Mr. FESSLNDEN. I shall be very much obliged to the Senator if he will not. L y opinions I express. I made a distinctionI am very happy to make itbetween the individuals composing the rank and file of the Democratic party, many of them, and the acts of the part in advance of the war. That is a totally different question. That the great mass of the Democrats at the North have shown themselves lovers of their country and have entered into this contelit and fought bravely and served bravely, and, more than all, sustained the Government throu bout in the most manly and patriotic way, an are doingit to this day, I freely acknowledge. I was speaking of previous acts. As my friend at my elbow [Mr. CLARK] observes, what killed the Democratic party was that the mass of them would not to low their leaders. I am not apt to talk polities on this floor, and I have merely made this statement in reply to what was said by the honorable Senfrom Delaware. Now, permit me to say, we hear a great many threats of the disruption of the Union party; of the overthrow we are to experience; of the good time that is coming for those who are not having the most agreeable time in the world. Well, sir, perhaps it may come. It is not for me to say that it will not. perhaps the great party which has the control of the country at the present time will commit such errors that the people will get tired and wish for a change. ot in is more natural. The possession of power or a long time is apt to may e men care ! ess, if not corrupt, and it is a good thing in a republic that the people can change, and do see fit to change, from time to time, their rulers. But let me say to that Senator and to others, that we hope the party in civennow will continue long enough to set i.ings right, so that when there is a change there will not be so great a capacity for evil as there would have been had we not remained in power so long. We will endeavor to strengthen the country if we cannot strengthen ourselves, and that is all that good patriots odght to ask. We will do what we can for the public good while we remain in power, and not be frightened from that by the 4 idea that our reign is to be a short one. Short or long I hope it will be honorable. The honorable Senfrom Delaware has renewed the charges of our having broken the constitution all along from the beginning, violated constitutional provisions, had Federal ba onets at the polls in several! States, 80c. Why, sir, the honorable Senator and other senators are on record upon that subject here and before the country over and over again. It has been the cry from the beginning, from the very inception 5 years ago very nearly, of the power which we then attained. What effect as it produced upon the public mind? Can gentle men flatter themselves that they have frightened anybody? Can they flatter themselves that they have created the least alarm? Can they flatter themselves that they have gained strength by it? Are they stronger today than they have been at any previous time since the accession of the Republican party to power? It does not look so to me. I}; such is the fact, I should like to have them pointto the record of it, and if they cannot) omt to any such record after all they have said, and all the outery they have made, the natural inference would be that the country does not care much for what they do say on such subjects. The people expect to hear it as a matter of course in order to produce a certain effect, and really let it pass as a sort of necessity: they must listen to it to a certain extent. Mr. President, I was about to say that this bill, as it stands, is intended to meet a necessary or an inevitable result of the war a war initiated by the fSouth, carried on by thema, contest long, bitter and exhausting. In the course ofthstwar I became necessary to take measures to emancipate the slaves. Those measures Were taken; they had their effect; and as a consequence, the constitution has now been changed so that slavery no longer exists in this country. A large body of men, women, and children, millions in number who had received no education, who had been laboring from generation to enerntion for their white owners and masters, able to own nothing, to accomplish nothing, are thrown, without protection, without aid, upon the charities of the world, in communities hostile to them. in communities which had been in the habit of looking upon them not only with derision but with all the feelings of contempt which it is possible one human being can indulge toward another, so far as their status was concerned and so far asthey were concerned; and in communities, too, angered, outraged, if on please, by the fact that all these men had been freed from their domination. That was a necessity arising out of the contest. They were so freed, and found themselves and were found in that condition; and why I For the reason that we were compelled to avail ourselves of their services, in one particular, and in another for the reason that we were comelled to deprive their masters of the material aid) which they furnished toward carrying on the contest against us; and thus we find them when arms have disap cared. ow, will any man tell me that