Mr. WARD, of NewYork. Mr. Chairman, the country has spoken; the popular verdict stands recorded in the recent elections; and the 39th Congress reassembles strength ened, encouraged, and instructed by the great tribunal to whieh it appealed, the loyal people of the U.S. Great admonitions flow from this result. The President is admonished that his “policy” of reconstruction is not indorsed by the people who put down the rebellion and saved the Republic; that his denunciations of the legislative branch of the Government, in which he charges them with.designs, with striving to prevent the reunion of the States, with “hanging upon the verge of the Government, ” and with being a “tyrannical, domineering, and unconstitutional Congress, ” are not approved; that his reorganizing the rebellion into pretended State governments in the disloyal States, and insisting that they are legal State organizations and entitled to representation in congress, without affording any security or protection to the loyal men in those States, and in defiance and contempt of the lawmaking power of the Government and the representatives of the people; that his indiscriminate pardon of rebels, his failure to bring any of them to punishment for the most infamous of crimes, his sustaining the murder of Union men in NewOrleans, and his failure to give any protection to the loyal whites and the freedmen of the South who are shot down in the streets and murdered in their beds at night for the sole offense of faithfulness to the Government of their fathers, his refusal to bring any of those murderers to punishment for their crimes; that his relieving rebel property from the confiscation that the law imposes; diverting the public money to create illegal State organizations and to pay officers of his own creation in violation of law; that his attempt by the use of the vast patronage confided to him for a wise purpose to sap the independence of Congress, and, failing in that, to corrupt and debauch the people, the sources of power, by removing from office men, whether they had borne arms in the defense of the country and had come back scarred and maimed from the grandest battle fields in history or not, who sustained the integrity and independence of Congress, and substituting in their place the creatures of his will, some of whom were men whose hands were stained with the blood of heroes shed in the nation's behalf; and his manifest contempt, in his appointments to of fices, of the “advice and consent of the senate” of the U.S.; that his opposition to the just and wise constitutional amendments proposed by Congress for adoption by the States, and thereby encouraging a spirit in the South against a speedy restoration to peace and prolonging the time of adjustment and pacification; in short, that nearly his whole conduct, official and unofficial, from his 4th of March presentation to his gyrations “round the circle, ” have received from the people to whom he so confidently appealed the strongest condemnation, the most withering rebuke. And those mercenary men who, without principle and devoid of honor, for the sake of plun der followed the standard of their apostate chief into the camp of the traitors; they are admonished by the result that the contempt and scorn of all honest men will be their portion as long as they shall live! Have these worthies sensibility enough left to appreciate the “situation, ” or is the result as to them like “casting pearls before swine 7” But, Mr. Chairman, the admonition does not stop here; it comes with tremendous force to the Congress of the U.S. You have done well, say the people, but you have not done enough. 8 months you stood on guard to keep traitors from the high places of power; you proposed needed changes in the Constitution, passed the “Freedmen's Bureau” and “civil rights bills, ” and recognized the loyal people of the State of Tennessee as entitled to representation in Congress all that was well, but werequire you to do more. And, Mr. Chair man, I believe that this grand and sublime man ifestation of the popular will has a far deeper significance. While it approves of what has been done, it decides that the work is still incomlete; it indicates that at last, after passing rough centuries of contest and blood, combating with thrones and despots, with false systems, political and religious; with persecution, ignorance, and superstition, the great principle should at last be asserted on this continent andingrafted upon our regenerated nationality, that all men, native born or naturalized in this country, shall be equal before the law, equal at the ballot box, equal before man as they are before God. Who that has watched the terrible ordeal through which we have passed can have failed to discover the superintending protection of Heaven all fo the darkness and gloom until our salvation was complete, can now doubt that in this crowning victory at the bal lot box the “voice of the people is the voice of God?” Sir, the responsibility of rebuilding the shattered column of the national edifice rests upon Congress. All hope of favorable cooperation from the President must be abandoned. To Congress the 4 million loyal people of the South are looking for protection. Away in their southern homes, or in the mountains and caves to which they have fled for safety, or languishing in dungeons, or suffering in exile they are offering up their daily prayers to Go in our behalf and stretching forth their hands to us for help. The loyal millions who have just spoken at the polls; the silent throng of cripples and mourners that sadden the land; the sacred dead that fell in the struggle; the sacrifices of blood and treasure the country has made; the