January 9, 1865

The SPEAKER. The next business in order is the consideration of the business m which the House was engaged at the adjournment on Saturday, being the motion to reconsider the vote by wiiieh the IXouseon the 15th of last June rejected a joint resolution (S. No. l j submitting to the Legislatures of the several States a proposition to amend the Constitution of the United States.

loyalty.

Mr. YEAMAN. Mr. Speaker, our Government being based upon the idea of the right and the capacity of the people to govern themselves, and the whole scheme being but a mean to ascertain and execute the will of the people, it follows as a necessary sequence that this will when legally expressed, must lie submitted to. i do not mean we must surrender opinions and principles, nor abjectly submit to the edicts of a majority, but 1 mean acquiescence in the legitimate result of the governmental compact, loyalty to the Government, reserving, of course, the right, at the stated constitutional periods, to change our governors. Observance of this rule would have saved us this war, and an observance of it now will carry us and the Government through it in safety. Factious, heedless, and exaggerated opposition to the Administration and the verdict of the people will only complicate the evils we complain of. I am not of those who have abandoned all hope of saving this country and our Government. I am full of hope. I have confidence m the American arms to overthrow the military power of the rebellion; and that being done, 1 have confidence in the hearts of the American people that they will deal justly with a defeated and fallen enemy who has proved himself so worthy of our steel; confidence that the American mind must see the advantage of restoring several millions of civilized, Christian, intellectual, and polite people to citizenship, rather than degrade them or exterminate them or strip them of their possessions and political franchises; and confidence that we will not forget the lessons of twelve centuries of the histoi y of our blood, which has never patiently and permanently submitted to the undue power of executive heads or capricious majorities. Many and great departures have been made, as I conceive, from the letter of our Constitution and the spirit of our institutions, and these 1 have not failed to deplore and condemn in their tune. But J must say that these departures from rule and precedent in our trouble have not been so frequent or so great as has been common with other Governments and other peoples m times of emergency. There is to be found no example where so much force has been arrayed m so great a revolution, and the conduct ofthat force so much governed by law and the traditions of the past. In their political resources our people are the most elastic and the most fertile in the world, and they will soon overcome the minorevils that have attended the struggle, if they can only first overcome the greater one of the secession rebellion.

the way of progress.

The silent, flinty, scorched, and tangled history of the physicial earth is a history of progress. The blood and tears of mankind that record the sufferings of men and of nations point the way of the progress of the race. The history of the earth and its several creations, demises, and successions of animal and vegetable life, as written in the pages of the great stone book, is a history of change, of progress, of violence, in the political and moral, as in the physical world, nothing is accomplished without somewhat of pain and violence, and he who has taught the" Philosophy of History," affirms that "every revolution is a transient period of barbarism." It would seem that m the moral and political world it ought to be different, as! these are the provinces of mental exertion and dominion. But it is not so ordered. There is so much of the physical and animal in all of us, our modes of thought and our conclusions are so much connected with and controlled by our habits and conditions of existence, that greatehangesin our convictions of right, of duty, and of interest, and changes in the form or purpose of our governments, are nearly always attended by such breaks, heats, irregularities, upheavals, and subsidences as may, in politics and war, be compared to the plutome convulsions of the leading geologic eras. The causes may be gradual, that is, may be preparing and accumulating a long time, but their denouement will generally be violent, whether among religions, as creeds and confessions of faith go down or up, and martyrs are burned or sainted; or among Governments, as monarchies, republics, democracies, anarchy, succeed each other in rapid rotation. This is because the bulk of mankind travel m a circle, repeat history, and learn nothing from the past. Our Government was framed to prevent the recurrence of these paroxysms m our politics by affording% constitutional and organized way of peaceful change and progress, and this path would have been the path of peace had it been observed. It has been departed from; can we return to it? If we cannot, how long must we or can we fight? other example "5.

The States of Greece fought twenty seven years on a question of dominion and leadership in their confederacy, and the great historian of the conflict, m reciting the violence, suffering, and irregularity that were suffered, says that the same things will always happen under like circumstances so long as human nature remains the same. The Romans bled twenty one years to settle questions of leadership among parties and men, and in the end the empire triumphed over the republic. From the beginning of the contest between Charles and the Parliament to the establishment of William and Mary on the throne under the ancient constitution somewhat improved was forty eight years, embracing the civil war, the Commonwealth and Protectorate; the beheading of one king, the flight and recall of another, the abdication of another, and the fortunate but kind semi usurpation of a foreigner. From the tioubling of the waters in 1789 to the overthrow of Napoleon and the reestablishment of the Bourbons in 1815 was twenty six years; and if we embrace the revolutions of 1830 ami 1848, and the coup d etat of 1851, as among the remote but legitimate consequences of that great tragedy, it was sixty two years fioin the fast trouble tu the final development of the most democratic social order in Europe, under the most imperial monarchy of Napoleon 111. Hannibal sustained himself for seventeen years in the heart of Italy, was at last compelled to ret irn and was overthiov n at the gates of his own city.

