UNITED STATES. 



801 



especially that part connected with the rebellion. 

 The country must accept, then, mv past course as an 

 indication of what my future will be. I think the 

 people understand and appreciate my position. 



I know it is easy, gentlemen, for any one who is so 

 disposed, to acquire a reputation for clemency and 

 mercy. But the public good imperatively requires 

 a just discrimination in the exercise of these quali- 

 ties. What is clemency? What is mercy? It may 

 be considered merciful to relieve an individual from 

 pain and suffering; but to relieve one from the pen- 

 alty of crime may be productive of national dis- 

 aster. The American people must be taught to know 

 and understand that treason is a crime. Arson and 

 murder are crimes, the punishment of which is the 

 loss of liberty and life. If, then, it is right in the 

 sight of God to take away human life for such crimes, 

 what punishment, let me ask you, should be inflicted 

 upon him who is guilty of the atrocious crime of as- 

 sassinating the Chief Magistrate of a great people ? 

 I am sure there is no one present who has not the 

 answer ready upon his lips! Him whom we loved 

 has been removed from our midst by the hand of a 

 ruthless assassin, and his blessed spirit has gone to 

 that bourne whence no traveller returns. If his 

 murderer should suffer the severest penalty known 

 to the law, what punishment should be inflicted upon 

 the assassins who have raised their daggers against 

 the life of a nation, against the happiness and lives 

 of thirty millions of people ? Treason is a crime, 

 and must be punished as a crime. It must not be 

 regarded as a mere difference of political opinion. It 

 must not be excused as an unsuccessful rebellion, to 

 be overlooked and forgiven. It is a crime before 

 which all other crimes sink into insignificance ; and 

 in saying this it must not be considered that I am in- 

 fluenced by angry or revengeful feelings. 



Of course, a careful discrimination must be ob- 

 served, for thousands have been involved in this re- 

 bellion who are only technically guilty of the crime 

 of treason. They have been deluded and deceived, 

 and have been made the victims of the more intelli- 

 gent, artful, and designing men, the instigators of 

 this monstrous rebellion. The number of this lat- 

 ter class is comparatively small. The former may 

 stand acquitted of the crime of treason the latter 

 never; the full penalty of their crimes should be vis- 

 ited upon them. To the others I would accord am- 

 nesty, leniency, and mercy. 



To the address of a delegation from Indiana, 

 on April 21st, he replied in part as follows: 



As to making a declaration, or manifesto, or mes- 

 sage, or what you may please to call it, my past is a 

 better foreshadowing of my future course than any 

 statement on paper that might be made. Who, four 

 years ago, looking down the stream of time, could 

 nave delineated that which has transpired since then ? 

 Had any one done so, and presented it, he would 

 have been looked upon as insane ; or it would have 

 been thought a fable fabulous as the stories of the 

 Arabian Nights as the wonders of the lamp of 

 Aladdin and would have been about as readily be- 

 lieved. If we knew so little four years ago of what 

 has passed since then, we know as little what events 

 will arise in the next four years. But as these events 

 arise I shall be controlled in the disposition of them 

 by those rules and principles by which I have been 

 guided heretofore. ***** When we come 

 to understand our system of government, though it 

 be complex, we see how beautifully one part acts in 

 harmony with another. Then we see our Govern- 

 ment is to be a perpetuity, there being no provision 

 for pulling it down, the Union being its vitalizing 

 power, imparting life to the whole of the States, that 

 move around it like planets around the sun, receiv- 

 ing thence light, and heat, and motion. 



Upon this idea of destroying States my position 

 has been heretofore well known, and I see no cause 

 to change it now ; and I am glad to hear its reitcra- 



"V'OL. V. 51 A 



tion on the present occasion. Some are satisfied 

 with the idea that States are to be lost in territorial 

 and other divisions are to lose their character as 

 States. But their life-breath has only been suspend- 

 ed, and it is a high constitutional obligation we have 

 to secure each of these States in the possession and 

 enjoyment of a republican form of Government. A 

 State may be in the Government with a peculiar in- 

 stitution, and by the operation of rebellion lose that 

 feature. But it was a State when it went into rebel- 

 lion, and when it comes put without the institution 

 it is still a State. I hold it as a solemn obligation in 

 any one of these States where the rebel armies have 

 been driven back or expelled I care not how small 

 the number of Union men, if enough to man the ship 

 of State I hold it, I say, a high duty to protect and 

 secure to them a republican form of goverment. 

 This is no new opinion. It is expressed in conform- 

 ity with my understanding of the genius and theory 

 of our Government. Then, in adjusting and putting 

 the Government upon its legs again, I think the prog- 

 ress of this work must pass into the hands of its 

 friends. If a State is to be nursed until it again gets 

 strength, it must be nursed by its friends, and not 

 smothered by its enemies. Now, permit me to re- 

 mark that, while I have opposed dissolution and 

 disintegration on the one hand, on the other I have 

 opposed consolidation or the centralization of pow- 

 er in the hands of a few. Sir, all this has been ex- 

 torted from me by the remarks you have offered. 



To a delegation from Ohio, on the same day, 

 he said : 



Gentlemen, all I can say and all I can promise you 

 after referring to my past life is, that in ascertaining 

 what my future will be, in the discharge of my du- 

 ties in the administration of the Government, all will 

 be done in a proper spirit, I think, and in accordance 

 with my best ability. 



To a delegation represented to be for the 

 most part exiles from the South, on April 24th, 

 he said : 



. The most that I can say is that, entering upon the 

 duties that have devolved upon me under circum- 

 stances that are perilous and responsible, and being 

 thrown into the position I now occupy unexpectedly, 

 in consequence of the sad event, the heinous assas- 

 sination which has taken place in view of all that 

 is before me and the circumstances that surround 

 me I cannot but feel that your encouragement_and 

 kindness are peculiarly acceptable and appropriate. 

 I do not think you, who have been familiar with my 

 course you who are from the South, deem it neces- 

 sary for me to make any professions as to the future 

 on this occasion, nor to express what my course 

 will be upon questions that may arise. If my past 

 life is no indication of what my future will be, my 

 professions were both worthless and empty ; and in 

 returning you my sincere thanks for this encourage- 

 ment and sympathy, I can only reiterate what I have 

 said before, and, in part, what has just been read. 



To a delegation of colored persons, who 

 some days previous had waited upon him, and 

 among other things said : " The colored Ameri- 

 can asks but two things. He asks, after prov- 

 ing his devotion to his country by responding 

 to her call in the hour of her sorest trial, and 

 after demonstrating, upon many hotly-con- 

 tested battle-fields, his manhood and valor, 

 that he have, first, complete emancipation, and 

 secondly, full equality before American law. 

 Your past history, as connected with the re- 

 bellion, gives us full assurance that in your 

 hands our cause shall receive no detriment^ and 



