Mr. HOWE. Mr. President, about the question pending before the Senate I know very little and care but very little; I have given very little attention to it; but I made up my mind some time since that while I had the honor of a seat on this floor no man should arraign the Government which has been charged with the conduct of this war and which is now charged with the settlement of it with inhu manity without an attempt on my part to defend it against the accusation. I care not how often the Senfrom Maryland or any other Senator entertains or instructs us by the les sons which his large reading has furnished him with of examples of generosity or of magnanimity or of humanity practised in other times and in other places and under other circumstances and by other Governments; but when study shall have enabled the ablest or the most industrious of them to bring here before the Senate the example of a Government so tried, so tempted, so wronged as this has been, and yet answering such wrongs by such magnanimity as we have answered ours with, when any such example has been produced to me I shall think better of the past history of the world than I think today. Of what inhumanity is this Government thought to be guilty? What is the crime with which we have had to deal? No, Mr. President, there is a question prelim inary to that: have we any crime to deal with or not? This great question in all its bearings in so often dragged before the Senate and so often debated as if we were dealing with the inno cent and with the angels of the earth instead of with the guilty and with the criminals that I sometimes begin to doubt myself whether I have not been mistaken all along in supposing that rebellion was a wrong or a crime. But I do believe, if my memory has not failed me, writers on international law, writers I think on Gospel and on morals, all writers who are fit to write at all, tell us that when war is employed for the correction of any but the direst wrongs the guilt of that war and all the enor mities that follow in its train rest upon the souls of those who waged the war. We have been engaged in war, have we not? This Government did not commence it, did not in augurate it, was not guilty of one act which could provoke it. The men who made it were the men who had administered the Government, went right out of your midst, went from these seats, from your Cabinet, to make war upon the people of the U.S. Were they provoked? Were they wronged? Were they outraged? Were they oppressed? Put your finger upon the statute; put your finger upon the official act that had touched the rights or the interests of anyone of them. I know, sir, the people of the U.S. had, in accordance with the Constitution, in 1860 elected a man to be President whom the rebels did not think was the best man for President. The rebels were not agreed among themselves as to who was the best man for President. Let history note the fact, let honest and truthful men acknowledge the fact that the only pretense there was for making this war in 1860 was the fact that the people of the U.S. had selected Abraham Lincoln to be President instead of another man. Was that an intolerable wrong? Was that an unendurable oppression?. was the pretense for the war. In that war I trust we have not forgotten yet how much blood was poured out, how much Treasure was spent, how much life was sacrificed. You cannot go into the streets anywhere but what you are confronted with the wreck of some brother of yours and of mine whom the storms of this war have tossed out into your midst. You cannot relieve your aching sight anywhere from such spectacles as these. I tell you the law is, the Gospel is, that the responsibility for every one of those wrecked lives still passing among us, as well as every one of those lives which have been taken in the progress of the war, the guilt of all this rests upon the souls of those men whom we are arraigned today for treating inhumanly. And for all this guilt, what recompense have we sought; what penalties have we enforced? A war was waged upon the people of the U.S. for no offense in God’s world, as I tell you, but for having elected Abraham Lincoln President instead of another man. That war was prosecuted for years. It was prosecuted just as long as by purchase or by power a man could be brought into the ranks of the rebellion. And when the last vestige of force was crushed and there was nowhere an armed rebel to resist the authority of the U.S., so outraged as it had been, what did we demand of them? What tortures did we inflict; what scaffolds did we erect; who were paraded upon them; what necks were broken; what throats were cut; what treasures were exhausted as a recompense for this crime? We had laws upon our statute book, if I am not mistaken, which did declare that the estates of those guilty men might be confiscated because of the crime they had committed. We had laws upon the statute book which provided that their E. were forfeited by their crimes. They asked the Government to remit them their lives, and their lives were remitted. Who has been executed because of the guilt incurred in this rebellion?, Nay, but they said “our lives are of no use to us unless we can have our estates also; give us back our forfeited estates;” and their estates were flung to them. Whose estate has been taken by the Government as a penalty for the guilt incurred in this rebellion? Tell me, Mr. President, where the personal freedom of any single individual has i. restrained because of his guilt? I know that JeffersonDavis may be cited in answer to this demand. It is a fact, I believe, that there is one man out of millions who were engaged in this rebellion yet held in custody. It is said he has not been tried. I believe that is a fact. God knows I am not responsible for his not having been tried. I never issued a stay of proceedings in the cause; and I do not know that any responsibility rests upon anyone of my friends about me for the fact that he has not been tried. But there is the fact; there is one man held in custody. if I were charged myself with the execution of the laws of the U.S. I am almost inclined to think that I should concur with the Senfrom Maryland in the opinion that I should have had him tried long ago or I would have him out of prison. I would never have kept him there to experiment on until this time. There is one man in custody. The Government is responsible, some portion of it. whatever of i.there is in that is justly chargeable upon the Government; but no life has been taken; no property has been sacri ficed; nay, these men who have had their lives remitted to them and their estates remitted to them say, “ Give us our political rights, ” and they have them. Every man of them is enjoying all the freedom that you do in Connecticut or that I do in Wisconsin; all the political rights that we have in the States to which we belong they have in the States in which they live. Where is the inhumanity? They have demanded some other things. They wanted not merely their forfeited lives given back to them, not merely their forfeited estates given back to them, not merely their forfeited political rights given back to them, but they wanted some exclusive privileges and prerogatives, to wit, the prerogative of exercising a certain share in the power which is delegated to the Government of the U.S and the right to exercise all the power which is reserved to the several States under the Constitution of the U.S. The Congress of the U.S. has not assented to these last 2 demands, and so it happens that you do not see any of them filling seats in this House or in the other. This deed, is chargeable to the congress of the U.S. undoubtedly. Whatever of inhumanity there is in that rests upon the Congress of the U.S. But I know of no other penalty which has yet been imposed upon them, and I think, Mr. President, they can endure life a short time longer even if they continue to be excluded from these seats. That the possession of seats here is very necessary to their comfort I do not suppose I am justified in denying; but I do think they can live if they do not fill them. They thought they could live better by resigning them, and it was their voluntary act taking themselves out of them. They found in the course of an arduous and protracted struggle that they could not live at all in the way they had chosen to themselves, and now I have no doubt they are anxious to get back here. I shall not occupy the time of the Senate in speaking this after noon of the terms and of j. times in which they may, in my judgment, properly be received back. That they are coming, or that representatives from those communities are contin very soon, I do not suffer myself to doubt. speak this afternoon these few words simply to repudiate this and all attempts which are made here or elsewhere to arraign the Government of the U.S. for inhuman treatment of the men who have been engaged in the guilt of this rebellion.