terri
bic contest, to take one single leaf
from the chaplet which should
bind their 'brows. But, Mr.. Presi-
dent, they A@re few in numbers ;
US a rule they were insignificant
in political and social consequence;
and if you attempt to carry on the
business OF government in those
States by their agency and that of
the race lately enfranchised alone,
you will certainly fail,


And when any senator charges
that the political course on this
floor of another senator would be
controlled by the consideration of
the question of his reelection, it
is an aspersion upon his integrity
as a senator, and an implication
that be will violate his oath as
such. When a senator allows his
official senatorial conduct here to
be governed by such motives as
those, it is better that his place
should be filled by another man;
and let me say that l do not hold
the seat l occupy here because I
would have sought the place which
l do hold, nor would 1 have held
it or have been a candidate for it.
but for the fact that | desired to
keep out others who were even
less fit to be here than myself, and
that I could select in my State
many men at that time who, if it
had not been for these very disa-
bilities imposed by the Fourteenth
amendment, would have stood on
this floor much ADLER advocates of
the principles Of the Republican
party, much stronger men for the
State of South. Carolina, and for
the United States, than I can ever
hope to be.


But, Mr.. President, I did not
rise to speak at any length on this
bill. [ believe, as I said when I
began, that the speech Of the sena-
tor from Connecticut but rc-echoes
the sentiments Of the vast majori-
" Oh the people OF the Republlcan
party; and [ believe that the
acuteness Of the senator from In
diana has in this instance failed
him, and that he has not sufficient
ly studied the sentiment Of the
party Of which he is so djstin-
gulshed an ornament. I think
that when the people speak on
this subject, he will find that be
represents not that majority which |
might have the right to read a
minority out Of it's ranks, but that
he stands in a minority which may
rather ask to be admitted to the |
orthodox platform Of the party.