June 14, 1864 (3)

The House then resumed the consideration of the joint resolution of the Senate proposing amendments to the Constitution of the United States, on which the gentleman from California [Mr. Shannon] was entitled to the floor,

Mr. WHEELER. With the permission of the gentleman from California I desire to present an amendment to the resolution, which I shall offer at the proper time.

The Clerk read the amendment, as follows:

Add to the resolution the following:

Provided, That this article shall not apply to the States of Kentucky, Missouri, Delaware, and Maryland until after the expiration of ten years from the time tlie same shall be ratified.

Mr. WHEELER. I ask consent to print an argument on this subject which I am unable to deliver.'

There was no objection, and leave was granted. [The speech will be published in the Appendix.]

Mr. SHANNON. Before proceeding with my remarks, I desire to say that 1 have -given my friend from Illinois [Mr. Ingersom,] half of my time. He is a new member, and was not aware that he would have an opportunity to speak until late this evening, and could not prepare his remarks before to-morrow morning. 1 trust, therefore, that under these circumstances he will be permitted to occupy half of my time to-morrow instead of this evening.

There was no objection.

Mr. SHANNON. Mr. Speaker, 1 am not addicted to boring this House with set speeches, and nothing save the deep conviction I feel of the importance of the question now pending would induce me on this occasion to occupy time m these closing days of the session. But, sir, I would not do justice to the constituency I represent were 1 not to place upon the record my protest and their protest against this rebellion and its unholy cause.

It will not, f trust, be necessary in this, the fourth year of our struggle, to press upon this lluuse proof that slavery is alone responsible for this war. No man who has read carefully the history of the past eighty years, whatever may ho his political bias, will, 1 think, differ with this opinion. It is now our province to inquire whether that curse can be perpetuated with safety to American freedom and national unity, and if we find that it cannot it will then become our duty to see to it that for the future it shall not exist as an element of disruption and disintegration in our midst.

Sir, the apothegm "liberty regulated by law" expresses my idea of the spirit of American institutions. it is that condition of the people wherein each is at liberty to regulate his own domestic affairs according to his own judgment or caprice, only being careful that those laws which protect the rights of his neighbor from infringement must not be violated. Slavery is inconsistent with this condition; it makes the many subject to the few, makes the laborer the mere tool of the capitalist, and centralizes the political power of tlie nation. Yet, sir, this centralization is not such as that which gave Russia her solidity and despotic greatness; ltjg that cheaper article from which" petty lords and feudal despots" spring. It draws around the slave owning nabob all the petty trappings of the feudal system, and does not hesitate to assume like political powers. Its slaves are numbered as people to be represented, yet considered before the law as soulless beasts of burden. The man who owns five hundred slaves figures in the tables of representation as the equal of three hundred non slaveholders In plain Saxon, Mr. Speaker, the half witted heir to a plantation stocked with five hundred negroes, located in a slave State, has just the same voice in this Hall as have three hundred of your constituency, even though my friends on the opposite side should move into your district. Much was said a few years ago on this floor and elsewhere about higher law, and men were branded \frith every opprobrious epithet who believed that slavery should be amenable to a law higher than constitutions or human enactments. Sir, the statesman of the North was not responsible for that doctrine; the Commonwealth of Kentucky has adopted it as a part of her organic act. The constitution uf that State, adopted in 1850, contains this remarkable sentence: u That the rightof property is before and higher than any constitutional sanction; that the right of the owner of a slave to such slave and its increase is the same, and as inviolable, as the right of the owner of any other property whatever."

Now, sir, any gentleman who will turn to article thirteen, section three, of that instrument will see that 1 do not misquote the people of Kentucky when I assert that with them slavery assumes to exist by a "higher law" than the constitutions of our fathers." He that is not for us is against us." Slavery is by its own declarations iu antagonism to our Constitution, and for that reason, if for no other, I would oppose its continuance.

Sir, slavery rolls back the car of civilization, and brings us once more to the feudal age, giving us that system with all of its iniquities, and yet without its claims to respectability. Can such a system be legitimate fruit growing upon the tree of liberty planted by our patriot fathers and watered by their blood? Is it not rather a poisonous parasite which clings to the sides of the tree, sucking up its sap, smothering its foliage, and sure in the end to destroy it? For my own part I could never understand why the owner of slaves should be entitled to more political weight than the man who earns his daily bread by his daily toil.

I conceive, sir, that that nation is greatest the largest proportion of whose people are educated, possessed of the comforts of life, and are endowed with citizenship. Let the voting masses of any country be composed of an independent yeomanry the majority of whom are freeholders of moderate yet sufficient estate, let them be fairly schooled, intelligent each one bearing a fair share of the responsibilities of the Government, and that nation will be healthy; more, sir, it will be great in a nobler sense than Rome was great.

Small farms, small towns, manufacturing communities and villages, rather than cities or large estates, are among the conditions of true national greatness. To each of these slavery is in antagonism. It revels in extensive plantations, seeks to deprive those who are not citizens of education, independence, and the comforts of life, and by increasing the proportion of slaves reduces the number of its citizens to the smallest possible point. With it the statesmanship that labors to secure" the greatest good to the greatest number" is inverted, and the greatestgood to the smallest number is substituted.

Slavery and barbarism are identical. There was no enormity perpetrated in the darkest age or among the rudest people which it does not sanction. Every form of incest is common in this, that assumes to be a paternal relation. Even polygamy is degraded by it to promiscuous prostitution. Now, sir, I love the white race too well willingly to see their blood miscegenating with the African, and must protest against any institution, however patriarchal, under which such things are profitable, and too generally, on that account, called respectable.

It has been asserted, and even in some cases by divines otherwise respectable, that this thing, slavery, was of divine origin. I shall not stop, nor have I patience, to discuss those texts in holy writ which are said to favor this view, but shall content myself with remembering the one great test by which the divinity of all doctrines must be weighed: "By their fruits ye shall know them." Who will dare make, in this enlightened age, the assertion that the fruits of slavery are divine? What divinity pray m tliatcondition of affairs where men and women are compelled to labor illy fed, more illy clothed, and. unpaid, to the end that one, no better before God, should live in ease and without labor? What divinity in whipping women for protesting when their virtue is assailed? What divinity in tearing from the mother s arms the sucking child, and selling them to different and distant owners? Where is there one fruit of this tree that any man will dare to call divine?

