Mr. VANAERNAM. Mr. Speaker, I need not assure this House that I approach the investigation of the subject under consideration with hesitation and embarrassment. With hesitation, because of the importance and mag nitude of the subject. With embarrassment, because little new can be said on this subject, so often discussed here by nbler men. But, Mr. Speaker, in a crisis like the present, when the great and peculiar problem of national reconstruction is set before us, and questions entirely new in human history are presented for solution, it behooves us to address our selves to the most earnest consideration of this problem and itsattendant questions. And, sir, without detaining this House by preliminary remarks, I will approach the subject at once, and ask, where has the war left the States lately in rebellion in their governmental relations? President Johnson, in his proclamations issued with the view of giving provisional governments to these States, says that the rebellion “in its revolutionary progress deprived the people of those States of all civil government.” And this doctrine, 7 times repeated by him. was the basis. solely, upon which those “provisional governments” were founded. Senator LANE, of Indiana, says: "It seemsto me that counselhnsbeendarkened on this sub'cct in the statement of the question. portion of the peopleand of the Senate clievo that those States are yet in the Union; another iortion believethat these States are yet out of the inion; and the difficulty of dealing with that question is that both of these contradictory answers are right and botharewrougl Territorially, those States are in the Union: the communities in theserebel Statesare in the Union; their citizens are citizens of these U.S. But the practical question is, whether these peopleare now. at this time. in such relation to the Governmentof the U.S.as to be entitled to participate in the legistion of the Republic. I take the ground that although territorially theyare in the Union, although the Government, by the rebellion. has lost no single power that it ever had to enforce the laws to compo obedience and to carry on tho mnciincry of the General Government. these rebel States have voluntarily forfeited and abdicated every right. They are no longer to be recognized as a governing power under the Constitution of the U.S." I apprehend, Mr. Speaker, that both these answers are correct, and that this is the)re cise position they occupy practically. have they as States any share whatever in the government of the country? Are they not in fact out of the Union as a governing power or part: nership, but in it as a governe community? They are in the Union so far as Territories are in the Union, and no further. From courtesy we may call them States, if we choose, but in their practical relations they are simply Terrr tories, and nothing more. I kuOW, recently, gentlemen have been somewhat averse to proclaim the doctrine thus broadly. But why 3068 THE compassion; June 9, should they? This is realy the condition in which they have been held by every dept of the Government. Congress has assumed that the rebel States had no rights as States in closing their ports to all commerce. Could Congress. iroviilc under the Constitution in a tariff bill that the ports of NewYork shall be opened and the ports of another State closed? The SCOTUS has held in the decisions in the rize cases “that all persons residing within the territory occupied, by the hostile (rebel) partyin this contest are enemies of the U.S.” Can public enemies, Mr. Speaker, have a right to control and govemthis nion? Away With such nonsense! Nor is this all; the President has also assumed that the rebel States had no rights as States when be appointed provisiona governors; ordered conventions; ictated the terms of the constitutions thus to be formed; directed who should vote, and who should be eligible to sit in the convention and hold office; and what oath they should take; and in annulling laws passed b the Legislatures of these States; and in cpOSing men elected to office. Is it competent for the POTUS to order NewYork or any other State to call a convention and change her constitution at his will and in terms prescribed by him? I trust not. These late rebellious States withdrew from the Union by their own deliberate, voluntary act as governing members, and contemptuously renounced all their privileges in it. Is the action ofStates of so little consequence, such child’s play, that the' can spurn from them these rights and privileges and yet have the same title to them as before? And for this withdrawal and renunciation they had no reason nor revocation, except that being in a minority they could not always rule