Mr. RICE. of Maine Speech entitled Reconstruction. February 13, 1867, On the bill (H.R.No. 1143) to provide for a more efficient government of the insurrectionary States. Mr. RICE, of Maine. Mr. Speaker, amidst the conflict of opinions and the “confusion of tongues” upon the condition, the disposition, and the restoration of the late insurrectionary States and the people thereof, I have not intended to utter a word nor express an opinion in this House, save by my votes, until the introduction of the bill now under consideration. But, sir, this measure involves principles of such vast magnitude, so broad in their scope, so extended in their operation, so questionable in their shape, and may become so revolutionary in their character, that I cannot give it my support without expressing my fears for the future of the country, and briefly giving my reasons for the reluctant vote which I may be constrained to record in its favor. Some of my friends upon this side of the House seem to regard it as a great measure of reconstruction, a grand panacea for all our ills, and the final resting place for the Republic after the long agony and the “bloody sweat” of war. If such is the haven in which the nation is to be finally anchored, then, sir, I can only exclaim in hope less agony of soul, “God save the Republic f’ for nothing less than Almighty power, working through miracles such as the ages have not seen, can preserve in such a shell the soul of republican liberty. }. such be the dread extremity to which we have come at last, if this is to be our abiding place, then we have wasted our substance for naught. Ay, sir, we have shed the best blood of the nation in vain, and the bereaved and mourning widows, fathers and mothers, sisters and i.all over the East, the North, and the great West must have added to the poignancy of their grief the conscious heart crushing fact that their best loved ones have died as the contending hosts of the South have died, for a “lost cause;” that victors and vanquished are alike defeated; and the surviving soldiers of the Republic, that grand army of citizen patriots, now returned to the peaceful avocations of life, will look back to the battle fields of the desolated South and sigh that they, too, did not go down with their comrades in the shock of battle and in the glory of conscious victory, rather than survive the great principles for which they fought; that the great triumph won by their prowess should thus by our folly “be turned to ashes in their mouths.” Heaven grant that we may so escape from the perils that surround us and.may be involved in this measure as to avert the curses of those who have thus sacrificed and fought for the preservation of the Union upon the true basis of constitutional and republican liberty. Mr. Speaker, if that vast portion of the republic lately given over to rebellion and blood shed, but now prostrate before the power of the Government, is to be held for an indefinite period as a subjugated province under military rule, divided and subdivided into military depts and districts, instead of retained as States in a grand Union of States, governed and controlled by a law loving and loyal people, according to the principles and through the orms of civil rights and process, then 1000times, 10,000 times, better that we had let our “erring sisters' depart in peace, and so saved the hecatombs of precious lives and the untold treasure expended in the fear ful struggle through which the rebellion was subdued. Hf believed for a single moment. that such would be, or could be, the settled policy of the party with which I E. have the to act, I would spit upon this bill and spurn it under my feet. In sorrow and in sad ness I would part company with my friends here and pass over to the other side of this Chamber, and there, with the disconsolate, feed upon the dry husks of. degenerate and demor Democracy for the few remaining days of this Congress; and then, disheartened and discouraged, retire to the quiet walks of private life; and there, with sorrow for the past, in anguish for the present, and hopeless for the future of my country, close out the remaining years of an unprofitable life. But, sir, I am glad to hear it generally declared, and I fully believe such to be the fact, that this is only designed as a temporary expedient, inau gurated because of present and urgent necessity to protect the loyal people, white and black, in these States, and save them from plunder, rapine, and murder. With this understanding only, and upon the finding and report of the JtCom on Reconstruction, based upon the testimony of distinguished officers of the Army in whom we and the people have full faith and confidence, that such necessity and such facts exist, do I consent to give this measure in any form my support. I cannot and I will not go home to my constituents with such evidence upon the record, and tell them that I refused to give the best relief in my power to bestow, even by the support of a measure so distasteful as this. My fear is that the remedy may be infinitely worse than the disease. isease is said to be present and imminent, and that the proposed remedy will cure and not kill the patient. This may be so, if it be quickly and skillfully applied, and with this hope I consent to put the medicine into the hands of the military doctors, but with the full conviction that if the operation shall be oft repeated or long continued