Mr. Speaker, I have no respect for clergymen who so far forget the sacredness of their high calling as to give utterance to such a dogma. The man who preaches such stuff and believes it, if there is one such, I cannot help looking upon as a fool; the more intelligent the man who gives it utterance, the less do I respect him; for a fool may be pitied, a hypocrite must be despised. Slavery divine, indeed! Is its divinity attested by its unbridled licentiousness, or by its degradation of labor; by its destruction of every family tie, or its prostitution of both races in prohibiting its victims from acquiring that knowledge which would enable them to read God s holy word?

Where, then, are the fruits of its growing which proclaim it as emanating from on high? Shame on the blasphemy which would saddle such an accursed institution upon the God of love and mercy! Man could heap no greater contumely upon his Maker than toattribute so unholy a thing to Heaven,

But, sir, some of these learned churchmen who find it profitable to advocate the divinity of slavery may conceive that this thievish rebellion is a bud of hope suggestive of a coming confederacy that shall prove to be a divine fruitage. Perhaps, sir, the grand dream of a confederacy whose citizens should be above the vulgar necessity of toil? and who should, every man of them, luxuriate in the enjoyment of a fat office, or rejoice in the possession of a princely revenue, would prove the disease which gave birth to the Utopian dream, as being born of Heaven.

A. H. Stephens declared that the confederacy had slavery for its corner-stone. Mad brains had conceived the idea that a nation could be builded up all of whose citizens—not all of its people— should be free gentlemen and ladies, free not only to act as their own refined instincts might dictate in their intercourse with each other but the male portion, at least, free to follow those same instincts into the descending cycle where the dusky damsels who are an integral part of this cornerstone might pander to their laziness and lust. It was to be a government whose citizens should not degrade themselves with the vulgar cares of life; they were to leave such things to theirslaves, and they rule. Some would be soldiers, that is, wear the shoulder straps some would fill the various official positions of civil government; others would condescend to grace the various liberal professions by their presence. There should be no non producers who were not slaves in fact, no producers among the governing class. The poor white man should be made a common soldier, a sailor, a petty officer, or a patrolman, whose duty it should be to keep tlie slave population in proper subjection. For, Mr. Speaker, it is a fact which those who believe slavery divine and the normal condition of the black man must wonder at, that these so called happy slaves have so poor an appreciation of the joys of their condition as to be constantly pining for freedom to that extent that they will skedaddle from their comfortable quarters to seek refuge among the abolition barbarians of the frigid North whenever they chance upon an opportunity, and instances aio not wanting where they have even risen upon their kind and indulgent masters and struck with terrible courage for that liberty so sweet to all men. The poor whites, however, were to protect their wealthy neighbors from all such terrible contingencies. This employment of the poor white would leave no poor idle, hence no dangerous class in the community; it would all be absorbed and its interest made identical with the interest of the wealthy class. The conditions of master and slave were alone to exist, the third class being a mere adjunct of the latter.

This institution necessarily establishes three conditions of society where it prevails: the master, the slave, and that most degraded condition of all, the middle man or the poor white trash, whose vocation is pander and pimp to the vices of both master and slave, and ultimately dependent on both, having no recognized condition, and enjoying none of the privileges of the governing or governed class, but an outcast from both and despised by both.

Now let it never be forgotten that our mission also is to elevate and disinthrali that most injured and dependent class of our fellow white men from their downtrodden and degraded condition, that they too may be men, and enjoy the independence and rights of manhood. And, Mr. Speaker, that Utopia was much nearer its realization three years ago than most of us dreamed. Why, sir, subsisted by these slaves, every well man among the citizens of the slave States has been able to become a soldier. In the North two thirds of the able bodied men are required in the production of food and all those articles required for the subsistence of our wives, our children, and our armies.

Our enemies Iwwe all this work to the slaves, and the slaves are all productive; maieamf female, old and young, all go into the field. The planter and producer is not, as with us, limited to the number of able bodied men upon the plantation. With him a woman is a full hand. She does, and is expected to do, the same work with the men. Little children are not required to attend school, us school bills for colored children form no part of the plantation expenses. The little fellows of six summers are quarter hands, at twelve are required to do half the work of a man, and at sixteen are full hands. Decrepit age and tender youth alike are made to produce subsistence for the armies and the people of the South. It is this system which calls out all the bone and sinew of the South in aid of their cause which has made the once celebrated anaconda system of warfare a failure. Sir, all the cries of starvation we have imagined ourselves to be hearing from our "erring brethren" have been but theories wrung from the poor creatures engaged in gathering their abundant harvests. And unless those cries are heard and heeded by this Government we can never hope to succeed in crushing the rebellion, and never ought to. "We must deprive them of their producers; we must by our action in this Jfiall demoralize every slave left beyond the reach of our armies by guarantying to him his freedom beyond contingency; for, depend upon it, the action we take upon this bill will be known to every black roan and woman in the South in a very shoit time.

In 1860 a period was reached which had been predicted by very many of the founders of the Republic, and which had been foreseen by that advocate of State rights, Thomas Jefferson. It was a period in which was to be solved a problem of vital importance to the American people. Jefferson wrote in 1798 that the State and General Governments were "coordinate departments of one simple and integral whole;" and inalettertoone of his friends said," The enlightened statesman, therefore, will endeavor to preserve the weight and influence of every part, as too much given to any member of it would destroy the general equilibrium." And to another friend he expressed the fear that "a conflict would arise between State rights upon the one hand and Federal rights upon the other, the one encroaching upon the other to that extent as to produce a collision." Sir, that collision has come, and now we must decide for ourselves and for those who come after us whether the one or the other shall be maintained; whether the Republic as a whole is worth more than a system of petty nations, each independentof the other, and each powerless to protect its citizens from attacks from without or dissensions within. The idea of a confederation of States had been tried and the experiment found not worth repeating; hence, on the formation of the present Constitution, it had been decided to" form a more perfect Union" by the action of the people of the States themselves, through their delegates to the Convention. That Convention represented the people of the several States, and their action was afterwards indorsed by a vote of the people of the several States. Sir, the people, acting through that Convention, ordained that this Government should have power to declare war, make peace, regulate the currency, and be in fact a supreme Government, "a more perfect Union;" one. in which the people of the several States could find repose undisturbed by foreign attacks, or the machination of factionists within their own borders. The men of 1860, swelled up with the lust of slavery and blinded by its specious reasonings in favor of what it was pleased to call the rights of the States, unfortunately have proved too weak, too unpatriotic, to maintain unsullied the inheritance oi freedom left them by their sires. To these men the doctrine of State rights was a cry under which slavery with all its attendant evils was to be fostered.