in the Union as they had done during a greater part of its existence. Their motto was the demoniac one, “Rule or ruin.” Thank God, they have not been able to ruin us in war! Shall we now tamely and ignobly permit them to rule and ruin us in peace? After these acts of secession, or in many cases in anticipation of them, they seized by force or'fraud all the U.S. property they could lay their hands upon navy yards, customhouses, forts, arms. ammunition, ar senals and traitors in power, Government officials, had violated their oaths and abused the trust reposed in them by aconliding people, by taking especial care that this property should be as large and exposed as possib e, and that the Nort should be deprived as far as might be of the means of defense. What reward are we bound to render forthese acts of shameless treachery and robbery? They fired upon our flag because we would not yield everything to their proud and arrogant demands and commit national suicide. They lotted, nay attempted, to take our capital by orce of arms, and to install treason and rebellion supreme in the highest and most sacred places of the nation. Confident of the success of the schemes which they had been so long concerting, while we had been unsuspicious and resting in fancied security, boasting that their banner would soon waVe in triumph over the Capitol here, and wishing to take the fullest advantage of our unprepared condition, they proceeded without de pay to open, direct, unprovoked war. Thus proceeding, they of course subjected themselves to the laws of war. This they well knew and understood, and were willing to abide the consequences; consequences which the in their pride believed won dbe triumph fort iemselves and defeat and humiliation or us. At least they were ready, ea, anxious, to take the risk. Nor could they p cad ignorance of the laws of War. These laws have written themselves in blood upon so many of the ages of history that they are, alas, too well understood by all. The fires of war always burn up parchments and compacts. “ By a state of war that of society is abolished, " is the sententious maxim of law. All friendly relations and partnerships cease when men seize each other)y the throat in a death struggle. Knowingly and wickedly and voluntarily they committed to the dread arbitrainent of war the whole subject of their relations to their before sister States. If conquerors, they would become severeign and independent; if conquered, they must submit to the common lot I 318 vanquished they must become a subject people and their land conquered territory. Against all our remonstranccs, our earnest entreaiies, our offers of degrading compromises and even humiliating concessions, they insisted on staking their all and our all upon this hor rid me of bloody war, and they have lost, thanlil Heaven, they have lost! Now, do they come and say that all this has i meant nothing; that all these long 'ears of l mastering hosts, of crimson battle fields, of? sufferers’ groans, of widows’ tears, of orphans' cries, and of prisoners’ torinents, have meant I nothing; and that now we are bound to throw all u, what we have gained by these fouryears of blloody war, and play the ame over again in the arena of these llalls, and lotthem return to the Union with plenary powers and without conditions precedent? P pay the game over again! Merciful Uodl Yes, that is the meaning; that is what is really contained in every appeal for the indulgent treatment of the crring but chivalrous South; that is the dream of southern ambition. But should we fail to secure what we have won at such terrible cost, we will be false to our selves, false to humanity, and reereant to the great sacrifices we have made, and will deserve the maledietions of mankind and the vengeance of Heaven. Why should we not insist on conditions before these States are restored to fellowship and power again? Will anyone say that the South as waged this war with such peculiar honor and humanity that the usual laws of war ought not to apply in their case? To what facts will he a peal in vindication and confirmation of this ea? Will he point to the surprises by which tie war was sprung u ion us, or turn to the persecutions of the loya ists of the South by threats, by confiscation, by exile, by imprisonment, and by hanging? Will he recall our attention to the schemes for (lesolating the North by pestilence and conflagration and insurrection. Will he ask us to remember the plot for the murder of the President elect on his 1sta preach to the scene of his labors, and to his assassination when his labors were nearing the goal of accomplishment? Will he urge upon us the recollection of the refusal of quarter upon the battle