under such circumstances a rest people having availed 7 g F P g. themselves of that ver act, having used these former slaves, having deprived the enemy of all the aid which he received from them, will now throw them upon the world without the slightest protection, Without the slightest aid, without any comfort, exposed to persecution and prosecution in every possible shape; and why 2 Because there is no provision in the constitution whereby Congress is authorized to feed and clothe anybody. We have a written Constitution. In spite of all that the honorable Senfrom Delaware has chosen to say, I think we have a respect for it. I think in all cases we have endeavored to adhere to it. There may have been some cases during the war where its provisions were violated, an perhaps necessarily violated. That comes as a matterinevitable in the courseof all Governments in the man contingencies to which they are exposed, an under circumstances for which no previous progencies to which they are exosed. vision could be made; butI would have gentlemen to reflect upon one thing, that as a part of the constitutiou, written orunwritten, of all (lovernments, stand the laws of nations necessarily, inevitably, from the relations which all communities bear to each other, and from the contin That being the case, and that unwritten law of nations being actually a part of our written law, we accept. as we must accept, all the consequences which follow from it. We have been plunged into a war almost, if not quite, the greatest o modern times, involving vast results. Will gentlemen undertake to tel me that under such circumstances the necessary results of that war, if it brings about a state of things not found in our written constitution, are to be avoided, shunned, not noticed in an possible way that our atfairs as connected with it are not to he closed up under the same law which governed us and govern all nations while the war continued? I so, what a miserable, Weak, powerless people we are. We can carry) on a great war, but the moment the clash of arms has ceased to strike our cars we become utterly powerless to provide for any of its necessary and inevitable results, because it is not written in the constitution what we should do in a case which could not be foreseen, and which the founders of this Government purposely avoided foreseeing or speaking about! They provided on general principles for the emergency, but did not talk of it as a thin that could possibly occur. The Greeks would notmention in their laws the crime of parricide because they would not suppose it was a crime that could ever be perpetrated. We find ourselves in that condition, we, the Congress of the U.S. who have been carrying on this warbecause after all, as part of the Government, we have carried it on the gentlemen who sit opposite me, and who do not agree with me in my political views and sentiments, and with whom I do not agree, giving their aid to the same thing, I trust with a goo heart and good spirit, I trust honestly and meaning all they appeared to do; and when they find us or find themselves and the Government in this condition necessarily as an inevitable and unavoidable result of the contest which they themselves have waged, the moment we begin to provide for what came out of it “ they tell us, ou areworkin againstthe constitution; you cannot find anyting there by which you can feed or clothe a man, woman, or child.” That is the substance of what the honorable Senfrom Delaware has told us today, and he finds particular offense in the fact that occasionally you see a skin a little darker than his own in the galler. That is unconstitution al, too, I suppose. [ ughter.] Sir, I accept no such doctrines. Whether you call it the war power or some other power, the power must necessarily exist, from the na ture of the case, somewhere, and if anywhere, in us, to provide for what was one of the results of the contests in which we have been engaged. All the world would cry shame upon us it we did not. I know the gentlemen on the other side of the House, and personally I respect them; we are on the best terms in the world that men can be on who do not think alike; and I would trust the honorable Senfrom Dela ware himself if the case was put upon him to decide and he had to hear the responsibility of it. before the world. He would not dare, no, he would not wish, to avoid it. Every sentiment of his heart and every manly emotion of his nature would revolt at any such idea. It only shows the difference between what a man would do himself and what for party purposes he can advise others to do. I have thus stated the foundation of the bill and what have we already done? At the last session of Congress we did what, although I was not a member of Congress at the time, met with my perfect approbation; We put it upon the War Dept to take care of these people who ha been a part of the war an an essential part of the war. We recognized it as connected with the military operations of the country, as it properly was. I did not approve at the time of the attempt to put itin any shape upon the Treasury Dept; it did not belong there. It was connected with our Military operations and could best be carried