Evansville Journal, Volume 18, Evansville, Vanderburgh County, 30 January 1868 — Page 2

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r. :.7i I 1 THE Uv IP BVILLE DAILY!

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of the United Stales. whiau ciccluie that . , - .-, r-The('cnf t"sV.fi!l have pbwertomake all laws wl.i.h s'ha'l be neces aryandproii"er fo: carry ing nilo execution the foreiro lne powers, im l all other powers ves:ed by thi Con-iiuaion in. the Government of the United s-tates or any department or officer thereof." ' Hers is a declaration of what would otherwise Le a gener.il principle anyhow, that Congress 6hall have the 'power to pass all laws necessary to carry into execution all powers that are vested in the Government under the Constitution. As Congress has the! power to guarantee or maintain a. loyal Republican Government in each State, it has the right to use .whatever means may be necessary for that purpose. A6 I before remarked, the character of the means will depend upon the character of the case. In one case, it may be the use of an army; in another case, perhaps it may bo simply present jng a question to the courts, and having it tested in that way; in another case it may go to the very foundation of the Government itself. And I now propound this proposition : that if Congress, after deliberation, alter long and bloody experience, 6hall come to the conclusion that loyal republican State governments cannot be erected and maintained in the rebel States upon the basis of the white population, it has .a right to raise up and make voters of a class of men who had no right to vote under the State laws. This is simply the use of the necessary means in the execution of the guarantee. If we have found after repeated trials that loyal republican State govern men ts, governments that shall answer the purpose that such governments are iutended to answer, cannot be successfully founded upon the basis of the white population, because the great majority of that population are disloyal, then Congresshas a right to raise up a new loyal voting population for the purpose of establishing these governments in the execution of the guarantee. I think. Sir, this proposition is so clear that it is not necessary to elaborate it. We are not required to find in the Constitution a particular grant of power for this purpose, but we find a general grant of power, and we find also another - grant of power authorizing us to use whatever means may be necessary to execute the first ;.na we find that the Supreme Court of the United States has said that the judgment of Congress upon this question shall be con- ' elusive, that it cannot be reviewed by the Courts, that it is a purely political matter; and, therefore, the determination of Congress, that raising up colored men to the right of suffrage is a means necessary to the execution of that power, is a determination which cannot be reviewed by the Courts, and is conclusive upon the people of this country. The President of the United States, assuming that he had the power to execute this guarantee, and oasing his proclamation upon it, went forward in the work of reconstruction. It was understood at that time it was so announced, if not by himself, at least formally by the Secretary of State, Mr. Seward that the Governments which he would erect during the vacation of Congress were to be erected as provisional only; that his plan of reconstruction and the work that was to be done under it, would be submitted to Congress for its approval or disapproval at the' next session. If the President had adhered to that determination I believe that all would have been well, and that the present state of things would not exist. But, Sir, the Executive uedtrtook finally to execute the guarantee limself without the co-operatiou of Congress. He appointed Provisional Governors, giving to them unlimited power until such time as the new State Governments should be erected. He prescribed, in his proclamation, vho should exercise the right of suffrage in the election of delegates. And, allow me, for one moment, to refer to that. He says, in his proclamation : " Nooerson, shall be Qualified as an elec tor, or shall be eligible as a member of Bach Convention, nuless he shall tiave previously taaen and subscribed tue oath of amnesty, as set forth in the -resident's proclamation, of May 2. A. 1. IStJV which was issued on the sauid day and was a part of the same ' transaction 44 And is a voter qualified as prescribed by the Constitution and Uwnof the Slate of North Carol iaa in force immediately before the JOth day of May, A. 13. 1J1." The persons having-the right to vote mast have the right to vote by the laws of the State, and must, in addition to that, have taken the oath of amnesty. The President disfranchised in voting for delegates to the convention from 1150,030 to o00,000 men. His disfranchisement was far greater than that which has been done by Congress. In the proclamation of amnesty he says: , "The following classes of persons are excepted from the beiieri: of this proclamation" He then announced fourteen classes of persons , 1. All who are or shall have been pretendwl civil or diplomatic officers, or otherwise o-oraestic or foreign agents of the pretended Confederate Government." - tr v v "13. All persons who have voluntarliy participated in said rebellion, and the estimated value of whose taxable property; isoverSJO.OOO." ( And twelve other classes, estimated 43,000 or 50,000, .persons at the furthest. Ihese ,'rrovisional cover nors, under the authority of the Pr'esicent, were to can conveauone;. Iney, were to'hold the. elections, .and they", were to count the votes"; they were to exercise all tbe powers that are being

