Mr. SAULSBURY. However unwisely that portion of the people of the South who desired a separation from the Federal Union may have acted, if this bill becomes a law it will be difficult to escape the conviction that that portion $f them who adhered to the fortunes of the F federal Union did not act more unwisely. why I do say so? I say so because this o: Contravention of every promise and ge made by the Federal Government to that portion of . the lo. of the South who fidelity to the Federal Union. eral to." i. of their duty to the Fed t was that if they rendered to you allegiance you should afford to them protection; and from the beginning of this war up to its close your uniform promise to that class of people was that you would if they adhered to you afford them protection. Now, sir, 100s and 1000s of them, as you yourselves admit, did consistently from the inception of the war to its termination remain what you call loyal. I ask you, sir, in what better situation ought a Union man in the State of Massachusetts to stand than a Union man in SCarolina or Mississippi? If you compensate for damages done to the property of a Union man in a non-seceding State, a State not declared by your proclamations to be in rebellion, upon what principle do you deny compensation to equally as good a Union man wherever he may be located? Why, sir, had you proclaimed in the inception of this war to the people of the South, those people of the South, I mean, who adhered steadfastly to the Federal Union, that you would not at the termination of the war redress any grievance they might have endured or any wrongs they might have suffered, how many Union men do you suppose you would have had in the South? Not a corporafs guard; and if you had had no Union men in the South, had that people been united heart and soul every man of them, instead of your flags floating over every State in the South it would have floated nowhere in the South. Then, sir, I protest against this act by Congress as a gross wrong done to that portion of the people of the South who continued their fidelity to the Federal Union. You are drawing a distinction between what you call Union men in one section of the country and in one State of the Union and those persons of a like character residing in a different section and in a different State. such a principle is unjust. It should have no recognition here; it is contrary to your promises and pledges made during the continuance of the war.