field, and the cold blooded, heartless massacre of the nuresisting? Or will he invoke us to look at the prison peas in which so many 1000s of patriot soldiers were shut up like sheep for the slaughter, for cold and heat and hunger and storms and disease, and for the tyranny of brutal keepers to work their will upon until death should come, or such exhaustion that they mi lit be exchanged, as those from whom not iing could be feared in the future? Let us attein it the folly to proceed to a restoration of tie Union without guarantees, and the expectations of permanent harmony between the 2 great sections of our country will prove an idle dream. It will be the vain cry of “ Peace, peace, ” and there will be, permanently, no ‘peace” for us. That profound thinker and practical states man, Robert Dale Owen, in discussing this subject, says: “We can never, indeed, forgot Godforbid that we should the terrible consequences of treason;the liurdslii s, the sufferings.the lost lives the parents and wi ows heron veil, the countless 1000s of homes made desolateamongus. But to avert evils in the future better befitsii Christian people than to avenue injuries of the past. Let us learn of the de spised and the lowly. Is it we only who have injuries to requite? What were our sufferings during the war compared to the 1,000 wrongs ierpe tratodthrong out generations against the millous of southernslaves? But though the iron enteredinto their souls, did they return evil for evil? Did they forget when the dayof liberation dawned the words of the text. whengenueeis mine, I will repay, saith th“eILford‘!’ therebe amen: our peoploa revengcful element let us not panderto it. f we impose conditions before we restore political rights to those wnc, defying lawapd constitutionbyforceof arms, became public enemies, it ought to be in defense, not in re“qu“iItfal. we imposeeonditionl.’ To udispsssionato looker on it muatsccm strange that, herein the North. that should be a nuestion at all. At the close of a 4 years’ embittered war producing a radical change in the legal and social condition offour milldioenbtsp, people, creating 2 vast uptugonistic, public and entailing1,000 diversities of intercst between millions on opeside and millions on the other it wauld boathing incredible that zovsrnnieut could be propei lypr safely resumed, without stipulation or precuutiop, as if liC‘K hllir had liappenrd. At such a juncture in our nationu affairs Wise precautionary measures are as strictl adictate of duty as they are clearly matter of right. "As to the right in this case, the space I prescribe to myself forbids more than a few words, even if I deemed it more necessary than 140 formally to argue. uquestinuso plain. I shall not, the reforc, hero breach the speculative inquiry, whatis the precise10 at mm? of thelute insurrent States? A more tee nicul view of a subject irrcat is @lways a contractodone. Questions involving the life or death of nations are not decided by fine drawn thcorieil. Good Abraham Lincoln. with that sagncious common sense which marked the man when iilluding, in the last speech he ever mailc, to tie disputed point whether the secciled States are in the Union or out of it, paid 'That question has not been nor yet is a practically material one; and any discussion of it while it thus remains practically immaterial can tin yono other effect than the m“isNcehiitchveorus one of dividing our friends. I shall I institute any inquiry as to our power at this time to impose renditions precedent to restoration. If by the sacrificeof 300,000 lives and 3,000 millions of treasure, the North hasnot won the right to decide what guarantees are needed to avert in the future the penis and the sufferings of the past, than the chap terson war and peace in the code of international law are so much wastepaper; then no rights can be obtained by conquest; then the sword is a worthless we“n u, fitted only to destroy, impotent to save. re we deny such a right we must blot from the bookssome of the best known and mostuniversally recognized principles of public law. 0 must rrjwct the accepted doctrine that civilWar is rubieet to the same general rules as foreign war: or also we must refuseassentto what everypublicist of reputch as set forth ( and what common sense suggests as union: the most important of national rights and duties; the rule, namely, that a nation, especially a vmtor iintion, ought to protect itself not only against imme diate but against prospective dangers. Deriving all rights attendant on conquesttrom ‘Justifis blo sol! det‘cusc. Vattel says: “‘ When the conquerorhas subdued a hostile nation he may, if p ruonceso require, reuder herinca pubis of doing mischief with thesameeasein future. ‘If the snfotypf the State lies at stake, our reoaution and foresight cannot 0extended too ur.