fwT r ti r ' L- i .. aViotitnern. people fchouid ever dan

yw tuc ui;raucuisemeni i ratuy , aaa. agree to- that -amendment, "1 in'roduction

mat nas ueen creaiea py congress, then tAtMf Mate governments 'would 1 of.', 700.00J does not extend perhaps to more thauJ be .'a6fcettfil..- ll.it.UW.

f-xercLsed Lv-tbe-uiiliury 4uuiaadefs

a.-.r-er the Reconstruction ac's of Congress. After those constitutions w"ere' for tired thPreident went forward and accepted , thera as being loyal and republican 7 in their character. lie authorized the voters under them to proceed to.elect Legislatures, mem hers of -'Congress, and the : Legislatures to elecn Senators to take their scats in 'this body. In other 'words,, the President launched. Xb,Qsi;;S?ate governments iuto full life and activity without consultation with or , co-operation on the part of; Congress..;, ',N OW Sir,when it is claimed that these, gov erncaents aire legal,let it be remember:. ed that they took their origin under a proceeding instituted: by the President ' of the United . States , in the ' execution of this guarantee, when it now stands confessed that he could not execute the guarantee. But even if he had the power, let it be further borne in mind that those Constitutions were formed by Conventions that were elected by less than one-third of the white voters in the States at that time; that the Conventions were elected by a small minority even of the white voters, that those Constitutions thus formed by a very small minority have never been submitted to the people of those States for ratification. They are no more the Constitutions of those States to-day than the Constitutions fo med by the Conveations now in session would be if we were to proclaim them to be the Constitutions of those States without first having submitted them to the people tor ratification. How can it be pretended for a moment, even admitting that the President had the power to sjart forward in the work of reconstruction, that those State Governments are legal, formed by a small . minority, never ratified by , the people, ' the people never having had a chance , to vote for them? They stand as mere arbitrary Constitutions, established not by the people of the several States, but simply by force of executive power. And, Sir, if we shall admit those States to representation on this floor, and in the other House, under those Constitutions, when the thing shall have got beyond bur keeping and they are fully restored to their political rights, they will then rise up and declare that those Constitutions are not binding upon them, that they .never mide them; and they will throw them on and with them will go those prq-; visions which were incorporated therein, declaring that slavery should never be restored and that their war debt was repudiated. Those provisions were put into those constitutions, but I they have never been sanctioned by ! the