The Romans and Sammies fought fifty years for the dominion of Italy; and Germany biod thirty years in the contest between orthodoxy and reformation, betweeninfallibilityand the insurrection offree thought. Are we to have trouble as long os other nations in the, past? Shall the picture of Hungary and Transylvania in the beginning of the seventeenth century— farand wide the land lay waste, while the injured serf had to complain equally of his enemy and his protector —be repeated all over this land? Or the condition of France before Joan of Arc defeated the English at Orleans, and while the country, in a state of anarchy, was subject to the brigandage of Englishmen, Frenchmen, and Burgundians? It is related:

"There appeared nothing ngbut a horriblefaeo coofu ion povcity, desolation, soliuriutss, and /ear. The lean and bare laborers in the country did teirify even thieves themselves who had nothing left tlleill to but tile carcases of these poor miserable creatures, wandering up and down like ghosts drawn out of their graves. Thele t faimsand hamlets were fortified by these robber*, .English, Burgundians, and Ficnch, eyeiy one striving to do his worst: nil men of war were well agreed to spoil the coutmyman and merchant, fiven the cattle, accustomed to the alarm belt, the sign of the enemy s approach, would run lioim: ol them selve jj without any guide, by this; accustomed misery.

"While I a n for a vigorous use of force, 1 am for trying some of the "arts of statesmanship" to prevent these bitter calamities; and this brings me to a subject upon which I hope the House will indulge me a few minutes. .We must have a practicable policy of restoration.

If we can detect the quantities, numbers, and relative proportions of the forces involved in this problem we may find a proper solution in states* irianshjp sooner than others have found an unfortunate one in brute force and sheer exhaustion. a here lias to be an end of all wars, and I am not afraid to begin to look for an end of this one And as we are determined not to end it except on the basis of our nationality, had we not better begin to devise a way for the icturnof disaffected and rebellious citizens andif there is adisturbino* cause in our politics remove that cause, and then on other questions mark out a way plain and easy for the return of States and citizens to duty and to loyalty? If the greatest temporal Power that iias held dominion over men deemed it wise and politic in conquering her barbarian enemies, rivals, and neighbors, to destroy as few of them as was possible to accomplish her purpose, and, having conquered, admitted them to citizenship with as many of their former laws and customs as were compatible with their new relations, how much more should wc pursue that line of policy with our own people J The country has rejected the impracticable scheme of" reconstruction "contained in the President s amnesty proclamation of December, 1863. The President rejected the bill passed by Congress at the last session, and now the same scheme, somewhat modified, has been reported from the committee on rebellious States. I cannot go for that bill. If there were no other objection to it I would fear that its extreme complication would prevent its ever being- executed, and I think I may now safely predict that not one State government will ever be organized under it. And believing as I do in large national powers, I cannot for the life of me see where this Congress gets power to abolish slavery in the States bv statutory enactment and punish slaveholding in the future. If gentlemen really believe that can be done I see no use m the constitutional amendment. Then the mode of organizing- the State governments, and the form which the bill requires them to assume. If the first convention does not do the job according to pattern and order, they are prorogued, and a second called, and so 011 until a convention offree men can be found obeisant y to offer up on a silver waiter a piece of parchment written all over just according to the copy set for them by this bill. If Confess can do tnat, why can we not in the first instance prescribe, establish, and put in motion a State government just to our liking? And if they can do that why can they not abolish one that is obnoxious and set up another m its stead? Should that bill pass and be sustained by the courts I should feel very uneasy about the preservations of our institutions of government.

No, Mr. Speaker, the case needs a simpler plan ajuster plan, which the people can take hold of and act upon without too much complication and oppressive overseeing. If there is one thing which the American people study more and understand better than any other, it is the erection and running of the machinery of representative government. Give them an opportunity, rely on them, on their resources, on their ways and means, then interests, and the work will be done in due time and in much better order than under the direction of Congress or military governors.

I believe I was the first one to propose in a formal manner to leave this whole thing to the people and the courts. Very early in December, 1863, I introduced into this House thoflpollowin°" joint resolutions:*° f V the Senate and House of Representatives of the united Statcsin Congress assembled: i. That a combination ot persons, in Uienanic oi a State, or an ds uu ed confederation of States, for levying war agam t the United totaled, or for withdrawing j ueh States from the Union, does not alter the legal diameter of the act done, nor excuse those engctutiil in it, nor does any such combination, levying ot vai ni attempted withdrawal amount to any destruction, forfeiture, or abdication of the right of those who at any time acknowledge allegiance and render obedience to the United States, to administer, amend, or establish a Statu jrovetnment.