that the patient will surely die. I do not stand here to dispute nor controvert the evidence. The witnesses are highly respect able, and have had full and most ample opportunity to observe the facts and the condition of things upon which they testify. I must say, however, because I believe it to be my duty so to state, that so far as my observation has extended in the South, I do not agree in the statement of facts adduced nor in the conclusions arrived at. During the last summer and autumn I spent several weeks in the State of Georgia, and there mixed freely and unreservedly with all classes of the people, from the log cabin of the poor man to the residence of the State Executive; from the squalid poverty of the one up through all the gradations of society to the re. fined and luxurious elegance of the other. I expressed my political sentiments freely and fully, on all proper occasions, and among all classes, without a word of insult or even rude ness from anyone; and I must say, and it is with pleasure that I sayit, that, in my judgment, no such state of things then existed there as to demand or justify for a remedy a measure so extreme and revolutionary as the one now under consideration. If this bill was designed to operate upon that State and that people alone I would, upon the judgment I have stated, romptly and unhesitatingly vote against it; E. from the evidence adduced in the case I must suppose that a different state of facts exist in other portions of the southern country, and that this or some other prompt and “heroic” remedy is imperatively demanded. I shall there. fore be constrained to vote for the bill, modi. fied, I trust, in some respects, with the hope and expectation that some measure more in consonance with the spirit of our institutions may soon be brought forward which shall dis. place military power under this bill, if enacted, and give to the well disposed, loyal people of the South protection and justice o: e be neficent aegis of the Constitution and the civil law. In the mean time, the well disposed and law abiding in the sections where they dwell and have control must wait in patience and hope until their good example shall extend to and regenerate the people of the more rebellious sections. Mr. Speaker, if I understand this bill, it will if enacted and executed extend martial law and military power over and into eve and portion of the territory named therein. It vacates all civil government at the will of a military commander; the courts of law, whether Federal or State, must be closed, or else proceed under the indorsement and permission of a post captain. All civil and judicial authority must necessarily end, for the exercise of either under such circumstances would be a mockery and a farce. It again inaugurates the “drum head” and the “military commission, ” which I had hoped had passed away forever, in place of the forms, if not the substance, of civil government and judicial process, which have been assumed and exercised since the flag of the rebellion went down before the victorious banners of Grant and the “boys in blue.” While the war lasted in visible organized force I willingly, gladly, and steadily voted here for every measure which would give strength to the military arm of the nation; and now I only submit to measure with any degree of patience or favor upon the express finding of the committee, that the rebellion still continues in fact, not by open, manly warfare, but by permissive violence and outrage, against all men in the South who dare to love and honor and vindicate the Government of the Republic and the flag by which it is represented. Mr. Speaker, I yet hope that the facts upon which this report of the committee is based have been overdrawn, or if not, that the southern people may be speedily convinced of the folly of their course and correct their behavior, so that in either case the necessity for the enactment and continuance of this extreme measuremay cease. I trust that the bill may be amended so that it shall show upon its face that its friends regard it as only a temporary expedient for a desperate emergency, and to cease its operation when some reasonable and effectual plan of restoration shall be agreed upon. There is nothing now in the bill to show that it is not a final and permanent measureof reconstruction, (if I may so abuse the term,) to be deliberately adopted and adhered to as the policy of the majority in this House. If that idea had been distinctly negatived in the bill, I might have voted for it without wearying the House with these remarks, but still with great reluctance, as I shall now do. If the republican party expects to maintain its supremacy in the councils of the nation it must not plant itself upon the theory or the fact that the great section of the country so lately or now in rebellion is to be governed for any t length of time by military power alone. If it does it will utterly fail, ofwill go down before the indignant will of the people as hopelessly and as ignominiously as o: democratic party fell under the withering curse of their loyal hearts. And yet this bill does not upon its face show any other theory. It should not, I am aware, contain a party platform. I do not mean that; but it may and it should, in my judgment, negative in its preamble the legitimate and mischievous presumption of which it is susceptible. I admit, sir, that I am jealous of military power