Mr. FESSENDEN. Mr. President, Idesign to say a few words, perhaps not very much upon the bill itself, although the bill has given me some little trouble in considering it. The honorable Senator who has just spoken, in the close of his remarks rophesies that if we proceed in the system of measures that we have decided upon, the Democratic party will very soon be in possession of both Hal 5 of congress. I do not know that I should hesitate a greatwhile in doing that which I thought to be right and just even in view of such a calamity. I acknowled e the force of the prophecy in one sense; and that is, that when he tells us such will be the result, I feel that the innumerable evils that would follow from it are such as mivlit. well make us pause. If I really believed that such a consummation was to come aboutin any short time from any system of measures we have adopted or were about to adopt, I should dread so much the evils that would follow, that per haps I might, hesitate. I do not apprehend, however, that that calamity is so near at hand that an apprehension of it ought to influence my action on measures that I think to be properand just in themselves. Now, sir, let us look for a single instant upon the condition in which we find ourselves. We are at the close of a great war, and a war that was brought upon us by the Democratic party. The great mass of the Democratic party, the leading portion of it, was the southern portion. I do not say that all the Democrats were in favor of the war. I acknowledge that a very great portion of them have proved themselves to be good and true patriots, as good and true patriots and as good friends to their country as any set of men, but I do say that the support which the Democratic party gave to the South, in all its measures of aggression, was a degree of encourl ageuient without which I do not believe the war ever would have occurred. That has been my opinion always, and I have no hesitation in exressing it now. f the war was brought upon us by the South, and a result has followed which may be afllictingtothem for a series of years, even in the matter of money appropriations as well as in other respects, it is not for them to complain. They initiated it; they drove us into the necessity which led to it; and if the result is disastrous and continues to be oppressive, so far as necessary measures are concerned, they have themselves to thank for itI and cannot complain of the Congress of the U.S. if it takes measures to set all things right and if the great Democratic party, as a party, by its previous course, is responsible in any degree for it, by way of encouragement it afforded or otherwise, it is not even for that party as a party to complain of the measures which may be found 1866. 365 necessary at the present time. They also have taken the consequences of their action to a certain extent, and I think they ought to be silent upon everything which is a natural and neces. sary and inevitable result of the contest for which the in a derec, were responsible.