May 31, 1864 (3)

The House reassembled at half past seven o clock p. m., (Mr. L. Myers occupying the chair as Speaker pro tempore,) and resumed the consideration of joint resolution of the Senate No. 1G, submitting to the Legislatures of the several States a proposition to amend the Constitution of the United States.

Mr. HERRICK. Mr. Speaker, as I intend to vote against this proposition to tamper with the Constitution of our fathers, which 1 have been taught to reverence as a masterpiece of wisdom in statesmanship, and as being the foundation of the most perfect system of human government ever devised by man, it is but proper that I should state to the House and the country some of the reasons which impel me to make the record I intend upon the question of the passage of this important resolution. I have, however, no hope that anything I may say will affect the action of this House upon the measure now pending; but for all that, as the Representative of a constituency as deeply interested in the perpetuation of the American Union as any other population within its borders, 1 fed it to be my duty as well to raise my voice against this measure as to record my vote. My remarks, however, will be brief, and, I hope, pertinent to the question before the House.

In the first place, Mr. Speaker, I am impelled by my understanding to regard the introduction of this pregnant resolution at this particular time, during the pi ogress of a terrible war, and amidst the very clashing of arms and the slaughter of our citizens by tens of thousands, a war prosecuted professedly for the enforcement of the laws and the preservation of the Constitution we propose to amend, only as another of the ill devised and hialicious measures of the political dynasty m power, especially designed to protract the latmg conflict, and to render entirely impossible the ultimate restoration of the Union after our armies shall have completely overcome and dispersed the armed force of the rebellion

To my mind, this is a disunion measure; and in my view the adoption of this resolution bjr Congress, and its subsequent incorporation into the Constitution through the assent of" bogus" State organizations to be improvised forths occasion, under the President s one tenth amnesty proclamation or the reconstruction bill introduced by the distinguished gentlemen from Maryland or new States to be organized by dividing old ones, as in the case of West Virginia, or created out of Territories not having a sufficient number of inhabitants to entitle them to a single Representative upon this floor say the adoption of this measure under such circumstances can have no other effect than to seal forever the dissolution of the Union declared by the seceding States three years ago, however superior the northern States may prove in military power.

Sir, this- resolution is nothing else than a disunion measure. Itmeansnothingelsethaneternal disunion and a continuous war. Its design could have been only to widen the existing breach between the Union and the slave States now in rebellion, and to render peace upon any acceptable terms to the South unapproachable. It will give the rebel leaders a new pretext for continuing In arms, for it is virtually a formal declaration of Congress and the northern people that submission to the Federal authority and a renewal in good faith of their allegiance to the Government will profit them nothing in the way of securing to themselves and their posterity the rights which the Constitution, as their fathers and our fathers made it, guaranties to all the States. I mean the right to regulate their own internal affairs, to determine their own system of labor, to control their own social institutions, to have slavery or leave it alone, to fix the status of their inhabitants severally, and to give or withhold the lights of citizenship and suffrage as they may see fit, and to exercise the attributes of absolute sovereignty in all matters not especially delegated to the General Government.

This resolution, which strikes at the original compact between the several States and which, I apprehend, is to bfc "put through" and forced into the Constitution" by hook or by crook," by the creation, if necessary, of new or bogus States enough to insure for it the requisite indorsement of the Legislatures of three fourths of those which the ruling power may please to reckon in the Union, will, in my judgment, close the last avenue to a reconciliation of our presentsectional difficulties, and in the eyes of the world will furnish sufficient justification for continued resistance on the part of those States which may not be allowed to freely participate m making this virtually new Constitution because this amendment will absolutely upset the social organization in which the people of the slaveholding States were bred, while it will disturb the rights of property among them, disarrange all their industrial pursuits, and completely wipe out of existence, without compensation, the patrimony of a multitude of innocent people, many of whom may not have participated in the rebellion in any degree.

Do the advocates of this measure want the old Union restored? Are they desirous of having this sanguinary contest terminated in the return of the southern States to their allegiance? Do they wish to reestablish fraternal relations through an honorable peace with those people who are now m rebellion, and are they ready, through the cooperation of a reconciled South, once more to form a united country that we may again take our place in the front rank of the nations of the earth? If so, I beg them to pause before they consummate this momentous action. Howcan they expect to get the seceded States back into the Union by enacting measures to keep them out, is a question that has been pertinently asked; and here I ask it again of the supporters of this resolution. Why, if they be really desirous of restoring the Union, will they not drop the negro and cease to tamper with the Constitution until peace shall once more spread her wings within our borders?

The Constitution as framed by the founders of our Government should be the bond of peace. Fidelity to its provisions and strict adherence to its considerate compromises is the sacred duty of all who have shared its blessings. It was designed as the guarantee of reciprocal advantages and the anchor of safety for contested rights. It is an instrumemof harmony, wrought outof discordant elements and various sectional and conflicting interests, to secure a glorious sisterhood of coequal States in one majestic nation, for a 'common destiny. That majestic nation I would preserve in all its greatness and glory. I would notsacrifice it nor abate a solitary square mile of its territory for th« freedom of all the negroes ever born in. Africa, much less for the poor satisfaction of wreaking vengeance upon the wretched and thwarted traitors who have vainly sought to destroy it by rebellion and secession. I would freely pardon every traitor that breathes the southern air if thereby I could save the Union and restore our bleeding country to peace and tranquility.

If the object of this bloody war is really to restore, the Union, as its promoters would have us believe in spite of their disunion policy, 1 have never been able to understand why slavery, or the condition of the negroes of the South, should have any more necessary connection with it than the houses, mules, and other property of that section of i ho country. If the mm of the Administration is to compel the insurrectionary States to perform their duties under the Constitution— and that should be its only aim in this war—to pov duties on imports to the Federal Treasury, iind to yield obedience to Federal authority in oil icsp' cfs like the other States, it seems to me to be fully hi iheoxtrenio to war upon the tenure nf any description of southern property. But my MiuletMttiiding is at fault, Mr. Speaker, if the pai ty in power have any such intention. On the contrary, they seem to have ingeniously and successfully devised a system of measures looking directly to the complete destruction of the very rights of which the southern people are most j alous and which the Crittenden resolution* declared should be respected and protected, lush «d of seeking to restore the States to the Union with their constitutions and rights unimpaired, it lias now become the avowed object of the party in power to prevent, the restoration of a solitary State with any of its independent- rights. The reconstruction bill which passed this House the other day s well as the measure now under consideration, amounts to a full confession of such a policy.

In view of the recent gratifying achievements of our arms, it seems to me, sir, that it would be wise in the further prosecution of the war to confine our policy to tin; use of Ann: iiguinst force; and not, l by ve legislation like that we have now under consideration and that which we have been maturing for the last six months, to blast the love and repel the attachment to the Union that may bestilMingering in the breasts of tens of thousands of honest citizens of the South who have been rebels only by compulsion, on account of the inability of the Government to protect them in their loyalty and crush the rebel authorities, which they have been forced to support and obey upon their pen!.

