Mr. GARFIELD. I would notask the further attention of the House upon this subject were it not that I find myself very seriously misrepresented here and elsewhere in reference to the remarks I made on this bill on Friday last. 1 would not have the worst rebel in the world suppose me capable of anything like malignity toward even him. I therefore take this occasion to contradict the rePresentation made to day by the Gentfrom Kentucky, [Mr. HARDING, 1 as I am informed for I did not hear him myself, that I had declared that though I had hitherto been in favor of magnanimity toward the people of the South, I was now in favor of enforcing a blood thirsty policy against them. I have never uttered such a sentiment. All that I did say was said directly and explicitly upon the single question of the constitutional amendment as a basis of restoration. I did say the other day, and I say now, 4hat if the amendment proposed at the last session of Congress had been ratified by all the States lately in rebellion in the same way that Tennessee ratified it, and if those States had done all the other things that Tennessee did, I should have felt myself morally bound though it fell very far short of full justice an of my own views of good statesmanship, and I believe the 39th Congress would have been morally bound to have admitted every one of the rebel States on the same terms. Many members know that I have been opposed to taking further decisive action until every rebel State had had full opportunity to act upon the amendment. Now that they have all rejected it, and considering their action as final, I say, as I said on Friday last, that that offer as a basis of reconstruction is forever closed so far as my vote is concerned. The time has come when we must protect the loyal men of the South; the time has come when fruitless magnanimity to rebels is cruelty to our friends. No other victorious nation has ever so neglected its supporters. For a quarter of a century the British Government gave special protection to the tories of the American Revolution, paying them $15,000,000 out of the royal treasury. What loyal man of any State, except Tennessee, has been honored or defended by the Federal Government? It is a notorious fact that it is both honorable and safe in the South to have been a rebel, while it is both dangerous and disgraceful for a Southerner to have been loyal to the Union. They are every day perishing as unavengeful victims of rebel malignity. I desire to say, also, that I am in favor of placing these States under military jurisdiction only as a temporary measure of protection until republican governments can be organized based upon the will of all the loyal people, without regard to race or color. Now, Mr. Speaker, since the Gentfrom Kentucky [Mr. HARDING] volunteered to read me a lecture on blood thirstiness and reminded me of the sinfulness of human nature as represented in myself, I will volunteer a few suggestions and reflections to him and the party with which he acts. I remind the gentleman that his party and the President who leads it have had it in their power any day during the last 22 months to close the ji.wounds of this grievous war and restore the States lately in rebellion to their proper places in the Union. I tell that gentleman that if, on anyone day during the war he and his party had risen up and said honestly and unanimously, “We join the loyal men of the nation to put down the rebellion, ” the war would not have lasted a 12 month. The Army never feared the enemy in its front; it was the enemy in our rear, with their ballots and plots against the Union and their sympathy with the rebellion, which continued the war and wasted and desolated the land with blood and fire. That party is responsible for more of the carnage of the war than anybody this side of the rebels. But, sir, the gentleman and his party have made a record since the war ended. If the Democratic party, with the President at its head, had, on any day since July last, advised the people of the South to accept, the constitutional amendment and come in as Tennessee did, it would have been done. I have information from a source entirely reliable that but little more than one month ago Alabama was on the eve of accepting the proposed amendment to the Constitution when a tele ram from Washington dissuaded her from oing so and led her to rush upon her own ruin by rejecting it. Of all men on earth the gentleman and his party have the least right to preach the doctrines of mercy to this side of the House. That mercy which smiles only on murder, treason, and rebellion, and has only frowns for loyalty and patriotism, becomes the gentleman and his party. I cannot agree with all that has just been said by my friend here, that our own party in Congress have been so very Virtuous.true to liberty. I cannot forget we have learned very slowly; I cannot for.ge that less than 4 years ago on this floor the proposition to allow negroes any share in put ting down the rebellion was received with alarm even on this side of this House. I cannot forget that less than 5 years ago I received an order from my superior officer in the Army commanding me to search my camp for a fugitive slave and if found to deliver him up to a Kentucky captain, who claimed him as his property, and I had the honor to be perhaps the 1st officer in the Army who peremptorily refused to obey such an order. W. were then trying to save the Union without hurting slavery. I remember, sir, that when we under took to agitate in the Army the question of putting arms into the hands of the slaves, it was said, “Such a step will be fatal, it will alienate half our Army and lose us Kentucky.” By and by, when our necessities were imperious, we ventured to let the negroes dig in the trenches, but it would not do to put muskets in their hands. We ventured to let the negro drive a mule team, but it would not do to have a white man or a mulatto just in front of him or behind him; all must be negroes in that train; you must not disgrace a white soldier by putting him in such company. “By and by” some one said, “the rebel guerrillas may cap ture the mules; so for the sake of the mules let us put a few muskets in the wagons and let the negroes shoot the guerrillas if they come.” So for the sake of the mules we enlarge the limits of liberty a little. [Laughter] By and by we allowed the negroes to build fortifications and armed them to save the earthworks they had made not to do justice to the negro, but to protect the earth he had thrown up. By and by we said in this Hall that we would arm the negroes, but they must not be called soldiers nor wear the national uniform, for that would degrade white soldiers. By and by we said, “Let them wear the uniform, but they must not receive the pay of soldiers.” For 6 months we did not them enough to feed and clothe them; and their shattered regiments came home from SCarolina in debt to the Government for the clothes they wore. It took us 2 years to reach a point where we were willing to do the most meager justice to the suffrage before Congress. black man and to recognize the truth that “A man's a man for a’ that.” It will not do for our friends on this side to boast even of the early virtues of the 39th Congress. I remember very well, Mr. Speaker, during the last session I, with 40 others, tried to bring the issue of manhood Our friends said, “You are impracticable; you will be beaten at the polls if you go before the people on that issue.” “Make haste slowly.” Let us not be too proud of what we did at the last session. For my part I am heartily ashamed of it, though I am glad that I with a few others gave my testimony against our shortcomings and the small measure of justice we meted out to our best friends in the South. But, sir, the hand of God has been visible in this work, leading us by degrees out of the blindness of our prejudices to see that the fortunes of the Republic and the safety of the party of liberty are inseparably bound up with the rights of the black man. At last our party must see that if it would Preserve its political life, or if we would maintain the safety of the Republic, we must do justice to the humblest man in the nation, whether black or white. I thank God that today we have struck the rock; we have planted our feet upon the truth. Streams of light will gleam out from the lumi nous truth embodied in the legislation of this day. This is the me plus ultra of reconstruction, and I hope we shall have the courage to go before our people everywhere with “This or nothing” for our motto. Now, sir, as a temporary measure, I give my support to this military bill properly restricted. It is severe. It was written with a steel pen made out of a bayonet, I believe, and bayonets have done us good service hith erto. All I ask is, that Congress shall place civil Governments before these people of the rebel States, and a cordon of bayonets behind them. [Here the hammer fell]