exercised other than in subordination to the civil authority in times of comparative peace, even if delegated to the distinguished of the country, that it is not so throughout all || all must understand the difficulties of their ith all officers || that section. If such be the fact, our troubles || position. I have no doubt that some of the oby this bill. their great skill in arms, with all their great patriotism shown upon 100s of battle elds, with all their great qualities of intellect, Eurit.y, and public virtue, with the undivided of a grateful people in their possession, still they are but men, (like the rest of us some what,) and being but men they are unfit to exercise the functions legitimately pertainin to civil and judicial power, except in case o war or absolute necessity, unless they 1st 'divest themselves of all military authority and proceed in strict, accordance with the great precepts and principles and the prescribed forms of civil and judicial process. Mr. Speaker, I would willingly see the dis; tinguished General upon whom it is proposed to confer the extraordinary powers of this bill so divested of his military functions, but only to take up and retain for the prescribed term the higher position of Commander in Chief of the Army and the Navy, as provided by the Constitution of the U.S., with the highest title which the people of the Republic can bestow:. such, I believe, is the desire of the true and loyal people. But, sir. I Fo fear that that desire will be defeated fore thrust upon him any of the duties of that great office prematurely and contrary to the true intent and meaning of the fundamental law of the land. Mr. Speaker, I believe the most earnest desire of the people whom we represent upon this floor to be the restoration of the southern States and the reconciliation of the southern people, in true loyalty of heart and mind, to the Government and the laws of the great nation under which it is our pleasure as it must be their lot to live. Can it be accomplished by measures like this?. In my judgment, No! We are beginning at the wrong end of our work. We setup military power and through that hope to inaugurate civil government. We may with as much reason expect the noonday light to follow the setting of the sun. The 2 powers always have and always will be in direct antag onism, and can only be kept from collision by making the latter supreme over the former. We should build up or recognize civil governments in these States upon a loyal basis, and then, if need be, call in the military power to maintain and defend them, as prescribed by the Constitution and laws of the country. This measure does not contain a single element of reconstruction, restoration, or conciliation, but the reverse. The people ask for peace, and we give them war; they demand reconstruction, and we give them redestruction; they want restoration, and we give them annihilation; “they ask for bread, and we give them a stone.” The loyal and law abiding people of the South, those who “accept the situation” in good faith, desire protection and conciliation, and so far as we i.the opinions of such now in this city, they do not approve this measure, and many of them look upon it as the last knell of their failing hopes. Still we are told that rapine and murder stalks abroad at noon day throughout all the South unre strained and unmolested, and that we must in stantly pass this bill to stay the Moloch of blood. And upon the statement of facts we must do it. No man will go further than I will to protect the true men of the South or of any other section from such a state of anarchy. But I warn my friends upon this side of the House that we cannot stand before the country long upon this measure. We must work out the fruition of the people's hopes and demands for peace and restoration in something more in accordance with the spirit of oue institutions than bold, naked military power. I have no doubt that in some parts of the South a state of things exists which will fully justify the extreme remedy embodied in, this bill, but I do hope and I must be permitted to believe for the future peace and welfare of all parts and trials as a nation and a people have but just commenced. I have just received a letter from a reliable and most intelligent friend who has been long in Texas, in which some facts are stated bearing directly upon this question. I will read it to the House: SHREVEpoRT, LOUISIANA, January 26, 1867. MY DEAR SIR: I see that a committee has been o in Qongress to investigate the murdering of Union soldiers in SCarolina and elsewhere. Qn the 30th, August last 2 of shot without any provocation at our soldiers were a post where they were on duty, about 18 miles from Jefferson, Texas., Their names were privates Nathaniel Eylan and John Bull, both of company F, 8 ieth U.S. colored infantry. The murderer was one Jack Phillips, of Jefferson, and at that time holding some civil office. A commanding complaint was made by the officer the guard to the civil authorities and a warrant was issued; but after the troops were with drawn from that station, which was a few days after, not the least effort was madeto arrest him, and in a few weeks he returned to Jefferson, and has been there since, unmolestedby the civil authorities. It is not considered an offense in that section to kill a negro, and oa negro soldier. here is no law oro in poor colored man; but they are btheiisng