‘ Mustwc delayto avertourrum until it has become inevitiible? “' ‘An injury givesa right to provide for 0‘? future safety bydeprivinir the umust aggressor o the means of i during us.’ Valid, book 3, sectionsN1, 44, 45. ‘To us, and not to the jun'ust resior’ who appealed to the wii er of butt 0 an ost, belongs at this time the right to decide what guarantees are needed for the public safetyflind howthnt ‘uii1ust azgressm' shall 0 rendered incapableof doing iiiis chicfwith the same casein future.’ early we paid for that right! Wc shall commita folly unparalleled in the annals of nations if weno lect to useit. "But if all things are lawful or us, all thing sare not eitpedient. Thus, thongliduetimomuiitbetoken for the maturing, and consummation of precaution nr measures, yet. on the other hand, out;sectipn of s. Tic pubiio containing a 4th of its inhabitants cannot, except for a season, safely be shut out from Fedmal reprosentation. Thereforethe political riyhts of the States lately in insurrection shouldbere ‘towd to them at the earliest day consistently with the peaceand safety of the country." So by their own acts, by the laws of war, by the great axioms of the universal law of right, the rebellious States have forfeited, abdicated, and lost their position, and all the rights and privileges which i they held as governing m'emers in the Union, while by their failure in war they are still retained, and most justly so, under the authority of the General Government. The rebel General Thompson, in his farewell address to his troops, very pithily expressed a clear comprehension of the real state of the case, and of their position: “ You must remember nowthat youhavenorights, and can only claim such as may be given on by the conucrors, and the less you say about po ities until you have become naturalized the better for you.“ This is the common sense, tactical view of the case by one who had fou tbravely to establish the “confederacy” when the humiliation of defeat was upon him, and before the alluring promises of “My Polio ” had given the hope of returning power to the leaders of the rebellion. The eloquent Gentfrom Pennsylvania. [Mr. wILLIAMS] says: " 11 of the columnar supportsof our political edificeare now lying around us, like the giant columns of Tudmor and Palmvrn. with shaft and capitol and architravo alike shattered by the mighty convulsion that haslaid them all in ruins. Wheruis the hand that is to lift these columns to their place?" Where, indeed, is the power that shall reunite these dissevered fragments 7 One, as by authority, says: Jour 24, 1865. The government of thoState will be provisional only until the civil authorities shall be restored, With the approval of Congress. Meanwhile military authority cannot be withdrawn. WILLIAM H. SEWARD. To W. L. SHARKIY. And again: OCTOBER.1865. It must, however be distinctly understoodthat the restorationto which your reclamation refers Will be Subjectto the decision of WoILnLuIrAcsMs. H. SEWARD. His Excellency Within: Mitnvm Provisional governor of theSlateof Floriilu, Tulfa/mnce. Secretar Seward in these official dispatches answers t. e nery by informing Governors Sharkey and arvin that the power and the right to restore are with Congress. This is a logical andjust answer; for in our Government SOVereignty is in the people alone. Its exercise is intrnsted to agents. If the functions of these rebel States were “suspended" the sovereign power alone can grant relief. But to which of the agents most they apply? Ccrtainly notto the judicial, for that only interprets; nor to the Executive, for he only executes the law; but to Congress, which has full power to extend the necessary relief. the ‘upreme Court has settled this point clearly: "For. as the U.S. guaranties to each a republican government, Congress must necessarily decide what vernment is establishedin a State beforeit can determine whether it is republican or not." 7 Howard, Havin", as I trust, Mr. Speaker, clearly, fully, and comprehensively demonstrated that Congress not only has the right, but that it is its bonnden duty, to legislate upon and deter mine this question, I will proceed briefly to analyze its action. The JtCommee of the 2 Houses of Congress in the legitimate exercise of their powers, after patient invastigation and deliberation, have presented a series of measures, in the form of a constitutional amendment, which I earnestly commend to the acceptance of this House. I'hese measures are the result of the deliberations of the soldiers and states men who saved the Republic from the rebellion. They secure the rights of the rescued freedmen and prepare a sure wa for their ulti mate equality before the law. They annihilate forever the distinctions erected by a corrupt aristocracy; they sanctify the public obligations and repudiate all claims in the name of the rebellion. Divine like, they hold out to the most offending the prospect of final forgiveness, in return for future fidelity and loyalty. What hero who fought for his country, or what citizen who honors such a hero, or what philanthropist will refuse to take his stand under the flag which floats over a platform so broad, so catholic, and so comprehensive? Mr. Speaker, shall I point you toastatement Of these propositions?. 