on as a part of them. Thoseo erations having ceased in the field, we were not by that means delivered from what remained to be done in order to carry out to the full all that it was incumbent upon us to do in order to accomplish the pay ose. We could not divest ourselves if we won (1 of the responsibility that was upon us in reference to that matter, and we would not if we could; and again I will do the honorable Senators on the other side the justice to say that if the responsibility was on them they would not attempt any such thing for their own good name and for the good name and credit of their country. It becomes necessary, in the judgment of the bureau that was then constituted, to make some amendments in the law and to extend its power. What is the outery against it? It is said it is goin to cost a great deal of money, and you tax e white people in order to meet this expense. This er o taxation is all right enough. do notcomp sin of gentlemen for guarding the public Treasury carefull. I do not comlain of my honorable friendfrom Indiana [Mr. fiENDRICKS] for lookin out wellfor the public funds. I wish he and ose who act with him would always be just as careful of the public lands which are part. of the property of the country, and as sharp and as keen not to let an acre or an inch go except for some general purpose. I never heard of is objecting at any time tovery liberal appropriations of the public lands for the benefit oi3 the States in which they are situated. When I am talking about the property of the Republic, it does not make any very great difference to me whether it is land or money. Each is equally a part of the public property. What is in the Treasury, an what may come into it with proper management, are in my view equally valuable and equally to be regaVrhdeen gentlemen from an State which has been a “ confederate State unertake to tell me, You are taxin the white man for the benefit of the negro, ” will say, “Siryou did this thing; ha you not commenced this war and driven us to this necessity there would have been no taxation; you are responsible for it, not we; you have placed the necessity upon us we have not placed it upon ourselves and ifthere is any gentleman who encouraged the South in their previous action and he] out to them even a sympathetic hand in the course they were pursuingif there is any such person, here or elsewhere, I say to him, “You make this drain upon the Treasury, not we you are the persons who are resonsible for itthe South and their northern allies, if they had any such;” and I know they had somenone in this Chamber but many able men out of itwho did sympathize with them and aid them all the could. say to them, ” When you talk about the great eXpense of this thin, tell them that you were the authors of it, an that your measures and your sympathies brought it upon the country, and that the dominant party in the Congress of the U.S. are simpl tingto do the best they can with the resuIt oliy your wickedness. Now, sir, I will trust the Commissioner who stands at the head of this bureau for his own calculations. I will trust him because I know his abilit and I know his integrity. He has examine this matter thorou hly and studied it well, and knows what he wishes to accomplish and knows what he ought to accomplish, and unless I see something upon the face of them that is in my judment incorrect and wrong, I am willing to take his calculations as a General iule., I listened with very great attention to the argument of the honorable Senfrom Indiana. It was like all his arguments, directly to the point which he was discussing. He was attacking the bill. His argument was mainly confined to the question of expense. But, sir, is that really an argument? Ought not the thing to be done? That is the question. Will you make no appropriations for the benefit of these people; not only the colored people who have us been thrown upon the world, but the refugees who have been riven by the war from their States, out of their possessions, and reduced to poverty and misery? I do not fear that if that question was put to the Senfrom Indiana, and be compelled to answer it, he would say, “We must do it, and we havethe power to do it.” If he would not, I have totally misjudged him, I will not say in what articulars, but I formed altogether a very ifferent opinion of him from what I would if he said we could do nothing. If we can do anything, if we can apsropriate any money for the use of the War Dept to meet a result of the war which was inevitable, where shall we draw the line of distinction? I was struck the other day by the argument with reference to the purchase of land; it staggered me somewhat, and I do not feel so crfectly clear upon it now; but Senators will) reflect that when we look upon measures we are very apt to go back to previous days, when in a time of peace we guarded every approach to an expenditure for which we could not find a specific warrant. Sir, we have now been taught that the Government possesses much larger and amiler powers than we had supposed. It was we 1 at that day that such was 518 prevailing notion. It is well and it will be well if we revert to it as much, as we possibly can; but if we