Slavery had been suffered to remain in our system at first bv men who were anxiously counting the days, tiie time, when it could be abolished, as they believed, without peril to the country. They argued tliut it was weak, and the sense of justice which they believed was lubuin m the American heart would soon lead to its final and utter abolition. In fact, our fathers were abolitionists. A provision was incorporated into the Constitution by which no new additions were to be made to the stock of slaves then in the country, and it was believed that gradually and without a jar to the Federal system it would become extinct, Our fathers were mistaken. Slavery was not waning. Every year but added strength and gave vigor to the accursed tree, and eighty years after it is found to have grown so much as to number more victims than was the entire population of the Republic in the days of the Revolution. Waning, indeed! Why, sir, to day it claims more territory than our fathers aspired to possess for the whole nation, and fights this war to enable it to wrench more domain from the grasp of freedom. This mistake, leaving to the people of the several States the right and authority to establish and regulate the crime of human slavery, has well nigh proved a vital one. It is not necessary to trace the progress of the slave power. Every page of our nation s history records it. Every school boy is familiar with it. From the purchase of Louisiana and from the passage of the Missouri compromise to the breaking out of the rebellion, every year s legislation embodied some new concession to slavery, and the pill was always labeled" compromise." It was continually making aggressions upon freedom, and still claiming that it was only securing to itself rights guarantied to it by the Constitution.

Assuming that the Government was a partnership of the States, the adherents of slavery finally attempted to dissolve it unless the reins of power were delivered into their hands. It would rule, sir, or it would min. The issue, then, was reduced to this: we must have the Union with the Government in the hands of the slave oligarchy or submit to its dissolution. We consented to neither, but trusting to the God of battles and the patriotism of our people we dared the fight, and as sure as Heaven is just we will succeed.

Now, sir, what is this institution of slavery that has sought to assume the reins of Government in this land of freedom? What is slavery, sir? It is'• the sum total of all villainies." It is the destroyer of every virtue, public as well as private, because it encourages promiscuous and unbridled licentiousness, and renders null the marriage relation. It is the enemy of all religion, insomuch as it has caused to be enacted in every slave State laws making it a felony to teach men and women whose skins are black to read even the Bible, and places restrictions about their assembling themselves together to worship God. It destroys all thrift, energy, and good citizenship among the ruling classes, teaching them to depend upon the labor of others for support when God has ordained to man that by the sweat of his brow he should eat his bread. Slavery is paganism refined, brutality vitiated, dishonesty corrupted; and, sir, we are asked to retain this curse, to protect it after it has corrupted our sons, dishonored our daughters, subverted our institutions, and shed rivers of the best blood of our countrymen.

Sir, the time lias passed for concessions to the slave power. Slavery has risked all to gain all, and now it must abide by the cast of its own die; and to us there is but one issue, dissolution and a recognition of the confederacy, or the utter and immediate abolition of slavery. There is now no middle ground. I believe now that since the days of Calhoun there has never been a middle ground. We have tried tenderness long enough. For eighty years we have been compromising; we have coaxed and petted; it has availed us nothing. We have given the South the high places in our national synagogue, our kindness has never faltered, but, sir, lt lias been our ruin. We said to the South, we will not interfere with your pet snake while you keep it in the den you have provided for it; we will not fight your nefarious institution so long as you keep it at home. Slavery shall not be interfered with inany State where by local law it exists. We would even permit the snake to crawl into and establish for itself a den in Territories common to both; but because we insisted that it should not invade with its slime our own homes and take to itself every foot of the common inheritance it has rebelled. Why, sir, even as late as I860 we of the North were a iiAtiya of compromisers, and alter the ordinances of secession had been passed in several States, it is a question whether we would not have been willing to accede to all the demands of the South. Even the old abolition party had men in its ranks who were willing to make some arrangement by which the widening breach might be bridged.

Mr. Speaker at that time few men in the North were found so radical as to be unwilling to compromise upon some basis, and a still smaller number who would insist upon no terms short of full emancipation.

But, sir, as the history of the past might have warned us, every pacific overture was rejected, and no alternative was left to the freemen of the North but war. How sternly that war has been prosecuted upon both sides history will bear testimony. And shall we be willing to end the struggle now until sufficient guarantees are secured that our people and their successors shall live for all future time without a constant fear that the smothered flame shall again leap forth and burn with tenfold fury? No, sir, we must end this war now, end it for all coming time; and we can only end it as we desire by so amending our organic act that slavery can never again be an element of discord among our people. Members upon this floor who fear that their constituency will not sustain them in voting for this measure should remember that they have a constituency coming after those whom theynowrepresen t aconstituency who will hold them to a more strict account of their stewardship than will the partial friends of to day and the execrations of that constituency will be heaped upon the man who now hesitates to aid in wiping out this stain and curse that has disgraced us so long. We want no timid men now. Our brothers and sons have poured out their blood upon fields made memorable by their bravery, and shall fear that some of us will not be returned to seats in this House lead us to hesitate in doing justice to our country in this the crisis of her destiny?