holy cause of liberty and free government itself, all appeal to us to come up to the high demands of the hour, to do our whole duty, do it promptly, and do it Wi. well is that duty? One, sir, that has been too long neglected. I was one of those who believed last session that Congress should then have gone to the root of the matter and reor ganize from the foundation. I was in favor, as some honorable gentlemen here well know, of providing by law of Congress for the reorganization of the State governments in all the States that have been in rebellion, except the State of Tennessee, and that in that reorganization all loyal men, irrespective of color, should take part. I still believe that we should have done so; but more timid counsels prevailed. gentlemen feared that the people were not ready for this, that they had not reached the high stand point necessary to approve such a sourse. I hope these gentlemen have learned that the people are ahead of them, that they are radical, that they comprehend the whole question; and, sir, they will insist upon their representatives doing everything that the nation needs. The most radical men of this Congress are returned by the largest majorities, while all of those in the originally free States, and most of those from the slave, who followed the pernicious example of the President and left the Union party are rejected by the people. Then away with your timid conservatism; away with that quality that would compromise the right, that would barter away equality, jus tice, and;ted faith for expediency, trade, and the good will of traitors. I am sick of your expediency men and measures; the times demand radical men and measures. Radicalism crowded the Mayflower landed on Plymouth rock, dotted settlements along the Atlantic coast, declared “not one cent for tribute, but millions for defense, ” threw the tea into Boston harbor, made the immortal Declaration, achieved our independence, redeemed this great land from the wilderness, built the school house and the church, covered the land with cities and towns, and the ocean with ships, stretched the electric cord, through the great waters so that continent talked with continent under the sea, sent 2 million men to the front, crushed out the rebellion, kept traitors out of Congress, repudiated AndrewJohnson, the rebels, and copperheads by more than half a million majority, and now it proposes to reap all the fruits of the great victories of the sword and the ballot box by reconstructing the Republic upon a sound and just basis so that it will stand forever. We must be fearless as well as just; we must punish traitors and stand by our friends “though the heavens fall.” We have a fearful responsibility to meet; we have not discharged our duty to the ten unreconstructed States. The collapse of the rebellion left those States without civil government and without a “RFG.” In such an emergency it devolved upon Congress to “guaranty” to them a “RFG.” This could not be done by proclamation of the Executive or by military orders, but only by law, by solemn acts of legislation of the lawmaking power of the U.S.; for it is the highest act of legislation to guaranty and provide civil government for a State. When the fathers of the Republic founded this unequaled system of government; when in the great councils that they held to frame a Constitution that, in the language of its preamble, “should establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to themselves and posterity;” when they were gathering from all ages, all political systems, and all history the materials with which to construct the new edifice that was to be consecrated to those high and noble ends, they with prophetic vision dimly foresaw that the time might come in the nation's life when, through the machinery of State governments, sections, or interests in conflict, real or imaginary, with the policy of the General Government, might seek by revolution to sever the connection of that State or section with the Union, and that in the revolution thus inaugurated all law, all authority, all government, executive, legislative, and judicial, might be overthrown so that the State and people affected thereby would be prac tically without a RFG, and then, with the great wisdom that distinguished all their deliberations, they provided for that contingency and vested the power of reorganizing those States in the national Congress; and while the exercise of this power is new, the power itself is as old as the Constitution. To what else could this constitutional provision refer; the admission of new States and the care of the Territories and other property of the U.S. are provided for in other sections. It could not relate to anything but the reconstruction of old States that had wandered away from their allegiance and the people of which desired to return to that allegiance. Again, the great Charter provided for the security to life, liberty, and protection to the rights of property. These are the great ends of the Government they were founding; for these the Revolution was fought, independence achieved, and the Constitution established. And if these rights God given and thus guarantied were denied the people and legislation were needed in the premises, where did the Constitution vest the power thus to legislate? In the very 1st section of the 1st article of the Constitution it is provided that “All legislative power herein grantedshall be vested in a Congress of the U.S., which shall consist of a Senate and HoRep.” And again, in the last subdivision of section 8 of the same article, it is provided that Congress shall “Make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers and all other powers