attempt to hold that under an unexampled state of facts we cannot go beyond the rules that were laid down for our action in time of profound peace in reference to nppropriations from the Treasury, we shall find ourse ves utterly powerless to do what it is absolutelyincumbent on us to do. So, then, the argument of money does not reach me, nor does the argument drawn from the constitutionality of the act. I might go further, and say that if everything else failed I might even perhaps agree with my friend, the honorable chair man of the ComJudiciary, that under the 2nd provision of the constitutional amendment, giving power to enforce the previous provision granting the freedom of the negro, we might do all that we judged essential in order to secure him in that liberty the enjoyment of which we have conferred upon him. With regard, therefore, to all these details of objection to the billand I rose principally to say thisI see nothing which should trouble anybody arising from the considerations which have been advanced to us with reference to the constitutionality of the bill itself. We must meet it, and we must meet it under some power. There is no positive prohibition. It is a thing to be done. We have the power to appropriate money; and though we do not find a specific power to appropriate moue for this particular purpose, it is yet an object o Government, a thing that the Government and country must provide for, and there is no other way of doing it. If we may appropriate money for this purpose, I askthe Senator to tellme whatthe distinction is between money and land; for, much as the objection originall struck me, I have been obliged to inquire wh iIfound the powertodo the one I did not fin the power to do the other. We may give away the public lands, but it does not follow from that power that we cannot purchase land. We may take the title and the power of Government over lands that are purchased for the mere purpose of carrying into execution certain specified powers. That has been decided. But because we may have spe cific permission in the constitution to do that, it is a nonseqmtur that we have no power be yond it. To be sure, the lawyers argument may be that from the fact of certain powers being specifically granted others are exc uded; but we cannot argue thusin this case when we come to apply it to a state of facts that could not be contemplated beforo they arose. I desired to say this much because I myself stated a difficulty to the honorable Senator who is chairman of this committee the other day, and I have had some conversation with him on the subject since. I cannot work the problem out, and nobody else can, to show that in the constitution itself there is a clear power; butIcan work the problem out to show that the power may be found when the positive necessity of the thing is aparent, where the thing must be done, and must e done by the Governmentas acou sequence of other things that it was compelled to do, and that it ha a perfect right to do. otherwise, as I have said before, we are a Government without the necessary powers to carry out and effect our own objects. I am therefore willing to vote for a bill that has these provisions in it. I see no difficulty about them, except that which arises from objections that have been made by some gentlemen with reference to carryin this bureau into their States. That has been discussed and decided, and I do not proplose for the mere purpose of talkin to arguet at question further. mvery thing has been stated on both sides of it, and the Senate has settled the point. Now, sir, having said this generally with rerd to the billand although in some of its etails I might perhaps wish that we could get along without doing what might seem to be offensivein some States, and what might be used in an offensive sense against us, yet am ready to vote for it, because it is the result of the best thought that a very able committee has brought to bear upon it and it has been somdw at amendedI shall dismiss any further remarks upon the bill itself, because really to speak of that was but one of my objects in rising. I do not intend to avail myself of this occasion upon a bill of this description to say anything upon the subject of reconstruction. My position on the committee which has the condition of the late socalled confederate States in charge is such that I could not with proriety exress any opinions u (in what ought to e done. hat will be known by the result of our deliberations, whatever that result may be. I have noticed, however that gentlemen, perhaps on both sides of the Ifouse, were a little annious to express their opinion beforehand and in advance of the report of the committee upon that subject; to discuss the question before they had the benefit, if it is to be a benefit, of the facts that we may be able to state and the conclusions to which we may finally come. That is a matter for every gentleman to judge of for himself, and it is not for me to comhim of the result at which he may arrive in is own mind as governin his own action; but there is one thing upon whch I do wish to say a word or two. Senators, an able Senators, on both sides of the House have chosen, in the course of