Why will not our friends upon the other side of the House let this whole negro question rest until we shall have subdued the rebellion; oral least, why will they not leave it to abide its fate at the handaof the military department? While we are conquering the icbelhon, Mr. Speaker, we should learn to conquer our prejudices aiid contemplate the obnoxious domestic institutions of the South in a spirit of patriotism and toleration as did theconaiderate statesmen who laid the foundation of iheGovernment upon compromises and concessions which must still be perpetuated if we would preset ve that Government from the convulsions which now threaten its overthrow, and which can never be quieted by any rough shod measureshke this. While we are expending life and treasure without measure, and learning to look upon blood and carnage with composure, is it too much to ask of the politicians who now direct the affairs of the Government to sacrifice their political theories, it may be their philanthropic impulses or their humanitarian philosophy, as well as their partisan prejudices and party affinities, for the sake of our suft eriuo country? If negro emancipation is found to stand in the way of the redstablishment of our free and united Government, upon the principles and compromises which guided our fathers in its original construction, is it' not their high and patriotic duty to let the negro slide while we reconcile the. dreadful sectional antagonism which is deluging the land with the best blood of our people?

Sir, the assumption that slavery is the cause of this war, and that there can be no union of these States while slavery is tolerated in any of them, is a position which the facts do not warrant or justify. The Union, according to my understanding, was established upon the idea that a free Government could exist when composed of independent States, of various geographical positions, and possessingaltogether different systems of social organization, for common purposes; and the assumption of the Republicans, to which 1 refer, is an argument not only against the rights of States to govern themselves, but it is a concession that the great principle contended for in the Revolution of 1776, after a trial of eighty years has proved a failure, and that we are now carrying on a gigantic civil war to establish a consolidated central Government upon a homogeneity of interests. Success in this undertaking would only undo what our fathers accomplished in 1776. But, sir, in my judgment this can never be accomplished.

Before we can have any right to expect peace, Mr. Speaker, and such a peace as will reconcile the people of the two sections again to live together under one Government and present to the world a united and prosperous country, the glowing fanaticsof the party now in power must cease to breathe threatenings and slaughter upon the southern people for the sin of slaveholding, and cease to clamor for extermination, general confiscation, and universal emancipation. The history of mankind, Mr. Speaker, should touch us that if we would have this Government reunited with equal i rights and equal privileges to the States, that end must be brought aboutby other agencies than military force and unforgiving hate. Sir, I believe then; have been times in the progress of this war when the exercise of a little wisdom on the part of the Administration and the manifestation of a conciliatory policy might have closed it with honor and without humiliation on the part of either of the belligerents; but those opportunities have been invariably destroyed by some exasperating proclamation, order or act on the part of the Government, apparently especially designed to drive the minds of relenting rebels into more desperate enmity. Sir, the resolution we are now considering is one of those measures the adoption of which can have no other than anembanasMng efiectnpon the negotiation which must inevitably precede a restoration of amicable relations between the nosy antagonist sections of our unhappy country, if such relations should ever be reestablished.

Sir, the slavery issue, which this resolution seeks to finally settle in a summary manner by the immediate abolition of slavery, is legitimately merged in the higher issue of the right of the States to control their domestic affairs, and to fix each, for itself the status, not only of the negro, but of all other people who dwell within then* borders. That is the great question involved in the resolution now before tin* House. It must be recollected, lVlr. Speaker, that even m the free States we have divers local laws to regulate the status of different classes of people. While some of the western States have, or have had, laws forbidding negroes to come within their lines to reside either as freemen or slaves, some of the New England States, under the Know Nothing fanaticism, enacted that men born m foreign countries should not become citizens or be entitled to the elective franchise until after a probationary residence of twenty one years, and California has a code applicable to us Chinese settlers, fastening burdens upon them to which none of its other inhabitants arc subjected.

Now, sir, in resisting the various unconstitutional schemes of the President and his party in Congress to accomplish the abolition of slavery, the Democratic party have not sought to uphold the institution of negro bondage on its merits, but only to maintain the constitutional right of each State to determine for itself, as the northern States have done, what shall be the relative position of the black race in their midst; and to determine also, when they will abolish slavery, or whether they will abolish it at all. These rights, guarantied by the Constitution, have been exercised by the northern States at their pleasure, and the Democracy hold as a principle that the southern States cannot and should not be deprived of the same privileges. The people of the several States, when the Constitution was formed, had, from their first settlement as colonists, enjoyed the right to manage their domestic and local affairs through their own legislative bodies; and when the representatives of the States came together in Convention to form the Constitution, no proposition was made from any quarter that those inherent rights should be invaded, much less surrendered. No State at that time would have yielded one tittle of those rights for the sake of a Union. They justly regarded the central Government, which they then organized, and which is the same to this day, as incompetent to manage the local affairs and regulate the domestic concerns of so many different communities; and possibly that is one reason why they were never confided to the General Government. While on the contrary, by an express provision of the Constitution, they are with jealous care especially reserved to the States, whose independence in that respect was not impaired in the least degree by the terms of the original Union. The States were nil left at liberty to abolish, continue, or establish slavery as they pleased* and the right of Virginia to adhere to slavery was as clear as the right of Massachusetts, New York, and other States to abolish it.

I perfectly agree with the distinguished Senator who said that the States which adhered to slavery and continued it, it being the normal condition of the colonies, had more reason and juster grounds for complaint against the States which abolished it .than those States had against such as chose to continue it. I believe also that if all the States holding slaves at the close of the revolutionary war had continued to hold them to the present time the mischievous agitation of the 44 negro question" by the people of some of those States would never have occurred and this rebellion would never have been heard of. If there had been no abolition in Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and other States which held slaves at the organization of the Government, slavery would never have been accused of being the cause of this war, and no trouble could have arisen between the States on account of it.

Nobody, Mr. Speaker, will pretend to say, even at this day, that the Union could have been formed in the first place if the Constitution had not recognized and protected the slave institution. Sir, does anybody believe that if the representatives of a majority of the States in the Convention which framed the Constitution had insisted upon incorporating into that instrumentothe resolution now upon your table our Union could have been consummated? No, sir. Had New England then insisted upon the abolition of slavery we all know that the Constitution would have failed and there would have been no Union for the rebels of the present day to destroy or for us to save. This country then would have been split up into sundry confederacies, or perhaps each of the States would have been left to" go it alone."

Now, sir, the truth is that the protection which the Constitution threw around the slavery system of the South, and the guarantee it g ve to the African slave trade for a period of twenty years, was in fact the very bond of our Union; for it is manifest that no Union could have been formed if those inthese days horrid provisions had been omitted! What a terrible idea for our negroworshiping friends on the other side of the House to contemplate!