yested by this Constitution in the Government of the U.S or in any Dept or officer thereof.” It is submitted, Mr. Chairman, that such legislation can be had by Congress as may be necessary to secure those great ends. Am I told that this is a new construction? If new, then I say that it is time that the Constitution was construed in the interests of liberty and on the side of justice. Slavery, thank God, is abolished. The heresy of “State rights” went down with the monstrous system that have it birth. This all controlling influence of humanbondage, oppression, and guilt that stalked into legislative halls, made Presidents; made Cabinet ministers, shaped the policy of this country, stood behind power, overshad. owed courts, and put constructions upon the Constitution consistent with its own interest and to perpetuate its own power; no longer rules the Government, makes its laws, or writes its judicial opinions. And now E. us construe the Constitution as it was intended by its framers, not to make men slaves, but free men; not to take life, but to save it; not to rob men of their property, but to secure that property to them; not to deprive them of the liberty of speech and of the press, but to place those rights beyond jeopardy. I think it is clear that Congress has all the needed power to reorganize by law the governments of those States, and it follows that the particular means to be resorted to to effect that object are such as Congress shall determine. But we are told that those ten States are reorganized, that they have State governments. I am aware that there are rebel machines in the territory recently in rebellion that call themselves States. I am aware that the President has undertaken to galvanize them into States by proclamation, but no good lawyer will for a moment contend that these organizations have any validity as State governments until they are recognized as valid by Congress. They are monstrous systems of fraud, oppression, and murder. They exclude from power all men loyal to the Union. They screen from merited punishment the assassins of 10,000 loyal men who have been butchered in their territory since they “accepted the situation.” The deny to Union men and freedmen that which the Constitution guaranties to them. They were erected without the consent of the people, and decided to be without validity by the high est court of NCarolina; and whenever the $." comes for final decision before the U.S. Supreme Court, no doubt can exist but the decision of the NCarolina court will be sustained. They have had the audacity to elect Sens&Reps to Congress almost exclusively from the leaders of the rebellion, and because they were such leaders and were the most conspicuous in the work of destroying this Government; and those “statesmen, ” instead of being suspended with a pressure of hem p about their necks, as they richly deserve, are coolly demanding seats in the Congress of the U.S. Ah, Mr. Chairman, we have neglected the duty too long of formally rejecting these creations of treason. We must begin the work anew and provide by law that all male persons in those States aside from the excepted classes of the age of 21 years, native born or naturalized, shall have the right to vote in electing delegates to conventions to frame new State constitutions or amend old ones, in electing State legislative and judicial officers, and all other elections that may occur in the reorganization of these State governments; that no person who has engaged in rebellion shall be eli ible to office in the new State organization or in the conventions aforesaid. The excepted classes are all persons that have held office, civil or military, under the confederacy or in the army or navy thereof; all persons who have been educated at military or naval academies of the U.S and afterward engaged in the rebellion; all persons who had once taken the oath to support the Constitution of the U.S and then in any manner engaged in rebellion; all editors, authors, or publishers of any book, pamphlet, paper, or publication that advocated the cause of the rebellion, and all persons who were guerrillas, and persons carrying on war against the Government and not belonging to the regular army of the confederacy and acting under its direct orders. When the people thus acted and so framed their State constitutions and laws as should secure to all persons permitted, as above, to participate in the work of reorganization, and to all loyal men full political and civil rights, with the ballot as their shield and buckler, and shall disqualify from suffrage and from holding office all the persons and classes above excepted, and when the Legislatures of those new State organizations adopt the constitutional amendment abolishing slavory and the amond.ments to the Constitution recently proposed by Congress, and shall present Sens&Reps that can take the congressional oath of admission, then, sir, I would have Congress admit those Sens&Reps, recognize those State governments as valid, and the work of restoration will be complete. But, Mr. Chairman, it will be said that I am in favor of universal negro suffrage at the South. Indeed, sir, I am. The ballot is the only protection after all that men have in this country. Take the ballot away from a class and that class will not have equal rights with those who do exercise the ballot. Your civil rights bill is well, necessary, but what avail is it unless it is enforced. Put it into the Constitution as you will, and as you should, but it will be as a rainbow in the cloud to the oppressed people of the South without there is some power there to enforce it; beautiful to look upon, but giving no warmth or light it “will hold the word of