Mr. FESSENDEN. Mr. President, the Senator, surprises me more and more. Through all that country everyone knows that there are many who entered into this rebellion unwillingly and because they were compelled to do so by the Pressure of power upon them. How many of this class there are we do not know, but unquestionably many1,000s. We know very well that they have all been made bankrupt substantially; their property has been destroyed; they are poor; they cannot pay their debts. ow, the Senator in order to be severe would strike at every man without distinction who cannot take the test oath, no mat.ter under what circumstances he was compelled to act as he did, no matter what Pressure was brought to bear upon him to force him into ranks that he hated; in order to practice ven geance upon the whole mass.F. connnnunity the Senator would punish the whole, the comparatively innocent as well as the guilty. And how? Not simply by excluding them from office, not simply by excluding them from political power, not simply by providing all the safeguards that are necessary to prevent their doing evil in the Republic, but by denying them bread and water, because the argument goes to that extent: starve them, scourge them. Ay, it goes to that extent, or it goes for nothing. The same argument that applies to the Senator's extent would go the .extent. Sir, I accede to no such bloody doctrine as this. “Security:" What kind of security do you get by making men desperate, more desperate than they are now? These men are poor; they lunder perhaps; they opPress. They are suf. ering under all the irritation produced by their condition. Is it not a sensible thing to relieve them, make them feel that they have a stake in the community, that there is a chance for them to lift themselves out of the slough of despond into which they have fallen, to elevate themselves into men of property, to become intelligent, useful citizens, instead of saying, “You shall have no benefit from any beneficial and kind law; stay where you are, bankrupt, broken, desperate, driven to all extremities, and made to feel, that the more you opPress your fellow man the more you are justified by the condition in which we insist upon keeping u? Is that the kind of security the gentleman expects to gain from legislation of this description? Sir, I hold to no such security as that if I lived in a community of desperate men my policy would be to render them less desperate; my policy would be to encourage them to do something for themselves, to lift themselves above the condition into which they were fallen to turn their attention to the arts of peace, an not drive them to robbery and plunder, which follow a feeling of desperate circumstances. Sir, the Senator is mistaken. He has spoken today not from the impulses of his heart, which I know to be good and in nothing that I say would I intimate that he is not just as kind as I know he is but from a mistaken view as to the extent to which this thing ought to be carried. I adjure the Senate to carry tpheir.legislation not into matters which regard life, and regard simply the ordinary usiness of the world. I go as far as anybody in depriving these people of power in the reFo until I am satisfied that that power can be exercised with safety to the Republic; and when that moment arrives I would withdraw my hand even from them; but under no circumstances would I, with regard to the ordinary affairs of life, make a distinction between them and ourselves. While they remain a part of this great Republic they shall have the benefitof all the laws that we pass of this description or of any other description, so far as they can have it without danger to ourselves or to the whole.