In this view of our governmental compact— denominated by the abolitionists 44 an agreement with hell —and its provisions establishing the tenure of slave property, the rights of the people of the slaveholding States in such property cannot be equitably or honestly abrogated without their consent. It is not, however, my intention to argue this point, for I am sure that I should never be able to convince the majuutydf this House that they have not the light by some higher law" to abrogate every species of property belonging to a slaveholder, and to tinker the Constitution to suit themselves, and then say to the people of the South "This shall be your Constitution; submit to it without a murmur, or we will exterminate your whole race from the face of the earth and parcel out your lands to your negroes in forty acre lots!'*

In this spirit they have conducted the war from its beginning full of venomous persecution toward slaveholders for the sin of slavery as was Saul of Tarsus when he made that memorable journey from Jerusalem (o Damascus breathing threatenings and slaughter against the saints! But, sir, Paul on that occasion saw a great light and heard a loud voice; and I am hopeful that before our once happy land is utterly ruined—say in the month of November next—the relentless career of the fanatics in power will in like manner be arrested by the mighty voice of the people at the polls. It cannot be possible, Mr. Speaker, that the spell of fanaticism, the incomprehensible negro mania which now reconciles the free people of this free country to the despotic power and the unconstitutional usurpations of this Administration, and impels them to the toleration of such aggressions upon the personal liberty of citizens and the rights of free speech and a free press as have been made again and again by the military power under its direction is to last much longer. The exile and imprisonment of citizens for no crime known to the laws, the abrupt invasion of printing offices and other places of business by armed soldiers, and- the arbitrary arrest of editors for the innocent publication of matters displeasing to the men in power—as in the case of the New York Journal of Commerce and the World the other day—are startling offenses against the constitutional rights of the people, which, when fully comprehended, can hardly fail to arouse a tornado of indignation among the masses that will hurl from their seats of power the arrogant despots who are now trampling under their feet the sacred charter of our liberties, even while their pliant partisans are here endeavoring, through the insidious resolution under consideration, to wrest from the States all control over their local institutions and constitutea consolidated General Government entirely different from that which our fathers instituted.

But, sir, while I forego the argument I might make upon this point and ignore all the quotations which might be impressed to sustain my position, I may be at liberty to express my humble opinion, that as there would have been no Union in the first place if the power to regulate the matter of slavery had not been left to the exclusive control of the States in their unsurrendered sovereignty, so now, if that power be taken from the States by this amendment of the Constitution, without permitting the southern States to participate in the formalities proposed they cannot participate in their present condition—disunion will be perpetuated for all time and the glory of the American Republic will never return, no matter how successful our armies may be in overcoming the physical power of the rebellion. Now, Mr. Speaker, I ask if this is the proper time for our people to consider so grave a measure as the amendment of the Constitution in so vital a point? We should not forget sir that this great charter of human rights and a free Government was framed by wise men after grave and mature deliberation, at a time when no popular excitement disturbed the public mind and no party prejudices existed to warp their judgment or influence their feelings; but, sir, we are approaching its amendment, proposing to remodel it, in the very midst of a bloody and exasperating war, when the passions of the people are inflamed with sectional bitterness and fanatical zeal, and v while partisan prejudices and political animosities are swaying the popular mind almost to frenzied blindness. In the midstof this turmoil of deadly sectional strife, when truth and reason and humanity, well as fraternity, forgiveness, and" common charity have been overslaughed by heated passion and exasperated hate, H may well be questioned if the public mind is in a proper condition to consider and pass upon any proposition to q amend or in any way disturb the fundamental law upon which our vei y liberties are established. Mr. Speaker, this is no fitting time far such work, and I therefore pray that this House will at once wash its hands of the measure and not hesitate to disagree with tile Senate in the disunion movement now under consideration.

The Constitution as it stands is the masterwork of wise, experienced, and purely patriotic men—giants in intellect—whose equals, I am bold to say, are not to be found among the pigmy demagogues who wield the destinies of our country in these degenerate days. It is the matchless product of unquestioned wisdom, profound patriotism, practical justice and approved statesmanship. Immortality has justly crowned the name of every one who participated in its making, and even the glory of the Father of his Country was augmented in being the presiding officer of the august body which gave it to the world. What a magnificent structure for the nations of the Old World to contemplate was the free Government it ordained! How wisely adjusted its division of State and national powers; its granted and reserved rights; its checks and balances; its restrictions and limitations; its adjustment of legislative, executive, and judicial functions; its studied guardsagainst the abuse of power; and its jealous protection of the rights and liberties of the people! What wonder that it attracted the admiration of the civilized world, and what a shame that the people who have attained greatness and glory and honor and unparalleled prosperity through its protecting care should now suffer it to be destroyed by a disregard of the great principles upon which it is based, and a violation, by the administrators of the Government it created, of the sacred rights it was designed to protect. Ought we not, Mr. Speaker, as the Representatives of the people, to be deliberate and cautious when we set about amending this sacred charter of civil and religious liberty? Ought we not to hesitate long" and consider well before we cftace a single inscription from this monument of the wisdom and patriotism of our fathers? Can such a thing be wisely done in the present agitated state of the public mind?

Mr. Speaker, from my very heart I am constrained to say that of all the measures of this Congress apparently designed to perpetuate the disunion of these States, I regard that now under consideration the most pernicious, because it will bo the most effective and will, as I have before said, entirely close the door to a peaceful reconciliation, if it should be consummated, by incorporating the proposed amendment into the Constitution without the free consent of the States now in rebellion.

Sir, we want those rebellious States to return to the Union under the Constitution to which they owe unquestioned allegiance, and we should be careful to supply them with no justification for continued hostility to the Federal authority. We should hesitate to erect, in our hatred of slavery and slaveholders, even the slightest barrier to prevent their return to their old positions in the Union the moment their physical power shall be overcome by our military movements. In their present condition we have no right to impose upon them this proposed constitutional provision which we know will be obnoxious, even as a punishment for their rebellion. If they are again to become a part of the General Government, they surely, after they shall so become, oughtto be consulted in amending the fundamental law under which they are expected to live in communion with us. I repeat, Mr. Speaker, that I consider this the worst and most to be feared of all the disunion measures of this Congress, for the reason that when this resolution shall have been made, no matter how unfairly, a part of the Constitution, it will be irrepealable in the second sober thought of Congress* while all the other iniquitous schemes which have been enacted to promote the rebellion and procrastinate the war maybe repealed at will upon the returning reason of the people, when true patriotism, justice, and humanity shall resume their sway m the public councils and supersede the fanaticism, political profligacy, and degenerate recklessness which now pervade these legislative Halls. But, sir, this project, when consummated, becomes a portion of the organic law, and at once raises a barrier of insurmountable magnitude in the way of that peace and reconciliation which all sober minded arid truly loyal citizens hope to see accomplished the moment complete success shall crown our military operations against the rebellion.

Then* are a great many loyal citizens, Mr. Speaker, who stand upon that face of the threesided platform the Preqtdanl W celebrated letter to Horace Greeley, which looks tp the salvation of the Country with slavery unmolested; and they would molest that institmjothifi no other way than through the moyemw ofour military organization during tfie cpatmuancg ojT the war. No true patriot in my estimation f wi l insistqpon a prosecution of this horrid war for tfejb sole purpose of extinguishing negro sIfivfc ry 4o I yet such a purpose is now the avowed determination of the leaders of the Republican party, bqjdlyproclaimed in the radical press. In a recent ^uatr ber of the New York Tribune I find the following u key note of that policy, which indicate# that the question of saving the Union is to be entirely ignored until slavery is forever dead and buried. Listen to the shocking invocation of the Tribune which puts entirely out of sight the objects of the war, as declared by Congress and as professed by the President at its commencement: Friends of the wounded in Fredericksburg from the Mattie of the Wilderness, friend? and relatives of the soldiers ofGrant s army beyond the Wilderness, let us all join hands atul swear upon our country^ altar that we will never cease this ^var until African slavery in the United States is dead forever, and forever hxmed!'■>

That I take to be the war creed of the party on the other side of this House, and the proposition to amend the Constitution now under consideration is the bugle blast which directslhe abolition cohorts to still prosecute the work of blood and carnageafter the armed rebellion against the Government shall have been quieted.

