288 



CONGRESS, U. S. 



fiscation by law. By these means, I say, you 

 have lost the hearts of the people. Why do not 

 the people have the same enthusiasm in the 

 war that they had at first ? Then they put a 

 million of men into the field. The country is 

 still in peril, in more peril than at first, and 

 why is not an army of two million men now 

 put into the field ? It is only because of the 

 bad policy by which you have established the 

 dogmas of the Abolitionists, of emancipation 

 of slavery throughout th^ country. It is that 

 which has induced them to lose confidence in 

 you. It is not for the country, it is not for the 

 white man, it is for the negro this war is to be 

 waged ; and for that war I am not. The logi- 

 cal conclusion from the impolitic course we 

 have pursued is, that we have lost the hearts of 

 the people. 



" You say that this bill is framed on the idea 

 that the people will no longer volunteer that 

 the people will no longer stand a draft. Why 

 not ? Because the people will not do one thing 

 or another; they will neither volunteer nor 

 stand a draft, and you are obliged by law to 

 coerce them. That is the condition in which 

 we are placed ; and this bill is nothing more 

 than the logical conclusion of what we have 

 previously done. We have created a necessity 

 for it. The people are no longer with us, and 

 therefore we must force the people by coercive 

 and penal laws, by new jurisdictions, provost- 

 marshals scattered through the land, and by a 

 new sort of military judicature to which the 

 people have not been accustomed. And know- 

 ing that you have an unwilling people to deal 

 with, you make that law as coercive as pos- 

 sible, and accompany it with every sort of in- 

 quisitorial and compulsory power, judicial and 

 executive, in order to insure obedience, willing 

 or unwilling, to that law. Is not that our con- 

 dition fairly considered ? 



" There is but one sort of consistency which 

 deserves the respect of honest men, and that is 

 to let your acts be consistent with your convic- 

 tions at the time you are called upon to vote. 

 It is not what we did yesterday that we are to 

 consider alone. We have lived through a time 

 of trial and of trouble. Have we learned noth- 

 ing ? Up to this time I fear we have learned 

 very little. Our lessons have been very severe, 

 and the fear of more dangerous lessons here- 

 after ought to instruct us. The life of the 

 country is attacked, and that life is upon your 

 hands, and its preservation depends in a great 

 measure upon your wisdom, upon your solemn 

 deliberations, and your solemn consideration 

 of all the mighty questions upon us. 



" If we want to get back the Union, how 

 must we do it ? We must change our policy. 

 This will not answer your purpose. You must 

 get back what you have lost. You have lost 

 the heart of the people, and the confidence of 

 the people. The people's affections are turned 

 away from us ; and will they bear more exac- 

 tions and burdens laid upon them? No, sir; 

 you are mistaken in the remedy. Your only 



remedy is to regain the confidence and heart 

 of the people, to substitute for the distrust 

 which now exists confidence that your object is 

 a national one, and not a mere public one ; not 

 the abolition of slavery, but the salvation of the 

 country. Get that back, and you do not want 

 this bill ; fail to get it back, and this bill will be 

 just as inoperative as if there was not a word 

 written upon it. 



" You say a draft will not do ; that a draft 

 will not be submitted to. I know nothing 

 about that. Will, then, this more exacting pro- 

 vision be submitted to ? In a country like ours, 

 laws which do not carry along with them the 

 assent of the people are but blank paper. Have 

 you not cause to fear that unless you win back 

 the hearts of the people, and their confidence, 

 this bill will do no good? You are mistaking 

 the disease altogether. The disease of the pub- 

 lic heart is loss of confidence in us, members 

 of Congress. It is the Abolition element here 

 which has destroyed everything; that has 

 clouded the great ideas of nationality the 

 pride of the American heart. 



" That is the disease of the public heart, and 

 you should endeavor to administer measures 

 which will reclaim it, and that will heal discon- 

 tent. And yet in the last moments of our exist- 

 ence you are endeavoring to consummate a policy 

 which the people have condemned, and to put 

 the people beyond the means of redress. The 

 remedy, and the sole remedy, is by reversion, 

 by retracing our steps, and making this again a 

 national war. Then you will not want this bill, 

 nor will you want a draft. You will have vol- 

 unteers enough. I do not speak rashly, because 

 you had volunteers enough, and more than you 

 knew what to do with, when you stood upon 

 that ground. But you chose to change that 

 ground. Political Abolitionists thought the 

 time had come for them to introduce the sword 

 and the spear into the public arena, and* to 

 make use of this war to carry out the ends 

 which they have long cherished the abolition 

 of slavery. 



" These, Mr. Speaker, are my views of the dis- 

 couragements which now exist in the country, 

 and these are my views of the remedy, and the 

 only remedy, which can be efficacious. This 

 bill would have done well enough at the time the 

 resolution I offered here passed. It would have 

 passed, not with all the provisions which now 

 accompany it, but the principle would have 

 been adopted, and the whole power of the na- 

 tion would have been placed in the hands of the 

 the Government to be used, if necessary, for the 

 defence of the country. But the disease as- 

 sumed another shape. The political body has 

 become infected with poison, and the mind of 

 the people, poisoned with distrust of us, disap- 

 proves of our measures. There is a disease, and 

 there is no mortal remedy for it but one. We 

 must administer that remedy to ourselves ; we 

 must change our steps. We must no longer be 

 Democrats, no longer be Abolitionists ; but we 

 must, if we would save our country and save 