1. Giving constitutional sanction and protection to the substantial guarantees of the civil rights bill, which passed both branches of congress over the President’s veto, and has been assoiled because it was supposed to be infringing the provisions ofthnt instrumentas it stands. 2. Confiningthe basis of representation among the several States to the whole number of persons in each State that enjoy the elective franchise, thus cutting up by the roots and forever destroying a system under which the southern aristocracy has represented other human beings, their 0 equalsbefore God and man, who were deprive of civil and political rights. 3. That all classes who have previously, as members of Congress, and other officers of the U.S., or members of any State Legislature, or executive or judicial officers of any State, sworn to support the Constitution of the U.S., and shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, shall hereafter be deprived of all right to hold the position of Senator or Representative in congress, elector of President or VEEP, or any office, civil or military, under the Government of the U.S., or any of the States. This will reach all the chiefs of the rebellion, civil and military, extending to the officers of the rebel army and navy, members of Congress and State Legislatures, and the State and local judiciary; and is the substitute for the 3rd section opposed by the radicals because it did not go far enough on the one hand, and by the conservatives because it went too for on the other. This provision is to stand until 2/3rds of the Congress of the U.S shall consent to its abrogation. 4. The recognition of the war debt for the suppression of the insurrection and for the payment of bounties or pensions to our soldiers as an inviolate and inviolable obligation upon ourselves and posterity. 6, (which is the original 4th section.) The solemn declaration that neither the U.S. nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation in aid of insurrection or rebellion, or any claim for compensation or emancipation of slaves. 6. That Congress shall have power to enforce by appropriate legislation the provisions of this article. Personally, my reference would have been that this Congress had gone a step further and declared for equality of suffrage. I believe if the battle had been fought bravely on that issue it would have won; and once won, all agitation on the subject of races would have ceased for ever. Men speedily and always acquiesce in the inevitable. We must come to that in the end, and soon. A nation must act on its declared principles. That all men are created “equal” in rights inno glittering generality. It is God’s truth 1 A majority of my colleagues think differently on this subject, and I yield my personal pref erences. And I deem it no treason to principle to advance toward a great truth and a great reform one step at a time. Time alone elfaces deep prejudices, and nature effects all things grat equally. I am content, then, under the circumstances, to see “civil rights!" as serted here, with the other beneficent measures proposed and await patiently the action of time and the “sober 2nd thought" of the people on the question of suffrage. But, sir, let us examine this subject still further and see what light experience and experiment have thrown upon it. As the principles of our Government require that the peOple at large should be the epositaries of civil power. it is essential, therefore, that the whole people be trained as rapidly as possible to the exercise of this power. It is hence desirable that the elective franchise should be made as broad as will consist with safety and order. The principle is plain enough; respecting its application there is a great variety of opinion. Some contend that in the reconstruction of these States the bal lot and the right of holding offico should be confined to whites who have always been loyal. Adopt this rule and how many voters and officeholders could be found in SCarolina? Could a score? Could many more be found in