This resolution, Mr. Speaker, contains the concentrated venom of the whole abolition crusade, and if it should be adopted while the States most interested are deprived, by their own act it may be said, of all voice in the matter, I fear the result will prove that we have gone one step too far. If this measure should bo" put through," as" the powers that be" doubtless intend it shall be, if it commands a sufficient number of votes in this House, the Constitution as it was framed by our fathers, in a spirit of broad and unselfish patriotism, wirt have passed away.- Its substitute will be but the mandate of a sectional oligarchy, the product of exasperated partisan feeling and intense hatred toward a large portion of the people who are to be compelled to live under it, against their will, after being despoiled of their property and their lights.

I think, Mr. Speaker, that I have already said sufficient to define my position on this question, and to satisfy my constituents of the propriety of the vote I intend to give; but before I conclude, I may be permitted to remark that if instead of adopting such measures as this, and the confiscation act, the absurd freedmen s bill, the negro forty acre homestead project, and the Union destroying reconstruction measure of the gentleman from Maryland, and the country were rid of all the negro legislation which now disgraces the journals of this Congress, w 5 might reasonably hope, through the achievements of our armies in the movements now progressing, to witness the speedy restoration of the Union upon the basis of the Constitution" as it is." But, sir, our friends on the other side Are after something else; and are so emphatic in their protest against any Union until slavery is abolished in all the States, as to demolish that hope. Therefore I apprehend that we will be compelled by their action to endure the contemplation of a multitude of battle fields yet to be baptized in the best blood of the land, ar$ to look for the further wholesale slaughter of our citizens, while we await the salvation, not of the Union, but of the negro!

I believe, Mr. Speaker, that we may be able to conquer submission to the Constitution as it is, leaving the States all the rights and guarantees of the original compact; but I have no idea that we can ever make the South the Slave of the Northland subject it, in its local government, to our will and pleasure. Nor do i think we ever ought to do so. I would not have the northern States assume toward the South, after all her treason and rebellion, the attitude of England to Ireland, Austria to Hungary, or Russia to Poland; but I would have tiie patriots of our land awake to the dangers thatbesetour free institutions and willingly sacrifice not only life and fortune but opinions and prejudices and sentiment for the salvation of the country, i would have them to labor with one heart and one mind, without hatred or revenge, in a spirit of unbounded patriotism for the suppression of the rebellion, the preservation of the Constitution, and the perpetuation of the Union of these States, that we may still" farther progress in solving the great problem of popular sovereignty. But, sir, the attempt to press the measure now under consideration in this important crisis of our national affairs indicates no such disposition on the part of the ruling powers; and we are left to the sad conclusion that while the President of the United States regards his own reelection as the chief purpose of the war, his partisans in Congress and throughout the country have determined to prosecute it solely for the enfranchisement and elevation of the negro. In their partisan blindness, seeking to attain an impossibility, let me counsel them to be cautious, lest they lose all and make shipwreck of the noble institutions erected by our fathers and dedicated V> the civil ami religious llbMryKELlSg g ofNcw York. Mr. Speaker, of all the various measures this Congress has in hand and upon which it must act, the most important in my judgment are those which most directly bear upon the terrible issue now on trial for the unity or dismemberment of our country, and which decides for weal or woe the present and future well being of ourselves and our country. This inclination of my mind does not lead me to dissent from those who find time to consider and provide the measures necessary to our restored condition, for I agree with them that if our cause be lost it is immaterial what follows, and therefore legislate upon the foregone determination that the Union must be, and shall be, and will be preserved. Whether the revolted States are or are not in the Union is a question which is answered variously by different minds, and for myself after thinking and hearing much on the subject I am content that they are still in the Union in la w, and therefore in fact, but that their governments have been and are subverted and overthrown, and that they are without a republican form of government riicIi as the Constitution guaranties to them, and which it is our duty and privilege under the Constitution to establish. To crush and conquer this rebellion, therefore, and bring the inhabitants of the revolted States under and into obedience to the Constitution and the laws, is our first great work and bounden duty; an 1 tlmt done, nn l thoroughly done the way to reconstruction will be clearly seen 'and acted on. The President in answer to a clamor, raised by those whose vocation it is to afford aid and comfort, to the enemy, that he was substituting the military iy place f, the civil power, and in his zeal to establish civil government in those States where it has been subverted, proposed a plan which, if it had no other merit, silenced that clamor, but to he reproduced at the opposite enormity, thereby disclosed to them the greater danger' of dispensing with military rule and at the same time denying to traitors the elective franchise. Whether the President s plan is entirely wise, or that of others, including that before this House, is in my judgment about equally doubtful. But "ll! rebellion crushed, that reconstruction follows as a consequence, I have no doubt. Nor that alone; but slavery, the cornerstone of the rebellion, is thereby and therewith destroyed, leaving the way to reconstruction plain and obvious. The Congress of the United States, being the ultimate tribunal to decide whether the form of govern merit adopted by a State entitles it to representation here under the Constitution, should do its duty promptly in aid of the event.

And here sir permit me to call to the stand, in proof of the fact I have just stated, the. best and highest evidence possible. In his Democracy a Hebrew of the Hebrews, a slaveholder, knowing whereof be speaks, Andrew Johnson, of Tennessee utterance of whose name excites almost to reverence for his almost superhuman efforts and saving power put forth for the salvation of his country in this great crisis of its fate: 'Jlie people made the Government and it mli t remain untici tlie control ot tlui people. Tile Government being j i .|iwnple, and the institution^ under the Government ai v institution antagonistic to the Government must n/ 'irilv give way for tlie preservation of the Govern- Institutions mint not r e above the Government.' inVt Viiiion1 tolerated (or a time, they are not fixed; ti eC are subject to change, or they die out. Not so the n c iii tiolull Government, which is a fixed, a lasting m- of the people."•*-• "Ail institutions must be subordinate to the Government of the United States. Before the rebellion we could discuss all institutions, all subjects, all measures, except slavery. On that subject no one dared speak, or write, or print, excepton the side of thedave aristocracy. Now, thank God, the time lias come, when the press is unmuzzled—when the press can discuss this and all other subjects. The time has come when this institution is dead—when the chains are broken and tlie captive set free. The institution is dead." Being dead, let us in a becoming manner prepare for the itinera! obsequies. Now is tlie time to dispose of this great question. It is a great question, and one which must be settled upon the great principle of human freedom; not by abolitionists in the North, nor by secessionists in the South, but by that great law of self preservation which governs all men alike. Slavery is a cancer upon the body politic which must be rooted out before perfect health can be restored. Tlie great law I refer to is now at work, and negroes and ail things else which may be in the way to impede its course must «ct out. Do not go to inventing, but find out the great principles of this law, and conform your actions thereto.

Destroy the rebellion, and let slavery go with it."* "The Union and the Constitution must be preserved intact."**-** "The edict has gone forth, and all that romasns to bo done is tochang^ the relation of master and slave. The day is not far distant when this nation will be the gieat center of civilization, of the arts and sciences, and of tiue religion."***

Let us go on with our mighty work. To talk about breaking up a Government like this i or slavery! 'Tis madness. Let it go on with its great mission."