semctuiordneforerd thine cold blood overy week; and where is the strong arm of the Government? Heart rending scenes have been 'o' to my attention all through the year, which if you gentlemen in Congresscould see and know afs do would induce }. to do something for the race whom you have taken from slavery in name, but whose freedom in fact you have guarantied. It is protection criminal to, take these people from the of their masters and leave them in a land of Freedmen's Bureau ubffililanasm with no protection. Your to nothing, for they, that is the officers of the bureau, have no power, or are not allowed to exercise any, except to outraged negro tell the wherethe office of the justice of the peace is; a sort of guide post for them. Your Army amounts to but little, for in officering the new regiments no care seems to have been exercised to ap: point men possessed of heart, soul, and intellect, I could recite more atrocities and outrages against freedmen in eastern Texas, and northwestern Louisiana than would fill 100 pages like this, and more facts than all the committees and inspect: ors sent down here, fattening upon the luxuries of rebels’ tables and hearing their hypocritical statements. We are to be mustered out., My address for a few days — say 2 or 3 weeks—will be 16 Natchez street, NewOrleans, care J. H. Hatch, when I shall go north to Respectfully, Maine. Charles w. Lowell. Major Poio U.S. Colored Infantry, revct Colonel U.S. Volunteers. Hon. John H. RICE, M. C. Mr. Speaker, notwithstanding this dark pic ture, I yet have hope for a peaceful and in some degree satisfactory solution of our difficulties. The Legislatures of the southern States have unwisely, and in some cases rudely, rejected the constitutional amendment submitted by this Congress at its last session. I still have faith to believe that that just and conciliatory measure may yet be ratified by many of these States by an appeal to the people from the action of their representatives. It should be remembered that probably 3/4ths or more of the men in the South who have voted upon the question of the ratification in their Legislatures would be disqualified, under the provisions of the 3rd section. This may be the reason for their action, but no such reason exists in the minds of the masses of the people, for probably 19 20th s will not be so affected. It ought not to be supposed, and it is not a fact, that masses there have any desire to retain or sustain the original breeders of the rebellion in places of trust and power; on the contrary, they must know from their sufferings, if not by their reason, that all their ills have been brought upon them by their words and acts of misrepresentation and deception. They do have and will have faith in the men who opposed secession, and then, after being beaten upon the stump, went with them into the ranks and fought for a cause which they knew was wrong and in which they did not believe, and had predicted would fail. These men will now have power, while the unrepentant secessionists will be cursed and forgotten. It may be said that this class of men (the cooperationists as they were termed) are no better than the other class. I do not think so, for secessionists are now better disposed to the Government and accept the situation in better faith than some of the cooperationists, but the general rule must be the other way. I believe, sir, that the true policy for us to pursue is to divide the people of the South in political Sentiment, so that they will organize into antago nistic parties instead of consolidating into one party, and that party in affiliation and acting in conjunction with the Democratic party of the North. Just so long as such a state of things exists, just so long the country will be in peril, for we cannot keep these States out forever, and with the great States of NewYork and Pennsylvania, so nearly divided politically between saints and sinners as they are, we are liable at any time to pass into the power of a reunited, a reconstructed, but not a regener ated Democratic party, for it will be under the control of unconverted secthesesiroannisktsc. oppehrheeafidrsst fainnadncitahle shudder, the 1st commercial agony that shall sweep over the land"will unsettle and overturn our majorities in those 2 great States, and then we shall “gnash our teeth “ in agony, and the Republic will again go darkling through the realms of political infamy, and quite likely culminate again in blood and disaster. I beg my friends here to open their eyes to this great danger., Do not lay the flattering unction to your souls that the Democratic party is dead. It is hardly asleep, only a little dor mant, while ofand bottling up virus for future mischief. It is the political worm in our body politic which never dies. It is “coppered and copper fastened, ” and will ride out the storms of political adversity and come safely into port, provided it can recruit its old officers and crew from the South. Our only safety is to take out its fangs, and the only way to do that is to divide the people of the South. If we are wise we can do this. How? Let us properly appreciate the great work that has been accomplished by the war, the radical and revolutionary fact that slavery has been abolished, and that the southern people, or the great mass of them, recognize and concur in the living, glorious truth that it is so, and would not have it restored if they could. This breaks