192 



CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



as this Senate was a year ago, voted to put that 

 man back into the Army of the United States 

 on the retired list ? " 



Mr. Logan : " That is an astonishing thing to 

 me." 



Mr. Thunnan : " It is very surprising. I can 

 not understand it at all." 



Mr. Slater : " Allow me to state that Colonel 

 Haller is on the active list, with the rank of 

 major." 



Mr. Thurman : " I leave that matter with the 

 explanation of the Senator from Oregon; but 

 this other thing ; it strikes me as marvelous in- 

 deed. The explanation I make of it, without 

 knowing anything of it, is that the Military Com- 

 mittee of the Senate, then overwhelmingly Re- 

 publican, that the majority in the Senate then 

 overwhelmingly Republican, did not find the 

 facts to be as the Senator from Illinois supposes. 

 They did not find the fact that this man had 

 been guilty of any such cowardice or any such 

 disloyalty, or that comaiittee would never have 

 reported the bill to restore him to the Army, 

 and the Senate would never have passed such a 

 bill." 



Mr. Logan : "I did not say the committee 

 found the facts to be so. 1 only stated what I 

 knew of the case when I was on that committee 

 as chairman. I stated my own conclusion, and 

 I came to that conclusion from the evidence. 

 Others perhaps would have come to a different 

 conclusion. That was my conclusion, and it 

 was so understood by the committee, certainly 

 as long as I was on it. I only stated that. I do 

 not know what might have been in the man's 

 mind when he resigned." 



Mr. Thurman : "I can not pretend to say who 

 are the best judges of the facts, the Senator from 

 Illinois or those who succeeded him on the Mili- 

 tary Committee; nor can I pretend to say 

 whether the evidence was the same before both 

 committees; but here stands the fact upon the 

 statement of the Senator from Illinois, if that 

 statement be correct, that a Republican com- 

 mittee of this body reported in favor of restor- 

 ing a man to the Army of the United States, 

 who was not only a traitor at heart but was a 

 greater traitor because he was a coward to put 

 both a traitor and coward back into the Army 

 of the United States. A Republican committee 

 of this body reported a bill for that purpose ; a 

 Republican majority in this body passed it into 

 a law ! I do not believe it, Mr. President. I 

 believe that the facts were really different, for 

 there is not a Senator on this floor who would 

 do such a thing as that." 



Mr. Edmunds: "Mr. President, in the first 

 place I wish to say to the Senator from Ohio, 

 and to everybody else who is willing to listen 

 to me, that I think he is greatly mistaken every 

 time and it is not very infrequent in such dis- 

 cussions as this when he uses the word 'ha- 

 tred ' as apparently imputed to gentlemen who 

 differ with him in opinion." 



Mr. Thurman : " Upon my word, if I used 

 that word to-day I do not know it. I certainly 



did not impute it to any Senator on that 

 side." 



Mr. Edmunds : " I know the Senator did 

 not mean personal hatred, but the idea that is 

 continually paraded here when those of us who 

 do not agree with gentlemen on the other side 

 oppose or support a particular measure is that it 

 grows out of a sentiment of animosity to many 

 of our colleagues and their friends who, as 

 we think, contrary to the Constitution and in 

 violation of their duty to it, went into a rebel- 

 lion. Now, I want to state, as I have stated I 

 presume a hundred times, that any man North 

 or South who imputes to any Republican any- 

 where that ever I heard of any such sentiment 

 of hatred or animosity, makes a great mistake. 

 It is not true. We are only, when we oppose 

 these measures, doing what we consider to be 

 necessary for the security and good order of the 

 whole Union, and it is not through any animos- 

 ity or hatred, or. as we can see it, any prejudice 

 to these gentlemen. We have labored under 

 the impression undoubtedly the Senator from 

 Ohio can convince us it is a wrong impression 

 that in every controversy there must be a right 

 side and a wrong side, and the delusion that we 

 are under is evidently that we were on the 

 right side of that controversy, which prevailed, 

 and that the consequences that flow from being 

 on the right side are those which the Senator 

 from Ohio desires that those who turned out to 

 be on the wrong side shall reap, and not those 

 who were on the right side." 



Mr. Burnside: "Mr. President, I beg to 

 make a statement to correct a wrong impression 

 which may have been created by the remarks 

 of the Senator from Ohio [Mr. Thurman] and 

 the Senator from Illinois [Mr. Logan]. The 

 Senator from Ohio stated that the Committee 

 on Military Affairs of the last Congress was a 

 Republican committee. He knows as well as 

 I know that the committee was composed of 

 five Republicans and four Democrats, and that 

 many of its meetings were ruled by the minority 

 party. For instance, a quorum consists of five 

 Senators, and might have been made by three 

 Democrats and two Republicans, or four Demo- 

 crats and one Republican. What were the exact 

 conditions of that committee on the mornings 

 that Colonel Wyse's and Colonel Haller's cases 

 were recommended favorably I am not going 

 to say, because it is not proper for me to 

 speak of what occurred in committee, and much 

 less proper would it be for me to criticise the 

 action of that committee. 



"The Senator from Illinois has chosen to 

 say something of what the committee did when 

 he was a member of it, and when he was in the 

 Senate, and has said that during the time he was 

 out the committee did a certain thing which lie 

 thought was very wrong. As to the propriety 

 of this course I will leave it to the Senator him- 

 self and to the Senate." 



Mr. Logan : " If the Senator will allow 

 me, I think I can state exactly what I did 

 say." 