people of those States, and they I will cast them out as not being their ; act and deed as soon as they shall have been restored to political power iu this Government. Therefore I say that even if he concedes that the President had the power, which he had not, to start forward in the execution of this guarantee, there can still be no pretense that those governments are legal and authorized and that we are bound to recognize them. The President of the United States, in his proclamation, declared that those Governments were to be formed only by the loyal people of those States; and I beg leave to call the attention of the Senate to that clause in his proclamation of reconstruction. He says; "And with authority to exercise, within the limits ot said State, all the powers necessary and proper to enable such loyal people of the Stata of North Carolina to restore said State to its constitutional relations with the Federal Government. . Again, speaking of the army: ' v "And they are enjoined to abstain from in any way hinde.ing, impeding, or discount gi tig the loyal people from the organiza;iouot a Sla e government, as herein authorised.'' . . -.;-.;,! Now, Sir, ko far from those State governments having been organized by the loyal people, they were organized by the disloyal; every office Eissed into the hands of a rebel; the nion men had no part or lot in those governments,' and so far from answering the purpose for which gov--erments are intended they failed to extend protection to the loyal, men, either white or black. The 'loyal men were murdered with impuuity, and I will thankacy Senator upon this noor to point to a single case in any of the rebel States where a rebel has been tried and brought to punishment by the civil authority tor the murder of a Union mac. Not oue case, I ans told, can be found Those governments utterly failed in answering the pufpose of civil governments; and not only that, but : they returned the colored people to a condition of quasi slavery; they made them the slaves of society; instead of being, as they were before, the slaves of individuals. Under various forms of vagrant Ikws they deprived them of the rights 1 if freemen, and placed them uudetf the power and control of their. rebel masters, who . were failed with hatred and1 revenge. But, Mr. PresieVnt.' time passed on. Congress assembled in December. 1865. For a time it paused. It did not at once anuul those governments.' It hesitated. . At last,, in 1SC6, the Constitutional .Amendment, the Fourteenth Article, . was brought forward as a basis .of settlement and reconstruction; and there was a tacit undestiading,.' though" ,. it" wasr not emoracea-in anv law or rp-shinfinri wasirejecd,x?ont3mptuouslyrejcted.'j lhe'j$ut;heip;-ptoW inspired by inspires .,oy mejjemoeracy .or- the - lhey:were,.; todrithafr they jwera not 1 bound to submit to whatever; that they had forfeited no any conamons