promise to the ear an break it to the hope.” We have a good civil rights bill in the constitution as it stands. The freedom of the press, of speech, and protection to life, liberty, and property are secured thereby, and yet for more than half a century none of those rights have been enjoyed by a large portion of the southern ". they were only granted to a privileged class. The black man was not allowed to learn to read the Constitution, that pointed him to liberty, or the Bible that pointed him to God; the white man who had spoken or written against slavery was hanged upon the nearest tree or banished from the realm. And so it will be again if suffrage is not impar tial., Southern courts now defy and disobey the civil rights bill. Everything there is organized against the black man, from the judge upon the bench to the constable with his process; every officer, State, legislative, judicial, county, town, and municipal, who is called upon in any manner to enforce those laws and carry out those sacred guarantees of the Constitution are the enemies of the loyal men and freedmen, and opposed to the execution of those laws and guarantees. The black man is help less to punish or remove from office those unfaithful officers; he has no vote, no place in the jury box, no means of organization for the defense of his rights; but with the ballot in his hands all will be well; these officials will do him justice, and there will be in every State, county, town, and precinct in the South a power in the hands of our friends to protect themselves and F.” the Republic. We cannot afford longer to feed these people upon husks. We denied them their rights until those rights were reasserted in the smoke of battle and in the blood of a million men. Let us be wise at last. We put the bullet into their hands when traitors struck at the nation's life, why not give them the ballot to preserve that nation from treason in another guise. Their skins are black you say; ay, but their hearts are true and their blood is loyal. They were good enough to fight, why not good enough to vote. I cannot upon this subject but quote my own words upon a former occasion: “And the 4 million black men who were the slaves and under the control of the rebels, who were away from the Union lines and its protection, who only knew God becausethey saw Him in thestars and heard Him in the winds for the Bible to them was a forbidden book they who had only known the flag from the stripes it gavethem and the Union from the chains it bound them with: they who from the 1st sent their morning and evening prayers to Heaven that the nation might live, who furnished our solsdhieerlstefrly,ing from captivity and death with guide and food and fire, while the master let slip blood hounds on the fugitive's track; who of the 4 millions betrayed a loyal man? Not one but exposed the traitor master. This faithfulness on the part of those poor, simple, ignorant men is to my mind one of developed. the grandest phases that the war has “How strange the contrast betweenthe slave in his chains and the master who had been pampered by the Government. The former kissedand upheld the rod that had sinitten him, the lattor smotethe hand that had fed him. And yet we are asked at this time to consign these loyal men, both white and black, to the mercy, aIs have said, of and enoumies. these robols o “I am free to say, Mr. Chairman, that if such is to be the policy of this Government it is recreant to high duty; its it is unworthy of all the blood shed and treasure crpended in its cause; it deserves to perish in its ingratitude and be blotted from the face of the earth.” But we are told, ".them a qualified suffrage, ” “give it to those who can read and write or who own property and pay taxes.” As to the 1st proposition I must say that I deem it wholly impracticable. We cannot with any justice or fairness apply an intelligence ualification to the black unless we do so to the white voters, and in so doing we would disfranchise many 1000s who are now voters. We cannot take the back track and disfranchise loyal white men in the South and elsewhere who have exercised that privilege for and some of whom, white and i. have confronted treason upon many a bloody field and have worn the livery of the Republic. Would you take the ballot from?os. we need them all to vote down traitors) Are they not good enough for that? W. did not ask the black men at Port Hud son and at Petersburg whether they could read when we intrusted them with the country's honor and its flag; shall we insist upon it now when the ballot is needed for their and our protection in the South?. As to a property qualification, that is simply absurd and a blot where it exists.the civilization of the age. Benjamin Franklin's illustration in such a case, that it is the jackass that votes and not the man, has never been controverted. discriminations in political privileges against some classes and in favor of others in a free country are odious and productive of popular discontent. The only test of suffrage in this country is manhood; give it to all men; to the poor and the lowly; lift them up to the dignity of the sovereign. Some say that the exslave will vote as the exmaster directs; and this slander has been repeated in high official quarters. The negro knew on which side to fight and to pray during the rebellion; he will know well on which side to vote; he has got his liberty after a century of oppression and bondage, he will guard that liberty well when he handles the ballot. These same objectors said that the negro would not fight, that he would be guilty of all kinds of excesses in his newly found liberty, that he would not work. Like the 60 day oracle of