the great material bond, the one stron political cord that held them united and boun them to the Democratic party before the war. There is no earthly reason why they shall again unite in that affiliation, and they will not, unless we are idle and fail to properly use the instrumentalities within our reach. know very well that all the promises made to them before the war by the Democratic leaders were shamelessly broken, and that they deceived them as to the feelings and the promised action of their followers in the North in case of war. Let us, then, appeal to the people of the South, the laboring, suffering millions there, and indoctrinate them with the true principles of republican liberty, instruct them in the man hood of free labor, and the advantages of free schools. The foundation of reconstruction must be laid deep and solid in the hearts and minds of the common people. We can reach and touch them now by words and acts of kind ness. Some of them may at 1st turn from us with revilings, because of their ignorance of us and the motives which actuate us; but we can surely forgive those who are ignorant and have been misled and deceived by others. They are stricken and suffering from the desolations of war and the bitter pinching of pov erty and hunger, and shall we also smite those whom God has stricken? No! Let us dis. criminate in their behalf, while we visit incor rigible and unrepentant rebels, those who have been instrumental in bringing the wrath of God down upon them and upon us, and are still inciting the people to deeds of wrong and violence, with the full force and vengeance of the Government. This I know cannot be accomplished here to any great extent; these Halls are not peculiarly dedicated to deeds of charity and Christian benevolence. It is easier for us to “Let slip the dogsof war.” than to bind up the wounds of the suffering, light up the minds of the benighted, and feed the mouths of the hungry; but surely in executing justice we may as far as possible discriminate against those who “sin against light and knowledge, ” and in favor of the poor and the suffering. While I will go as far as anyone upon this floor in the just punishment of the former, I am free to confess that my heart opens in sympathy toward the latter in their dire distress. Now is the time for the great pulsating, benevolent heart of the North to pour out the warmth of its i.; love upon the suf. poor in our own land, and to thrust its broad, generous hands deep down into its capacious pockets and from thence draw out and distribute generous supplies for their shivering bodies and their hungry mouths, and this without inquiring as to their .offenses, but only as to their immediate neols. I hail with intense satisfaction the great deed, the munificent, gift, the generous act of the distinguished philanthropist, Mr. George Peabody, in placing in the hands of trustees more than 2 million dollars for “the educational needs of those portions of our beloved and common country which have suffered from the destructive ravages and the not less disastrous consequences of civilWar.” I that others who have the ability may make additions to that fund; and that it may go on accumulating and distributing its blessings until every child in the sunny South, “without dis; tinction of race or color, ” shall be able to read and understand the noble letter through which the great gift was made and the trust created. such will be for the “healing of the nation.” Mr. Speaker, I will with the permission of the House have printed as a part of my remarks, the correspondence which consummated this grand transaction, so that it shall be preserved forever in the annals of the nation, and made a sweet place of rest for the weary student while plodding through the ponderous tome. An oasis, the one green spot, amid an infinite waste of words. To Hon. Robert C. Winthrop, of Massachusetts; Hon. Hamilton Fish, of NewYork; Right IRev. Charles P. McIlvaine, of Ohio; General U. S. Grant of the U U.S. Army; ifom. William C. Rives, of Virginia; Hon. John H. Clifford, of Massachusetts; Hon. William Aiken, of SCarolina; William M. Evarts, oof NewYork; Hon. William A. Graham, of NCarolina; Qharles Macalester, of Riggs, esq., Pennsylvania: George W. esq., of Washington; Samuel Wetmore of NewYork; Edward A. Bradford, esq., o ilouisiana; George N. Eaton, esq., of Maryland, and George Peabody Russell, esq., of Massachusetts: GENTLEMEN: I beg to address you on a subject which occupied my mind long before I left England, and in regard to which one, at least, of you (Hon. Mr. Winthrop, the distinguished and valued friend to whom I am so thy, careful consideration nd, eabntdedwfioser ccoorudniasel l sympa in this matter) will remember, that, I consulted him imme dio upon my arrival in May last. I refer to the educational needsof those portions of our beloved and common country which have suffered from the destructive ravages, and the not less disastrous consequences of civilWar. With my, advancing years my attachment to my native land has but become more devoted. My hope and faith in grown brightietsr successfuland glorious future have and stronger, and now, looking for ward beyond my stay on earth, as may be permitted to onewho has passed the limit of 3 scoreand ten years. I see our country united and prosperous, emerging from the clouds which still surround her, taking aing higher rank among the nations and becom richer