right by rebellion. - Why, bir, what

did. we propose by this amendment? J3,ilieJc)ijKfiio.aweI.Ieciar.edthai all men bora upon our soil were citizens "of the" Unite1'! 'States a thing that had long" been recognized by everv department of this Government .until the .Dred Scott decision was made in lo7. The second section provided that where a class or, .race, of men were excluded from ibe right of suffrage they should not be counted in the base of representation an obvious justice that do reasonable man for a moment could deny; that if 4,000,000 of people down South were to have no suffrage,- the men living in their midst and surrounding them, and depriving them of nil political rights, should not hve members of Congress on their account. I say the justice of the second clause' has never been successfully impugned by any argument, I care not how ingenious it may be. What was the third clause? : It was that the leaders of the South, those men who bad once taken an official oath to support the Constitution of the United States, and had afterward committed perjury by going into the rebellion, should be made ineligible to any office under the Government of the United States, or of a State. It was a very small disfranchisement.; It was intended to withhold power from those leaders by whose instrumentality we bad lost nearly half a million lives and untold treasure. The justice of that disfranchisement could not be disproved. And what was the fourth clause of the amendment? That this Government should never assume and pay any part of the rebel debt: that it should never pay the rebels for their slaves. This was bitterly opposed in the North at well as in the South. How could any man oppose that amendment unless he was in favor of this Government assuming a portion or all of the rebel debt,, i and in.,, favor of paying the rebels for their slaves? When the Democratic party North and South opposed that mostimportant and perhaps hereafter to be regarded as vital amendment, they were, committing ithemselves in principle, as they had been before by declaration, to the doctrine that this Government j was bound to pay for . the slaves, and that it was just and right that we should assume and pay the rebel debt. . This amendment, as I have before said, was rejected, and, whenCongress assembled in December,1866, they were confronted by the fact that every proposition of compromise had been rejected; every half-way measure had been Bpurned by the rebels themselves, and they had nothing left to do but to begin the work of reconstruction themselves; and in February, 1S67, Congress for the first time entered upon ' the execution of the guarantee provided for in the Constitu tion by the passage of the first reconstruction law. A supplementary bill was found necessary in March, another one in July, and I believe another is found necessary at this time; but the power is with Congress. Whatever it shall deem necessary, whether it be in the way of colored suffrage, whether it be in the way of military power whatever Congress shall deem necessary in the execution ; of this . uarantee is conclusive : upon the courts, upon every State, and upon the people of this nation. Sir, when Congress entered upon this work it had become apparent to all men that loyal republican State governments could not be erected and maintained upon the basis of the white population. We had tried them. Congress had attempted the work of reconstruction through the constitutional amendment by . leaving ; the suffrage with the white men,1 and by leaving with the white people of the South the question as to when the colored people should exercise the right of suffrage, if ever; but when it was found that those white men were as rebellious as ever, that they hated this Government more bitterly than ever; when it was found that they p-rrsecuted the loyal men, both white and black, in their midst; when it was found that northern men who had gone down there were driven out by social tyranny, by a thousand annoyances, by the insecurity of life and property, then it be came apparent to all men of intelligence that reconstruction ! could' not take place upon the basis of the white Eopulation, and something else must e done. Now, Sir, what was "there left to do?. Either we : mut hold these people continual by military power, or we must' use such machinery upon such a new basis as would enable loyal ' republican State Governments to be raised up; and in the last resort, and I will say Congress waited long, the nation waited lonar, experience had to come to the rescue of reason before the thinir was done-1-in the last resort, and as the last thing to be done. Congress determined to i dig through all the rubbish, d: through the soil and the -shifting sands, and go down to the eternal rock, and there," upon the basts of the everlasting principal of equal and exact justice to all men, we have planted the column of reconstruction; and. Sir. it will arise slowly but surely, and "the. .gates of hell shall not prevail' against it.'.'. .Whatsers we apprehend from the Of tbC 'ri2Ut ,of Hattvacrt. men,) just emerged from ence fit' a, greater danger, , Why.- Sir, Ui-.me :?ay frankly; tomyfriend from ,ViflcoruiQ "'that I approach universal antlv Not because 4P adhere' to the j white man's Government, but because nuserab'e dogma tnat this was the

