264 



CONGRESS, U. S. 



but with great sorrow, to the attacks which are 

 often made on the Republican side of the House 

 against the gentlemen from the border States. 

 I desire to say, what I have often said, and re- 

 peat, with the fullest sense of my responsibili- 

 ty, that, in fidelity to the Union and the Con- 

 stitution, and every earnest effort to uphold 

 them, there have been no truer, nobler, more 

 devoted men than these representatives from 

 the border States. And the great heart of this 

 country to-day goes out to meet them and to 

 bless them. It is easy in New England, where 

 fortunes are rapidly built up and industry quick- 

 ened and material prosperity advanced by this 

 war, or in New York, or in Pennsylvania, to be 

 patriotic and loyal and national. These men 

 have stood the touch of fire and the sword. 

 They have been tried by suffering. No ties of 

 natural affection, no love of kindred, no fear of 

 desolation or death has moved them, not even 

 your unkindness. And I do not believe that it 

 is policy or wisdom to alienate such men from 

 us ; we should rather grapple them with hooks 

 of steel. 



"Say what you will, Mr. Chairman, as a 

 practical question this war must be fought out 

 in the border States. They constitute the bat- 

 tle ground of this contest to-day, as they have 

 been from the beginning of the war. Can you 

 hold the border States to their allegiance ? If 

 you can, then the final victory is with us. If 

 you cannot, separation is inevitable. I hope, 

 therefore, and trust and pray, Mr. Chairman, 

 that we shall hear no more of these party dis- 

 cussions and wrangles, no more reproaches 

 thrown from the one side of the House to the 

 other. "We have no strength thus to fritter 

 % away. God knows we need a united people to 

 save the Union, trembling even now on the very 

 verge of dissolution ; and therefore, if we can- 

 not agree upon all questions of law, if we can- 

 not agree upon all questions of policy, let us 

 consent to differ as we best may, but with the 

 firm resolve that everything of strength, of 

 power, of purpose, of motive, of will that is in 

 us shall combine, concentrate, converge to save 

 the national integrity, the national life." 



Mr. Stevens : " As the gentleman from Ken- 

 tucky (Mr. Mallory) undertook to charge that 

 the views I held were the views of others than 

 myself, and that I was speaking for the party, 

 it very properly brought out a very mild denial 

 from the pleasant gentleman from New York 

 (Mr. Olin), and the somewhat softened and mod- 

 ified repudiation of the gentleman from. Indiana 

 (Mr. Colfax), and I hope that will satisfy the 

 gentleman from Kentucky as to at least a por- 

 tion of this side of the House. I desire to say 

 that I know perfectly well, as I said before, I 

 do not speak the sentiments of this side of the 

 House as a party. I know more than that : 

 that for the last fifteen years I have always been 

 a step ahead of the party I have acted with in 

 these matters ; but I have never been so far 

 ahead, with the exception of the principles I 

 now enunciate, but that the members of the 



party have overtaken me and gone ahead ; and 

 they, together with the gentleman from New 

 York (Mr. Olin), will again overtake me, and 

 go with me, before this infamous and bloody 

 rebellion is ended. They will find that they 

 cannot execute the Constitution in the seceding 

 States ; that it is a total nullity there, and that 

 this war must be carried on upon principles 

 wholly independent of it. They will come to 

 the conclusion that the adoption of the meas- 

 ures I advocated at the outset of the war, the 

 arming of the negroes, the slaves of the rebels, 

 is the only way left on earth in which these 

 rebels can be exterminated. They will find 

 that they must treat those States now outside 

 of the Union as conquered provinces and settle 

 them with new men, and drive the present 

 rebels as exiles from this country ; for I tell 

 you they have the pluck and endurance for 

 which I gave them credit a year and a half ago, 

 in a speech which I made, but which was not 

 relished on this side of the House, nor by the 

 people in the Free States. They have such de- 

 termination, energy, and endurance, that noth- 

 ing but actual extermination or exile or star- 

 vation will ever induce them to surrender to 

 this Government. I do not now ask gentlemen 

 to indorse my views, nor do I speak for any- 

 body but myself; but in order that I may have 

 some credit for sagacity, I ask that gentlemen 

 will write this down in their memories. It 

 will not be two years before they will call it 

 up, or before they 'will adopt my views, or 

 adopt the other alternative of a disgraceful 

 submission by this side of the country." 



Mr. Lovejoy: "My chief object is to re- 

 pudiate for myself and the Republican party, 

 and the Administration, the idea advanced 

 by the gentleman from Pennsylvania, that if 

 it should be necessary, as I believe with him 

 it is, to annihilate these rebels, to extirpate 

 them, and repeople those States with a loyal 

 population, that that exile and that annihila- 

 tion by military authority would be unconsti- 

 tutional. Now, I claim that this is precisely, 

 if necessary, just what the Constitution impera- 

 tively requires of us. That it imposes it upon 

 us as a sacred duty to destroy these rebels, and, 

 to the extent that may be necessary, to exter- 

 minate them in order to restore as a matter of 

 fact, what still exists as a matter of right, the 

 constitutional authority of the Government of 

 the United States. I repudiate the theory 

 which, if I understand the gentleman from 

 Pennsylvania, is his theory, that if I own a 

 vessel, the mere fact that pirates come and take 

 possession of it, destroys the validity of my ti- 

 tle to it. I may not be in possession ; I may go 

 and demand the possession to which I am le- 

 gally and constitutionally entitled, and force 

 may prevent my taking possession; but that 

 does not invalidate my rightful claim. 



" I hold that if one third of the citizens of 

 Kentucky are loyal, the State belongs to that 

 third ; that if one fourth of the citizens of Ten- 

 nessee are loyal, the State belongs to that 