and more powerful than ever before. but to make her, prosperity more than superficial, her moral and intellectual development should keep pace with her material growth, and in those portions of Qur nation to which I have referrred, the urgent and pressing physical needs of an almost impov ferroismhed people must for some years preclude them ounaided effort, such advances in education, and such progress in knowledge among the diffusion of all classes, as everylover of his country must earnestly desire. I, feel most o;therefore, that it is the duty and privilege of the more fayored and wealthy portions of our nation to assistthose who are less fortu nato, and, with the wish to discharge so far as I may be able myown responsibility in this matter, as well as to gratify my desire to aid those to whom I am bound by so many ties of attachmentand regard, I give to you, gentlemen, most of personal and especial friends, thwehsoummhave beenmy of sioðjoð, to be by you and your successorsheld in trust, and the income thereof used and applied in your discretion for the promotion and encouragement of lectual, moral or industrial education amonignttheel young of the more destitute portions of the southern and southwestern States of our Union; my purpose being that the benefits intended shall be among distributed tion thathnetehnetirirenepeodpsulaantidonth, ewiotphpouorttuon thiteiersdoisft usefulness to them. Besides the income thus derived, I give to you permission to use from the principal sum, within the o: 2 years, an amount not exceeding 40 per cell In addition to this gift I place in your hands bonds of the State of Mississippi, issued to the Planters' Bank, and commonly known as Planters' Bank bonds, amounting, with interest, to about 1100,000 dollars, the amount realized by you from which is to be added to and used for the purposes of inally issued this trust. These bondswereori; in payment for stock in that bank held the State, and amounted in all to only $2,000,000 or many years the State received large dividends from that bank over and above the interest on these bonds. The State paid the interest without interruption till 1840, since, which no interest, has been paid, except a payment of about 100,000 dollars, which was found in the treasury, applicable to the payment of the coupons, and paid by a mandamusof the Supreme Court. Tio validity of these bonds has never been questioned, and they must not be confounded with another issueof bonds made by the State to the Union Bank, the recognition of which has been a subject, of controversy with a portion of the population of Mississippi. ruVarayrious acts of the Legislature, namely, of Feb 28, 1843;February 23, is??, February io, is?o: February 28, 1846;March 4, isis, and the highest judicial tribunal of validity, the State have confirmed their and I have, no doubt that at an early day such legislation will be had as to available make these bonds in increasing the usefulnessof the present trust. Mississippi, though now depressed, is rich in agricultural lrigeasotiuornceres, satinndg ucapnonnohter long disregard the to make provision for their payment., In, confirmation of what, I have said in regard to concerning the legislative and judicial action the State bonds issued to Bank the Planters' I herewith place in your hands the documents marked.A.. The details, and organization of the trust I leave with you, only requesting that, Mr. Winthrop, may be chairman and Governor Fish and Bish9p McIl vaine vice chairmen of your body. And I give to you power to make all necessaryby laws and regulations, to obtain an aet of incorporation if any shall be found expedient, to provide for the expensesof the trustees and of any agents appointed by them, and generally to do all such acts as may be necessary for carrying out the provisions of this trust. All vacanciesoccurring in your number death, resignation, or otherwise, shall be filled your election, so soon as conveniently may be, and having in view an equality of representation so far as regards the northern and southern States. I furthermore give to you the power, in case 2/3rds of the trustees shall at any time after the lapse of 30 years deem it expedient, to close, this trust, and of the funds which at that time shall be in the hands of yourselvesand your successors, to distribute not less than 2/3rds amongsuch educational or literary institutions, or for such educational purposes as you, and they may determine in the States for whose benefit the income is, now appointed to be used. The remainder may be distributed by the trustees for educational or literary purposeswhere ever they may deem it expedient. In making this gift, I am aware that the fund derived from it can but aid the States which I wish to benefit, in their own exertions toings difuse the bless of education and morality. But if this endowment shall encouragethosenowanxious for the light of knowledge, and stimulate to good and noble men who cherinshew the effohrigtshthpeumrpaonsye of placing our, great country foremost, not only in power, but in the intelligence and virtue of her citizens, it will have accomplishedall that I canhope.. With reverent recognition of the need ofing the bless of Almighty God upon this gift, and with the fervent prayer that under. His guidance your counsels may be directed for the highest good of present and future generations in our beloved country, I gentlemen, am, with great