The border States, all acknowledging the fact, hail and adopt the great edict of emancipation, and onlysome halt and higgle for compensation. .But the great work sweeps on. All rebeldom admit it, and stand or fall by it and with it. They have staked all on it and lost. Let them bide the consequences.

That slavery is dead presupposes and assumes that freedom triumphs, and is to triumph on its battle field No one, noteven Governor Seymour, the mostplausible, powerful, and persistent sympathizer with the allies of their southern brethren on the other side of this floor, claims as far as I know that the emancipation pioclamation was or is unconstitutional as a war measure. Bitter and unccaaing as their maledictions upon that great and indispensable military measure have been, when followed to their conclusion they all tame down to the assertion that the proclamation is poweilessand impotent and that assertion hunted to its corner disappears ill the pitiful and shameful protest that it is irritating to their stmthern brethren. So, then, these oath breakers and violators of all laws human and divine, striking at your life and mine, at your liberties ar d mine, and intent upon the disruption and ruin of our common country, must not be irritated even by any measure or means, essential though they be to our very existence and self preservation

But is the proclamation of freedom to the slave impotent and powerless? Is not a slave who comes into our lines under it free; is not the dominion over him of his master then lost? The slave is a most potent, power in the hands of his rebellious master, and directly used and wielded by him in this wicked war to dig their trenches and build their forts and drag their cannon and carry their burdens and cut and clear their roads to the battie field and who but they supply their traitorous masters in the field with the food and sustenance of their armies? If their horses be taken they are the property of their captors, and so of their guns and munitions, and all their enginery of war; and why not their slaves? They hold and chum them as property, and devote them to the purpose and maintenance of the war, and when captured and within our military control, whose slaves are they then? Are we to hold them in bondage or trust for traitors? Something of this has been done by some of our heretofore generals then and still high in the esteem and favor of traitors and their friends on this floor and elsewhere; but, thank God! that is over. Are they, then, not free? And beingso who shall enslave them again? Has not the promise gone forth that they are" henceforth free'" "A promise that must be kept." Now, all know that this rebellion must be put down by force, by military power. All other arbitrament is rejected by tire rebels in arms. They have referred to their generals in the field thedastardly overtures of peace to rebels, in arms by their sympathizers here. And when the loyal people of the Union shall by their armies put down and crush out this rebellion, and" occupy and possess" by military force and power every revolted State, and every acre belonging" to this Union, and our glorious flag floats proudly over all, will not the proclamation of emancipation, that great military order, then be executed in fact, and the promise of freedom then be fulfilled, and all slaves be free? The illustrious Senator from a border State has well said that a slave of a rebel coming within our military control is free, and no man or men can gainsay it. That the proclamation alone and unaided, like an order of a general or an admiral declaring the property of a town besieged or a ship when captured a spoil or a trophy, waits fulfillment till the dependent events transpire, and then is accomplished.

The rebellion put down, then, and slavery destroyed with it, both cause and effect are disposed of, and to attain that end we may wisely address ourselves to the means to attain it, pausing as we go to make sure and certain that the cause of the rebellion being dead and buried may have no future resurrection. Pass the resolution now pending submitting an amendment of the Constitution to the States prohibiting slavery forever hereafter in the United States or its Territories. This should be done, sir, not by a mere two thirds vote,' but by every vote. And yet it will be seen that the allies of slavery and of traitors to their country are not all as yet conscripted into the hostile ranks of treason, and gathered, as they should be, where their heart is, on the sacred soil, with their erring brethren. But here while the battle rages some will be regretting, with the member from New York, as they have before their inability to arm brother traitors by the ship load and others, with the unworthy member from Maryland, will bewail, as heretofore they have, even in this Congress of the Union, the murderous cruelty of their patriotic countrymen, who go forth to battle and to die, if need be, that their country njay live, and piously invoke the curse of God on their country and its cause; others, with assumed prophetic vision, will clearly see and graphically depict the greater rum, if we do not abjectly submit to the spoliation and dismemberment of our country, and, on the whole, choose the last alternative; and others, with an eloquence and zeal worthyof a better cause, clamor unceasingly that the Constitution should be trammeled with a prohibition against the possibility of taking from proscribed, acknowledged traitors in arms, leaders and authors of this unnatural and unholy war upon their country and humanity, their property, lest their dear progeny, the spawn of treason, may come to discomfort and want, and be exempted from all acknowledgment that "the way of the transgressor is hard;" and herein the Democracy save the mark !—the other side of this House, mainly all concur. But notone of their crocodile tears has dropped, or will, for the wreck of fortunes and the want and destitution this slaveholders' war entails on the children of the North. Betterso. They shall henceforth be the children of their country, nursed, fostered, and adopted by it, and held too dear to be polluted by the divided sympathies or concern of those aping treason.

The time was when Democracy meant something, and was first in the field when the country was assailed, and was first and foremost in the councils of the nation, shouting the war cry of freedom, and when those who failed toiespond in concert, and failed to marshal themselves against their country s enemies, and held their country and its cause m the wrong, were branded as traitors, and consigned to everlasting infamy and contempt. But here and now such men stalk these Halls, and make open and public avowal; and, lest freedom of speech should be abridged, the very inmost counsels and purposes of the Government are laid open to, nay, shared in, by traitors self confessed and underand in the name of liberty and freedom and the Constitution this is tolerated and continued here. And how and by whom? Let Democratic voices and votes give answer as they have answered. Sir, the day cometh and now is, when men shall be driven from their refuges of lies, when traitors and imposters and .pretenders shall be known and despised of all true men, as were the Cow Boysof old. Sir the times demand earnest work and plain talk; and let us have it.

Is it any longer wonderful that all our ways and purposes are manifest to our deadly enemies as soon as conceived, when their friendsand open sympathizers have place here? They, in my judgment, are in the wrong Congress, mid should follow their illustrious predecessors out. from these Halls where they, too, invoked the curse of God on those who stood by their country, to that other congress of their friends, and we, if need be, might better add to their mileage the distance they have stopped short of their journey s end and pass them on to Richmond. Entertaining these views I have not hesitated to offer them by my vote and voice, as I do now, a pass hence and herefrom, nothing doubting but our country would be the gainer.

These, sir, are your peace Democrats, who stay at home to fight, and they represent and gather to their folds all who claim to support the Government in this its terrible day of trial, and yet oppose, denounce, and malign the Administration and its every act and measure, knowing as all must know that weakening and embarrassing the Administration to the same extent paralyzes and impairs the Government.

What would ye have, ye curss,

That like nor peace nor war?"