the State Dept they are shown to be false prophets. The negro fought well, he obeyed the law, he went to work like a good citizen; he is learning to read and write all over the South with an earnestness and a rapidity that is astonishing; trust him with the ballot he will use it better than a white traitor. But, says another, you would allow former rebels to vote. Certainly I would allow the masses who were led into the rebellion, conscripted or forced into it, to resume the right of suffrage; I would have no conflict with them. Clothe them with power and thus assure them that a just Government, while it punished the leaders of the rebellion for exam ple's sake and to prevent their doing further mischief, is humane and generous to the misguided masses. They got only poor fare and hard knocks from the confederacy. Disqualify all these leaders, false teachers, and guides both from office and suffrage; give the black man the ballot; trust the people; let the masses reconstruct the new State government. The people have interests and sympathies in common; they will readily assimilate and act together. Trusted by the Government and protected by it, those who have been disloyal will come to love it. In most of the States the men hitherto loyal will be in the majority, and in all the States powerful enough to defend themselves. Politicians and ambitious men will become the servants of their will; new men will spring up from the people faithfito our Government, who will assume the place of the leaders of today who have betrayed the people almost to their destruction. Again, we cannot permanently disfranchise large bodies of men in this country with safety to i.nation. Deprived of political power every subterfuge will be resorted to to regain it, and the masses will grow more restless and discontented until they sweep over all barriers, as they have in Maryland, and render the presence of the military continuously oto preserve the peace of the State. I hope Tennessee and Missouri will be wise in time by availing themselves of the black vote at once. With the Government in the hands of a majority of all the people of each State, all will be protected and the true theory of a free Government carried out, and the State is republican indeed. Is not this a “consummation devoutly to be wished?” That nation is wise whose policy tends to the elevation of the masses of its people, to dignify and honor labor, to give to all loyal citizens a share in the Government they uphold. In so doing each man feels a direct respon sibility in i.if; he shares in the pride, glory, and prosperity of his country; he feels great inducements to . qualify himself for the of the citizen; he feels encouraged to educate his children that they may be better fitted still for those duties. When the land is assailed by foes from without or convulsions within he springs to arms as one whose personal rights and highest privileges are in danger. Each true man that is clothed with political rights is a pillar to the State; each mind that is elevated in the scale of intelligence binds stronger the bonds of the Republic and makes liberty more secure. The instincts of the people, ignorant and lowly though they be, are right. They seek out justice. i abhor tyrants; they are naturall inclined to be loyal and true. them. i the nation will live, ignore them and the nation will perish. Why not meet the issue now? Why not, men of this Congress, come up to the high demands of the times and complete the work? We cannot put this negro question out of sight; like the ghost of the murdered Banquo, it will arise at every feast and “shake its gory locks” at us; it will not down at our bidding. All acknowledge that suffrage to the black man must come in time; why not insist upon it now, when we are building anew the national tem ple and have the power to accomplish.it? As a matter simply of expediency, is it not better than to let the agitation go on for another generation, to be ended, perhaps, in anotherrebellion, in more blood? Adopt the plan I propose and all the States will be represented in the next Congress, the murder, persecution, and banishment of Union mon will cease. The Constitution, the civil rights bill, and all other provisions of law for the protection of the people of the South will be a living fact realized in every portion of the South, for everywhere the loyal man will be clothed with the power of enforcing those rights. The South will turn its attention to reviving its exhausted fields and repairing its desolate places. The country, relieved of the problem of reconstruction, will turn its attention to many neglected questions of national importance, to.; its trade and industry, correcting the errors of its financial system, and paying its debts. Pursue the other policy further, let things drift, and finally let those rebel organizations into Congress without giving our friends in the South the protection. the ballot, and I can see many dark hours in store for the Republic. Mr. Chairman, we may be told that Congress has agreed to admit the representatives from those States when they adopt the constitutional amendments now before them. Congress has agreed to no such thing, but I most earnestly desire the adoption of those amendments, and we should insist upon it to the last. But you will observe that these rebel State organizations do not propose to adopt the amendments. Some of them have already rejected them, and the tone of the Governors and presses of the other States leave no doubt but the whole ten will reject them. This is in pursuance of the policy announced by Alexander H. Stephens, that the South would submit to no further conditions and forms an additional reason