anyone of the cotton States? Some would add to these the amnestied rebels. Experience, that teaches the dearest of all schools, has shown us that this places the civil power and govar"nmental machinery in the hands of those Who. having sworn againsttheir will. Are of the same opinion still." And not only of the same 0 inion, but of the same tmitorous purpose, to e put in execution as fast as prudence and a wrse caution will allow. The oaths are taken, to a wide extent, with amental reservation amountin to perjury. This perjury is even justified and I recommended by many influential papers at the South. “ We ban: a right, " say they, " to vote and hold our property. Any obstacle, therefore, thrown in the way by an oppressive Government at Washington, whose rightful author.ity we do not recognize, is in its own nature null and void.” The determination 0‘. the intelligent, influential classes at the Spain is runnifestly to keep just as much as possibte of slavery, aristocracy, State sovereignty, and disloyalty; to make out victory as barren of results as they can; and, defeated by arms, still to conquer by political action and part intrigue. Will we allow this wicked triumph yyieldin totbeclamoragainst color? “ B their fruits shall ye know them, " is the toneing of eternal truth. In the light of this divine enunciation, how much louver shall we follow that false ihilosophy, which leads only to bewilder‘l what litical fruits have we reaped from these sout iern fields by giving the ballot exclusively to the pardoned and amnestied whites and denying it to the loyal blacks? Let the results of their elections answer. Beginning with NCarolina, the 1st State reorganized under the proclamation of the President, and then taking the other States in the order of their reconstruction, we iind that she vindicates the sincerity of her loyal rofcssions by electing Jonathan Worth, a rebe, (i governor, over Holden, prolbssedly loyal. William A. Graham and John fool, Senators, neither of whom can takethe required oath, and Messrs. Stubbs, Clark, Fuller, '1. urner, Brown, walkup, and Jones. an unbroken delegation of dislnyal men, to the HoRep. (Election held 1st Thursday in November, 1865; provisional governor appointed May 29, 1865.) Reorganized Mississippi elects Benjamin G. Humpbi'eys, a Generalin the rebel army, governor, and J. Alcorn and W. L. Sharkey Senators. Alcoru Was also a general in the rebel service, and cannot take the necessary oath. Sharkey might perhaps do no. Electing also Messrs. Reynolds, Pierson, Harrison, West, and Peyton to Congress. Reynolds was a colonel and served faithfully in the field during the war, and Pierson, Harrison, and West are so compromised by the rebellion that they cannot take the oath of office. Mr. Peyton, I understand, has been a consistent Union man throughout. (Provisional governor appointed June 13, 1865; election held 2nd Monday in October, 1865.) Georgia, reconstructed, but not clothed in her right mind, elects Charles J. Jenkins Governor, and sends the rebel VEEP, Alexander H. Ste hens, and that unrepentant rebel, Her schel Johnson, to the Senate, and Cohen, Cook, Buchanan, Cabaniss, Matthews, Christy, and wolford, an entire delegation of traitors, to represent the State and its people in the congress of the U.S. (Provisional ov crnor appointed June 17, 1865; election eld October 4, 1865.) Reconstructed Alabama, but unrepentant, elected Robert M. Patton, an active and bitter secessionist Governor, and made Lewis E. Parsons and George S. Houston Senators, and Langdon, Freeman, Battle, Taylor, Pope, and Foster Representatives in Congress. Not one of these can take the preseribed oath of office. Laogdon is a most itter rebel; Freeman a colonel, and served thron h the war; Battle was a brigadier general in e rebel army; and Foster was a member of the rebel congress. (Provisional governor appointed June 21, 18135' election held 1st Monday in November, 1865.; Rebels unrepentant and unrepenting reor ganized Florida by electing a disloyal man for Governor, for one Senator, and for Representative in Congress. And as a matter of prudent policy Governor Marvin, a truly loyal man, was sent to the Senate to fill the term which expires March next. Judge Marvin, I apprehend, does not stand the ghost of a chance for reelection, unless in the mean time the leopard should change his spots, and the Ethio ian his skin. (Provisional governor appointed duly 13, 1865; election held October 10, 1865.) SCarolina, reconstructed and reorganized, washes her political garments from the stain and blood of) treason by the election of Mr. Orr, a prominently disloyal civilian, over Wade Hampton, araiding rebel general, as governor, and by the election