"2. That a formal return or rendmission of any State to the Union is not nec cssury It is sufficient that the people, or those who are loyal in any State, and Qualified by the election laws thereof m force before the rebellion, shall at any tune resume the functions of a State government compatible with the Union and with the Constitution and law* of the United States, and doing this is sufficient evidence oi loyalty for the purpose of doing it.

<k 3. i hat all question* touch in? property rights and interest* arising out of confiscation and emancipation, and the effect of any law, proclamation, military order, or emergency or war, or act ot rebellion, upon the title to any property, or upon the status of any p r ons heretofore hold to somce or labor in u y State, are left for the judicial determination oi the courts ot the United States.

4. That the whole power of the nation is pledged for the suppie ion of tli o l obeli ion, the execution ol tlu laws, the d ten e oi lovui citizens m any State, the territorial integrity ot the Hi public and the nationality of the Constitution.

That nothing hcrHn contained shall be construed to abridge or lessen any valid defense, oi as waiving the ri ht ot theGuverumeiitto mfhet punishment; the pinhole bem-' to dcchue the nullity or cce ion as a State ordinance, to define the object* ol the war, and to express the sen e of Congress a* to the proper mode of restoring harmonious relations between the Government and certain of the States and the unaffected people thereof."

1 he House novel* came to a vote on them, and it was somewhat indicative that they were not promptly negatived. In September last, Mr. Seward made a speech at Auburn, in celebration of the fall of Atlanta, and in advocacy of Mr. Lincoln s reflection, in which the following passage occurs:

When the insurgents shall have disbanded their armies and laid down then arm-;, the war will im tantlv cease, and all the war measures th n existing, including tho e v, which alloct r slavery, will ceaseaUn, and all the moral, economical, u d political qnc rwuS as well question* affecting slavery as others, which shall then be existing between individual ami Stntcoaud the Federal Government whether they arose heioie the civil war began or whether they grow out ot it, will, by force of the Constitution, pass over to the arbitrament ot eoints ot law and to the councils of legislation."®

This was the only part of the speech which its distinguished author thought itnecessary to italicize in the pamphlet edition. Coming from the premier of the Administration this was hoped to be a long- stride in the right direction.

Soon after the resultof the election was known General Butler made a speech at New York which most people thought was made on purpose and with an understanding, and to prepare the pubhe mind for the things which it was supposed to foreshadow. And lastly, the President m his recent message, though not quite coming up to the pattern set by General Butler, which embraced general and complete amnesty, and an offer of the olive-branch, yet very well says "abandonment of armed resistance to the national authority on the part of the insurgents" is the "only indispensable condition to ending the war on the part of the Government," and "in stating a single condit on of peace, I mean only to say that the war will cease on the part of the Government whenever it shall have ceased on the part of those who began it." Barring a little mixture with other matter found just in that part of the me s snSc> I do most heartily and thoroughly approve of the sentiment. As it is natural for meto think I have been right all the while, 1 do most cordially congratulate the President and his Secretary on their conversion to my views. Thoughahule late in seeing it, there is time yet for them to indorse and encourage the plan of restoration embodied in the bill I introduced on that subject at' a former day of this session: A bill to provide for the restoration of the civil authority of the united States in certain States,

/?.e t ie Senate and House of Representatives, of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That whenever a civil government, republican in form, and compatible with the Union and the Constitution of ihe United States, shall be established by the people, or administered as it existed on the 6th day of November, 1860, in any State, now or since that day not represented in the Congress of the United states, such State shall, in' all matters lie held guarantied**** °f^ Union, aTld its government Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That, in orsanizin or administering any government in any such State, no person shall be entitled to vote except citizens having the qualifications prescribed by the lawsthereot in force on the 6th day of November, IfcQO,

Sec. 3. Jind be further enacted, That no law or usage of any such State shall be held to defeat or abridge the right totreedom which any person or class of persons may be adjudged entitled to, under any law of the United States, or any order oi proclamation of the President thereof, bv a court of competent jurisdiction.

Sec. 4. And be it further enacted, That all questions touching the status of persons in such States and the titles to properly are remitted to the courts of competent iurisdiction.