respect, your humble servant, GEORGE PEABODY. WASHINGTON, February 7, 1867. Upon the receipt of the above letter by Hon. Robert C. Winthrop, a meeting of the gentlemen named in it was called to consider the matter, whereupon the following resolutions were ". o. by Bishop MprceIslveanint e. of Ohio, and signed by those trustees in Washington: Whereas, our honored countryman and friend, George Peabody, has, in a letter just communicated to the undersigned, madeknown his determination, out of a grateful sense of the manifold goodnesswith which God has prosperedhis life, and of an earnest desire to promote the best interests of his fellow citizens to dovote a munificent donation of property for certain most wise and beneficent uses, indicated in said letter, and has requestedus to charge take in trust the and management of the same: Therefore, Resolved, That the undersigned, being the trustees assembled in Washington, deeply sensible of the honor conferred on them by a trust of such etoi nent importance and responsibility, and realizing their dependenceupon the guidance and blessing of God to be enabled to discharge its duties with such wisdom and faithfulness as may best secure the be nevolent designs of the gift, do hereby accept the office of trustees of the same, and promise our best exertions in its behalf. Resolved, That we herebyexpress to Mr. Peabody our grateful appreciation of the crlarged and unprecedented generosity which, after having bestowed on the poor of the city of London a bounty that drew forth the admiration of Europe, and after having cxceeded the same in his recent return to his native land in benefactions to institutions of learning and education in the middle and eastern States of the Union, hasnow crowned the whole with this last deed of patriotism and loving kindness so eminently cal culated to bind together the several parts of our beloved country in doing the best bonds of mutual well and regard. Resolved, That we express to respectful Mr. Peabody our and affectionateprayer that in the gracious providence of our Heavenly Father his valuable life may belong spared to witness the success of his be nevolent contributions to the happinessof his fellow citizens in all parts of his native and beloved land, and eth paotssmeassniyon of those whom God has blessedwith beinduced to follow his example of wiseand noble employmentof wealth for the good of man and the s God. ROBERT C. WINTHROP, CHARLES P. McILWAINE, U. S. GRANT, General U.S. Army, William Aiken, William M. Evarts, C. Macalester. George W Samuel W George N. Eaton, George Peabody Russell. Mr. Speaker, I for one would willingly vote to donate from the public Treasury an equal sum for a like purpose were it not that it might be invoked as a precedent in the future for similar appropriations. As a plan of recon: struction it would be far more effective and largely less expensive than “an army with banners.” I have no earthly doubt that $5,000,000, judiciously expended for the relief of the actual sufferings of the people of the South, would do more to reconcile and restore them and the States to amicable relations with the Government than 20 times. that sum expended in the execution of meas. ures like this now before the House. But, sir, I have been led away from the line of my argument into theories which may be regarded by some as weak and impracticable, and perhaps by some others, as trenching close upon the confines of political heresy. When I “ran off the track” I was about to say that our great battle must be fought with the Democratic party for a division of the southern people into political parties, and that the abolition of slavery rendered that a natural and an easy thing to do. Upon the basis of the constitutional amendment, notwithstanding its present rejection, I believe, together with other reasonable conditions, that more than 1/2 of the southern States could be car. ried for the Union candidates in the next presidential election. The Democrats rely upon their old game of representing themselves as exclusively the friends of the South and of the southern people; and the strongest possible argument against the intelligence of the people there is that they succeed so well in making them believe it, when in fact they were before the war, during the war, and are now, their greatest enemies. If that party or the president had declared in favor of the amendment it would have been carried, and the southern States might have been represented here to: day in accordance with the expressed will of the northern people in their most emphatic action at the polls. If all other measures fail, as they may fail.in this Congress and in the 1st session of the next, we should in my judgment make a vigorous effort to carry a part of the southern States for the amendment by a direct appeal to the people. I believe this may be done and thus destroy the power of the Democratic party, which after all I regard as being the great enemy with which we have to contend. power confronts us here and it confronts us there. Strike it down there and it falls here and everywhere, and with it falls all the wrongs and the violence and the outrage that now prevails at the South and which distracts us here today. I do not mean to charge our friends on the other side of this House as directly or indirectly encouraging such astate of things, for they are all “honorable men, ” and many of them my personal friends, who