of Perry and Man ning as Senators, both of whom are thoroughly 1 identified with the rebellion, and by the elec ‘tion of adelegation, namel, Kennedy, Aiken, McGowan, and Farrowennedy was a general in the rebel army to the HoRep, neither of whom, with the exception, perhaps, of Mr. Aiken, can take the necessa oath. (Provisional governor appointed une 80, 1865; election held October 18, 1865.) Louisiana re ends to the inquiry by electing J. Madison Veils Governor, and by choosing Randall Hunt and Henry Bozer Senators; all active rebels during the war, and unre pentant since; and sends her entire delegation of Representatives in the national Legislature StMartin, Barker, Wyckliffe, King, and Ray not one of whom can take the prescribed oath. StMartin was a register of voters under the rebel government; Barker editor of the Advocate, twice suppressed for disloyalty; Wyckliffe of the rebel army, and captured at Port Hudson; King and Ray both active, energetic, and influential secessionists. Iwill not pursue this sickening investigation, but will conhne myself to the 7 States which have been warmed into life, and reorganized and reconstructed under the especial direction and fostering of the Executive of this nation. And what is the grand result? All the State offi'cers elected because of their participation in the rebellion; and of the 14 Senators chosen from the reconstructed States, 2 only, Governor Marvin and Judge Sharkey, can take the oath of office. Of the representatives elected from these 7 States at 2 can take the oath prescribed'by the laws of the country. Mr. Speaker, “we cannot gather figs from thorns, nor grapes from thistles;” and the sooner we abandon a policy that has nearly crushed out the loyal men of the rebel States, and clothed the rebels with power, the better for us and for the nation. “By their fruits shall ye know them.” And there they are; the jewels of the “Confederacy, ” and the advocates of the principles of the “Corner Stone, ” presented as a nucleus for the elements of anew and a nobler national life a life devoted to Freedom, to Justice, to Truth, to Equality, and Humanity, to crystallize upon. In all soberness could we justly anticipate any other result from the “Policy” ado ted? If this is but the earnest, the 1st fruits of the folly of enfranchising only the foes of the government, what shall we expect from the full harvest? From the utter failure of this effort to build up loyal governments in the rebel States from the disloyal elements, I apprehend we shall ere long accept the true principles of a democratic system of government, and for the purpose of securing a reorganization more favorable to freedom and justice, add to the loyal and amnestied whites the freedmen and free men of color. There are strong reasons in favor of this policy. They are men! And we have made them citizens! The citizen’s suffrage is not a privilege or a prerogative, but a right! Every man has a right to have a voice in making the laws by which he is governed and protected! That is an inherent right, not a privilege conferred. It is a part of liberty itself. ‘very man is entitled to this except lie forfeit it by crime or rebellion. On no ground except that of crime can the elective franchise be denied to any class, without admitting the monarchicai doctrine that civil rights and authority descend from the rulers, and that they have a right to confer as a privilege that which the principles of our Government teach belongs to the “people” to all men in common. Our doctrine is that all rights and all privileges and all prerogatives belong to the whole people, and that through our elective representative system these rights and wars are delegated successively to men holdin official positions for specific, fixed periods of time, and return regularfy to the peop e again. Our doctrine is that all civil and political rights inhere in the people, and when they rise to the hands of those in official authority they are powers delegated to them, and they evertnure come back to the people. an"dA, spotuhreincglouds draw their rain from the ocean. it down upon the around, return it to the ocean ain. so authority goesfrom the common people to their rulers, and returns to the common pe"ople again. In this count a poor man without a vote is like a vagabond king iding for his life; but a poor man with a vote is honored and courted by all. 100 votelcss black menwill be consigned to contempt and outrage and injustice: but 100 black men with voteswill beaschool and every candidate play schoolmasterto them and expound and argue the annual questions of policy. Comprohcnsively viewed, voting carries with it political education." Nothing so much prepares men for