Mr. Speaker, there can be no reunion with slavery—the day when such a thing was possible haspassed. Sir let us forone momenttry to realize such a reunion. The first thing to be done under such a condition would be to enforce the fugitive slave law. But, sir, thousands of the slaves we would be called upon to return would be soldiers in the Union Army, men who had been engaged in fighting our battles. Our faith as a people is pledged to those men for freedom. They would be the wives, sisters, mothers and daughters of soldiers, and dare we submit to the rendition of that class? The fugitives who have followed our armies from the plantations of the South have been the only loyal men and women it found in its track, and shall we be asked in the day of our triumph to punish these our friends with one hand while with the other we reward the redhanded assassins who have endeavored to strike down our liberties? Sir, I can never bring myself calmly to contemplate the possibility of a reunion with the South which shall tolerate the further existence of slavery, much less one that shall restore it to its former assumed privileges. No, sir, we must either abolish slavery, or consent to see the Union of our fathers destroyed, its hitherto proud name become a hissing and a reproach, and its people no longer free,

Sir, there is but one compensation we can render to this country for the terrible sacrifices she has been called upon to endure in this struggle; that compensation is the entire abolition of the curse of slavery; otherwise the blood of our countrymen is shed in vain. We have seen it lurking arid rankling in the veins of our body politic for eighty years, until it has culminated at last in this terrible war, the most gigantic, and, upon the part of the South, the most brutal the world ever saw; Shall we now be willing to give it a new lease of power, new strength to renew its attacks? No, sir, we cannot, we dare not consent to such a thing. Were we to so far forget the lessons of the past as to entertain so base a proposition, we would be disgraced m our own sight and in the eyes of the world and of God.

But, sir, if we are to make emancipation effective and adequate to our national disease, we must adopt it boldly, resolutely, and at once. We must not only emancipate the slaves in the seceded States, but we must include the slaves of the border States, leaving no root oi the accursed tree to spring up for tiie future to the pen! oi the count! y. And, sir, the measure now pending seems to me to be the only one adequate to the emergency.

Mr. MARCY. Mr. Speaker, I have sought this opportunity to address the House for the purpose of expressing somegeneral views on the state of the country. In the expression of my sentiments I shall not be sustained with the hope that my counsels will be heeded by the Administration party in powerin this House, but if my remarks go out to the country, it is more probable that the righteous aversion existing in the heart of the people to this Administration may receive strength. The foundations on which our national liberty rests were deliberately settled by the illustrious statesmen of theRevolution every thing that was felt to be a necessity for a free people was carefully provided for; civil and religious liberty was surrounded with safeguards; the cause and the Government which the heroes of the Revolution fought for received the blessings of Heaven; the Constitution was a perfect work, and so long as the Administration of the Government under it was in the hands of the Democratic party, so long did it meet the wants of the whole country, but the moment the great disloyal abolition party assumed to direct the affairs of the nation, from that moment the safeguards of liberty were broken down, the foundations of the nation s strength were undermined, time honored landmarks were blotted out, the purity and sacredness of the ballot box were violated and now, emboldened by success, the Executive of the nation proclaims to a bewildered people that, as he understands his oath to support and preserve the Constitution, it calls on him to do what in his judgment is indispensable to its preservation, whether such means are constitutional and according to its letter or not.

I address myself now, Mr. Speaker, to the consideration of the President s position as a plain, honest man, seeking for what is the best for the whole country, and as a man free from nil prejudices, free from fanaticisms, and free from the mortal sin of ever having by word or deed promoted and fostered hatred between the two sections of the country. When visiting the splendid agricultural regions of the South, arid doing business there, and when at home amid the busy marts of New England industry, 1 have invariably cherished one and the same national sentiment Fraternity and equality are the guides of all true Americans. The Constitution in plain and unmistakable terms—so plain that a wayfaring man though a fool and a joker need not err therein— defines and limits the President s use of means and measures in the exercise of his duty in its protection and defense. His oath confines him to the use of the means which the Constitution provides. When he knowingly violates the sacred instrument, instead of" either protecting or defending it, he destroys it; he commits a high crime against the American people, and registers ill heaven the act of Ills perjury; and all his aiders and accessories to the crime in this Congress, and all that portion of the wicked, disloyal abolition party who sustain the President in his infractions on the Constitution, are joint heirs with him to the inheritance of eternal infamy.

If the President has the right to overleap, or, in the language of the gentleman from Ohio, [Mr. Garfield,] "override" the Constitution and to substitute his own views for the written law of the land, he can justify himself by showing wherein the Constitution gives him that right. He says he does it to preserve the nation. How would you like a physician to preserve your life by cutting your heart out; the Constitution is the heart of the nation. Oathsareof no consequence when those who take them are allowed discretion as to when and for what purposes they can be violated. In time of peace the Constitution cannot become obsolete. In time of war, for still more obvious reasons, it cannot bo laid aside. It is a living code; no part of it can die; every line is operative everywhere throughout the country, and atall times. It is binding on every American, and he who has once sworn to support it and then perjures himself, he is a traitor.

We are not to day Mr. Speaker, where my voice can reach the erring and misguided South; if we were I should entreat them to return to their allegiance, to come back within the fold of the Union and once more cross their hands in friendship with us. If they would listen, the great loyal Democratic party would guaranty to them the pure administration of the law of the land, they should enjoy without further molestation their full and equitable rights under the Constitution. If the disloyal abolition party would humble itself in dust and ashes, and purge itself from its monstrous iniquities and wash away the stains which disfigure its infamous brow, and swear that from this time henceforth and forever it would never seek to interfere with the administration and regulation of the internal police of the southern States or of any State, and act with the Democratic party, peace v would once more return to bless the land and to seal with the benediction of divine love the nuptials of a reunited country. Shall we see that glorious day The abolition party do not wish to have the Union restored. I challenge any one of them to rise in his seat and say that he is in favor of the Union as it was and the Constitution as it is. Whenever such a blessing is hoped and prayed for they universally deride and mock the sentiment; all expressions for the Union as it was turn to ashes on their lips.

At (he time the Constitution was adopted it saved us from impending anarchy and sought to secure liberty to posterity. But the history of this Republic, like that of all others, has taught us that virtue among the rulers and the people can alone preserve and protect the forms of Government. The power of minute local administration was given to each State. It was made a very prominent feature; the people of each State were allowed to make their own laws, to govern their own institutions. From 1792 to 1860 the country for the greater part of the time was under Democratic rule. It uscended in the scale of nations to the first rank, and was the equal of the four great Powers of the earth; the American people became the pride and boast of the world. All this was accomplished because the great code between the States was respected. The party in power now seem as ready to overthrow this glorious Constitution as our fathers were to shed their blood to obtain it. Our fathers broke the yoke of tyranny, and a degenerate portion of their sons are ready to place their necks in it again.