would not be guilty of any such offense; Ibut the fact of their great power in the States have named and some others of the northern States, induces the southern people who are disloyal and ill disposed to exercise their “amiable qualities” in committing wrongs and outrages upon defenseless negroes and loyal white men, and relying upon the Democratic party for friendship and general amnesty. If the measure now before the House shall fail to become the law, as I think it will in its present shape, and if no better measure can E. agreed upon as a finality upon this question, let a grand political campaign be inaugurated upon the basis of the constitutional amendment and universal manhood suffrage. The proposed amendmentis I know quite generally misunderstood by the people of the South. I so found the fact, and I did not find but very few who made objection to it after they under stood it, other than those who would be disqualified from holding office under. the 3rd section. If the masses of the people can be induced to accept it in good faith, probably no better. i. of reconstruction and recon ciliation can be devised. I believe that a line of towns and counties and States from the mount ains of WestVirginia down to the Gulf can be carried, by proper effort, and through the instrumentalities I have named, and thus dividing the southern country again, now in the interests of peace, transversely to that other division made by the hosts of war. Not by a pathway strewn with the desolations and ruin of war and lighted by the glare of burning towns and hamlets, but one made joyous by the blessings of peace and contentment. This effected, the belt would rapidly expand, left and right, to the dashing waves of the Atlantic in the east and to the murmuring ripples of the Rio Grande in the west. Then the great desire of the nation's heart, the rich fruition of the people's hopes, the grand consummation of our labors—reconciliation, reunion, and restoration, these 3 in one—will have become an accomplished fact. Then from the fountains of wealth in the North the waste places of the South will be rapidly rebuilt, and the ever rushing tide of human migration from the East and from over the sea, no longer turned westward by the dark barrier of slavery, will spread itself throughout her borders. Then the land will bud and blos som—in all the vallies and upon the hillsides, along the rivers and the arms of the sea, upon the mountains and the broad savannas—with the ripe, rich fruits of human industry, directed by the impulse of free minds and the energy of willing hands. That diversity of employment and production will then obtain which was impossible under the old system of labor, and the want of which has kept the South lagging behind the other sections. Not only will her rich fields and savannas produce increased riches in cotton, corn, and sugar, but her mountain sides, touched by the wand of freedom, will pour forth rich streams of mineral wealth. er coasts and her rivers will whiten with the sails and hiss with the steam of commerce and navigation; and the waters of her numerous streams will laugh and sparkle amid the revolving wheels of manufacturing machinery. Thus, under the stimulus of free labor, with a free Bible and free schools every where and the blessing of God, the nation will be regenerated and take a new start in the race of prosperity and empire. Slavery was the “dead line” which divided the sections. It has been obliterated by the sharppoint of the bayonet and the atonement of blood. Let us not raise another wall in its stead, but stand together in republican equality upon the broad plain of a common country, a common brotherhood, and a common destiny. These views, Mr. Speaker, at the present time, may seem extravagant and Utopian; but, sir, if wisdom and true statesmanship shall govern the hearts of the people and the action of their representatives, all that my words have indicated and even more will be accomplished. It is time for us to abandon the idea that the southern people are to be punished for their treason by excluding them from participation in the Government under which they are to live. The question to be determined is, are they loyal and well disposed toward the Government now? I believe that the great body of them are so. They do not want to fight any more; they have had enough of that; they do not desire to have slavery reestablished even if they could; they know that it has been the fruitful cause of all their trials and sufferings, and they do not desire that their children shall be subject to the like. We cannot exclude all who have given aid to the rebellion in the South from participation and voice in the Government and reserve even the semblance of republican institutions there. The grand foundation stone upon which our form of government rests is equal, unrestricted manhood suffrage, and the sooner we reach uniformity in all the States in that respect the better it will be for all. We cannot set up a military government nor an oligarchy in one part of the country and maintain it for any length of time without endangering the entire national edifice. If we are wise we shall not try the experiment beyond the bounds of absolute necessity, but hasten forward as. as possible to the auspicious day when all government and divisions of government in our happy land shall rest securely “upon the consent of the governed.” Reconstruction.