the debate, to talk a great deal about the policy of the President and the policy of Congress. said a word or 2 before on that subject at the commencement of the session, when the matter was 1st broached here. I wish now to say a word or 2 more. I can understand why Gentlemen on the other side of the House, and gentlemen of the same way of thinking out of this House, should be very anxious to get up the idea that there is a collision of opinion between the President and Congress. “1 e have all sorts of rumors where “the wish is father to thought.” One day we hear that such a Cabinet minister is to be turned out or resigp; another day we hear that something else is being done, that the President hassaidthis, that the president means to ostracize peeple who do not support his policy, &c.all i le, ridiculous rumors, without the slightest foundation exec t the Wish of those who invent them and give them currency. I understand the object. It will be a point for gentlemen on the other side of the Senate, and their friends outside, if they can make the people believe that there is or is likely to be some collision between the great art which elected the President and the Presidrdut imself. 1 Deg gentlemen not to flatter themselves with any such idea. I have not, as ct, seen the slightest indication of it, and I db not expect to see 1866. 367, it. Why, sir, even suppose there is a difference of opinion, to a certain extent, as to the time and manner of accomplishing a great work, which we all desire to see accomplished at the earliest possible day, does it follow that because there is that difference of opinion, to a certainextent, greater or less, therefore there I is to be a collifion? I know verywell that n tlemen hang about the President and the white House, and very probably try to persuade him, and, whispering in his ear, (the Senate will remember the poetic illustration of the serpent tempter, ” squat like a toad at the ear of Eve, ”) insinuate that those who onght to be his best friends, and who are his frien s and supporters, are not doing all they onghtto do to sustain him. Do they in their secret souls pay the President the poor coin liment to think that he does not see through a 1these suggestions of what they dare not openly speak? Do they think he is not a man of sense, that he is not a man of fixed opinions, that he does not. know his friends? Let me say that, in my judgment, the mistake him. Sir, there is no collision and say it (fbe m word worth much or littlefor the hen “efito the count, to add my word to that statement of fact. lIlyllhy? Because the President has done nothing that his friends complain of, and his friends in Congress have done nothing Lithat he can complain of. Sir, what was his authority? He was commanderinChief of the Arm, and as such, when the enemy ceased to exist, e had power necessarily to control the rebellious States which were thus reduced to subjection. It was his duty to control them, and to control them as the CommanderinChief of the Army, having the military power in his hands, to kee order, to see that there was no anarchy; and if he chose to say to the confederate States, or to any portion of them, “I will appoint a provisional governor for you; if you choose to come together in a certain way and make a constitution of government for yourselves and take the power into your own hands of regulating your own domestic internal affairs, I will give you all the aid I can, and when you do it to my satisfaction and I think it is safe I will then withdraw the Army, or such portion of it as I see fit, and leave on to legislate for yourselves, ” he did whathe ada perfect right to do and what nobody has right to complain of. I might have done dif. ferently if I had been presieat, but I might probably not have done so wisely as he did. It is not for me to say that my opinion, had it differed from his, would have been wiser than his or better than his; but what I mean to say is that his policy went to that extent, and so far as he had the power to exercise it in a given way he exercise it rightfull, and we have no occasion to complain of it. e may think that these States are ready to come back altogether, and to send their Sens&Reps to Congress. I do not know how that may be. I think they should come in at the earliest possiblemoment that they can come with safety. So lie thinks. We may differ as to the time. But mark me, sir no man in this country, to my certain knowledge, has a greater respect for the constitution or a more profound respect for the rights and privileges of) the coordinate branches of this government than the POTUS His life has illus xtrated it; and whatever gentlemen may think, he, in my judgment, would be the last man to comlain of Congress for acting with reference to what is peculiarly incumbent upon them according to their own judgment and sense of propriety, so long as all the branches of the government agree in this, that when it can be done safely, at the earliest possible moment, all the States should be restored to their positionin the Union. So long as that is agreed upon, and we are all workin together to that end, it is not to be expecte that my friends here, there, or elsewhere, will