Why are they ready to resume it, Mr. Speaker? When for a moment reason is allowed to resume its sway the question is easily answered. Weare engaged in putting down a great rebellion. That was the ostensible purpose of the war. Whether it has degenerated into a crusade to overthrow the institution of slavery at the expense of all the available blood and treasure of the North is an open question; but I asked the question, why does a portion of" the country seem ready to put on the yoke of" despotism? It is because they meekly sit by and see established forms of Government swept away, and, either in their ignorance or in their willingness to see theGovernmentdesiroyed, aid and abet the nefarious crime. Nothing can be more unfortunate in any country than the necessity or the rashness which blots out an established constitution before a substitute is prepared. We hear every day now, in addition to open infractions of the Constitution, of schemes for a different form of Government. Change it in the slightest manner and the form of Government is changed. If the Constitution should be altered to suit the infractions that have been made on it, what would become of us while the change was going on? How many fanatical theorists, filled with only the idea of the black man, would come forward and obtrude theirill digested notions upon the public? Despotism and its minions would lie in wait to take advantage of the hazards by which the Constitution would be surrounded. Breaking the Constitution is like breaking the golden cord; when once the mischief is done you cannot expect it to be repaired; rulcrsand people are alike unrestrained by authority; but while there is enough of the Constitution left to keep a remembrance of what it was, I shall not lose all confidence that its condition will be beyond hope when it again falls into the hands and care of the loyal Democratic party.

Mr. Speaker, as I proceed in my remarks I shall have occasion to speak more particularly of some of the infractions of the Constitution. I have said so much in a general way for the purpose of expressing to this House the absolute convictions of my constituents as well as my own, that by disregarding constitutional obligations the warning admonition of Washington, and the wise counsels of all the most eminent patriots of the land, past and present, the country has been involved in the horrors of a terrible and devastating civil war. My constituents, with me, believethat the Constitution as framed by the fathers ofour country, is sufficient for all emergencies, and we utterly repudiate the doctrine that in time of war, or at any time, it can be suspended or enlarged in its powers beyond the letter and true meaning of that sacred instrument. It is to us, as it was to our fathers, the only hope of a perfect Union, to establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, and if observed in its letter and spirit is amply sufficient to secure to us, as it did to them, these inestimable blessings. And as a Representative in Congress, I am instructed by my constituents to unite with all true Union men everywhere in the support of the Federal Government, and to seek to preserve the Constitution as it is and to restore the Union as it was.

Mr. Speaker, the patriotic and eloquent gentleman from Indiana [Mr. Voorhees] has told us how, under its present custodians, the Constitution has been used to establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty. The remembrance of that speech must still be fresh in the minds of the guilty party who have murdered the Constitution by piecemeal. My constituency do not believe in war as a remedy for the tremendous evil with which our country is afflicted. They regard the history of the three years of the immediate past as one of mourning, shame, and sorrow, and humiliation; they look upon it as a fratricidal strife which wise statesmanship might have avoided; they look upon the terrible and frightful slaughter as so many lives uselessly sacrificed; they think the mourning which the fate of war has carried to so many homes a dear price to pay for the military glory we have won; they look upon the immense amount of property which has been destroyed as a reckless and wanton waste; they assume the giganticload of taxes which has been placed upon their shoulders with a spirit of heroism that may be equal to the task, but praying that they may be spared additional weight; they look upon tile mighty pyramid of our national debt and its prospective increase, and cry out, "Not unto the third and fourth generation shall our children suffer for their fathers sins but all our posterity, throughout all the coming ages of the endurance of this nation, must feel the burden of heavy taxation to pay even its interest." My constituents are a thinking, reasoning people. They bow down to no idols and worship no false gods; their politics consists of pure Democracy, and their religion of patriotism and devotion to ilie whole country. They do not believe that the black man is equal to the white. They are not imbued either with any false philanthropy or false notions concerning the black man s true position. They would not disturb the equilibrium of States and plunge the country into a desolating war on the negro s account, but would leave each State to regulate its own internal affairs as guarantied by the Constitution. If' there is sin m slavery, they would leave it wholly to the conscience of the southern people and to their God. By what principle of right can any man justify the breaking up ofour form of government to secure freedom to the slaves? Gentlemen on the other side, do not disguise your true position, do not deceive yourselves any longer; look into the mirror of present events and see the reflection of your own image; if it is not more frightful tlmn any ever seen in Babylon, and more terrible than the apocalyptic Beast, then I have not seen the colossal and iniquitous image in its true light. Better a thousand times the old Union as it was should perish and rebellion triumph than ever to witness its restoration," is the wicked sentiment of the Republican party. It is fastened on them like the poisoned shirt of Nessus. Could the war stop to-morrow by the restoration of the Union as it was, how many votes could the measure get from gentlemen who charge this side of the House with disloyalty? Could the war stop tomorrow by the resurrection of the hopeless slain to return to the bosom of their families, and to bless with their presence the bereaved and stricken mourners, how many disloyal and crazy fanatics would give up their schemes for their loved negro to help on such a bright and glorious (lay? Not one, Mr. Speaker; in my judgment, not one; if there Be any such who would, let hun speak for himself. Have I offended? But, gentlemen, your career is fast drawing to a close. God, in His mercy, will not impose upon the free American people another four years of your dreadful misrule; four years in the fiery furnace, four years groping in the valley and shadow of death, four years of the blind leading the blind, four years amid the sulphurous flames of the pit that is bottomless, I think will satisfy even divine vengeance; and when the administration of the Government passes into the hands of the conservative party, our abolition friends must emigrate to the place the gentleman from Illinois [Mr. Washburne] so often mentions, Abyssinia, and into the heart of Africa, or be content with the four years of miscegenetic beatitude they have so hugely enjoyed. The Government instituted for white men will again become popular. The bleeding Treasury will be rescued from the grasp of relentless speculators, and will become virtuous too; and the fairy tales that render it so disreputable will cease to exist.