In favor of war, but opposed to coercion and subjugation is of a piece precisely with the pretense of supporting the Government while opposing its measures; each is alike hollow and insincere, impossible in practice and false in fact, and amounts to aiding treason. Let none be deceived by it;" it i# but the word of promise to the ear, and broken to the hope," and so shall our country fte lost and broken if such counsels prevail. Beginning with James Buchanan, who first betrayed humanity in Kansas, and then his country, in the final hour his weakness and treachery had prepared for her, with all others denying the right of the Government to coerce obedience to the Constitution and laws, and including the Janus faced politicians who, pretentiously fierce for a more vigorous prosecution of the war yet oppose subjugation—they uphold the cause but oppose the effect. And only so for war unless freedom shall take nothing asaconsequence and unless slavery shall be maintained by it and held unimpaired, and unless negroes shall be driven from our lines; and greater than all, unless they are proscribed the privilege of fighting and dying in the common cause with freemen. All this conceded, and their conservative general in command, no other, the peace Democracy, with the olive branch and compromise in one hand, and Democratic platform and submission in the other, and clothed with shame as with a garment all white, sir, yes, and pale, for that matter, will march forth and change base fired on by their great war oracle with Cooper Institute fourth of July lamentations, and crying, "Peccavi," "I have sinned," take up the chant of their erring brothers, for they know no other music, and straggle on in their devious way to war, keeping step to and singing never so sweetly, "Let us alone, let us alone."

Such men, sir, have plied their vocation aforetime in this country. In the war of 1812 they embraced the same opportunity they now do to vilify and oppose the war Administration of the day; and hear what Felix Grundy, a Democrat and supporter of the Administration, in a speech in Congress said of them, and the description holds perfect now as then:

An individual goes over, joins the ranks of the enemy,* and raises his arm* against ttie country; he is clearly guilty of treason under the Constitution, the overt act being cenfcumated. Suppose tiie same individual not to go over to the enemy, hut toiemain in his own neighborhood, and by means of In* influence to dissuade ten men iiom enlisting; I ask in which case has he benefited the enemy and injured the tommy most?

Whom then do I accuse? I accuse him, sir, who professes himself to be the fuenri of his country and enjoys its protection, yet proves himself by his actions to be the friend of its enemy. I accuse him who sets himself at work systematically to weaken the arm of this Government by destroying its credit and dampening the arder of its citizens. Such men I cannot consider friends of this nation."

We are told, Mr. Speaker, of a war Democracy, and such there aie—their name is legion— good men and true; they are found in the Union ranks bearing armsin support of the Government and the Administration that wields it. At the ballot box whether at home or in the camp, they are Union men, and vote as they fight, and hold little in common with the political leaders of the Democratic party m or out of this Hall—the Seymours, the Woods, the Vallandtghams, the Woodwards, and their indorsers, who hold and control the Democratic party here, and taint it with treason, till it is a stench in the nostrils of all patriotic men. Mr. Speaker, the war Democracy as yet have no existence as a party that I can learn outside of the party of the Union, nor need they; and the great leader of the Democratic party so affirms, which would not be high authority with me after his denial of the established fact that lie would furnish guns to traitors in arms and would turn over the city of New York to secession were he not supported in the assertion by facts. The war Democrats of New York could find no place in Democratic State conventions, and left it and the convention, as I am informed, ignoring a war platform, or resolutions even, sent delegates for the Democratic party to Chicago, and left the war Democracy out in the cold.

Sir, it is undeniable that the leaders of this rebellion in the outset counted confidently and openly on the support of their time long friends and allies politically, the northern Democracy. Jeff. Davis at the beginning, before the congress of traitors banded together as the first fruits of treason, pledged himself that he would hold in the hollow of his hand all the blood the war should spill on southern soil, but that the North would divide in their favor, and the war, if any, would be there and end there. And from that day to this they have looked hopefully and anxiously for allies from the North. So long had they in the name of Democracy played into each other s hands by jointaction and success that they might divide the fruits, the South taking the power and dictating the policy of the Government, the North the plunder and profits; and so potent and controlling had party discipline become, and so unscrupulous and unprincipled had they themselves become, that they doubted if any virtue was left in the land. The question still remains to what extent they reckon withoutthey host The peace Democracy, and mere party hacks in the North, are fulfilling their masters' expectations industriously, ujiceasin gly and as far as in them lies. Not even the shouts for victory in these Halls can divert their southern allies here. A sullen gloom at the defeat and discomfiture of their southern brethren settles down on their disastrous countenances, from which no ray of joy can be reflected; you might as well extract sunbeams from a cucumber. No, sir; they even vote solid here against a law to punish guerrillas.

Sir, in my judgment, many of those who withhold from their country the support they would otherwise give it find allegiance to party too strong for their weak patriotism; and now, as in times of peace, subordinate every other interest, even their country s safety, to mere party trammels. Rejecting the example and counsels of Stanton and Dickinson and Butler and Douglas and Dix and Holt and Andrew Johnson and Logan and Rosecrans and Grant and a host of others, all Democrats of the straitest sect, to forget all other ties and cleave only to their country for their country s sake, and rejecting the overtures and example of the Republican party to drop and forget their party name, that all might unite and band together for their" country s salvation as Union men, they turn a deafear and cold shoulder and sullenly pass by on the other side, thanking God they are not as other men are, and lend, if at all, a calculating, qualified, and conditional and halting support, under protest, to their country s cause; thus justifying the only hope of the rebellion to day thatpaity spirit at the, North will distract its counsels, divide and discourage and palsy its efforts, and ultimately make way for the traitor and the parricide to do their worst.

And here, Mr. Speaker, it is painful to know and feel that in this crusade of party, warring to the knife against all who will not bow down anil worship it, the State of New York, my native State, has most offended. Iler son, whom she delighted to honor had lie proved true to his great trust, and directed his grent«nlents and influence with a single eye to liic welfare and salvation of his country, and united and wielded the powers and energies of that great State and hurled it against us enemies, as it was his great privilege, the very demonstration would have brought treason to its' knees and peace to the country. Sympathizers with traitors in other States, imitating his example, would have come over to the side of their country, and we should have been united and strong, and in that strength lie migh t li ave gone up to the goal of his ambition, by the consent of a united and grateful people, to the portico of your Capitol to pronounce an inaugural of peace and unity to a now warring and distracted people. But how shallow are man s devices! Man proposes butGod disposes. Ambition betrayed him'. Forgetting the claims of his country, and shrinking into the narrow compass of the wrangling partisan, when the country waited to hear the bugle blast of a great and patriotic leader, he Uttered forth only the wayward and uncertain squeakings of a party fife. Calling back those who would otherwise obey their country s call, and invoking the law s delay and constitutional doubts in aid of the delinquency, he led the van in opposition. His imitators in other States joined m and echoed his specious sophistries, and some, bolder than he, reduced them to practice, and banded together to resist the execution of the laws he and his kith had taught them to contemn, and bloody and riotous hostility o the Governmentfollowed their teachings, till, startled at their work, he called off his friends and appealed to the ballot box against the Government."

The judgment of an outraged and indignant people recorded against them by hundreds of thousands sent them reeling and staggering from the blow back to their lowest beginnings, and some now "watch andwait for their country s defeat over the border and some not yet waited on by the people they misrepresent prayfor it here; whij e he of New York, heeding the people s rebuke, again comes puffing up the wind he should have gone before, and suffers what he can no longer prevent, the people s edict of elective franchise to our brave soldiers to become a law, opposed only by himself and his political friends, and at last yields even that the willing black man may fight for his liberty and country, one day sends forth our gallant militia to the defense of a sister State, the next denies them to the defense of his own against his fourth of July friends who stay at home and fight, and the while, as their orator, devotes his country s birthday to pestilent poisoning of the public mind, to denouncing his country s efforts to crush the rebellion, to deprecating its patriotism and predicting its downfall; an effort as baleful in its influence at home as it was aiding and comforting to traitors abroad. With a varying and fickle policy and practice, not unmixed with good, he has obtained and reflected occasional glimmerings of patriotism, and has received therefor prompt and merited acknowledgment, and again relapsed. His whole course relating to this rebellion and war has been a broken and disjointed thing. The present pronounces it, as the future will, an opportunity for his country s good lost or misemployed, alike damaging to himself, his country, and his friends; a meager harvest, but such as misguided ambition always brings to the garner of its husbandman. These conclusions, sir, somewhat differ from those expressed by my distinguished colleague who has so eloquently commended such course and conduct for our approval here.