1 entertain- loirs -about at once in

trusting a larsre body of men just' from slavery, to whom education had. been denied by law, to whom the marriage relation had been denied, who had been made the basest and mo abject slaves, with political power. And as the Senator has referred ti a Bpeech that I made in. Indiana in 180 J, ailow me to show the principle that then actuated me, for in that speech I said:, . ... '. i ' "In regard to the question of admitting the freed men of the Southern States o vote, while I admit the equal rights of all men, and that la time all men will have tne right to vote, without distinction or color or race, I yet believe that in the case of 4,000,000 of slaves. Just freed from bondage, there should be a period of probation and preparation before tney are brought to the exercise of political power." , Such was my feeling at that time, for it had not then been determined, by the bloody experience of the last two years , that we could not reconstruct upo"? the basis 'of the white population, and .such was the opinion of the great majority of the people of the North; and it was not until a year and a half after that time that Congress came to the conclusion that there was no way left but to resort to colored suffrage,- and suffrage to all men except those who were disqualified by the commission of high crimes and misdemeanors. Mr. President, we hear much said in the course of this debate, and through the press, about the violation of the Constitution. It is. said that in the Reconstruction .measures of Congress we have gone outside of the Constitution, and the remark of some distinguished statesman of the Republican party, is quoted to that effect. Sir, if any leading Republican has ever said so, he spoke only for himself, not for Another. I deny the statement in. toto. I insist , that these Reconstruction mea-ures are as fully within the powers of the Constitution as any legislation that can be had not only by reason but by authority. And who. are the men that are talking; so ; much about the ! violation of the Constitution, and who preiend i to- be . the especial friends of that instrument? The great mass of them only three years ago were in arms to overturn the Constitution and establish that of Montgomery in its place, or were thir Northern friends, who were aiding and sympathizing in that undertaking. I had occasion the other day to speak of what was described as a Constitutional Union man a' man living inside of the Federal lines during the war, sympathizing -with rebellion, and who endeavored to aid the rebellion by insisting that evry war measure for the purpose of suppressing it was a violation of the Constitution of the United States. Now, these men who claim to be the especial friends of the Constitution are the men who sought to destroy it by force of arms, and those throughout the country who have given them aid and comfort. Sir, you will remember that once a celebrated French woman was being dragged to the scaffold, and as she passed the statue of Liberty, she exclaimed: ?' How many crimes have been committed in thy name?" and I can say to the Constitution, how many crimes against liberty, humanity, and progress, are being committed in thy name by these men who, while they loved not the Constitution, and sought its destruction, now, for party purposes, claim to, be its especial friends. My friend, from Wisconsin yesterday compared what he called the Radical party of the North to the Radicals of the South, and when he was asked the question by some Senator "who- are the ' Radicals of the South,," he said, "they are the Secessionists." Sir, the iicessionists of the South are Democrats to day, actiDg in harmo y and concert with the Democratic , party, . They were Democrats during the war who prayed for the success of McClellan and Pendleton, and who. would have been glad to vote for them. They were Democrats during the war, men who sympathized with the rebellion, who aided in bringing it on. These are the Radicals of the South, and my friend from-' Wisconsin, alter, all, is acting with that Radical party. The burden of his speech yesterday was that the reconstruction measures of Congress are intended to establish negro supremacy. Sir, this proposition is without any foundation whatever. I belie've it was stated yesterday by the Senator from Illinois (5lr. Trumbull) that in every State "but two the white voters registered' outnumbered the colored voters; and the fact that in two States . the colored voters outnumber the white voters, is owing to the simple accident that there are more: colored men ' in those States than there are white men. Congress has not sought to establish negro supremacy,! nor has it sought to establish the supremacy of any class or party of men. If it had sought to establish negro supremacy it would have been an easy , matter by .excluding from the right of suffrage ail men who had been concerned in the rebellion, ia accordance with the proposition of the distinguished Senator from Massachusetts (Mr. Sumner), iu his speech at Worcester, in 18J5. He proposed to exclude all men who had been concerned in the rebellion, and confer suffrage only on those who were left.. That ;would , have established negro supremacy by giving the negroes an overwhelming majority in every State; and if .that had been the object of Congress it could, have been readily don. Bat, Sir, Congress has only sought to divide the political fQwer between the loyal and the disoyal. It has disfranchised some 00.000 disloyal leaders, JeavingkIl tLe. rest ot the people to vote, i hey nave been enfranchised on both sides, that neither should be placed in the