why new State governments should be organized in which the friends of the Government and the amendments should take part so that the amendments will finally receive the approval of the requisite number of States, opart of the constitution. Let them rail on about their rights, these “last ditch” gentlemen, and proclaim what they will or will not do. They have tried the wager of battle, been vanquished in the field, and now they must submit to the will of the conqueror, and whether they will adopt the amendment or not will not retard the great work before us. Other men will answer the demands of the nation; other State organizations will sanction the amendments; and if these malcontents hatch up a new rebellion, the problem of reconstruction will be solved as to them finall and forever, for not one of them will be left unburied or unhung. But we are told that if we reject these State organizations the constitutional amendment abolishing slavery will fall to the ground. Well, if the Supreme Court, as it is very likely to do, should decide that those rebel machines were not States that claimed to adopt this amendment, and that the concurrence of 3/4ths of the 36 States is necessary to pass the amendment, then we should have it solemnly decided and settled that the great amendment was not adopted. Let us avoid any such contingency; let us make this amendment a part of the Constitution beyond doubt by creating valid State organizations that will legally adopt it. The emancipation proclamation of Mr. Lincoln struck the shackles from the bondmen in all the seceding States. The amendment has been adopted by all the free States, and can be adopted by the requi site number as soon as the southern States are properly reorganized. The leaders of the rebellion should never again return to power in this country. Our fathers disfranchised Tories, and so should we disfranchise all those bold bad men who fired the southern heart, “Who cheered the band and waved the sword, As leaders in a rebel horde.” They should never again be clothed with trust in this Government. The prowling guerrilla, the wretch that starved prisoners to death, should likewise be deprived; and the editors and publishers of those vile secession sheets that fanned the flame of the rebellion, that studiously misrepresented the Union and its friends, deceived and beguiled the southern masses into rebellion, and then prolonged it for years by the same means, and are still seeking to widen the breach and keep alive the spirit of insubordination in the hearts of victims; their none of these restless, dangerous men should ever again cast a vote or hold an office under this Government. A few of the more prominent of these leaders should be tried for treason, and if convicted hung for treason. Let the remainder of them live and have an abiding place even under the flag they dishonored and sought to tear down; but let them go, disfranchised, shorn of all political power, with the mark of the traitor upon them, until they shall perish from the earth, and let their names and memory go down to all coming time as infamous, and as a warning; thus “treason will be made odious.” I am opposed to general amnesty. For all time to come ambitious and unscrupulous men should be admonished by the fate of the moving spirits of the great rebellion that such acts are attended with danger; that life and property may be lost in such an attempt; that treason is not a pastime or an adventure, to be under taken without risk to lift those engaged in it to power and honor if successful and to be attended with no evil consequences if unsuc cessful, but that the nation while magnanimous is just, and justice will punish with severity a sufficient number to be a lesson to all others in like case offending. The fact that we have neg lected that duty so long makes no difference. The traitor cannot complain of the delay in his own favor. Every consideration of duty, justice, honor, and public safety demands this. The warnings of the past, the terrible realities of the present, and the hopes of the future all require it. I have hope for the nation, for I believe it will be just. My dream is of a model Republic, extending equal protection and rights to all men from ocean to ocean, from the great lakes to the Gulf, that a mighty people shall rise up strong in freedom, in knowledge, and in power. he South shall cease to be a section and become a part of the nation; her sons and daughters J. build altars to freedom in her waste places; the wilderness shall vanish, the church and school house will appear, and light and knowledge will illumine her dark corners; freedom of speech, of opinion, and of the press will be as much secured in SCarolina as in Maine; all men shall be citizens, and high and clear in the fundamental law will that charter of citizenship be found guiding the nation like a pillar of flame; the whole land will revive under the magic touch of free labor, and we shall arise from the ashes of the rebellion to a.life and a higher destiny, illustrating the grand truth of man's capacity for self government; then Columbia will march on through the ages that are to come, her navies triumphant on every sea, her commerce encir cling the earth, her arms the terror of tyrants and the hope of slaves, her influence ascendant in every capital; the oppressed of all nations will come to our shores, and free Governments everywhere be founded from the inspiration of our example; firm upon the rock of justice and equality. temple reared by our fathers and purified by the blood of our brothers shall stand in the midst of the wondering nations the most potent, free, and glorious of all. Shall this be so? It is ours to say.