But, sir, this is not a time when doubtful men or measures can be tolerated. The country expects that every man will do his whole duty, and will accept nothing less. No people in the course of time ever had greater reason to feel that" sufficient for the day is the evil thereof" than the people of this now sorely tried and distracted country, including all, both North and South, East and West, for I look upon all as our country and our countrymen, and bound together by compact indissoluble except by the same power and authority that ordained it, the free and full consent of all.' The present wicked attempt of a portion .of the people to disrupt and disintegrate that Union and compact is a violation of the rights of all and each, and an atrocious attempt to install might in its place, an insult to all affected, suicidal in all its ends and consequences, and impossible of attainment against the will of a people indubitably competent to maintain the right against all and every assailant. The conflict inaugurated on precisely the terms and for the purpose stated, is sustained with a tenacity of purpose and energy of power and boundlessness of resources never before witnessed or conceived of; because such a people, counting by such millions and possessing such vast material arid domain, such wealth of attributes and above all and more than all each sovereign and equal and free, never before challenged comparison of an observant world. The judgment of the world already attests these truths. Nations who should be our brothers, though denying their fraternity with ill concealed envy and enmity, evince their prudence and discretion by confining themselves to covert injuries and diplomatic evasions of duty in our case, who are not wanting in promptness of execution or over exact in measures, in cases squaring with their interests or inclinations touching less formidable Powers. As to them" sufficient for the day being the evil thereof," we bide Our time, treading firmly and protesting plainly, and expecting ultimately voluntary justice, or otherwise exacting it. But, sir, as my time will not permit, 1 come to the measures and means I deem necessary to the putting down of this rebellion. Men abound, men ready to stake their life and devote their life to its overthrow, and as their mission is fulfilled others are ready and prompt to take their places.

It is as though the earth again tircw quick with iod s inspiring breath,

And from the vales and glade and gleu

Rise ranks onion hearted men,

To battle to the death."

Sir, the sinews of war must also be forthcoming; and here and now it behooves us of this Congress to act well our part. Knowing and feeling the justice of their cause, the poor will contribute uncomplainingly, the rich lavishly. But the people will rigidly demand of us that their burdens be made equal. Legislators in an American Congress mustever remember that they are acting as the servants of a people wise and sagacious as themselves. Hence foreseeing the necessity, their voice in nodoubtfulaccents comes to us demanding taxation sufficient to meet the emergency—sufficient to fill their magazines, clothe ami feed and supply their armies, pay the soldiers, nnff pay tlieni liberally, pension the disabled and the widows of this war, uphold the public credit, pay the public debt, and maintain their Government; and this should he done, and so done as to disturb as Utile as possible the established course of trade, business and production, and to that result I must and shall, according to my best judgment, contribute. 1 have not hesitated nor shall I hesitate to lay n generous tax upon the profitable business ur d manufactures and accumulated wealth and means of the country where it will be least felt and most productive, and will add in passing that the true interest of those that have will be best promoted by cheerfully parting with a portion and thereby guaranty epreciated and and secure inflated and currency save the unsettles residue. all val- A ues, enhances prices, and we, in fact, are poorer in proportion to its abundance. "We shall be wanting in our duty if we fail to provide against such calamity by looking the danger square in the face. Passing it by to a more convenient season is only daubing with untempered mortar and trifling away opportunity.

Mr. Speaker, intimately connected with our duty to lay necessary taxes is the kindred duty of protection and ample and sure and permanent protection to our home labor, home manufacture, and domestic productions great and main reliance against bankruptcy and ruin. Free trade, always a humbug, imposed on us by an institution and interest in antagonism with free arid remunerated labor in our present condition would be a blunder little short of criminal. Though the revenue thereby would to that extent seem convenient, yet to drain ourselves of all our gold m exchange for the various importations of the products of foreign labor at the expense of our own, at the extravagant rate now and lately imluged m, will inevitably sink us in bankruptcy too deep for our great Secretary, unrivaled .financier as he is, to extricate us. Our debt, staggering as it is, we can yet carry and pay if we keep it where it is and should remain, at home. Here is our weak side; and our goodfaith keeping neutrality observing con us will strike us here a blow more damaging and disastrous than all their pirate craft of all their Lairds and Commons. Sir, let us encourage and protect and make prosperous our home manufactures and productions, ar d then we can meetand face down taxation. This duty of protection is well illustrated and made manifest by the article of wool. The total amount of foreign wool imported into the United States during the fiscal year ending June 30 1863 was 71 882 123 pounds. Pounds. Of this under 18 cents per pound 61 572 584 Of this from 18 to 24 cents per pound 7 214 582 Of this above 24 cents per pound 1 114 904 Free of duty from Canada 1 980 053 Total. 71 882 123 The above eighteen cent wool and under by foreign valuation paid a duty of three fourths of a cent per pound. Of the second class, eighteen to twenty four cents, three cents per pound and the third class, valued above twenty four cents per pound, a duty of nine cents per pound. The supposition that the wool entered under our present tarilTlaw, valued at eighteen centsand under would only be that used for coarse cloths, carpets, &c., and would not come in competition with wool produced in our own country, has proved fallacious; the fact being that seven eighths of the whole importations were invoiced and paid a duty of only three fourths of a cent per pound and came in direct competition with nearly all our wool of domestic production, thus defrauding the Government of millions of revenue and driving our wool out of market. -Need anything further be said showing the utter absurdity of a system of foreign valuations as a basis for either protection or revenue? In my judgment, so long as it is followed all your legislation will fail of its object. Sir, 1 wait to hear and challenge answer why it is that we still adhere to a policy that commits our most vital interests to the tender* mercy of foreigners. Wc are systematically defrauded by it, and we are materially impoverished by it. But, sir, the policy will be vigorously insisted on in this Hall. All who look if not pray for the dismembermentof this country and a repudiation of Us debts, with all who find no warrant in the Constitution for self protection self preservation ur self existence may well and consistently do so, and will do so; and theirprole ssionsand practice will therein be consistent. As to others I pause for a reason and a reply.

'The same necessity exists for a change of policy and protection of our great iron interest. Our country, so rich in all the productions of its surface, contains in its bosom minerals and mines of wealth exhaustless and undeveloped. Friendly legislation on our part, stimulating enterprise and discovery, and rewarding labor and production and manufacture in that direction, will keep more gold in our depleting Treasury than all the gold bills of all the sorcerers, than all the devices of all the theorists. Sir, whatsoever profitably employs a nation enriches it, and whosoever keep what they gather have abundance to spare. H is scattering abroad that leaves nothing in hand with nations as with individuals; and above all, temporary and time serving expedients and mere soothing and not saving remedies are out of place in times like these, when the nation is taxed and tried to its utmost.