This is an appeal to the people, and a way offered to them; and it is the peace which will ultimately be adopted out of necessity, i regret that the provisions of the committee s bill compel me to vote against it, for I do desire to support, in some form, that clause of the bill which recognizes the State government of Louisiana. But if the bill meets its deserved fate that can be done by a separate resolution. The only objection I have heard to my bill is that it allows everybody to vote. And what if they do vote, just so they first lay down their arms and vote to organize and carry on a loyal State government? Itwill come to that at last. Those people cannot be forever disfranchised and held as conquered colonies. I would not vote a man nor a dollar to execute such a policy. This House is less practical— had almost said less wise and less just— on that one point than any otherorgan of opinion on the continent. 1 affirm that the President the Secretary of State, the American press, nine tenths of the American people, and nearly the entire Army, would to day stop this frightful war if it could be done on the President s condition of the rebels laying down their arms, and on my plan of allowing the people to form their own governments, with no restrictions except loyalty to the Constitution and Union.

DUTY OF CONSERVATIVES.

What consistent course is left for those who have at once opposed the rebellion and many of the measures of the Administration? Our duty and our interest alike demand a proper answer. The contest is between nationality and voluntary disintegration. If in that contest the old order of things has already been lost, there is a tendency toward an issue between central power on one hand and local and personal license on the other. We have tried to avoid these two extremes and to hold the State in the deep water of the middle channel of the Constitution. We have failed. It is possible that one of these two extreme ideas will for a while succeed. That is historical. It is equally historical that in such contests the middle and conservative men are destroyed by the hostility of both extremes. What now iRour duty to ourselves, to the country, and humanity? Shall we retire absolutely from the contest, or adopt the lesserjof two evils and reluctantly accept one of the two antagonistic and extreme ideas of government, or continue ko to discharge the duties of citizens and legislators as to deal with facts as we find them, and not with theories as we would have them; make the best of events and circumstances as they overtake us or fail in our way; round oft* the angular points of a transition period, and restrain, if possible, the current of revolution when it would involve all in a common ruin r The latter seems tome the part of wisdom, of duty, and of interest. We cannot retire from the contest if we would, and lam persuaded we ought not if we could. As to voting, writing, and speaking, we could; but as to fighting and paying taxes we cannot, any more than Union men within the lines of the enemy are able to avoid fighting us. When society so exerting il elf as to demand and develop the maximum. military and financial strength of a people, all the •members do, by consent or per force, take part in the struggle. This is a law of social existence. If conservative men have to fight and pay taxes, either in a war upon the rebellion or in a rebellion against the Government, though the war be not conducted after their liking, I am sure they will not hesitate a moment which course to pursue. For my part my position is well known. I have never hesitated to proclaim that the war against the rebellion must go on to a successful termination although in its progress slavery may be utterly subverted, and to declare most explicitly that if I must choose between secession and slavery on the one hand and universal emanciEation race and and nationality cling to and on defend the other, our I nationality, would emand profoundly rejoice over every victory of the arms of the Republic and over every discomfiture of its enemies on the field and at the polls.

Secession is the essence, concentrated power of anarchy, and that is the sure precursor of absolutism. We are fighting for the idea of a nation, and though we may, and probably will, come out of the contest with some of the practices if not the characteristics of monarchical power, we will yet come out of it with a nation, a country, a theory of government, an idea of order as opposed to disorder, of protected rights as against lawless brute force; and the temporary abuses of administration can and will be corrected by time, good sense, and legal remedies in the days of peace.

the amendment.

After much hesitation and earnest reflection, I have concluded to vote for the resolution submitting to the people of the States the proposed amendment to the Constitution, which, if successful, will forever settle the vexed and distressing question of slavery. In doing this I beg to assure gentlemen that 1 have come to this conclusion, viewing the subject from a national, and even from a Kentucky stand point and have derived little or no assistance from those views common to the members of what is termed the radical party of the North. Being among those who were defeated at the last presidential election I would not now render "a reason under compulsion, if reasons were as plenty as blackberries." And as they are nearly as plenty, and as they are found in great numbers on my own side of the river, i will offer a few. Without any extended argument the vote could be justified on any one of these grounds:

First, the passage of this joint resolution does not determine the matter, but only refers it to the people, the source of all power.

Second, that a man with an earnest respect for the people, and a profound regard for our system of government, might very consistently vote for its submission, and then in his State vote against its ratification.

Third, seeing- the people have determined to do it, it becomes the part of wisdom to let it be done as quickly as convenientand with no unnecessary opposition. Let the agony be over and the rubbish cleared away.

If 1 wanted to justify it as an anti slavery measure it would not be hard to find great authority in my own section. No two names are more worshiped throughout the South than Washington and Jefferson. Washington was a practical emancipationist, and it would not be doing any great injustice to Jefferson to call him an abolitionist. No name is more ardently loved m Kentucky than that of Henry Clay; and Mr. Clay never omitted a good opportunity to express his convictions of the great evils of slavery.