I approach now, sir, the consideration of two or three of the subjects which have claimed much of the attention of the country, and done much to excite that deep and overwhelming spirit of opposition to the Administration which is so manifest in all the States. One of the resolutions, sir, passed at the convention which nominated me for Congress was as follows:

"Resolved, That the arbitrary arrest and imprisonment of citizens (or political offenses, and the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus in loyal States, are gross violation*, of our national and State constitutions, and tyrannical infractions of the rights and liberties of American citizens, wiiicii cannot be tolerated in a free country; and that tile people cannot, and will not, allow the freedom of speech and of the press, that great safeguard of civil liberty, to he put down by unwarranted and despotic exercise of power from whatever source."

Among the articles of our present faith we find the following; we do not believe the Administration is engaged exclusively m putting down the rebellion; we believe it is employing our vast armies to sustain acts which have the strongest tendency to overthrow the framework of our Government. We believe the Army has been used in loyal States to carry elections, and, above all, Mr. Speaker, how was it in Florida for the purpose of getting up a bogus State government in favor of the President, and how has the Army been used by Banks for the purpose of enriching cotton speculators? Are these things fresh in the minds of Republicans, or are they not? Are the immense losses in the material of war and the lives of thousands uselessly sacrificed to Moloch and Mammon passed forgotten into the history of your nameless crimes? The true purpose of the people in furnishing the sinews of war is comprehensively stated in a general order issued by General McClellan, August 9, 1862. The order is as follows:

The general commanding takes this occasion to remind the officers and soldiers of this array that we are engaged in supporting the Constitution and laws of the United States, and in suppressing rebellion against theii authority; that we are not engaged in a war of rapine, revenge, or subjugation; that this is not a contest against populations, but against aimed forces and political organizations; that it is a struggle cai ried on within the United States, and should be conducted by us upon the highest principles known to Christian civilization.'-

But I pass on to the resolution first quoted. I know not how many times Mr. Seward has rung his bell since he has been prime minister, and consequently I know not how many citizenshave been unceremoniously locked up in military dungeons without an opportunity of trial by a jury of their countrymen; but we do know the number is legion, and that in every instance it was done in absolute violation of the established law of the land. No special pleading can convince us to the contrary; when the people are robbed of their liberties they know it. Among the dearest of their rights is that of trial by jury. The people will not be trifled with any longer; the great constitutional arguments on this subject I leave for the able lawyers on this side of the House to discuss. I simply state the broad facts as stated by the Constitution and as they are understood by the people at large, who are now awaking to a sense of their true condition.

The President has" had a majority of both Houses of Congress in his favor; hence whatever radical measure he has wished to carry has been accomplished without the slightest difficulty. The direct and only object of a majority of these measures has been to secure a firm foothold for approaching despotism, coming on with equal steps with every unconstitutional set. Is it any exaggeration to assert that the military prisons have been filled with citizensfrom the loyal States who are political opponents of th is Administration, and have they not, in their wretchedness, become prematurely old, and has not the affliction with many of them been so great as to lead to suicide and to the lunatic asylum? After they have been confined for many weary months, vainly seeking for the cause of their arrest and for a trial, have they not been released without one, or even so much as an excuse given for the horrible outrage inflicted upon them? Any man of influence known to be opposed to this Administration is in danger all the time of having his most sacred rights violated, of being torn from the bosom of his family and incarcerated in a loathsome dungeon. The whole country is filled with spies and eavesdroppers to report to the Bakers whatever can be tortured into anything like opposition to the tyranny seeking to plant itself upon a throne. By the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus the Government officials are enabled to seize and imprison any offensive person. Howlong will such a state of things last? Just so long as a foolish people will permit it.

My constituents understand this question and woe be to the man who attempts among them to execute the mandates of tyrants. My friends are also in favor of free speech and a free press.

Mr. Speaker during the ever to be memorable trial of the distinguished Representative from Ohio [Mr. Long] for words spoken in debate, I was painfully struck with the following remark from the gentleman from Indiana, [Mr. Orth,] namely:

"A man is free to speak so long as he speaks for tile nation; when he speaks against it he shall not, with my consent, do so with impunity on the floor of this House."

Who is to be the judge when I am speaking whether I am speaking for the nation or not—the gentleman from Indiana [Mr. Orth] or myself? is his judgment so faultless that he can decide better than his peers what is constitutional and within the scope of legitimate debate? Has it come to this in his judgment, that hecanriseand dictate what we, with" bated breath and whispering humbleness," may say? Dare he stand up in Congress and seek to lock the mouths of the Representatives of a free people whose every right is as sacred as his own? I tell the gentleman and all of his way of thinking that I shall utter upon the floor of this House whatever I wish concerning the crimes, the follies, and the outrages of this Administration; whatever I wish concerning its turpitude, its sins, and deformity. I quote from Story on the Constitution:

In some foreign countries even to this day it is a crime to speak on any subject, religious, philosophic, or political, n what is contrary to the received opinions ol the Government; or even to speak upon the conduct of public men, of rulers or representatives, nt terms of the strictest truth and courtesy, has been and is now deemed a scandal upon tile supposed sanctity of their stations and character, subjectingthe party guilty of it to tile severest punishments." The gentleman and his friends had better at once find those genial climes. They are just suited to the tastes of despots and aristocrats. But the right of free speech is a plant of indigenous growth in this country, and can not be eradicated. The freedom of the press, Mr. Speaker, receives no protection from the present guardians of the people s rights. I now ask for information: is there an instance on record where Government officials have exerted their power and authority to prevent the destruction of newspaper offices? Is there an instance on record where the strong arm of the law has been interposed and upheld by the friends of Mr. Lincoln to save newspaper property from a lawless mob? I know of none, sir, and I do not think there is one; it has seemed rather a holiday pastime than otherwise, and thought as lightly of as any other infraction of the Constitution. It has remained for the historian to refresh our memories with the fact, while comparing this country with others, that

In some countries the press has been shackled, and compelled to speak only in the timid language which the cringing courtier of the capricious Inquisition should license for publication."