Sir, the policy that covets revenue through encouragement of foreign importations is a cheat and a delusion; it pays us a portion for the privilege of taking our all; and in accepting the temporary expedient we plunge into the very gulf of bankruptcy from which we shrink.

Sir, the cry from abroad is," Who will buy?" And how answered, 1 shall presently show. We .buy all and sell nothing, mainly, but ourselves. As in wool, we go abroad to gather and return shorn, and, our treasure exhausted without payment, we stand, like the lamb, dumb before our shearers. That this is not an overdrawn statement, I read the followingstatement furnished me by the Treasury Department, which exhibits the value of the goods, wares, and merchandise imported and exported during the months of January, February, and March, 1864, at the port of New York:* ftnpoits.

Specie and bullion 334 387 Free goods (exclusive of specie) 2 717 687 Dutiable goods (entered for consumption) 44 037 644 (warehoused) 17 204 742 Total 64 J38 450

Exports.

Specie and bullion 10 275 005 Foreign goods, dutiable 1 720 937 free 102 617 Domestic merchandise 39 515 222 Total 51 004 761 Amount of goods withdrawn from warehouse, 15 451 081 to which I add a statement of business in the district of Champlain during the eleven months ending November 30, 1863: Value. Duties. Dutiable imports entered, duty paid 68 866 46 20 869 54 Dutiable imports entered, warehoused 385 148 00 244 955 43 Free goods entered 3 814 474 00 None. Goods exported from warehouse. 611 284 00 267 308 07 Domestic exports 876 413 00 Foreign exports dutiable 116 870 00 Foreign exports free 27 749 00 Amount received for fees 3 740 40 Amount received for tonnage duty 4 168 2t Amount received for M. II. Money 487 30 Specie imported 4 108 652 50 Specie exported 2 534 509 50 These figures are stubborn things, and bring clearly to light the vortex of inevitable bankruptcy into which we are heedlessly rushing. These enormous balances must be canceled by gold; and when done is it any longer a question where our gold goes to, and has gone to? And is this the way to replenish either our public orprivate coffers, and be able to meet the expenses of this war and furnish its sinews? Sir, let us lay a heavy hand on foreign luxuries, discouraging their purchase, that we may retain their price in aid of our terrible struggle for self existence and, above all, let us lay high and protecting duties on all the great leading articles of foreign production that compete with our own, and make it sure by specific duties and home valuation. But, sir, that free list—who is the father of that enormity —that balance of nearly four million dollars is emptied upon us from the province of what was once called "perfidious Albion V nearest our border; (if it has lately earned a more gracious title at our hands, let another assert it, and not 1;) and that balance is the fruit of the reciprocity treaty, bringing to the very doors of our farmers, lumbermen and producers, rival foreign commodities to undersell them; yes, sir, subjecting them all and all their productions to foreign valuation. Sir, it denies us the privilege of our own market even, and without the slightest equivalent to our Treasury, or otherwise, stalks in upon us, and bears down and bears away our substance remorselessly. And whether this shall continue depends upon no accident, but upon whether we are true or recreant to our duty. Let the notice go forth terminating this flagrant evil, and we shall thereby also make some amends to our Treasury.

Mr. Speaker, while considering the methods which will best enable us to -maintain ourselves and our Government, wc are admonished that our monetary system is radically defective; that the power to issue currency as a circulating medium without limit should be restrained; and that when issued it should be on the same basis and of equal value throughout the United States; and that to effect this it should be all brought under one general law and under the control of the General Government, and n t subject to the varyingmoods of State legislation. Urged, as these considerations are, by the powerful reasoning and confident opinion of the Secretaryof the Treasury, who in my judgment stands second to no man in the nation m wisdom and ability in that Department, and who, if he shall carry us through the financial difficulties that environ us, successfully, will be acknowledged by all as a chief instrument in working out our salvation, i yield my assent to them. To the methods proposed to reach that result I find itmore difficultto agree. This Government must look for its support and find it in the voluntary choice and action of the people. Any project that on its face manifestly tends to prejudice any vested right or interest of the people, they will reject and contemn, and it must therefore fail. Now it is urged that in order to make way for the proposed national banking system onerous and unequal burdens must be imposed upon the State banks now in existence; that they must he driven into the fold or out of existence. In this I differ. 1 would offer inducements rather. Make the way easy and beneficial for them to come voluntarily into the general national scheme, and you shall not long wait for that desired result. Some affect to deny the right of States to charter banks; but there can be no serious question on thatsubjcct. Again, it is proposed to withdraw all the national banks and bank capital from State and municipal taxation, because of the necesity to tax them exclusively for the support of the General Government; and secondly, because the power being left to the States to tax includes the power to destroy; a result which, in my judgment, does not follow, because it may be provided against by providing against them what I demand for them, equal burdens and equal taxation with every other like property.

I am unable to see the wisdom of sequestering property of any description, and withdrawing it from taxation generally. It has never been our policy, and, in my judgment, never can or ought to be. In ease of revenue from foreign importations, it was found necessary to bring that within the General Governmentjurigdiction exclusively; otherwise commercial relations with foreign nations could not have assured fulfillment, and because rivalry between the several States to secure trade would underbid all revenue. Hence that single source of income was sequestered to the national Treasury to defeat and prevent injurious competition between the several States, beyond that I know of no other case. 1 see *o reason or necessity forit in thiscagp. Better to leave all property equally liable to all taxation; the General Government drawing for what it must, leaving States and localities to do the same, and only so can the burdens of all be made equal to all. Sir, you may tax heavily if necessary without a murmur, but unequal taxation you cannot long enforce. It is an injustice to which none will willingly submit, and the plan proposed must result in inequality. The very argument urged in its favor persuades me against it. It presupposes that the measure will be odious, and hence that it will be taxed by the States to destruction. Sir, a better guarantee of its permanency and usefulness will be found in combining the greatest possible benefits with the fewest possible evils; and that accomplished, it will become universal in favor and practice.

The withdrawing from States their natural and most obvious reliance for self support weakens the bands of union by severing the unity of interests, and proceeds upon the mistaken idea that the whole may survive though all the parts perish; that the General Government can be strong while the States languish.

Mr. Speaker, the loyal States have gallantly emulated each other in their geneiousand uncalculating sacrifices in support of the Government. They have contributed of their sons and substance without stint or measure. In doing so they have contracted heavy State debts. Counties and towns have vied with each other in furnishing forth soldiers of the Union, and adopted their families during their absence in the field, and pledged their faith and property to provide their bounties; and their means to meet all or any of these their great undertakings must notbe needlessly circumscribed by partial and class legislation. "We must all stand or fall together. Thatdetermined on and decided, be our burdens ever so great, we shall bear them triumphantly through. In union is our strength; whatever stands in the way of it must go down. No expense, no sacrifice, no allurement must deter or divert us, but rising with the emergency, and equal to every fate, meet and master every obstacle that stands in the way of the complete supremacy of the Constitution and the laws.

tylr. HIGBY obtained the floor, but yielded it to

Mr. STILES, who moved that the House do now adjourn.

The motion was agreed to; and thereupon (at five minutes to nine o clock p. m.) the House adjourned.