power 01 tue otner. ine reoeia h tve the right to vote bo that they slia.l not be uadA-, the control and p.iwer of Union men only, and the Union men have been allowed to vote so thnt they shall not be under the control and power of the rebels. .This is the policy, to divide the political power among those men for the. protection of each. Sir, the charge that we intend to create a negro euprem icy or colored State Governments is without the slightest foundation, for it would have been in the power of Congress to have easily conferred such " supremacy - by ' simply excludiug the disloyal, from tbe right of suffrage -a power which it had the clear right to exercise. Now, Mr. President, allow me to consider for a moment the amendment offered by the Senator from Wisconsin, and upon which his speech was made, and see what is its effect I will not say its purpose, bat its inevitable effect should it become a law. I will ask the Secretary to read the amendment which the Senator from Wisconsinhas proposed to the Senate. The Secretary read as follows: Provided, nevertheless, That upon an e ectloti tor tue ratidc.i tion of any Constitution, or of officer under the same, previous to its adoption in an Ktstie uo person not having the qualifications ot an elector under the Constitution and laws of such HUte previous to the late rebellion Hiiall be allowed to vote, unless he snail post.es one of the lollowing qualifications, namely: 1. He shall have served as a soldier iu the Federal army for one year or more. 2. Hesliallbave sufficient educutlou to read the Constitution or the United Stares and to subscribe his name to aa oath to support the same; or ; 3. He shall be seized In his own right, or In tbe rigbt of his wile, of a freehold of the value of iG. Sir, these qualifications are, by the terms of the amendment, to apply to those who were not authorized to vote by the laws of the State before the rebellion in other words, the colored men. :"He proposes to allow a colored man to vote if he has been in the Federal army one year, and he proposes to allow a rebel white man to vote, although he has served in the rebel army four years! He proposes that a colored man shall not vote unless he has suffleieat education to read the Constitution of the United States and to subscribe his name to an oath to support the same, whereas he permits a rebel white man to vote who never heard of A, and does know how to make his mark even to a note given for whisky. Laughter. AgainSir, he proposes that the colored man shall not vote unless he shall be seized in his own right, or in tbe right of his wife, of a freehold of the value of $250, a provision which of course, would cut off 1J9 out of very 1,000 colored men in the South. The colored man caunot vote unless he. has a freehold of $250, but the white rebel, who was never worth 25 cents, who never paid poll-tax in his life, never paid an houest debt, is to be allowed to vote. Sir, what would be the inevitable effect of the adoption of this amendment? To cut off such a large part of the colored vote as to leave the rebel white vote largely in the ascendency and to put these new State governments there to be formed again into tbe hands of tbe Rebels. Sir, I will not spend .longer time upon that. My frieud yesterday alluded to my indorsement of the President's policy in a speech in J865. I never indorsed what is now called the Preident'u policy. In the Summer of 1805, when I saw a division coming between the Presideot and the Republican party, and when I could not help anticipating tbe direful consequences that must result from it, I made" a speech in which I reEelled certain' Statements that had een made against the Pre-ident, and denied the charge that by isuing his proclamation of May 29, 18f5, he had thereby left the- Republican party. I said that he had not left the Republican party by that act. . I did show that the policy of that proclamation was even more radical than that of Mr. Lincoln. I did show that it was more radical even than the Winter Davis bill of the Summer of 1834. But, Sir, it was all upon the distinct understanding that whatever the President did that his whole policy or action was to be submitted to Congress for its consideration and decision ; and, as I before remarked, if that had been don all would have been well. I did not then advocate universal colored suffrage in the South, and I have before given my reasons for it, and in doing-that I was acting in harmony with the great body of the Republican party of the North. It was nearty a year after that time when Congress passed the Constitutional Amendment, which still left the ques. tion of suffrage with the Southern

States, left it with the white people; and it was not until a year and a half after that time that Congress came to the conclusion that we could not execute the guarantee of the Constitution without raising up a new class o! loyal voters. And, Sir. nobody -concurred in that result more heartily than inyse'.t. I confess (and I do it without shame) that I have been eduea'ed by the great events of this wir. The American people . hare been edu cated rapidly; and the dan who says he has learned nothing, that he stands now where he did six yeari ago, is like an ancient mile-post by the side of a deserted (highway. We, Mr. President, have, advanced step by step. When this war began we did not contemplate the destruction of sjaverj-. I , remember well when, the Crittenden resolution was passed, declaring that the war was not prosecuted for conquest or. to overturn the institutions. of any, State. w Ii knew that that was -intended as iao assurance that slavery should not be de stroyed, and it received the vote, .1 believe, of every Republican member I

in ootn nouses oi congres ; but in a few tnontln af'Ur that time it was .found by tho tvuiits of the war that we could bot