Sir, how well do his words' apply to tlie' state of things now in our own unhappy country. Let the people ponder well these facts before the glory of our nation is entirely gone; before it stands only as the shadow of the imperial name it once had; before it is seen only as a broken and crumbling monument ofitsheroic history; before Ichabod is written all over its shattered templest

In this hasty review I must avail myself of the privilege to notice other acts of this Administration, which have materially helped to strengthen, and prolong the rebellion, and to swell the army of tax gatherers and the processions of wretched mourners in all our streets.

On the 22d of September, 1869', the President gave notice that on the 1st of January, 1863, he should issue a proclamation of emancipation to all the slaves in the districts seeking for independence. Three months' notice was given to the southern men to prepare for the event. During this time the abolition press was in ecstacies, the rebellion was about to receive its final blow, the colored millennium was to be ushered in. Greeley, at the head of nine hundred thousand more, promised to move immediately upon the enemy s works under the influence of the Spirit of the Lord. At the tread of their conquering march the confederacy was to tremble and totter to its fall. But how have all those bright visions vanished! Time has demonstrated the wisdom of the country s true friends. That proclamation had the identical effect which statesmen foresaw. Not one single slave has been liberated thereby. Wherever the armies have penetrated slaves have been received and protected within the lines of the federal forces. The same was the case before the proclamation was issued.

Mr. Speaker, while General McClellan was in command he received and protected every negro who came within his lines. ,He never refused one, and never returned one to slavery. But it was not his idea to employ the armies of the Union for the purpose of destroying their property, liberating slaves; the Army had with him a higher and holier destiny. Under his leadership Iiis soldiers knew that the grand object of the war was to preserve the Constitution and restore the unity of the States. After the proclamation was made, instead of having the effect to fill up the depleted ranks of the Army with a million of willing troops, conscription and princely bounties was the resort. On the other hand it broke the spirit of thousands of loyal men struggling to be loyal. They saw their property aboutto be sweptaway from them at a single stroke; it may have been nothing but a weakness of theirs, but it was more than they could stand. They joined the ranks of the confederates, and interposed a line of gleaming bayonets between their property and those who would take it away; and beyond all that, itkindled into a flame seven times fiercer than ever felt before the mortal enmity of the southern heart. This may have been wise and judicious. I beg leave, however, to differ. In myjudgmentan overreach of the Constitution to proclaim freedom to millions of blacks affords staple for the demagogue; consequently the misery and wretchedness the country endures on account of it are of no earthly account.

For an explanation of the additional burdens imposed upon the white laboring classes at the North to support this folly of follies, I refer the other side to the able and exhaustive speech of my distinguished friend from Indiana, [Mr. Ho i.- Leaving the proclamation to slumber in the charnel house where, shrouded in the habiliments of death repose the brains of the Republican party, let us pass on to the act approved July 17, 1862, to seize and confiscate the property of rebels, &c. This act provides for the immediate seizure of all the estate and property, money, stocks, credits, and effects of those who were at the time of the passage of the act holding high office, civil and military; and in section six this act provides that the property of any person engaged in the rebellion shall suffer confiscation, including estates, money, stocks, and credits, unless within sixty days after the proclamation of the President, which is provided for in the act, such persons shall return to their allegiance.

On the 35th of July, 1862, the President issued his proclamation of warning to all persons liable to be affected by the act.

Nearly two years have passed, sir, since this act went into operation. In a few places and on the borders of two or three States the act of confiscation has had a practical effect; estates have been seized and confiscated; slight revenues to the Government have thereby gone into the national Treasury; a few persons have been turned out, hou less and homeless into the streets; the greed of the officers charged with the execution of the law has been partially satisfied; the radical humanitarian and Utopian theorist have enjoyed the partial fulfillment of their dreams of dividing up and realizing easy profits from the large estates of the South. But, sir, if possible it gave additional incentives to the owners oflanded property South to oppose with all their might the military power of the North, which alone is the only power that can enforce the provisions of the law. From these two distinguishedactsofthe Administration nothing but misery, bloodshed, and desolation have followed m their train; by them the war has been prolonged, millions on millions have been added to the national debt thousandsofthe bravest and best of our citizen soldiery have lost their lives in consequence. In the idea of emancipation and confiscation the great and only legitimate object of the war has been lost sight of, and they have led directly to the adoption of the theories of subjugation and extermination.

The Union, as presented to the South by the abolition party, is nothing more nor less than the acceptance of a master who is to prescribe their laws and regulate their internal police.

Forcible arguments have now been put into their mouths to resist, step by step, force with force, the encroachments of an Administration which, in its blind zeal to gratify the lunacy of fanatics, throws down all constitutional barriers and leaps headlong into the whirlpool of anarchy and misrule. Time would fail me to specify one half of the radical mistakes Mr. Lincoln has made. I have no heart to go over the list; they are before the American people. The whole bill of indictments is being drawn by the accused himself. The trial of Abraham Lincoln will not prove a farce, and no packed jury, armed by bayonets, will be able to acquit him. I may reason wrong; but I believe the name of the President will go down to posterity along with the deep execrations of all who revere and love the Union as our fathers gave it to us.

Our soldiers in the field deserve and have ever received from this side of the House the warmest sympathy and support. Their own individual interests have and ever will be among our most sacred trusts. They went out to defend the flag of their country, and to bring back under the Constitution the seceded States. They have illustrated on every battle field the valor and prowess of American arms. They could do no more. "They have done enough to accomplish the Line object of the war, and would have Jane more but for the interference of ambitious, scliiwh, and designing politicians.

Mr. Speaker, the flag of our country is dear to me. i have carried it all over the world, and beneath that sacred emblem of our nation s power 1 have in every foreign hind, among civilized and uncivilized nations, realized the influence of its protection. I have never felt that it was designed for the benefit of any State or section, bin that under itail wereahke equal. That flag I still intend to uphold and defend. I see in it nothing to warrant oppression oreonimitment of crime in the sacred mime o( liberty. As has been well said by the able patriot from the city of New York, [Mr. Brooks,] traitors to the Constitution are those who violate it; those who depart from it are like the marineratsea without a compass, and although the truly loyal men stand as lights all over the country to keep the ship of State away and free from the rocks and shoals whither it is drifting, oui good intentions are always disregarded and often treated with contempt.

