COXGKESS, U. S. 



335 



Suppose you go to war, you cannot fight always ; 

 and when, after much loss on both sides, and no gain 

 on either, you cease fighting, the identical old ques- 

 tions as to terms of intercourse are again upon you. 



" Seven States had up to that time seceded 

 from the Union. All believed that war would 

 be averted. At the conclusion of the address 

 the lamented Douglas, who had closely watched 

 every word as it escaped from the lips of the 

 Presideht, turned to a friend, and, with tears 

 in his eyes, ' thanked God that after all the 

 election of Abraham Lincoln would not involve 

 the nation in Avar.' A secret meeting of the 

 Governors of a number of States was soon after 

 held in this city. A scheme was devised and 

 a vessel sent out. under pretence of furnish- 

 ing provisions to the troops with Major Ander- 

 son in Fort Sumter. On arriving in Charles- 

 ton harbor the people of that city fired upon 

 the fort. The telegraph bore the news to this 

 city, and on its first mention to the President 

 he exclaimed, '/ knew they icould do it;" 1 

 which to my mind is conclusive that it was 

 intended expressly for that purpose. Seventy- 

 five thousand men were immediately called 

 for ; war was inaugurated ; twenty days were 

 given the insurgents to lay down their arms ; 

 an additional five hundred thousand men were 

 soon called for ; hostilities commenced ; the 

 rebellion was to be crushed inside of sixty 

 days ; more troops were called for ; the Union 

 was to be restored with all the rights, equality, 

 and dignity of the States unimpaired. Xo man 

 was permitted to question for a moment the 

 right of the Government to coerce the States 

 back into the Union ; to doubt the right or 

 question the speedy suppression of the rebellion 

 and restoration of the Union was to be de- 

 nounced as a traitor to the Government and a 

 sympathizer with the South. Thus, sir, was 

 the war inaugurated. The first year passed 

 away; the second came and passed in like 

 manner ; so of the third ; and now, sir, let 

 me again inquire, how stands the Union to- 

 day? 



The brief period of three short years has 

 produced a fearful change in this free, happy, 

 and prosperous Government so free in its 

 restraints upon personal liberty, and so gentle 

 in its demands upon the resources of the peo- 

 ple, that the celebrated Humboldt, after travel- 

 ling through the country, on his return to 

 Europe said, ' The American people have a 

 Government which you can neither see nor 

 feel.' So different is it now, and so great is 

 the change, that the inquiry might well be 

 made to-day, ' Are we not in Constantinople, 

 in St. Petersburg, in Vienna, in Kome, or in 

 Paris ? ' Military governors and their provost 

 marshals override the laws, and the echo of the 

 armed heel rings forth as clearly now in Amer- 

 ica as in France or in Austria ; and the Presi- 

 dent sits to-day guarded by armed soldiery sta- 

 tioned at every approach leading to the Execu- 

 tive Mansion. So far from crushing the rebel- 

 lion in sixty days, three years have already 



passed away ; and from the day on TV hioii the 

 conflict began up to the present hour, the con- 

 federate army has not been forced beyond the 

 sound of their guns from the dome of the Cap- 

 tol in which we are assembled. The city of 

 "Washington is to-day, as it has been for three 

 years, guarded by Federal troops in all the 

 forts and fortifications with which it is sur- 

 rounded to prevent an attack from the enemy ; 

 and as an evidence of the despondency of the 

 Administration, and the unsuccessful opening 

 of the spring campaign of the fourth year in 

 the progress of the war, the ' Morning Chron- 

 icle ' of this city, the President's organ, in an 

 editorial a few mornings since, said : 



Charleston has not been taken ; Lee maintains a 

 bold front on the Rapidan ; the Florida expedition 

 was a failure ; the Sherman expedition has not been 

 a success, and the rebels have everywhere shown 

 more vigor than they were supposed to possess. 



"Although the same paper and others in 

 support of the Administration have told the 

 country from time to time during the past 

 winter that the rebellion was crushed and sla- 

 very was dead, that the confederates were de- 

 serting in whole regiments at a time, coming 

 within our lines, taking the oath and describ- 

 ing the most horrible suffering and demoraliza- 

 tion from want of food, clothing, and ill-treat- 

 ment, yet at the very time the people have 

 been so deceived and misled from day to day, 

 the President calls for five hundred thousand 

 more troops, and in a few weeks follows 

 it with an additional call for two hundred 

 thousand more, making seven hundred thou- 

 sand since the 1st of January, and over two 

 million five hundred thousand out of the three 

 million five hundred thousand who voted in 

 the so-called loyal States at the last Presiden- 

 tial election, since the commencement of the 

 war, when seventy-five thousand militia were 

 to end it in twenty, or, at most, in sixty days. 



' Mr. Chairman, I have thus made a very 

 brief statement of facts as to the condition of 

 the Union to-day, and for doing which I have 

 no doubt the usual charge of ' encouragement 

 for the rebels,' ' the prolongation of the war,' 

 ' the rebels are aided by their friends upon 

 this floor,' and the like charges will be repeat- 

 ed again by gentlemen on the opposite side of 

 the House ; and as I have heard such charges 

 so repeatedly during the past four months, I 

 say now and here, that the real friends of the 

 confederates, those who give them aid and 

 encouragement and enable them to carry on 

 the war, are on the opposite side of the House 

 and in the control of the Government. Your 

 confiscation resolution, voted for and passed by 

 the friends of the Administration, by which 

 you propose to thrust your hands into the 

 coffin of the deceased father and take all he 

 may have left at his death to his widow and 

 innocent and unoffending children, is worth 

 more than fifty thousand men to the confed- 

 erate army. The order issued by the Presi- 

 dent to General Saxton, dividing up and par- 



