CONGRESS, UNITED STATES. 



267 



will furnish. "We ought to cultivate them. 

 "We ought not, I think, to stop and inquire 

 whether they constitute a tenth or a twentieth 

 of the inhabitants; we ought to make the most 

 of them. They are all we have there ; and if 

 we repulse them and take away their author- 

 ity, what is left in those States, what have we 

 there? Will not those loyal men say, ' "What is 

 the bounty to loyalty that you propose ? Why, 

 that we wait without any State government, 

 that we submit to this military rule and dicta- 

 tion, which is so much deprecated, until we can 

 convert more than a majority of the people to 

 establish a State government.' " 



Mr. Wade, of Ohio, said : " Can any portion 

 of a State attempt to govern the whole ? Sup- 

 pose you have got one loyal county in a State, 

 can it control the destinies of all the rest of that 

 State ? If you have by military authority with- 

 in the lines of your encampment a great city or 

 a portion of a State where there is a population, 

 is it very difficult for the President or for the 

 commanding officers there to get up all the par- 

 aphernalia of a State upon a ten- acre piece of 

 land ? When you have done that, and under 

 the shadows of your armies attempt to elect all 

 the magistrates and all the officers necessary to 

 perfect the machinery of your government and 

 put it in operation, can you be so blind as to 

 suppose that when you have by military pow- 

 er, for it is nothing else, clothed these men 

 with authority to govern, it is a republican 

 government ? Sir, it is just as much a military 

 government as it was before you went through 

 the farce of selecting those officers. There is 

 your military governor ; has he ever been Avith- 

 drawn from Louisiana ; or if another governor 

 has been substituted, by whom was he substi- 

 <nted? By the Commander-in-chief of all the 

 armies of the United States. When the mandate 

 went forth from the President to Mr. Hahn, 

 ' Be Governor of that State,' he did not consult 

 the Senate, he did not consult anybody in par- 

 ticular; but the mandate issued from the Presi- 

 dent of the United States unaided, unknown, 

 uncounselled by anybody, ' Mr. Hahn, be Gov- 

 ernor of that State, call a convention, declare 

 what your status shall be in the Eepublic, elect 

 your Representatives, organize in form the 

 shadow of a State government, and you shall be 

 a State government.' They could make out the 

 semblance, but it lacks all the reality of a gov- 

 ernment, because it does not represent the will 

 of the people, or at least we have no evidence 

 that it is the will of the people of the State. 



" There is no alternative. If you have a re- 

 bellious people who are determined that they 

 will not submit to the laws and authority of the 

 General Government, if a majority of a State 

 are thus inclined, a free government in that 

 State is impossible. You need not talk to me 

 about your one-tenth. The Senator from Penn- 

 sylvania wants to know if it takes a majority 

 to govern a State. I wish he was here, because 

 I want to put the question to him, how do you 

 understand it ; 'how readest thou ? ' is there any 



principle of free government that has decided 

 that any thing less than a majority of the people 

 of a State, or of the voters of a State, can gov- 

 ern its destinies? I mean upon republican 

 democratic principles. I speak not of the farce 

 of a civil government overshadowed by a mili- 

 tary governor, a wheel within a wheel, a mili- 

 tary government dominating your whole politi- 

 cal community, and inside of that and under it 

 and subordinate to it, a civil government pre- 

 tending to be a free government ! I say it is a 

 farce ; it is unworthy of the American Senate 

 to give it a moment's consideration. 



" The Senator from Pennsylvania says he 

 would permit one-tenth of the people to govern 

 the State. Now I want to know of the Senator 

 what protection that one-tenth will have when 

 you withdraw all external power from them, 

 and leave them to themselves? What chance 

 will they have with the nine-tenths opposed to 

 them? 



Mr. Cowan: "That is the very question 

 that we must now meet. It is the question 

 now whether we will maintain State govern- 

 ments there in connection with the Union or 

 whether we will treat these people as a con- 

 quered people, as conquered provinces ; wheth- 

 er we will assume the task of governing them 

 entirely, or whether we will do that which 

 the President is endeavoring to do now. I am 

 very free to say that I am in favor of his plan ; 

 I very much prefer it ; and I have no doubt that 

 the one-tenth of the people of a State organized 

 with the reins of State government in their 

 hands, the means of enforcing its authority, 

 aided by the General Government, will finally 

 bring back all these States to obedience, alle- 

 giance. I have no doubt about it. But repulse 

 this one-tenth, repulse the loyal people of the 

 States who are endeavoring to bring them back, 

 drive them away into rebellion, what then? 

 If you have not the one-tenth, you have nothing. 

 If you have not these people who are your 

 friends in Louisiana and Arkansas and the other 

 States, whom have you ? Are you determined 

 to drive them all into utter and inextinguish- 

 able rebellion, or are you willing that the repent- 

 ant, as well as those who have always been 

 loyal, shall come back and endeavor to establish 

 themselves in such form that the Union may 

 be restored? To state the question, in my judg- 

 ment, is to answer it. 



<<r lt is said that the tenth of the people do not 

 represent the whole people. They may not 

 represent the whole people, loyal and disloyal, 

 but they represent the loyal people, and it is 

 the loyal people of these States for whom we 

 have made this tremendous struggle. Is there 

 a Senator on this floor who would have em- 

 barked on this war if it were not to rescue the 

 loyal people of these States from the usurpation 

 which oppressed them? Certainly not. What 

 right should we have had to do so ? If the 

 whole of this people had gone away into seces- 

 sion, what right should we have had to restrain 

 and control them? " 



