CONGRESS, TT. S. 



341 



tain power, he is a candidate for reelection, 

 and, as Commander-in-Chief, it is charged 

 (whether true or false I shall not undertake to 

 decide) that he has already used the army in 

 the Florida expedition, to advance his chances 

 of success. One of the generals he has decap- 

 itated (General Fremont) has entered the field 

 to dispute his claim to a continuance in power; 

 and if the ' Chronicle ' of this city, the President's 

 organ, is correct in its construction of the sug- 

 gestions of the 'New York Herald,' speaking of 

 Lieutenant-General Grant, the question is al- 

 ready mooted whether he, in certain contingen- 

 cies, at the head of the army, would not be 

 justified in assuming the reins of Government. 



The very idea upon which this war is founded, 

 coercion of States, leads to despotism. To pre- 

 serve a republican form of Government nnder 

 any constitution, under the prevalence of the 

 doctrince now in vogue, is clearly impossible. 

 These convictions of the complete overthrow 

 of our Government are as unwelcome and un- 

 pleasant to me as they are to any member of 

 this House. Would to God the facts were such 

 that I could cherish other convictions ! I may 

 be denounced as disloyal and unpatriotic for 

 entertaining them, but it will only be by shal- 

 low fools and arrant knaves, who do not know 

 or will not admit the difference between recog- 

 nizing a fact and creating its existence. A man 

 may not desire to die, but nevertheless his 

 belief will not alter the fact of his mortality. 



"I shall not, in these remarks, recur to" the 

 unpleasant and acrimonious controversy of 

 who is responsible for the death and destruc- 

 tion of our Republic. I do not see that any 

 such discussion now would be productive of 

 good. I entertain clear and strong convictions 

 upon that point, convictions that I have no 

 doubt will be shared in by the impartial histo- 

 rian of the future ; for the present I am willing 

 to let the past with all its recollections rest, 

 provided we can snatch from the common ruin 

 some of our old relics of freedom. 



"I do not share in the belief entertained by 

 many of my political friends on this floor and 

 elsewhere, that any peace is attainable upon 

 the basis of union and reconstruction. If the 

 Democratic party were in power to-day, I have 

 no idea, and honesty compels me to declare it, 

 that they could restore the Union of thirty- 

 four States. My mind has undergone an entire 

 change upon that subject; and I now believe 

 that there are but two alternatives, and they 

 are either an acknowledgment of the inde- 

 pendence of the South as an independent na- 

 tion, or their complete subjugation and exter- 

 mination as a people ; and of these alternatives 

 I prefer the former. 



"Mr. Chairman, I take little or no interest 

 in the discussion of the question which many 

 of my political friends would make an issue, as 

 to how this war shall be prosecuted, its man- 

 ner and object. I regard that as worse than 

 trifling with the great question. I do not be- 

 lieve there can be any prosecution of the war 



against a sovereign State under the Constitu- 

 tion, and I do not believe that a war so carried 

 on can be prosecuted so as to render it proper, 

 justifiable, or expedient. An unconstitutional 

 war can only be carried on in an unconstitu- 

 tional manner, and to prosecute it further un- 

 der the idea of the gentleman from Pennsyl- 

 vania (Mr. Stevens), as a war waged against 

 the confederates as an independent nation, for 

 the purpose of conquest and subjugation, as he 

 proposes, and the Administration is in truth 

 and in fact doing, I am equally opposed. 



"I say further, Mr. Chairman, that if this 

 war is to be still further prosecuted, I, for one, 

 prefer that it shall be done under the auspices 

 of those who now conduct its management, as 

 I do not want the party with which I am con- 

 nected to be in any degree responsible for its 

 result, which cannot be otherwise than disas- 

 trous and suicidal ; let the responsibility re- 

 main where it is, until we can have a change 

 of policy instead of men, if such a thing is 

 possible. Nothing could be more fatal for the 

 Democratic party than to seek to come into 

 power pledged to a continuance of the war 

 policy. Such a policy would be a libel upon 

 its creed in the past, and the ideas that lay at 

 the basis of all free government, and would 

 lead to its complete demoralization and ruin. 

 I believe the masses of the Democratic party 

 are for peace ; that they would be placed in a 

 false position if they should nominate a war 

 candidate for the Presidency, and seek to make 

 the issue npon the narrow basis of how the 

 war should be prosecuted. 



" For my own part, as I have already indi- 

 cated, I fear that our old Government cannot 

 be preserved, even under the best auspices, and 

 with any policy that may be now adopted, yet 

 I desire to see the Democratic party, with 

 which I have always been connected, preserve 

 its consistency and republican character un- 

 shaken. 



Mr. Garfield, of Ohio, immediately followed, 

 saying : " Mr. Chairman, I should be obliged to 

 you if you would direct the Sergeant-at-Arms 

 to bring a white flag and plant it in the aisle 

 between myself and my colleague who has just 

 addressed you. 



" I recollect on one occasion, when two great 

 armies stood face to face, that under a white 

 flag just planted I approached a company of 

 men dressed in the uniform of the rebel con- 

 federacy, and reached out my hand to one of 

 the number and told him I respected him as a 

 brave man. Though he wore the emblems of 

 disloyalty and treason, still underneath his 

 vestments I beheld a brave and honest soul. 



''I would reproduce that scene here this af- 

 ternoon. I say, were there such a flag of 

 truce but God forgive me if I should do it 

 under any other circumstances ! I would 

 reach out this right hand and ask that gentle- 

 man to take it ; because I honor his bravery 

 and his honesty. I believe what has just fallen 

 from his lips is the honest sentiment of his 