intelli gent suifrage as the exercise of the right of suffrage. Man cannot be educated to a proper use of liberty in any way so well as by making him use it. In our hour of peril we appealed to these men to assist us by their arms; ought they now in our liour of safety be spurned back to serfdom? Are national gratitude and national honor mere words with us? Is there no gulf of meanness into whose slimy and fetid waters we are not ready to plunge? Shall we sacrifice our friends to our enemies? In our obsequiousness to rebels shall we bind our allies hand and foot and give them over to infuriate men who would delight in wreaking vengeance on them for our success and for that aid of theirs which secured, or at least hastened, this success? I will not say that we should not have conquered without the friend ship of the colored peeple of the South, but it must have been done at much greater cost of time and treasure and blood and suffering. They were our guides, our spies, our conceal ers, and our nurses. The fugitive from Libby or Florence or Andersonville found food and shelter in their cabins, and the darling of many a mother, the pride and hope of manya northern home, was affectionately tended by a 2nd mother, who studied every want, tried to soothe every pain, and, when naught availed, wiped off the clammy death sweat, and closed the glassy eye. As soon as we would permit them to do so, they became our comrades on the bat tle fidd, and with unblenching valor led the forlorn A pOhpoupaer. fallacy was that the negro could not be a true man because he would not fight, a fallacy strange enough in the mouths of those who were so often prating about the dangers of a negro insurrection and the horrors of StDomingo. The black man in this war has shown that he has an intelligence not to be deceived, a virtue not to be seduced, and a valor not to be daunted. In what quality of manliness does the negro race fall below the degraded whites of the South? Yet these men are and have been voters always. ls there no danger in in trusting the ballot to so many ignorant blacks? I answer frankly, there is. But the danger is far greater of intrusting it to the ignorant and disloyal whites alone. Loyal ignorance, whether white or black, is beyond comparison less (lan gerous than disloyal ignorance. Icannot see how the ballot is alfected by the complexion of the hand that throws it; but I do see how it is essentially affected by the disposition that moves the hand. There is an instinct in virtue which keeps its possessor from going very far astray. But the instincts of vice are all for wandering. Werst and most perilous of all is disloyal intelligence. This, in the persons of such men as Calhoun, and Rhett, and Wise, and Yauce, and Breckinridge, and Jeff. Davis, has brougfit upon us the awful perils through which we have just passed and are now passing. If the negro is below the whites of the Sonth inmental strength and culture, is he not infinitely above a large majority of them in all the instincts of loyalty and devotion to liberty 1 He at least has always been true and faith in to his country, which has repaid him with injustice, Oppression, and stripes. He has always obeyed the laws of the land, paid taxes without a murmur, and yielded his body a will ’ing sacrifice whenever perils dawned upon the nation; and by his singularly good conduct in the trying situation of the last 5 years he has earned this been of suffrage, if it were not his by right, and has given ample evidence that he will make a proper use of it. To reserve peace in the States and har mony in our Federal system, I am fully persuaded, Mr. Speaker, that every man should be made equal before the law. as he is equal before the promises of the Gospel. nd speaking here today between the Old and the New, I should be unfaithful to my own convictions if I refrained from uttering these words before you. Look which way we will, we have no sign in heaven or on earth to guide as except the sign of Liberty and Equality before the law as proclaimed at our national birth in the great Declaration: “God has devolved on us the experimentof self govcmment. We are not sufferedto make it with the liighest types of human form and intellect alone. It is His decrep from which there is no escape. that we shall make it With all the racesof the earth comminglod and combined. They are here, planted, scattered. rooted among us. To separat them is impossible. Tosubjugate the inferior to the superior race itself defeats the experiment and will lead again as it has already led. to cruel war. In this crisis let us fulfill with delity and honor the respon sibilities which are devolved upon ul." General Martmdale, February22, 1866.