In 1822 the members of the Kentucky Legislature nominated Mr. Clay to the people of the United States for the Presidency. A committee appointed to correspond with the membeis of the Ohio Legislature, m urging the fitness of Mr. Clay s nomination said," We apprehend that no mistake could be greater than that which would impute to him the wish to extend the acknowledged evils of slavery; for we are persuaded that no one entertain!) a stronger sense of its mischiefs than he does, or a more ardent desire, by all prudent and constitutional means, to extirpate it from our land," arid proceed to state that for more than twenty years he had been in favor of tiie gradual abolition of slavery. This letter is signed by William T. Barry, II. C Anderson J Cabell Breckinridge, J J Crittenden, G. Robertson, John Rowni, and B. W. Patton, and is found on pages 148 49 of Judge Robertson s excellent "Scrap Book of Law and Politics, Men and Times."

And shall a man be told that it is wrong or disgraceful to hold opinions that have been sanctioned by the minds and hearts of such men?

But I put my action upon none of these grounds. I go boldly to the practical question and putit and justify it upon the ground that it is wise and is required bv the facts and circumstances by which the people of Kentucky and of the nation are surrounded, and which have been called into being and power by the war, and which they deal with and cannot avoid. It is thrust upon us by facts and agencies not of our procuring, and for which we are in no way responsible. Kentucky is being depopulated by the ills of this strife. Her sons and daughters are leaving her soil and their paternal roofs to find safety and peace elsewhere. The exodus is frightful, and if her people borrow trouble by fighting fate and making a stand for slavery after it is overthrown, our State will be hopelessly ruined. In the last six months I have often heard men of both parties in Kentucky wish that the President would issue his supplemental proclamation covering the whole ground, Kentucky included, rather than longer be held in doubt, uncertainty and confusion. I have never wished him to do it because I have never wished him to do an illegal thing. Those who have thought this would he a good thing now have a legal mode presented for their approval. the issue—diplomacy of emancipation".

The perpetuity of slavery is notthe issue. That issue was made up four years ago, and the case has been decided against the institution, one half the jury being its own friends. Were we to do nothing and say nothing Mr Davis and General Lee, Mr. Stephens and Mr. Scddon, Governor Smith, Porcher Miles, and the Richmond press, would soon overturn slavery on their presentline of thought and conduct. Indeed, it is notorious they have resolved to put the negro in the fight; and we in Kentucky all know what that means for slavery. When these men turn practical ab- 61itionists by offering the negro his freedom for his services as a soldier, it is high time for conservative men here to cease halting and doubting on the subject. Shall we debate whether slavery can be preserved and make a stand and submitto an overthrow for its sake, when the people of the loyal States have pronounced against if, and when the leading spirits of the rebellion have fully made up their minds to abandon it, and even to strangle it in the house of its friends in their franticefforts to save the one point of secession? Is slavery in Kentucky worth the misery, the blood, and the desolation of such a contest as must ensue upon any serious attempt to preserve it? Our children would say** if. was worse than a crime, it was a blunder." Thostfm authority and influence with the rebellion have fully made up their minds that they would purchase European alliance, and even accept colonial vassalage under European protection at the price of an edict of universal emancipation. It is notorious and undisguised that they would be glad to improve their diplomatic and military relations with foreign Powers by this movement. We will checkmate them at this Same. We will save them the degradation of colonial vassalage" by beating them at war, by beating them at foreign diplomacy, and by beating them at emancipation, and treating them justly and kindly the moment they return to their allegiance to the supreme law of the land. And since it is settled that slavery must die, and that this amendment will pass in a few months, if not now, why keep the country in a turmoil, or have any fierce contest over it, contendingaboutthat which is practically settled? If it must and will be done, let it be done now and have done with all suspension, uncertainty, and excitement about it. Events have taken the place of arguments, and stern facts thd place of doubtful conclusions. The disturbing forces are greater than we can control. Shall we manfully yield this one point, already of no practical value, or childishly resist and be overthrown with an institution whose fail is bteiaily crashing m our ears, and whose ruins may need to be and ought to be prudently and kindly guided through the transition period, that worst of all conditions of society? Seeing thechangeisnow inevitable, shall we invite violence in its development or secure peace to those involved in its swift rushings? My judgment literally compelsmeto the position I have taken in this matter; and if 1 lose friends I will at least save my conscience. Some whose best interests I am now subserving will quarrel with me for the act. I ask them to hold their judgment one year and they will begin to see it as I do, and if in five years they do not openly admit I was right I may then agree I was wrong.