quarrel with me for differing with him in opinion as to the time and as to the manner in oing it, and more especially shall I not think of quarreling with him when it belongs to him to decide, and not to g8. l Now, sir, all this talk about the Presidents policywhether it comes from the other side of the House, from which it may properly come and be heard, or whether it comes from our side of the House, from which, in my most respectful judgment, it cannot so properly come, in the present state of thingsamounts to nothing at all. I have thought that all the danger there was in this country arising from any source would come from extremes. Some men cannot get things just exactly according to their ideas and exactly in their own time, and other men want to be considered as knowing more about affairs than anybody else and they stand as somebodyI think itwas my friendfrom Massachusetts, [Mr. Wii. sos] said Yesterday, asa sort of scatteration party that real y do not affect the great issue one way or the other. Here are Congress, doing what? What they ought to do, what no man can dispute their perfect right to do, what no man can disute their entire duty to do; and that is this: before taking 8. ete which is perhaps to affect the welfare of this Government in all future time, and in acting upon a question that belongs peculiarly to them, the united wisdom of the nation as manifested through its agents in Congress deems it a duty to deliberate quietly, calmly, and atiently upon what it is best to do. Do you think anybody will quarrel with that? We do not mean to jump at conclusions; we mean to act as fast as we can safely; but we do not mean to be hur ried beyond what our judgment dictates as the necessary time for deliberation and for action. The nation will, however understand and does understand, that while C it is anxious, as the people are anxious, that all these questions should be settled at the earliest possible day, that we may get rid of all this agitation, that we may be again a united people, with all the stars in the flag, which my onorable friendfrom Wisconsin [ML DooLITTLE] says are there, and having a rightto shine one with as much luster as another; and so far as I am concernedand I believe that to be the general feelin of the friends with whom I act seek not to impose nor shall I try to impose any conditions upon any people in this Union who are to make a part of as that either now or at any future time shall have anything in them of the character of degradation. It is not to be supposed, it cannot possibly be supposed for a moment, that the people of the confederate States who have been at war with us feel kindly toward us. I should no;; at once feel kindly. toward any enem who adeonuered me, and through whom had suffere, even if I was wrong. such is human nature. Time is necessary to soften all ani mosities. Time is necessary to overcome prejudice. Time is necessary to make people reflect calmly upon what has taken place. They cannot do it in the heat of the contest or until they have had time to cool. It is, therefore, to be expected that much will occur, and for a considerable period of time, that will occasion still greater animosity lperhaps, that will indicate a state of feelingt at may render a perfect reunion apparently impossib e; but I trust in God that the time will come and is not far distant when all the States may be properly Represented here. Ia so fully with the honor able Senfrom Kentucky [Mr. GUTHRIE] who addressed the Senate the other day, in saying that I should be as much averse as he is to doing anything which by any possibility should be construed into putting a stigma upon any people who are to become members of this community of States if they are not now. But, while I say this, I say that I trust our friends here will not allow themselves to be hurried or to be frightened by any talk about this policy or that policy, or this collision or that trouble anywhere. I do not fear it. I believe, and I know, that there is patriotism and magnaniinity and love of country at both ends of the avenue, and I do not believe that anything that can be said by anybody who is dispose to make a difficulty will occasion one with men constituted as we are. I warn Gentlemen now that all the efforts they make in congress is doing this, U.S. that direction will, in my judgment prove total failures, and they will find themselves reckon in without their host. TMr. President, I have said perhaps more than I ought to say on that subject; but I desire to enter my protest against this kind of discussion, takin it for granted, as gentlemen seem to do, that there was adifficulty, when they could not tell where and about a subject they did not know what. Either they do not understand it or the purposely misrepresent it. I believe we should go on, pass this measure and the series of measures that we have decided upon, and carry them into execution. Gentleman will make an outery about their unconstitution alit; they will threaten us with the growth of the Democratic party, and what is to come after. We will try to possess our souls in patience, and wait until the calamity comes, and, when it does, meet it with the best grace we can.