More than once, sir, I have ridden on the mountain waves of the ocean, clinging to a portion of the wreck of my noble ship; the small boat some friendly plank or spar, has been the means of saying my ht e So, su, amid the general wreck of States, and floating about as we are on the waves of this tempestuous ocean of civil war, I will cling to the Constitution as my only hope of refuge and safety. To refuse its aid would be madness.

Mr. COPPROTH. Mr. Speaker, when I entered this Hall at the opening of this session,! had determined not to participate in any general debate, ft was my intention to be a listener and not a talker. This resolve would have been faithfully kept had it not been for the extraordinary legislation that has been pressed upon the House —legislation, in ray opinion, which is not only subversive of the interests of the people, but which erects an insurmountable barrier to the restoration of the Union. The resolution before us proposes to amend the Constitution, made by the patriots of the Revolution so as to abolish slavery throughout the United States. It proposes to set free four million ignorant and debased negroes to swarm the country with pestilential effect. It is to carry out the design of the bad and wicked men whose fanatical teaching has produced the terrible bloodshed and destruction of life through which we are now passing.

Sir, we should pause before proceeding any further in this unconstitutional and censurable legislation. The mere abolition of slavery is not my cause of complaint. 1 care not whether slavery is retained or abolished by the people of the States in which it exists—the only rightful authority. The question to me is, has Congress a right to take from the people of the South their property; or, in other words, having no pecuniary interest therein, are we justified in freeing the slave property of others? Can we abolish slavery in the loyal State of Kentucky against her will? If this resolution should pass, and be ratified by three fourths of the States—States already free—and Kentucky refuses to ratify it, upon what principle of right or law would we be justified in taking this slave property of the people of Kentucky? Would it be less than stealing? This legislation has a tendency not only to create discord amongthe people of the North, but has a power so immense the mind cannot calculate its weight in giving strength and force to the rebellion. It fulfills all the prophecies of the South concerning the North. They have been bolstering up and maintaining their Army by asserting that the people of the North intended, to confiscate their homes and rob them of their slave property. The one has already been put in force by an unconstitutional enactment, and you now propose to do the other by the same process of illegality. These acts constitute the propelling power which has filled southern armies. The fanatical legislation of this Congress has been of more value to the South, in giving them large armies, than all the conscriptions they have passed or bounties they have paid. Men who were attached to the old Union, but placed under circumstances to be of little service to it, and who have been waiting with beating hearts to be again sheltered under the old flag, are now forced, not only into sympathy with the rebellion, but into hearty cooperation. They have no other resort. To remain idle now is to lose all they have. In their opinion, to sustain the rebellion retains to them their property.

If slavery is to be abolished, allow it to be done according to the principles of common justice. Allow the people in each State the inalienable right, through their legally constituted authorities, to control their own domestic institutions in their own way. This was the doctrine held by statesmen whose passions and prejudices did not blind them to a coi lect idea of light.

President Harrison saw the disunion purposes of the abolitionists and slavery agitators at an early day, and expressed the following opinion: I am, and luivo been, for many years', po much opposed to slavery, that I will never live m a slave Stale. Jlut 1 believe the Constitution lias given no power to the General Government to interfere in tins matter, and that to have slaves ot iii) slaves depend* upon tiio people in each State alone, j iit besides the constitutional objection, 1 am persuaded that the obvious tendency officii interference on ihe pair <>1 the States which have, no r slaves with the property ot their lel ow eitizen of the others, is to produce a state ot diM ord and jealousy, that will, in the <-i>d. prove fatal to the Union, f believe that In no other Stare an: such wild and dangerous sentiment^ entertained on this subject as m Ohio."

Sir, I do not deny the right of Congress to amend the Constitution of the United States for the benefit of the people, but 1 do deny the right of Congress to amend the Constitution to the destruction of the right of the people to hold property. It never was intended by the framers of the Constitution, nor by any of the great men who ruled this country, that the dominant party, blinded by prejudice, should alter or amend the Constitution to the injury of the weaker section." If the North has the power to take from the South their property, it follows that if the South ever gets the power, she would havethesame rightto take our property, and the result would be that instead of the Constitution protecting the people it would be turned into a power to oppress them. The Democratic party has been exerting its power to restrain legislation to its proper channel, and for this it is daily stated upon this floor and elsewhere that the Democrats are in sympathy with the rebellion. What a libel upon that great party! Its great principles, its pure devotion to the country, and its never dying fealty to the doctrine of man s capacity for self govcrn ment, can receive these shocks of vituperation with as little effect as the mighty oak, that has planted its roots deep into the mountain side, receives the peltings of the storm. Let history speak for the Democratic party. Under its control this nation grew from thirteen penniless colonies to thirty four mighty States. Under its control the forests, where the red man roamed unmolested, have been felled, and mighty cities have sprung up, with their spires piercing the clouds. Under its control the old road wagon had scarcely pulverized the stones of the macadamized pikes upon the mountains, until the iron horse flew with lightning speed through their bowels. It was under its control the sails of our vessels whitened every navigable stream in the world and the flag of our country protected American citizens in every clime. Under its control, when foreign nations were suffering for food, the old ocean was made to groan beneath the weight of provisions sentto a starving people. Under its control science, agriculture, and the mechanical arts became so perfect and harmonious that the Old World wondered in amazement at the scientific advancement of our people. Under its control the people of all climes and countries were invited to make this their home, where they might worship God according to the dictates of their own conscience, and under theirown "vine and fig tree It was under the control of this same Democratic party that vast and boundless territory was acquired. The great Northwest was molded by the hand of the Democracy. That beautiful country, which was once a wild and waving prairie, is now dotted with habitations as the stars dot the heavens above us, and her cattle are feeding upon a thousand hills. It was under Democratic control that empire marched onward until the flag of ourcountry was placed upon the highest peaks of the Rocky mountains,