"do nothing and leave it to its fate,"

saysone. The do notliingand say nothing policy is not often the right way to treat great questions. It generally springs fiom a lack of courage to act or a lack of perception of the right action. "Masterly inactivity" may be adopted when your adversary is unwittingly working for you or hastening to his own destruction. If my house is falling over my head I will either prop it or get out of it. I will not fold my hands and be whelmed or entangled in the ruins because it is my house, because it was a good house, because I love it, and because I denied the justice and resisted the means of its destruction. I will deal practically with facts as they exist. The people of Kentucky have been conserving slavery ever since this war commenced, and I have helped them do it in my feeble way out of regard for all vested rights and established customs, and because I am naturally averse to revolutions. But we must now either remove the rubbish of an institution or engage in the vain attempt to mend that which was never mended when once broken, or be annoyed and impoverished by a population in the worst possible condition, being neither slave nor free.

the opposition.

To gentlemen here who think of votingagainst this amendment let me suggest that since slavery must shortly cease to be a question of national politics, may you not make your party more powerful for good in the great work of defining and restraining power, which, if you will excuse me, has been the principal vocation of your party, by cutting loose from a dead carcass, and declining to make a party fight for an institution which is already condemned? By clogging yourselves with such an issue you may make yourselves powerless on the great questions of personal liberty, national finances, freedom of the press, and a just measure of State rights in which you would then have the cordial cooperation of many northern Democrats and southern Whigs who will go for this amendment. It is said you ought to vote against it but not speak against it. Is not that an untenable position? Is it over wrong for a man to give a good reason for his conduct; or right to do that for which he can give no good reason? You are freer on this question than I am. I have interests, prejudices, feeling, and arguments to combat that are unknown with you. Have you found it very clearly among your convictions of duty to vote against this bill? Do you feel very clearly convinced it would be wrong to remain silent if you cannot give it a positive support? Gentlemen, there is a power, a beauty, an eloquence, anda majesty in the living, moving judgment of letters, of arms, of poetry, of science, of democracy, of all modern civilization, which it isidleand sacrilegious to trifle with. Thatmovcment is m the direction of thisamerulment. Our children may regret that passage of history which shows that the American people were the last to join in this grand march; let them not read that resisting the column it crushed us beneath its mighty tread! It is a serious thing for each man to consider whether he shall place himself in the negative here.

other and future questions.

When this amendment is passed and ratified, and the people of the South lay down their aims in a useless contest, let us go before the country on the questions of universal confiscation, of territorial governments for the States, of parceling out the lands of the southern people among fioc negroes, of raising the negro to citizcn hip and suffrage contrary to State laws, and lastly of continuing this war one hour to accomplish these hurtful and malignant ends, and those who advocate such abominable schemes will bo swept from power with a tornado of indignation and a unanimity of will that have never yet occurred in the history of the Republic. Then can 1 go before the country with my bill for the restoration of civil authority, and carry it by the acclamations of the American people. If it be criticised that the bill proposes to leave the slavery question to the courts, and by this amendment it is proposed to cure all doubt about the slavery question, I only reply the bill is adapted to the present condition of affairs, and would be well adapted after the amendment is ratified, because there are several interests, which I conceive to be more vital than that of slavery, which must in the end be adjudicated by the courts, and that I urge this amendment, not as a condition, but as a means of union and peace. "When the whole people can stand united on this amendment as an accomplished fact and not as an exciting topic, they will speedily abandon or indignantly reject the other dangerous schemes that are now associated with this in the public mi rid as incident or necessary to its accomplishment.

IT IS THE REAL CONSERVATIVE POLICY.

All great movements are advocated by some fools and some bad men. All great parties have in their midst a dangerous faction. The great mass of the northern people are anti-slavery in sentiment. In this they are honest. It is natural, and sensible people do not quarrel with them for it. But there is a Jacobinical, power loving lawdefying, plunder hunting blood thirsting faction there whose strength must be broken. They were secessionists before the war commenced, and now, in the midst of a war for the Union, they would rather expel a slave State from the Union than to readmit one with a single slave in her borders. They must be overthrown. Their power is the power of the anti-slavery sentiment of the people and of modern civilization. The tide of that opinion cannot be resisted, and is so strong that it is carrying with it several dangerous and vital errors, such as the enlargement and intensification of executive power, the reduction of States to Territories, the denied of the common law and constitutional writs of freedom, the suppression of the press, the banishment of untried and unaccused citizens, and other things, admitted by the dominant party to be evils, but supposed to be temporarily necessary and incidental to the one great purpose of overthrowing rebellion and slavery.