preoi Rele orve slavery and suppress the on, and we must de.-roy Sla very not prosecute the war to destroy Slavery but ditroy Slavery t prosecuv the war. Which was the better1 iu maud by the resolution rind let the Union go, or to stand by the Union ami let the resolution go? Congress could not stsuJ by that pledge, and it wa "more honored iu the breach than the observance." Mr. Lincoln issued his proclamation of emancipation, setting free the slaves of Rebels. It whs dictated by the stern and bloody experience of the times. Mr. Lincoln had no choice left him. When he began this contest no one thought we would use colored soldiers in the war. The distinguished Senator sitting by me here (Mr Cameron), when in the Winter of 1801 , he first brought forward the proposition, a Secretary of War, to use colored soldiers, wm greatly in advance of public opinion, and was thought to be visionary; but as the war progressedtit became manifest to all intelligent men that wo must not only destroy Slavery, but we must avail ourselves of every instrumentality in our power for the purpose of putting down the Rebellion, and the whole country accorded ia the use of colored soldiers and gallant and gloriom service they rendered. In 18G4, a proposition was brought forward in this body to amend the Constitution of the United States by abolishing slavery. We do not think that is very radical now, but it was very radical then; it was the great measure of the age, and almost of modern times, and it was finally passed ; an amendment netting free every human being within the limits of the United States. Rut, Sir, we were very far then from where we are now. All will remember the celebrated Winter-Davis bill, passed in June, lSGf, which took the power cf reconstruction out of the hinds of the 1'resident, where it did not in fact belong. (I refer to Mr. -Lincoln.) Rut if that bill had passed it would, perhaps, have resulted in the destruction of this Govsrnment. We can all see it now, although it was then thought to be the most radical measure of the times. What did it propose? It proposed to prescribe a plan, to take effect when the war should end, by which these rebel States should be restored. I refer to that bill simply to show how wo have all traveled. It required but one condition or guarantee, on the part of the South, and that was that they should put in their Constitutions a provision prohibiting slavery. It required no other guarantee. It required no equalization of representation ; no security against Rebel debts, or against payment for emancipated slaves; and it confined the right of suffrage to white men. Itut it was thought to be a great step in advance at the time; and so it was; but events were passing rapidly, and in 1805. the President carao forward with hts proposition, and I am stating what is true from an examination of the documents when 1 say that but for the want of power with the President, his scheme in itself considered, was fur more Radical than that of the Winter-Davis bill; but events were rapidly teaching the statesmen of the time that we could not reconstruct upon that basis. Still, Congress was not prepared to take a forward step until the Summer of 18'kJ, in the prissage of the Constitutional Amendment, which we now regard ai a half way measure, necessary au 1 vital as far as it went, but not goinir far enough. That was rejected, and we were then compelled to go further, and we have now (alien upon the plan of reconstruction which I have been considering. It has been dictated by the logic of events t It Overrides all ar gument, overrides all prejudice overrides all theory, in the presenei of the uccessity for preserving the lif of this nation; and if future event shall determine that we must further,' I for one am prepared t gay that I will 0 as far as tin be necessary to the execution this guarantee, the reconstruction this Republic upon . a right bsi and the successful restoration of eve' part of this Union. , Mr. Pre-idei the column of reconstruction, as ! before remarked, has risen slowly. has not been uewn irom a siu stone. It is composed of many blod painfully laid up and put togetb and cemented by the tears and bio of the nation. Sir, o have dc nothing arbitrarily. We have df nothing lor puuishroent iiy, too tie for punishment. Justice bis had her demand. Not a man has i been executed for this great trean , The arch fiend hiroelf is now ut . ; ertyipou bail. No man is to be p irhed; and now, while punishment gbe by, i we all know, we are inme only upon security for the fat We are siicp'y asking that the ' spirits who brought this war u us shall not asrain come into i.j ( during this generation, again to b ' upon us rebellion and calamity. W , simply askirjg for those Bccuritie : we deem necessary for our pace l the peace of our posterity. Sir, t i is one great difference betw.cn , Union party and tl e so-called D. cratie party. Our principles are t of , huiuuoity; they are tbosi ot ticej they, are those of cqua-l ri, they are principles that appeal t hearts and consciences of men; ' ou the other ide we hear ppe the ' prejadice ' off race against Tbe -white man is ovmr ingly in the majority ii I country, and that majorin