Mr. COWAN. Yes, and ask that Congress that sat here, too; ask that Congress did it pass any bill to authorize him to put down the insurrection; did it make any provision? The history of that Congress is written. “Well, ” the old man says, “I cannot do any good here; these people seem to be all demented; they have forgotten what the Government was organized for; they have forgotten its mission. They seem to think it has no function, that it is to remain seated here and do nothing, and that the people will still maintain their allegiance to it as against State governments and confederate governments; however, this will be all right yet.” Hc oes down home and tells the boys and every ody that things will be better after a little; that there is a new President coming in; that Congress and the old President are fighting and have got to loggcrheads; one will not do this and the other will not do that, and both are waiting for some new advent. The 4th of March comes round. What is done then? The new President finds himself here without an army, without a navy, without a treasury, everything demoralized, everything at 6es and 7 s, and for 6 weeks neither he nor his Cabinet knew what to do. What is the old man to do in the mean time? The stern old patriot, good Union man, says, “ Never mind; things will come right yet; after awhile these people at the North will et started and then we will be set all right; the traitors will be punished and we shal be protected." In the meanwhile one of the boys comes in and says, “ Father, I have got tired of being called a traitor; I cannot stand it any longer; my neighbors arejoining companies and regiments; and Iain sometimes actually in danger of being mobbed when I go out; here are Vigilance Committees and Preci itators and Knights of the Golden Circle, an it is hardly safe for a man to go out; but they have offered to make me colonel ifl will take command of a re iment. I do not see that we have any hope at a 1; Mr. Lincoln is not going to do any better than Mr. Buchanan; here we have waited a whole month and he has not done a thing; there have been no supplies throwa into Sumter, no troops sent there, no strengthening of that post; this is a foregone conclusion; can we look any longer to the Federal Government? 4 months have already passed; I guess I'll take the colonelcy." The old man says, “I do not like that, but I do not see very well what else you are to do; if this thing shall succeed and you are not in it, of course you will be damned forever and spotted as a Tory down to the latest generation, perhaps; I guess you had better go in.” John goes in and takesacolonelcy; Jim goes in and is made a major, and Ben is made a captain, and so on; and about the time that is done they fire on Sumter and the North is on fire. Armies are in motion to go down and rescue these men after they have been in the toils. Well, let as follow it a little further. Before our armies get within 100 miles of this old man to protect him, to stand between him and the secessionists, he finds posted up on the wall a proclamation. was a that! proclamation? Why that he is a sinner, a man who has violated a great moral law of God in the universe in ownin slaves, and that his slaves that he owned, t int he looked upon as his property, that he believed were his property, that had come to him from his father, if you please, “ were freed., i'ow, ” says he, “ that maybe; butI always thought that when a man committed a sin he ought to know it. I do not understand slaver to e a sin in itself. My father did not teac me so; my mother did not teach me so; the church did not teach me so; our people all around here did not believe so. Our people thought slaver in itself was indifferent; that if a master too 100negroes and made them happier than they were before, wiser than before, better than before, it was a virtue, and if he took them and made them worse it was a sin; and who dares tell me that I have been a sinner in this behalf? And what kind of protection is this that a Government is to alford me to allow the country to be covered with war and desolation for months on account of its neglect at the outstart, and then after doing all this I am to be told, true as I have been to the Constitution and the laws and the flag, that I am a sinner and to be bereft of my property? However, erhaps this is after all right; this is a great Union and a great country, iiiid we can afford great sacrifices for it, and I will submit to this and be a Union man still." Then after war is over, after peace has come back, his sons are disfranchised, or rendered ineligible to oliice; every kind of igno miny is heaped upon him and upon them; they are punished without being tried, they are convicted without being heard; their apologies are not considered; they are not considered in court; they are not considered in the legislative 'liall; this 'old manis not allowed the poor privilege of a friendfrom his district to come here and offer the little apologies he may have for himself and his children. That is an American citizen, a true man, a Union man; and thi is the way we legislate for our fellow citizens! This is the cement with which we propose to bind this Union again! This is the way we expect to extend the hand of fellowsbi to the Union men of the South! This is the thing we expect will secure to our children and to our children’s children a future for the great Republic. Think of iit I hear gentlemen taking airings in history. we were treated to a dish of it this morning. I would advise gentlemen to read Preiidergast’s History of the Cromwellian settlement in Ireland. Read the Partition of PO land. Read the suppression of all rebellions, and read where this operation has been performed successfully of putting down a rebellion and healing the wounds caused by it, and ask whether this is part of the machinery that was resorted to there. Go to Roman history; read it from end to end, and see whether when they conquered u people whom they wished to unite to themselves they imposed conditions, whether they said, “You must do this and you must do that, you must pass under the yoke.” Never, never. If the omans intended that a conquered people should live with them they made them their equals immediately; they gave them all the rights of Roman citizens and what was their argument? “ They will love us the better the better we treat them, and they will hate us the worse the worse we treat them." Then, Mr. President, there is a fundamental principle, a principle fundamental in the hearts of Englishmen, I rope, and their descendants; fundamental in our history, fundamental in our traditions, fundamental in our beliefs, fundamental as our religion; it is that no man is to be convicted without being heard. How can you tell what a man has to as who was engaged in the rebellion? You refused to put the word “voluntarily” in. Do you propose to punish a man who was compelled to commit a crime involuntarily? And yet you do if he engaged in the rebellion. Gentlemen tell us it is no punishment to say that a man shall have no voice and shall not be eligible to office. That might do to tell some of the verdant, virtuous districts out through the country, but it is a very singular speech here in the U.S. Senate, composed of 40 or 50 men who have been all their lives struggling for offices, and have got very high ones at last. No punishment to say that a man shall not be elected to officel What kind of ideas of punishment must some people have? Do they think that punishment consists alone in pulling teeth or smashing thumbs in the thumb screw, or putting boots on the leg? Is that the only kind of punishment you can inflict on a man? Is there not such a thing as setting a mark upon him, the punishment of the 1st murderer, sending him out to wan der through the world like the man in the novel who had no shadow? Is it no punishment to put a wolf's head of this kind upon a man, to single him out, set him apart in the community, and label him “traitor, ineligible?” Do you know any men of our breed on the earth that ever submitted to that long? I should like some gentleman to consult his histor and find when and where men of our race su mit ted to that long.