In passing this amendment we do make sure the final extinction of slavery, but so far from indorsing the radical abolition party, we rob them of their power. And it will rob the secessionist of much of his power, for without this element of excitement and power of cohesion, the rebellion could neither have been organized nor held up for one year on any other question. And I may here as well admit, and put the admission 4 on record, that while I have constantly contended that slavery was not the cause of the rebellion, the very intimate relation which that institution has from the beginning maintained with the deadly assault on my Government has not increased the little love I ever had for it. Then seeing that slavery is already practically abolished, so disorganized that slave labor is no longer of any value; seeing that violent and irregular abolition is more offensive and irritating than constitutional and legitimate emancipation; to bring to an end the name and legal existence of that which no longer has a practical and a useful existence, and to disarm and lay powerless the two disturbmgfactions in the country s politics, it seems to me wise to meet the issue fairly and fully, and to make an end at the earliest possible day of this great element of disturbance. Then indeed are *the Jacobins and fanatics shorn of their locks and their strength departed before the pillars of the temple have fallen under their mad wrenches. STATE ACTION AND CONDITIONS OF EMANCIPATION. I long hesitated whether this thing ought not to be left to the action of the States, and if they could all act as promptly as did West Virginia, Maryland, and Missouri, that would seem to answer. But there are difficulties m the way of many of them of a constitutional character; and this is particularly so in Kentucky. My course has been in-• fl enccdpaitly by the conviction that the interests, and the judgment of the people of Kentucky demand more prompt action than can be had through State agency, and partly from other considerations of a national character which I hope will sufficiently appear in the course of this argument. Five years ago, with no predilection for slavery per se, but dealing with it as a fact and a vested legal interest, I would have favored emancipation only on the three conditions of graduation, compensation, and deportation. The events of the war have made these conditions either unnecessary or impossible. Viewing that population as a part of the labor of the State, it seems the general opinion that thegraduated scale would deprive the State of what little advantage may yet be derived from them; their salable value is so lessened, or I may say destroyed, that compensation is an item of little importance, and if it were of more importance the finances of the country could not stand it; and as to colonization thatisa question of the future, and I will always favor it to the extent that our State and national finances can afford. And yet 1 apprehend that the next census will show the beginning of a process of declension with that race that will greatly relieve the anxiety ofmany persons on that score. When they are all emancipated they will have a natural butunwisedesire to leave the regions of their former toils and emigrate i North and West. There they will come in competition with white labor; white labor at the South will be in demand and many estates for sale, probably in small parcels, which will induce a large white emigration from North to South, so that if there are disadvantages in emancipation they will not fall entirely on the South. And I have an opinion that from these causes will occur a natural, but not painful and violent, diminution of the race that will relieve the next generation of much apprehension on their account.

Some gentlemen of the North think that by this measure they will break down what they are pleased to term the slave aristocracy. They talk idly about aristocracy. There is as much aristocracy at the North as the South, and a few years hence there will be more. So far as aristocracy exists without being based on worth or governmental institutions, it is based on land and money; and so far as these can erect a social aristocracy they will do it, regardless of the form of labor that works the land and plies the machinery of the capitalist.

INSTITUTIONS.

Institutions are ideas. Slavery is the idea of the rightof one to claim, and the duty of another to render, in voluntary service. Institutions reach their maximum, whether of territorial extent or of ideal development, and then decay or go off in a paroxysm. Slavery had reached its maximum in the United States when it was boldly preached that the thing was divine, and that cotton was king. And I remember when a mere lad to have expressed the opinion that slavery was coming to an end in Kentucky, when in 1849 the convention took occasion to retard and complicate the process of amendment of the constitution, and to avow a wholly untenable ground m relation to the rights of property. I will here beg leave to quote from an article of mine communicated to the Frankfort Commonwealth last spring:

One ct iute seems to recognize tlif light of the people at any (ime in chant!'- men Government"; another makes amendment impiacucalde undf r von veait. Another flau e declares the iurht of property h befoie and higher than any constitutional ^auction; and the light nt an o\\ uei of a slave to such slave and in increase is the s aine uml as inviolable, a.-> the rivjiit ot the owner of any piopoitv whatever.' To a candid lawyer, or to anyone at all veiled in the clement* ol the covcininental compact, this is a lemarkable (Icciaiauon. Jl it v. a* designed as an attempt to c express the tannhar nVa, that the notion of piopeity tncam ct (uitm, is n ituial with man, ami precedes Wiiiren law, it \va<> a very awkward attempt. No one doubts the pi unary maxim. But liure, in oid< r to a o t the inviolability ol an interest that was in no danger, a t aHe punciple j-* a unied that the light of property is not only before \mthigher than any constitutional sanction. A unlit that is higher than constitutional •sanction l- bevond constitutional divestment; and that this is the meaning, l^ s shown by the as eited inviolability m the ame conf u The light ot eminent domain, inherent in all sovereignty, and the right oi organized <-oeiciy tocontiol the U c of property, and even to dec'lare, m the fundamental law, whaUhall be property, are here swept away at a dasiiot the Whatever is higher than constitutional sanction is independent ot it. and such ---auction would not avail it in the day of tumble. The natural elements, or foundation, of property aie labor, Ui coverv po sefSion It h recognized and M cmod and' transmitted, by civil institutions—constitutional tandion. 15ut, as every man by nature owns jus own laboij which creates value, or property, under this declaration, the right of property being higher than such sanction, the slave becomes free at the death of the master, Of course no rcs p jctable court would decide thus, the palpable intention being so contrary. The strong man who first enters the demesne, or seizes the slave, on the death of the master can hold against the devisees who claim under the will and against the heirs who claim under the descent cast, coolly telling them that devise, de7 scent, inheritance, conveyances, records, are mere triflea of legal invention and constitutional sanction, but that his right is before and higher than these, for he is in by possession, control, dominion. It is a lawless, revolutionary doctrine. instead of settling, it unsettles everything. It is now only referred to as one of the many mistakes of those who would quiet their own apprehensions fey unsound and severe legislation."

This looked as if there were a dread abroad in the land, and in the convention, that the institution needed extra propping against a Silent undermining process that was going on against it in public opinion.

Whatever agency the institution may or may not have had in producing the war, the events and consequences of the war, both North and South, have placed the institution on the descending plane, and this tendency is one never overcome in the history of slavery. Let proclamations be withdrawn, let statutes be repealed, letour armies be defeated, let the South achieve its independence, yet come out of the war, as now seems certain, with an arrrty of slaves made freedmen for their service, who have been contracted with, been armed and drilled, and have seen the force of combination. Their personal status isenhanced. Their self respect their confidence, their rights are increased. Many of them are heads of families. They will not be returned to slavery. They will leaVen the whole mass. The fact, their mere presence, the idea, if their mouths were padlocked, would soon have this effect. Then slavery is doomed. Thesoutherneris infatuated who would, fight for it, especially with negro soldiers, and the northerner is crazy who would make a point (beyond the suppression of the rebellion) of fighting against slavery, especially at the price of the blood of white men. The Union men of the border States predicted these results to slavery when the secession movement commenced. We do notfeel it ourduty now to turn rebels because our prophecies have been fulfilled.

THE WHITE MAN S INTERESTS.

I go now for saving a Government of constitutional and regulated liberty for the white man. I am interested more for him than about the negro The President recommends this amendment. I would have liked his message better if he had urged some others; and if I thought 1 could pass them I would be tempted to offer them here. One to declare that no State can, for any cause, secede, leaving the case on the old. and well understood doctrine of revolution; one that no State shall nullify any act of Congress, or otherwise impede its action than by judicial inquiry and judgment; one drawing with more precision and clearness the line between State and Federal powers, for it is upon this point I think our Constitution less aptly expressed than upon any other; one that Congress may, and the President shall, not make a general suspension of habeas corpus; one securing the liberty of the press against military and executive interference, except for treasonable offenses, to be defined by law; that no man shall become an elector of any State against the laws thereof, and dispensing with military governors for States beyond the ordinary and necessary provost marshal system in time of war, which would save the necessity for the more specific declaration that a military governor, especially when a candidate for the Vice Presidency, shall not assume to prescribe the qualifications of voters. These are some of the political interests of the white man which I now am striving to secure, and 1 think these ideas will be more potent when dissociated from the idea of slavery, and not subject to the damaging suspicion of being in league with it.

MY OWN EXPERIENCE.

It must not be ill naturedly said of me that I make no sacrifice of slave property in this matter. I never had much of any kind; and if I had today all the money that negroes have cost me in different ways I would be much obliged to them. I owned two. One I found itgood to send off for the safety of my child ten, and the other thought it a good thing to run off just in time to save me the expense of supporting her the balance of her life. And I had two hired. One was stolen away by a northern substitute agency, who wisely preferred a direct personal interview with Joe to a formal correspondence with General Sherman on the subject, and the other went to the Army, (I hope he is a better soldier than he was a farmer,) leaving me minus some things which I had innocently supposed were mine and not his, leaving myplace in the weedsand my hire note outstanding and unpaid. And now that they have all gone I feel so much better that I deem it but polite and neighborly to invite the whole world to try the experiment.